The 28 Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Books of 2024…So Far
Here are the 28 best science-fiction, fantasy and horror books of 2024…so far. I’ve devoured tales of King Arthur and J.R. R. Tolkien’s stories of Hobbits and Middle-earth since I was a small child. But horror? Ooh, that’s not for me, despite venturing timidly into Edgar Allan Poe and much later in life the likes of H.P. Lovecraft. I don’t like horror movies either. (Or roller coasters; I just don’t want to be scared, thank you very much.)
Usually a horror movie or a scary book has to be really good for me to even think of watching or reading them. I’ve asked for hazardous duty pay when I am forced to read a horror novel, but no luck so far. And yet, I’ve found horror novels I really enjoyed. And romances with a dash of sci-fi and fantasy, classic short story collections, a wild Russian satire, old-fashioned Space Opera and much more. So whatever your taste, you’ll find something here. And maybe give something new a try while you’re at it. So let’s get reading! At the head of the Parade are…
The 28 Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror Books of 2024…So Far
Courtesy of Viking, Knopf, Flatiron Books
1. The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
2. Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
3. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Lev Grossman shot to fame with his three novels invariably described as Harry Potter, but filled with cursing and sex. Now he tackles the tales of King Arthur. Anyone expecting a caustic, modern spin on Camelot won’t be disappointed. You’ll find Python-esque humor, transgender knights, queer knights (in the closet or whatever constitutes a closet in those days), a tiresomely perfect Lancelot and at least a hero of the expected sort: an 18 year old kid mostly abandoned, seen as useless but determined to be a knight and, who knows, perhaps of more kingly bearing than he imagines. Frankly, I was not easily won over. But Grossman isn’t here to tear down Arthurian myths or reveal them as far too lacking when it comes to gender and sexual politics. Oh he perhaps does that too. But Grossman isn’t tweaking the story of King Arthur. He’s telling it again in his own way. Each character is given a back story that deepens and impresses on our mind, from the new lesser knights we begin with to Arthur and Lancelot and the whole gang. Ultimately, it becomes quite moving. These tales will be told again and again as long as stories are told. But they won’t always be told well. Here, they are.
Navola will of course be compared to Game of Thrones aka A Song of Ice and Fire. (Take your time, George! We’ll wait.) But this fantasy novel by Paolo Bacigalupi shouldn’t be sold as a rip-roaring tale with dragons. It’s mostly a coming of age story set in an Italian-ish country where backstabbing and shifting alliances and Medici-like power is always balanced on the edge of a knife. Bacigalupi may shift into high gear in the later volumes (there will assuredly be more). But here he admirably takes his time, painting a full portrait of Davico di Regulai, the heir apparent of a family dynasty but a young man who seems ill-suited to the treacherous and subtle world of his father. Davico is just…too honest, too open. It’s a quietly compelling novel as we wonder if Davico will simply be consumed by the world he’s meant to help lead…or is he actually more ruthless than we think? Absolutely no one can be taken at surface level and that dragon’s eye (an ancient artifact) will at some point open, but the entire feel of this novel is more Wolf Hall than Game of Thrones. Know that and you will enjoy it without tapping your toes wondering when the fireworks will start. It’s the revelation of character that casts a spell here, not wizards and magic.
Best-selling author Leigh Bardugo outdoes herself with this fantasy novel set during Spain’s Golden Age. A kitchen maid uses bits of magic to make her dull work easier. But when her talent is discovered, she becomes a pawn in the hands of her social-climbing mistress and then an aide to the King desperate to get back in good graces after a disastrous defeat to England. Our heroine enters a high stakes world of intrigue and plotting and deception. As the Inquisition looms she wonders what is more dangerous: her Jewish blood or the immortal “familiar” she depends on that strikes an ever-harder bargain.
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman ($35; Viking) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi ($30; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo ($29.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Scribner, Forge Books
4. You Like It Darker by Stephen King
5. Extinction by Douglas Preston
Stephen King is an acclaimed, best-selling novelist. But I believe his best work comes in short stories. Check out King's latest collection, You Like It Darker. (And then check out his masterpiece, the four novellas that comprise Different Seasons.)
Just say it. It’s Jurassic Park but with…well, actually it really is Jurassic Park. Best-selling author Douglas Preston goes toe to toe with Michael Crichton’s classic thriller by resurrecting wooly mammoths for the pleasure of wealthy tourists heading to a preserve in the Colorado Rockies. When two of those "one percenters" are murdered–perhaps by eco-terrorists–a police investigation soon uncovers something much more ancient and malevolent, a force that once wiped out dinosaurs and might do the same for humans.
You Like It Darker by Stephen King ($30; Scribner) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Extinction by Douglas Preston ($29.9; Forge Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 32 Best Romance Books of 2024…So Far.
