Pile by the Bed’s top 5 (okay, 6) fantasy novels for 2020 and four honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Hollow Empire the second in Australian author Sam Hawke’s Poison War fantasy series.

Pile by the Bed Reviews House of Earth and Blood, the first book in Sarah J Maas’s new Crescent City urban fantasy series.

Pile By the Bed Reviews A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik the first in a series about a particularly dangerous and cutthroat magical academy.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow a historical fantasy that involves the women’s suffrage movement and witchcraft in late 19th Century America.

Pile by the Bed reviews Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee a fantasy novel based in Korean mythology and history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Dead Man in Ditch (Fetch Phillips #2) by Luke Arnold, the second in his dark fantasy meets noir detective series.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends the long awaited new fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke, Piranesi and finds it to be a gem of modern fantasy that was well worth the wait.

Pile by the Bed reviews Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell a joyful look at the late 1960s music scene which can stand alone but has plenty of connections to other Mitchell works.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Constant Rabbit by British fabulist Jasper Fforde – a broad satire that takes on immigration and prejudice.

Pile by the Bed reviews Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia which true to its title is a gothic horror thriller set in the mountains of Mexico in the early 1950s.

Pile by the Bed reviews Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth, a page-turning modern fantasy anchored around a flawed heroine that blows up common fantasy conventions and tropes.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi, an assured and unique debut novel set in an alternate Elizabethan England.

Pile by the Bed reviews By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar, a profane, violent enjoyable take on the Arthurian legend.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley. Steampunk sequel to The Watchmaker of Filigree Street set in late 19th Century Japan.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The City We Became by NK Jemisin an urban fantasy that celebrates New York and establishes the basis for a fascinating new series.

Pile by the Bed’s 2016 review of Natasha Pulley’s steampunk fantasy debut The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Pile by the Bed reviews False Value, the eighth entry in Ben Aaronovitch’s always enjoyable urban fantasy meets crime Rivers of London Series

Pile by the Bed reviews Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi, the second book in her hit YA Legacy of Orisha series and finds it a worthy follow up to Children of Blood and Bone

Pile by the Bed reviews The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold, a debut, very dark urban fantasy novel – an audacious piece of world building