“What are the best Science Fiction & Fantasy books released in 2021?” We looked at 238 of the top Science Fiction & Fantasy books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 39 books, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Science Fiction & Fantasy” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 175+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Our other Best Of 2021 Articles:
Previous Years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Happy Scrolling!
Top 39 Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books From 2021
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- Waterstones
Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta. Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, …
Lists It Appears On:
- Barnes & Noble
- NPR
- Waterstones
An Indie Next Pick! A LibraryReads Pick! With Four Starred Reviews Red, White & Royal Blue meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya M…
Lists It Appears On:
- Barnes & Noble
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Waterstones
THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER From New York Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff comes Empire of the Vampire, the…
Lists It Appears On:
- Books, Bones & Buffy
- Polygon
- The Guardian
“Simultaneously brutally grounded and wildly imaginative.” –Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner A tense and thrilling vision of humanit…
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads 2
- NPR
- P.S. Hoffman
One young woman faces down an all-powerful corporation in this all-too-near future science fiction debut that reads like a refreshing take on Ready Pl…
Lists It Appears On:
From the author of Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things. Security…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
! Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers. The boys of Huaxia dream of pairin…
Lists It Appears On:
“Lee’s series will stand as a pillar of epic fantasy and family drama.” –Library Journal (starred review) The Kaul siblings battle rival clans for ho…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Waterstones
The biggest science fiction series of the decade comes to an incredible conclusion in the ninth and final novel in James S.A. Corey’s Hugo-award winni…
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
The haunting story of a family of dreamers and tale-tellers looking for home in an unwelcoming world. This exquisite and unusual magic realist debut, …
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Waterstones
A princess in exile, a shapeshifting dragon, six enchanted cranes, and an unspeakable curse… Drawing from fairy tales and East Asian folklore, this …
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- The Wall Street Journal
Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief begi…
Lists It Appears On:
- Books, Bones & Buffy
- NY Times
- Tor
“Timeless and original…illuminating vast tracts of story with casual wrist-flicks of worldbuilding. The Body Scout is a wild ride, sad and funny, su…
Lists It Appears On:
- Books, Bones & Buffy
- Goodreads 2
- Tor
Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife is “a trippy domestic thriller which takes the extramarital affair trope in some intriguingly weird new directions.”–Ent…
Lists It Appears On:
- Lit Hub
- Powell’s
- Waterstones
THE A Good Morning America Buzz Pick “The horror master…puts his unique spin on slasher movie tropes.”-USA Today A can’t-miss summer read, selected…
Lists It Appears On:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Isabel Allende, and Sarah Addison Allen, a family searches for the truth hidden in their past i…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- NY Public Library
On the far outreaches of a crumbling desert empire, two women–a princess and a soldier–will haggle over the price of a nation in this richly imagine…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads 2
- Lit Hub
- NPR
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * USA TODAY * ESQUIRE * PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER * LITERARY HUB * GOODREADS * BUSTLE * BOOK RIOT *Woven…
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Portalist
- Tor
- Waterstones
“Ghosts. Gods. Gangsters. Black Water Sister has it all…a wildly entertaining coming-of-age story for the twentysomething set, with a protagonist wh…
Lists It Appears On:
- NPR
