‘Tis the season for year-end lists!  This is one that I’m super excited to share.  It’s been a truly incredible year for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.  Some of these books have been getting well-deserved hype, whereas others have flown more under the radar. All of them and many more can be found in our collection at Mead Public Library.  A quick caveat before we begin: I’m only one person, and even with my book-dragon tendencies, it would be impossible for me to keep up with all the great new releases in a given year.  If I overlooked one of your favorites, give it a shoutout in the comments!  Sharing recommendations is one of the great joys of the reading life.  Now, without further ado, on to the list!

The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

For centuries, the Guardian and the women of Grey Tower have defended the rest of the enormous palace where they dwell from the invasion of the Beast through the West Passage.  But when the Guardian dies without passing on her name to her successor, the West Passage falls into jeopardy, and winter comes out of season.  Yarrow, the new Mother of Grey House, embarks on a quest to set the seasons right.  Meanwhile, the deceased Guardian’s successor goes to petition the Ladies of the palace for the right to take the Guardian’s place.  The West Passage is that true unicorn of a fantasy novel – reading it feels like reading fantasy when you were a kid, balancing the familiar and the completely new into a synthesis of enchantment.  You can see influences here from Lewis Carroll, Ursula K. LeGuin, Hayao Miyazaki, and more, but The West Passage remains its own beautiful and strange creation.  This was a privilege to read, and I can’t wait to see what Pechaček does next, whether in this imagined world or in a new one.

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera

Reading this book felt like getting my brain scrambled, in the absolute best way.  Rakesfall opens with Annelid and Leveret, two friends growing up together in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War.  When one of them kills the other, their souls become bound together, and they follow one another through a series of reincarnations into an increasingly surreal future.  The dead walk among the living, the old wounds of history are repackaged for the consumption of a distant audience, and in the far future, ancient conflicts come to their climax on a long-abandoned Earth.  This book reads like a dream and a nightmare, and my description almost certainly won’t do it justice.  Rakesfall is a must-read for anyone in search of a science fiction experience like no other.

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary

I’m cheating a little bit with this one.  The original version of this book was published in 2020, but 2024 marked the release of the new English translation by Heather Cleary.  Consequently, Thirst is now on the radar of a whole new audience, and for fans of the grim and gothic side of speculative fiction, this is a must read.  The book opens when a woman encounters a vampire in a cemetery in Buenos Aires.  In the vampire’s recollections of the 19th century, she preys on humanity while still yearning for their companionship.  Meanwhile, the woman struggles with her mother’s advancing illness as the vampire’s presence casts a lengthening shadow over her life.  I was immediately drawn in by the perspective of the vampire character in this book.  Yuszczuk artfully portrays an otherworldly entity who is nevertheless a resonant and sympathetic character.  Thirst is spectacular meditation on isolation and grief within the framework of classic vampire narratives.  Fans of Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under The Sea and Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor are sure to love this one.

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

Four things I love in fantasy: demons, angels, strange cities, and Nghi Vo’s exquisite prose.  I was excited for The City in Glass as soon as it was announced, and it absolutely lived up to the hype.  The book opens with the destruction of the beguiling city of Azril by an avenging angel.  Azril’s guardian demon Vitrine binds the angel to the ruins of the city, just as she herself is bound there by grief.  Over the years, through Vitrine’s tireless work, a new city begins to form over Azril’s ruins.  Vitrine learns to love what has been created just as much as she grieves what has been lost as she and her former enemy come to a strange sort of truce.  This book contained some of the most purely beautiful writing I had the pleasure of reading this year.  Vo’s masterful prose makes the city of Azril come to life before the reader, full of secrets and mysteries.  The City in Glass may be a small volume, but it will stay with you long after the final chapter is closed.