2017 was a heck of a year wasn’t it? Unforgettable! One that we’ll remember for a long-
No, no. Please don’t cry.
We know this year has tried to beat us all to hell, but there must have been some good in it right?
Right??
Of course we’re right. But it was certainly not thanks to politics or the economy or peace on Earth and goodwill toward men. Maybe that’ll be in 2018?
Hahahahahahaha!
All right, all right, fine. But there’s always hope. 😛 Anyway, let’s get back to 2017.
This year might have been hard to handle, but it did give us something amazing: A whole year’s worth of new books to read! 😀 Debuts, sequels, additions to series, finales to series, and standalones that came out in fantasy, science fiction, horror, steampunk, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, grimdark, etc. Overall it was a fantastic year for SFF and readers who love it!
So rather than dwell on the darker side of 2017 let’s instead showcase its highlights! We want you, our loyal Factioners, to help us pick this year’s best fantasy books! You can nominate up to five. They can be traditionally published or self-published from any subgenre of fantasy. You can simply post your list, or you can give us a short reason why your choices are the greatest. All we ask is that you only nominate books you have actually read, and that you don’t nominate yourself. We will tally up the lists, have a roundtable chat with our reviewers, and post our Best of 2017 before the end of the year.
But wait! Back to that hope I was talking about earlier! We’d also like you to tell us what three fantasy novels you are looking forward to getting your hands on next year! Obviously, you don’t have to have read these, but please, as above, don’t nominate your own work. Our Most Anticipated for 2018 list will go up either before the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.
Let’s end this year on a happy note and fill each other’s hearts with cheer and to-be-read piles with literary gems! Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!
Richard Marpole
Here are mine, I think, maybe…a hell of a strong year for books published in 2017.
Top 5 of 2017
The Ninth Rain – Jen Williams
Blackwing – Ed McDonald
City of Miracles – Robert Jackson Bennett
Kings of the Wyld – Nicolas Eames
The Seven – Peter Newman
Most Anticipated for 2018
Bloody Rose – Nicholas Eames
The Bitter Twins – Jen Williams
The Ember Blade – Chris Wooding
Top 5 of the year for mine have been:
Kings of the Wyld – Nicholas Eames
My Best Friends Exorcism – Grady Hendrix
Down Among the Sticks and Bones – Seanan McGuire
Frogkisser! – Garth Nix
River of Teeth – Sarah Gailey
I try not to do anticipatex releases, because that way lies disappointment.
’17 books:
RED SISTER!!!! by Mark Lawrence
and The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
…were literally the only new fantasy, etc. type books I read this year and liked/loved. Everything else was older or not applicable here (and one that was too meh to list.) I loved Red Sister absolutely and while Gentleman’s Guide had some issues, I quite enjoyed it, so I can’t leave it off the list.
Most anticipated in ’18:
(obviously) Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus (it’s supposed to be “expanded” and not just a novelization of the film)
Circe by Madeline Miller
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (b/c I just heard about it on this site and it sounds interesting)
2017 loved:
NK Jemisin – The Stone Sky
K Arsenault Rivera – The Tiger’s Daughter
2018 anticipation:
K Arsenault Rivera – The Phoenix Empress
Rachel Hartman – Tess of the Road
Naomi Novik – Spinning Silver
My top published in 2017:
Aliette de Bodard – The house of binding thorns
Robin Hobb – Assassin’s Fate
N.K. Jemisin – The stone sky
Mark Lawrence – Red sister
Anna Stephens – Godblind
Jen Williams – The ninth rain
(and check the forum for more entries, we have a thread running there, linked to this article 🙂 )
2018 expectations (as far as I know they’re being published):
Book 2 of the series that started in 17 stated above: Red sister –> Grey sister, Godblind –> Darksoul, The ninth rain –> The bitter twins
John Gwynne – Time of dread
My personal favorites from 2017:
Fields of Fire – Marko Kloos
War and Craft – Tom Doyle
Skyfarer – Joseph Brassey
War of the Usurper – Eli Freysson
In 2018 I’m looking forward to:
Points of Impact – Marko Kloos
The Midnight Front – David Mack
Servants of the Sands – Leona Wisoker
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock – imaginative mix of styles (steampunk, fantasy, science fiction, musketeers) with great polymarh heroine, aging musketeer and insane level of court intrigue.
The Woven Ring by M.D.Presley – flintlock fantasy with fantastic antihero, rich world-building and plotting once described as tighter than Iron Maiden’s rhythm section.
Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
The Nine by Tracy Townsend – brilliant book that someone (sadly not me) described as Gaslamp New Weird. The world is amazing, characters are easiluy relatable and charismatic and there are some unique monsters 🙂
Skullsworn by Brian Staveley – brilliant prose, brilliant character, stellar execution
2018 reading list is long but, for me, most anticipated are:
Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker
The Glass Dagger by M.D.Presley
Hod King by Josiah Bancroft
My top 5 of 2017 (in no particular order) –
Age of Assassins (The Wounded Kingdom #1) by R.J. Barker
City of Miracles (Divine Cities #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett
Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence from Ace
Agents of Dreamland by Caitlin Kiernan
Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1) by Nicholas Eames
My most Anticipated for 2018 –
Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #2) by Mark Lawrence
A Time Of Dread (Of Blood and Bone #1) by John Gwynne