- Polygon
- Powell’s
- Publishers Weekly
From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and hu…
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- NY Public Library
- Polygon
- Tor
An National Bestseller! An Indie Next Pick! A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for Oprah Magazine USA Today Buzzfeed Greatist BookPage PopSugar Bustle Th…
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Polygon
- Powell’s
…
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Goodreads
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Polygon
When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive national bestselling…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads 2
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
- Powell’s
The New York Times bestselling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn’t admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry! Having captured the hearts of…
Lists It Appears On:
- Bookpage
- Goodreads 2
- NY Public Library
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death’s adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from…
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads 2
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
- The Guardian
- Tor
The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and ho…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Books, Bones & Buffy
- Goodreads 2
- NY Public Library
- P.S. Hoffman
The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’s fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, the first book in the Divide series, where a handful o…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Waterstones
A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND INDIE BESTSELLER An Indie Next Pick! A Man Called Ove meets The Good Place in Under the Whispering Door, a delightful…
Lists It Appears On:
- Kirkus
- NPR
- NY Public Library
- NY Times
- Polygon
- Tor
The captivating first novel in The Convergence Saga by Cadwell Turnbull, the award-winning author of The LessonAn Indie Next PickA LibraryReads PickNa…
Lists It Appears On:
- Booklist
- Goodreads
- NPR
- NY Times
- Polygon
- Publishers Weekly
A triumphant, genre-bending breakout novel from one of the boldest new voices in contemporary fiction Vern–seven months pregnant and desperate to esc…
Lists It Appears On:
- Booklist
- Goodreads
- NY Public Library
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Polygon
- Publishers Weekly
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2021 “RAISES THE BAR FOR WHAT EPIC FANTASY SHOULD BE.” –Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights A ruthless prin…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Goodreads
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Polygon
- Waterstones
The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Bookpage
- Goodreads 2
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
- Powell’s
- Publishers Weekly
Now a USA Today bestseller! One of Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2021! [An] all around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it.–Ann Leckie, on …
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Book Riot
- Booklist
- Goodreads
- NY Public Library
- Polygon
- Powell’s
A 2021 NEIBA Book Award Finalist! Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark goes full-length for the first time in his dazzling debut novel …
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Bookpage
- Goodreads 2
- NPR
- P.S. Hoffman
- Powell’s
- Tor
In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers’s delightful new Monk and Robot series gives us hope for the future. It’s been centuri…
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Goodreads 2
- Kirkus
- Lit Hub
- NPR
- Polygon
- Tor
Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let M…
Lists It Appears On:
- Barnes & Noble
- Bookpage
- Goodreads 2
- Kirkus
- NY Public Library
- Polygon
- Portalist
- Tor
- Tor
Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California’s San …
Lists It Appears On:
- Amazon
- Booklist
- Books, Bones & Buffy
- Goodreads 2
- Kirkus
- NY Public Library
- P.S. Hoffman
- Polygon
- Waterstones
From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller ful…
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- Bookpage
- Goodreads
- NY Public Library
- P.S. Hoffman 2
- Polygon
- Portalist
- Tor
- Waterstones
