Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, and is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It’s all about books, lists and sharing the love we have of both with our bookish friends. Today we’re tempting fate and predicting which books on our TBR we’re going to just love…

I can’t predict a 5 star read. They are few and far between and have a tendency to creep up on me some time after I judiciously award them 4.5 stars for being rather good. It can be months of quiet hearting before I realise it was a 5 star read all along.

However, I get gushy  at 4 stars and my immediate TBR is stacked with reads I expect to be ALL CAPSing at you about (there may even be some reaction gifs in your near future). So today I’m going to look at some of those – which is also a handy excuse to flail about some of our amazing Subjective Chaos nominees because HELL YES I expect to gush over most of them, have you seen our shortlist?

Let’s start with a few of these. I’m excited about all of them, but these are the ones I have the highest expectations of (…although possibly only because they’re the ones I know the most about).

The Ten Thousand Doors of January – Alix E Harrow

Okay, I’m cheating here: I’ve started this portal fantasy and it had me at hello. The prose is gorgeous, our heroine is the sort of awkward-minded young lady I relate to and it seems to be leading us into other worlds… I can’t wait to get back to it.

 

Wanderers – Chuck Wendig

Wanderers will be my first Wendig, but based on the glowing reviews from some of you I’m in for a treat. I love an apocalypse, and if it the plot is as haunting as that evocative cover this one will sleepwalk right up my street.

 

Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky

I know, I know. I’ve been saying I’ll read Tchaikovsky’s award-winning spider opera forever. And now it’s a Subjective Chaos nominee, so my time has come. But SPIDERS people. SPIDERS. You better be right about how good this is.

 

Realm of Ash – Tasha Suri

The companion volume to Empire of Sand blurbed like a straight-up fantasy romance, but the reviews have been devastatingly good. Besides, after what Suri did with romance in Empire I trust her to deliver one I can be beguiled by.

 

Gods of Jade and Shadow – Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I love how the Subjective Chaos panel nominated so many books I was feeling terrible for not having read yet. This Jazz Age tale of a young girl who releases the God of Death and must help him defeat his brother is definitely one of them – and Moreno-Garcia never disappoints.

 

Ancestral Night – Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear is a genre stalwart whose works rarely appeal to me, but Ancestral Night is stacked with some of my favourite space opera tropes: queer salvage crews, space pirates, and archaeology amongst the stars. Bring it.

 

Velocity Weapon – Megan O’Keefe

I’m rooting for this one on reputation. It’s got classic space opera ingredients: a politician and a warrior, separated by time and disaster; space battles and canny AI. And you all tell me it’s amazing, so that’s got to count for something.

 

But our Subjective Chaos nominees aren’t the only books I’m expecting to show me a good time this year.

 

Goldilocks – Laura Lam

Laura Lam has many gifts: narrative voice, memorable characters, clever world-building and thrilling plots. Now she’s written a book in SPACE as humanity faces its final days – I’m so excited I could explode.

 

The Monster Baru Cormorant – Seth Dickinson

The Traitor Baru Cormorant was one of my stand-out reads in 2019, so it’s fair to say I have the highest expectations of Monster. Can Baru entrance and ruin me a second time? Can the Masquerade survive her vengeance? Can she? AAAAAAAAH.

 

The Dragon Republic – R F Kuang

While I’m already screaming, let’s talk The Dragon Republic because the The Poppy War left me scorched. I’m expecting the fiercest of follow-ups, alight with magic and bitter with regret. I know I’m not ready for whatever Kuang has in store. I will bear witness.

 

What are you most looking forward to reading soon?