As December rolls around each year, authors often share posts about what the science fiction and fantasy stories and other work they had published in the last twelve months.
Last year, James Beamon and I were lucky enough to have our game, The Bread Must Rise, nominated for the Nebula award for game writing.
And I’ve had a pretty dang good year this year as well, with a few new stories, a collaborative science fiction text game, and my debut short fiction collection The Butterfly Disjunct all released in 2024.
Huzzah!
Since I’m feeling pretty good about my own work, instead of the traditional “here is my new stuff” post I want to highlight some of the amazing science fiction and fantasy stories, books, and games I’ve read and played from other authors.
But Wait, There’s More.
Before I list out my favourites I want to talk a bit about what this list represents, and what it is emphatically not. If that makes your eyes glaze over, you can skip right to the good stuff!
I’ve limited my focus to authors who haven’t previously won a major genre award (Nebula, Hugo, etc). Those award-winning authors often write things I absolutely adore, but I want to shine a light on some of the mighty fine writers who I feel are just as excellent with this post.
I tend to enjoy character-driven science fiction and fantasy stories. I also tend to enjoy stories about people who are on the edges of their culture or society, or otherwise don’t fit in. When there is some kind of conflict that involves these characters finding others like them? I’m a major sucker for that found family vibe!
In practice, this means the stories that really resonate with me tend to be written by immigrants, women, neurodiverse folks, people of colour, and queer folks. And indeed, you’ll see a lot of that in the list below, and not a thing written by white dudes like myself!
So if that’s what the list represents, what is it not?
First and most importantly, if something is not on this list, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. There are way too many new things I loved for me to share them all! I’ve read more than 30 novels this year alone, and a heck of a lot of short fiction.
To drive that home, I’m not in any way saying these things are “the best” or that the things I haven’t listed are not “the best” science fiction and fantasy stories, books, or games of the year. I’m not a big fan of that phrasing in general, since beyond a certain point of technical expertise, judging something’s quality is a subjective process that’s going to differ for everyone.
Are they my personal “best of”? Sure. My personal favourites? Absolutely.
Do I think they’re amazing? I hope it’s obvious that I do.
Am I sharing the list in the hopes that other people will find and love them just as much as me? Heck yeah I am!
So, enough to-do. On to the lists!
Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, Books, and Games from 2024
Flash Fiction, Short Stories, and Novelettes
“Godiva of the Broken Shell” by Maya Dworsky-Rocha
Maya Dworsky-Rocha’s “Godiva of the Broken Shell” (Flash Fiction Online, August, 749 words) explores a future in which everyone has a “shell,” a sort of high-tech skin that modulates their appearance and voice, and then maps the myth of Lady Godiva onto it—but not, perhaps, in the way you might think.
“Rachel is at a Protest” by Esther Alter
Esther Alter’s “Rachel is at a Protest” (The Deadlands, July, 4,500 words) brilliantly tears into the idea that one can only stand on the side of Jewishness or Palestinian human rights. It’s also about transness, feelings of collective guilt, the importance of human connections, and, honestly, a lot of other things.
It’s an unsettling, unflinching, and at times upsetting story that doesn’t give any easy answers, but it does offer hope.
“A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places” by Marissa Lingen
Marissa Lingen’s “A Pilgrimage to the God of High Places” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May, 3,290 words) explores disability, family, especially touching on how complicated expressions of love and support can sometimes be. A nuanced, wry, uplifting, and thoroughly enjoyable tale.
“Those Left Behind” by Kanishk Tantia
Kanishk Tantia’s “Those Left Behind” (Apex, May, 3,500 words) is about caregiver androids mapped with the neural maps of the dead in order to make their charges’ lives perfect. When abandoned by those they are meant to care for, . A story of patterns and how to break free of them.
“D.E.I. (Death, Eternity, and Inclusion)” by N. Romaine White
N. Romaine White’s “D.E.I. (Death, Eternity, and Inclusion)” (Fiyah! Magazine, January, 3,884 words) is an absolutely hilarious skewering of the well-meaning, but often surface level, attempts at creating more diversity, equity, and inclusion in society and its institutions.
Come for the vampire politics and the tension of being newly undead, stay for the deadpan hilarity in lines like “No. No, it felt wrong, even as I was saying it.”—especially recommended for academics.
“A Fisher of Stars” by Ursula Whitcher
“A Fisher of Stars” (North Continent Ribbon, Neon Hemlock Press, August, 10,792 words) is one of a series of inter-connected stories in Ursula Whitcher’s lovely North Continent Ribbon, a SF setting that fans of Ursula LeGuin and Ann Leckie will love. Come for the unionizing spaceships, stay for the adept characterization, imminently relatable struggles, and heartwarming, bittersweet ending–and then pick up the collection for more of the same!
