2^0+24 Books in 2024

Table of contents

In 2024, I read 25 books with a total of 9292 pages (averaging 25 pages per day).


Fiction

Elder Race

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is a short story with a cool concept that I have not seen before: one story is told by two characters which alternate each chapter and which experience the story and the world they live in quite differently. One character’s view reads like a classical fantasy book, while the other character’s experience is that of a traditional sci-fi world. So you could say the genre of this book is Science-Fantasy.

I won’t spoil the story here, but it’s honestly nothing special. Not bad but not great either. It’s a fun book, but mostly because of the genre-mixing.

Recommended? I think it’s worth a read to experience this unique merge of two genres since the book is not too long (~200 pages).

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY’S CHILDREN OF TIME SERIES

Far in the future, Earth is dying. A generational space-ark is set out to find a new home for humanity. There seems to be a perfectly fitting planet that was terraformed by humans centuries ago, but there are two problems. Firstly, does the space-ark even reach the planet? And second, are the humans the only species targeting this planet?

Children of time is one of my favorite Sci-Fi books, ever. It’s so well written and always keeps you guessing. There are nice plot twists and big ideas to uncover. I really loved every page of this book.

After finishing the book, I figured out with great joy that this is not a standalone book, but only part one of a trilogy. So I went on and read part two (Children of Ruin) and part three (Children of Memory).

Children of Ruin was okay-ish with some cool parts but it overstayed its welcome. And I really did not like Children of Memory, it was boring, confusing and I did not care at all about the characters in the story.

Fortunately, the three books are only loosely-coupled and you can read just the first book since it ends on a clean cut without any big cliffhangers.

Recommended? The first book is a banger! However, you can skip the rest of the trilogy without missing anything.

The wandering earth

by Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu is most famous for his sci-fi trilogy “Three-Body Problem” which I have read in 2021.

This book is a collection of eleven short standalone stories where Cixin Liu thinks about fresh ideas and packs them into a sci-fi setting.

I really liked the book in general, but of course some stories are better than others.

Below you can get more information and a rating for each story.

