December 23, 2024 ☼ books ☼ fiction ☼ levity

This is my list of fiction for 2024. I have rated them into categories, but within a category they are in no particular order. They are in two categories: completely read or re-read, and partially read or set aside.

(Related: 2023 - The Year in Fiction, 2022 — The Year in Fiction and 2021 — The Year in Fiction)

Completely read or re-read

Very Highly Rated

1. The Cloven by Brian Catling *
2. Sinai Tapestry by Edward Whittemore *
3. Jerusalem Poker by Edward Wittemore *
4. Quarantine by Greg Egan
5. The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton *
6. The Human Factor by Graham Greene
7. The Scar by China Mieville *
8. Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
9. The Proof of my Innocence, by Jonathan Coe
10. The Transparency of Time by Leonardo Padura *
11. Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
12. I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
13. The Sorcerer’s House by Gene Wolfe

Highly Rated

1. Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford
2. Relight my fire by C K O’Donnell
3. Nile Shadows by Edward Whittemore
4. Into the Blue by Robert Goddard
5. Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin
6. Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson
7. The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
8. Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson
9. The Crock of Gold by James Stephens
10. Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon
11. Finch by Jeff Vandermeer
12. Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
13. Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd
14. The Land Across by Gene Wolfe
15. The Magus by John Fowles
16. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
17. The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang
18. Hollow out the Dark by James Wade

Good

1. The Good Angel of Death by Andrey Kurkov
2. Rouge Street by Shuang Xuetong
3. Jericho Mosaic by Edward Whittemore
4. The Third Man by Graham Greene
5. The Thin Man by Dashiel Hammett
6. Sea Change by Robert Goddard
7. Sourdough by Robin Sloan
8. Way Station by Clifford D Simak
9. Borrowed Time by Robert Goddard
10. The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
11. The Disappearance of Adele Bedeaux by Graeme Macrae Burnet
12. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer
13. Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard
14. The Melancholy of Untold History by Minsoo Kang
15. Tik-Tok by John Sladek
16. Quin’s Shanghai Circus by Edward Whittemore
17. The Labyrinth Makers by Anthony Price

Good, but underwhelming

1. The Novices of Laverna by Ángel Bonomini
2. Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
3. Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer
4. Wordhunter by Stella Sands
5. A Murder of Quality by John le Carre
6. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
7. Strange Gods by Annamaria Alfieri
8. The Rose of Tibet by Lionel Davidson
9. Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove
10. Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson
11. The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson
12. Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr
13. Snow by John Banville
14. Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway

Okay…

1. The Bone Trap by Tormod Cockburn
2. The Great When by Alan Moore
3. Time Wanderers by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
4. North from Rome by Helen MacInnes
5. The Space Between Us by Doug Johnstone
6. The Portable Door by Tom Holt
7. The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Berninos
8. The Dragon Scroll by I J Parker
9. The Diamond Chariot by Boris Akunin
10. Dr No by Percival Everett
11. The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
12. In Ascension by Martin Macinnes

Partially read

(Over the past few years my reading habit has changed in one important way: I put aside a book as soon as I stop enjoying it or get bored. Some of those I set aside I might read at a later time, but mostly I just, er, write them off.)

1. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
2. Numbers in the Dark by Italo Calvino
3. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
4. A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
5. Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
6. The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
7. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
8. The Annual Banquet of the Gravedigger’s Guild by Mathias Enard
9. The Thing in the Snow by Sean Adams
10. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekara
11. The Map of Time by Felix J Palma
12. The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei
13. Rashomon etc Ryunosuke Akutagawa
14. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
15. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
16. Recognitions by William Gaddis
17. The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
18. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
19. Jerusalem by Alan Moore
20. Excession by Iain Banks
21. Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist
22. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter
23. Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon
24. Analog/Virtual (The Ten Percent Thief) by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
25. The Will of the Many James Islington
26. The Shadow of what was lost James Islington
27. City of Last Chances Adrian Tchaikovsky
28. Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang was juvenile
29. The Anachronist by Andrew Hastie
30. Dead Moon by Peter Clines

See also 2023 - The Year in Fiction, 2022 — The Year in Fiction and 2021 — The Year in Fiction

To read about more things like this, you can check out my published raw notes and my massive archives.

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