Favorite sci-fi books read in 2024
📝 Reinier Ladan - Monday December 30, 2024
When it comes to reading, I’m a very picky person. I only read sci-fi and fantasy books to get my head out of this world and into a more focused state. The real world is not something I run away from, but it’s healthy (I think) to reflect on the real world by way of looking at it from a distance. Sci-fi and fantasy offer this distance when discussing major topics that would feel far too heavy when set in stories about this fragile planet we live on.
Mercy of Gods
Short synopsis: On the remote planet of Anjiin, humanity lives under the looming shadow of the hive-like Carryx empire and their ancient war that spans the galaxy. When the Carryx enslave the brightest minds—including ordinary assistant Dafyd Alkhor—and force them into a brutal competition against other captive species, extinction hovers at every turn. Caught between a suicidal human rebellion and the implacable wills of countless alien foes, Dafyd’s desperate gambit to survive will make him both humanity’s champion and its ultimate betrayer.
I thoroughly enjoyed the previous series of the author James S.A. Corey (which is actually two authors), The Expanse, so I was a bit hesitant to start reading this first book in a new series The Mercy of Gods. But it did not disappoint at all.
The scale of the world and the narrative is, again, enormous and you really feel it. Humanity is such a small grain of sand in the universe and this book hits you in the face with it.
The Long Way To a Small, Angry Planet
Short synopsis: Rosemary Harper joins the aging Wayfarer looking for a fresh start and finds a ragtag crew that quickly begins to feel like family. Together, they tunnel wormholes across the galaxy, facing unexpected dangers that test their trust and loyalty. Amid the chaos of deep space, Rosemary discovers that relying on others—and finding where she truly belongs—might be the greatest adventure of all.
I finally came around reading the books in The Wayfarers series from Becky Chambers. I tried the first book (The Long Way To a Small, Angry Planet) a couple of times in the past, but never got further than the first couple of chapters. It just didn’t click for me. Until this year.
Within a couple of months I read all the books in the series and it was such a delightful experience. Each book is unique in its own way and not a direct sequel to the previous one. They are loosely connected.
You could almost categorize these books as ‘cozy sci-fi’ except for the fact that each of these books had a very impactful gut punch that definitely didn’t feel cozy. Because of the cozy nature of most of the books, these gut punches came in hard.
Infinity Gate
Short synopsis: The Pandominion is a trading and political alliance across a million versions of Earth, all linked through inter-dimensional travel. When a dangerous AI emerges that could unravel everything they've built, the Pandominion vows to destroy it by any means necessary—even if it means sacrificing countless human lives. Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal, searching for a way to save her own dying planet, becomes caught in this ruthless war and must choose a side before it costs her everything.
Infinity Gate was such a beautiful combination of serious sci-fi and whimsical world building. Like a mashup of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Fifth Element and Star Trek. The hopping between worlds, alternative histories of Earth, was such a joy. The differences in societies, the scale of it all, the treatment of AI, all things that got stuck in my head for months after reading the book.
A common theme in these books
These books were of a completely different kind, but they still share a certain vision on humanity from the point of view of aliens. And with that view it’s hard to keep a human-focused view on earth in this reality. How we treat this planet, the animals we share this planet with and nature / climate as a whole. We’re such a bunch of assholes, toying with our own future, caring nothing for next generations. Maybe not a thing that every reader gets out of these books, but I surely did.