What SF books did you enjoy the most in 2024?
It's about the end of the year, and I know there will all sorts of lists of the best books published this year, so this is a different question: regardless of when published, which SF books that you personally read this year did you enjoy the most. I'm also asking which you enjoyed instead of which you thought were the best, so feel free to include fluff without shame.
I'll go first. Of the 60+ books I read this year, here are the ones I liked most. No significant spoilers, not in any order.
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky
- A project to uplift monkeys on a terraformed world, at the peak of human civilization, is sabotaged by people who don't think humans should play god. There follows a human civil war that nearly destroys civilization. A couple thousand years later, an ark ship of human remnants leaving an uninhabitable earth is heading towards that terraformed planet. This is a great book, with lots to say on intelligence, the nature of people, and both the fragility and heartiness of life.
Kiln People, David Brin
- Set a couple hundred years in the future, technology is ubiquitous that lets people make a living clay duplicate of themselves that has their memory and thoughts to the point they were created, lasts about a day, and whose memories can be reintegrated with the real person if desired. The duplicates are property, have no rights, and are used to do almost all work and to take any risks without risking the humans. A private detective and some of his duplicates gets pulled into an increasingly complex plot that could reshape society. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book, with lots of twists, and an interesting narrative as we follow copies who may or may not reintegrate with our detective.
Sleeping Giants, Sylvain Neuvel
- A little girl falls down a deep hole in the woods and lands on a gigantic, glowing, metal hand that's thousands of years old. This is a wonderful alien artifact story with some interesting twists. I really enjoyed this book. Not exactly hard SF, but checks a lot of the boxes for me, including the wonder of discovery.
The Peripheral, William Gibson
- A computer server links the late 2020s to a time 70 years later, allowing communication and telepresence between the two times. A young woman in the earlier time witnesses a murder in the later time and gets sucked into a battle between powerful people in both times. This is a great book; I think I could have recognized it as Gibson's writing even if I hadn't known it in advance. Very interesting premise, engaging characters, and fun without feeling like fluff.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
- A coalition of human planets has sent the first envoy to an icy world where the people are gender neutral and sterile most of the time, but once a month become male or female (essentially randomly) and fertile. This is a classic, written in 1969, and my second reading - the first being in the late 80s. Le Guin creates an amazingly rich world, even with its harsh, frozen landscape. The characters grow to understand how gender impacts their cultures, and the biases they didn't know they had. It's also aged remarkably well for an SF book written 55 years ago. There's nothing about it that feels outdated.
A couple notes:
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If I hadn't stuck to my own "enjoyed" constraint, the list might have looked different. For instance, Perdido Street Station, by Meiville, is a really great book, but there's so much misery and sadness that it's hard to say I "enjoyed" it.
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I hesitated to put The Left Hand Of Darkness on the list, simply because Le Guin is so widely recognized as a great master, and the book one of her greatest, that it seemed unfair. In the end, it seemed unfair to exclude it for such an artificial reason.
Stop what you're doing right now and get in the Bobiverse. Now.
And if that's your jam, The Murderbot Diaries pairs well!
Micky 7 works on similar lines. a bit longer with a bit more to say, but basically a fun read
I've read all of those - quick, fun reads.
Okay, I finished We Are Legion (Bobiverse book one). It was fun, and I'll probably read the next. Nothing especially deep, but amusing. A few things bugged me a little:
::: spoiler Minor spoilers
Some of the later books might be more your speed if you like sticking with a single Bob. I personally didn’t care for those ones.
I assume the reason things look like other things is cause we have a tendency to describe new things as similar to other things even when they aren’t. Plus there’s probably some scientific evidence behind form and function. See https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=535ce2af5493dab8&hl=en-us&sxsrf=ADLYWILL1F47ohkf2S3ZM119-lKV4yRZmQ:1736139726724&q=carcinization&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDksS9qOCKAxXDkIkEHbiqNCgQkeECKAB6BAgKEAE&biw=393&bih=659&dpr=3
I’m very keen on where the story is going as it stands right now. But I’m impatient for more books. And inevitably will be disappointed in the end I’m sure. Most of the time these situations lead to philosophical cop outs.
I'll give it a try
Been enjoying the “murderbot” series by Martha Wells. The audiobook versions narrated by Kevin Free are particularly well done. He’s a good narrator.
They’re supposedly making a TV series out of it. Not sure how that’s going to work since a lot of the action takes place inside the bot’s brain. They’ve also cast Alexander Skarsgård which seems like a misstep already.
I've only listened to a handful of audiobooks. I have a short work commute, and there's rarely a time when I want to engage with a story that I can't just read it, which I prefer. But I looked him up and he sure has done a lot of them, so he's clearly popular.
Murderbot is a really fun read, I picked the series up a year or two ago and thoroughly enjoyed it
The bobiverse books ended up being what I enjoyed most in 2024. Really looking forward to more of those.
I'll give it a try.
Yeah, I did all of these twice this year. They're a lot of fun.
Pretty sure the paper/ebook of 5 should be released early Jan. He always does a thing with Kindle for audiobook only for 6 months so they cover the narrator costs
See this comment
To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars - one of the most action-packed books I've read, even with a few lengthy "hibernation" space travel sections. Felt like an entire trilogy happening in a single book. Seems prime for a movie treatment, but would also be next to impossible to do in a single movie without completely butchering.
Just grabbed it! Thanks!
I have that on my list and I'm sure it will be read soon.
Well we know what happened the last time someone tried to make a Christopher Paolini book into a movie ....
I actually didn't know about that! This was the first book of his I've read. Now I'm curious to experience just how bad Eragon was...
