This thread is for posts about 2024-published works, which people have read and recommend to other Filers.
There will be no tallying of recommendations done in this thread; its purpose is to provide a source of recommendations for people who want to find something to read which will be eligible for the Hugos or other awards (Nebula, Locus, Asimov’s, etc.) next year.
If you’re recommending for an award other than / in addition to the Hugo Awards which has different categories than the Hugos (such as Locus Awards’ First Novel), then be sure to specify the award and category.
You don’t have to stop recommending works in Pixel Scrolls, please don’t! But it would be nice if you also post here, to capture the information for other readers.
The Suggested Format for posts is:
- Title, Author, Published by / Published in (Anthology, Collection, Website, or Magazine + Issue)
- Hugo or other Award Category: (Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Related Work, Graphic Novel, Lodestar, Astounding, etc)
- link (if available to read/view online)
- optional “Brief, spoiler-free description of story premise:”
- “What I liked / didn’t like about it:”
- (Please rot-13 any spoilers.)
There is a permalink to this thread in the blog header.
[Based on a post by JJ.]
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202>4< published works? You means that have been published in the last week, or did you mean 202>3<?
Mark: I mean 2024. People will be adding to this post throughout the year. Just like they did with the already extant post for 2023 recommendations.
Looking forward
(still mildly startled that it’s 2024 already)
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The Tusks of Extinction, by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
The Sunday Morning Transport is publishing some free stories online this year. This one, “Agni” by Nibedita Sen, is the first of them, and it’s tight, powerful and gorgeous.
Best Novella: Lois McMaster Bujold – “Demon Daughter” 12th of the Penric and Desdemona series; I’d recommend it for Best Series as well but I think the “Penric & Desdemona” books are covered as a subset of the “Five Gods” series, which won in 2018.
A domestic story about a child who accidentally acquires a demon, and what comes of it. Charming and well-told.
Short story
Nothing of Value, Aimee Ogden, Clarkesworld 208
A well-done take on transporters.
Novelette
Shadow Films, Ben Peek, Lightspeed 164, Jan 2024
A hidden history story.
Short story:
“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole,” Isabel J. Kim, Clarkesworld Magazine February 24.
Isabel J. Kim is one of our best short story writers, and she outdoes herself here, in this answer to the Le Guin original that vibrates with fury. She takes apart the original premise and applies it to the world today, with devastating effect. Wow.
+1 to The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler. I don’t often say that a story should have been longer, but this novella really should have been expanded to a full-length novel. Its fascinating ideas make this little book feel overstuffed, but it’s still worth reading.
Novel
The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett
This author is an auto-buy for me, and this book ups his already considerable game. This is a fascinating, complex and horrifying fantasy world with monsters and genetic engineering, and a twisty mystery plot.
Novel
+1 to Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup.
SFF mystery is the one type of list where I’ve usually read at least 2/3 of the books, so I can’t be very objective about this one. Nicely fantastic central mystery, a narrator and detective with their own secrets, a great world with more to explore. Loved it.
Novel
Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds, Orbit Books
The third mystery in his Prefect Dreyfus series, and for me the most enjoyable of the three.
Short story
Companion Animals in Maho Shojo Kira Kira Sunlight, Stewart C. Baker, Lightspeed Magazine, February 2024
A flash short in the form of a media review.
What Becomes of Curious Minds, Wen-yi Lee, Lightspeed Magazine, February 2024
A filled-out story of life in Wonderland.
“Rude Litterbox Space,” Mary Robinette Kowal
This is another of the Sunday Morning Transport’s free stories, and is based on the author’s real-life communication-board-using cat.
+1 to Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Tainted Cup from me as well
Novella
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, Malka Older
I felt like the mystery element was understated in this one, and I do love my SFF mystery. But the continued worldbuilding and character development compensated. I like the small touches of a multicultural founding in the language use.
There are a handful of quick fan service references to future operas, and one of them gave me a few minutes of joy contemplating the roles and groupings in such an opera. (“Gur nevn sebz Zheqreobg,” if you’re impatient.)
The Prisoner’s Throne, by Holly Black
Novel (YA, 2nd in a duology, part of an overarching series)
Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. Oak will have to decide whether to attempt regaining the trust of the girl he’s always loved, or to remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign—even if it means ending Wren, too.??
The shift to Prince Oak’s point of view adds a lot to the story, making it a twisty political tale of intrigue and betrayal. As with all of Holly Black’s faerie stories, I liked it.
Short Story
Stitched to Skin like Family Is, Nghi Vo, Uncanny Magazine, March/April 2024
A slow-building period story of a sewist seeking a lost loved one.
Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulubelle Rock, by Maud Woolf
Novel
Set in a world of the near future, the celebrity elite have access to a technology that allows them to make perfect copies of themselves, who exist to fulfil all the various duties that come as the price of fame. Our protagonist is the thirteenth copy made of the actress known as Lulabelle Rock. Her purpose is to track down and eliminate her predecessors.
Wild, weird, inventive, and disturbing in all the right ways, this immediately shot onto my list of favorite books of 2024. If you want a book that will make you root wholeheartedly for a clone assigned to murder all of her fellow clones, this is the one.
Another +1 for:
The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett
Novel
In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears–quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.
I was at first slightly worried when I realized that this book was based on the Nero Wolfe stories, since that character had a notable tendency towards misogyny. But I needn’t have been concerned; Nero Wolfe is only a loose jumping-off point for a compelling mystery set in an innovative fantasy world, without feeling the need to hew too closely to the original. Robert Jackson Bennett is as brilliant as always, which I should have only expected.
Sunbringer, by Hannah Kaner
Novel (2nd in a trilogy)
Professional godkiller Kissen and her companions—young noble Inara and knight Elogast—return in a winding adventure in a world overflowing with magic, beauty, and danger.
The second book in the Fallen Gods trilogy separates the characters, and spends more time with Elogast, Inara, and Skediceth than Kissen. More of the world, and of Inara’s nature and origins, are revealed, and the question of who is an enemy and who is an ally grows more complicated. The setting is as fascinating as ever, and I’m excited to find out what happens in the final book.
The Book of Love, by Kelly Link
Novel
Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.
This is absolutely not a book for those who want a fast-paced, propulsive novel. While exciting events do sometimes happen, expect a lot of introspection, a lot of contemplation, and a slow meander through the story. The book’s 700 or so pages cover only a few days. Still, I found myself appreciating the thoughtfulness and beautiful prose characteristic of Kelly Link.
Gogmagog, by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard
Novel
In her heyday Cady carried people and goods from the thriving seaports of the estuary into Ludwich, the capital city. Now she’s drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort, telling her bawdy tales for shots of rum. All that’s about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport, one of whom – a young girl – is very ill, and in great danger.
Don’t expect answers to come easily in this odd book about a journey upriver through the ghost of a dragon. Much of the story is left for later books to resolve; still more of it just expects you to keep up. But if you yearn for a strange story with a cantankerous main character, this is a good one to scratch that particular itch.
The Warm Hands of Ghosts, by Katherine Arden
Novel
Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
One way to think of the premise of this book might be: World War I was so mind-breakingly hellish that Lucifer became jealous. That sounds entirely plausible to me. This is a novel that viscerally depicts the horrors of war.
Novella
The Indomitable Captain Holli, Rich Larson, Clarkesworld 211
I don’t want to spoil the plot, but an effective story where you get the bigger picture gradually filtered in through a child’s and her big sister’s perspectives. Not as dark as a lot of Larson.
Short story
An Intergalactic Smuggler’s Guide to Homecoming, Tia Tashiro, Clarkesworld 211
Straightforward but enjoyable, with the smuggler at a transition point.
“Hello! Hello! Hello!“, by Fiona Jones
Short Story
Two very different beings encounter one another in the vastness of space.
I’m having trouble finding words to describe this one other than adorable.
Novel
Ghost Station, S.A. Barnes
This author seems to be making a career of sci-fi/horror novels; this is her second, and having read the first, I can see how she has improved as a writer. This book has tighter pacing, a more careful setup, and better worldbuilding and characterization. The “horror” part of this story has a scientific rather than a supernatural basis, and the steadily rising terror of the situation is very well done.
Short story
A Magician Did It, Rich Larson, Beneath Ceaseless Skies 402
A fun caper with more than meets the eye.
Red Side Story, by Jasper Fforde
Novel (2nd in a series)
Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, twenty-year-old Eddie Russett is being bullied into an arranged marriage with the powerful DeMauve family, purples who hope to redden up their progeny’s color-viewing potential with Eddie’s gene stock. Their obnoxious daughter Violet is confident the marriage won’t hamper her style for too long because Eddie is about to go on trial for a murder he didn’t commit. Meanwhile, Eddie is engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, the charismatic, unpredictable, and occasionally deadly Jane Grey. Time is running out for Eddie and Jane to figure out how to save themselves.
While it doesn’t pack quite the same punch that Shades of Grey did, it’s nonetheless a delight to return to this horrible dystopia after so many years. The stakes are higher, the humor is on point, the horrors are truly terrifying, and many of the mysteries raised in the first book are revealed. That last may be the reason the book didn’t land quite as well; unlike in Shades of Grey, many of the implications here become clear to the reader long before the characters figure them out, which lessens some of the mystery. But a third book is apparently planned, and I’ll be snapping it up when it hits the bookstore shelves.