I have turned the final page of my last book of the year, which means it’s time for my final post of the year. That’s enough waffle, let’s get into the numbers.

READING STATISTICS

Raw Data

• 125 novels (down 8 from last year)
• 0 fix-ups (down 4 from last year)
• 0 novellas (the same as last year)
• 23 anthologies (up 13 from last year)
• 6 omnibuses (the same as last year)

• 55331 pages in 2025 (down 1997 from last year)
• 151.69 pages per day (down 5.40 from last year)

• 1* Ratings: 4 (up 3 from last year)
• 2* Ratings: 18 (down 4 from last year)
• 3* Ratings: 55 (up 6 from last year)
• 4* Ratings: 54 (down 1 from last year)
• 5* Ratings: 24 (down 2 from last year)
• Average * Rating: 3.50 (down 0.04 from last year)

Okay, so the headline here is that I read one book more than I did in 2024. Hurray for me. Novels were actually down, but anthologies were way up. Clearly, a lot of these books were at the shorter end of the spectrum, because my annual page count is way down on last year.

In terms of ratings, it was a slightly less enjoyable year than last year, with a couple of real stinkers in there. Brilliant books were also harder to come by, though the overall average stayed at a respectable level. It turns out that life is long enough to read bad books.

Top Authors
(counting only those by whom I have read more than one book this year)

• Mickey Zucker Reichert (5.00 star average) (2 books)
• Jeff Marriott ( 4.50 star average) (2 books)
• Jack McDevitt (4.50 star average) (2 books)
• Alastair Reynolds (4.50 star average) (2 books)
• Adrian Tchaikovsky (4.50 star average) (2 books)
• Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee ( 4.33 star average) (3 books)
• Stephen Baxter (4.00 star average) (10 books)
• Ian Whates (4.00 star average) (2 books)
• Ben Bova (4.00 star average) (2 books)
• Isaac Asimov ( 3.67 star average) (9 books)
• Larry Niven (3.50 star average) (2 books)

The moral of the story here is that writing two good books is enough to put you near the top of my rankings. A lot of those were authors I already knew I enjoyed, and it’s no surprise to see them here. However, I’m going to pick out a couple of surprising names on that list.

I only read Reichert’s books because they fit into the larger Asimov canon, but they ended up being some of my favourite books of the year. I’m eagerly hunting for the third in that series, and will definitely be looking into her original works too.

Gentry Lee’s partnership with Arthur C. Clarke proves that legacy sequels can be every bit as good as the original.

Meanwhile, Larry Niven has slowly crept into the ranks of authors I’m going to buy a lot more books by. I just have to find them first.

Top Genres
(counting only those from which I have read more than one book this year)

• Time Travel (4.00 star average) (3 books)
• Tomorrow Fiction (4.00 star average) (2 books)
• Hard SF ( 3.89 star average ) (28 books)
• Military SF (3.88 star average) (8 books)
• SF Thriller (3.60 star average) (4 books)
• Grimdark SF ( 3.58 star average) (12 books)

As someone who generally doesn’t like time travel, it’s a massive surprise to see it topping the rankings. Jack Campbell and Stephen Baxter share the blame for elevating it to the top spot. Tomorrow fiction is equally rare in my reading, but when done well, it really hits the spot. the rest of the top six holds few surprises, though I didn’t realise how many SF thrillers I had read until compiling this article.

Top Publishers
(counting only those from which I have read more than one book this year)

• Roc (5.00 star average) (2 books)
• Angry Robot ( 4.00 star average) (2 books)
• Coronet ( 4.00 star average) (2 books)
• NewCon Press (4.00 star average) (2 books)
• Black Library ( 3.85 star average) (13 books)
• Titan (3.83 star average) (4 books)
• Gollancz (3.80 star average) (15 books)
• Orbit (3.75 star average) (8 books)
• Head of Zeus (3.67 star average) (3 books)
• Tor (3.63 star average) (8 books)
• Pocket Books (3.50 star average) (12 books)
• Pan (3.50 star average) (6 books)
• Baen (3.50 star average) (2 books)

Again, there aren’t many surprises here, and some of the surprises mirror the best authors list. Roc is here purely because of Mickey Zucker Reichert, for example. Having one good author from a publisher has led to a lot more publishers than normal getting up above my arbitrary 3.5 star line.

That being said, there are a few heavy hitters here. Black Library makes its usual appearance, but Gollancz pouts in a good show built on the back of the Masterworks series. Orbit and Titan have also done very well for themselves with some strong recent releases.

Closing Thoughts

Seeing a mix of the familiar and the new always brings joy to my shrivelled heart, and it’s nice to see the numbers backing up how I’ve been feeling all year. There have been some real standout books, but the overall trend is towards a healthy average. So I’m going to carry on loving my favourites and taking chances on something new in equal measure. I hope you’ll join me in the new year to go through it all over again.