The Best Science Fiction Books of 2024

The surprise fourth volume in one of the most popular sci-fi series of our age, plunges readers back into the Southern Reach universe. Each of the three parts brings us along on a new expedition, providing long-awaited answers and offering new surprises and questions.

The Los Angeles Times said, "It’s a smart, gripping work that’s also a feast for the senses…Bradley’s written an edgy, playful and provocative book that’s likely to be the most thought-provoking romance novel of the summer.”

A “monumental accomplishment” and “shimmering masterpiece,” according to The Boston Globe, from the acclaimed author of Parakeet. When Voyager 1 and its golden record are launched into space, an unusual baby is born in Philadelphia. This child recognizes memories of a foreign planet and, with a fax machine, makes contact with her alien relatives. As she grows up, she continues these secret transmissions. Beautyland speaks to feeling like an outsider at home and the fragility of existence.

From Bora Chung, the National Book Award finalist for the novel Cursed Bunny, comes an uncanny and darkly humorous collection of stories. Thrillingly translated by the acclaimed Anton Hur, you’ll be taken through various fates for humanity: a disease whose only symptom is casual cannibalism, a world in which dreams can be cause for conviction of crimes, and a gala for donors hoping to live forever. Singular in imagination and scope, Chung’s collection is not one to be missed.

The Final Architecture series’ author’s new novel follows professor and political dissident, Arton Daghdev, who has been recently imprisoned in a penal colony on the planet of Kiln. After Arton arrives, he discovers that humanity was not the first species to lay roots on Kiln, leading him on a gripping search for answers and survival.

Though it was first published in Chinese in 2008 and English in 2014, Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem series has taken 2024 by storm following the popular Netflix adaptation’s release earlier this year. Liu’s latest is a collection of both introspective nonfiction musings as well as the typically imaginative works of fiction that we’ve come to expect from him.

Hailed by The Atlantic as one of its Great American Novels, this legendary science fiction author’s spellbinding tale follows a famed scientist as he tries to reunite two planets cut off from each other by centuries of distrust. "Le Guin expanded the boundaries of fiction not just by committing to its revolutionary capacities but also by considering deeply, and with great clarity, other ways of being,” observed Meng Jin in The Atlantic. “More than a novel, this is an ontological work of extraordinary imagination and compassion."

This New York Times bestseller from one of the most prolific authors in the genre, tells the story of Dafyd Alkhor, a human who is abducted, along with many other of the most talented members of his society, by the all-powerful alien Carryx empire. As the Carryx wage a war against a mysterious foe, Dafyd and his enslaved peers must serve the Carryx to have any hope of survival.

The Book of Elsewhere follows the story of a warrior who is unable to die and has watched as endless centuries and civilizations have risen and fallen. But “B” is now ready to die and has sought out help from a U.S. black-ops group who has promised to help him end his life. In exchange, he owes them a big favor: a dead soldier has mysteriously risen from the dead, and B must take care of him for good.

This new collection features all of the short fiction from the author of the critically adored Imperial Radch series, plus the brand new novelette, “Lake of Souls.” Whether you’re already a Leckie super fan or looking to dip your toes into the worlds of one of the most compelling contemporary sci-fi authors, this collection is a great place to jump in.