click here to expand and view all stories
Rating scale:
1/4 - did not like it
2/4 - was okay
3/4 - liked it
4/4 - was amazing
The Wandering Earth
  • The sun is going to explode a burst of helium which will obliterate all planets in the solar system in the next 400 years.
  • Humankind plans to brake the earth’s rotation with giant thrusters (10km) high and then «fly» the whole earth to Proxima Centauri where it will decelerate and get into orbit again.
  • 3/4, new and interesting concept but a bit an abrupt and too open-ended ending
Mountain
  • A mountaineer that was responsible for the death of his girlfriend and three friends in a storm on mount everest, punishes himself by spending the rest of his live on the ocean – as far away from his beloved mountain as possible.
  • One day a giant alien spaceship the size of the moon arrives to earth and nears the surface ten times closer than the actual moon. In geostationary orbit, this giant mass produces a 10km high «water-mountain», it’s effect on the planet sends humanity into chaos. The protagonist senses his last mission: to climb up this water-mountain by trying to swim to the summit.
  • Plot changes to the aliens and their rocky bubble world (spoiler?)
  • 3/4 good writing, again a cool concept, maybe even 4/4
Sun of China
  • Shui leaves his poor hometown where water is barely drinkable. He goes to work in a mine where the water is drinkable and is amazed that people shower in the good fresh water. Then he moves to the city to become a shoe shiner. There is a national project to build a «second sun» in the sky. This is a giant mirror in geostationary orbit to influence the weather over China. He becomes a «Spiderman», a high rise window cleaner. The «China Sun» gets ‘dirty’ because of solar winds, and Son is asked to work on the China sun to clean it’s surface. Shui is starting to dream bigger and bigger…
  • 2/4 a nice story on how an ordinary person goes on to discover the world to learn more and more, good but not mind-blowing
For the Benefit of Mankind
  • Smoothbore is a hitman. He gets hired by his clients, which are 13 of the most wealthiest and powerful people on the planet, to kill 3 extremely poor, weak and powerless people. Years ago humanity was visited by their creators. A race that explained that they created six earths in total. Humanity urged for technological development which would lead to the elimination of its brother planets, before they would be eliminated. Smoothbore remembers his 4-year high quality training as a hitman and his first jobs. Smoothbore can’t just go on and kill this desperate people that have nothing at all, and returns to his clients to ask why they want to kill these people. The 13 rich people reluctantly start to explain their plan to save humanity…
  • 4/4 dystopian sci-fi mafia story. Very brutal but brilliant writing and quite interesting how the life of this killer is described. Topic of aliens arriving and using Australia as a reservation for the humans actually ended up in Three Body Problem! Evolves into a surprisingly deep story about Humanity, Capitalism and Education.
Curse 5.0
  • A young woman wrote a computer virus called Curse 1.0 to damage her boyfriend called Sa Bi by spreading all his information and doxing him. 10 years later the field of IT archaeology was birthed and an IT archaeologist found Curse 1.0 and upgraded it to a new operating system -> Curse 2.0. 7 years later, woman with deep hatred against a man found the Curse and upgraded it. Because everything in the world was so connected by now (Internet of Things), she added the command «If Sa Bi rides in a cab, kill him in a car crash!» -> Curse 3.0. Curse 3.0 was updated by various «AI artists» to include more and more killing commands, it was seen as a kind of art to create a killing as complicated as possible. But Curse 3.0 never found it’s target and never killed anyone. Because Sa Bi was so strongly harassed by strangers after Curse 1.0 was released, he changed his name and his location. The Curse still had his old information. The struggling author Cixin Liu (yes the author of this book) finds an old laptop with Curse 3.0 on it, he is mad at all men because his Sci-Fi book was only bought fifteen times. He changed the parameters of Curse 3.0 to not only target Sa Bi, but all men. His fantasy author friend Pan had the same problems, but with female readers. He changed the gender parameter to female. They argued and after a fight compromised on the parameter being *, a wildcard that includes men and women. They only left the location parameter unchanged, it pointed to the city the lived in; Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. -> Curse 4.0. The Curse starts to kill people in spectacular fashion, including the original author and most of the upgraders. Only a few people make it out alive.
  • 2/4 Crazy doomsday story, about the Internet of Things, IT and programming, AI and Digital Pandemics
The Micro-Era
  • The sun will emit a solar burst in 18000 years that will ruin the whole planet earth and make it uninhabitable. Humanity sends out spaceship-scouts to find another habitable planet. The last of these scouts returns to earth after a long time. He encounters a desolated and dead earth and thinks he is the last human alive, then he receives a signal…
  • 1/4 in theory quite a cool concept but the story somehow didn’t really catch me, the characters weren’t that interesting
Devourer
  • Humanity detects the Devourer, a giant, tire-shaped spaceship that will arrive and encircle earth in 100 years to plunder its resources. Devastated by the hopeless future, humanity still sets out to craft a plan. But will they survive?
  • 2/4 started quite strong but got a bit too freaky at the end, some philosophical thoughts about life and scale were interesting though
Taking Care of God
  • God is seeking refuge to earth. But God is actually an old civilization of 2 billion individuals who are all god. Because they got too comfortable, they lost all creativity and will to develop. God seeks out Earth as the place to live out its final days.
  • 2/4 unique and funny concept, characters and story development not that great unfortunately
With Her Eyes
  • There exist multi-sensory glasses which can transmit an ultra-high frequency radio signal to another pair of glasses. Effectively, it’s as if the transmitter is wearing the recipient’s eyes. Those on Earth lucky enough to go on a real-life vacation would wear these glasses, allowing a homesick space-worker to share the joy of their trip. A space worker takes the «eyes» of another woman to a surface holiday trip on earth.
  • 1/4 was not too bad but it did not catch me
Cannonball
  • A woman and a man work on a project to get rid of all nuclear weapons that china possesses. In the detonation of these weapons, they test how to compress different materials with nuclear detonations. In this process, a ball of material so dense is formed, that the ball just sinks down to Earth’s core, they call it «new-solid-state» material. The man has leukemia and only 6 months to life, he will go into hibernation to be woken up when there is a cure for this disease. Their young son must decide if he wants to go into hibernation with his dad to live in the future or to live in the present with his mom. He chooses to live with his mom and she is worried that she cannot handle their son, because he is extremely smart and shows tendencies to be very power hungry. The man wakes up from hibernation after 74 years and receives a letter written from his now dead wife: «You are in great danger. You cannot imagine the person our son has become, the things he has done. My heart is broken. My life has been wasted. Please take care of yourself.»
  • 4/4 great ending to the book, thrilling story with a great concept, even connects to one of the other stories

Recommended? If you liked Three-Body Problem and want more crazy ideas, this is for you.