Courtesy of Sourcebooks/Landmark, CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, Flatiron Books
6. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
7. In The Belly of the Whale by Michael Flynn
8. The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
The Last Murder at the End of the World combines a delicious murder plot with an unexpected setting: an island of survivors after the world is wiped out by a mysterious fog. When one of the handful of people left is brutally murdered, it’s both shocking and dangerous since the island’s defenses against the fog must be rebuilt in less than five days or they’ll all die.
The late Michael Flynn was a master of science fiction, as eight nominations for the acclaimed Hugo Award make clear. His final novel looks to be a fitting capper to a renowned career. Here Flynn brings to life the people living on an asteroid that’s been hollowed out and sent on its way to colonize a planet it will take hundreds of years to reach. Just generations into the voyage, the society of some 40,000 people is collapsing. An increasing number of its inhabitants have never known anything except life on The Whale, as it’s called. It’s a microcosm of life on Earth, of course, but Flynn brings it to life with his usual clear-eyed talent for marrying hard science with rich characters.
Sci-fi author Yume Kitasei follows her acclaimed debut The Deep Sky with another winner. The Stardust Grail is space opera of the smartest sort, offering the current trend of museums repatriation of stolen artifacts to their original cultures, but in this case it’s being done by an interstellar art thief now tasked with the challenge of a lifetime. Retrieve and return a stolen artifact that could save an entire alien species from extinction.
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton ($27.99; Sourcebooks/Landmark) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
In The Belly of the Whale by Michael Flynn ($19.99; CAEZIK SF & Fantasy) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei ($28.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of S&S/Saga Press
9. The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
10. I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
What a year for Stephen Graham Jones. He triumphantly finishes off a series and produces another novel that's very different but just as creepy.
The finale of a spookily scary trilogy, The Angel Of Indian Lake is an ode to slasher movies that goes much deeper than jump cuts and cheap thrills. It's an audacious reimagining of the American West, a look at small town America worthy of Stephen King and -- yes -- so frightening that reviews compare it to a chainsaw. And not just because the first book is titled My Heart Is A Chainsaw. It's time to face down the Lake Witch and why wait for the movies or miniseries? At least you can read with the lights on.
Director Michael Mann’s 1986 film Manhunter marked the first screen presence of Hannibal Lecter (played by Brian Cox of Succession fame). It’s very good and one twist in particular is chillingly effective. A serial killer is on the loose (not Lecter) and maybe two-thirds of the way through the film we suddenly spend time with him and see the world through his eyes. He’s lonely and confused and capable of some desire for human connection and to our horror, for a moment, we empathize with him and see how cruel and capricious the world seems from his twisted point of view. The novel I Was A Teenage Slasher doubles down on this, telling the entire story from the point of view of a 17 year old kid cursed to kill for revenge. Set in a small Texas town in 1989, it’s lovingly immersed in the slasher movie culture of the 1980s and very, very violent. But sweet too? I can’t wait to check it out.
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones ($28.99; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones ($29; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Union Square and Co.
11. Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison
It’s a big year for the late Harlan Ellison, one of the key figures in fiction. First we have this compilation of some of his best short stories, including the iconic “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” The collection just scratches the surface for a writer who made such an impact on science fiction, fantasy and horror, not to mention TV and film. Shockingly, one might argue his biggest impact was as an editor. In this era of renewed book banning, Ellison would be at the front of the picket lines to protest. For in 1967 he gave the world Dangerous Visions, a collection of short stories nobody would publish, groundbreaking works by major talents (and many that would soon become ones) that pushed buttons marked “sex” and “religion” and “capitalism” and oh, name it. Not everything designed to be provocative actually manages to provoke. And even fewer things designed to be provocative are actually any good. Dangerous Visions was both. It led to 1972’s Again, Dangerous Visions, another landmark collection. And then–he promised, he promised!–more Dangerous Visions. It became one of the great unrealized artistic projects of the 20th century. But now, more than six years after his death, Ellison’s estate is overseeing The Last Dangerous Visions in October. Censors better start warming up their red pencils now!
Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison ($19.99; Union Square and Co.) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Avid Reader Press/S&S,Doubleday, Atria Books
12. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
13. The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
14. The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Kaliane Bradley has what might turn into the unclassifiable debut of the year: a time-traveling/workplace comedy/romance between a civil servant in the near future and her unexpected roommate: an Arctic explorer who perished back in 1845…at least until the Ministry of Time got a hold of him. Nutty, surprising and just as easily filed under Romance or Literary Fiction, for the snobs who can’t bear to read sci-fi, even if it is as acclaimed as this is proving to be.
Author Holly Gramazio is a games designer in London and she’s just gamified dating and husbands with her debut book. What if you’re single and a potential husband popped out of the attic? If he wasn’t quite right, what if you sent him back? And out popped a new husband, revealing an entirely new life for you to consider? This swipe right (or left!) spin on romance is the delicious premise of her comic novel. It’s about the endless possibilities of dating and the danger—or is it allure—of always knowing a new husband is just an attic away.
