I love finding new favorite authors, and this year I was happy to discover eight new to me authors who really impressed me. I’m defining “new to me” as an author who has already published two or more books when I discovered them (none of these are debut authors, in other words). I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for future books, and I may even dip into their backlists if I have time. Here they are, listed in alphabetical order:
R.J. Barker
I was late to the party, but I finally made time for The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker earlier this year, paving the way for the sequel Call of the Bone Ships. I gave both books five stars, and now I’m ready for the final book in the series, The Bone Ship’s Wake! I’m also anxious to go back and read Barker’s The Wounded Kingdom series, which I hear is very good.
P. Djèlí Clark
I’ve been hearing great things about P. Djèlí Clark for several years, but it was just this year I was able to pick up Ring Shout, which blew me away. I’m excited to go back and pick up a couple of his backlist novellas, like The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Next year, A Master of Djinn will be released, which is a sequel to Tram Car. I can’t wait!
Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones has been writing and publishing for years, so it’s a mystery as to why I haven’t read him before now. Really, it’s unacceptable! This year, after reading and LOVING The Only Good Indians, I immediately requested a review copy of his other 2020 release, Night of the Mannequins. That wasn’t enough for me, apparently, so I dove into his backlist and picked up 2018’s Mongrels. I’m unbelievably excited about next year’s My Heart is a Chainsaw!
Tiffany McDaniel
I just finished Betty by Tiffany McDaniel a few days ago, and it’s still haunting me. Tiffany is a young powerhouse writer who is only going to get better, which is amazing because she’s already so good after only two novels. Look for my review of Betty later this week, and you can bet I’m going to read her debut, The Summer That Melted Everything, as soon as I can.
Tochi Onyebuchi
I started the year out reading Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, right before the pandemic hit, so I remember my reading experience very clearly. I’m looking forward to going back and reading a couple of his earlier books, like War Girls and Beasts Made of Night.
K.J. Parker
K.J. Parker is another writer who’s been racking up the backlist, and I’m glad I finally got to read one of his books this year, Prosper’s Demon. I heard lots of good things about Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, and there are so many other books to choose from.
Zoje Stage
I read Wonderland earlier in the year and was really impressed. I loved Zoje Stage‘s slow-burn, subtle horror, and I’m very interested in checking out Baby Teeth, which got a lot of buzz last year.
Django Wexler
I’ve been trying to read Django Wexler for years, but it wasn’t until a surprise ARC of Ashes of the Sun turned up that I knew it was time. I had a great time with this book, and now I’d love to read some of his other popular books, like The Thousand Names and The Forbidden Library.
I’ve read too many new to be to count, but Clark and Onyebuchi are among them, really looking forward to more of their stuff. And finally gonna give Wexler a try with Ashes of the Sun, soon
I hope to read even more next year:-)
I read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 this year too, and instantly fell in love w P. Djèlí Clark. All other authors on the list, I’ve been eagerly meaning to personally discover their work but haven’t managed to yet. They all sound pretty amazing, so looking forward to doing so!
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I haven’t read Tram Car yet but very soon!
As much as you read, I am shocked that I got to three of those authors before you (Barker, Parker, and Wexler).
H.P. recently posted…The Blade Itself is a Third of a Very Good Book
Ha ha well I don’t always read “big” “popular” authors. For some reason I gravitate toward lesser known authors. But I do need to catch up with some obvious ones.
The Summer That Melted Everything is one of my favorites. I hope you’ll enjoy it and I’ll have to try Betty.
Oh cool, I’m going to read it very soon. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on Betty!
Djèlí Clark was one of my most recent discoveries as well, and I need to backtrack to his other works, because I found Ring Shout quite an impressive read. And I still need to read Wexler… 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…AWAKENED (Awakened #1), by James Murray & Darren Wearmouth
I have such a long list of authors I need to read! I may make a better effort next year to read some obvious ones I’ve missed:-)
Have you read any Max Barry (Lexicon, Machine Man, Jennifer Government)? I just finished his newest, Providence, and loved it. Funny, insightful, thrilling, and so, so, so gross with the aliens.
I haven’t, but I have always wanted to! Providence sounds like my kind of book:-)
Eeek! I hadn’t seen My Heart is a Chainsaw yet. It’s this big rock I’m living under. *runs off to add to my wishlist*
Ha ha it’s going to be HUGE I think.
I feel like I haven’t read many new authors that I really loved but one of them was Annette Marie. She came recommended to me by a fellow blogger and this year I finally jumped in and started reading her.
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (re-post)
I find I like reading new authors that I’ve somehow missed over the years. It gives me a sense of accomplishment:-)
I just read my first Stephen Graham Jones, and definitely want to read more! I’m going to do a round-up of new to me authors sometime in the next week (I think), but one that comes to mind is Theodora Goss — so clever and entertaining.
I love Theodora Goss!
Great list of authors here, with many I’d like to discover as well. For myself, this was the year I first read M.R. Carey (The Book of Koli), Madeline Miller (Circe), Swati Teerdhala (The Tiger at Midnight & The Archer at Dawn), Adrian Tchaikovsky (Made Things), Brent Weeks (The Black Prism), and Diana Wynne Jones (Howl’s Moving Castle). Thankfully, it’s been a good reading year.
Great list of authors! I really want to read Circe:-)
This is awesome. It is just the kind of thing this week is to me – celebrating the great stuff from 2020. If you are willing, it would be great to have it linked up to the Friday Your Choice lists. I have several of these on my TBR and on hold at the library.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Top 10 Books I’ve Read in 2020
Thanks Anne, I may check out the link up:-)
This is a great list, I’ve not read any of these authors but I see loads on your list I fancy!
