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I'll search for highly-reviewed science fiction novels that have been published recently to give you the best current recommendations.Let me search for more specific information about award-winning 2024 science fiction releases to give you the best recommendations.Let me search for a few more highly-reviewed 2024 science fiction titles to round out my recommendations.Based on my research, here are some excellent highly-reviewed, recently published science fiction novels to recommend to your friend: ## Top Recent Science Fiction Recommendations **The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024)** This debut novel is a New York Times bestseller, Hugo Award finalist, and winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction. It's a genre-bending time travel romance, spy thriller, and workplace comedy about a government employee assigned to help a Victorian-era explorer adapt to modern London. The book was one of Barack Obama's favorite books of summer 2024 and received widespread acclaim from NPR, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and more. **Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2024)** This novel won the 2024 Booker Prize and follows six astronauts as they orbit Earth for one day of their nine-month space mission. At 136 pages, it became the second-shortest novel to win the Booker Prize and the first space-set novel to win the prestigious award. The judges praised it as a meditation on Earth's fragility and beauty, written with lyrical prose that makes our world strange and new. **Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler** While originally published in 1993, this classic is experiencing renewed attention because its plot begins in 2024, making it eerily prescient. It follows Lauren Olamina, a hyperempath living in a dystopian California ravaged by climate change and social collapse. This is essential reading for anyone interested in Afrofuturism and climate fiction, and it remains deeply relevant today. All three books offer different experiences: **The Ministry of Time** is fun and genre-mixing with romance and espionage, **Orbital** is lyrical and contemplative, and **Parable of the Sower** is a powerful, prophetic exploration of social collapse. Any of these would make excellent recommendations depending on your friend's preferences!