It seems impossible that 2024 could outdo what was truly a spectacular year of SFF and speculative offerings. But considering how difficult it was to narrow down this preview, you and I are in for a treat this year. We’ve got alternate-history utopian nations and near-future dystopian surveillance states, sexy wedding duels and interstellar artifact heists, daring works in translation and new takes on familiar archetypes. And the characters—get ready to meet vengeful ghosts and body-hopping mothers-to-be, pirates and aliens and time traveler “bridges,” river goddesses and accidental generation ship saints. Let’s scale that TBR together.

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Nisi Shawl, Kinning
(Tor Books, January 23)

I can’t think of a better way to kick off 2024 than with Nisi Shawl’s steampunk alternate history epic about the formation of Everfair, a utopian nation within the borders of the Congo Free State. Following the eponymous first novel in 2016, Everfair has reached a tentative peace among its clashing factions, from England’s Fabian Society to Black missionaries to the royals whose land was annexed as a European colony, however well-meaning.

But while Princess Mwadi and Prince Ilunga attempt to seize the throne their father abdicated, influenza beyond Everfair’s borders has weakened rival powers in Europe. Could the solution lie in empathy spores—one of Everfair’s many magical inventions—that Chinese scientist Tink is distributing around the world via aircanoe? The Everfair sequel looks to replicate the first book’s success (both within and without the central story) in creating bonds between small groups that have global effects.

Tlotlo Tsamaase, Womb City
(Erewhon Books, January 23)

Womb City is one of those books I’ve been waiting nearly a year for, so I’m thrilled for Motswana writer Tlotlo Tsamaase’s Africanfuturist debut to finally be here. Obviously the title concerns a world in which babies are grown in artificial wombs, but this science fiction horror tale is about so much more than the future of fertility; it’s set in a surveillance state in which consciousnesses can body-hop, but only if they agree to be monitored at all times.

Such is the case for Nelah, who is on her third lifetime but in a loveless marriage, with a gestating daughter held as collateral for her not stepping out of line. But when a night of indiscretions culminates in a car accident cover-up, Nelah finds herself responsible for another life of sorts: the ghost of her victim, which demands revenge on everyone close to Nelah.

Seth Dickinson, Exordia
(Tordotcom Publishing, January 23)

While I breathlessly await the next installment of Seth Dickinson’s heartrending geopolitical fantasy series about Baru Cormorant, I’m delighted to see that he’s playing in the sci-fi sphere in the meantime. Exordia is an expletive-laden first-contact story between Kurdish genocide survivor Anna Rekani and Ssrin, an eight-headed viper alien that only she can see. With vibes of Independence Day (except where the extraterrestrials are at least our frenemies) and Michael Crichton, this bonkers-sounding adventure is high-concept, horrific, and perfect to fill the Baru-sized hole in my TBR.

Bora Chung (trans Anton Hur), Your Utopia: Stories
(Algonquin Books, January 30)

Korean author Bora Chung’s second collection (after the Booker Prize-shortlisted Cursed Bunny) contains eight new speculative tales, perhaps a bit more tender but no less haunting. There are stories of one-sided love, from a husband tracing his wife’s late-night phone calls in “A Very Ordinary Marriage” to an AI elevator falling for its riders in “One More Kiss, Dear.” We follow along with a bottom-rung employee at “The Center for Immortality Research” who still has better job security than most of us (if the same boss forever is your sort of thing). And it should come as no surprise that the title story’s utopia is one in which AI has replaced humanity, though there is still a humanoid robot asking existential questions into the void.

Kelly Link, The Book of Love
(Random House, February 13)

Kelly Link is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient for her fantastical short fiction, with her debut novel long anticipated. In the New England town of Lovesend, three teenagers who have been missing for months find themselves resurrected from the dead by their music teacher, Mr. Anabin, who has also brought back a mysterious traveler. But there’s a catch: two get to remain, and two will have to return to wherever they came from. Perform the magical tasks Mr. Anabin assigns, and they’ll have their second chance. But as the teens undertake this bargain of unfinished business, Lovesend itself begins transforming into something more extraordinary.

Eliza Chan, Fathomfolk
(Orbit Books, February 27)

Water-based worlds has become its own SFF subgenre, but often it’s humanity adapting to inhabit the waves; Eliza Chan instead submerges us into a world populated by fathomfolk, or all of the sirens, sea witches, and water dragons you would expect but don’t always get to hear about. But humanity is polluting the waters, forcing fathomfolk like Nami (daughter of the water dragon matriarch) onto land and into the dry sphere of two-leggers who regard them with the usual human amount of prejudice for someone not like them. In the half-flooded city of Tiankawi, reunited with her ambassador brother and his half-siren partner, Nami begins to better understand how fathomfolk live on the fringes—and why rebellion calls to them like an irresistible song.

