Best 10 fiction books read in 2019?

[Rodders]

As my read goal for 2019, I was tied in to F. Paul Wilson's Adversary Cycle, which then led me into his Repairman Jack series. As much as I enjoyed them, I haven't read many authors this year and evet worse, I have read no female authors.

1. Dogs of War by Adrian Tschaikovsky
2. When the English Fall by David Williams
3. Old Man's War by John Skalzi
4. Brass Man by Neal Asher
5. Legacies by F. Paul Wilson.
6. Nemesis Games by James SA Corey

 

[Av Demeisen]

The newly published novels I enjoyed are in alphabetical order:

• Gamechanger by L. X. Beckett
• The Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• Lent by Jo Walton

I haven't properly started with Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer yet and don't know when I will, but I liked the few chapters I read upon the book's arrival.

 

[nixie]

Not in order, may not be my favourites but it's the ones that spring to mind, I don't keep records.

Joe Abercrombie: A Little Hatred
Mark Lawerence: Holy Sister
Edgar Cantero: Those Meddling Kids
Martin Owton: Shadows of Faerie
R Scott Bakker; The Judging Eye
Joe Hill: NOS4A2
Michael J Sullivan: Heir of Novron
Stephen King: End of Watch
Diana Pharaoh Francis: Path of Honor
R Scott Bakker: The Whiteluck Warrior.

Sorry I know I've repeated an author.

 

[Parson]

Sorry I know I've repeated an author.

I see nothing against repeating an author. Each book is it's own experience.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Some of mine.

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, edited by David A Goodman.
Jeeves and the King of Clubs, by Ben Schott.
The Wooden Horse, by Eric Williams.
Transcription, by Kate Atkinson. Book group.
Munich, by Robert Harris. Book group.
The Umbrella Mouse, by Anna Fargher.
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. Book group.
The Shepherd, by Frederick Forsyth.
Once Upon a River, by Dianne Setterfield. Book group.
The Hunting Party, by Lucy Foley. Book group.
The Signalman, by Charles Dickens.
The Reckoning, by John Grisham. Book group.

 

[williamjm]

So one author was a hermaphrodite perhaps?

I did wonder if someone would question the maths. It's due to This is how you lose the Time War having two authors, one male and one female.

 

[Elckerlyc]

The idea of keeping records never crossed my mind. Perhaps I'll pick up the routine next year.
Most fiction I read is in e-book format, plus some paper books acquired on used-book fairs (obviously this concerns more older works). Non-fiction books I still prefer on paper, because they're more practical when looking up and comparing stuff on different pages.

I haven't read overly much this year. Let's see what was good enough to remember.
Rivers of London (several volumes) by Ben Aaronovitch
Europe at Dawn (Vol. 4 of Fractured Europe) by Dave Hutchinson
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Circe by Madeline Miller
Among Others by Jo Walton
Fall - or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson (Barely made to get listed, being a bit disappointing. But still a NS)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
The Dispossessed by Ursula leGuin (reread)

It's all in the SFF realm, I see. Or perhaps those tend more to stick to memory than other genres. And I'm more shifting towards non-fiction lately.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I read close to 20 books this, these were the science fiction and fantasy reads:

1. Recursion*
2. The Three-Body Problem*
3. The Dark Forest
4. Death's End*
5. A Game of Thrones
6. A Clash of Kings
7. The Plot Against America
8. The Stand

*I enjoyed these the most.

Looking at the list, I think my book of the year wasn't sci-fi or fantasy, but fiction: A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. He wrote one hell of a diabolical character.

I'm currently reading Hyperion for the first time to transition into the new year. I'm liking it so far.

Of the novels I did read, Ready Player One stood out as the most interesting and enjoyable.

That was one of my favorite books from the last couple of years. That's the book that actually got me into D&D. The movie? Awful. It was cool to see the plot play out on the screen, but it did not do the book any justice. I'm interested to read Ready Player Two, if that ever comes out.

 

[dask]

Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs. 19th c American novelist. A beautiful, lyrical novel with a strange, Poe-ish weird-tale-like interlude and some other eerie passages too.

