Fantasy Book Critic: 2019 review / 2020 preview

With the enormous caveat that I’m awful at making lists and live in terror of forgetting something really good—which I will almost certainly think of as soon as I submit this post—here are some of the things I’ve loved most this year, and things I’m looking forward to next year!

My favorite books in 2019

· The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry: Like Inkheart but for grownups, with a lot of Dickens thrown in.

· Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: Everyone said it was good and they were right.

· Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: Like Gormenghast but gay and funny and in space.

· This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: Like a poem. Like the perfect cup of tea. Like falling in love. Indescribably beautiful.

· The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart: A boarding school coming-of-age story and a feminist backstory. So much about girls and boys and the power they never quite let us touch.

· The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern: Like a puzzle-box and a video game and a nested Russian doll.

· Unnatural Magic by C.M. Waggonner: Like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell but smuttier and queerer, and also a murder mystery.

· Circe by Madeline Miller: Like every Greek myth you love turned inside out and backwards, made human.

What I’m looking forward to in 2020

· A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry: Her new book is about slavery and freedom and revolution in the Age of Enlightenment!

· Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: You want to know a secret? I’ve already read this. And it rules. It’s darker and stranger and more labyrinthine than Gideon, but the payoff is absolutely stunning.

· The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin: Oh, this? I’ve already read this, too. It’s peppier and happier and more fun than The Fifth Season, and I absolutely loved it.

· Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: Obviously this. This to the nth power.

On the Horizon for Alix E. Harrow

As far as what’s coming for me personally…I’ve got my second novel coming out in Fall 2020! A standalone historical fantasy about suffragette witches! And short stories forthcoming in Uncanny and Fireside magazines.

About the Author

A former academic and adjunct, Alix E. Harrow is now a full-time writer living in Kentucky with her husband and their semi-feral toddlers. In 2019, she won a Hugo Award for her short fiction and published her first novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, with Orbit/Redhook Books. Find her at @AlixEHarrow on Twitter.

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Labels: Best of 2019

1 comments:

Aaron Volner said...: The "Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep" sounds good! I think that might be my next pick for my book club. We've been favoring Dickens-like material lately. :)

Aaron Volner
www.aaronvolner.com; December 31, 2019 at 4:30 PM