Hao Jingfang (trans Ken Liu), Jumpnauts
(Saga Press, March 12)

In 2016, Hao Jingfang won the Hugo Award for her novelette Folding Beijing (translated by Ken Liu), in which Beijing literally folded itself into different permutations in order for three social classes to share the same surface at different times. Now, her debut novel looks to examine similar class and cultural factions, with the Pacific League of Nations competing with the Atlantic Division of Nations over who will make first contact with an alien civilization that has already been hiding on Earth for thousands of years. The fact that Jumpnauts is listed as part of the Folding Universe makes you wonder if she will employ the same imaginative physics to how humans and aliens finally interact.

John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In
(DAW, April 2)

John Wiswell is a writer new to me as I’ve been reading more deeply into SFF short fiction in the past year, but it’s no surprise he has an extensive body of work, with standouts like “D.I.Y.” and “So You Want to Kiss Your Nemesis.” That sense of initial irreverence belying deeply-considered pathos is reflected in his debut novel, an unflinchingly dark and unflinchingly heartfelt romance between a monster-hunter and her prey—but from the perspective of the monster, who’s seeking a mate in which to lay her eggs. For Shesheshen, having her young devour her partner from the inside out is the ultimate expression of love; but Homily, who doesn’t know the true identity of the mysterious woman she nursed back to health, might not appreciate things. I’m ready for Wiswell to convince us why they’re meant to be.

Oliver K. Langmead, Calypso
(Titan Books, April 2)

I’m a sucker for a generation ship story where the protagonist awakens far enough into the ship’s future that entire eras have passed—that the descendants hardly resemble the people who first boarded on Earth, and they have created their own culture and beliefs in a figurative and literal vacuum. Oliver K. Langmead’s latest really commits to that idea, with Rochelle waking from cryostasis into a lush forest. It’s fitting for an ark named after the mythical nymph Calypso, who kept Odysseus on her island for seven years during The Odyssey. And while Rochelle’s initial assignment was to be Calypso’s engineer, instead the forest’s inhabitants revere her as some sort of saint. Combine this with Langmead’s use of epic verse, and a blurb from Fingersmith author Sarah Waters, and how can anyone resist?

Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
(Tordotcom Publishing, April 16)

Recent generation ship stories from authors like River Solomon have delved into the class and racial tensions of this phase of humanity’s migration through the stars. But what most intrigues me about Sofia Samatar’s science fantasy is that it has shades of R.F. Kuang’s Babel as well, interrogating the ivory tower of academia and how it can grant freedom via intellectual advancement, or withhold it from those not deemed deserving enough.

This novel’s mining ship left Earth long enough ago that its people are embedded within a centuries-old caste system, with much of the population Chained to the Hold. But when a Chained boy is brought “upstairs” by a “professor” who sees potential in him, he enters the insular academic world of the ship, only to discover that it—and his mentor, whose own academic career is rooted in him succeeding—possesses its own damning chains.

Em North, In Universes
(Harper, May 7)

Emet North sounds like the kind of writer who has lived a half-dozen lives before this, not least due to their physics thesis on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Their academic study has clearly influenced their fiction, with their debut novel following Raffi, a queer physicist distracted from their dark matter research by thoughts of Britt, an artist they barely know. But what if they knew her better?

Before Raffi realizes, they’re bouncing through parallel timelines and alternate realities, constantly changing the events of the summer they almost met Britt when they were both thirteen. Instead of strangers, they’re friends; instead of friends, they’re something more; instead of something more, Raffi betrays Britt. But which reality is the real one, and how does the past affect the present?

Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time
(Avid Reader Press, May 7)

In Kaliane Bradley’s delightful-sounding novel, time travel is so bureaucratic as to be mundane, with civil servants who act as “bridges” to help the real time travelers (or “expats”) adjust from their era to ours. But what is supposed to begin and end with our protagonist acting as a host-slash-liaison for expat “1847,” a.k.a. an Arctic explorer, the two become unlikely roommates and even begin to fall in love. The fish-out-of-water time traveler relationship, not to mention the workplace strictures against any personal interactions, is giving vibes of Outlander meets Severance, with other expats including a spy who keeps getting plastic surgery and a 17th-century cinephile who gets addicted to dating apps.

Victor Manibo, Escape Velocity
(Erewhon Books, May 21)

Victor Manibo’s debut novel The Sleepless explored a very speculative case of the haves versus the have-nots—that is, those afflicted by a pandemic of insomnia and those who could still sleep at night. His deliciously tense follow-up looks to twist the knife on those class tensions; it’s literally being billed as “Knives Out in space with a Parasite twist.”

At the twenty-fifth high school reunion held on the luxurious Space Habitat Altaire, a quartet of alums aren’t just looking to impress each other with their enviable lives. One is trying to solve a murder from senior year, another is collecting blackmail secrets (how Clue!), a third is angling for a coveted position on the Mars settlement to which Earth’s rich and famous are fleeing… and, OK, the fourth is trying to win the heart of his high school crush, aww. This looks like one of the year’s most fun SF mysteries.

