This is a list of the fiction that I read in 2024 (and the first couple days of January 2025) that was also published in 2024.¹ I plan to spend the rest of January also reading books published in 2024 and I may do a follow-up post at the end of the month with mini-reviews of the rest of the books I read this month.

Almost everything I read via audiobook, but a few books here didn’t have audiobook, and in a few cases (notably Kinning and Rakesfall), I had a very hard time following the audiobook on its own so I also read along with the print. Also for Wind and Truth I wanted to make very certain I paid close attention to the text so I read along visually with the text for that one too.

My favorite book/series I read during 2024 is not listed here and was Terra Ignota by Ada Plamer (published 2016-2021). I think I need more time to decide on a favorite book of 2024 that was also published in 2024, but The Mercy of Gods is a strong contender. If I’d read Running Close to the Wind it might have been that, but sadly I read that book on January 1st, 2025.

This post is here and not at https://river.me/fantasy/ because I haven’t posted there in ages and I want to redo the theme but I also don’t want to delay posting this after writing it or else I’ll have read more books and it’ll be out of date and then I’ll never post it and everything will be terrible.

Books are ordered first by genre (except for the ones that are superlative enough that they transcend genre) and second by release date ascending within the genre. Genre is a bit arbitrary, e.g. “romantasy” definitely has some science fiction in it, a lot of the books in many categories are queer, etc. You can also see my goodreads profile for more recommendations including books that weren’t published in the year 2024.

Didn’t read yet because I’m waiting for the audiobook

But I expect to enjoy it (understatement lol), Dungeon Crawler Carl is fantastic and the audiobook performances are unparalleled. Now that it’s traditionally published, I’m expecting that starting with book 8 the print and audio releases will happen concurrently.

• This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl book 7)

So good that they don’t get genres

• Welcome to Forever by Nathan Taveres - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind rewritten in an age where we can be more creative with what technology might be available (and also gay). That movie was the best and this book is the best. Go read it.
• Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis - A heist at an academic conference at a luxury space hotel told through the eyes of hotel staff, guests, and attendees - with each character getting a single chapter. It’s beautiful, the characters are beautiful, the hotel is beautiful, the ending is beautiful. The cover is also beautiful.
• The Mars House by Natasha Pulley - The X-Men metaphor problem: Public fear of X-Men is often used as metaphor for public stereotyping that turns into fear of any group that has been “othered” in IRL society: immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people, etc. This is a shitty metaphor because the entire problem with prejudice is that the “other” group is not inherently any different from the group that hates them. But what if they WERE inherently dangerous? How do you structure societal justice in that case? In The Mars House, “Earth-strong” people have not acclimated themselves to Mars gravity, and simply by stepping incorrectly they can kill a human native to Mars. But the process of acclimation is dangerous, destructive, and painful. What do you do and how do you legislate? Wow. Fascinating. I love it. This book is incredible. I think it’s also deeply in conversation with Terra Ignota, which as mentioned above, was my favorite series of 2024 (and possibly of all time).
• Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell - This book wins the award for “#1 reason why I hate title casing and we should switch to sentence casing in all things” but also it’s a beautiful book AND it’s a debut which is crazy impressive to me. Nonstandard love story between a monster hunter and a monster (literally).
• Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland - Probably the best fantasy romcom I’ve ever read, it’s just hilarious, and oh my GOD the cake competition at the end. Also has poly rep.
• The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey - Dare I say this will probably be better than The Expanse when it’s completed? Incredible first entry in a new space opera with lowkey dark academia vibes (it’s academic researcher drama)
• Kalyna the Cutthroat by Elijah Kinch Spector - The only book in this section that’s not standalone or first in a series, the first being Kalyna the Soothsayer. Book 1 was one of my favorite books of all time and it’s both political intrigue and comedy at the same time. Book 2 is not a comedy but it’s poignant and beautiful. They both come with my highest possible recommendation.

Comedy

• How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler - Honestly comedy/humor is my favorite subgenre and it’s SO hard to find good humor and this was SO FUNNY and I really appreciate it. Excellent. Some reviews complained it was too much like a guy writing a FMC but idk I thought it was fine.
• Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis - Not as funny as it could have been but strong debut
• Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan - Would’ve been incredible if it were half the length, as-is it was pretty funny. I enjoy meta stories like this quite a bit.

