Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2020

Each year, the reviewers at Tor.com publish a list of their favorite books for the year, and the list for 2020 is now up. 

It’s been a long and strange year, but one comforting thing that kept us going were the consistently amazing book releases in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and beyond. Our reviewers each picked their top contenders for the best books of the year—and they almost all chose different titles! This year’s highlights run the gamut from action-packed science fiction and genre-bending epic fantasy, to neo-gothic horror and powerful anthologies. We’ve got ghosts, we’ve got empresses, we’ve got revolutionaries and superheros and wormholes in retail stores!

From the list, these are the titles that I intend to read or that I think should be worth reading though they don't suit my tastes.

• Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
• Machine by Elizabeth Bear (this is one that I bought)
• The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
• Mexican Gothic by Noémi Taoboda
• Quotients by Tracy O'Neill
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot

And I will add to the list a book that the Tor.com reviewers didn't include but I enjoyed, Robert J. Sawyer's The Oppenheimer Alternative. I will also add Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future, which based on reviews and a podcast interview that I've heard, has jumped to the top of to-be-read queue after I finish Peter F. Hamlton's Salvation trilogy.