The 11 best science fiction and fantasy books of 2024
I’m not sure if 2024 had a novel, like 2022’s “Babel” or 2023’s “Fourth Wing,” that took the world by storm and reshaped the map of speculative fiction. But this year did have a wealth of unforgettable books, making it tough to narrow things down to the year’s best. These are the 11 I couldn’t stop thinking about.
1. ‘Annie Bot’ by Sierra Greer
This year had a bumper crop of extra-bleak dystopias. But Greer’s story of a robot girlfriend trying to please her boyfriend/owner still stands out, thanks to a blend of intensity and nuance. Greer captures every facet of the abusive relationship between Annie and Doug. She conjures genuine warmth and moments of kindness, along with a thoughtful exploration of personhood and what it means to shape another person. “Annie Bot” is a book to hold close to your heart when the walls start closing in.
2. ‘The Butcher of the Forest’ by Premee Mohamed
Fairy stories are huge right now but few authors capture the menace and wonder of fairies the way Mohamed does. Her protagonist, Veris, is the only person ever to return from an enchanted forest alive, so she’s forced to go back in to search for a tyrant’s lost children. The best fairy tales often have a wistfulness to go with their whimsy, and “The Butcher of the Forest” is no exception, slowly revealing itself to be a story of loss and grief that cuts deep.
3. ‘The Fox Wife’
by Yangsze Choo
This was one of several books this year about fox spirits, beguiling immortal tricksters who crop up in many Asian cultures. Foxes may exercise power over humans, but Choo sees them as an endangered species who must hide to survive. Yet Choo’s seductive foxes can’t help getting drawn into human drama and becoming the objects of our obsession. Choo makes the most of this intersection of fragility and desire, but also surprises the reader with a wistful tale of lost loves reunited.
4. ‘The Mars House’
by Natasha Pulley
In Pulley’s novel, humans have adapted to the lower gravity of Mars, but refugees from a climate-ravaged Earth pose a danger to native Martians because of their superior strength. An Earth refugee named January is forced into an arranged marriage with an anti-immigrant politician named Aubrey for political reasons. Pulley doesn’t dodge the big questions her premise raises, but she also develops a living, breathing relationship between two complicated people. In a year full of unconventional romances, “The Mars House” is probably the oddest, and yet the sweetest.
5. ‘Metal From Heaven’
by August Clarke
When factory workers protest that ichorite, a miraculous new metal, is making them sick, they are brutally massacred. A young girl, Marney, escapes the slaughter and finds she can control ichorite with her mind. She joins an all-female pirate crew, using her superpowers to steal while she plans her revenge. Clarke creates an ornate, profane world and populates it with unforgettable characters, while the book’s hairpin plot twists keep the reader guessing. “Metal From Heaven” was the most fun I’ve had in ages – until it utterly wrecked me.
6. ‘Ninetails’ by Sally Wen Mao
This book is so full of wordplay, even the title is a pun: It alludes to the myth that a fox that grows nine tails can achieve immortality, but there are also nine tales in this collection. Mao uses the alluring, shape-shifting nature of fox spirits to explore the ways women have to reshape themselves to survive a world that hates them. Every fantastical story in this book is a standout, and it rewards a second, or even third, reading.
7. ‘Ours’ by Phillip B. Williams
In the 1830s, a woman named Saint frees some enslaved people and uses magic to help them create a sanctuary called Ours – but as one person observes, when you kill slavery, “you still got to kill the slave raised up inside the person.” Williams weaves together various stories of people who love each other but cannot find true intimacy because of unresolved trauma. And yet Williams’s gorgeously poetic language shows his characters slowly finding not just liberation but also connection and even transcendence.
8. ‘The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain’
by Sofia Samatar
A young boy toiling in the underbelly of a starship is chosen to come up and attend an elite school on the upper decks. What ensues is a nimble exploration of systems of oppression and the many ways that education can become a tool of control – but also how we can study liberation instead. The boy’s benefactor, known only as the professor, is full of contradictions: sophisticated but naive, compassionate but co-opted. You can read Samatar’s novella in an afternoon, but you’ll want to savor it endlessly.
9. ‘Someone You Can Build
a Nest In’ by John Wiswell
People fall in love with monsters all the time, but few monsters are as lovable as Shesheshen, a shape-shifting omnivore who finds comfort in the arms of Homily, whose aristocratic family is dedicated to the destruction of Shesheshen’s species. Wiswell considers what it means to be a monster but also delves into rapacious parenting, trauma and compassion, and the splendor of love between asexual, neuro-atypical people. “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” is surprisingly funny despite its darkness.
10. ‘The Tusks of Extinction’
by Ray Nayler
Damira was an elephant expert, until she was murdered by poachers. Now mammoths have been brought back from extinction, and her digitally recorded consciousness is placed in a mammoth body to help them survive. Nayler’s preoccupation with nonhuman intelligence collides with the propensity of humans to slaughter other living creatures for sport, and the result packs a lot of power. I’ve seen many books about climate change, but “The Tusks of Extinction” gets to the heart of why we keep squandering nature’s endless richness.
11. ‘The Wings Upon Her Back’ by Samantha Mills
This is the best novel about authoritarianism I’ve read lately. In it, flying cybernetic warriors serve the mecha god, but their leader, Vodaya, has twisted worship into something oppressive. One of those warriors, Winged Zemolai, has a crisis of faith and is cast out. Mills brilliantly captures both Zemolai’s earlier devotion to Vodaya and the pain of letting go of hero worship. When the final confrontation arrives, it’s suitably epic.