Cozy

• Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett - I continue to be a bit bothered by the blasé attitude Emily Wilde takes towards her love interest’s plagiarism in these books, but otherwise they’re fun fae cozy/romantasy novels. Looking forward to book 3.
• I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle - Pretty disappointing, but it wasn’t terrible. It just failed to hold its tone, neither high fantasy nor cozy nor romance nor anything really. Categorizing as cozy here because that’s how it started I guess idk.
• Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland - Blend of genres, Cozy/romantasy/romcom. 18+. Very cute. Alexandra Rowland is amazing. Sadly no audiobook.

Dark academia

• An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson - It’s a retelling of Carmilla so it gets +1 point but I didn’t really enjoy it, it glorifies sexual assault of students by a professor waaaaaaaaay too much. Like, yeah they’re vampires, but still.
• The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry - First half was very generic and boring, second half was relatively original and cool. Overall it was okay.

Epic fantasy

• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett - Really fun detective story in a creative universe that I’m really excited to return to! This is my third RJB trilogy, and so far I’ve liked 2/3 of the books in each of the trilogies I’ve read (didn’t really like book 2 in Divine Cities and didn’t really like book 3 in Founders). I’m pretty optimistic that this’ll be the first one to land all 3 books in the trilogy, and I’m so excited.
• The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan - NAILS the ending of Empire of the Wolf and I can’t wait for the spinoff trilogy that we’re getting this year!
• Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff - Wow so edgy, wow so dark, wow so violent, wow so Goth, wow so vampire
• Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse - This series fell flat on its face, drove off a cliff, did not stick the landing, bellyflopped, lost the plot, couldn’t draw the rest of the owl, etc etc. Incredible book 1 but let’s leave the ending up to fanfiction writers.
• The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman - I liked this one a lot more than Blacktongue Thief, they’re very different from each other. This one felt a lot like a “war movie” to me but in novel form. Very good.
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman - I was never really interested in The Magicians but this was very highly recommended so I picked it up and I’m super glad I did! Fantastic King Arthur retelling.
• The Dollmakers by Lynn Buchanan - Not quite “epic fantasy” but Goodreads wants to call it horror which I don’t think is right either. Anyway, this was pretty enjoyable but the author’s place-naming conventions were annoying to no end, like instead of saying “Deep” or “Deep Forest” it’s always “The Forest called Deep” and good lord it got old fast. I also found about 80% of the plot beats predictable way ahead of time, so the dramatic reveals were, uh, not that dramatic. And the main character acted like a seven-year-old, but she was twenty-one. That said, creative world building and it was a debut. So, I’ll read the next one in the series.
• The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi - I can’t say it stuck the landing, but it didn’t faceplant either. The ending was fine. Would’ve been an excellent series if the quality improved with each book, unfortunately it went down a bit with each book. Oh well. Pretty cool stuff, I do recommend it, just not a huge recommendation.
• The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow - Exciting debut and new series opener, this is my new recommendation replacing The Poppy War for “female rage descent into madness”
• Threshold: Stories from Cradle by Will Wight - idc what Goodreads says, this was published when the kickstarter copies went out. WONDERFUL collection of short stories that gave perfect closure to the main series of books, I’m in heaven reading them.
• Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Tyrant Philosophers is shaping up to be an incredible epic fantasy series, having started with City of Last Chances in 2022. I’m so incredibly excited to see where this goes. So far book 2 was my favorite but it’s all incredible, this world has SO MUCH going on in it and I hope we get minimum 9 books.
• Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson - Yes, I binged this the day it was published. Yes, it was worth it. Yes, I spent the next week reading Cosmere and Stormlight Archive subreddits. Yes, I crashed super hard afterwards.
• Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao - Eat the rich yo. I liked this a lot more than book 1, and it sets up for a book 3 which I didn’t expect, I thought this was gonna be 2 books but LFG

Historical fantasy

• The Fox Wife by Yangszee Choo - It was fine, it’s a lot more vibes than plot, but it was fine.
• The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo - Great setting and premise - Jewish girl with magic she has to hide from the Inquisition in Golden Age Spain, but then it kind of faceplants after that. Overall, meh. I’m not the biggest fan of Leigh Bardugo and I’m not sure she gets another chance after this.
• Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi - This is literally the Medici with their names changed and literally the Sforzas with their names changed and literally the Pazzi with their names changed and I fucking loved it. Fantastic. One note: Getting dressed in a wedding dress would probably have taken several hours and required multiple people’s help, including stitching some seams closed the rest of the way. Not gonna happen in a couple minutes.
• The Cautious Traveler’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks - It takes place on a train! A lot of fun, weird ecology, weird character studies of the passengers. Debut novel. Plus it takes place on a train!