Oh man just read the inheritance series first. It's an excellent fantasy story that also has lots of travel sections so if you like that in sea of stars you'll like it here too. Then watch the movie and weep lol
From your recommendation and others, I'm reading it now. Ten percent in and, yes, it sure has fast pacing.
Great! It evens out a little with space travel sections, but when it's up and running it's very fast.
I worked through both the Sprawl trilogy and the Three Body Problem trilogy and they were both fantastic. Almost ruined the rest of my reading for weeks after that. The Three Body Problem and The Dark Forest might be the most original science fiction since Neuromancer
While Cixian Liu coined the words "dark forest" to describe this particular solution to the fermi paradox, he did not invent it.
Having also read the series, I find myself always having to mention that while the books do some of the best exploration of more complex sci-fi concepts, they are WEIRD about gender.
The whole thing with men becoming "feminized" by an age of peace, reeks. The author goes out of his way to equate competence, decisiveness and conviction with the male gender, and tries to very akwardly make the point that without strife, these things become unnecessary, and even abhorred. To the point that "masculinity" as a social construct disappears from society. Then replaced entirely by "femininity" which the author VERY explicitly equates with "beauty", naivete, indecision and weakness.
As if women choose to be with men only out of necessity, and if given a easy life and therefore the choice, they would pair off with other women. Which is effectively what happens because according to the author such a society would pressure men into becoming indistinguishable from women in order to remain appealing.
If I had to boil the trilogy down to a message about gender, it would be "men are ugly but useful, women are beautiful but useless". That's not exactly progressive...
A major female characters entire character is that she is the "perfect" woman, and she is literally given as payment to the main-character, by the government. And no-one in the story bats an eye at this! Including the woman herself!
I kept expecting her to be disingenuous. You know, because she was literally treated like an object, given as a prize. But then it time-skips to her having the dudes kid! So apparently shes's fine with it?
Execept then when the government says so, she's perfectly down with up and leaving the guy, this time to force him into action by withholding her. Again she's a mere plot device, treated like a thing that can not only be given, by also taken. She barely exists as anything more than the concept "perfect woman". But you can't just have a human character without there being a person in there. Yet Liu goes ahead anyway.
The subtext about gender in the writing isn't subtle, and it really fucking bothered me when reading the series. I tuned out a lot when listening to the audiobooks.
The sci-fi concepts are some of the best! Only one example is the way the books explained FTL travel, and it is some of the most compelling I've seen!
But I really can't imagine recommending the series without a disclaimer about it containing some of the most sexist writing I've ever come across.
Interesting take. I read her part as more of a discourse on power disparity. The man had all the power in the world and used it to find his idea of the perfect woman. I don't remember it digging too deeply into her character or even at all into her motivations, but from the power dynamic it wouldn't have mattered to him anyway. I read it more as uncomfortable subservience to male domineering. The plot in this arc was driven by his fantasy, and his fantasy alone.
Also, Haldeman did the same gender changes with The Forever War as an exaggeration of his return from Vietnam. I saw the gender arc as more of a "hard times make soft men, soft men make hard times" thing and an exploration of complacency and opulence. But I see your point, there could be other ways to make a similar point
Her appearance and then disappearance was engineered by the government. Because they wanted him to save a world he didn't feel like fighting for. Both times.
Ok fine. The government can find a perfect woman, who also loves him for real.
It cannot then just take her back. You can't tell me she's fine with just up and leaving the love of HER life, cuz some government dude said so.
She is treated like a non-person, by the author. Not just the people in the story. The personality that would have to exist in her head for her to be the way she was in the story, is not possible.
Maybe it works for people who are less intuitive about people, but psychologically she's a gaping plot hole. The same way physics or math errors can be.
I fundamentally disagree here. Her choices are to stay where she is in whatever kind of life that is and know her species is doomed, or sleep until he secures her child's future. Those are heavy stakes and the world in the story could support either decision. I'm certainly not in the position to guess what a parent would do with that choice.
However, I do agree that the author did not give her enough agency for us to know how this decision happened. It definitely could have been explored more. The greater tragedy is that her husband treats her like a non-person, like she's his imagination incarnate, and that is never explored in any detail.
Why would she not stick around for that? Why is her first way to drive her partner to fulfill a wish of hers what should be a last resort in any sane relationship?
And by hibernating into the future, she is taking the child towards the danger, not away from it.
Why is saving the world his (and hers) responsibility at all? There is no guarantee he'll succeed. In fact the earth IS destroyed in the end.
If the decision was hers, it's pretty objectively the wrong one. Even moreso within the framework of what is known about her. She doesn't make sense.
I was never comfortable with that relationship. She was essentially coerced into it because the global government gave him the power to do anything he wanted as long as he said it would help protect humanity. I'm honestly surprised she stayed that long at all. We also only see her through her husband's perspective, which leaves an awful lot about the relationship unsaid and likely misinterpreted.
I think we're just going to disagree on this point, but I do see your point with the other examples earlier
Maybe if you could see each plot device in isolation, you might be able to excuse the stuff. But the sexism is an ever-present background noise in the whole series.
The plot doesn't put a woman in charge except when it wants bad things to happen. Contacting trisolaris. Surrendering to trisolaris.
It doesn't have a single woman charachter that isn't a caricature of personhood. Even the female perspective lead is written like her head is empty, and she's making decisions based on essentially nothing. Stuff just happens to her. And the one decision she makes, dooms earth.
The story literally makes a point of the fact that even a woman from hard times, is always the wrong person to put in charge. And that what is needed is a man, and a "real one", at that. (The other candidates)
The whole damn series ends on a man absolving the woman that doomed earth by explaining that her being a woman isn't her fault. That she was elected because she was "fairest of them all" by a humanity that was "at its fairest". As if beauty and femininity goes hand in hand with weakness and incompetence.
