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Top Ten Books from 2023

2023 was another stellar year for reading as I ended up reading over 15 novels throughout this year. Some of these were a bit disappointing, but the ten that I chose for my list were all very strong. This was once again a mix of both older classics and more modern genre fare. Here is the list.

10. Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is a classic play by Samuel Beckett that is truly timeless and universal in its exploration of existentialist themes, absurdist and humorous dialogue and memorable protagonists. It is admittedly a very repetitive and far from engaging story in terms of pacing, structure and dialogue, but the simplicity and elegance of this tale endure to this day.

9. Moby-Dick

By far the most difficult novel that I read this year was Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. This is an overly frustrating work in terms of problematic pacing, staggering length and immense intertextuality. But it’s worth reading for its sheer epic nature, amazing themes, memorable characters and a timeless quality to its adventurous and dramatic scope.

8. The Fountains of Paradise

While not among Clarke’s greatest works, The Fountains of Paradise is still a pretty remarkable achievement due to its impressive world building, an interesting exploration of the relationship between science and religion as well as the role of politics in both. It’s also expectedly prescient and containing numerous intriguing ideas about the future of humanity.

7. Great Expectations

Great Expectations is overwhelming in its crime elements and soapy twists and turns, but the themes are greatly explored, the characters are iconic to this day and the diversity of genres and tones employed made for a rich, timeless read. It’s a very memorable work that is particularly unforgettable in its iconic, very well developed characters.

6. The Colour of Magic

Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic began the Discworld series on a strong note. The episodic nature to the story and weak side characters aside, this novel benefits from two terrific main characters, a fun questlike narrative and an irreverent, humorous tone that brilliantly set it apart from countless other overly serious fantasy books.

5. Pinocchio

Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio is a timeless children’s novel that instills great values in its readers as it focuses on the importance of being responsible, hardworking, loyal and appreciating. Yes, it felt repetitive due to its episodic structure, but its fairy tale framing did lead to many colorful personalities that we meet along the way and memorable dialogue. It’s a classic.

4. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a stellar Hunger Games prequel that served great fan service, but also legitimately stood on its own as a terrific story. The games take up only a third of the book with the rest devoted to the exploration of its dystopian world, conflicts and ideas. It’s a solid character study and a thrilling narrative about power, human nature and authority. It also got adapted into such a strong, underrated movie.

3. The Royal Game

Tightly constructed, wonderfully written and psychologically complex, The Royal Game is a terrific novella by Stefan Zweig that is a great read not just for chess fans, but for all admirers of this storytelling format. The second half in particular is where the novella reached its true power with an emotionally powerful narrative and a terrific flashback structure. In a year when I read many huge novels, this very short book still stood out among the best of the bunch.

2. Endymion

Endymion is a very strong third entry in the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons. It has its pacing issues, but the characterization is quite good, the imagery is striking at times and the world building is truly outstanding. This is a different kind of sequel, one that is more adventurous and epic in scope, functioning as a terrific soap opera in its own right. It was so good that I had to put it this high on the list, though I had to exclude its predecessor from this ranking as it fared worse in retrospect.

1. Hyperion

And the number one novel that I read in 2023 has to be Hyperion, a towering achievement of science fiction literature. It has characterization, dialogue, writing style and tone that are all phenomenal and so was Dan Simmons’ willingness to explore so many different themes and subjects. It’s such a uniquely structured and emotionally engaging book that is almost consistently riveting in its imagination and scope. Hyperion’s undeniably a classic of the genre and one of the best books that I have ever read.