Starter Villain

by John Scalzi

This short book is funny, a bit crazy, doesn’t take itself seriously and there are cats. What else do you want?

The story is about a guy that does not know luck or success in life. Then one day he gets a message that his uncle, with whom he did not have much contact, died and that he inherits his legacy. This legacy is his supervillain business (yes he has a secret volcano island) which the main character then figures out how to run and what kind of people his uncle made business with.

I really liked the book and laughed a lot and I read through it all in just one day. Short but great fun!

Recommended? Yes

Der Schwarm

by Frank Schätzing

Anomalies in the ocean and marine life start appearing all over the globe. Humanity tries to understand as more and more problems arise and it starts to seem that the ocean is fighting back after all these decades of mistreatment by civilization.

The writing is sometimes a bit slow and the book is slightly too long, but overall a great novel.

Recommended? Yes, if you don’t mind a thick book that is packed with well-researched knowledge about the ocean, animals, climate etc.

Marching Powder

by Rusty Young

This book is the true story of an English inmate that ended up in the notorious San Pedro Prison in La Paz, Bolivia.

In this prison, the inmates rule and nothing works like one would expect a normal prison to work. For example, the inmates need to pay for their own cell (with more money and status, they can rent a nicer cell). There are restaurants and shops inside the prison and even schools, since lots of inmates have their families with kids also inside the prison. They also produce lots of cocaine inside the prison to sell on the outside and live their gangster life from inside the prison.

I was there in La Paz and stood in front of it. It’s weird how this crazy place is just in the middle of the city center and you don’t notice anything special from the outside. A few years ago there were even tours inside the prison for tourists…

Recommended? Not the best writing but the crazy true story makes up for it. Worth a try.

ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY’S DOGS OF WAR SERIES

An interesting duology with a cool concept (cyborg killing machine animals that act as philosophers, never have heard about that before). The series starts strong and then drags a bit out at the end but it’s still a fun and short read. You should also read the second part for a more complete story.

Dogs of War: In the near future, humans used robots and machines to fight their wars for themselves. Because of faulty programming and hackers, this got out of hand and using robots to fight in wars was widely discouraged. Now there are companies that test and develop bioforms – enhanced intelligent animals that can be commanded and used in war. The story follows Rex, an enhanced dog-bioform and the leader of a bioform squad that is deployed in a war zone in Mexico. In the story, Rex starts to gain more and more consciousness and starts to think about ethics, belonging, his place in life, authority and other philosophical questions.

Bear Head: A few years after the first book, not only animals are enhanced, but now there are also the first enhanced humans. Some of them are sent to Mars to build the first city on the red planet. Meanwhile back on earth there are scientists and politicians arguing about ethics and finding ways to (mis-)utilize the technology.

Recommended? Yes. You should probably read these books before getting one of Elon’s Neuralink chips 😉

Contact

by Carl Sagan

Radio astronomers are searching the universe for sign of intelligent life. One day they receive a signal which turns out to be a message that needs to be decoded. The book follows the progress of this decoding and how it impacts the world.

The story was okay. It had some cool ideas like a message that is hidden in the digits of Pi, but else it wasn’t that thrilling.

Recommended? No.

The Man in The High Castle

by Philipp K. Dick

From the writer of the famous Blade Runner comes this story with a thought-provoking idea: What if the axis powers would have won WWII? In this book, the USA is divided between the Japanese and the Nazis, and the story is about an American antique dealer that tries to get along with the new rulers in his old country.

The book unfortunately is hot garbage in my opinion. Really bad, incoherent writing with boring characters and a story where nothing really happens. I waited the whole time for the book to suddenly make sense.

Recommended? NO! Worst book I’ve read this year.

Rendezvous With Rama

by Arthur C. Clarke

A Sci-Fi classic where a huge mysterious cylindrical object suddenly arrives in the solar system. Humanity sends out a space crew to investigate the object and explore what’s on the inside.

It was alright but I don’t get why people like this book so much.

Recommended? No, but maybe go watch Denis Villeneuve’s movie adaption of this book once it hits the cinemas.

MAUS

by Art Stapleton

Maus is a graphic novel about the Jewish father of the author, who tells the story about his life during the Holocaust where he was imprisoned in multiple places and even ended up in Auschwitz. The title of the book is “Mouse” because the Jews are portrayed as mice, while the Nazis are drawn as cats.