As if humanity's beauty comes at the expense of its drive for survival.
I found the sci-fi cool as hell, but as far is can tell, the message of the story is outright disgusting.
It tries to uplift women as the "fairer half" of man. And completely infantilizes them as it does so.
As if beauty and strength, sensitivity and intelligence, innocence and ferocity, etc. are different mutually exclusive sides of the coin that is humanity. And as if man and woman can only ever represent one or the other.
I kept hoping for a plot point or charachter that would break that mold. There were so, so many chances.
It doesn't happen.
I can see that. I might have to go through the series again and see how I notice it now.
But in the context of the story the first woman was abused by a draconian regime and hated humanity. And the second woman didn't really have a choice. Humanity was doomed either way, from the trisolarans or any other sufficiently advanced species, and she chose to stop fighting. In the end, it was all the same and the absolution she receives is to address her guilt about a lose-lose situation.
Also how do I tag spoilers? I'll go back and edit
That's something the books suffer from in general. Stuff happens in very convenient sequence with very little agency for the reader to live through.
She was the only woman considered, and only due to popular demand. The other candidates were all men, from an age when "real" ones existed.
They were chosen specifically due to being suitable for the task at hand, she was not.
The button needed to be pressed. She didn't do it. According to the story, no person from the age of peace would have either, nor would ANY woman, because apparently no female candidates aside from her were even considered.
Eventually, a man somewhere else, presses it for her.
That in isolation these plot points can be excused, doesn't change the fact that every aspect of a fictional story is deliberate to at least some extent. The series consistently makes events and the people who are in them men and women, depending on what needs to be felt, said, or done.
When women do stuff, things go wrong. Men then step in to fix it, until a woman ruins things further. It happens several times in the series.
And when you combine that with what characters say to each about what humanity and its genders represent, I don't approve.
Characters don't just say stuff. That's especially deliberate, and from the author. She could have come to terms with her guilt entirely on her own, without a man, or another person at all. And she could have come to terms with it through some completely different logic, that didn't need to make it about her gender.
The author barely lets her think for herself to begin with. In fairly harsh contrast to the male perspective characters.
I know I'm an outlier, but I didn't really care for The Three Body Problem. Characters did too many things that just didn't seem like likely responses, and some of the premise felt unrealistic to me. But I know I'm in the minority.
The Sprawl trilogy is great. I read it when it was out originally, and reread Neuromancer more recently. Oh, but if you're ever tempted, don't listen to the Neuromancer audiobook narrated by Gibson. Wonderful writer, atrocious reader.
You might be less of an outlier than you think, just read the replies to this comment
Thanks. The book was hugely popular, but good to know I'm not all by myself in thinking it wasn't great.
I don't get the TBP fanboi-ism, it reads like it was written by a teenager that's never encountered SF before. It's certainly not in the same class as Neuromancer, for crying out loud.
I'm sure there's an odd element caused by the fact that it was translated from Chinese (which involved tweaks for a western audience), but it certainly didn't come close to living up to the hype for me.
I know what you mean about not living up to the hype; I read all that Hugo fanfare and thought, I'll just buy the whole series. I got one and a half books in and thought to myself, what a waste of money, I can't make myself finish this book, let alone the series.
I remember reading a thread a few years back on reddit that someone who was a native speaker said it was even worse in the original Chinese.
That last bit is interesting and funny. It was really popular in China, too, right?
If you liked the Three Body Problem, might I recommend The Killing Star by Pellegrino, Charles R? It's another slant on some similar themes.
I'll check that out right after I finish the Imperial Radch series. Ann Leckie is a great author
Just working my way through a reread of the expanse since it's been a few years and the...final? book has been released. I definitely enjoyed the first 4 books more than 5 and 6. But book 7 is back up to snuff!
It's Fantasy but I need to mention that I've been devouring The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson! These books might just be my all time favorites for fantasy!
I started reading The Expanse series (including the short stories) after watching the series. I got through The Churn, which is the short story after book 3, and haven't read further. I didn't decide not to read more, but every time I go to pick the next book from my list, I don't feel motivated to read the next Expanse book. They've all been good - not sure what the issue is for me.
Have you read The Mistborn series and, if so, do you think it or Stormlight Archive is the better starting place for Sanderson?
I’d recommend starting with Mistborn, it’s a bit less all at once in your face and a great read regardless. Plus all his Cosmere books are interconnected to a degree, with Stormlight being the most by far, and I’d say you’ll get a bit more out of it having read some of the other Cosmere stuff.
All that to say though, Stormlight’s fantastic and if you just want to yolo in you’ll get it fine!
Okay, thanks for the recommendation
Just did Mistborn. Dropped out at the 4th book. Just couldn't care about the characters any longer. Too bad, everyone else loves it.
What did you think of the first book or two? It's not unusual for the latter books of a series to be weaker or less engaging - I'm happy with any one book that I like.
Stormlight just feels... bland. I say it's a great read if you're stuck in an airport. Otherwise there are better, popular series to read. Namely, The Expanse and the Silo series. Patrick Rothfuss is also great, but like George RR Martin, he'll never finish the last book.
I dropped ASOIAF in the middle of the third book. It probably had something to do with knowing it'd never be finished, but I just felt bored. It was all so high stakes and meaningless, not for me.
The writing in The Expanse is grating, it's all he said, she said, he said, they said, he said, said said said said said said said said said said said. If I hadn't been listening to it while at work I'd have bailed in the first book. If you can get past that the series has great world building and I love Avarsarsla.
Rothfuss is indeed great but I can't recommend it to anyone knowing we're only getting two nights of the three promised.
Silo is actually on my list.