Novellas, Novels, Anthologies, and Collections
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s novella Lost Ark Dreaming is set in a post-climate collapse future off the coast of West Africa, where a remnant of humanity lives inside a rigidly structured skyscraper initially designed as a weather-proof home for the ultra-wealthy.
Thyme Travellers, edited by Sonia Sulaiman
Edited by Sonia Sulaiman, Thyme Travellers collects fourteen fantastic stories from Palestinian authors of speculative fiction into one excellent book. Often dark and unsettling, and exploring topics from belonging and identity to genocide and war, every single story in this powerful collection is a must-read.
Songs for the Shadows by Cheryl S. Ntumy
Songs for the Shadows is Cheryl S. Ntumy’s debut novella, and the first published stand-alone work in the shared world of the Sauútiverse, an African and African diaspora collective focused on storytelling and collaboration in the traditions of African peoples.
Following a young woman named Shad-Dari as she attempts to escape the tragedies of her past, the book explores the relationship between the past and the future, our efforts to escape who we are, and the cyclical nature of grief (and time!)—amongst other things.
A great and mind-bending story that could only be told with the tools of speculative fiction.
Sargassa by Sophie Burnham
Sophie Burnham’s debult novel, Sargassa, is an alternate history / future / sci-fi novel set in (spoilers) post-apocalyptic Rome. Full of memorable characters, tense situations, and just the right amount of catharsis and terrible mistakes, it’s a great book to pick up if you’re feeling angry and like you want to burn everything down and start over.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
Julie Leong’s debut novel The Teller of Small Fortunes (Penguin Random House, November) follows a young immigrant woman in a fantasy kingdom who makes her living as a fortune teller — but for small fortunes only, as the title implies. With its gentle humour, intimate focus, and focus on character, the book reminds me of a less slapstick Discworld mixed with Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot books. Overall, a lovely, soothing, and enjoyable read!
Watermyth by Anita Harris Satkunananthan
Anita Harris Satkunananthan’s debut novel, Watermyth, is filled with rich, lush details and an obvious love for storytelling. The book features mermaids, memories, and comes with high praise from Julie Day, Natalia Theodoridou and Angela Slatter—it’s easy to see why, once you dive deep into the world between its pages. Not to be missed!
Games
1000xRESIST
I’ve talked a lot about 1000xRESIST on my blog before (see “Despair, Guilt, and Resistance in Speculative Fiction“) . If you’ve never heard of the game, you’re in for a treat.
The game (created by Canadian studio Sunset Visitor) takes place 1000 years after the arrival of an alien race called the Occupants unleashed a deadly disease that is transmitted by breathing and that kills everybody who is infected by it. Everybody, that is, except a young woman named Iris.
In the game, you play one of Iris’s clones, Watcher, tasked with interpreting the actions and intentions of your felow clones by viewing (and re-viewing) Iris’s memories of that distant past.
As the title suggests, 1000xRESIST explores resistance—and it’s an eerie, surreal experience you won’t quickly forget.
Heaven’s Revolution: A Lion Among the Cypress
Written by Peter Adrian Behravesh and inspired by eighteenth-century Iran, Heaven’s Revolution is the steampunk Persian epic you didn’t know you needed. Pilot a giant mech, fly a spaceship to the stars, and join the revolution, defend the satrap as a military commander—or turn away from both and focus on your budding career as an astralchemical professor. A lot of fun to play, and the first four chapters are free!
Eastward: Octopia
Set in the same world and featuring the same characters, Eastward: Octopia is an AU sequel of sorts to Eastward, one of my favourite sprite-based RPGs of the last few years. Free of all the darkness and trauma of the main game, Octopia follows the tried and true farming sim formula made popular by games like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. A great way to relax after a stressful day—and seeing Alva and Izzy happily living out their lives did me a world of good!
That’s All, Folks
Well, to be honest, it’s not all.
This isn’t even close to all the things I’ve read and played this year — I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy stories! — and it’s not even a full list of all the new things I loved.
But as Andrew Marvell definitely said, “if we had world enough, and time / long blog posts, readers, are no crime / but at my back I always hear / Short Attention Span draw near.”
So I’ll leave it here. Thanks for reading to the end, and I hope you have a chance to check out some of the amazing books, games, and stories I’ve linked to above. I promise you won’t regret it if you do!