“Magnificent in every way.–Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree A dazzling new world of fate, war, love and betrayal.–Zen Cho, …
The 175+ Additional Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Released In 2021
40)
A Spindle Splintered – Alix E. Harrow List: Goodreads
NPR
41)
Ariadne – Jennifer Saint List: Goodreads
Polygon
42)
Burntcoat – Sarah Hall List: Lit Hub
Tor
43)
Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr List: NPR
Tor
44)
Constance (Constance #1) – List: Amazon
Goodreads 2
45)
Destroyer of Light – Jennifer Marie Brissett List: Kirkus
Tor
46)
Elder Race – Adrian Tchaikovsky List: Books, Bones & Buffy
NY Times
47)
Five Minds – Guy Morpuss List: Financial Times
Waterstones
48)
For the Wolf (Wilderwood #1) – Hannah Whitten List: Goodreads
Powell’s
49)
Lore Olympus: Volume 1 – Rachel Smythe List: Barnes & Noble
NPR
50)
Machinehood – S.B. Divya List: Goodreads 2
Kirkus
51)
Never Have I Ever – Isabel Yap List: Portalist
Tor
52)
One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston List: NY Times
Polygon
53)
Rabbits – Terry Miles List: Goodreads 2
The Wall Street Journal
54)
Redemptor – Jordan Ifueko List: NPR
Portalist
55)
Summer Sons – Lee Mandelo List: NPR
Tor
56)
Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices – Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington List: NPR
Tor
57)
The Absolute Book – List: NY Times
Tor
58)
The Actual Star – List: The Guardian
Tor
59)
The Crown of Gilded Bones – Jennifer L. Armentrout List: Amazon
Goodreads
60)
The End Of Men – Christina Sweeney-Baird List: Goodreads 2
The Wall Street Journal
61)
The Fall of Koli – M.R. Carey List: Books, Bones & Buffy
Polygon
62)
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within – Becky Chambers List: Polygon
Waterstones
63)
The Gilded Ones – Namina Forna List: NPR
Polygon
64)
The Hidden Palace (The Golem and the Jinni, #2) – Helene Wecker List: Goodreads
Polygon
65)
The Memory Theater – List: NY Times
Tor
66)
The Ones We’re Meant to Find – Joan He List: Portalist
Tor
67)
The Past is Red – Catherynne M. Valente List: Books, Bones & Buffy
P.S. Hoffman
68)
The Tangleroot Palace: Stories – Marjorie Liu List: Bookpage
NY Public Library
69)
The Wolf And The Woodsman – Ava Reid List: Goodreads
NPR
70)
You Sexy Thing – Cat Rambo List: Amazon
Books, Bones & Buffy
71)
100 Boyfriends – List: Tor
72)
A Memory Called Empire – List: Tor
73)
A RADICAL ACT OF FREE MAGIC – H.G. Parry List: Kirkus
74)
A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger List: Tor
75)
Adrift – W. Michael Gear List: Books, Bones & Buffy
76) AI 2041 – Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan List: The Wall Street Journal
77) All the Light We Cannot See – List: Lit Hub
78)
Alone in Space: A Collection – Tillie Walden List: NPR
79)
Amari and the Night Brothers – B. B. Alston List: NPR
80)
Analog / Virtual – List: Tor
81)
Antisocieties – List: Tor
82)
Artemisia – Nathalie Ferlut and Tamia Baudouin (Trans. Maelle Doliveux) List: Powell’s
83)
Beer! Beer! Beer! – List: Tor
84)
Bewilderment – Richard Powers List: NPR
85)
Boneland – List: Tor
86) Breeder – Honni van Rijswijk List: Polygon
87)
Build Your House Around My Body – Violet Kupersmith List: NPR
88)
Celestia – Manuele Fior, translated by Jamie Richards List: NPR
89)
Certain Dark Things – Silvia Moreno-Garcia List: Waterstones
90)
Chaos on CatNet – Naomi Kritzer List: NPR
91)
Child of Light – Terry Brooks List: Barnes & Noble
92)
Children of the Fox: A Thieves of Shadow Novel – Kevin Sands List: NPR
93)
Children of Time – List: Tor
94)
Chilling Effect – Valerie Valdes List: Five Books
95) Chinatown – List: Lit Hub
96)
City of the Uncommon Thief – List: Tor
97)
Composite Creatures – Caroline Hardaker List: Books, Bones & Buffy
98)
Creatures of Passage – Morowa Yejidé List: NPR
99)
Cwen – List: The Guardian
100)
Cyclopedia Exotica – Aminder Dhaliwal List: NPR
101)
Cytonic – Brandon Sanderson List: Waterstones
102)
Damnable Tales – Richard Wells List: Waterstones
103) Dark Rise – C.S. Pacat List: Polygon
104)
Day Zero – C. Robert Cargill List: Books, Bones & Buffy
105)
Dead Space – Kali Wallace List: Books, Bones & Buffy
106)
Doors of Sleep – Tim Pratt List: Books, Bones & Buffy
107) Dowry of Blood – S. T. Gibson List: P.S. Hoffman 2
108)
Dune: the Graphic Novel, Book 1 – Frank Herbert List: Waterstones
109)
E.X.O.: The Legend of Wale Williams, Volume One – Roye Okupe, illustrated by Sunkanmi Akinboye List: NPR
110)
Edge of Heaven – R B Kelly List: Five Books