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Thanks Heather!
Great list! I’m intrigued to read something by Zoje Stage .. hadn’t heard of her before.
I really enjoyed her book! I hope she comes out with a new one soon.
P. Djèlí Clark is amazing! How do I call myself a fan and not even know that A Master of Djinn was a sequel to Tram Car?! Haha
Ha ha there are so many books coming out, it’s impossible to keep track of them!
I read P. Djèlí Clark for the first time this year, too! I really need to give The Bone Ships a try, I’ve heard so many good things about the series so far.
Jess @ Jessticulates recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Middle Grade on my TBR
I highly recommend it!
I’ve only read one of these authors, but I definitely plan on checking out a couple more of them. I really want to read The Bone Ships!
You should, it’s so good!
Lots of authors on this list who I’d like to get into, like P. Djeli Clark and RJ Barker.
Penny Reid is one of my top new-to-me authors I discovered this year. I’m quite hooked on her romance novels at the moment.
I saw your review! I have a huge list of new to me authors for next year:-)
I enjoy Barker’s new seafaring trilogy very much, but I wasn’t swept away by his assassins’ books which seemed to derivative for me. I really loved Sixteen Ways, though, and I’m going to read more by Parker next year!
Sixteen Ways is on my list for *someday* 🙂
Fantastic list! I particularly enjoy Wexler’s stuff since I discovered him a few years back. But I still need to get to The Thousand Names! Three of my own are Danny Tobey (The God Game), Yoon Ha Lee (Phoenix Extravagant), and April G. Tucholke (Seven Endless Forests).
Thanks Will! I really want to get a Yoon Ha Lee book under my belt:-)
So glad you discovered RJ Barker this year, and I really do recommend The Wounded Kingdoms trilogy. I think it’s better than Bone Ships and it’s become one of my favorite fantasy series ever 🙂
It’s definitely on my list!
R.J. Barker’s books have been on my list for a while, but I still have to try them and I gather I really should!
Thanks for this great list, Tammy, you gave me some new to me authors I wanna check now 😀
Thanks Silvia:-)
This was my first year reading Barker as well, while Parker & Wexler are still lingering on the TBR.
I read quite a few new-to-me authors this year, including Brian Naslund, Stina Leicht, Wen Spencer, Laura Lam, Elizabeth May, K.M. Szpara, and Alina Boyden.
I still have so many authors I want to try, hopefully I can make a bigger list like this for 2021:-)
A lot of these are on my TBR. I am especially interested in The Only Good Indians. It looks amazing and I’ve heard nothing but great things about it. I also read Prosper’s Demon and loved it. Will have to look at the author’s catalog
The Only Good Indians is in my top five books of 2020, it was brilliant, in my opinion:-)
Good to know. I’m excited to start it
I have Parker and Wexler on my TBR (and I was really hoping to read something by them this year, but I haven’t managed it… Sob!). I hope to finally read them both in 2021!
There are so many authors, Susy, we just can’t read them all…
Beasts of Night is on my TBR! You’ve got a few I haven’t heard of on this list as well. I actually did a post like this for my end of the year Top 10, and it posted today. I linked to it below. :-). Great list, some new titles to add for me I think!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…Top 10 of 2020: New or New-to-Me Authors (and a bonus #11)
Thanks Lisa, I will check out your post!
Django Wexler was new to me this year, despite me owning book one of both The Shadow Campaigns and his YA series. But Ashes of the Sun is definitely motivating me to read more! I haven’t read RJ Barker yet, simply because I have all three of his Wounded Kingdom books on my Kindle and I’m making myself read those first before I get to the Bone Ships!
Caitlin G. recently posted…Top Five Backlist Reads of 2020
Ha ha not a bad idea! I would love to find time for The Wounded Kingdom:-)
Several of these are ones I want to try next year. I think my favorite new-to-me author this year was Alix E. Harrow. Loved both of her books I read.
I added some of these authors to my TBR in 2020 but haven’t got their books yet.(RJ Parker, P. Djèlí Clark, and KJ Barker – couldn’t get into Prosper’s Demon but still interested in one of his other titles). I read Beasts of Made of Night a few years ago but wasn’t really impressed. Zoje Stages sounds like an author I’ll have to take a closer look at! (finally a sentence without ‘but’, lol.)
Jenna @ Falling Letters recently posted…My Favourite Middle Grade Read of 2020: The Girl and the Ghost [MG Review]
2020 was the year I discovered the magic of P. Djeli Clark too. He’s now one of my favourite writers, I can’t believe how phenonemal EVERYTHING he writes is and I’m so excited for A Master of Djinn now that I’ve read everything he’s currently got out.
K. J. Parker and Django Wexler are writers I’ve been meaning to check out too. I actually read Wexler’s short story The Penitent Damned, which serves as a kind of appetiser for his Shadow Campaigns series. I felt a bit cheated by it actually haha cos it didn’t feel like a fully thought out short story; more like it had the feel of a sample chapter you sometimes get at the end of some books. Still, despite being aggrieved by that, it did still pique my interest so will still be picking those books up 🙂
I’m so a 100% ready to read more by P. Djèlí Clark. I have been reading Wexler’s YA series, have the final of that ready for review. But I’d love to read his adult stuff as well.
Annemieke recently posted…Let Us Read Middle Grade 2021 Reading Challenge
I’ve added Bettyto my ever growing list already based on your excellent review.
And I’m sure I had a copy of Mongrels. Must go and check.
Lynn