Favorite Books of 2018

The first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red, by Martha Wells came out in 2017 and I love that novella.

I feel like Artificial Condition is just a great continuation on from All Systems Red. If you like the first novella, you'll probably really enjoy the second one.

These were some of the funniest, most enjoyable books I read all year long. They're not perfect but they made me laugh and they were just fun.

And Exit Strategy kind of comes full circle, brings us back to a lot of the characters from the first novella, and I think provides a pretty satisfactory ending for the story arc amongst the four novellas.

It was a gorgeous read, a really difficult read, and I just feel like it messed up my brain a little bit for a while after I read it. It was wonderful.

This is one of the earliest books I read in 2018 that I just knew was gonna be one of my favorites, and it is still one of my favorites.

So yeah, the science is good, the characters are good, combine them and you get a really great novel!

Now, I liked the third one too, which is called Rogue Protocol, but these are the two that got a solid 5 stars out of me.

I knew while I was reading the book that I adored it, and it was gonna be one of my favorites of the year, but I consumed it so quickly that much of it hasn't stuck in my brain.

And just let me tell you - if you start reading The Calculating Stars, make sure you have the sequel on hand already because you're going to want to jump into it straight after finishing The Calculating Stars.

However, saying that, if you were to ask me what my favorite read of the entire year is I would be able to very easily tell you it was the Lady Astronaut duology by Mary Robinette Kowal. They are The Calculating Stars and the sequel, The Fated Sky, and both of these books came out in 2018.

I had zero expectations, and then it turned into something that I really loved, and I loved the way that it was done as well.

These were some of the funniest, most enjoyable books I read all year long. They're not perfect but they made me laugh and they were just fun.

But this was just so admirable because of how consistently good all of the stories in this collection are.

I thought this was a brilliant story, a very well-told story, with the perfect shape and form to it.