Our 10 best fantasy and science fiction books of 2023

The Sapphire Altar by David Dalglish

Book 2 in David Dalglish's Vagrant Gods trilogy, The Sapphire Altar, is all about a conflict for the soul of the isle of Thanet, which was occupied and had its living gods slain by the forces of the Everlorn Empire during the opening pages of the first book, The Bladed Faith. In that book, deposed prince Cyrus fought a long and bloody guerilla war to keep hope alive for his people; in The Sapphire Altar, we start to find out more about what that decision has him. Will he ever be able to free his people? And what will his life even look life he does?

There are no simple answers. The Sapphire Altar is reminiscent of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in that it's a middle volume of a trilogy which vastly expands the story while ending on an ambiguously challenging note. Yes, the good guys may have won some victories, but their conviction in what's good and bad, historically right and wrong, has been shaken to the core. Add in a crazy, multilayered twist that totally reframes the entire story so far, and The Sapphire Altar became a read that has stood out in my memory more than a year later. It was the first book I read in 2023, and now that the year is over, it's still one of my favorites.

And thankfully, since Dalglish writes with clockwork reliability, the third and final book in the trilogy, The Slain Divine, will be one of the first books I read in 2024.

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

Last but not least, 2023 marked a return to Temerant, the setting of Patrick Rothfuss' beloved series The Kingkiller Chronicle. It's been around 10 years since Rothfuss last published a story in his Kingkiller world. Was this a welcome return?

Kind of! The Narrow Road Between Desires is a reimaging of Rothfuss' 2011 novella The Lightning Tree, so it's not entirely new. Since I read the original story back when it first came out, I was mildly skeptical about whether The Narrow Road Between Desires was going to move me much...but to my surprise, it was immediately obvious that this is a completely reworked story with far more emotion behind it. Yes, it still has the same general arc and beats as The Lightning Tree, but it also contains a much deeper examination of Bast's character, as well as a few new tidbits about the world of Temerant itself. This is the definitive version of The Lightning Tree story now, full stop.

But at the end of the day, it was just freakin' great to be back reading a Patrick Rothfuss story again. The beautiful writing and sly turns of phrase reminded me why I loved his work so much in the first place. And to top it off, The Narrow Road Between Desires also featured a few new scenes which add a lot more depth to the story. No longer is it just a one-off story about Bast doing Fae stuff for a day; now it feels like a proper installment in The Kingkiller Chronicle. It was a great treat for fans who've been waiting on The Doors of Stone all these years. We may not have the end of the trilogy yet, but at least we have a great reason to revisit Temerant in the meantime.

And so ends this look back on the fantasy and science fiction books of 2023. As I said at the top, there were a lot of great books released last year, and even reading feverishly throughout it feels like we're just scratching the surface here. What were some of your favorite reads of 2023? Our comments are sadly broken, so hit us up @WiCnet on Twitter and let us know what books we should be reading next!

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