The Sword and Laser discussion

Two weeks left in the year, so it’s pretty safe to choose our favorite reads of 2024. There could still be a late surprise but it’s kind of unlikely.

So for me…

Fantasy - hands down it was A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. It’s not exactly “cozy Southern Gothic horror” but it’s certainly adjacent to all those. It’s nice to have a plus-sized protagonist who is comfortable in her own skin. Plus it’s frequently funny, and I laughed aloud several times.

Science Fiction - sort of a 3-way tie here between Mechanical Failure, Mal Goes to War and The Fractured Void, which were all fun adventures with plenty of humor. However I’m giving the nod to Mal Goes to War because at some point I thought “I’d never come up with this”, which scores bonus points for me given how much media I’ve consumed.

Comic - I’m going with the standalone The Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, Vol. 1, an unexpected surprise that is a hilarious and demented send-up of Hollywood. Just absolute over-the-top madness.

Runner-ups include: Ryan North’s current run on Fantastic Four, comics in the classic vein of complete stories told in one or two issues with an overarching plot tying it all together in the background. I read four volumes this year and they’re all bangers. Also David Dastmalchian‘s Count Crowley series (Count Crowley Volume 2: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter ). Usually comics “written” by actors are thinly-disguised pitches for movies with the actor in the lead role but this isn’t. Dastmalchian is the real deal, an actual comic nerd who’s written a story with no roles he could play if it were adapted.

Fiction - Girl Waits with Gun is the easy winner. Set just before WWI, it’s based on the lives of real sisters who lived together and ran afoul of a privileged rich douchenozzle who escalated an accidental encounter to harassment and attempted murder, leading to the women pushing back and standing up for themselves in an era when women had few rights. The eldest sister eventually became the first female under sheriff and had several adventures. Truth is truly stranger than fiction. Reading about her showed that author Amy Stewart hewed really close to the actual facts of the case while making them dynamic, no easy feat. The title is from one of the newspaper headlines from the time.

Non-Fiction - So many good books this year, not a bad one in the bunch. Runner-ups are The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts, more very impressive women, and Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People―and the Fight to Resist It. But my top choice is The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I which again underscores how truth is stranger than fiction. If this were a fictional story no one would buy it but it all really happened, and the author’s speculation about what might have really happened to Diesel is enormously entertaining.

Okay, your turn. What does your Best Of list look like?

Going over my reads of the year, I discovered I read a lot of good books (and a few not so good ones) but not necessarily a lot of great ones. Here's what floated to the top of the heap.

Fantasy: The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu (The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne, Speaking Bones). Just one of the best fantasy series I've ever read.

Also great was the latest by Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword.

Science Fiction: I didn't read a lot of SF this year but Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky is very good (and short).

Comic: I really liked Heartstopper: Volume Five by Alice Oseman.

Fiction: I didn't read a lot of fiction either but I have gotten back into reading Agatha Christie. I'm trying to read all her mysteries. I read 8 this year and the best of the bunch is Endless Night.

Nonfiction: A three-way tie: Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry, McMillions: The Absolutely True Story of How an Unlikely Pair of FBI Agents Brought Down the Most Supersized Fraud in Fast Food History by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, and Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum.

Without looking over notes? Dungeon Crawler Carl takes top honors. Seven books of increasingly good quality. It started as an adequate insomnia read and just kept better and better. Can't wait for the TV show.

As for the rest, maybe I'll chime in later as brain kicks in. But for now all I can say is Goddamnit, Donut!

Chris K. wrote: "Fiction: I didn't read a lot of fiction either but I have gotten back into reading Agatha Christie. I'm trying to read all her mysteries. I read 8 this year and the best of the bunch is Endless Night.

Nonfiction: A three-way tie: Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
"

I’ve had Mythos in my TBR for ages. I should hit up the library for that.

I don’t know that I’ve heard of Endless Night. Apparently it’s the last book she wrote before dementia reared its ugly head.

My 5-star reads this year were:
Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master by Raymond Feist
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Monstrous Regiment and Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show: An Anthology edited by Edmund Schubert
Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry
Matter by Iain Banks

If I had to choose a favorite I guess it would be Monstrous Regiment.

Trike wrote: I’ve had Mythos in my TBR for ages. I should hit up the library for that.

I don’t know that I’ve heard of Endless Night. Apparently it’s the last book she wrote before dementia reared its ugly head.

If you can, get the audio of Mythos that Fry narrates. It's not really a surprise he's very good.

I had never heard of Endless Night either before I went to her official website and found this list of her novels. It lists her own top 10 as of 1972. I don't want to say anything about it and spoil it. 🙂

https://agathachristie.imgix.net/imag...

OK I'll play. Hard to pick just one, so I will just list my five star reads.

