#102: 20 Fantasy Authors for 2023 (and beyond)
plus a few new reading goals
Last month I wrote about eliminating any time-based constraints from my reading goals. I don’t want to apply pressure on myself to read a certain number of books in a week/month/year.
Why am I doing this? I already love reading and have a long list of books I want to read. I feel like a goal to finish X books per year has been useful in the past, but I’d like to see what happens without it in 2023.
I’ve spent some time thinking about reading goals that would be useful in 2023 and I’ve come up with the following:
Goal 1: Embark on a quest with fantasy books from 10 female authors and 10 male authors.
As I said in September, I want to dabble in fantasy, both epic series and standalone books. Putting this list together has been a lot of fun and you can check out which authors I selected further down.
Goal 2: Take notes.
I love revisiting past entries from my reading journal and it’s disappointing when my notes are sparse or nonexistent. Writing by hand helps me remember what I’ve read.
Goal 3: Involve my kids.
My boys love fantasy so I’ll either read out loud to them or tell them abbreviated versions of what I’m reading. There’s no reason to go on this epic fantasy quest alone!
Goal 4: Finish the books on this list.1
I didn’t get to these in 2022 but I still want to read them sooner than later. I’ll be working them in with the fantasy and with books being adapted for the screen in 2023 (an exciting subject for another week).
That’s it, 4 goals. It’s going to be great!
The List of Fantasy Authors
Female Authors
Fonda Lee
Greenbone Saga
Susanna Clark
Jonathan Strange & Dr. Morrell
Naomi Novick
The Scholomance Series, Spinning Silver, Temeraire
Leigh Bardugo
Ninth House, Shadow and Bone, Six of Crows
NK Jemisin
Broken Earth trilogy
T. Kingfisher
Swordheart, Nettle & Bone
Robin Hobb
Farseer Trilogy
Madeline Miller
CirceTomi Adeyemi
Legacy of Orïsha
Alix E. Harrow
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Male Authors
JRR Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn, Stormlight Archive
Robert Jordan
The Wheel of Time
Joe Abercrombie
First Law Trilogy
Ken Liu
Dandelion Dynasty
John Gwynne
The Faithful and the Fallen, The Bloodsworn Saga
Marcus Sakey
Brilliance Saga
Jim Butcher
The Dresden FilesCixin Liu
The Three-body Problem
Peter Beagle
The Last Unicorn
There is so much to look forward to and so many great books out there!
What are your reading goals for 2023?
Thanks for reading,
-Kyle
The Secret History
Devotion
Voices of Chernobyl
The Poisonwood Bible
Jane Eyre
A River of Doubt
Sharp Objects
Team of Rivals
Middlemarch
Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House might be my favorite fantasy I’ve ever read. I can’t wait for Hell Bent to come out in January.
Might I suggest Cassie Clare’s Chain of Gold series? It’s YA, and so it necessarily includes a Pining Love Triangle, but it’s also really well-written and great characters. The final book comes out on May, I believe. She’s a cut above your average YA writer.
Good goals. I like the note-taking. I read an adjacent book to your list, The Hobbit, with my kids a few months ago. It was a fun read-aloud. And it's always great to be able to watch the movie afterward with them.