I've also been rereading the Honorverse by David Weber. I love it still but it gets to be a slog and the story is feels like it's the same everytime. I want to get past book 6 or 7 but never have.
I can't say enough good things about the Stormlight Archive.
But then again I also enjoyed the hell out of Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series which seemed to be mostly disliked on the whole. I read it before the 4th and 5th books were released so I'm not sure where it goes and need to get back to it some day.
Speaking of Weeks, the Night Angel Trilogy is bomb. It's no literary masterpiece but it's a dark and gritty world that sets your expectations and fulfills them over and over again. The story is cliche and I like it. The characters are fun to follow as they navigate the plot points I can see coming from books away.
The Expanse definitely has a bad start. They're terrible at introducing characters, despite their attempts to do so. But everything after that is great.
I read Mistborn and loved it, my partner finished it a week or two later and then we both struggled to get into the second book. Vin, the main character treats a creature that is in her thrall with extreme prejudice. While it certainly fits the character it was such a change of tone that it threw both of us right out of the series. Mix in a whole new world of politics and coalition building and the story plods. I dropped the Mistborn series like 7 or 8 chapters into The Well of Ascension.
I'll come back to it in audiobook form.
Speaking of audiobooks, I've listened to all of The Stormlight Archive. Audiobooks have one major advantage to actually reading the words, it is easier to multitask. If the story is boring I'm less likely to notice while preparing dinner. With Stormlight however I listened to the books 12 hours a day. The voice actors are Kate Reading and Michael Kramer, they only work on books they like. They also did all of Wheel of Time together.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I frequently sat down and just listened to the story throughout the day because I am so engrossed in the world and the lives of Kaladin, Syl, Shalan, and others. It's a storytelling medium that lends itself to multitasking and I frequently stopped to just listen.
I think it's hard to go wrong with a starting point in the Cosmere. The magic system in Mistborn is really interesting and the world is dark and gritty like chewing charcoal; Unpleasant not offensive. The Stormlight Archive is bold and wide ranging with concepts, ideas, and exploration of pain, trauma, and metal health. I recently read Tress and the Emerald Sea, a light-hearted romp about a girl who lives on a desolate rock in the middle of an ocean and wants to stay there.
Just jump in, the worst thing that can happen is you find it's not to your taste. When that happens it's all good and I find some other masterpiece to chew on. It happens for me with videogames all the time. Elden Ring is not for me. :)
Interesting, thanks
Expanse books are great. I’m still pissed Amazon hasn’t made the final books into series seasons.
Sadly, I wasn’t impressed with the current SA Corey novel that starts a new non-Expanse series. It was extremely dull.
Honestly I'm sure I'll find it similar but it's the last book, I've just got to try! I've set the series down for a break and a change of pace whole I read the latest Stormlight book, Wind and Truth. It's a good break.
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Don't force it! I think if you read books solely because other people say it's good then you're doing it wrong! :)
If you were interested in the Cosmere but wanted something light...much lighter. Then try Tress and the Emerald Sea. The narrator breaks the 4th wall a bit and speaks directly to you but if that isn't an immediate deal breaker the story is light-hearted and adventurous. It follows a girl, Tress, as she leaves home to save her beau.
sadfasfsadfd
Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Dear god I love that series.
So good.
the Culture series by Iain Banks sucked me in completely! it starts with Consider Phlebas for anyone looking to jump in.
I tried so hard to like it but it was such a slog with the most annoying sci-fi trope ending. The next book in the "series" also did nothing for me.
Yes, and it's a good place to start but it isn't the strongest book of the series.
hydrogen sonata was my introduction
Oh, that's the last one, right? Definitively, since he died after writing it? How did you like it?
They are fantastic books.
Children of Time and its sequels are top notch, especially if you love animals and commentary on societal roles. It’s in my top Sci-Fi.
If you enjoyed Children of Time, definitely check out “A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine. It’s a Sci-Fi political mystery with lots of fun word play. Aside from some really cool tech, the book really tackles what it means to be “Other” and how colonialism effects one’s idea of self. Some really cool ideas in this book. Easily my top Sci-Fi read this year.
I read the Martine book and its sequel last year - I agree, they're great.
I almost put one of the Children of Time sequels on the list, but wanted to keep it to five and had the others I wanted to mention.
Children of Ruin was my favourite. The slight horror tones of some of the story really got me! And also… 🐙
My problem with Children of Ruin is that aside from the horror vibe, which was really fresh, the rest of the story felt like a rehash of the first book.
Minor spoilers… but it was fun seeing how a contemporary to Kern uplifted a different species, and more deliberately. Which adds to the universe rather than just have it be… Kern is God kind of thing. And seeing a species that was more emotion based was pretty great too. Different types of intelligences… not to mention the completely alien Nodan species.
It's really fantastic. Would be hard to pick a favorite of the three.
The most memorable reads from this year were:
The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin. While at first, the setting appears to be a fairly standard fantasy, there is a sci-fi depth to the world, its climate, cataclysms, history, and orogeny ("magic power" of the world).
And, if you are a fan of heavy-handed dystopian satire, Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. It takes place in a not-too-distant future where a somewhat-apathetic researcher and a corporate scammer are trying to find the last living Venomous Lumpsucker, a highly intelligent fish species. There is climate change, corporate greed, half-baked international agreements, hackers, horrible AI, and, of course, delusional megalomaniac billionaires.
I read the first Jemisin book, but not the others. I did enjoy it though.
Leviathan's Wake
Oh boy, you’re in for a treat if you’re just entering The Expanse for the first time. Enjoy!
Book one of The Expanse series - really good. Had you watched the show?
I watched the first episode, but it didn't hit like the book. I didn't really care for it. The book was very good though.
