Best of 2024
It’s that time of year again, where we look back on the world of entertainment and the best and worst of the past twelve months. Admittedly I did not finish as many books as I would’ve liked - but I did watch a decent number of movies and get through my fair share of games. Since everyone else is sharing their end of year recaps, I figured why not talk about my favorite stories of the year - and which ones I’m most looking forward to in 2025.
Let’s start with films. Most of my year was spent catching up on films that I should have seen a long time ago, or rewatching old favorites. My favorite of these was going to my local theater with my family to watch the extended editions of Lord of the Rings, marking the first time I’ve seen the trilogy on the big screen, and it was well worth it. I did get the chance to see a number of new releases, though, and overall enjoyed my time with most of them.
Alien: Romulus is going to take the number one spot for me this year, though. As someone who had never seen an Alien movie prior to this one, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had the perfect blend of scares and action, and I can see why this world has been so influential to some of my sci-fi favorites like Halo, Dead Space, and Mass Effect. So naturally after credits rolled, I went home and spent the next few days watching every other movie in the franchise - and had an equally good time. This is one I will definitely be revisiting regularly to scratch that sci-fi horror itch.
Next up is television. 2024 for me was the year of poor adaptations, and shows that I could not find the desire to finish. Too many either strayed too far from their source material for me to care, or simply did not respect the time I invested into them. There was one very unexpected exception though, and that was the Fallout series on Prime.
What I had expected to be another in a long list of disappointments this year ended up being one of my favorite TV series in recent memory. This is - to me - the gold standard for a video game adaptation, and just goes to show how they can be done well and faithfully, while also leaving room for new material. The main cast put in an excellent performance and it looks like we’ll be visiting some fan favorite territory in the next season, if we’re lucky. The only disappointing aspect was that we didn’t get a new Fallout game release to coincide with it, but I can hardly blame the show for that. Fingers crossed that a new game isn’t too far away, or I may just need to replay the entire series again to hold me over.
Speaking of games, I got through a good chunk of my gaming backlog in 2024, and still found time to play the new releases that interested me. I finally finished my playthroughs of games like Baldur's Gate 3 and A Plague Tale: Requiem (both were phenomenal), and begun my journey into the world of Final Fantasy VII by playing through both Remake and Rebirth this year, the latter of which takes the number one spot for me in the video game space. Some honorable mentions include Shadow of the Erdtree, Astrobot, Stellar Blade, and Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2.
Last up is books, which - as mentioned before - I actually engaged with the least. Turns out when you spend a lot of your time reading and writing your own words, you have little time to spare for the words of others. Still, it wasn’t a completely failed year for reading - I did finish a few standalones, a good chunk of nonfiction books, and series that I’d been stuck in the middle of for a while. I did not read many of the ‘new’ books of 2024 though, and so I don’t really have a favorite to choose. I can, however, share a look at my most anticipated reads of 2025.
Having recently finished The First Law, I could not be more excited for The Devils by Joe Abercrombie than I am right now. Mr. Abercrombie is a master of grimdark fantasy and this is one of the most unique pitches I’ve seen in quite a while, which has me very intrigued. I can’t wait to see what devilish things we get up to when this releases in May of next year.
Next up might be a surprise, as I’m not a huge Romantasy reader, but The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig has had my eye for a while. I haven’t gotten around to One Dark Window yet, but I may just need to skip ahead to this next release because of how interesting it is. I love a good seer, and it sounds like we’ll be getting plenty of that when this releases in May.
We also have some exciting indie author releases slated for next year - including a certain mercenary anthology - from some of my fellow Blades authors that I’m super excited to read. And while I would love to add A Night of Knives to that list, I do not want to set a deadline that I am not yet certain I will meet. I have talked on Quill & Query about my struggle with writing over the past year, and while progress is ramping up again, I still have many words left - and lots of editing to do after that, and now that I plan to query that will likely add more time, etc. You only get to debut once, and I would like my debut to be the best it can be. I promise you the wait will be worth it though!
And lastly of course, I have to include The Winds of Winter, which takes the number one spot for most-anticipated read because of course when this releases one day, I will be pausing whatever I am reading and giving that my full, undivided attention.
Well, that’s a wrap on 2024 for me. Have a safe, and very merry, Christmas season, and I’ll talk to you all again soon.
~Brandon