December 2024 and 2024 as a whole in Review
31 Dec, 2024
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I am going to miss that reclining woman and her scandalous novel in the header for the In Review Posts. Ah, well. I hope the image that will replace it will amuse.
December 2024 is the December with the lowest number of books by POC reviewed since 2018 (in part due to a quirk in my tracking system) but 2024 overall had more books by POC reviewed than any previous year. Huh. On the other hand, I did a crappy job making time for non-binary authors. Again. What I need to do is sit down and list a dozen books by NB authors, then actually review them.
As far as SFFnal politics go, representative democracy made a last-minute attempt to catch up with oligarchy but was unable to overcome the lead already established. Ah, well.
2024 saw two new review projects begun: What’s the Worst That Could Happen? and History’s Actors. The first is a tour of SFF’s problematic, opaque, and astonishing works and the second a catch-all for early 21st century SFF. For some reason, I spotlighted more books in Worst than I did in Actors.
2024 also saw the completion of another category. Shockwave Reader featured novels by John Brunner. I began this in 2022 and 27 novels in, it feels like time to spotlight other authors. More on that in 2025.
December 2024
22 works reviewed. 12 by women (55%), 10 by men (45%), 0 by non-binary authors (0%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (5%), and 6 by POC (27%).
2024 to Date
262 works reviewed. 143 by women (55%), 113 by men (43%), 4 by non-binary authors (2%), 2 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 105.5 by POC (40%).
Grand Total to Date
2791 works reviewed. 1555 by women (56%), 1168 by men (42%), 44 by non-binary authors (2%), 24 by authors whose gender is unknown (1%), and 877.25 by POC (31%).
Government Types December 2024
Total 22, Not Applicable 4 (18%), Unclear 2 (9%), Anarchy 1 (5%), Pure democracy 0 (0%), Representative democracy 8 (36%), Oligarchy 7 (32%), Autocracy 0 (0%).
Government Type 2024 TD
Total 262, Not Applicable 30 (11%), Unclear 19 (7%), Anarchy 7 (3%), Pure democracy 2 (0.7%), Representative democracy 86 (33%), Oligarchy 112 (43%), Autocracy 6 (2%).
| 2023 December | 2022 December | 2021 December | 2020 December | 2019 December | 2018 December | 2017 December | 2016 December | 2015 December | 2014 December | ||
| Women | 12 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 19.5 | 16.5 | 12.5 |
| Non-Binary | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| POC | 6 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4.5 | 3 |
| Total | 22 | 22 | 2 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 28 | 25 |
| % Women | 55 | 59 | 55 | 57 | 55 | 60 | 57 | 52 | 93 | 59 | 50 |
| % Non-Binary | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| % Unknown | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| % POC | 27 | 41 | 41 | 35 | 32 | 40 | 24 | 30 | 24 | 16 | 12 |
| 2023 TD | 2022 TD | 2021 TD | 2020 TD | 2019 TD | 2018 TD | 2017 TD | 2016 TD | 2015 TD | 2014 TD | ||
| Women | 143 | 145 | 143 | 141.5 | 139 | 135.5 | 144 | 138.5 | 161.5 | 195 | 69 |
| Non-Binary | 4 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Unknown | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| POC | 105.5 | 104 | 102 | 103 | 99.5 | 100.75 | 82.5 | 75.5 | 62.5 | 45.5 | 13.5 |
| Total | 262 | 261 | 260 | 260 | 256 | 244 | 259 | 255 | 255 | 329 | 150 |
| % Women | 55 | 54 | 55 | 54 | 54 | 56 | 56 | 54 | 63 | 59 | 46 |
| % Non-Binary | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| % Unknown | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| % POC | 40 | 40 | 39 | 40 | 39 | 41 | 32 | 30 | 25 | 14 | 9 |
| Month | 2024 December | 2024 November | 2024 October | 2024 Septermber | 2024 August | 2024 July | 2024 June | 2024 May | 2024 April | 2024 March | 2024 February | 2024 January |
| Government Type | ||||||||||||
| Not Applicable | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Unclear | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Anarchy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Pure democracy | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Representative democracy | 8 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| Oligarchy | 7 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
| Autocracy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| total | 21 | 23 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 22 | 21 | 22 | |
| YTD | ||||||||||||
| Not Applicable | 30 | 26 | 25 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 3 |
| Unclear | 19 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Anarchy | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Pure Democracy | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Representative Democracy | 86 | 78 | 71 | 66 | 56 | 49 | 43 | 37 | 27 | 21 | 15 | 9 |
| Oligarchy | 112 | 105 | 95 | 82 | 74 | 64 | 53 | 45 | 34 | 25 | 15 | 7 |
| Autocracy | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| total | 262 | 240 | 219 | 196 | 175 | 153 | 130 | 109 | 86 | 65 | 43 | 22 |