After winning the Nebula, Locus, and Hugo awards, we know that The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal was the standout SF novel of 2018. But which 2018 SF novels were nipping at Kowal’s heels? Keep an eye out for these read-worthy 2018 SF novels, they are showing up in ebook and audiobook sales.

2018 is long gone, but throughout 2019 awards are given to the best novel of last year. Novels must compete for readers like animals in nature to survive. At first, they just want an editor to accept them, then they compete for reviewers, and then for readers to buy them. In their second year of life, they compete for awards. By that second year, most of the books from the previous year have lost the fight to survive, disappearing from the bookshelves and readers memories. Winning an award is huge advantage for long-term survival.

There is a period towards the end of the year where readers are thinking about the best books of that year and novels from the previous year are forgotten — unless they win a Hugo or go on sale at Bookbub. Once a novel reaches a certain age, about the only way it finds new readers is if its author becomes popular and readers of their new novels decide to go back and read their old ones. In pre-digital days, books would often go out of print. But with ebooks and audiobooks, they hang around longer, often showing up in $1.99 sales.

Ask yourself, how many of these novels did you read, or remember reading a review, or had someone recommend it to you, or is already on your TBR pile? Also, how many titles are completely unknown to you? Hundreds of science fiction novels were published in 2018, but how many got popular attention?

The nice thing about the Locus Awards is they break out the science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels to win their own awards. Here are their other SF finalists:

• Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager U.S.; Hodder & Stoughton)
• If Tomorrow Comes by Nancy Kress (Tor)
• Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)
• Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)
• Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell (Titan US; Titan UK)
• Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US)
• Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)
• Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)

I wished that the Nebula and Hugo awards gave separate awards to the various genres. It would help us readers who focus only on specific genres and give more recognition and awards to writers. (While I’m wishing, I wish they had separate awards for print/paid short fiction, and free-to-read online short fiction.) There were three other SF novels up for the Hugo in 2019, and all were finalists at Locus:

• Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager)
• Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
• Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)

Of the Nebula finalists, only one book was science fiction:

• Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)

To widen the scope, I’m going to add the starred reviewed SF from Kirkus Reviews. I’m not including young adult novels.

• The Enceladus Mission by Brandon Q. Morris (self-published)
• The Angriest Angel by Christopher Halt (CreateSpace)
• State Tectonics by Malka Older (Tor)
• Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter (Harper Voyager)
• Piercing Maybe by Dan Cray (Third Quandary)
• #2084 by A. L. F. I. E. (ALife Media)
• Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco/HarperCollins)
• Detonation by Erik A. Otto (CreateSpace)
• The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch (Putnam)
• The Wanderer and the New West by Adam Bender (Amazon Digital)
• Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (Knopf)
• Dark State by Charles Stross (Tor)

Strangely, The Calculating Stars was not a starred review at Kirkus Reviews. Except for one title (Blackfish City) Kirkus picked books that weren’t award-winners or finalists.

Goodreads voted 20 SF novels for the best of 2018, several of which have already been mentioned above. Their winner was Vengeful by V. E. Schwab that was also picked as a starred review at Kirkus Reviews. However I don’t really consider it science fiction, but a superhero fantasy, which should be a new genre. The Calculating Stars came in #14 with the Goodreads voters. I loved that book, and after it won all the awards, I figured everyone else did too. Obviously, fans and reviewers don’t always align themselves with award winners. Some of the books below I wouldn’t count as science fiction and others that aren’t novels but novellas. Remember Goodreads represents books people bought, tracked, and saved in a books database. Here’s the twenty in ranked order.

1. Vengeful by V. E. Schwab
2. Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
3. Vox by Christina Dalcher
4. Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel
5. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
6. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
7. Perspolis Rising James S. A. Corey
8. Artificial Conditions by Martha Wells
9. The Oracle Year by Charles Soule
10. Head On by John Scalzi
11. Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
12. Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances by Timothy Zahn
13. Severance by Ling Ma
14. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
15. Rosewater by Tade Thompson
16. Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu
17. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
18. The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
19. Relevant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
20. The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

The Chicago Review of Books picked 10 SF novels as the best of 2018. What we’re starting to see if both confirmations of award-nominated books and other titles being repeatedly recognized by reviews and fans.

• Mem by Bethany C. Morrow (Unnamed Press)
• The Book of M by Peng Shepard (William Morrow)
• Semiosis by Sue Burke (Tor)
• Severance by Ling Ma (FSG)
• Rosewater by Tade Thompson (Orbit)
• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• Black Star Renegades by Michael Moreci (St. Martins Press)
• Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (Ecco)
• State Tectonics by Malka Older (Tor)
• The Strange Bird by Jeff Vandermeer (MCD Books)

Best Science Fiction Books picked their 25 favorite SF books of 2018, and many of the now usual suspects are at hand again. Here they are in their ranked order (and some are novellas and one anthology):

1. The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts
2. The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
3. The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander
4. Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport
5. The Reincarnated Giant edited by Mingwei Song and Theodore Huters
6. The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith
7. Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
8. Semiosis by Sue Burke
9. Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
10. Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
11. The Rig by Roger Levy
12. Head On by John Scalzi
13. Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
14. Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
15. The Book of M by Pen Shepherd
16. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
17. Zero Sum Game by S. L. Huang
18. Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
19. Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell
20. The Oracle Year by Charles Soule
21. Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
22. Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
23. State Tectonics by Malka Older
24. Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams
25. Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor

Reading about these books makes me wish I could read all of them. The trouble is I only read a handful of new books each year. I’ve already bought many thinking I would read them, but I’ve already been diverted by 2019 books. I’m very lucky if I read three new SF novels during the year they come out, and then three more when they get noticed for awards in the following year. That means I miss a shelf of great science fiction every year.

Maybe we need awards for the best novels and stories that are 5, 10, 15, and 25 years old, to help some stories survive just a little bit longer. Some books deserve more time to find readers. Most writers hope when they create their novel it will outlive their own mortality. Most stories are forgotten in their first year of publication. That’s a shame because we overlook many brilliant works of art. Most writers give up because they don’t find readers. I urge you don’t always read books from your same three favorite writers, or from endless book series. Try something new.

I know writers love having a hit trilogy or successful series, but I find extended stories kind of selfish because reading sequels means sticking with the familiar until it jumps the shark and not taking a chance on new writers and new stories.

James Wallace Harris