111)
Elysium – List: Tor
112)
ExtraOrdinary (Villains #1.5) – V. E. Schwab List: Barnes & Noble
113)
Eye of the Sh*t Storm – Jackson Ford List: Books, Bones & Buffy
114)
Femlandia – Christina Dalcher List: Waterstones
115)
Fireheart Tiger – List: Tor
116)
Fireside – List: Tor
117)
Flowers for the Sea – Zin E. Rocklyn List: Tor
118)
Folklorn – Angela Mi Young Hur List: NY Times
119) Future Feeling – Joss Lake List: Polygon
120)
Garlic and the Vampire – Bree Paulsen List: NPR
121)
Girl One – List: Goodreads 2
122) Goblin – Josh Malerman List: The Wall Street Journal
123) Hard Reboot – Django Wexler List: Polygon
124) Harrow – List: Lit Hub
125) Healer of the Water Monster – Brian Young List: Portalist
126)
His Name Was Death – Rafael Bernal List: Powell’s
127)
Honeycomb – Joanne M. Harris, illus. by Charles Vess List: Publishers Weekly
128)
How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters – List: Tor
129) How to Talk to a Goddess – Emily Croy Barker List: Polygon
130)
Hunting by Stars – Cherie Dimaline List: NPR
131)
I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories – Kim Bo-young, translated by Sophie Bowman and Sung Ryu List: NPR
132)
In the Watchful City – S. Qiouyi Lu List: Publishers Weekly
133)
Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale – Tim Fielder List: NPR
134)
Kingdom of the Cursed – Kerri Maniscalco List: Waterstones
135)
Kink: Stories – R.O. Kwon, Garth Greenwell List: Tor
136)
Land of Big Numbers – Te-Ping Chen List: NPR
137) Last Gamer Standing – Katie Zhao List: Portalist
138)
Last One at the Party – Bethany Clift List: Waterstones
139)
Lesser Evil (B&N Exclusive… – Timothy Zahn List: Barnes & Noble
140)
Light Chaser – Peter F. Hamilton & Gareth L. Powell List: Books, Bones & Buffy
141)
Light of the Jedi – List: Goodreads 2
142)
Lore – Alexandra Bracken List: Amazon
143)
Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction – List: Booklist
144)
Malice (Malice Duology #1) – List: Goodreads
145)
Meet Me in Another Life – Catriona Silvey List: Waterstones
146)
Memory – List: Tor
147)
Midnight in Everwood – M.A. Kuzniar List: Waterstones
148)
Monsters – Barry Windsor-Smith List: NPR
149)
My Heart Is a Chainsaw – Stephen Graham Jones List: Booklist
150)
Near the Bone – Christina Henry List: Waterstones
151)
Night Bus – Zuo Ma, translated by Orion Martin List: NPR
152)
Nightwatch on the Hinterlands – K. Eason List: Books, Bones & Buffy
153)
Notes From the Burning Age – Claire North List: NPR
154)
Once Upon a Broken Heart – Stephanie Garber List: Waterstones
155) Our Violent Ends – Chloe Gong List: Portalist
156) Paladin’s Strength – T. Kingfisher List: Polygon
157)
Palmares – Gayl Jones List: NPR
158)
Peaces – Helen Oyeyemi List: Tor
159) Pearl – Josh Malerman List: The Wall Street Journal
160)
People From My Neighborhood – Hiromi Kawakami translated by Ted Goossen List: NPR
161)
Perhaps the Stars – List: Tor
162)
Red Cliff – List: Tor
163)
Reprieve – James Han Mattson List: Waterstones
164)
Reset – List: Tor
165) Rule of Wolves – Leigh Bardugo List: P.S. Hoffman 2
166)
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness – Kristen Radtke List: Powell’s
167)
Seven Days in June – Tia Williams List: Powell’s
168)
Several People Are Typing – Calvin Kasulke List: Financial Times
169)
Sistersong – Lucy Holland List: Waterstones
170)
Skin of the Sea – Natasha Bowen List: NPR
171)
Skyward Inn – List: Financial Times
172)
Some Faraway Place – Lauren Shippen List: Book Riot
173)
Summer in the City of Roses – List: Tor
174)
Ten Low – Stark Holborn List: Books, Bones & Buffy
175)
Termination Shock – List: Goodreads 2
176)
The Album of Dr. Moreau – Daryl Gregory List: Books, Bones & Buffy
177)
The Animals in That Country – Laura Jean McKay List: Five Books
178)
The Best of World SF, v.1 – List: Booklist
179)
The Bone Shard Emperor – Andrea Stewart List: Waterstones
180)
The Book of Accidents – Chuck Wendig List: Tor
181)
The Book of Magic (Practical Magic, #2) – List: Goodreads
182)
The Burning God – List: Booklist
183)
The City of Dr Moreau – List: Financial Times
184) The Dangers of Smoking in Bed – List: Lit Hub
185)
The Death of Jane Lawrence: A Novel – Caitlin Starling List: NPR
186)
The Desert Prince – Peter V. Brett List: Waterstones
187) The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng – K.S. Villoso List: Portalist
188)
The Employees – List: The Guardian
189)
The Every – Dave Eggers List: Waterstones
190)