There is also a meta side story about the relationship between the author and his aging father while the book was written.

Recommended? Not a fun book but an important one. Very touching and horrifying. Important to know what WWII really meant as to not repeat this history in the future.


Non-Fiction

Last Chance To See

by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

In this book, Douglas Adams (yes, THE Douglas Adams from Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and Mark Carwardine travel around the world in search for exotic and endangered animals with the hope of seeing them before they go extinct.

Douglas Adams describes their travel adventures in a very funny way and you get to learn about cool animals.

Recommended? Yes, if you like Douglas Adams’ humor or like a light travel story with animals.

Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google?

by William Poundstone

How do the big tech companies interview people? How do they filter out their thousands of applications? In this book, the crazy trick-questions, puzzles and other logical riddles are described and there are some guidelines on how to solve them (for example, how to approach an estimation-question).

I am not sure how relevant this book is today, since I don’t know if these kinds of questions are still asked, but it was still fun trying to figure out some of the puzzles. There is also some more general interview advice in this book that can help to land a job.

Recommended? Not really, unless you want to apply to a company where they still ask these kind of puzzle-questions.

Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags

by Tim Marshall

Why do we have flags? What do they symbolize and what is the history behind them? How can they be used to rally people against each other?

This book is all about flags and answers the questions above in detail.

I quite enjoyed this book because I think flags are interesting and I am fascinated by everything geopolitics.

You can see this book as a kind of companion book for the Prisoners of Geography-series which I’ve read last year.

Recommended? Yes, if you are into Geography.

The Pathless Path

by Paul Millerd

A great career/life advice book for people that feel stuck in their traditional 9-5 job. Great to reflect about your own life and figure out an alternative path to what you would normally do.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about The Pathless Path.

Recommended? Yes!

The Unfair Advantage

by Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba

This is about how you can use your unique strengths to your advantage, mostly in a professional setting such as in a startup.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about The Unfair Advantage.

Recommended? If you have nothing else to read or if you are going to found a startup.

Hell Yeah or No

by Derek Sivers

A coffee-table book with lots of great wisdom about creative work and what (not) to do in life.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about Hell Yeah or No.

Recommended? Yes if you need some inspiration and motivation.

The Courage To Be Disliked

by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

Alfred Adler was a famous psychologist and this book is about his ideas and teachings on why people behave how they behave. It’s a counter to the more widespread views of Freud and Jung.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about The Courage to be Disliked.

Recommended? Yes, this is a great book to do some deep thinking and figure out why you are the way you are.

A Short History On Nearly Everything

by Bill Bryson

A journey from the big bang to modern life with scientific explanations for everything that is happening out there.

Some fun facts from this book:

  • Seven moons in the solar system including our own are bigger than Pluto.
  • The core of a neutron star is so dense that a single spoonful of matter from it would weigh more than 500 billion kilograms.
  • Phosphorus was discovered by a guy that tried to turn his own urine into gold.
  • If you want to see a paramecium (typical micro-organism) with your naked eye swimming in a drop of water, you would have to enlarge the drop until it was some 12 meters across. However, if you wanted to see the atoms in the same drop, you would have to make the drop 24 kilometers across.
  • Particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider in CERN use huge amounts of energy to achieve an incredible feat: they can whip particles into such a state of liveliness that a single electron can do 47’000 laps around a 7 kilometer tunnel in under a second.

Recommended? If you are a nerd or science-enthusiast, you will love this book.

The Idiot Brain

by Dean Burnett

A neuroscientist explains our brain in a funny way.

I was not really enjoying this book, it was at most mildly interesting.

Recommended? No

StoryWorthy

by Matthew Dicks

The art of storytelling easily explained with practical examples and lots of great example stories.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about Storyworthy.

Recommended? Only if you want to get good at storytelling or public speaking in general.

Influence

by Robert B. Cialdini

How people try to influence you into complying to their requests and how you can defend yourself against their tricks.

Really interesting book about how people can be persuaded to do things they do not necessarily would want to do. However, the book can be a bit slow at times, so maybe just reading the summaries at the end of each chapter can be enough to learn what the book is trying to tell you.

For detailed information, read my Book Notes Post about Influence.

Recommended? Yes, if you like psychology or want to manipulate people.


Leave a Reply