Fantasy:
- Masquerade in Lodi by Lois McMaster Bujold

SF:
- Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold (bumped up to 5⭐ on a reread.)
- Darkside by Michael Mammay (Good SF action mystery)
- Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold (You might get the idea that I am a fan of Bujold. 😄)

Historical fiction:
- Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian (Still very good on a reread.)
- True Grit by Charles Portis
- The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw

Non fiction -- Lots of WW2 books this year:
- Task Force Hogan: The World War II Tank Battalion That Spearheaded the Liberation of Europe by William R. Hogan (William Hogan tells the story of his father's war.)
- The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
- Fire Mission!: The Siege at Mortain, Normandy, August 1944 by M S W Robert Weiss MSW
- Mosquito: The RAF's Legendary Wooden Wonder and its Most Extraordinary Mission by Rowland White

Fiction:
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Wonderfully entertaining story.)

Trike wrote: "... But my top choice is The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I which again underscores how truth is stranger than fiction. ..."

I wasn't aware of this one. It goes straight into my TBR pile!

Phil wrote: "If I had to choose a favorite I guess it would be Monstrous Regiment."

Monstrous Regiment truly is a late-stage gem in the Discworld series. While my heart belongs to Wyrd Sisters, discovering Monstrous Regiment at a point when I feared the series might be losing its spark felt like a breath of fresh air—it reminded me why I love Terry Pratchett's work so much.

Looking back on my 2024 reading highlights:

Fantasy: This year, I wrapped up three incredible trilogies, each concluding with a 5-star finale: The Hero of Ages (Mistborn), Ship of Destiny (Liveship Traders), and The Light of All That Falls (Licanius Trilogy). I also embarked on some promising new series: Godkiller and Daughter of the Empire both look set to become favorites.

Science Fiction: The Murderbot novella Compulsory was a quick but fun read, while the long-anticipated Red Side Story delivered everything I hoped for.

Historical Fiction: My biggest discovery this year has been Patrick O'Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. I’ve devoured eight books so far, and Desolation Island stands out with one of the most gripping sea-battle scenes I’ve ever encountered.

Non-Fiction: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was an entertaining and eye-opening look at the world of WWII sabotage.

Fantasy:
The Tainted Cup - A really cool secondary world with giant sea creatures, out of control botany and people with cool abilities trying to solve a murder.
Shoutouts of Navola and The Hunger of the Gods

Sci-fi:
The Tusks of Extinction - Humans have DNA sequenced the mammoth and brought a herd back to life on the Siberian tundra. But how does a mammoth know how to be a mammoth?
Shoutouts to The Ministry of Time

Historical:
Glorious Exploits - Talking in modern Irish patter, a pair of bored friends from Ancient Syracuse convince a passel of starving Athenian prisoners to put on a production of a tragedy by Euripides.
Shoutouts to News of the World and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
Shoutout also to Car Talk, because I always think of their tailor Euripides Eumenides

Mystery:
A Most Agreeable Murder - A silly Regency-period country-house murder set in a fiction English 'shire with just about every trope you can think of and a few extras thrown in too.
Shoutouts to Close to Death and Grave Expectations

Happy reading new year to all of you.

Some of my best reads of 2024:

Fantasy: A Magic Steeped in Poison - Couldn't resist a book where there is tea magic.

Fiction: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Very funny book with an unrepentantly nosy Chinese tea shop owner who gets mixed up in murder and then decides to solve it herself because the police obviously can't do it.

Nonfiction: The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why - Fascinating book on the psychology of how people react in disasters.

Steve wrote: "Non-Fiction: Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was an entertaining and eye-opening look at the world of WWII sabotage."

I liked that one, as well. WWII is endlessly fascinating to me because we keep hearing about these little side things that went on which were by turns audacious or crazy or weird or quietly heroic, yet the entire conflict only lasted 6 years and 1 day. By contrast, it’s already been 5 years since Covid showed up.

My 5 star SFF reads of the year:
* The Expert System’s Champion by the prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky.
* Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow; probably doesn't qualify as SFF, but related. In any case really good, you should read it!
* Shards of Honor - re-read for S&L, still great.
* The Tainted Cup - a great surprise, can't wait for the sequel this year.
* Hild and Menewood - this is the epic fantasy (slash historical fiction) that I've been waiting for.

I was under the impression that Hild is historical fiction rather than fantasy, is that right?

Trike wrote: "I was under the impression that Hild is historical fiction rather than fantasy, is that right?"

I think I agree with you; some might argue it blurs the line but I'm not sure I see the blur. I guess she is writing about non-historical times due to lack of written records (post Roman Britain), so maybe that qualifies? The characters in the novel definitely believe in fantastical elements...

However, it was marketed as fantasy, probably because Nicola Griffith is an SFF author. It was nominated for the Nebula award so the community is happy to accept it.

Anyways, it was great and you should read it regardless of taxonomy.

I mostly want to know for my book bingo. XD