Best Science Fiction Books of 2024

The Science Fiction Novels of 2024 That Won Awards and Readers' Votes

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Which science fiction novels defined 2024? This list ranks the year's books by how many independent signals back them: the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards, and the Goodreads Choice Awards science fiction vote.

Books that won or were shortlisted for several awards come first, followed by the books readers voted for most.

The ranking

1

The Ministry of Time (cover not available)

The Ministry of Time

by Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across hist...

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2

Annie Bot (cover not available)

Annie Bot

by Sierra Greer

Annie is the perfect girlfriend. She has dinner ready for Doug every night, wears the outfits he buys for her, and caters to his every sexual whim. Maybe her cleaning isn't always good enough, but she's trying really har...

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3

Service Model (cover not available)

Service Model

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Task Item No. 1: Become Self-Aware Meet Charles™, the latest in robot servant technology. Programmed to undertake the most menial household chores, Charles is loyal, efficient and logical to a fault - that is, until a ra...

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4

Alien Clay (cover not available)

Alien Clay

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?Professor Arton Daghdev had always want...

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5

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory (cover not available)

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory

by Yaroslav Barsukov

Minister Shea Ashcroft refuses a queen's order to gas a crowd of protesters and is banished to the border to oversee the largest defensive tower ever built. The tower uses technology taken from refugees, and the local po...

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6

The Mercy of Gods (cover not available)

The Mercy of Gods

by James S.a. Corey

A spectacular new space opera that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself.How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to...

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7

Orbital (cover not available)

Orbital

by Samantha Harvey

A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of it...

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8

Extremophile (cover not available)

Extremophile

London in 2043 is wrecked by climate collapse, and Charlie and Parker are punk biohackers who make bio-enhancements for criminals and activists. When extremist Green activists hire them for jobs that range from robbery t...

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9

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock (cover not available)

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock

Lulabelle Rock was a washed-up actress, and the thirteenth clone made of her has one job: to find and kill the twelve before her. The mission goes wrong when the clone develops a conscience and falls in love with one of...

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10

Private Rites (cover not available)

Private Rites

by Julia Armfield

Three estranged sisters, Isla, Irene and Agnes, return to the glass house they grew up in when their father, a cruel and revered architect, dies. Rain has fallen for so long in this near-future city that the land has cha...

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11

The Family Experiment (cover not available)

The Family Experiment

Some families are virtually perfect…The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to...

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12

The Stardust Grail (cover not available)

The Stardust Grail

by Yume Kitasei

Maya, a retired art thief who once returned looted artefacts to their home worlds, is asked by an old friend for one last job: to find the Stardust Grail, which could save the Frenro, the species that built the galaxy's...

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13

Extinction (cover not available)

Extinction

by Douglas Preston

At the Erebus Resort in the Colorado Rockies, scientists have revived Ice Age animals such as woolly mammoths and giant deer, with their aggression genes muted. When honeymooners are attacked and their tent is found slas...

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14

Moon of the Turning Leaves (cover not available)

Moon of the Turning Leaves

by Waubgeshig Rice

More than a decade after the collapse of the modern world, the Anishinaabe community of Shki-dnakiiwin is running low on food. Evan Whitesky volunteers to lead a small group, including his archer daughter Nangohns, south...

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15

The Other Valley (cover not available)

The Other Valley

by Scott Alexander Howard

Odile Ozanne lives in a valley that is one of many identical, repeating ones. The neighbouring valley is twenty years in the future and the other twenty years in the past, so what she chooses could change what comes next...

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16

Absolution (cover not available)

Absolution

by Jeff Vandermeer

The fourth Southern Reach book works as both prequel and sequel to the Area X trilogy and follows three separate expeditions. The first, before the border came down, is a detective-style mystery about an unofficial group...

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17

Red Side Story (cover not available)

Red Side Story

by Jasper Fforde

A surreal story (Does Jasper write any others?) that is a sequel to Shades of Grey. Edward Russet battles to make sense of his World with an impending hearing before a biassed panel that will probably pass a capital sent...

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18

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom (cover not available)

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom

by Jason Pargin

Abbott Coburn, 26, lives with his father and finds comfort online. A strangely dressed woman pays him a great deal to drive her and a mysterious black box from California to Washington, D.C. in four days, with no phones...

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Trending Books in Best Science Fiction Books of 2024

The Ministry of Time (cover not available)

The Ministry of Time

Kaliane Bradley

Buy on Amazon

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom (cover not available)

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom

Buy on Amazon

The Other Valley (cover not available)

The Other Valley

Scott Alexander Howard

Buy on Amazon

Extinction (cover not available)

Extinction

Douglas Preston

Buy on Amazon

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory (cover not available)

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory

Yaroslav Barsukov

Buy on Amazon

The Mercy of Gods (cover not available)

The Mercy of Gods

James S.a. Corey

Buy on Amazon

Orbital (cover not available)

Orbital

Samantha Harvey

Buy on Amazon

Extremophile (cover not available)

Extremophile

Buy on Amazon

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock (cover not available)

Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock

Buy on Amazon

Absolution (cover not available)

Absolution

Jeff Vandermeer

Buy on Amazon

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