Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide

Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide

Dec 23, 2024 | Babel, Best Books, Best Of 2024, book review, Book Reviews, Brandy Schillace, Discworld, fantasy, Feet of Clay, fine press, Horror, Kurt Vonnegut, limited edition, Max Allan Collins, Michael Crichton, Mickey7, mystery, Phantasia Press, Quarry, R.F. Kuang, sci-fi, science fiction, Signed Limited, small press, speculative fiction, Spoiler-Free, Terry Pratchett, THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, walter mosley

Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide comes to you just in time to place some last-minute literature at the feet of your metal pole, recently taken from out of the crawl space.

Here at TFF, we are especially focused on the fiction that transforms us all, this Solstice.

So Happy Yule, Happy Holly King, Welcome Father Christmas, or whichever legends you may observe ere the New Year of 2025* comes!

*At TFF we review newly released books and also books that have been released any year, so our ‘best of list’ contains what we found and loved this year, not necessarily what was published in 2024.

Feast your eyes, Eager Readers, The Best of 2024:

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, brandy schillace, neurodivergent, autistic, autism, mystery, murder mystery

The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award goes to the THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace.

Few can intertwine classic golden age mystery tropes with modern fiction themes, both with myriad intriguing facets, like Dr. Schillace writes in this classic.

An excerpt from our review: The witty, charming, and intelligent [protagonist] Jo is thirsty for answers . . . And despite her difficulty overcoming a not-too-distant divorce with a husband that continually reminded her of her autism and her behavioral faux pas . . . she collects herself time and again and proves to be insightful, well-read, and courageous as she presses on. [ReadTFF.com]

babel, babel by R.F. Kuang, the poppy war, r.f. kuang, book review, book, sff, fantasy, history

The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace goes to…R.F. Kuang for the novel BABEL.

This book is the one that moved me the most in the entire year of 2024.

I knew as soon as I read BABEL, it would make an indelible dent in my brain.

An excerpt from our review: If you are a fan of language or translation or history or great characters being challenged beyond your wildest prescient thoughts, then you must read this . . . As with many great stories – especially in the SFF-speculative fiction realm – the character’s path needs to resonate deeply, and Kuang’s protagonist Robin Swift does this while being utterly captivating. [ReadTFF.com]

The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award goes to Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass – it hurt so damn much.

If you want to buy any of the award-winning books, check them out here in my Bookshop.org List – I get a commission if you buy from there and monies are donated to local bookstores with each purchase:

best, best of, best of books, books, book reviews, best of tff, tff

The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award goes to…THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Sonia Soto (Translator).

I love bibliomysteries, but this one combines a historic evil, played out in brutal fashion, against the backdrop of New York City, Spain, Portugal, and the many twists of a previously unknown The Three Musketeers manuscript pages.

THE CLUB DUMAS is utterly unique, but be careful you do not lose yourself as you strive to unravel the book’s many strands.

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley, walter mosley, easy rawlins, sci-fi, sff, vonnegut

The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award goes to…TOUCHED by Walter Mosley.

The language from one of the world’s best authors is as sharp as it comes!

book review, book, sff, fantasy, history, phantasia press, edward ashton, Mickey7, limited edition, small press, fine press, barclay shaw

The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication goes to…both Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins and Phantasia Press for Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.

Quarry is the villain we love to root for, and, hell, make him an ‘antihero’ he does not give a damn as to your labels. In this book, there is an outstanding display of character growth for the would-be-retired assassin.

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton was the first in a historic Phantasia Press relaunch, as the first fine press dedicated entirely to Sci-Fi-Fantasy returns in the 21st Century with a resounding BOOM and a gorgeous limited edition.

The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award goes to…TIMEQUAKE by Kurt Vonnegut.

You will never read anything remotely like this novel – TIMEQUAKE is genius, but I know of no sane way to describe it to you.

Feet of Clay, terry pratchett, discworld, night watch, fantasy, sff, sherlock, tolkien, tff, book review

Last, but not least, is the Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction is…FEET OF CLAY by Terry Pratchett.

