Here we go again, a quick run-through of the best books I’ve read so far in 2024. And perhaps a mention of another book or two I felt kindly towards...
There are two clear leaders for the best book I read between January and July: one a recent novel and perhaps the best to date by its writer; the other is from a writer we lost in 2022 and I am, I admit, a little late, so to speak, to an appreciation of her fiction. The two books are Conquest (2023, UK) by Nina Allan and Wolf Hall (2009, UK) by Hilary Mantel. Both are stunning pieces of work, although Wolf Hall’s size was, I admit, initially a little daunting. In the first, Allan’s customary obtuseness fits the story perfectly (or the other way round); in the second, well, I’m new to Mantel’s prose, but it is masterclass. I will probably write more on these books at some point.
Next up, another award winner — the Arthur C Clarke Award, in this case — and a novel which seems to have been missed by all the genre awards, although the Sidewise Award did name it in its honour list. Venomous Lumpsucker (2022, UK) by Ned Beauman won the Clarke in 2023, and it was a fairly strong shortlist. (I liked Lucy Kissick’s Plutoshine (2022, UK) a great deal, and both Aliette de Bodard and EJ Swift have in the past produced award-winning fiction.) Venomous Lumpsucker, marred a little by too many infodumps perhaps, is gloriously satirical and presents a convincingly horrible near-future. I was also much amused by the UK as the Hermit Kingdom, a sort of kleptocratic European North Korea. Monica Byrne’s The Actual Star (2021, USA), on the other hand, is set in the past, present and future. It comprises three narratives, set in 1012, 2012 and 3012. In the first, the surviving twin brother and sister of a Mayan city’s royalty try to kickstart their reign, but fail. In the second, a young American woman visits Belize, learns about the Maya, and feels she has found her spiritual home. And the third narrative takes place after Climate Crash, in a world where everyone follows a way of life put together by disciples of the young American woman and the two brothers who introduced her to twenty-first century Mayan culture. Impressively researched — and the three narratives play off each other skilfully. It definitely deserved to be on a few shortlists.
Three recent genre novels, one an award winner, another a nominee for three English-language awards and winner of a Spanish sf award, and the third completely missed by genre awards. The Green Man’s Quarry (2023, UK) by Juliet McKenna won this year’s BSFA Award, despite being a fantasy novel. It’s the fourth book in a series about Daniel Mackmain, whose mother is a dryad, which means he can interact with creatures from English folklore. A good series that just keeps on getting better. Kameron Hurley’s The Light Brigade (2019, USA; see my review here) was nominated for the Clarke, Hugo and Dragon Awards, and won Spain’s Ignotus Award. It’s a very clever reworking of both Robert A Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (1959, USA) and Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War (1974, USA), and impressively larded with sf references. I would sooner it had won the Clarke Award. Finally, I’ve yet to see Bridge (2023, South Africa) on any award shortlists, but I suspect that’s because it’s been marketed as a mainstream thriller rather than science fiction. But it is sf: it’s about people who can access their alternate selves in other universes. So, a bit like Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter (2016, USA), but a million times better.
Continuing on, a trio of opening novels to series or trilogies I suspect I will end up following. Alison Goodman’s The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (2023, Australia), which some might call a Regency crime novel, actually borrowed freely from both Regency romance (and I love me some Heyer) and crime fiction, and presented a twenty-first century approach to Regency-set fiction without hitting Bridgerton levels of anachronism. I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me a little of Theodora Goss’s Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club trilogy (2017–2019, USA), which I highly recommend. These Burning Stars (2023, USA; see my review here) by Bethany Jacobs and The Blighted Stars by Megan O’Keefe (2023, USA) are both opening novels in space opera trilogies, both different in tone: think Banks written by a US author who doesn’t quite get Banks but is entertaining nonetheless versus a hard sf story set in a your standard corporate slavery style US space opera setting but does well with the hard sf elements… Both managed to throw a few surprises into the mix, enough to make me want to read the remaining books in each trilogy.
Last, but not at least, relatively speaking, a few honourable mentions: a new collection by James Tiptree Jr is always worthy of note, even if she died 37 years ago and most of her oeuvre is available in some form or other (SF Gateway, for example, has published most of her collections and novels as ebooks). But The Voice that Murmurs in the Darkness (2023, USA) is a handsome volume from Subterranean Press, and a good collection. Then there’s Alliance Rising (2019, USA) by CJ Cherryh and her long-time partner Jane S Fancher, which recounts some of the early events that led to the formation of the Alliance and the Union. It’s solid Cherryh sf, and this is nearly fifty years after the publication of her first novel. A career to be admired and envied. Rian Hughes followed up 2020’s XX: A Novel, Graphic (2020, UK) with The Black Locomotive (2021, UK), which boasts the same sophisticated approach to graphic design married to a heartland sf plot. I’m hoping there’s a sequel as the ending was somewhat abrupt.
In summary, for the TL;DR crowd, I recommend:
- Conquest, Nina Allan (2023, UK)
- Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (2009, UK)
- Venomous Lumpsucker, Ned Beauman (2022, UK)
- The Actual Star, Monica Byrne (2021, USA)
- The Green Man’s Quarry, Juliet E McKenna (2023, UK)
- The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley (2019, USA; see my review here)
- Bridge, Lauren Beukes (2023, South Africa)
- The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, Alison Goodman (2023, Australia)
- These Burning Stars, Bethany Jacobs (2023, USA; see review here)
- The Blighted Stars, Megan O’Keefe (2023, USA)
- The Voice that Murmurs in Darkness, James Tiptree, Jr (2023, USA)
- Alliance Rising, CJ Cherryh & Jane S Fancher (2019, USA)
- The Black Locomotive, Rian Hughes (2021, UK)
Enjoy.
