The 18th edition of Nuketown’s sci-fi and fantasy summer reading list features 16 books (13 novels, 3 non-fiction books), 1 novella, and 2 graphic novels.
This summer will be epic, as my son and I return to Philmont for nearly two weeks of b ackpacking in the New Mexico. We went in 2021, and I got a good chunk of reading done on that trip. I’m hoping to do the same this year. We’ll also be headed back to Lake Champlain at some point, which is another opportunity to read a ton of books.
2024 Tags
- Print is for books in paper or e-book format.
- Audio is for the novels I’ll listen to in audiobook format, rather than read the traditional way.
- Island is for books that I intend to read during my family’s annual summer vacation at Lake Champlain.
- Philmont is for books that I intend to read while backpacking in Philmont this summer.
- Pulled Forward are books I wanted to read in 2024, but didn’t get to.
- ✓ is for the books I finished reading.
You can track my progress on The Story Graph.
Fantasy
Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archives, Book 5) by Brandon Sanderson – Amazon – Audio – The Stormlight Archive is Sanderson’s epic fantasy series, in which humanity is at war with the alien humanoids known as the Parchendi on the planet of Roshar. The planet is inhabited by magical beings called spren, and suffused with stormlight, a power source provided by ravaging highstorms that sweep the planet periodically. The series is also one of the cornerstone of the Cosmere, Sanderson’s expanded universe that touches many (but not all) of the novels he’s written.
This book hyper focuses on the ten days leading up to a godly confrontation between human hero Dalinar and the god of passions. That “contest of champions” will either force a peace with Odium (freezing exising war-time borders where they are) or place all of humanity under Odium’s rule. During the ten days leading up to the contest, the book it looks in on many of the series’ signature characters as they fight desperate battles against Odium’s Parchendi allies. Those forces are trying to seize human capitals as a way of claiming vast swaths of territory before the contest deadline. Meanwhile series favorite Kaladin must help Szeth – one-time assassin, now an ally in desperate need of therapy – on a side quest that could be as important as the battles being fought.
This book, like the rest in the series, is HUGE. It clocks in at 62 hours and 48 minutes, and I’ve still got 23 hours to go! it’ll likely take a good chunk of the summer to listen to, but it’ll also provide motivation during my Philmont training walks and hikes.
The Lost Metal (The Mistborn Saga, Book 7) by Brandon Sanderson – Amazon – Audio – The Mistborn series is another cornerstone of the Cosmere. Originally an urban fantasy trilogy in which a group of heroes defeat a tyrant … and then realize the dangers he had been protecting them from. Like the Stormlight Archive, Mistborn features a unique magic system in which gifted individuals consume tinctures containing metals. These metals power unique magical abilities enabling them to to manipulate metal (e.g. calling metal to them or pushing it away). The follow-ups to the original series is set 100 later in a world in the midst of an industrial revolution. There are now trains, guns, and factories, as well as two latter-day heroes/scoundrels named Wax and Wayne. The two get caught up in various conspiracies which increasingly touch on the Cosmere.
I got this as an audio book, so I’ll likely listen to this late in the summer, after finishing Wind and Truth.
Horror
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand – Amazon – Print – Return to the horrors of Hill House in this novel which sees struggling playright Holly become entranced by the haunted building. After finding it on a random drive through the countryside (and despite the usual ominous signs) and flush with money from an unexpected arts grant, Holly decides to rent it for a month. There she intends to put the finishing touches on the grant-funded play, accompanied by her girlfriend and troupe of theatre friends. I started reading after finding it on my own random drive with my wife near Hershey, PA, and I’ve found it nicely ominous and creepy.
Alien: Into Charybdis by Alex White – Amazon – Print – I enjoyed White’s The Cold Forge (and his sci-fi/fantasy mashup series The Salvagers) and love the ALIEN universe, so this was a logical pick-up. His previous ALIEN book took place on an isolated corporate research facility in a close orbit around a star. Xenomorphs got loose, and bad things happened. This time around, the action takes place on an Iranian data center on a remote water world. A massive hole in the planet causes waterfalls, which the facility expoits for energy to power the data center. The local government hires a crew of techies to come in and upgrade their network … but naturally, something horrible lurks in the depths of Charybdis.
Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes – Amazon – Print, Island – Barnes’ third sci-fi/horror/ghost story novel is out. I loved the creepy atmosphere of the first two, including last summer’s read, Ghost Station. That makes this one an easy pick. In the latest book, we meet Halley. She’s on the run from a political scandel, and takes refuge on a massive cryoship. She thinks she’s alone save for some glitchy AI holograms, but she’s not. Or maybe she is. We’ll find out.
Paradise 1 by David Wellington – Amazon – Print – involve a successful space colony that suddenly goes dark. Naturally, a spaceship is sent to investigate. And naturally, horrible things happen. It sounds like exactly my kind of book, and it’s one of the first ones I’ll be reading this summer.
Science Fiction
Children of Dune (Dune, Book 3) by Frank Herbert – Amazon – Print, Philmont – The third novel in Herbert’s Dune series turns the focus on Paul Atreides’ children, Leto and Ghanima Atreides. Their aunt Alia now rules the empire that their father walked away from, and political threats at home and in the larger galaxy threaten the throne. I read this book for the first time back in high school, and I’ve been itching to read it again since finishing [Dune Messiah](https://www.nuketown.com/dune-messiah/) last summer.
