It has been A Year, friends. A year that’s been cruel to so many of us. For me, one of the cruelest personal effects of this year has been the forgetfulness, the loss of time, the anxiety-borne impact on memory and emotion that successfully killed my ability to derive any pleasure from reading fiction by the tail end of the summer. In honour of this strange period, let me bring you The Best Books I Haven’t Read (yet) from 2020—and I do hope I’ll find myself able to read them eventually.
Valerie Valdes’ Prime Deceptions (September) is a sequel to her fast-paced, fun space-opera debut Chilling Effect. It promises another entertaining romp with Captain Eva Innocente and her crew, secrets, lies, and uncomfortable family moments, and damn, how sad am I about not reading it already?
The Midnight Bargain (October) by C.L. Polk (author of Witchmark and Stormsong) is a standalone novel in a new fantasy world inspired by Regency cutlure and a woman’s right to choose. I’ve seen it compared both to Octavia Butler and to Mary Robinette Kowal’s Glamor novels, which certainly seems like a wide Venn diagram, and since I loved Stormsong and very much enjoyed Witchmark, I’d really like my brain to grow back enough not to balk at starting it.
I actually read a good third of Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea (May), in which a pirate (a girl disguised as a young man for survival) forms a bond with a captive noblewoman, before my ability to read shut down. It looks like a promising debut, with hints of a wide and dangerous world, and the foretaste of adventure. I look forward to being capable of finishing it!
Megan E. O’Keefe’s Chaos Vector (July) is the sequel to the excellent space opera Velocity Weapon, and based on the twists and turns in that book, I have no idea what to expect from this one. Except excitement, action, adventure, politics, and large explosions… so I guess I have some idea of what to expect, after all.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (October) is a book I’ve heard numerous good things about (though, thanks to the mess that this year has made of my memory, I can’t tell you where I heard those good things). It opens a new epic fantasy series from award-winning author Roanhorse, and I have to say, I’m very interested in seeing what it does.
The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke (September) sounds like a school story for the ages. Outcast lesbian witches? Feral youth? Facing down fundamentalist witch hunters and figuring out how having friends works? It sounds really good.
Andrea Stewart’s Bone Shard Daughter (September) is an epic fantasy debut that sounds perhaps a little grimmer than I’d often find appealing. But it promises some intriguing worldbuilding, queerness, and a story interesting in exploring power and privilege, so when my reading brain grows back, I do want to give it a try.
And what about The Once and Future Witches? (October.) Alix E. Harrow’s second novel looks like it’s about family, witchcraft, and the women’s suffrage movement, and based on the compelling prose and interesting conceits of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, it should prove to be well-constructed and pleasing to read—although I’m not yet ready for any highly emotional journeys.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (September) looks like a darkly humorous examination of the line between superhero and supervillain—perhaps a critique of capitalism, or perhaps a satire? It sounds like it should be very entertaining, and I know Amal El-Mohtar recommends it—and she has very good taste indeed.
Other books I have missed that also sound good include Mara Fitzgerald’s Beyond the Ruby Veil (November), Nina Varela’s Iron Heart (October, sequel to Crier’s War, which I enjoyed), Julia Ember’s Ruinsong (December), and Shveta Thakrar’s Star Daughter (September). I’m sure there are others: if 2020 has been good for anything, it’s been overwhelming me with too much to take in.
My next column will discuss the best books that I did read in 2020. But what about you guys? What have you not read this year that you wish you had?
Liz Bourke is a cranky queer person who reads books. She holds a Ph.D in Classics from Trinity College, Dublin. Her first book, Sleeping With Monsters, a collection of reviews and criticism, was published in 2017 by Aqueduct Press. It was a finalist for the 2018 Locus Awards and was nominated for a 2018 Hugo Award in Best Related Work. She was a finalist for the inaugural 2020 Ignyte Critic Award, and has also been a finalist for the BSFA nonfiction award. Find her on Twitter. She supports the work of the Irish Refugee Council, the Transgender Equality Network Ireland, and the Abortion Rights Campaign.
