Best Fantasy Novels of the Year

Just what I need, more books for my reading list.

 

Only read Memory of Light and I agree it does not belong on a worst of list, but I don't think it fits on a best of list either.

It was good, but not great.

 

I admit, I've read exactly 2 books that have been published this year, and looking at that list, I'm not sure I'll be coming back to 2013 too often in the future. The Golem and the Jinni and The Tattered Banner were the only ones that caught my eye from the blurbs. Neil Gaiman's book I'll probably read eventually because it's Gaiman, and I've heard good things from a friend and my grandmother. I might read Babayaga since I liked Barlow's previous book, but I'm not sure how well he handles the Russian culture and lore, and it's one of those cultures I hate to see misrepresented.

The two fantasy novels from 2013 I have read were:

• The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch. The third book in the Gentleman Bastard sequence was good, brought in a character I'd wanted to see, had a bit of a disjointed plot (well, two plots that didn't tie in together well), good writing, a bit... darker, perhaps, than the last two. Not dark in a bad way, but it was a slight shift, particularly when you look at the way Locke and that one character I mentioned being introduced.
• The Ghost Bride, by Yangsze Choo. I read it for an online course I'm taking. Slow-paced romance that uses the Chinese customs and superstitions to create a rather beautiful tale. I liked it... not much else to say.

Hard to compare the two, since they are barely even in the same genre. I suppose my fondness for Lynch makes me pick his novel as my favourite of the year, if only for the new character, but Choo wrote a great book too. Recommend them both.