Destiny’s Way (Doomed Earth, Book 2 – Amazon – Print, Island – I read the first part of Jack Campbell’s Doomed Earth duology last year, in which a woman is thrown backwards through time by the destruction of Terra, and then works to prevent the tragedy.
Infinite Archive (The Midsolar Murders #3) by Mur Lafferty – Amazon – Print, Island – The third book in Mur’s space murder whodunnit series comes out July 1st, 2025, which means its definitely going to be on my vacation reading list. Who doesn’t want to take a cozy scifi murder mystery book to the beach? In.
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain Banks (The Culture, Book 9) – Amazon – Audio – The Culture series by Iain Banks is a long-standing part of my summer reading list. Hydrogen Sonota is the final one in the series. knew this bittersweet day would come, which doesn’t make it any easier. Of course, it goes on the list. That brings me to eight books. I’m planning to read 12-13 books. So what about the rest?
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky – Amazon – Print, Philmont – involves an expanding multiverse of parallel worlds. Sounds like exactly the sort of thing I’d like. And hey, it’s Tchaikovsky.
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler – Amazon – Print – is a near-future novel about first-contact with intelligent octopi on Earth. You had me at “intelligent octopi”.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein – Amazon – Print – A classic science fiction tale of revolution on the moon. I read it many years ago, and while it’s got the occasional Heinlein weirdness, it’s still one of his best. And hey, you never know when you might need a sci-fi handbook for resisting a dystopian regime.
Non-Fiction
Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott – Amazon – Audio – I learned about this book during the EDUCAUSE Executive Leadership Academy. It’s about having sincere – but direct – conversations with your co-workers and loved ones.
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Light in the Dark by Carl Sagan – Amazon – Audio – The world could use more calm, rational voices. Carl Sagan was one of those, but sadly, we lost him in 1996. I read this book many years ago, and still think of it frequently. its advice (and warnings) are even more relevant now; it’s time for a re-read.
Python from the Very Beginning by John Whitington – Amazon – Print – My social media profiles describe me as a “lapsed programmer” because I haven’t written code in years (despite writing a ton of it back in the day). As I do more with data analytics though, I find myself wanting to write code to solve the analysis problems I’m facing (rather than doing complicated and silly spreadsheet gymnastics). This seemed like a good introductory book, so I added it to the list.
Novellas
Livesuit (The Captive’s War) by James S. A. Corey – Amazon – Print, Island – When they were writing The Expanse, the writing team known as James S. A. Corey also released a series of novellas, one set between each of the novels. They’re continuing that tradition with their new series, The Captive’s War. The first book, The Mercy of Gods featured the abduction of an entire planet’s worth of humans by seemingly invicible aliens called the Carryx.
Livesuit is a novella set in that universe. Here’s the publisher blurb:
Humanity’s war is eternal, spread across the galaxy and the ages. Humanity’s best hope to end the endless slaughter is the Livesuit forces. Soldiers meld their bodies to the bleeding edge technology, becoming something more than human for the duration of a war that might never end.
I’m not sure how this will fit into the larger story – I don’t think we hear about “Livesuits” in the first book – but I look forward to finding out.
Graphic Novels
I’m a little light on graphic novels this year. There are a few others I’m looking at, like Hellboy in Love and British Paranormal Society: Time Out of Mind, but I’m also interested in finding some good non-Hellboy horror series to read.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1957 – Amazon – Print, Island, Pulled Forward – A new collection of Hellboy comic books, including Family Ties, Forgotten Lives, Falling Sky, Fearful Symmetry, and From Below. I like reading Hellboy by the campfire, and since I never made it to Lake Champlain last year, campfires were harder to come by. So I decided to save this collection and The Secret of Chesbro House & Others for 2025.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Secret of Chesbro House & Others – Amazon – Print, Island, Pulled Forward – Another new collection of Hellboy comic books including The Secret of Chesbro House, Night of the Cyclops, Old Man Whittier, and Time is a River*.
Previous Sci-fi and Fantasy Summer Reading Lists
- 2025: 16 books, 1 novella, and 2 graphic novels.
- 2024: 19 books, 3 novellas, 5 graphic novels
- 2023: 13 books, 2 novellas, 1 graphic novels
- 2022: 17 books, 5 novellas, 5 graphic novels
- 2021: 14 books, 2 novellas, 8 graphic novels
- 2020: 10 books, 1 novella, 5 graphic novels
- 2019: 19 books, 5 graphic novels
- 2018: 15 books, 7 graphic novels
- 2017: 17 books, 1 novella, 8 graphic novels
- 2016: 16 books, 1 novella, 8 graphic novels
- 2015: 15 books, 9 graphic novels
- 2014: 13 books, 5 graphic novels
- 2013: 11 books, 5 graphic novels
- 2012: 11 books, 1 graphic novels
- 2011: 11 books, 0 graphic novels
- 2010: 7 books, 0 graphic novels
- 2009: 9 books, 0 graphic novels
- 2008: 8 books, 8 graphic novels
- …
- 1993: 26 books