Ryan M. Patrick

I didn’t do a yearly wrap-up of the best books I read in 2024 – will do one at the conclusion of 2025! – but I wanted to do something similar with my all-time favorite books.

I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a child. I started at a very early age and was reading chapter books in preschool and kindergarten, middlegrade in first and second grade, and graduated to (carefully-curated by my parents) adult books in third grade. I started keeping track of what I read in 2012 in a big Google Doc and began using Goodreads in 2016.

I read something like 50-100 books a year, depending on how much I’m traveling – long flights mean more books read – and how busy I am at work and home. That amounts to over 1100 books devoured since 2012 – a not insignificant number. And, without further ado, these are my 10 favorites in no particular order.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

I’m a huge Tom Clancy fan – his books are no small part of helping me get to where I am today, I’ve seen all of the movies based on them, and I’ve played more than a few of the video games that feature his name. Of those, The Cardinal of the Kremlin is my favorite. It’s a complex Cold War espionage story set not long after The Hunt for Red October, involving the Reagan-era Star Wars missile defense system (which is making a comeback), an American asset placed high in the Soviet Politburo, and political machinations across the homefront – not to mention a pre-9/11 Osama Bin Laden freedom fighter in Afghanistan. Despite all of this, the pace never feels like a drag, and all of the characters are complex and leap off of the page all of the way to the intricately-crafted conclusion. The technical details may be dated, but it’s still the best of his books and has held up incredibly well in 2025.

The Lord of the Rings

I’ve made it no secret that I’m not a fan of much of the fantasy genre. Some of that comes from my dad, who mostly read technothrillers and sci-fi and I would read a book after he was done with it. He wasn’t into “fairy stories” as he put it. That being said, one of his – and my – favorite books is Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It really doesn’t need any further explanation, given how well-permeated it is through both mass and nerd culture, but it’s one of the greatest stories ever told. Yes, I know it’s actually six novels in three volumes, but as a complete story it’s second-to-none. My older two want me to start reading The Hobbit after we finish Percy Jackson and I hope they enjoy Tolkien’s work as much as my wife and I do!

Revelation Space

When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time at the Chester County Library in Exton perusing the sci-fi shelves. This book – Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds – caught my eye and I checked it out & took it home. I was not prepared for what I was about to read. It’s a diamond-hard science fiction novel with multiple storylines whose timelines run at different paces depending on their speeds traveling through the universe, characters on a ship traveling close to the speed of light have time pass more slowly than an xenoarcheologist on an alien planet. There’s a lot going on, some things I didn’t pick up until one of my multiple re-reads, and the plot is incredibly complex. But I love it, it’s arguable my favorite sci-fi novel and while its sequels are good too the first one in the trilogy has a special place in my heart. Fans of Mass Effect will see a lot of things that influenced that video game series in this book, namely the terrifying Inhibitors.

Sphere

I don’t think any book has had more impact on my writing than Sphere. It’s my favorite Michael Crichton novel, set on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in a U.S. Navy habitat. The characters are compelling, the plot fast-moving and intriguing, and the themes still relevant almost forty years after it was released. It’s the scariest book I’ve ever read and if I recall correctly I went through all of it in one sitting in my blue beanbag chair. It’s the basis for my novel The Martian Incident, the discovery of a too-advanced starship that has been sitting undisturbed for ages just the beginning of the thrill ride. I cannot recommend it enough.

Declare

Another fantasy novel? Declare by Tim Powers absolutely blew me away – it was the first one I read on my Kindle when I got it Christmas 2011. It’s a Cold War espionage thriller with supernatural and fantasy elements, with tons of foreshadowing in the early acts leading to a shocking conclusion. Powers is one of my all-time favorite authors and this is my favorite book of his, no surprise considering how much I love spy thrillers. It’s complex, it’s got a ton of religious undertones that you don’t need to understand to enjoy the story but are a huge bonus if you do, and connects deeply to real-world events in the U.K. and Soviet Union. All of Powers’ stuff is good but this is his best.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I’m a huge Potterhead, have been since the 2nd book came out, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite in the series. This is where I really think J.K. Rowling found her footing, the cozy atmosphere of Hogwarts warm and welcoming, and plot points from the first and second books – Hagrid riding Sirius’ motorcycle, Ron’s pet rat – becoming incredibly important to the book’s conclusion. It, more than any other book in the series, made me feel like I was attending Hogwarts with Harry & his friends. It’s also my favorite movie of the 8!

The Book of the New Sun

Like The Lord of the Rings, I’m “cheating” here because The Book of the New Sun is really 4 (admittedly-short) books in one. But they’re great, full of dense, descriptive prose and characters who aren’t who they appear to be. It’s a sci-fi novel about the last days of our dying sun set in an unrecognizable Earth and told in the language of epic fantasy from an unreliable narrator’s point of view. I’ve read the series (and their coda, The Urth of the New Sun) three times and I pick something new up each time.

Sandstorm

All of James Rollins’ novels are great. I don’t think he’s had a bad one in almost three decades of writing – I love them all, from the standalones to his recent fantasy series. But Sandstorm is my favorite of the bunch. It has everything, from chase scenes to gun battles to ancient artifacts all centered around the lost city of Ubar in the Arabian Peninsula. It’s also the start of the 18 (!) book Sigma Force series. It came out in 2004 but it’s held up well.

Ice Station

Ice Station was recommended to me by a librarian when I was in high school after I mentioned that I enjoyed James Rollins’ novels. I picked it up and read the entire book in less than 4 hours. It runs at about 400 miles per hour and while there’s some technical inaccuracies and flat characters the plot, setting, and twists are top-notch. Matt Reilly’s more recent stuff I haven’t liked as much but this – his first published novel – is a rollercoaster ride. I can’t think of a more faster-paced novel.

The Bourne Identity

Last but not least, The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. All of Ludlum’s novels are great and are a huge influence on my own writing. They exist somewhere between espionage thrillers and conspiracy thrillers, almost all of them written at the height of the Cold War and the paranoia of that time. The Bourne Identity takes that to the next level, with the main character waking up in a fishing boat in the Mediterranean and having no idea who he is or why he was there. It’s tense throughout, the pacing top-notch, and the twists and turns numerous. If I had to recommend one of his books to start with, it’s this one – and the movie is pretty good too!