2025 Books

Here are my awards for the books that jumped out at me when scanning the list of all the books I read.

I read 54 books this year, 28 of which were written by authors who were new to me, which I think is a cool stat!

The Matt Prize for Best Mystery that was also About Architecture, Beauty and Intelligence

Rose/House - Arkady Martine

The Matt Prize for Best Picture into a Historical World, Full of Powerful Characters and a Thorough Evisceration of the Kind of People Who Would Be Kings

Hild (and Menewood) - Nicola Griffith

The Matt Prize For Woah, Literature and also The Meaning of Being a Human, also Five Stars

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

The Matt Prize for Now This is What SciFi is At It’s Best, Still Making Me think, and Remarkably Philosophically Appropriate to Our Current Moment, Despite Being Old

Blindsight - Peter Watts

The Matt Prize for WHEN IS THE SEQUEL I WANT MORE and Also Great Fantasy Book

The Raven Scholar - Antonia Hodgson

The Matt Prize For Overall Probably My Favorite and What I’d Recommend The Most with Empire, Cool Fantasy World, Characters with Values that Conflict, and Mystery

The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett