Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!
This week’s theme is: Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years!
I do wonder how many bloggers are able to manage this – even if you keep excellent records of what you read when, have you been doing it for a decade? – but I could, and had a lot of fun looking these up!
2025
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Goodreads
In this novella set in the World of the Five Gods and four years after the events in Penric’s Demon, Penric is a divine of the Bastard’s Order as well as a sorcerer and scholar, living in the palace where the Princess-Archdivine holds court. His scholarly work is interrupted when the Archdivine agrees to send Penric, in his role as sorcerer, to accompany a “Locator" of the Father’s Order, assigned to capture Inglis, a runaway shaman charged with the murder of his best friend. However, the situation they discover in the mountains is far more complex than expected. Penric’s roles as sorcerer, strategist, and counselor are all called upon before the end.
This was a reread, the second novella in the AMAZING Penric and Desdemona series. Penric is a sorcerer – because Desdemona, a temple-sanctioned demon, picked him as her next rider under very unusual circumstances. Penric and the Shaman is, like most of the instalments, a bit of a fantasy detective-ing story, but with a timer built in, because a number of human souls are in danger of being irrevocably lost if Penric and Desdemona can’t sort out the situation. Lots of fun, and sets up a few of the other instalments – plus it was great to get a closer look at the Father’s Order, since in the World of the Five Gods novels we never hear much about it.
2024
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Brown MC
Goodreads
Before the Fall of the Empire of Astandalas, the Red Company was legendary. A dozen or so years after that cataclysm, they have almost faded into myth.
Pali Avramapul may not have gone under her own name since the dissolution of the Red Company, but she is no myth, and has certainly not faded. She fights folly and injustice as fiercely as ever—although, as a respected scholar of history at one of the Circle Schools of Alinor, she now tends to use her tongue and pen more than her sword.
She still keeps the sword sharp, of course. You never know when adventure will come calling.She expects her sabbatical to be a decorous, respectable sort of adventure, the kind with which she can regale her colleagues in the Senior Common Room upon her return.
She’s not very upset when she finds one or two of her old friends and it turns out the adventure is much more likely to involve a plot to kidnap the Last Emperor of Astandalas.There’s respectable, after all, and then there’s respectable.
This was one of those that I thought was objectively decent, but I found it a major slog, not least because it intersects with a few of Goddard’s other series in ways I find frustrating (various books from different series are happening at the same time, but with gaps that none of the currently-published novels have covered). This seems to be a thing for me with this series, because I thought the exact same of the previous Red Company Reformed book.
2023
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Goodreads
Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.
Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.
When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?
I think I picked this up for that year’s r/Fantasy bingo? I think I used it for the Magical Realism square. And I enjoyed it a lot! Lots of fun, lots of foodie-ness, very charming. Right up until what I thought was an extremely lame ending, sigh. But it put Robin Sloan on my list of authors-to-check-out-eventually. I’ve had my eye on Sloan’s Moonbound for a bit… (Did you know Sloan has a whole mini-website for Moonbound???)
2022
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, YA
Representation: Asexual MC, bisexual MC, F/F
Goodreads
Salem’s Lot meets The Darkest Part of the Forest in this horror-fantasy retelling of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market.”
Lou never believed in superstitions or magic--until her teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped to the goblin market.
The market is a place Lou has only read about--twisted streets, offerings of sweet fruits and incredible jewels. Everything--from the food and wares, to the goblins themselves--is a haunting temptation for any human who manages to find their way in.
Determined to save Neela, Lou learns songs and spells and tricks that will help her navigate this dangerous world and slip past a goblin's defenses--but she only has three days to find Neela before the market disappears and her aunt becomes one of them forever.If she isn't careful, the market might just end up claiming her too.
Oh THIS. I did not enjoy this. I have Strong Opinions about goblin markets, namely that they had better be genuinely enticing and magical. The one in this book was not, it was just pure gory horror – which begs the question, why would humans be irresistibly attracted to it??? If you can’t sell me on the market (:D) your entire book crumbles because the whole premise rests on that!
It’s such a shame, because the first bit of the book was great. Alas!
2021
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Gay MC, M/M
Goodreads
Scenes from the Holidays consists of short Tarot Sequence vignettes, released serially beginning in December 12, 2020, on K.D. Edwards’ Twitter account. The scenes take place between the end of THE HANGED MAN and the start of the forthcoming third book, THE HOURGLASS THRONE. The scenes center around Sun Estate activities during an Equinox celebration.
The compiled version is available for free on the author's website in PDF, MOBI, and ePUB versions.
I’m pretty sure this must have been a reread, since Edwards put these out the year before this. Probably I was rereading the entire series to prepare for the next book!