I thought the show was a great companion to the books. I would watch in tandem while reading switching up where i was a bit further ahead in the book. Of course i didnt realize the show was cramming different stories from multiple books all together. It also gave me a better look at the characters and it helped get to know them in a way by comparing tv and book characters. Very good series! Ive read up to book 8 in the past few months.
Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Ended up binging season 1. It's good, just a little different.
Thats good to hear! It is a bit different but they are trying to capture the magic of the books. Once you pick up the second book you'll already be aware of background info you wouldn't be other wise
Yeah, definitely gonna be starting book 2 soon, then season 2.
So hows it going?
Children of Time was an amazing read!
This year I am reading Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Really good book so far!
I dont know that Reynolds has a bad book, and everything that touches the Revelation Space universe is in my opinion gold. Even his short stories Diamond Dogs Turquoise Days is a great and intense read.
Some of his standalone novels are also awesome like House of Suns, and Pushing Ice.
Both great series. Revelation Space was my intro into hard sci-fi. What a freaking ride that story is.
Revelation Space sounds interesting. Let us know how you liked it after you finish.
Revelation Space is great! It's interstellar sci-fi with no faster-than-light travel which leads to some really interesting timelines. Also, the only description I've ever read of a space battle as ships are travelling at relativistic speeds. Very cool books. Diamond Dogs is a short-ish story that gives you the feel of the universe. It's a bit nasty at times but I feel like it doesn't go into unnecessarily gruesome detail
I loved revelation space! unfortunately, most of Alastair Reynolds audio books are narrated by by a voice actor who's narration I personally find off-putting. I find him very affected and self absorbed, so much so that it distracts from the characters and story. it's nice to actually stop and read though, just harder to find the time.
Loved both of those books, but revelation space was way more cerebral
Tess of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson) was very fun. It's a very cool take on how piracy would work in a world without any seas
It's more "with different kinds of seas" I'd say, but yeah... This was a fantastic book!
The first ten books of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga
Vajra Chandrasekera’s Rakesfall (mix of SF and fantasy)
N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (re-read)
Sue Burke’s Usurpation (end of the Semiosis trilogy)
Ted Chiang’s Exhalation: Stories (short stories)
Of those, the only one I read was The Fifth Season, which I liked. I read The Saint of Bright Doors by Chandrasekera this year and thought that was great (very much fantasy). Maybe I'll give Rakesfall a try.
Rakesfall is quite a bit different from TSoBD—it’s a bunch of loosely-connected stories spanning from a mythic post-glacial past to the far-future end of humanity, where many of the narratives are metafictional stories embedded inside each other. So don’t go in expecting a linear narrative, or even a definite answer to what’s real and what isn’t.
I discovered and absolutely devoured The Expanse this year (books first, then series). So that was awesome.
I honestly think I would have enjoyed both more if I had read the books first. The series was so faithful to the books that reading them afterwards doesn't bring much new to the experience. And the casting of the series was absolutely perfect. I couldn't imagine Amos being done better.
Same here! I read the full set this year and really enjoyed them. Love the tv series as well. Hopefully they go back and finish the later books with the same actors. They did the setup work on Laconia already.
I immediately remember these and have enjoyed them very much:
I really enjoyed these both and the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers as well
Multiple people mentioning Murderbot, which is great. So much fun.
I loved The Monk and Robot series, and I also enjoyed the others books written by Becky Chambers
The only Becky Chambers book I've read is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I enjoyed it, but the explanation for why all the aliens were humanoid variants of earth animals seemed really thin to the point of distraction.
Oh, so many amazing books. Loved the Robot series, loved the Foundation series.
Seconded.
It was the only one I read but I say it anyways: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons.
If audiobooks are considered reading then I will include I, Robot, Foundation and Empire, amd Herbert West - Reanimator.
Man, I really enjoyed Hyperion, but the rest of the series kind of lost me. It also doesn't help that Simmons is an actual nut case.
I can see the angle you're coming from. I enjoyed Fall of Hyperion but not nearly as much as the first book. As for Dan Simmons himself, I've only vaguely heard about his political views. I compare it to Frank Miller's legacy in that they're both creatives who have a back catalog of celebrated works that is juxtaposed by their reactionary viewpoints.
People usually count audiobooks.
I haven't read the last title, but all the others are excellent.
The laundry files.
It's crazy they are not more famous (it's a series). I bet they'll make films from them as soon as someone who likes miney sees the potential.
Totally unique world! Magic is real and can be controlled with computation. As we add more computational power to the world, Lovecraftian horrors get easier and easier to stumble upon. Every major government has a secret group like the CIA or MI6 that tries to keep shit under control. If you're an IT nerd and stumble across something, The Laundry recruits you, and you don't get to leave. That sounds dark, but it can be funny as hell.
“I thought I was just generating weird new fractals; they knew I was dangerously close to landscaping Wolverhampton with alien nightmares. Apparently you’re only allowed to demolish Wolverhampton if you’re a property developer like Donald Trump. Crawling eldritch horrors don’t get planning permission unless they’re Trump’s hairpiece.”
Love the one where the financial wizards accidentally turn themselves into vampires! (Just now understood that on another level.) The first several books all follow a theme. For example, there's one that's all about James Bond. The one where he goes to America to deal with an evil televangelist is eye opening, funny and WTF. Also loved the one where random people start turning into super heroes.
The Annihilation Score was the first one where we get a new protagonist, Bob's wife. First one I read, didn't know it was a series. She has a cursed, sapient violin named Lecter, made from the bones of people the Nazis tortured to death. She's the only one that can control it, barely. Love that woman!
The last couple of books left me confused as to which evil god was which. Haven't read the latest. After I finish Doctorow, I'm taking a third pass at The Laundry.
tl;dr: If you're into IT and Lovecraft, this Buds for you.
Looks fun. I've read a lot of Charles Stross, he's pretty reliable.
Definitely the Bobiverse books. Engineer in the 21st century dies, but paid to have himself cryogenically frozen. 200 years in the future, Christian fundamentalist seized control of the government and made it illegal to revive people like him. The world is on the brink of nuclear apocolypse so they used new technology to upload his consciousness into a spaceship computer to search the galaxy for a habitat planet for humanity. Spaceship has auto-factories onboard that let him replicate more ships and digital clones of himself. It has some serious parts, but it is written in a lighthearted manner with some technical explanation for future technology.
See this comment
The audiobook narrator for these is fantastic, too. I've listened to them multiple times. I love the exploration of the personality drift and eventual entire society of replicants. Judging by the typical comments I see, I'm in the minority for loving the parts with Archimedes as much as the rest. I get why some people want to get back to the more sci fi stuff though.
That's where I'm stuck in the audio books. The Archimedes story is fine but drags on too damn long.
So many recommendations that I've started reading it already. 20% in. Seems entertaining.
I read some of foundation and enjoyed it!
I've been thinking about rereading those. I read them all in the late 80s and really enjoyed them. I've read so much since then, I wonder what I'd think now.
That and Dune would be fun rereads
I've just read Dune, Messiah, and I'm part way through children of dune. Wow, they are much better than the movies. So many themes were dropped to make it more palatable, and I have no idea how they are going to do the storyline from messiah in the third movie.
I've been working my way through Alastair Reynolds works.
Finished up the newest books in the Revelation Space series, (big recommendation, very cool universe).
Done with that, I went through the Revenger trilogy. Smaller in scope than Revelation Space, but a very fun read.
Set in a far-flung future where humanity has disassembled most planetary bodies in order to construct thousands of space-borne habitats. Planetoids with singularities to generate gravity. Ringworlds. etc.
And then even further into future, where several consecutive ages of civilization have sparked and died within these habitats.
It's the only series I've come across that depicts fairly accurate solar sailing as a mode of space travel, too.
I love the Revelation Space world. Just the right mix of plausible-yet-not-handwaved for me. Some factions but no grand Empire or militaries. No FTL travel, so you are never coming back to the same world you left. Technological nano-catastrophe (and horrors related to that). Semi-intelligent algae that rewires the brain (Turquoise Days is a great short story about it). Galactic-scale projects and space anomalies.
Thank you for telling me about Revenger, I haven't read those yet.
These two series:
I have a preference.
Oh I also forgot, The nature of predators. I like the idea of humans as the weird aliens.
Dungeon Crawler Karl is pretty great.
Livesuit was really good. Though a bit too short
That's a novella in the Captive's War series, right? Corey seems to like doing novellas and short stories as side stories from the main books.
Yeah I believe you're correct
Recently finished and also enjoyed it. Do you know when the next captives war is due out?
I read The Left Hand of Darkness this year as my first foray into Ursula K Le Guin and I loved it! I had to read The Dispossessed right after and loved that even more.
Both are brilliant!
Lots of people consider The Dispossessed to be the better of the two. I read them both this year and, though they're both top notch, I like Left Hand more.
Children of Time is probably the only book I've read in two or three years, and it was phenomenal. I'd love to read the sequels next, it's just so hard to get my brain in the right headspace to read!
I loved all the exploration of (arguably) non-human perspectives and cultures and all the friction from the virus. And that ending was pretty wild, I sorta saw some of it coming but not like quite like that
Yeah, I agree, it's really good. The sequels are both excellent, too.
One of my reading times is before bed, and I find that the routine of it helps me sleep, plus the escapism helps me stop thinking of everything else in my brain, which is a barrier to sleeping for me.
I read the Endymion half of the Hyperion Cantos this year I think the whole series is tied for my favorite Sci Fi series, right next to the Expanse books.
1- Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
1- Expanse series by James S A Corey
3- Bobiverse by Dennis Taylor
Honorable mentions: Fatherland by Robert Harris; Consider Phelbas by Iain M Banks
Hyperion cantos is so good. Its one of my regular re-reads.
The Hyperion series is great. I read Consider Phlebas this year as well, and I'm glad someone warned be that it's one of the weaker of the series. I liked the next in the series better.
Murderbot Diaries was my top this year by far. Probably top series since I first read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It's so fun and well paced and the audiobook is well made.
Finally got to Bobiverse and the Murderbot Diaries. Plowed through both as fast as I could go.
Reading all of Corey Doctorow now. Had no idea what I was missing.
I would recommend Chasm City by Reynolds if you liked the Revelation Space books. I don't think its considered part of the series but its set in the same universe.
Oh, I read Riverworld way back in the day. Don't really remember it though.
Gateway: For some late payoff, hard sci-fi content, I like Frederik Pohl quite a lot. His stuff is between classic and contemporary, and balances technology with sophisticated plot and characters. I greatly enjoyed reading his Gateway series this year, could be one of my favorites.
Mass Effect: I was pleasantly surprised with Mass Effect: Andromeda Annihilation. I moderately enjoyed the Mass Effect video game series, and thought this companion novel could tank, but it was actually a really fun read, with great characters and immersion. The plot is orthogonal to the main plot points of the video games, rather than extensions of them, which I thought gave it breathing room for novel ideas.
Something happened in the last couple weeks to remind me of the old Gateway and Gateway 2 text adventure games I played many many years ago. I had forgotten they were (probably loosely) based on books. I'm glad to hear they're good because I've put them on my reading list this year. Then a replay of the games also, just to see how badly they probably ruined the books.
Gateway has to be one of my all time favorite books - I might have to reread it soon. It has pretty much everything I want from an SF story.
I never played Mass Effect and I'm not familiar with the storyline.
For good reasons.
I'm close friends with a guy who was a reviewer for Locus Magazine, and when I started wanting to read more in the late 80s, he went to the bookstore with me and guided me to a handful of books. That one and Neuromancer were among them, and really helped hook me into the genre.
Probably the one that grabbed me the most was Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I read Children of Time years ago, but bounced off of Children of Ruin and hadn't read anything else by him. But reading Made Things on a whim this past year set me off on a Tchaikovsky binge that took up much of the rest of the year. I especially liked The Final Architecture books.
The book that I enjoyed the most just in and of itself though was probably Early Riser by Jasper Fforde. It's a fascinating concept, and more straightforwardly written than most of Fforde's books (I like his writing, but he has a regrettable tendency toward style over substance that was refreshingly absent from this one).
Oh, Made Things looks interesting, and I really like Tchaikovsky, so I'll for sure read that one.
The long Earth, the first book of the... Long Earth series, a collaboration between Stephen Baxter and the late Terry Pratchett. Unlike Good Omens, Pratchett's writing feels less present but still a great book. I just finished the second book of the series, The Long War, and in a couple weeks I'll start the third one. Can't wait to see what happens!
I liked Long Earth, but haven't read the rest of the series. They're on my list. How did you think the second compared to the first?
It expands a lot on the lore of the worlds, switches between severals characters (which isn't bad) while the first one is pretty much focused Lobsang and Joshua. I preferred the first one but that doesn't mean the second is bad, not at all. I do wonder where the story is going and I want to know what happens the next chapter so I'd call that good writing.
Sounds good, thanks
I read (listened to) some in the series Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson. It's a space opera, action/comedy. I love the whole series and I've listened to it multiple times already.
Others have already mentioned but I've also greatly enjoyed Bobiverse and would probably listen to it again this coming year.
So many people have recommended Bobiverse that I'm reading it now.
I've read a few, but the one that I'd most likely recommend is The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling. It's a beautiful tale of grief and closure over the course of a month long solo splunking expedition on an alien planet in a futuristic supersuit. It was so good all the way through!
Ohh, first foray into Tchaikovsky? I would love to hear how you fare with more of his books. Specially the third one in that series.
This was my year of easy books, wanted to reach 100 so I read a lot of easy to digest books.
Old man war, from John scalzi Good page turners, fun universe feel good story. Would recommend light read. The science is fun and is integral to the story so it checks a lot of the sci-fi urges.
The interdependency from John Scalzi was also a forgettable but fun Sunday read. The ftl system of a space society is facing issues and the have to work around it.
Murder bot diaries was recommended a ton, I woul add myself to the list of recommenders.
I did my reading of Philip k dick stories this year and I can't recommend them enough. His novels are a different subject, but the short stories you see how the influence all of sci Fi. I'd you read a lot, you have to read his short stories.
Ubik was also great!
Pick one.
Come on, it's a fun book! Yeah the concept is weird but it's not a hard read. It's not the three stigmata of palmer eldritch.
If you're not careful you might accidentally read Dhalgren.
I read Time, Ruin, and Memory, and really liked all three. I'm not usually a fan of military SF, but I read and liked Old Man's War and the next in the series, Ghost Brigades. If you want fun, quick fluff, you might try Starter Villain by Scalzi.
The whole Murderbot series is great, I'll add to the recommendation. I've read some Dick, more novels than short stories, but not much recently. I don't think I've read Ubik.
Translation State by Ann Leckie, and Fall, or Dodge in Hell, by Neal Stephenson.
I loved them both: the Leckie because the cultures of her characters are so varied and interesting; and Fall despite me not being into computer games at all. It's fascinating though, having a main character become digital and see how that would play out.
I've read both of those and agree they're both excellent. Really good books. Very different from each other.
That's what I've always loved about sci-fi - the variety, the wild imaginations of the best writers, there's something for everyone.
@MrsDoyle @AFKBRBChocolate
My book 'A Suggestion in Space' https://mybook.to/asuggestioninspace is an interstellar adventure with romance, coming of age, secrets and surprises, tragedy and joy.
Some Favorites from this year;
Adrian Tchaikovsky is the best - “The Final Architecture” series is also rad, and his standalone novel from this year “Service Model” was great.
August Kitko and the Mechas From Space by Alex White. “Evangelion by way of David Bowie”
Space Opera Catherynne Valente. A very literal play on the genre!
Fractal Noise & To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Christopher Paolini
Murderbot Diaries Martha Wells
The Murderbot series is so great, I read them all last year. I don't think I've read any of the others on you list, though Tchaikovsky is quickly becoming one of my favorite all time authors, so I'm sure I'll get to that.
Travis Starnes: Imperium
A six novel long story about a space pilot testing a new drive - and ending up in an alternative version of Rome.
I really enjoyed To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. It's a little silly at times, but the story is absolute stunning.
I have that one on my list to read - a lot of people have recommended it.
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams
I love Children of time so much!, I'm currently working my way through the Red rising series, highly recommend
Hmm, looks interesting, might add that to my list.
Lots of great suggestions in the comments, but one I didn't see that I've REALLY been enjoying is the Infinity Series by Jeremy Robinson. As a fan of Science Fiction I absolutely love this series because each book is a sub-genre of SF. I'm currently on the 8th book (out of 13) and when I started this series I told myself that I was only going to read the first book, and would then decide if I wanted to continue. Then when I finished it, I picked up the second book and said that I was just going to read a few chapters and see how I like it. Now when I finish one there's no question what I'm reading next.
This year I've also enjoyed Dungeon Crawler Carl... though I'd put it more in the Fantasy realm than SciFi... but Kaiju: Battlefield Surgeon by Matt Dinniman is a nice SciFi book that has a lot of the same feel as DCC as far as world building goes, but does lack on the character development.
I hadn't heard of Robinson, but looked him up and apparently he's pretty prolific (though some of his early birds l books are self published). Looks like a diverse set of stuff, too.
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach.
Oh god what a powerful book.
In case you're not aware, there is a sequel to The Peripheral called Agency. I didn't think it was quite as good as the first, but still a good read. There is a planned third book in the series as well.
Mmm...
I thought that The Peripheral was the best book Gibson's written since at least Idoru, and I was very impressed and pleased.
But I think that Agency is quite possibly the worst book he's ever written.
Oh, I'm kind of surprised. I didn't like Agency as well as The Peripheral, but mostly because I felt like a lot of the interesting ground was already covered in the earlier book.
The one I was most disappointed in that I've read recently is Spook Country, the second Blue Ant book. It just struck me as hardly at all SF, though the story was fine.
It's been too long since I read it to clearly remember the details, but yeah - I thought it was awful.
I most remember being disappointed that it deliberately and inexplicably sidelined Flynne, since her character was easily one of the best parts of The Peripheral. I have no idea what the point of that was - it seemed just as if Gibson somehow resented the fact that she was a memorable character and didn't want her to take over the story. Verity, by contrast, was a very weak character, and I remember thinking that it was ironic that she seemed to have no real agency of her own, and instead was just pulled along by the plot.
I can't really pinpoint anything beyond that though - as I say, I don't really remember the details - just my reaction.
Spook Country, to me, was just drab. It was like Gibson laid out the basic plot, which was pretty much just a standard political thriller, then filled in the blanks with whatever bits of technology and pop culture had his attention at the moment. It worked fine as a novel, but had nothing new to say really.
That entire trilogy was pretty poor IMO, and was a large part of the reason that I was so impressed by The Peripheral.
And thinking about it in that light, it's possible that my negative reaction to Agency was driven at least in part by the contrast to The Peripheral - that Spook Country (and more likely Pattern Recognition) were at least as bad, but at the time I read them, my expectations for Gibson were so low that they didn't have the same impact.
He seems to like exploring different things in the same universe with mostly different characters. The only consistent character in Blue Ant is Bigend. So I wasn't surprised by the different set of characters in Agency - there was actually more overlapping in that one - but I agree that Flynn was the most interesting in The Peripheral.
Thanks, I read that as well. I liked it, but agree it's not as strong.
Just to add to Gison's "The Peripheral" - it's the first in his new "Jackpot Trilogy" with second book "The Agency" being equally, if not more awesome.
Also, Peripheral got adapted to a TV show (one season so far) pretty successfully.
The show was renewed for season two, then Amazon rescinded the renewal last year... So unfortunately, it's not likely we'll see that show picked back up unless another network steps in.
Damn... These executives at Prime have no idea what's good. Better blow buncha millions on another Lord of the Rings slop or animated anthology Love Death and Robots wannabe...
I really enjoyed season 1. Was hoping they'd see it through but they did drop the expanse. Not exactly known for good judgement Books are worth it then?
I'm the wrong person to ask, because I just love reading anything Gibson or Stephenson write :) maybe some more discerning lemmings may chime in :)
I did like the first a little better, but both are good.
I haven't finished many books this year.
I'm struggling with "The Power" by Naomi Alderman. I don't know if it's how it's written, or the pacing, but it's somehow not grabbing me.
I'm listening to "Juice", by Tim Winton and enjoying it.
Other stuff I read this year, none of which I felt I resonated with, were:
Anyone read any of these? Thoughts?
Same for me re: "The Power". I read it last year (mid-2023, that is). I finished it, but it was a bit of a struggle.
I didn’t like Prophet Song either. The mother character’s inability to do anything kinda bogged the whole story down for me.
It was also written in a style that didn't lend itself to being, well... read. Partial sentences and broken flow. I found it quite hard work. And I've read (and enjoyed) clockwork orange!
I fell more down the “fantasy” side of things this year. Looking back at my library account I see I devoured the “Odd Thomas” series, one of my all time favorites, yet holds tended to expire for excellent scinfi authors like William Gibson and Ursula K Leguin.
I’m really hit by inconvenience here. I need new ideas available on Kindle without a lengthy wait. There was one book where I was 52nd in queue: there’s no way to hold my interest that long
Oh, I certainly get that one. I read quite a bit, so it would be awfully expensive if I didn't use Libby.
My strategy is to put a tag on all the books in interested in reading. I use lists of award nominees, recommendations from friends, and threads like this to find books to tag. Then in Libby I show all tagged books, make sure I have one or two with a wait that I have a hold on, then filter by available now. Seems to work pretty well.
Oh! Did you know you can have more than one library card in Libby and it will see if the book is available at any of them? For instance, I'm in Los Angeles, and I can legitimately have cards for the LA county library, the Sacramento library because anyone from the state can have that, and the San Bernardino library, I forget why. So that helps a lot.
I was going to reply that my library is part of a statewide network ….. but apparently only a 41 library network. I always assumed another coward wouldn’t be worthwhile but the network is a lot smaller than I thought
I don't know how different California is from other states, but it might be worth looking into the situation for your state.
For sure. Apparently my library’s network is only for “the metro area”, but perhaps the nearby city has more resources
Machineries of Empires series sounds interesting.
Thanks for the interesting post.
"Luna- New Moon" by Ian MacDonald. Lunar colony is ruled by a few powerful families. Nice combination of dynastic intrigue world building.
I hadn't heard of it, but it's got some really positive reviews.
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, I haven't read any Sanderson yet, and will likely try Mistborn soon. Never read Hamilton.