THE 2026 BOOK TIER LIST! (MID YEAR)

Structural meaningful ones were either skimmed over or forgotten and that is very hard to forgive for me. So I'm I'm giving it a D. Not worth it.

But also this book's going to hold a special place in my heart cuz it's the start of my new Agatha Christie obsession. And I think for that reason I'm actually just going to bump it up to Get up Why are you not going there, S?

And I think Animal Farm doesn't really have flaws. I think it's essentially perfect.

I think Artificial Wisdom is an A. And I like that it doesn't go for easy moral answers at the end of the day, and instead it's trying to pose a future where it's not as easy as AI bad, AI good, and instead it kind of poses AI as just a greater extension of what humanity already is because it's our child, and so that comes with the good and the bad.

This is not the best of the Children of Time series. I don't even know if that's what it's called anymore, but it's a really, really good one. and I'll put it just below the Holy Bible. definitely an A tier.

Count of Monte Cristo, I will bestow it with the honor of an absolute must-read book. It's a book that goes beyond just being a book to me. It is a slice of history.

Five Little Pigs, which was is most heartbreaking story and I would say of everything I've read, the most satisfying.

Golden Son is absolutely an S tier. I wouldn't What are you doing? There we go. I wouldn't put it above Animal freaking Farm, but it's it's an S tier. Like Pierce Brown finding his voice, finding his stride, really expanding the world and momentum out.

Well of Ascension can be kind of confusing and Mistborn is just structurally kind of simple, but all of it comes together to be I think in my opinion a lot stronger than the sum of its parts.

And then Morning Star, I think is just below Red Rising. , it just doesn't have that almost snare drum-like beat that Golden Son did to be so successfully leading to its own tragic I don't want to say the comparison a lot of people do cuz it is a spoiler to say that, but this moment that just leaves you floored as a reader.

It's not bad. I remember having a fine enough time with it and I think my review was like slightly positive, but the further I've gotten from it especially the magic sauce that's there for Dungeon Crawler Carl for Matt Dinniman just doesn't showcase as well here and the ending instead of having this tightrope walk that Dungeon Crawler Carl does where it manages to jump the shark deliberately, do a flip, and by the time it lands you're like, "Sick." Operation Bounce House instead just feels zany.

First Red Rising book, I think is a low A. It shows the potential of the series without reaching the highest highs.

my one complaint is that this could have been five books stretched out into an awesome series and I would have adored reading each one. It really feels like this concept could have been more. Except if that's the biggest complaint I had, well done.

I think I actually read it at the end of last year, but it didn't get scooped into the end of the last year recap, so it's going to sit here and it's the book that stuck with me the most.

I really did enjoy it, and I think that as a end note for Sun Eater, it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that Chris Ferraro wrote something so incredible that unless he did a like Simone Biles perfect stick landing, it wasn't going to be, you know, top, oh my god, best Sun Eater book because there are certain Sun Eater books that are almost perfect 10s if not perfect 10s. This one to me was like seven to eight range, you know, just between those two.

The ABC Murders a very good Mhm. Yeah, this one was probably her It felt like the most intense mystery and Poirot was so much fun to follow in here.

I think Hero of Ages has some too much Sanderlanche just removing too quickly through big moments at the end. Well of Ascension can be kind of confusing and Mistborn is just structurally kind of simple, but all of it comes together to be I think in my opinion a lot stronger than the sum of its parts.

And oh, I just remembered the twist and it immediately elevates this one higher. Yeah, this might be her best twist.

And I think the final note the book ends on, this little melody at the end of her symphony that is just as morally conflicted as her story's been up to this point, showed a combination of restraint and vision from the author that makes this feel somehow more real than most actual biographies I've read.

I'm so happy I read this. It's a great sci-fi book. In terms of enjoyment, I'm putting it at a C cuz it just made me sad.

The Strength of the Few is still a good book. It just had so much going on with like that several different worlds and character alternatives for one character trying to come together into a cohesive structure that while each individual through line was interesting, it just was a jarring jump of a book and it felt like it was juggling a little more than it could possibly handle.

I actually liked Well of Ascension a lot more on reread. So I think I'm going to put that low A.

Maybe I'm afraid to include it cuz I'm going to be honest, I'd put it in C. I just didn't like it nearly as much. It wasn't as thought-provoking.

12 Months was exactly what the series needed. It's not that like the series shifted gears. It's almost like Dresden pulled the car over on the side of the road metaphorically, got out, and went for a hike.

It's got good Sanderson characters, a great Sanderson world. But even after doing a mega summary on it, it's a lot of fun. I just don't feel as captured by it as I did by Mistborn.