penwalla

My top ten books of 2021 (books I read, not books that were released) with the caveat that if I read more than one book in a series it counts as one. Because getting this list down to 10 was hard enough as it was. In no particular order, here we go:

1. The Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir
Gideon the Ninth
Harrow the Ninth

So I have a friend who has been trying to get me to read these books for a long time. Every time I asked for book recs (and even when I wasn't asking for book recs) she was like, please read Gideon the Ninth. I checked out the first book from the library 2 or 3 times without reading it. Hell, I got an ebook copy of the book for my birthday at the beginning of the year and didn't read it. And then finally I mentioned to said friend that whatever I had sitting on my bedside table always got read first, and she got fed up with me and bought me the books.

Thereby ruining my life forever.

I tore through these in a weekend. I got through Harrow the Ninth over the course of one afternoon, because I could not bring myself to put the book down. And GtN is one of two books that I read this year and then felt the need to reread (because I wanted to take notes!)

Why are these books good?

• himbo lesbian swordswoman x grumpy feral necromancer
• the prose is incredibly vivid and interesting
• these books are complicated, full of foreshadowing and references and call backs, to the point I read Gideon the Ninth twice so that I could take notes the second time
• HtN is structurally one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I don't want to spoil anything about it but it uses POV in a really cool way
• I have never enjoyed being gaslit by a book so much

2. The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System Vol. 1 by Mo Xiong Tong Xiu

The only other book I read twice this year. If you aren't already in MXTX fandom, let me sell you on this book. It's a translation of a Chinese webnovel with the premise "a trashy stallion novel's most virulent anti-fan gets transported into the book to fix it...which he does...by accidentally making the protagonist fall in love with him."

This book is fun. This is the other book I read twice this year, and yes, I did take notes.

• Shen Qingqiu is one of the most unreliable narrators I have ever seen
• I cannot overstate how funny this book is
• The relationship between Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe is sweet and heartbreaking (in this first volume)
• Shang Qinghua my beloved
• it's a very meta book! The translators do a good job of making all the Chinese webculture stuff accessible to non-Chinese readers, but I think if you've ever been in internet fandom you'll find some things are universal

3. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (The Burning Kingdoms 1)

I saved this one for last because I had such high hopes for it--South Asian fantasy! Epic fantasy! But the characters are all brown like me!--and it did not disappoint. This was the year I buried myself in diverse fantasy books with terrifyingly ambitious protagonists.

Why I love this book:

• The worldbuilding is excellent. My favorite bit is that there are multiple religions, all of which are fleshed out with characters practicing them on the page. And those characters disagree! I don't think I've read a lot of fantasies where religion was given this level of importance, both good and bad.
• I said this earlier but the South Asian rep...you don't know how much you crave seeing yourself in a book until it happens
• Priya and Malini's romance is everything I love: the instant connection followed by the slow burn, the hair combing and wet saris, the way they love each other and still have conflicting goals and needs that don't just go away. Sapphic perfection.

4. The Drowning Empire Trilogy by Andrea Stewart
The Bone Shard Daughter
The Bone Shard Emperor

Another beautifully crafted epic fantasy series. I cannot wait to find out how it all ends. A lot of the fantasies I read this year were about colonialism and about interrogating governments and power structures in interesting ways, and this was one of the best.

• All the POV characters are great, and I love that each of them offers a different viewpoint of the Empire and of events influenced by their experiences. I especially liked that we had characters from different levels of society, and that we get to follow them as they move up or down the strata
• The animal companions are so great! Mephi and Thrana my beloved...
• Ranami and Phalue's romance is so good! The book handles their class differences really well

5. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

I tore through this one in an evening.

• sapphic enemies to lovers!!!
• I really love it when books just drop you into a world and don't stop to explain anything, and this is definitely one of those! It's very satisfying to slowly put together the plot
• I also love epistolary romances so this really hit

6. Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

This was a sleeper hit for me. I wasn't really sure what to expect, to be honest; I've read the Capri trilogy, but it was a while ago. And initially I found this book to be kind of slow.

• The slow first half is a lie
• This book does an amazing job of subverting your expectations and playing with fantasy staples
• When you realize what's actually going on you will lose your mind
• An unhinged and strangely erotic stabbing scene

7. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Another terrifying and ambitious protagonist. This was one of three books being billed a "sapphic fantasy trifecta", all of which I read this year (the other two books were The Unbroken and The Jasmine Throne). The fantasy element here is understated, but that's not to say it's bad.

• the prose is bold and lyrical
• I love that Ouyang and Zhu mirror each other in interesting ways, both with their relationships with gender and their preoccupation with fate
• the romance is surprisingly sweet, it's a great contrast to the dramatic and bloody events of the book

8. The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo
The Empress of Salt and Fortune
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

One of my goals this year was to read more than just novels. The Nghi Vo novel I read this year, The Chosen and the Beautiful, didn't really land for me, so I was delighted to find these novellas so engaging.

• There is a shocking amount of worldbuilding crammed into these two novellas
• I love the framing device of the monk who listens and the two novellas being in part stories that are told to them. The interplay between the listeners, the storytellers, and the story is great
• The humor is unexpected and delightful

9. One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

So it turns out I did read books this year that weren't SF/F! Shocking, I know.

• Contemporary sapphic romance!
• This book is chock full of queer found family and queer characters and even a little queer history
• I loved the time travel element and the way it was used
• the sex scenes are actually good
• personally I loved that this was a relatively low-conflict book where everything worked out and there was a happy ending. Sometimes that's what you need and this year I definitely needed it.

I have seen reviews of this book that point out it's not accurate in its portrayal of NYC. I don't know enough about NYC to comment there.

10. Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Remember how at the beginning of this list I was mailed copies of GtN and HtN? Yeah, I mailed that friend this book.

• high EQ x high IQ romance. I love it when romances have people with complimentary skill sets and I especially love that both our heroes see and admire that about the other
• It has all the marriage of convenience tropes I love. Actually, this book is tropey as hell. At one point there is only one sleeping bag...and they're stranded outdoors...and it's winter...
• Originally posted as original fiction on AO3 and you can tell. That is not a criticism at all. Actually, if you are someone who reads a lot of fanfic and wants to get into original fiction, this is a great entry point. And if you have never read fanfic, congrats, this is a great sci fi romance!