“She has been happy here, and anxiously miserable, but she has never been free.”
Science fiction has the incredible ability to push our imaginations into the stratosphere. Whether it be a hard sci-fi read grounded in real-life logic and technology or a more fantastical-feeling story, the genre feels fresher now than ever before. New and veteran authors alike are putting fresh spins on classic tropes, and using their stories to make timely social critiques about everything from patriarchy, and artificial intelligence to climate change. So, from the grandest of space operas to more stripped-back speculative stories, join us today at What We Reading as we run you through our favourite new sci-fi books from 2024 so far!
Womb City – Tlotlo Tsamaase
Kicking off our list of the best new sci-fi books from 2024 is Womb City, a dark dystopia story by Tlottlo Tsamaase. Nelash appears to have it all: wealth, fame, a husband and a child on the way. But, in a body her husband controls via microchip, her hopes and dreams soon come to a crashing end. After a drug-fuelled night ends in a hit-and-run, Nelah and her side-piece, Janith Koshal, finish their victim off and bury the body to escape punishment.
But the secret refuses to remain buried for long. As her victim’s vengeful ghost begins their quest for revenge against everyone Nelah loves, she’s forced to unravel the terrible secrets housed in her society in order to stop those in power. In the process, she becomes a monster worse than any other to bring an end to the ghost’s violent frenzy.
The Stardust Grail – Yume Kitasei
Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For a decade, she returned stolen artefacts to their rightful civilisations. Until one disastrous job forced her into hiding. Nowadays, she just wants to enjoy her quiet life as an anthropology student. Then an old friend approaches her with a job she just can’t refuse: locate a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction.
In her new 2024 sci-fi book The Stardust Grail, Yume Kitasei follows Maya as she sets out on a quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. Yet, the further she goes, a dark shadow is cast over her team made up of old and new friends. And, soon enough, in choosing to save one species, she may be forced to doom Earth and humanity.
Ocean’s Godori – Elaine U. Cho
Despite being a descendant of a long line of haenyeo, Jeju Island’s famous female divers, Ocean Yoon has never felt much like a Korean. She’s also a persona non grata at the Alliance, Korea’s solar system-dominating space agency on the back of gaining a reputation for being too quick on her gun after a mission went terribly wrong.
When her best friend, Teo, second son of the Anand Tech empire, is framed for murdering his family, Ocean and her ragtag crew are pushed to a high-stakes ideological conflict. But, evading bullets and winning space chases may just be the easiest part of what comes next for them. Elaine U. Cho’s Ocean’s Godori blends budding romance with hyperkinetic action sequences for a new sci-fi novel that asks: ‘What do we owe our past?’
Baby X – Kira Peikoff
In a near-future United States, where advanced technologies can create eggs and sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities are forced to face the possibility of meeting biological children they never conceived. Successful singer Trace Thorne has been targeted by the Vault, a black market site dedicated to stealing DNA. Tired of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he employs bio-security guard Ember Ryan to keep his biology safe and secure.
Ember is well acquainted with all of the Vault’s tricks and will do anything to protect her clients. Despite preventing countless DNA losses in her time, her employment for Thorne is complicated when she finds herself falling for him. Things are only complicated further when a pregnant woman confronts the pair of them claiming that Throne is the father of her baby. One of the best new speculative novels, Kira Peikoff’s Baby X is as unpredictable and thrilling as it is eerily prescient.
Annie Bot – Sierra Greer
Annie Bot was designed to be the perfect girlfriend for her human creator, Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has his dinner ready and waiting for him every day, wears the outfits he picks out for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. She might not be the most adept at keeping his place spotless, but she is trying hard to please him. She’s also learning.
Doug claims that he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman. But, the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she begins to behave. As Annie’s relationship with Doug becomes more and more troubled, she starts to question whether he really wants what he says he does. A timely new feminist sci-fi novel, Annie Bot is a fascinating character study by Sierra Greer.