Based on what you said I went to Amazon and found The Country Of The Pointed Firs included in her Collected Works and downloaded it for 99¢:

 

[Elckerlyc]

Ready Player One
That was one of my favorite books from the last couple of years. That's the book that actually got me into D&D. The movie? Awful. It was cool to see the plot play out on the screen, but it did not do the book any justice. I'm interested to read Ready Player Two, if that ever comes out.

The movie was fun on itself, as long as you didn't compare it to the book. It was an insult to the book, especialy the first 15-20 minutes.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Based on what you said I went to Amazon and found The Country Of The Pointed Firs included in her Collected Works and downloaded it for 99¢:

I hope you enjoy it. I loved it. It's the Captain's tale (told in the empty schoolhouse) that is the Poe-like tale, and maybe my favorite story-within-a-story ever. It's relatively early on. You'll see. A strange contrast with the sunniness of much of the early part of the novel.

 

[Wyrmlord]

as long as you didn't compare it to the book.

Ah, that's exactly what I did the entire film. A grave mistake. I watched it with my partner, and I kept whispering, "This wasn't in the book. WTF," at nearly every scene.

 

[Vince W]

Ah, that's exactly what I did the entire film. A grave mistake. I watched it with my partner, and I kept whispering, "This wasn't in the book. WTF," at nearly every scene.

The problem was that the book was a love letter to 80's geek/nerddom while the film was a love letter to 10's corporate greed and apathy.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The problem was that the book was a love letter to 80's geek/nerddom while the film was a love letter to 10's corporate greed and apathy.

Perfect description.

 

[Hugh]

@Bick wrote: "So, to my list then, in order of reading them, not any other priority, and limiting myself to one book per author":

Much of my reading has involved a comprehensive read through of Roger Zelazny, both short and long, so I'll go with "The NESFA Press Collected Short Fiction of Roger Zelazny" as my one book of his, even though it's six volumes.

Aldous Huxley "Antic Hay"

Poul Anderson "The High Crusade"

Rex Gordon "No Man Friday"

E.A. Wyke-Smith "The Marvellous Land of Snergs" (Tolkien used to read this to his children)

Tony Hillerman "The Joe Leaphorn Mysteries" (detective yarns on the Navajo reservation)

J.R.R. Tolkien: "Beowulf"

John Brunner "Now Then" (three novellas).

R.A.Lafferty "The Best of R.A.Lafferty"

F. Lloyd Biggle Jr "All the Colors of Darkness"

 

[Extollager]

Ten notable fiction books for 2019 include:

Rose Macaulay, They Were Defeated — novel set in 17th century
R. C. Hutchinson — A Child Possessed (not horror)
LotR
Phyllis Paul — A Cage for the Nightingale; alsoTwice Lost
Sales — Adrift on the Sea of Rains (novella)
Roger Thomas — The Wounded Land (thriller, third in a series)
Evans’ translation of the Perlesvaus — called The High History of the Holy Graal
Sebald — The Rings of Saturn
Vodolazkin — The Aviator (literary novel with sf elements)

 

[Guttersnipe]

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
1984 by George Orwell
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Carrie by Stephen King
First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells

 

[Stenevor]

40 books read, mixture of fiction/non fiction. In no particular order I enjoyed

The Gallows Pole - Benjamin Myers
Starship Troopers - Robert A Heinlein
Shogun - James Clavell
Atlas Alone - Emma Newman
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - K J Parker
When the English Fall - David Williams
The Prince of Nothing Trilogy(re-read) - R Scott Bakker

 

[The Big Peat]

Top 10 in rough order...

House of Binding Thorns - Aliette de Bodard
King of Assassins - RJ Barker
A Brightness Long Ago - GG Kay
Turning Darkness Into Light - Marie Brennan
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker
House of Broken Wings - Aliette de Bodard
A Hero Born - Jin Yong
The Deep - John Crowley
Distaff - Various
The Story of the Stone - Barry Hughart