I have an incredible number of favorite books this year, therefore, so that none of the following blog posts becomes extra long, I’ll write three different “favorites of 2021” posts.
This first post has fantasy of manners books, the next will have fantasy books with other subgenres and the third will have my science fiction favorites. Fantasy of manners seems to be a somewhat fluid subgenre and perhaps some of the books I’ll talk about in my next blog post could belong in this subgenre too, but in the interest of not making this post way too long I’ll group them in the broader fantasy genre together with my epic fantasy books.
Most of the following books were five stars for me or even if four stars, original enough that they secured a place among my favorite books of 2021. In this post I’ll talk about three of my favorite fantasy of manners authors: Emma Newman, Genevieve Cogman and Theodora Goss and their wonderful series that I surely recommend.
Emma Newman
The two Novellas, Brother’s Ruin, and Weaver’s Lament by Emma Newman were a very interesting beginning to a new series that I sincerely hope one day will be continued.
I also read four books in the Split Word series by this author that were extremely well written: Any Other Name, All Is Fair, A Little Knowledge and All Good Things.
This series was one I could not put down. It had very important themes and was heart-wrenching at times. In any case, one of the best book series I’ve read in a very long time. Emma Newman is an awesome writer and her audiobook narration of this series is perfect too!
Genevieve Cogman
In 2021 I read five books in the The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman: The Burning Page, The Lost Plot, The Mortal Word, The Secret Chapter and The Dark Archive.
This series was very entertaining, I especially liked the fourth book in the series, The Lost Plot, but I was disappointed by the seventh book, The Dark Archive because yet again every time a ‘personal character moment’ was about to happen it seemed to be quickly looked over, and instead a life or death action scene intruded. At a certain point I was tired of not getting more depth in the relationships between the characters.
Perhaps I was just tired of the series after reading too many books of it one after another, therefore I’ll give this series a second chance and I’ll be reading The Untold Story (The Invisible Library #8) eventually, but this time I’ll be definitely done with the series if this book doesn’t surprise me with some character arcs resolution. Even though this is an extremely entertaining series and I surely recommend it.
Theodora Goss
I also continued the The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss by reading European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman.
I plan to read the third book of this trilogy, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl.
A friend of mine didn’t like the character commentaries interrupting the narrative in this second book, and that may indeed need some time getting used to, but I considered them extremely funny and very original. As if the ‘writer’ herself -in this case one of the characters- would not take herself very seriously, and it was right down hilarious when the other characters told her she wasn’t telling the story the right way or when the character herself ‘advertised’ her other fictitious books in the middle of the narrative.
This series is a very surprising and well done retelling and I will surely read more books by this author in the future.
Stay tuned for my next blog posts with my other favorites of 2021.
My Reader's Journey 