The Discworld Series continues to daunt my dreams and haunt my, well for lack of a better word, daydreams, and, well, the point is these books are so bloody good, you want to keep reading more and more about Commander Vimes of the Night’s Watch and all of the plethora of fantastically, wonderful characters that contribute to the sludge that clings to the edge of the Disc.

FEET OF CLAY is an impactful classic on multiple fronts in the fantasy genre.

Here dear readers is the list of TFF Best Books of 2024:

  • The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award
  • The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace
  • The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award
  • The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award
  • The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award
  • The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication x2
    • Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
    • Phantasia Press signed limited edition of Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
  • The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award
  • Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction

 

Buy books here:

best, best of, best of books, books, book reviews, best of tff, tff

 

Happy New Year, Fictioneers!

patreon, tff, book reviews, rj huneke

 

TOUCHED By Walter Mosley: Sci-Fi That Cuts Like A Razor

TOUCHED By Walter Mosley: Sci-Fi That Cuts Like A Razor

Jun 13, 2024 | book review, Book Reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, SFF, touched, walter mosley

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley: sci-fi that cuts like a razor, in the vein of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

I do not say that lightly.

Combine Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Jordan Peele, Ray Bradbury, and you will have an iota of an idea of what the impactful fiction Mosley has put forth is like in TOUCHED.

Not only is this gripping, thrilling science fiction, but TOUCHED also invokes strong philosophical arguments and commentaries on 21st Century America and the earth as a whole.

The tale of Martin Just – who has been abducted by aliens and thrust back into the tumultuous world – pays homage to one of the greatest novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, and its unreliable narrator and fellow alien abductee, Billy Pilgrim.

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley, walter mosley, easy rawlins, sci-fi, sff, vonnegut

The essence of the characters, from the pilgrim to the just, explores deep psychological elements pertaining to their reaction to the most awful circumstances and their ability or inability, at times, to rationally experience the passage of time during the experiences.

Vonnegut examined the brutality and senseless violence and murder that occurred during wartime, WWII, where he was a POW during the bombing of Dresden, Germany.

What Mosley does so well in TOUCHED is to instantaneously transport the reader into the mind and body of the protagonist, Just, so that the reeling man who desperately wants to gain a grip on his newly found mission and alter ego, Temple, is sent sprawling in the bigoted, biased, and insanely unfair American society.

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley is a classic.

For Just returns from the aliens in a dream-state and wanders erect onto his bedroom balcony where the African-American is spotted by white Los Angeles police who also see a child on the sidewalk. And their immediate reaction is to arrest the sleep walker and wage war upon him.

What plays out is a painful coming to terms with what the mission means, what Just’s life means, and also what his alter-ego Temple wants to do to survive and thrive.

Temple is wired to protect that alien mission to cure the peoples of earth, and the universe, of diseases like the racist violence haunting Just and his family, and Temple will go to any lengths to save Martin and his family and comrades.

The police and the criminal justice system in LA play out in a realistic and agonizing manner that tears at the reader’s guts.

The whole while, the mission and Just’s understanding of it evolves and moves rapidly to counter a foe that creepily approaches him in a bid to end all life, to eradicate the diseases, rather than cure them.

If you like action every bit as hard-hitting as Mike Hammer and Jason Bourne, then you will fall in love with the strength of Martin Just, and his vengeful side, Temple, who kicks down all kinds of doors.

There is sexiness in the writing, there are coming-of-age motifs for the middle-aged protagonist, as well as tropes of familial love, and redemption, for even the worst of humanity that Just/Temple encounters.

The Devil In A Blue Dress and Easy Rawlins are rightly hailed, but TOUCHED and every one of Walter Mosley’s works deserve a read.

 

The Forgotten Fiction Grade: YEA (read it!)!

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“TOUCHED by Walter Mosley: sci-fi that cuts like a razor” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley, walter mosley, easy rawlins, sci-fi, sff, vonnegut