Ghost Station – S.A. Barnes
From the bestselling author of Dead Silence, Ghost Station is a new sci-fi book by S.A. Barnes. Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated much of her life to the study of ERS – a space-based condition that gained infamy after it resulted in a case of twenty-nine people being murdered. When she’s assigned to a small exploration crew, she’s keen to make a difference. But, as they establish residency on an abandoned planet, she begins to realise that the crew is hiding something.
While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates appear to be far more fascinated in the ancient planet, and what prompted the previous colonisers’ hasty departure. Then their pilot is discovered having been brutally killed. Is this a case of history repeating itself with ERS sweeping through the crew? Or something more sinister?
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The Tusks Of Extinction – Ray Nayler
Moscow has successfully resurrected the woolly mammoth. But, to prevent them from dying out again, someone has to teach these animals how to actually be mammoths. The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s most eminent expert in elephant behaviour, is called in to assist.
Whilst she was murdered over a year ago, her digitised consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth. But, will she be able to help these magnificent creatures fend off poachers for their species to begin to flourish again? And will she ever get to the bottom of why these animals were brought back in the first place? One of the best new sci-fi books for readers looking for a one-sitting read, Ray Nayler’s The Tusks of Extinction is a tense and ambitious eco-thriller.
Those Beyond The Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2) – Micaiah Johnson
Scales is the best at what she does. She is an enforcer who keeps the peace in a rugged, climate-ravaged settlement named Ashtown. But, this fragile peace threatens to shatter when a woman is found mangled and killed within the town’s borders, and right in front of Scales. To complicate matters further, there was seemingly no murderer.
When more mutilated bodies begin to turn up, both in Ashtown and the wealthier walled-off Wiley City, Scales is tasked with identifying the cause – and bringing an end to it. She teams up with an infuriatingly by-the-books partner and a gruff scientist to unmask a killer. But, what they find soon points to something much bigger being in play. Something that might just spell doom for the entire world.
Archangels Of Funk (Cinnamon Jones #2) – Andrea Hairston
The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disruptors and the nostalgia militia roam the roads, wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet, consolidating their power. All while Cinnamon, with her three Circus-Bots and two dogs, works with a community of farmers, motor fairies and wheel-wizards to provide healthcare, housing and education to those in need.
Yet, Cinnamon is ready to ditch the Next World Festival she runs – a sci-fi carnival featuring music, dance, masked revellers, storytellers and drum circles – in a grassy amphitheatre she inherited. Her elders continue to haunt her, insisting that the festival go ahead, no matter what. In her new Afrofuturist sci-fi story, Archangels of Funk, Andrea Hairston creates a vibrant technicolour universe where Cinnamon must confront threats, honour her elders and build a future for herself.
The Practice, The Horizon, The Chain – Sofia Samatar
The boy was raised as one of the Chained, consigned to toiling in the bowels of a mining ship across the stars. His whole world is upended, however, when he is hauled ‘upstairs’ to meet the woman he will come to know as ‘professor’. The woman tells him that he is no longer one of the Chained. He has been given the opportunity to be educated at the ship’s university alongside the elite.
The woman has spent her entire career striving for excellence and acceptance from her colleagues, only to fall short at every turn. In her 2024 science fiction novel, The Practice, The Horizon, The Chain, Sofia Samatar tells the story of the woman and the boy as they learn from each other the designs of the chains designed to keep them bound, and the key to breaking free. Together, they embark on a journey of transformation – and redesign their world.
The Ministry Of Time – Kaliane Bradley
In the near future, a civil servant is presented with the salary of a lifetime and soon told about the project she’s about to be working on. A new government ministry is gathering ‘expats’ from across history to ascertain whether time travel is possible. The civil servant is tasked with working as a ‘bridge’: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat referred to as ‘1847’: Commander Graham Gore.
According to history, Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic in 1845. Which is why he finds it so disorientating to see an unmarried woman freely showing off her calves and coming to terms with concepts such as Spotify, washing machines or the collapse of the British Empire. Nevertheless, he soon begins to adjust. Over the span of the next year, what starts out as a terribly awkward roommate dynamic soon turns into something much deeper. But, as the truth behind the ministry’s project is brought to light, the bridge must confront the choices that brought them together and reckon with how what she does next may change the future.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