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin is sitting on the shelf, taunting me, but I don’t think I’m getting to it this year. Because how did it get to be December already?
To the previous commenter (and anyone else contemplating the book) — I highly recommend the audiobook version of The City We Became simply for the glorious deliciousness of hearing all those NYC accents aloud.
On this list, I’ve read Black Sun and The Once and Future Witches. I have A LOT of catching up to do!
Black Sun just didn’t hold my attention, but I’m enjoying The Once and Future Witches and both The Midnight Bargain & Bone Shard Daughter are on my TBR.
I’m with you on the difficulty of reading this year. I don’t seem to be up to being challenged at all. It’s not that I don’t think authors should write challenging books! They should! But there are many things I’ve bought that sit unread, and others I checked out of the library and returned unread, sometimes more than once (Let’s hear it for curbside pickup and library ebooks!). A book that held me all the way to the end is really rare this year.
I own in hardcopy but haven’t read yet:
The City We Became, Jemisin
The Relentless Moon, Kowal (I loved the first two and expect to love this one but… I can’t get started)
Multiple nonfiction, biography/memoir, and spirituality books of one kind or another
Also a number of e-books.
I haven’t read any of these either.
Not only have I not read The Midnight Bargain, I haven’t even read Stormsong.
Not only have I not read The Once and Future Witches, I haven’t even read The Thousand Doors of January.
Also sitting unread on my e-reader:
Harrow the Ninth, and, sadly, Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir.
Masquerade in Lodi and The Physicians of Vilnoc, Lois McMaster Bujold.
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Each of Us a Desert, Mark Oshiro.
Four Strange Women, E. R. Punshon (okay, a bit of an outlier, but I’m — I was — slowly working my way through this Golden-Age British mystery series)
Night Theater, Bikram Paralkar
Black Sunday, Tola Rotimi Abraham
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, by Ursula Vernon’s alter ego T. Kingfisher.
The Half-God of Rainfall, Inua Ellams (to quote one reviewer, “part Homeric epic, part female-focused revenge tragedy” — what’s not to like?)
Got halfway through Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, and then suddenly stopped. It’s really good, but in 2020, 700 pages of anything is too much for a single attempt.
And some others, still unread from 2019. Clicking on “Buy Now” is easy. Reading in 2020 seems to be hard
Not that I’m complaining but is it a coincidence that most or all of the authors are female? Considering Ursula Le Guin is my all-time favorite I’ve no objection but just curious!
@7, this is part of a recurring series focusing on women in SFF.
@8 That makes perfect sense, thank you!
30 years on, Always Coming Home is still in Mount Tsundoku. Good thing human lifespan are not finite and that there not an unending flood of new books.
Hi Liz, missed hearing from you! I’ve struggled as well this year and have kept going with plenty of very light and entertaining stuff. Many similar books on my TBR but will also look out for the ones you mention.
Any news on the (presumably) final Rox Ksveney
Oh good I’m not the only one missing their yearly reading goal by a lot. And I mean a lot in my case (20% less read books than anticipated).
I’m just finishing up The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea. It’s absolutely fabulous! highly recommend it!
I haven’t yet gotten to big hits: Mexican Gothic or Come Tumbling Down but they are on the list!
Top SFF/H reading dreams for 2020 that I have yet to read: The Once and Future Witches, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Scapegracers, Cemetery Boys, Catherine House, The Southern Vampire Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (but I am about to read it next!), The City We Became, Stormsong (but I have it out from the library!), and Dark and Deepest Red
The City We Became, Laura Lam’s Goldilocks, Bethany Morrow’s A Song Below Water and Karen Osborne’s Architects of Memory are among the 2020 books I haven’t even gotten around to acquiring, let alone reading.
There are plenty of books I’ve read and enjoyed over the course of 2020. My problem is the amount of reading time lost from not having a 30-minute subway ride to and from work each way (can’t get much reading done in the 6 steps from my bedroom to where my computers are) and not traveling for business and cons.