Most of my favourite fiction was published in the late 20th century, but here I round up the 21st century fiction that I've discovered and liked so far. Of course, my taste in fiction is personal, and this is a tiny subset of all fiction published so far this century.
The leading contenders
- Lois McMaster Bujold was first published in 1986, and became an award-winning American sf author in the 20th century, but branched out into fantasy mainly in the 21st century. I like some of her sf novels, but overall I prefer her (also award-winning) fantasy series set in the World of the Five Gods, starting with The Curse of Chalion (2001) and continuing in two more novels and nine novellas, with more to follow. These are all likeable and well written. The novellas start with Penric's Demon (2015); they're somewhat lighter and more cheerful than the novels, and entirely separate in plot and characters: set in the same world but in a different century.
- Arkady Martine is a 21st century American sf author, who won the Hugo award for her first novel, A Memory Called Empire (2019). She writes traditional sf in a modern style, and has published one sequel so far.
- Suzanne Palmer is a 21st century American sf author, who has won awards for short fiction, and published a series of three novels started with Finder (2019), which are fairly traditional fast-paced sf adventures, competently written and well plotted.
- S. M. Stirling was first published in 1985, and has written a lot, but his novel The Peshawar Lancers (2001) was the first I encountered from him, and it remains my favourite: a colourful alternative-history adventure set mainly in India and vaguely reminiscent of Kipling, with some spy/counterspy action. He specializes in alternative history, and puts a lot of research into it. Stirling is an Anglo-Canadian born in France, but lives in the USA and has US nationality.
- Ben Aaronovitch wrote for television in the late 20th century, but is now best known for the novels and novellas starting with Rivers of London (2011), in which the Metropolitan Police of London find themselves having to deal with crimes committed by magicians. I read this series for the writing style (amusing) and the characters (quite engaging); the stories are OK though not perfectly suited to my taste.
- Jasper Fforde is no youngster, but he's a 21st century English author, and his first novel The Eyre Affair (2001) possibly remains my favourite from him, although I also like the very different Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron (2009). He mainly writes bizarre fantasy, set in vaguely modern times without conventional magic, but with impossibilities. The Shades of Grey series may perhaps be sf: it's not clear yet. There's no connection at all with Fifty Shades of Grey (E. L. James, 2011), which I haven't read.
- The late Sir Terry Pratchett, an English author, was first published in 1971, but he was still writing well into the 21st century, including most notably Night Watch (2002) and Going Postal (2004), both part of his long-running Discworld fantasy series.
Also ran
- Becky Chambers is a 21st century American sf author. Her first novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) won various awards, and the Wayfarers series as a whole won a Hugo award in 2019. I find the first novel likeable and entertaining, though not really great fiction; the second novel is OK; but the third novel is so boring that I couldn't finish it, and I haven't yet tried any more of them.
- John Birmingham is a 21st century Australian sf author, though he published non-fiction in the 20th century. In fiction, he's best known for his Axis of Time series, starting with Weapons of Choice (2004), which is good in parts but misconceived. A Girl In Time (2016) is an unusual time-travel adventure with a rather silly title; I like the odd couple of protagonists, although the story is a bit out of my comfort zone. Reminds me slightly of the Time Bandits film.
- Marshall Ryan Maresca is a 21st century American author, who writes fantasy crime stories; probably his best series starts with A Murder of Mages (2015). He writes quite well, and his characters have appeal. However, he has a taste for bizarre, implausible crimes; his magic lacks rules and limitations; and his protagonists suffer an implausibly high level of stress and physical injury, which I find tiring. For me these are all demerits.
- Ruth Downie is almost as old as I am, but she's a 21st century English author, her first novel being Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (2006), followed by a series of sequels. These are historical crime stories: Ruso is a military doctor in the Ancient Roman army, who marries a British barbarian called Tilla while stationed in her country, and finds himself reluctantly involved in trying to solve a series of crimes. I like Ruso and Tilla, but they seem perpetually broke and in trouble, which gets on my nerves; so after four novels I gave up and stopped reading.
- David D. Friedman is older than me and much better known for non-fiction, but he's a 21st century American author of fiction, having published Harald (2006) and Salamander (2011), both competent novels. The first is a military novel set on a fictional mediæval world, the second is fantasy with quite an interesting and original system of magic. There is also a sequel to Salamander.
I have read 21st century fiction by more authors than these, but these are all I care to mention.
