Amazon Names Best SFF Books of 2018

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Christelle Dabos’ A Winter’s Promise (translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle) is Amazon’s pick as the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy book of 2018. It tops Amazon’s year’s best list posted November 9.

  • A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos (tr. Hildegard Serle)
  • Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
  • How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
  • Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
  • Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira
  • Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews
  • The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette
  • Rosewater by Tade Thompson
  • The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
  • The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
  • Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
  • Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang
  • Vita Nostra by Sergey and Marina Dyachenko
  • Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
  • Before Mars by Emma Newman
  • The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
  • The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark
  • Tsumik and the Enslaved Fox by Forthright
  • The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell

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22 thoughts on “Amazon Names Best SFF Books of 2018”

  2. No it’s not, but you know there are ARCs and everything out there — whoever’s picking these books for Amazon has included THREE whose release dates are later this month.

  3. I read Zero Sum Game when Huang indy published it. It was really, really good–and I say that as someone who’s not that into Urban SF.

    It’s probably even better now. Go check it out.

  4. I’ve read eight of them, and am very! impatiently! waiting! for How Long Til Black Future Month.

    But how could they not have included Mary Robinette Kowal?

  6. Hmmm. I’ve only read 3 of those so far, have a few more of them on Mt. TBR. Now I’m going to have to check out the others.

  7. btw — I just finished binge-listening to Shards of Honor and Barrayar for the umpteenth time, and just started The Warrior’s Apprentice yet again. Can’t we figure out some way to give LMB another award? Or — not a Hugo, but where’s her SFWA Grand Master award?

  11. @PhilRM —

    Tade Thompson’s Rosewater is terrific, but it was originally published by Apex in 2016.

    There’s at least a coupla confusing books like that this year, getting “new book” treatment for repubbed books — for example Senlin Ascends. It’s gonna make Hugo voting confusing.

  12. Prior to this, I had only heard of one of these books. I wasn’t particularly motivated to read that book.

    But now I think Gunpowder Moon might be worth a read. Maybe when Fonda Lee is done with my eyeballs I can give it a try.

    Is 5% a good batting average?

    Regards,
    Dann
    I don’t have issues. I have subscriptions.

  13. Interesting how few of these overlap with my list so far. I’m waiting my turn for “Exit Strategy”. A number of these are darker than I like in general, and this year in particular.

    I won’t be nominating The Calculating Stars etc. because it makes me too angry that the “heroes” are actually the bad guys: Elon Musk, only more so. This is NOT how to deal with climate change.

  14. @Dann —

    Prior to this, I had only heard of one of these books. I wasn’t particularly motivated to read that book.

    If you haven’t read the Murderbot stories, you’re missing some great reads.

    But now I think Gunpowder Moon might be worth a read.

    I’ve got that on my list. It looks like fun.

  16. @Contrarius / @PhilRM –

    Vita Nostra is another republished – I have a 2012 self-published edition on Mount Tsundoku; it’s now been picked up by Harper Voyager.

  17. I had high hopes for Gunpowder Moon based on the synopsis, but I ended up giving it only 3 stars.

    It’s very much a debut novel, in that I could see the author taking it to Clarion and getting good advice about what works and what doesn’t – but I’m really surprised that Harper Voyager agreed to publish it in its current form. There’s a fair bit of infodumping, as well as what appears to be a fair bit of the author seeing a clear progression of thoughts or events in his mind, but not really getting that progression translated to the page. And there’s an “authorial voice” problem in that the characters speak in what I consider to be an inconsistent “dialect”.

    Before Mars, in my opinion, is fantastic and definitely a level above Planetfall and After Atlas, both of which I really liked.

    Foundryside I really, really enjoyed, and of course the Murderbot novellas are like sffnal crack. (MURDERBOT NOVEL!!!)

    The Spaceship Next Door was originally self-published in 2015. It sounds as though it might be worth a read.

  19. Elusis: If you search “Best science fiction and fantasy of 2018” on Amazon that will work.

  20. I don’t seem to be able to post a screen shot, but that’s not what I get – I just get “Year’s Best… 2018,” “Best American… 2018,” (guest editor NK Jemisin! yay!), “Writers of the Future #34,” and those sorts of things. Not a list of books they’ve compiled as best.

  21. Ha, they offer me “literature and fiction, mystery, thriller, and suspense, romance, cooking, food, and wine, children’s books, and more.” How on earth does Amazon not list SF/F for me, given that I just bought 3 SF/F books for my Kindle THIS MORNING??

    Anyway, I find their list here, in case it helps anyone: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=s9_acss_bw_cg_BOTY18_5c1_w?node=17296237011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=61N8G7ZJ7P5KQG0KM2N1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=5e5153a2-0cba-4bfd-b353-0d25dd7fefd0&pf_rd_i=17296232011

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