Fantasy and Sci-Fi Hidden Gems discussion
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Well, it's that time of the year where I look back and reflect on the great books I've read this year and choose the best out of the bunch to highlight.
If you're interested in finding out about more great books check out my previous "best of" posts:
But moving back to this year: despite the strangeness of the year and the different challenges I still managed to find and read a bunch of great books that I'd love to share with you. These books didn't necessarily come out this year, I just happen to have read them this year so this post is based entirely on my own reading. These are books I enjoyed so much that I would recommend them to anyone!
In no particular order:
Between the Shade and the Shadow by Coleman Alexander
Genre: Epic Fantasy
My Rating: 5 stars
Between the Shade and the Shadow by Coleman Alexander is a unique fantasy novel that has excellent characterization, wonderful world-building, and is full of action that had very personal stakes.
The main character Ahraia is a spriteling who lives with her family in the depths of woods. In order to grow into a full-fledged sprite and gain the status and acceptance that comes with that she has to go through a process of training that ends with her sprite test. As Ahraia progresses along this path she starts to uncover some of the mysteries of her society and the woods they live in and she faces some very difficult decisions when she starts to question whether her people's ways are right.
An Elegy of Heroes: The Agartes Epilogues Trilogy by K. S. Villoso
Genre: Epic Fantasy
My Rating: 5 Stars
An Elegy of Heroes is an excellent epic fantasy series with deep characterization, rich, epic world-building, and an expertly woven plot. You will fall in love with these characters, these families, and then you'll have your heart torn out as they're put through dark and dangerous times. It's earned itself a place among my all-time favourite book series.
Once you're done you'll also want to check out the author's other series in the same world starting with The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, which I also read and loved this year.
The Raven's Cry by D. E. Olesen
(Book 2 in the Chronicles of Adalmearc Series)
Genre: Epic Fantasy
My Rating: 5 stars
The Raven's Cry is another excellent epic fantasy novel set in the realms of Adalmearc. It is the second installment after The Eagle's Flight which I've read twice.
This series is so good that I am a huge fan of it now and will eagerly await the next installment. This novel (and Eagle's Flight before it) provided me with hours of entertainment and although life got in the way of me finishing it as fast as I wanted to I found myself waiting for free time so I could continue the story.
All Around the Watchtower by Ben Haskett
Genre: Sci-Fi Short Story
My Rating: 5 Stars
An excellent sci-fi short story that is thrilling from beginning to end. I will definitely be keeping an eye out on this author's work from now on.
Black Seeds by Stjepan Varesevac Cobets
Genre: Sci-Fi Novella
My Rating: 5 Stars
Black Seeds by Stjepan Varesevac Cobets is an excellent Sci-Fi novelette that I couldn't put down. As with each of the other SF books by this author I finished the book with a feeling that THIS is how SF should be done.
I would highly recommend all these books, especially to lovers of sci-fi and fantasy. If you want to discover more excellent sci-fi and fantasy with me check out my list of Hidden Gems and join my newsletter. You can also join the conversation and let me know about excellent books you've found in this goodreads group, I'd love to see others make their own threads and posts regarding the excellent books they've discovered.
Top 3 Books I Read in 2017
Top 5 Books I Read in 2018
Top 3 Books I read in 2019
I hope to continue doing this and highlighting the best books I've read each year. But I also started a website/blog on blogger which has a more permanent home for all the great underappreciated books I've found. Check out my list of Hidden Gems.
This summer I talked to the authors of books on my hidden gems list and asked them to give me their recs. In this way I was able to compile a whole bunch of awesome recs that I intend to read. But I also asked these authors to put their books up for sale for $0.99 for a week and ran the Epic Sale of Beloved SFF Books, which is something I plan to keep doing!
I'm still working my way through all those great recs, but I did recently finish Between the Shade and the Shadow by Coleman Alexander and I absolutely loved it!
My latest effort to uncover hidden gems is this group. I hope to hear from others about the books they loved and have some great conversations :)