2023 Releases I missed || Reacting to Locus Suggested Reading List

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[nereis]

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth is so so good !!! It was much more powerful than a lot of adult horror I've read. 💀

[caitcoy]

I'm salty that Painted Devils isn't on here, I feel like it's such a great underrated YA fantasy (though it is the second book in the series). I DNFed a couple on the list but definitely want to get to some of the ones I haven't read yet.

[ReadingIDEAS.-uzxk]

I hope you enjoy your reading choices this year. Best wishes.

[AshtheViking]

In the novellas section: Green Fuse Burning by Tiffany Morris is EXCELLENT. Grief-focused, queer, Indigenous, swamp/eco-horror.

[sydneyrrobertson]

This list has quite a few titles that I haven't even heard from! Thanks for sharing.

[buriedinbooks]

Ohh Cahokia Jazz sounds really interesting and I’ve never heard of it!! That’s exciting!!

[jynxdcoffee]

I'm currently reading Translation State, it's in the world of the Ancillary trilogy and it certainly helps to be already familiar with the world but it doesn't seem to be required

[Jeanniez]

Drinking from Graveyard Wells was the first ss collection I actually considered purchasing. So good! Also loved Jewel Box by E. Lily Yu which is on this list.

[priscilla.t.a]

I had casually put Drinking from Graveyard Wells on my TBR list because it caught my eye; I'm so glad to hear it was a hit for you! I'll definitely check it out now. A lot of the recommended titles are on my TBR already, and I was surprised to see some titles I read and liked that I wouldn't have expected (like After the Forest), but I still found some exciting, new ones to add to my TBR. So excited to dive into all of them. 👹

[sambell]

Okay definitely need to get me a copy of New Suns 2 now.

[kibert]

Max Gladstone wrote two of my favorite standalone books. Empress of Forever, about a successful innovator of the near future who gets flung into the far future where tech is so advanced that is seems like magic. It is a space opera about an Empress who has control over the whole universe. The other book is a horror ajacent urban fantasy book called Last Exit about a group of friends who found a way to travel to alternate universes and tried to find a way to change their world to the better but failed. The story is about Zelda, the last one of this group who is still out there and fighting the danger they all confronted in the past. It begins with Zelda realising that without interviening their world is about to end so she calls back her friends to stop it.

[llaheys]

This camera angle makes me want to see your shelves in their full glory! Would you show a quick camera pan at some point?

[AnotherTurning]

I haven't read Rose/House yet, but I read about as much of the synopsis as you did, and it made me think of that Disney channel movie Smart House, and I honestly can't wait to get Martine's take on that!

[devlyn]

I could have sworn that I'd listened to the audiobook of The Jinn-bot of Shantiport in tandem with reading the physical book but after scouring through my various apps and files I have to conclude that I must just have a damn vivid imagination.

[ThatsSoPoe]

I'm so out of the loop that I recognized only a few of these. Amusing that horror has been such a great genre for you recently! Also, if you want to buddy read the Sarah Pinsker collection, I'd be very interested - my library has it too.

[lauras]

I've tried and DNFed two Cadwell Turnbull novels, but I think you would enjoy them more. No Gods No Monsters I mostly enjoyed. I listened to it on audio and was getting lost in the timeline and different stories, and didn't have the energy to dedicate to reading it. The way it was broken up reminded me of Vanished Birds beginning (but I was a bit less invested in the characters/world). I definitely need to check out some of the SciFi and pick up To Shape a Dragon's Breath. I thought A Spirit Bares Its Teeth with all of the intensity I've heard about it, but I have it checked out from the library haunting me, so will check it out.

[JoshsBookishVoyage]

This is an interesting list. It has several I've never heard of and those are the ones I'm most intrigued about

[sphinxinherhat]

The Locus Year in Review issue used to be sooo important to me, such anticipation waiting for it to be out, Pre-Booktube that's how I kept tabs on what was going on. I got so wrapped up in the Reader's Choice Awards this year and then Hugo awards scandal, To see mention of the Locus Recommended Reading List brought me up short. Oh ya. It's Feburary. It's out now! And I didn't even know. They definitely got some titles that Good Reads missed. Ian McDonald gets the dignity of being listed for Hopeland. I would have like to recommend this. Loved the beginning and the concept of electromancy but once the narrative leaves London, the book kind of falters. A book not listed here or on Good Reads list is Proud Pink Sky about a future gaytopia in Berlin. It was an anticipated publication at the end of 2022. So I'm wondering was it not good (well, Good Reads rating of 4.20) or is it considered just too niche?

[bentheoverlord]

Ooh a great set of books. Really need to try No Gods, No Monsters and Pink Slime, both sound really interesting.

[RafBlutaxt]

This list was so depressing and so fascinating at the same time. I read 5 books (4x sf and 1x first novel) but all of those were excellent and there's a few more I definitely want to get to, including some from the non-fiction part. In Ascension is a very slow novel between sf and literary fiction, got long-listed for the Booker and focuses on family dynamics and climate change, really loved it. Him is a historical novel with some few sf elements about the life of Jesus who is a transman in this particular novel. I love it but I'm also generally interested in that period and Ryman really gets the societal pressures of late hellenistic Palestine. Hopeland is a really cool near-future novel about climate change, globalization and all that jazz with Ian McDonald's typical voice somewhere between sf and literary fiction and definitely one of my favourite books I read last year period. The Circumference Of The World is fun, very meta about an author who is definitely not L. Ron Hubbard and probably works best if you have read some of the 1950s and 1960s sf authors but definitely not Tidhar's best novel for me. The Saint Of Bright Doors is really unique, more magical realism by a Sri Lankan author and really hard to describe. I really need to get to the Tobias S. Buckell ones, I enjoyed his fantasy collaboration with Paolo Bacigalupi, The Tangled Lands.