Anyway – super adorable, extremely fun, a satisfying amount of worldbuilding. So many giggles. All of the ‘extra content’ for this series brings me so much joy, and the Holiday Scenes are no exception! Excellent for derailing a depression spiral or the like.
2020
Genres: Adult
Representation: Black MC
Goodreads
Bestselling author Barbara Hambly's A Free Man of Color and Fever Season established Benjamin January as one of mystery's most exciting heroes. Now he returns in a powerful new novel, a sensual mosaic of old New Orleans, where cultures clash and murder can hover around every darkened corner....
It is St. John's Eve in the summer of 1834 when Benjamin January--Creole physician and music teacher--is shattered by the news that his sister has been arrested for murder. The Guards have only a shadow of a case against her. But Olympe--mystical and rebellious--is a woman of color, whose chance for justice is slim.
As Benjamin probes the allegation, he is targeted by a new threat: graveyard dust sprinkled at his door, whispering of a voodoo death curse. Now, to save Olympe's life--and his own--Benjamin knows he must glean information wherever he can find it. For in the heavy darkness of New Orleans, the truth is what you make it, and justice can disappear with the night's warm breeze as easy as graveyard dust....
There are very, VERY few authors I would follow into non-sff genres… But Barbara Hambly is one of them. Her prose is just so exquisite that after rereading all her SFF, I did eventually start on her historical fiction mysteries. I never manage to put together who has done what, but I’m very much there for the prose, so it’s fine. This series is simultaneously so beautiful and so bleak, following a Black man living in New Orleans when slavery was very much still a thing. I don’t reread these often, because they always make me want to go back in time and set a lot of people on fire.
2019
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Representation: Korean MC
Goodreads
Life in the magical mess of the Detroit Free Zone is never easy. When you’re laboring under the curse of a certain prideful, overbearing dragon, it can be down right impossible.
My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m a Cleaner. At least, I used to be. Thanks to the supernatural bad luck that turns everything I do against me, these days I’m more of a walking disaster. Getting rid of this curse is the only way to get my life back. Unfortunately, dragon magic is every bit as sneaky and deadly the monsters behind it, and just as hard to beat.
But I’ve never been one to take her doom at face value. Cornered doesn’t mean defeated, and in an awakened city that rules herself, dragons are no longer the biggest powers around.
This was a sort of spin-off/sequel to Aaron’s Heartstriker series, which I adored. Like Heartstriker, it’s set in the DFZ, a bonkers urban fantasy city set in our world’s future after a meteor crash woke up Earth’s magic again. Very fun, Opal is a wonderful protagonist, but I admit I enjoyed the Heartstriker books more. (They had a lot more dragons in them!)
2018
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy
Goodreads
THE RISE OF THE DRAGON AND THE FALL OF KINGS
Lord Regent Geder Palliako's war has led his nation and the priests of the spider goddess to victory after victory. No power has withstood him, except for the heart of the one woman he desires. As the violence builds and the cracks in his rule begin to show, he will risk everything to gain her love or else her destruction.
Clara Kalliam, the loyal traitor, is torn between the woman she once was and the woman she has become. With her sons on all sides of the conflict, her house cannot stand, but there is a power in choosing when and how to fall.
And in Porte Oliva, banker Cithrin bel Sarcour and Captain Marcus Wester learn the terrible truth that links this war to the fall of the dragons millennia before, and that to save the world, Cithrin must conquer it.
THIS SERIES! THIS series I have reread so many times. It looks like the kind of bog-standard Fantasy I hate, but it’s anything but. I think this was Abraham’s attempt at winning over the kind of Fantasy fans who…like their stuff conventional? I don’t know how to articulate what I mean. Because before this Abrahams had the Long Price Quartet, which was deeply weird (and exquisite). The Dagger and Coin series sort of pretends to be Classic Fantasy for a little bit…but can’t hold to it for very long. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, so many typical tropes are subverted, it’s all about FANTASY ECONOMICS! (Literally, one of the main characters is a banker! A banker GENIUS!)
2017
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC, background polyamory
Goodreads
An expedition of groundlings from the Empire of Kish have traveled through the Three Worlds to the Indigo Cloud court of the Raksura, shape-shifting creatures of flight that live in large family groups. The groundlings have found a sealed ancient city at the edge of the shallow seas, near the deeps of the impassable Ocean. They believe it to be the last home of their ancestors and ask for help getting inside. But the Raksura fear it was built by their own distant ancestors, the Forerunners, and the last sealed Forerunner city they encountered was a prison for an unstoppable evil.
