Favorite Reads in 2024

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Books that I read to blurb or edit are not included in this list. I read over 200 books in 2024, counting books read for editing and feedback as well as for pleasure.

My Top Reads of the Year

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjel-Brenyah is near future SF focused on the prison system, and is a gripping, savage indictment of the way we treat criminals.

The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso is modern day fantasy with gorgeous worldbuilding and a great queer protagonist.

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (and all the subsequent books) are amazing examples of LitRPG, and if you like to play games, you will love these books. This was originally an indie book, but it’s been picked up by a major publisher and is very available.

Menewood by Nicola Griffith is the sequel to her amazing book Hild, and is just as beautifully written.

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings is fantasy set in a post-Katrina New Orleans and it is gorgeous. I interviewed Alex for If This Goes On; Don’t Panic. You can find the episode here.

The Last Shield by Cameron Johnston is Diehard in a castle with a strong female protagonist and I ate this up.

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim is a horror thriller that is transfixing.

Liberty’s Daughter by Naomi Kritzer is near-ish future SF that shows you what a libertarian state really would look like.

Metallic Love by Tanith Lee is the sequel to The Silver Metal Lover so if you loved that book the way I did, you’re welcome.

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky is wonderful SF that feels very timely.

How to Be the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler is funny as hell and well worth picking up. I’m really looking forward to the sequel.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell is cozy horror and an utterly delightful love story.

Other 2024 Reads I Really Enjoyed and Highly Recommend

The Poisons We Drink – Bethany Baptiste
Ancestral Night – Elizabeth Bear
Necessary Poisons – Andrea Blythe
The Savage Detectives – Roberto Bolano
Fortune’s Fool – Angela Boord
The Outcast Mage – Annabel Campbell
The Fall is All There Is – C.M. Caplan
Ring Shout – P. Djeli Clark
The Mercy of Gods – James S.A. Corey
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario – Matt Dinniman
The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook – Matt Dinniman
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride – Matt Dinniman
The Gate of the Feral Gods – Matt Dinniman
The Reformatory – Tananarive Due
The Spell Shop – Sarah Beth Durst
Dr. No – Perceval Everett
God’s Country – Perceval Everett
Under the Skin – Michael Faber
Victorian Psycho – Virginia Feito
Shades of Grey – Jasper Fforde
Dragonslave – Dominque Glass
The Unstrung Harp – Edward Gorey
Hild – Nicola Griffith (reread)
This Princess Kills Monsters – Ry Herman
Still the Sun – Charlie N. Holmberg
Dead Set – Richard Kadrey
Fateless – Julie Kagawa
When the Tides Held the Moon – Venessa Vida Kelley
A Sorceress Comes to Call – T. Kingfisher
The Bones Beneath my Skin – TJ Klune
The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang (reread)
Station Eternity – Mur Lafferty
Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1) – Mark Lawrence
Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor 2) – Mark Lawrence
Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor 3) – Mark Lawrence
The Scarlet Throne – Amy Leow
Six Crimson Cranes – Elizabeth Lim
Black Mouth – Ronald Malfi
Legacy of the Brightwash – Krystle Matar
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear – Seanan Mcguire
The Fifth Veil of Salome – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Tusks of Extinction – Ray Nayler
The Witchstone – Henry H. Neff
Hum – Helen Phillips
Haunt Sweet Home – Sarah Pinsker
The Book of Doors – Gareth Powell
Hells Acre – Lilith Saintcrow
The Incandescent – Emily Tesh
Camp Damascus – Chuck Tingle
Womb City – Tlotlo Tsamaase
State of Paradise – Laura Van den Berg
The SafeKeep – Yael Van der Wouden
Saga, Vols 2, 3, 4, 5 – Brian Vaughn
Horse of a Different Color – Howard Waldrop
Wheel of the Infinite – Martha Wells
The Witch King – Martha Wells
The Staircase in the Woods – Chuck Wendig
The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead
Firewatch – Connie Willis

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You Should Read This: About Writing by Samuel R. Delany

January 22, 2014

The cover of About Writing by Samuel R. Delany, a writing guide recommended by Cat Rambo. — Delany says: "A reasonable concern -- in many a worry; and in few a hope -- is whether a creative writing teacher wishes to teach her or his students to write the way he or she writes. Emphatically that is not my enterprise. But the agenda here is no less personal. The thrust of these pieces is to teach writers to produce works I would enjoy reading. "

I can’t think of a better book to begin with than a writing book I go back to over and over again, both for teaching and to apply to my own writing. Be aware that many of these essays are also contained in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw.

What: About Writing, by Samuel R. Delany, is a book of writing advice that includes seven essays, four letters, and five interviews. Two essays are ones I go back to over and over again, “Thickening the Plot,” and “Characters.”

Who: People who will enjoy this book include all manner of writers, as well as anyone interested in Delany’s own awesome fiction.

When: You should read this when you’re feeling uninspired about your own writing or if you want some assurance that “writing to discover” is as valid an approach as plotting things out thoroughly.

Why: Delany is one of the foremost SF writers of our time. His work speaks not just to those beginning to write, but those well along their path. If, like me, you love his fiction, you’ll find About Writing sheds new light on those works.

Where and how: Read it someplace quiet, where you have space to stare off into the distance, thinking about what Delany has said. Read it straight through or else do what I do and dip in at various places. No matter what angle your approach takes, it’ll be rewarding.

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You Should Read This: The Odyssey by Homer

February 3, 2014

Cover of The Odyssey by Homer. Accompanies review by speculative fiction writer Cat Rambo. — Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in all ways of contending, the wanderer, harried for years on end, after he plundered the stronghold on the proud height of Troy.

I read The Odyssey in college. I’d been aware of it before then, in that way any bright teen reader is: one runs into its figures here and there or else the whole thing gets boiled down into a chapter in a book on Greek mythology. (I believe I’d also seen it referenced in Ray Harryhausen movies.)

I read it for a class, one of the brief ones squeezed in between semesters, a one-credit class called On the Road, which focused on (naturally enough) stories of the road, including Kerouac’s book.

What: The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus as he makes his way back through a series of dangerous encounters to his wife Penelope, who is facing off dangers of her own at home.

Who: Anyone who wants to be familiar with one of the fountains so many stories, in so many art forms, are drawn from should read this.

Why: Because it’s a classic. It’s good for you AND it’s a really good story.

When: Read it when you want to return to the bones of writing. Read it in conjunction with Robert Grave’s Homer’s Daughter, which posits a different author for it.

Where and how: Read it aloud, the way it’s meant to be heard. Read it in one of the many good translations that treat it like the poetry it is, such as Robert Fitzgerald’s. Or if you’re privileged enough to know ancient Greek, let it sing to you in that form.

#sfwapro

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I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said

(fantasy, short story) Even Duga the Prestidigitator, who never pays much attention to anything outside his own hands, raised an eyebrow when I announced I’d be hooking the manticore up to my wagon.

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