Hello and welcome to the 2020 edition of The Curious SFF Reader Book Awards in which I will try to fit my favorite books of the year in several made-up categories in order to avoid ranking them! 😀 As always, the books were not always published in 2020 but I read them this year.
Best Fantasy
The book that completely transported me into another world with its beautiful prose is without a doubt The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Review of The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Best Science Fiction
This category is a tie between two gems: The Light Brigade, a bloody military science fiction about the consequences of war, and The City in the Middle of the Night, a quiet coming of age story. Both books are fantastic and they are so different that it’s impossible to choose between them.
Review of The City in the Middle of the Night
Best Horror
Ring Shout is a novella that managed to have more fascinating ideas than most novels in less than 200 pages.
Best Anthology
Meet Me in the Future is one of the best anthologies I have ever read, the stories are about war, the consequences of war, the female body and queerness. The stories are dark and unsettling yet, I couldn’t stop reading them.
Review of Meet Me in the Future
Fangirl Award (aka Best Tensorate Novella)
Yep, I created a category just for this one. My blog, my award, my rules.
I have already gushed about the Tensorate novellas over and over so, you should know by now that I adore this world. The Ascent of Godhood was a fascinating conclusion and it even managed to dethrone the first novella as my favorite in the series.
Review of The Ascent to Godhood
Best Sequel
Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie’s sophomore book, is in my opinion even better than Ancillary Justice. It was wonderful to be back in the Radch Empire with all its political intrigues, amazing characters and tea-drinking.
Best Finale
Moon Rising is the perfect conclusion to the Luna trilogy, it expands the scope of the story wonderfully while still being a satisfying conclusion to the series.
Best Thriller
Get Out meets the gentrification of Brooklyn in Alyssa Cole’s first thriller. Chilling with great tension and an explosive ending.
Review of When No One is Watching
Best Novella
What if trauma could literally be passed down from generation to generation. Beautifully written and raw, The Deep is without a doubt the best novella I have read this year.
Best of the Best
What can I say about this book that hasn’t already be said? It’s brilliant. Ursula K. Le Guin is the best. Go read it.
Looking at this list, I have to say that 2020 was one of the best reading years I had in a long time. I highly recommend every single books mentioned, they are all truly amazing!
Have you read any of the books mentioned in this post? What are your favorite books of 2020?
The Curious SFF Reader 
Great choices! Of course, the Le Guin stands above all 👍
Ring Shout was extra cool.
And I‘ve read the newer Alix Harrow novel and loved it.
Only thing I‘m missing here is „House of Styx“.
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Yep, I had to put The Dispossessed in its category, what a masterpiece!
I liked House of Styx but some pacing issues prevented me from enjoying more. However, I’m looking forward to its sequel!
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I love this list. Ring Shout was amazing, and of course made my list too😁
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Thank you!
Yes Ring Shout was great, I learned so much while reading it and the plot and the characters were great! 😀
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When No One is Watching is on my radar, so I’m glad to see it made your list of awards 🙂
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It’s a really good one, I picked it up on a whim after hearing amazing things about it and I’m glad I did (even if listening to it before sleeping wasn’t the best decision I made in 2020 😂😂)
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Ohhhh! *That* kind of scary? Sounds good! 😀
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What scared me the most was the slow build of the tension, it made me completely paranoid! 😂
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Awesome list. Ten Thousand Doors of January was great 🙂
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I can’t stop thinking about it and I read it during Wyrd & Wonder, what an amazing book! 😊
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I really want to go back and give Ancillary Justice a reread. It was so DIFFERENT in writing style than anything I’d read before, I had trouble wrapping my head around it. At the same time, I appreciated it BECAUSE it was doing something so different, and I loved how Leckie made the reader feel like they were in the head of an AI who had information coming in from all these different places simultaneously.
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Yes, the narration is really unique. I remember being very confused at first when Leckie started jumping around from ancillary to ancillary but I think it’s a really cool way to make us experience how Breq interacts with the world and other people! 😀
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Awesome choices! And of course, le Guin! 😀
I’m intrigued by the Luna trilogy, and I really want to read Ring Shout – my TBR grows and grows! 🙂
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The Dispossessed was amazing, it was an easy choice for my best book of the year! It was my first Le Guin and I’m so excited to read her other works! 😀
I really liked Ring Shout because it has a really cool story with great characters but it also has a lot of “meat” to it. I think did a great job at giving life to a period of history I didn’t know much about. It’s packed with real history facts and it managed to bring up themes and discussions that are still relevant today.
(With all the end of the year posts and anticipated releases posts… my TBR also grows day by day! 😂)
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Oh, this is a really fun way to do a favorites list haha. I see a lot of books here that I want to read, so that’s great–maybe this will motivate me. 🙂
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I’m glad you like this format! To be perfectly honest, I selected my favorites first and then I tried to fit them into categories (or I made up categories that would fit them well LOL)
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Followed you over from #VintageSciFi.
I love Leckie and totally agree with the Best Sequel Award. There’s one more award I’d like to give — Best Book Cover, which I’d give to Meet Me in the Future. 🙂
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Hello! 🙂
Oooh that’s a great suggestion, I will add this category to the 2021 Awards. 😀 And I agree with you, Meet Me in the Future has an amazing cover!
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