The Exiled Fleet – J.S. Dewes List: Books, Bones & Buffy
191)
The Extinction Trials – List: Amazon
192)
THE FREE BASTARDS – Jonathan French List: Kirkus
193)
The Giant Dark – List: Tor
194) The God is Not Willing – Steven Erikson List: P.S. Hoffman 2
195)
The Haunting Season – Bridget Collins List: Waterstones
196)
The Heart Principle – Helen Hoang List: Powell’s
197)
The Heartbreak Bakery – List: Tor
198)
The Helm of Midnight – List: Bookpage
199)
The Infinite – Patience Agbabi List: Five Books
200) The Infinity Courts – Akemi Dawn Bowman List: Portalist
201)
The Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski, Danusia Stok List: Waterstones
202)
The Letters of Shirley Jackson – Laurence Jackson Hyman List: Powell’s
203) The Library of the Dead – T.L. Huchu List: The Wall Street Journal
204)
The Lord of the Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien List: Waterstones
205)
The Mask Falling – Samantha Shannon List: Waterstones
206)
The Membranes – List: Tor
207) The Minders – John Marrs List: The Wall Street Journal
208)
The Morning Star – Karl Ove Knausgaard List: NPR
209)
The Offset – List: Financial Times
210)
The Queen of the Cicadas – List: Booklist
211)
The Rock Eaters: Stories – Brenda Peynado List: NPR
212)
The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry – List: Tor
213)
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich List: NPR
214)
The Stranding – Kate Sawyer List: Waterstones
215) The Trees – List: Lit Hub
216)
The Turnout – Megan Abbott List: Tor
217)
The Ultimate Discworld Companion – Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs List: Waterstones
218)
The Vanished Birds – Simon Jimenez List: Five Books
219) The Veiled Throne – Ken Liu List: Polygon
220) The Wandering Earth – Cixin Liu List: Polygon
221)
The Water Margin – List: Tor
222)
The Winter Garden – Alexandra Bell List: Waterstones
223)
The Wisdom of Crowds – Joe Abercrombie List: Waterstones
224)
The World Gives Way – List: NY Times
225)
This Thing Between Us: A Novel – Gus Moreno List: NPR
226)
Threadneedle – Cari Thomas List: Waterstones
227)
Too Bright to See – Kyle Lukoff List: NPR
228)
Trans Care – List: Tor
229)
Treacle Walker – List: Tor
230)
Truth of the Divine – Lindsay Ellis List: Waterstones
231)
Twenty-Five to Life – R.W.W. Greene List: Books, Bones & Buffy
232)
Vagabonds – Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu List: Five Books
233) Vespertine – Margaret Rogerson List: Polygon
234)
Victories Greater Than Death – Charlie Jane Anders List: NPR
235)
We Are Satellites – List: Booklist
236)
Winter’s Orbit – Everina Maxwell List: Goodreads 2
237) Winterkeep – Kristin Cashore List: Polygon
238) Witness for the Dead – Katherine Addison List: P.S. Hoffman 2
25 Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Amazon | Best science fiction and fantasy of 2021 |
| Barnes & Noble | Barnes & Noble’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021 |
| Book Riot | Best Books of 2021 |
| Booklist | Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror: 2021 |
| Bookpage | Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021 |
| Books, Bones & Buffy | 21 Best Science Fiction Books Of 2021 |
| Financial Times | Best books of 2021: Science fiction |
| Five Books | The Best Science Fiction of 2021: The Arthur C Clarke Award Shortlist |
| Goodreads | Best Fantasy |
| Goodreads 2 | Best Science Fiction |
| Kirkus | Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2021 |
| Lit Hub | The Best Reviewed Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books of 2021 |
| NPR | Books We Love |
| NY Public Library | Best Books for Adults 2021 |
| NY Times | The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021 |
| P.S. Hoffman | Best New Science Fiction Books | 2021 |
| P.S. Hoffman 2 | The 13 Best Fantasy Books of 2021 |
| Polygon | The best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021 |
| Portalist | The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2021 |
| Powell’s | Best Books of 2021: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Romance & Graphic Novels |
| Publishers Weekly | Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror |
| The Guardian | Five of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2021 |
| The Wall Street Journal | The Best Books of 2021: Science Fiction |
| Tor | Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2021 |
| Waterstones | The Best Books of 2021: Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror |