Books of 2024
Here are the books I read in 2024.
In lieu of more thoughtful reflection, I present a table. I have written paragraph-length comments or summaries for about half of these entries, but I want to proofread, revise, and complete those notes before publishing them. I’ll update this post once I do. (Don’t hold your breath; waiting for myself to get around to completing those notes is the only thing that delayed this post until November 2025, when I finally decided to post it as a list sans commentary.)
Format
- Books are sorted by default in the order I finished reading them. Click column headers to resort according to that data.
- Annotations: Stars indicate books that struck a chord or simply stuck with me. Stars do not necessarily represent recommendations or even superior reviews.
- Attribution: this column names the author or editor (for collections or anthologies). In the case of fully illustrated works the illustrated is also named.
- Category: Books are loosely categorized as novels, nonfiction, collections, or anthologies. I use collection to refer to publications containing multiple works by one author and anthology more specifically to refer to publications containing multiple works by multiple authors. I use those terms here to encompass works like magazines and books of nonfiction essays as well as short stories.
- Links: Title links go to various sources. In some cases, I like to the author or publisher’s promotional page for the book. In other cases, I link to longer reviews, bibliographic entries, or the text itself. Attribution links for most writers of genre fiction go to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which blends biography with literary context and opinionated criticism. Otherwise, links to go to the writer’s web site, Wikipedia entry, or whatever reference I can find.
What’s Not Included
- Short stories, essays, or articles. For simplicity, I’m only keeping track of complete books.
- Podcasts. I do listen to a lot of short fiction in podcast form, which merits its own post, but I have not [yet] kept track of episodes.
- Comics. I am including comics in my 2025 list, but I did not track them in 2024.
Books of 2024
| # | ★ | Title | Attribution | Category | Format | Library | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bibliognost: The Lynd Ward Issue | Denis Carbonneau | Anthology | 1976 | |||
| 2 | Afterglow | Grist | Anthology | 2023 | |||
| 3 | ★ | The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015 | Joe Hill & John Joseph Adams | Anthology | 2015 | ||
| 4 | The Tusks of Extinction | Ray Nayler | Novel | ✓ | 2024 | ||
| 5 | A People's Future of the United States | Victor LaValle & John Joseph Adams | Anthology | 2019 | |||
| 6 | Field Notes on Science & Nature | Michael R. Canfield | Nonfiction | 2011 | |||
| 7 | Orbital | Samantha Harvey | Novel | ✓ | 2023 | ||
| 8 | ★ | Open Throat | Henry Hoke | Novel | ✓ | 2024 | |
| 9 | The Dreams our Stuff is Made Of | Thomas Disch | Nonfiction | 1998 | |||
| 10 | Infomocracy | Malka Older | Novel | Ebook | 2016 | ||
| 11 | ★ | Gideon the Ninth | Tamsyn Muir | Novel | ✓ | 2019 | |
| 12 | Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie | Novel | Ebook | 2013 | ||
| 13 | ★ | The Knight | Gene Wolfe | Novel | ✓ | 2004 | |
| 14 | Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine #1 | Isaac Asimov, George H. Scithers, & Gardner Dozois | Anthology | 1977 | |||
| 15 | Old Babes in the Woods | Margaret Atwood | Collection | 2023 | |||
| 16 | New Worlds Quarterly #1 | Michael Moorcock | Anthology | 1971 | |||
| 17 | The Riddles of the Sphinx | Anna Schectman | Nonfiction | ✓ | 2024 | ||
| 18 | The Empress of Dreams | Tanith Lee | Collection | Ebook | 2021 | ||
| 19 | I Am Providence | Nick Mamatas | Novel | Ebook | 2016 | ||
| 20 | The Wizard | Gene Wolfe | Novel | ✓ | 2004 | ||
| 21 | Is Math Real? | Eugenia Cheng | Nonfiction | ✓ | 2024 | ||
| 22 | The Book of Flaco | David Gessner | Nonfiction | 2025 | |||
| 23 | ★ | Titus Groan | Mervyn Peake | Novel | 1968 | ||
| 24 | ★ | A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martine | Novel | 2019 | ||
| 25 | The Nightwatchers | Angus Cameron, illustrated by Peter Parnall | Nonfiction | 1971 | |||
| 26 | ★ | Children of Time | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Novel | 2015 | ||
| 27 | ★ | Return of the Osprey | David Gessner | Nonfiction | 2001 | ||
| 28 | The Three Body Problem | Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu | Novel | 2014 | |||
| 29 | ★ | Brasyl | Ian McDonald | Novel | 2007 | ||
| 30 | Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet #48 | Kelly Link & Gavin Grant | Anthology | 2024 | |||
| 31 | The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester | Novel | 1956 | |||
| 32 | The Book of Barely Imagined Beings | Caspar Henderson | Nonfiction | ✓ | 2013 | ||
| 33 | Bones of the Earth | Michael Swanwick | Novel | 2002 | |||
| 34 | Harrow the Ninth | Tamsyn Muir | Novel | ✓ | 2020 | ||
| 35 | The Future of Life | E. O. Wilson | Nonfiction | 2002 | |||
| 36 | Negative Girl | Libby Cudmore | Novel | 2024 | |||
| 37 | Encounters with the Archdruid | John McPhee | Nonfiction | 1971 | |||
| 38 | A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia | Rose McLarney, Laura-Gray Street, & L. L. Gaddy | Anthology | 2019 | |||
| 39 | ★ | By Force Alone | Lavie Tidhar | Novel | Ebook | ✓ | 2020 |
| 40 | ★ | Some Desperate Glory | Emily Tesh | Novel | Ebook | ✓ | 2023 |
| 41 | The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling | John Muir Laws | Nonfiction | Ebook | ✓ | 2016 | |
| 42 | The History of Science Fiction: A Graphic Novel Adventure | Xavier Dollo, illustrated by Djibril Morissette-Phan | Nonfiction | Ebook | ✓ | 2020 | |
| 43 | ★ | Him | Geoff Ryman | Novel | ✓ | 2023 | |
| 44 | ★ | It Can't Happen Here | Sinclair Lewis | Novel | Ebook | 1935 |
Posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2025. Tags: books, reviews.