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Year in review

Most-mentioned Reddit books of 2020

Ranked by tracked monthly mention totals within the published source units for 2020. Some source units are bounded samples; for a community-specific ordering, use that subreddit's year page.

446
Books indexed
157,185
Tracked mentions in 2020
Cover of Mistborn: The Final Empire #1

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Brandon Sanderson

A street thief who can swallow metal and burn it for power gets recruited into a heist crew whose actual target is the immortal emperor who's ruled for a thousand years.

4,990 in 2020
Cover of The Way of Kings #2

The Way of Kings

Brandon Sanderson

A bridgeman slave carries spears through a warzone he's not allowed to fight in, until he decides to become the soldier no one will follow.

4,871 in 2020
Cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone #3

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

J. K. Rowling

An eleven-year-old orphan gets a letter, a train platform that shouldn't exist, and a scar that makes him famous for something he can't remember.

4,095 in 2020
Cover of The Eye of the World #4

The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan

Trollocs burn a village hunting for one of three farm boys, so an Aes Sedai spirits all three out before anyone learns which.

3,697 in 2020
Cover of Gardens of the Moon #5

Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson

A continent-spanning empire's mage-soldiers besiege a city that might already be doomed by gods playing a board game with human pieces.

3,672 in 2020
Cover of The Lord of the Rings #6

The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien

A gardener and three friends carry a cursed ring across a continent at war, because the only way to destroy it is to walk it into the volcano that forged it.

3,147 in 2020
Cover of The Name of the Wind #7

The Name of the Wind

Patrick Rothfuss

A legendary hero narrates his own rise from orphaned street kid to feared arcanist over three days, except Rothfuss never wrote day three.

2,947 in 2020
Cover of Dune #8

Dune

Frank Herbert

Paul Atreides survives his family's massacre on a desert planet and becomes the messiah the empire engineered him to be, then has to live with it.

2,805 in 2020
Cover of The Fifth Season #9

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

An orogene comes home to find her son beaten to death and her daughter gone, the same day a continent starts splitting apart.

2,570 in 2020
Cover of The Blade Itself #10

The Blade Itself

Joe Abercrombie

A crippled torturer, a vain swordsman, and a berserker haunted by his own alter ego get pulled into a war none of them understand yet.

2,539 in 2020
Cover of Circe #11

Circe

Madeline Miller

Exiled to an empty island for turning a rival into a monster, a minor goddess spends immortality perfecting the one power the gods never bothered to master.

2,510 in 2020
Cover of A Game of Thrones #12

A Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin

Ned Stark's family gets pulled into a succession war for the Iron Throne while an unkillable winter creeps south.

2,457 in 2020
Cover of The Song of Achilles #13

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

Patroclus, exiled and overlooked, grows up shadowing Achilles and follows him to Troy already knowing how the war ends for them.

2,258 in 2020
Cover of Six of Crows #14

Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo

Kaz Brekker recruits five other criminal teenagers for a heist inside a supposedly impenetrable ice fortress.

2,255 in 2020
Cover of A Court of Thorns and Roses #15

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas

Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, gets dragged into the faerie lands as payment, and spends five books choosing a court.

2,225 in 2020
Cover of Storm Front (The Dresden Files) #16

Storm Front (The Dresden Files)

Jim Butcher

Chicago's only professional wizard takes a case involving black magic and a mob boss, with a police captain who wants it solved fast or him gone.

2,107 in 2020
Cover of Assassin's Apprentice #17

Assassin's Apprentice

Robin Hobb

A royal bastard trains as the king's poisoner and assassin, and readers fifteen books later still call the ending emotionally devastating.

2,098 in 2020
Cover of The Lightning Thief #18

The Lightning Thief

Rick Riordan

A twelve-year-old with ADHD and dyslexia finds out both are demigod traits, then gets ten days to stop a war between Greek gods he didn't know were real.

2,025 in 2020
Cover of The Hunger Games #19

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

A teenage girl volunteers to fight to the death on live television in place of her younger sister, then spends three books resisting everyone who wants to make her a symbol.

1,969 in 2020
Cover of Red Rising #20

Red Rising

Pierce Brown

A low-caste miner surgically altered to pass as the ruling elite infiltrates the academy that killed his wife, planning to burn the system down from inside.

1,958 in 2020
Cover of A Wizard of Earthsea #21

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

A proud boy on a poor island learns real magic, casts one spell out of arrogance, and spends the rest of the book hunted by what it let loose.

1,865 in 2020
Cover of All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) #22

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries)

Martha Wells

A security android with no interest in gender, romance, or heroics just wants to watch its shows, and ends up saving its clients from a conspiracy anyway.

1,754 in 2020
Cover of Ender's Game #23

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

A child prodigy recruited into Battle School at six ends up commanding real war fleets, believing until the end that it's all just a simulation.

1,725 in 2020
Cover of The Hobbit #24

The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

A hobbit who has never left his own pantry gets recruited by thirteen dwarves and a wizard to steal treasure back from a dragon.

1,721 in 2020