Last month the shortlist of the 2020 Booktube SFF Awards was revealed! I love following the Booktube SFF Awards every year and trying to read along as much as I can, which I had a lot of fun with last year.

For the full shortlist, check out the awards’ Goodreads page here!

Having seen the shortlist, there are three categories I’ll be reading along with this year: Fantasy, Science Fiction and Debut.

I’m so thrilled to see Silvia Moreno-Garcia on the Fantasy shortlist with Gods of Jade and Shadow, which I loved – it’s so exciting to see more people reading and enjoying Moreno-Garcia’s work, especially when she’s been one of my favourite authors for the past five years. I’m really pleased to see Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree on the shortlist, too, because it’s giving me that final push to finally cross this beast off my TBR!

I shouldn’t be surprised that The Starless Sea is on the shortlist – Erin Morgenstern is beloved by many and her sophomore novel has been highly anticipated for years – but I can’t say it’s one I’m in a huge rush to get to because I didn’t love The Night Circus. I’ve reserved this one from the library, though, and I’m interested in giving it a try to see what I think of it.

If nothing else, I think it’s really cool that all three of the books on the Fantasy shortlist this year are standalones!

I had no idea what to expect from the Science Fiction shortlist simply because I’m not as well versed in sci-fi as I am in fantasy, but I’m very pleased to see Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire on there because I’ve heard so many good things about it from fellow bloggers whose opinions I trust and I’m so excited to give it a try.

I haven’t read any Blake Crouch, but I remember seeing a lot of praise for Dark Matter so I’m not too surprised to see Recursion on this year’s shortlist. It’s not the kind of story I’d usually gravitate towards, so I’m interested in giving it a try and, like The Starless Sea, it’s another one I can get from the library. Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth is one I want to get to – lesbian necromancer nuns in space? Yes please! – but it’s going to be a little more difficult to get hold of because my library doesn’t have it and it’s still quite expensive – even the kindle edition is almost £10. One of my friends recommended the audiobook to me, so perhaps I’ll sign up for a free trial of Audible and get the audiobook that way!

Unfortunately the Debut category isn’t all that exciting because both A Memory Called Empire and Gideon the Ninth have reappeared there. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but I love it when there are completely different books in all of the categories. That said I’m so pleased Alix E. Harrow’s The Ten Thousand Doors of January made the shortlist – I loved that book! – and as I’ve already read it and I’m planning to read the Science Fiction shortlist, I’m essentially reading the Debut shortlist by default.

There are four books each on the YA and Middle Grade shortlists this year, which I think is a great decision, and part of me is tempted to read along with the YA shortlist because I’ve already read The Gilded Wolves and The Wicked King and I’d like to cross Sorcery of Thorns off my TBR. To read Starsight, though, I’d have to read Skyward which I tried reading last year and didn’t get along with. I haven’t tried his adult fiction yet, but I found Brandon Sanderson’s writing quite juvenile.

I don’t really have any interest in reading the Middle Grade or Short Work shortlists either, but perhaps I’ll pick up Sorcery of Thorns at some point just so I can consider it for YA when it comes to voting!

Do you follow the Booktube SFF Awards? What do you think of this year’s shortlist?