Recommended Reading: Barnes and Noble's Best SFF of 2015

Barnes and Noble have come out with their list of the best SFF of 2015:

1. Radiance, by Catherynne M. Valente
2. The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson
3. Ancillary Mercy, by Ann Leckie
4. Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson
5. A Darker Shade of Magic, by V.E. Schwab
6. Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho
7. The Grace of Kings, by Ken Liu
8. Ink and Bone: The Great Library, by Rachel Caine
9. The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin
10. Flex/The Flux, by Ferrett Steinmetz
11. Uprooted, by Naomi Novik
12. The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins
13. Half-Resurrection Blues, by Daniel José Older
14. Planetfall, by Emma Newman
15. Signal to Noise, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
16. Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman
17. The Drafter, by Kim Harrison
18. Wake of Vultures, by Lila Bowen
19. Vision in Silver, by Anne Bishop
20. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
21. Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson
22. Revision, by Andrea Phillips
23. Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear
24. Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, by Bradley P. Beaulieu
25. The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, by Jim Butcher

I have read only three of these so far, although I have plans to read another four. Lots more recommendations to think about.

But overall, a pretty strange list. Neal Stephenson's Seveneves did not make the cut? Terry Pratchett's The Shephered's Crown? Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife? I thought Seveneves was one of the better novels I read this year, and so far (I am not finished yet) The Water Knife is excellent. Should I infer from this that the other books on the list are better than these? If so, I have some great reading ahead. Or should I infer that the list-maker's tastes are very different from mine?

The list also features a large selection of books by women writers, and by writers of color. Given that we continually hear about how the profession is dominated by white males, we might infer that this is a disproportionately large representation of women and people of color. That is a good thing; I think it is important to draw attention to new and different voices.