Prior to the groundlings’ arrival, the Indigo Cloud court had been plagued by visions of a disaster that could destroy all the courts in the Reaches. Now, the court’s mentors believe the ancient city is connected to the foretold danger. A small group of warriors, including consort Moon, an orphan new to the colony and the Raksura’s idea of family, and sister queen Jade, agree to go with the groundling expedition to investigate. But the predatory Fell have found the city too, and in the race to keep the danger contained, the Raksura may be the ones who inadvertently release it.
The Edge of Worlds, from celebrated fantasy author Martha Wells, returns to the fascinating world of The Cloud Roads for the first book in a new series of strange lands, uncanny beings, dead cities, and ancient danger.
Another reread, and who can blame me? If you have somehow stumbled upon my blog without ever having read the Raksura books…then you are in for the time of your life, because oh my gods, go read them! THEY’RE THE BEST! I still remember how incredibly exciting it was when Edge of Worlds was announced – that the series was continuing past what I thought was the original trilogy! EEEEEEEEE!
2016
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Goodreads
As the newly appointed Chalice, Mirasol is the most important member of the Master’s Circle. It is her duty to bind the Circle, the land and its people together with their new Master. But the new Master of Willowlands is a Priest of Fire, only drawn back into the human world by the sudden death of his brother. No one knows if it is even possible for him to live amongst his people. Mirasol wants the Master to have his chance, but her only training is as a beekeeper. How can she help settle their demesne during these troubled times and bind it to a Priest of Fire, the touch of whose hand can burn human flesh to the bone?
A captivating tale that reveals the healing power of duty and honour, love and honey.
Yet another reread. Chalice is one of those rare books that is entirely flawless. Robin McKinley has written quite a few of those! This one – is as sweetly golden as the honey that is so integral to the story. I have no doubt I will reread it many more times in the future!
And what am I reading today?
2026
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Secondary World Fantasy
Published on: 8th September 2026
Goodreads
In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers... even at the threat of war.
Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency she works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue, and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon ― and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different... and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light.
Someone told me about ‘Arc August’, ie a month’s reading challenge of focusing on advanced reader copies, so I picked up my early copy of Wickhills. I haven’t gotten on great with Mohamed’s works before, but I was so hoping I’d finally click with this one – AND I DID! I just finished it half an hour ago. I might want to reread it before reviewing it – I’m not in love with the ending and wondering if I missed something – but this was so much fun! The setting, Wickhills itself, is such a FANTASTIC character all by itself, and I loved how blithely Mohamed dropped bonkers details on us (what do you MEAN this character has four arms, how are we only learning this chapters after he was introduced?! but it makes perfect sense, because our protagonist wouldn’t bat an eye at that, so why would the narrative/prose draw attention to it? etc). I am in love with the streetlamps. CAN I HAVE ONE AS A PET, PLEASE PRETTY PLEASE???
Genuinely not sure if this is meant to be a standalone or not, but even if it IS, I hope we get more stories set in this world, because it’s magnificent and I’m not ready to be done with it yet!
Do you have any idea what you were reading today, last year? Or the year before that???
I’m so excited to continue the Penric and Desdemona series! I think I had some stupid hipster ‘I won’t read it because everyone loves it’ mindset, but holy shit the first book was as good as everyone said it would be.
I have fallen for that trap before XD ‘It’s too popular, I’ll hate it!’ But it’s BUJOLD, so I knew it was going to live up to the hype. (If you haven’t read more Bujold yet, omg put everything of hers on your tbr. I followed her from her fantasy into her sci fi and it’s every bit as freaking excellent!)
I keep a list of the books I read to count at the end of the year but it’s not dated. I don’t update my book journal regularly enough to keep track either. Sad fact is I started the journal to keep track of all the audiobooks but it’s actually really hard to write about audiobooks when you can’t easily look up little details.
Glad to hear it about Wickhall. I’ve always liked Premee Mohammed as a person but have yet to like any of her books. Have to say I bounced off the Raksura books so hard that I’ve never bothered to read anything by Martha Wells since.
Right? I’m not sure many people keep dates. I don’t on my private list – I was only able to do this prompt this accurately because I’ve been on Goodreads long enough, and THAT records dates.
I’ve never thought about how tricky it must be to review audiobooks, but that’s a really good point! I always have to go look things up, or check out my highlights, when I’m writing a review. I’m guessing there’s no equivalent to highlighting for an audiobook…?
Oh no! I’m sorry the Raksura books didn’t work for you. I do think a lot of her other books are very different – you might enjoy some of the fantasy standalones, like Wheel of Infinite. And Murderbot is a series of novellas, so if you wanted to try the first one it wouldn’t take you long. But! If Wells isn’t for you then she’s not for you, I’m not trying to be pushy and make you try more of her books.