Five best Fiction reads in 2019

I'm putting this here, but I'm not ready to list mine yet. As always, five is just a number. Perhaps you had more or less, but we would love to hear about the ones that you loved.

Brief Cases by Jim Butcher
Angle of Repose by Wallace Earl Stegner
I am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
Sourdough: A Novel by Robin Sloan
News of the World by Paulette Giles

A Matter of Interpretation
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
Saint Peter's Fair (reread)
Master and Commander
The Priory of the Orange Tree
One Hundred Twenty-One Days
The Bell at Sealey Head
Way Station
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (reread)

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
The Calculating Stars by Mary robinette Kowal
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
The Traitor Son Cycle - by Miles Cameron

The House of Broken Angels
Cutting for Stone
News of the World
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Titus Groan/Gormenghast
Game of Kings/Queen's Play
The Nickel Boys
The Raven Tower

I guess I really did read a lot of great books this year!

>1 MrsLee: Thanks for doing this.

The Nickel Boys
The Likeness
Sula
La Belle Sauvage
The City of Brass
The Raven Tower
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

(Will have to come back and fix this when the touchstones are working again.)

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night by Christopher Brookmyre
Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas
Those Below by Daniel Polansky

Snowflake AZ by Marcus Sedgwick
Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly
Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Velocity weapon by Megan O'Keefe
A memory called Empire by Arkady Martine.

Honorable mentions:
Good evening Mrs Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes
La belle sauvage by Philip Pullman
There before the chaos by K. B. Wagers
Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams
The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard
Métamorphoses by Samantha Bailly
Les enchantements d'Ambremer by Pierre Pevel
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

Best five* fiction reads

The Fox by Frederick Forsyth
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry
The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
The Wych Elm Tana French
The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien
Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré

Re-reads

The Unfortunate Fursey by Melvyn Wall
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

* Five is approximate. Aproximately exactly half the number of best non-re-read fiction reads.

Again, rather more than five, but some pushed into the "honorable mention" class:

La Belle Sauvage
Anathem
The Accidental Sorcerer
Dunstan
Verdigris Deep and two others by Frances Hardinge
A Song for Arbonne, re-read.

Honorable mentions:
The Big Four, and some Poirots listened to in BBC dramatisations
Swallowdale and others in this series

Hmmm... Because they are part & parcel of a single story, I will list some trilogies/series in with the stand-alones...

A Town Like Alice
The Stars Are Legion
Planetfall, After Atlas, Before Mars, Atlas Alone (Planetfall Series)
City of Stairs, City of Blades, City of Miracles (The Divine Cities Trilogy)
Asimov's Mirage, Asimov's Chimera, Asimov's Aurora (Part of the Robot Universe)

Honorable mentions:
House of Leaves
Downbelow Station (Re-read)
Fevre Dream
The Price of Salt

I only have an embarrassingly-low 14 books tagged read 2019 (though I did read a ton of comics last year) so deciding on a fifth favorite was tough. (Top 4 were easy, though.)

5. Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng (2017)
4. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019)
3. Touch by Claire North (2015)
2. Silk by Caitlín R. Kiernan (1998)
1. Murder of Angels (Silk sequel) (2004) by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Hmmm... which to mention:

A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The Final Empire: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
Torchwood One: Latter Days
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
All the Light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

Let's see...

The Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan - It has made me a convert of flintlock fantasy.
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie - Such unique storytelling.
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle - I just love his writing.
Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb - I can't believe the Realm of the Elderlings is finished. And I had a highly enjoyable buddy read/discussion with Youkneek for the final journey.
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson - This series is pure fun.

Endless Night - one of her better stories even if it doesn't feature the famous detectives
Record of a Spaceborn few - just great SF as it should be
Ships of Merior - epic fantasy on a grand scale
Redemption Ark - epeic space opera on a grand scale
Fighting back and all of my friend's YA dystopia which has been an amazing journey I've really enjoyed beta reading for. I hope she carries on writing new tales of the new decade.

Were the ones I picked from my 5* list - but honourable mentions to many titles above that I've also read this year.

Borges and the Eternal Orang-Utans by Luis Fernando Verissimo
Imprimatur by Monaldi & Sorti
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Sourdough by Robin Sloan
... and a joint entry for 7 Flavia de Luce novels: The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, Speaking from Among the Bones, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

And I forgot to mention The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and about 20 others.

I feel that I didn't have many 5 * fiction reads this year.

Those that did get 5 stars were:
Harp of Kings
Sword and Pen the conclusion to The Great Library series which I thoroughly enjoyed.
This poison will remain
Beautiful

But honourable mentions to the following which I would not give 5 stars to but were still much enjoyed:
Circe
A boy and his dog at the end of the world
A Brightness Long Ago
Priory of the orange tree
Tethered Mage and its 2 sequels - nearly got 5 stars.
Flowers for Algernon
Gentleman's Guide to vice and virtue
Sherwood

I am also doing a lot of rereading of favourites via audiobook - these were mostly by Juliet Marillier or Guy Gavriel Kay

I would also mention something which is not a book and not really fiction either and that is the Chernobyl series that was on UK Sky and USA HBO. It was absolutely astonishing - amazing and terrifying at the same time. I'd never want to watch it again but I am glad I did.

The Doomed City by the Strugatsky brothers
The Experiment is the Experiment - всё!
The Impossible Times trilogy by Mark Lawrence
Progidy faces cancer, love and time-travel.
The Armageddon Rag by G. R. R. Martin
Rock music to end the world.
9 by Andrzej Stasiuk
In post-Communist Poland, the heartless survive.
The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
Adventure in marvellous Islamic mythological setting.
Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers
Aliens visit, humans seek their rubbish.
The Crow Garden by Allison Littlewood
Love and madness in Victorian asylum.
The Mask Collectors by Ruvanee Pietersz Vilhauer
Mysteries, murder and secrets among friends.
Marie; a story of Russian love by Alexander Pushkin (aka The Captain's Daughter)
Duelling officers fight Cossacks, tragedy ensues.

• Skulls of Istria, by Rick Harsch (2011).
• The Godfather, by Mario Puzo (1969).
• The Chequer Board, by Nevil Shute (1947).
• Th1rt3en, by Steve Cavanaugh (2019).
• Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlies (1926).

Special mention for worst dud in recent memory:

• NOS4A2, by Joe Hill (2011), abandoned unfinished at page 208 (27.5%); and I'll never give him another chance.

And--special mention for magnificence:

• Poems of the Late T'ang, by A. C. Graham (trans.) (1965/1977).

>18 infjsarah: I'm currently watching the Chernobyl series on DVD. I agree with you - it's powerful and gripping. I'm also reading Sergei Plokhy's account of the disaster, and the context in which it took place - Chernobyl: the history of a nuclear catastrophe which is very good.

>22 Sakerfalcon: It really is an incredible series. I'm just glad I knew so little of the reality of what was happening at the time - for my own peace of mind and ability to sleep.

>22 Sakerfalcon: That was one of the books I received for Christmas - so I'll be interested to see what you think when you've finished it (I'm hoping not to leave it too long before I get to it).