Author Scott Alexander Howard plays with the concept of time travel. In his case, it’s a head-spinning one played not for fancy but heartbreak. Our hero Odile lives in a town which is bordered by two more versions of the same town: one 20 years in the future and another version 20 years in the past. She wants to sit on the group that has control over who can cross their borders from the past or the future (like people who want to mourn a loved one by skipping back in time to observe the dead person when they were still alive). But she also feels closer and closer to a boy she knows will die too young, a boy who has no idea of his fate. With this initially puzzling setup, Howard illuminates so much about life and destiny and heartbreak that it proves yet again why sci-fi is such a satisfying way of tackling the big ideas we all face.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley ($28.99; Avid Reader Press/S&S) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio ($29; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard ($27.99; Atria Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Del Rey, Union Square & Co., Tor Nightfire
15. Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman
16. Now, Conjurers by Freddie K?lsch
17. Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Josh Malerman wrote Bird Box, the horror novel that became the Sandra Bullock blockbuster. Now he’s delivering a new creepfest with Incidents Around The House. I am not interested. I do not like being scared. It features your everyday family: Mommy, Daddo, Grandma Ruth, eight year old Bella…Other Mama, the presence only Bella can see and hear, the creature that asks Bella one question every single day: “Can I go inside your heart?” See? I’m already scared.
Now, Conjurers finds a coven of queer teens taking on a demon. They’re not hunted because they’re queer; they just are. Think Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, but no subtext needed for anything.Now, Conjurers finds a coven of queer teens taking on a demon. They’re not hunted because they’re queer; they just are. Think Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, but no subtext needed for anything.
Chuck Tingle is the perfect name for an adult film star specializing in fetish. But he’s also the author of numerous books under various pseudonyms. As Tingle, he burst onto the horror scene with Camp Damascus, a novel set at a gay conversion camp. Now with Bury Your Gays, Tingle ups the horror by setting it in…Hollywood. A screenwriter is at the top of his game thanks to an Oscar nomination and a hit streaming series. But his bosses want the writer to have a killer season finale by offing the gay characters on the show (a move so common in TV circles it’s a cliche that fans bemoan online). Oh and the creatures he dreamt up during his B movie horror film days? They've come to life and are stalking him. In other words, another normal day in Hollywood.
Incidents Around The House by Josh Malerman ($28; Del Rey) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Now, Conjurers by Freddie K?lsch ($19.99; Union Square & Co.) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle ($26.99; Tor Nightfire) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
18. Blue Lard by Vladimir Sororkin; translated by Max Lawton
When someone wants to ban a book, I immediately want to read it. If you’re like me and you love sci-fi, then Blue Lard is the reissued classic of the year you need. It came out in Russia in 1999 and caused a furor. People didn’t burn it. Putin supporters built a massive papier-maché toilet in front of the Bolshoi Theater (a sacred space for the arts in Moscow) and then they shredded copies of the book and tossed those in the “toilet.” Unfortunately, there’s no word if they then set the whole thing on fire, but one can hope. Author Vladimir Sororkin delivers loving send-ups of Tolstoy and the like in an absurdist plot involving cloned Russian artists who pen imitations of the greats because this generates “blue lard” on their backs which can be harvested to power Russian colonies on the moon. Did I mention the apparent copious sodomy involving Kruschev, Stalin and the like? Another welcome novel gets the spotlight from NYRB in its first English translation, delivered by Max Lawton.
Blue Lard by Vladimir Sorokin; translated by Max Lawton ($18.95; NYRB Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Tachyon Publications, Flatiron Books, S&S/Saga Press
19. The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills
20. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
21. Road to Ruin by Hana Lee
Writer Samantha Mills hardly comes out of nowhere. She’s won numerous awards for her short stories, including the Nebula Award, which honors the best in sci-fi and fantasy. Now Mills delivers her first novel, and its universal acclaim mark this as one of the most notable debuts of the year. It’s a fantasy novel set in a world where the most honored soldiers are mechanically modified warriors who protect the city of Radezhda with unquestioning devotion. The trouble begins when our hero Zenya actually does begin to question, never a good idea in a world where questions are the enemy of loyalty.
Sarah Brook has the steampunk debut of the year with A Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands. It’s a fantasy novel that combines Murder on the Orient Express with a cast of characters on board the Trans-Siberian Express who must trust each other if they are to have any hope of surviving the journey. Across the board acclaim make this one fans of the genre should jump on.
