Once again, just as last year, there seemed to be a surreal note running through the very idea of science fiction or fantasy in 2021. How can new novels about parallel dimensions, steadily-complicating AI, hostile alien hellscapes, and most of all deadly society-altering pandemics feel anything but slightly anticlimactic in a year where anybody in the world can simply look outside to see such things? It means works of science fiction and fantasy had to work extra hard to earn their imaginative keep, and some of them rose to the challenge. These were the best:

10 The Forever Sea by Joshua Philip Johnson (Daw) - This captivating first book in Johnson’s “Tales of the Forever Sea” introduces readers to a world of endless prairie grass, over which ships of all kinds navigate with the aid of “heartfires” tended by keepers like our main character Kindred Greyreach.

9 The Effort by Claire Holroyde (Grand Central) - In these pages, Claire Holroyde takes a tried-and-true staple of science fiction - the impending world-killing asteroid - and imbues it with a good deal of heart as readers follow a well-drawn cast of character while they make “the Effort” to avert catastrophe.]

8 Leviathan Falls by James Corey (Orbit) - This hugely popular space opera comes to a fittingly grand conclusion here, and it’s a testament to the integrity of this dorkishly heartfelt series that the final volume refuses to skate along on mere fan service to all that’s gone before, opting instead to provide readers with a genuinely textured and involving novel.

7 Gutter Mage by JS Kelley (Gallery/Saga Press) - Rare for a debut to make one of these lists, but this fantasy novel by JS Kelley - about a formidable “gutter mage” enlisted to find a kidnapped child in a realm absolutely saturated with magic - was irresistible from the first chapter.

6 Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Orbit) - This first volume in Okungbowa’s “Nameless Republic” series is set against a West African backdrop and filled with magics and monsters unlike anything else on this list. The story’s protagonist is a scholar yearning for unconventional knowledge - and as is the way with epic fantasy, he gets more than he expected.

5 Beyond by Mercedes Lackey (DAW) - The great Mercedes Lackey returns to her most-beloved fictional creation, the fantasy land of Valdemar, for this first book in the “Founding of Valdemar” series taking readers back to the beginnings of the world she first wrote about back in the 1980s, and it’s endlessly enjoyable as always.

4 A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Tor) - The Teixcalaan series continues with this sharply-written sequel to A Memory Called Empire is every bit as panoramic and absorbing as its predecessor, filled with the tension of a far-flung space community facing an odd, ominous alien presence. 

3 A Heart Divided by Jin Yong (translated by Gigi Chang & Shelly Bryant) (St. Martin’s Press) - The Legends of the Condor Heroes has been unexpected and amazingly enjoyable for years now, and this latest volume, with the Mongols converging on China in AD 1200, although probably borderline incomprehensible to new readers, gives fans of the series excellent work.

2 Jack Four by Neal Asher (Tor) - This novel is set in the same universe as the author’s Polity fiction but stands alone as a very effective combination of classic space opera and innovative take on the ethics of cloning and sheer weirdness of mutated aliens. Asher’s talent for hurtling pacing and great action scenes is on full display here.

1 The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (Orbit) - The first book in “The Burning Kingdoms” series is the story of an exiled princess and a powerful priestess, and its sharply-drawn characters, vivid magic systems, and fierce feminism combine to make this unforgettable book the best SFF offering of the year.