23 Backlist Books for 2023

Well, here I am jumping on a bandwagon that I have avoided for a long time. I never wanted to make a list of books I have to read. However, in a year that I’m struggling to finish out my number of books read goal, looking at next year, having an equally weighted goal of books I want to read that lean towards the heavy fantasy I’ve been craving sounds quite appealing.

There is a very strong possibility that I will not read all of these books but reading 1-2 backlist books that I really want to read each month sounds somewhat realistic. I think the most likely reason I’ll fail is if I decide to keep reading one of these series and end up reading a bunch of one series instead of all of these different ones. So I’ve decided that will count. I want to read these 23 books on this list and/or part of a series on this list.

On average, these books are 500 pages each and total 11,517 pages. So I better get reading. But honestly, I’m excited for each and every one of these so bring it on! Five, or maybe sort of 6, of these (those starred below) are continuations of series I’m already reading but all of the rest are either standalones or the start of a series.

1. Beartown by Frederick Backman
2. Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray (Constellation Series)
3. Engines of Empire by Richard S. Ford (The Age of Uprising Series)
4. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (The Daevabad Trilogy)
5. Fireborne by Rosaria Munda (The Aurelian Cycle)
6. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth Series)
7. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig
8. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Wayfarers Series)
9. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
10. The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Misborn Saga)* – kind of a series I already started since I’ll count anything from the Cosmere
11. Middlegame by Seanan McGuire (Alchemical Journeys Series)
12. The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (A Chorus of Dragons Series)
13. Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel Series)
14. Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (The Aurora Cycle)* – this is book 3
15. The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne (Bloodsworn Saga)
16. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (The Sandsea Trilogy)
17. Wolfsong by T.J. Klune (Green Creek Series)
18. The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu (The War Arts Saga)
19. Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik (Temeraire Series)* – this is book 4
20. Soulbinder by Sebastien de Castell (Spellslinger Series)* – this is book 4
21. Knight’s Shadow by Sebastien de Castell (Greatcoats Series)* – this is book 2
22. Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb (Farseer Trilogy)* – this is book 3 of trilogy, will count any book in the Realm of the Elderlings
23. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes Series)

That’s my list! I think I’ll make a graphic and include it in my monthly wrap-ups so I can keep track of my progress. I’m looking forward to prioritizing some of these books that I’ve been wanting to jump into but are quite intimidating so we’ll see how it goes.