If you loved the new Mad Max movie, then Road to Ruin is the dystopian fantasy novel you need. In it, a royal messenger travels from a domed city into the wastelands to (try and) deliver love notes from her prince to a stranded princess via a magic-powered cycle. She’s a Furiosa in love, since our hero Jin has a thing for both the prince and the princess. She agrees to rescue the young woman and then flee for safety across a terrain dotted with beasts, marauders and the pursuing forces of the princess’s father.
The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills ($18.95; Tachyon Publications) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide To The Wastelands by Sarah Brooks ($28.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Road to Ruin by Hana Lee ($18.99; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Ballantine Books
22. The Gathering by C.J. Tudor
“High concept.” That’s Hollywood’s term for an idea that bristles with possibility. C.J. Tudor’s latest crosses vampires with a crime novel. In this case, Detective Barbara Atkins specializes in vampyr killings. She’s sent to a small Alaska town where a little boy had his throat slashed and all the blood drained out of his body. The locals blame someone from the Colony, a settlement of vampyrs living on their own away from others. The vampyrs see their very existence threatened in a lust for revenge. And then more bodies pile up….
The Gathering by C.J. Tudor ($29; Ballantine Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Related: The 29 Best Mystery, Thriller and True Crime Books of 2024…so Far
Courtesy of Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, MIRA
23. A Short Walk Through A Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke
24. The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang
Remember the action film Speed? In the Keanu Reeves/Sandra Bullock thriller, if a bus fell below a certain speed, a bomb would go off and kill everyone on board. In this epic fantasy debut, a young woman in Paris falls prey to a mysterious curse of sorts: when she plays with a wooden puzzle ball on the way home from school, young Aubry gets sicker and sicker. Soon she realizes the only way to stop dying is to keep moving. Soon Aubry is circling the globe in a mad dash to escape death and experience life. If it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, why then Aubry might just be the luckiest person alive.
"Romantasy" is a hot new genre. It mixes fantasy with romance in a way never imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien, who felt even hand-holding was a bit much for Middle Earth. Not anymore, where dragons and magic might be the backdrop for a steamy affair that would make Jackie Collins blush. In his polished, acclaimed debut, Justinian Huang proves romantasy can also be a launchpad for great writing. He combines reincarnation and a love that crosses millennia to share a story of an emperor and courtier fated to be. They meet in a palace and again 1700 years later at an isolated inn...and again at an underground rave in LA. So they're fated to be...but it's going to take a while. Think Kim Stanley Robinson's marvelous The Years of Rice and Salt.
A Short Walk Through A Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke ($28.99; Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang ($28.99; MIRA) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Grove Press, Random House
25. Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino
26. I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
27. The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Three novels most wouldn't consider sci-fi or fantasy but we know better.
Nothing holds up a mirror to our hometown or country or world like a visitor, the classic fish out of water. Whether it’s someone from another part of our country or our galaxy, they see our lives with fresh eyes that startle and amuse and illuminate. That’s the case with Beautyland, a novel pitched as literary fiction but sci-fi through and through. When Voyager 1 is launched into space in 1977, a child is born to a single mom in Philly. Adina is…different. She just knows she’s an alien from a distant planet, sent to earth to report on our strange customs. A strange fax machine mysteriously arrives to allow Adina to make her reports and she does, capturing the fragile and violent and beauty of the world. But maybe Adina should also share her messages with us? When it came out in January, this was showered with attention. We’ll have to see if others remember it at the end of the year.
After 9/11, Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like A River arrived just in time as a balm for troubled times. He has a knack for tackling difficult, troubled subjects and yet claiming a hopeful optimism as our right. Enger does it again with this picaresque tale set in a near-future America. The country is collapsing but our hero Rainy takes to the waters of Lake Superior in search of his beloved wife (a bookseller!) and with a naive openness that makes him a radical when the world around Rainy is so troubled, fearful and full of apprehension.
The first novel from acclaimed short story writer Kelly Link has been compared to Stephen King and David Mitchell and that’s good enough for me to want to dive in. The Book of Love is a fantastical tale set in the town of Lovesend, Massachusetts. Three high school kids disappeared and are presumed dead. They are dead, but they’ve also come back. A bland music teacher they never paid attention to now has a proposal: they must complete certain magical tasks and if they do, they may return to their lives, but will be sworn to secrecy about where they’ve been and what they’ve done. Simple enough…until other supernatural forces prove determined to stop them. It also involves some really good pizza.
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino ($28; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger ($28; Grove Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
The Book of Love by Kelly Link ($31; Random House) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
28. How To Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler
Django Wexler knows how to hit the sweet spot of humor in the often too-serious world of fantasy. He combines the fatalistic time-loop of Edge of Tomorrow with the knowing comedy of Redshirts by John Scalzi in How To Become The Dark Lord & Die Trying, the story of a woman bored by endlessly trying to defeat the Dark Lord only to be foiled by a time loop. So, what the hell, she decides to become the next Dark Lord instead.
How To Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler ($19.99; Orbit) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