New weird or just kind of weird imo

• Kinning by Nisi Shawl - Not for me, but I respect it. Book 1, Everfair, was fantastic, though.
• Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera - This is not really “new weird” but idk how else to describe it. It’s weird af. I liked some of the stories-within-stories, particularly the one about the Golden City, and I really like his writing voice, sometimes. But mostly wtf did I read?
• Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer - Surprise! This completed trilogy got a fourth installment ten years later! All four of them are fantastic! I highly recommend giving the series a chance, but be ready to put it down if it’s not for you.

Not speculative fiction

• The Women by Kristin Hannah - I cried, a lot. A lot a lot.
• What does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella - I feel bad for saying this about a book that’s clearly so personal to the author but this is utterly forgettable. I read it because I was waiting out a rainshower in a bookshop.

Queer

• The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy - The plot is a bit all over the place

Romantasy

• A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen - This doesn’t really fall under romantasy but I’m not sure how to categorize it. Anyway, it was fine. I like time loops a lot but this one didn’t do enough exploration with the time loop compared to something like Mother of Learning or The Perfect Run, both of which are much better time loop stories.
• The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Ann Older - It’s not really my thing but I can appreciate it without it really being my thing. It’s gonna get a Hugo nomination and I’ll be miffed.
• The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang - Pretty good, not super remarkable.
• Evocation by S.T. Gibson - Meh. Ft. A poly romance if that’s what you’re looking for.
• A Captured Cauldron: Rules for Compulsory Brews by R.K. Ashwick - This author continues to not impress me after A Rival Most Vial in 2023, although this one at least was plotted a bit more competently. A shame, because I like the setting a lot, but their stories are so illogical I can barely deal with it. Big “a five year old could poke holes in the reasoning” energy.
• The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer - Not as good as The Darkness Outside Us, which is one of my favorite books of all time and used to me by #1 queer romance recommendation up until I read Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland this year, but it’s still really great. We get more Ambrose and Kodiak so of course it’s great. But it’s not AS great.

Science fiction

• Annie Bot by Sierra Greer - An exploration of AI sentience on the one hand; and what a human might actually want out of a relationship with an AI on the other. Fantastic especially for a debut, highly recommend!
• Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas - It was okay but if you want to read a space western I’d read Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot instead. If you’ve already read that and you loved it then sure, read this.
• Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Fantastic!!! Please, read this and Livesuit and Annihilation all together. They’re all “weird alien biology” books and experiencing them in close proximity enriches all of them.
• Disquiet Gods by Christopher Ruocchio - This is the sixth book in the Sun Eater series so I can’t tell you to go read this right now, you have to read books 1-5. Book 7, the final book, comes out later this year and I’m so excited!! Yay!!!
• The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar - Wow, it talks about “sense-making”!!! This was great, I loved it.
• Livesuit by James S.A. Corey - Sequel novella to The Mercy of Gods because these guys don’t mess around. This was fantastic, probably the best mil SciFi I’ve ever read.

So bad that they don’t get genres

• The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake - Conclusion to the trilogy that started with The Atlas Six. The first one was a guilty pleasure. The second was bad. This was terrible. I don’t recommend starting the series, let alone finishing it.
• Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire - I don’t really like Wayward Children, but I’ve sunk a lot of cost into this series. I’ll read book 10 too. I think the author accidentally has a lot of anti-trans symbolism in Wayward Children and I don’t appreciate it. “Accidentally” because she seems to be a really great person on social media as far as I can tell, but I also can’t not see it pervasively all the way through this entire series.
• Faebound by Saara El-Arifi - Too YA.
• A Tempest of Tea by Hasfah Faizal - This was so bad that I don’t even remember anything about it which is honestly impressive I almost never forget books this completely. I think it was trying to be Six of Crows.
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - Yeugh
• The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons - Similar to The Ministry of Time, this one has no idea what genre it is, and similarly I thought it was terrible.
• A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher - I normally really like fairy tale retellings but idk I don’t know The Goose Girl that well so that didn’t help and I just thought this was dreadfully boring.

Will not read on principle and why

T.J. Klune has stated himself that he was inspired by the Sixties Scoop to write The House in the Cerulean Sea. So no, I will not be reading Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and I do not recommend anyone else to read it either.

More opinions on this:

• On /r/romancelandia
• On /r/fantasy (the OP is deleted but you can read the comments)
• Youtuber Reads with Rachel on TJ Klune - this is a very good video, you should watch it