Best books I read in 2023 (were mostly on the beach)

CD Projekt Red has a great podcast on creating video games; during an episode about quest design, one of the designers talked about the switch from writing fantasy stories (as he had done for a decade) to sci-fi. He talked about the obscene amount of reading and movie watching required to make the "gulash", the intellectual pool of tropes and references required to write in a genre.

This was the year of the gulash for me. Writing on three different projects, I ended up reading over 50 books to get the gulash cooking in the technothriller, historical fantasy and far future sci-fi pots. Out of everything I read, these were my favorites (and it just so happens most of them I read during on week at the beach last February):

The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells): a series of 6+ novellas that follow a combat robot who attains sentience and just wants to be left alone to watch soap operas. These were a really wonderful education on how to create a compelling character that everyone wants to root for. Someone who 1) is good at what they do, 2) wants very simple, introverted things, and 3) embraces a "found family" when it is forced on them. Basically the plot of LEON THE PROFESSIONAL or GRAN TURINO or any number of stories but it's so well done here.

The Kaiju Preservation Society (John Scalzi): I love books that I can breeze through in a day. No heavy themes, just fast paced fun. I aspire to that type of writing, and Scalzi is awesome at it. This was also a fun mashup of the weird capitalist start up-ocracy that we're stuck in with enormous monsters. Also love stories about scrappy smart people using their wits to save the day.

The Scholomance Trilogy (Naomi Novik): I read this series twice this year. TWICE! The "secret school of magic" genre is packed with great entries but this one takes the cake. Novik is so good at interiority. It wasn't until the second time I read the series that i realized the majority of pages aren't physical actions: it was just El, the main character, reasoning out the action she would eventually take. El is such a good character because the audience intensely knows her, knows her every single thought, so that by the end of the series the reader can see a situation and know exactly how El will respond. Like Murderbot...this is another loner who is good at what they do and embraces her found family.

When the Sparrow Falls (Neal Sharpson): This is the only book in my top 5 that I did not read that fateful week on the beach. A human detective is investigating the death of a AI in a isolated, North Korea-esque country where AIs are outlawed. First, it's a great story with an awesomely drawn alternate future. But second...I'm pretty positive that Neal and I have read some of the same books about AI theory because in the many philosophical digressions about AI, I would happily shout, "I know this!" and then feel a little pain as I realize that I can't illustrate the same points in fiction as well as Neal did.

The Candy House (Jennifer Egan): I read A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD in college and was blown away. So when THE CANDY HOUSE came out, I took it to the beach and...was blown away. When I read John Scalzi, I get excited about writing and telling fun stories. When I read Jennifer Egan, I get a little depressed because I know I will never be as good as her. But despite that sinking feeling, the book is still 100% worth the read.