Vaishnavi Patel, Goddess of the River
(Redhook, May 21)

After reinventing the “wicked stepmother” of the Ramayana into a diplomat-queen in Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel turns her gaze to another reimagining, this time of the Mahabharata: River goddess Ganga is cursed with a mortal body, forced to atone for the antics of the godlings on her shore. But her human life ebbs and flows with triumph and tragedy, as she becomes a powerful queen but also a mother who is forced to abandon her infant son. As he grows up, prince Devavrata carries his mother’s curse, and their fates intertwine and separate over the course of both their lifetimes.

S.T. Gibson, Evocation
(Angry Robot Books, May 28)

Neither urban fantasy nor millionaire protagonists are usually my thing, but S.T. Gibson’s combination of the two has, shall we say, invoked my interest. Mostly because Boston-based lawyer David Aristarkhov has inherited both his family’s fortune and their rumored magical powers from a thousand-year-old deal with the Devil, yet he’s still an alcoholic former psychic prodigy who can barely manage moonlighting as a medium.

When the Devil comes to collect on the family’s long-ago bargain, David must excavate the other failed portion of his life: turning to his ex Rhys, a rival within their magical Society, for help. But working with Rhys involves grappling with his astronomer wife Moira—and despite himself, David finds himself attracted to them both. A polyamorous love story definitely sweetens the deal… if David can make it to his thirtieth birthday before the Devil steals him away from potential happiness.

Alexandra Rowland, Running Close to the Wind
(Tordotcom Publishing, June 11)

It’s fun to watch an author play within the bounds of their own world but with such different tones. Last year’s A Taste of Gold and Iron was a swoony fantasy romance set in the realm of Arasht, but this next installment is a swashbuckling queer pirate adventure on the high seas. The requisite newbie to the pirate crew is Avra Helvaçi, formerly of the Araşti Ministry of Intelligence, who steals the ultimate secret to sell on the black market. But his ex, pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār, has other plans to ferry the secret to the Isle of Lost Souls for an even greater booty.

Well, the real booty belongs to Brother Julian, the hot celibate monk who’s part of their ragtag crew. Alexandra Rowland has written the ideal antidote to the past indeterminate number of awful years, as well as a cure for the Our Flag Meets Death hiatus. What’s more, they tweeted, it’s not just funny in the way that Terry Pratchett’s work was funny, but “also angry in the same way that Terry Pratchett was angry.” All aboard!

Yume Kitasei, The Stardust Grail
(Flatiron Books, June 11)

I really enjoyed Yume Kitasei’s generation ship debut The Deep Sky, but I’m even more sold on the premise of her second novel: Maya Hoshimoto is an intergalactic reverse Indiana Jones-meets-Debbie Ocean, which is to say she’s a former art thief renowned for stealing back alien artifacts. At least, until she retired to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology. But when an old friend approaches with one last score, Maya is powerless to resist. Better yet, tracking down an extraterrestrial object that may save an entire species from extinction might also solve the mystery of why Maya is seeing visions of the future—like the fact that someone will betray her on this final heist.

Paolo Bacigalupi, Navola
(Knopf, July 9)

I know Paolo Bacigalupi’s work through more futuristic novels like The Windup Girl and The Water Knife, tackling themes of bioengineering and global warming. Ironically that’s what has me even more intrigued for his latest, a historical epic fantasy that owes equal inspiration to Renaissance Italy and Game of Thrones. Davico di Regulai is the scion of one of the most powerful families in the city-state of Navola, who have clawed their way to prominence through their cunning as merchant bankers… though the family heirloom of a fossilized dragon eye probably deserves some credit, too. Expected to step up and run the di Regulai family, Davico must show that he knows how to navigate Navolese diplomacy, though even more crucial will be his willingness to delve into the dark history of how his adopted sister Celia di Balcosi was taken from her own decimated bloodline.

Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword
(Viking, July 16)

The eagerly anticipated next book from The Magicians author Lev Grossman shifts its classics-riffing focus from Narnia to Camelot… or rather, post-Camelot’s collapse. Freshly-forged knight Collum seeks to join the Round Table, but it’s (metaphorically) fractured, as King Arthur has fallen in battle two weeks prior and his idyllic kingdom is beset by warring factions.

There’s Morgan le Fay backed by an army of faeries and other supernatural creatures; Lancelot and Guinevere, grieving Arthur yet also regarded as traitors; and outsiders not part of Arthur’s fall, who sense an opportunity without an heir on the throne. Instead of joining the storied Knights of the Round Table, Collum will team up with a ragtag band of survivors including Sir Palomides and Sir Dagonet, as well as Merlin’s former apprentice (and betrayer, but for her own reasons) Nimue.

James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
(Orbit Books, August 6)

The Expanse authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck are collaborating once more on a new sci-fi trilogy that explores a different corner of the space opera universe, inspired in part by the Bible’s apocalyptic Book of Daniel. Dafyd Alkhor is a bright-eyed research assistant on the long-ago-settled human planet of Anjiin, but his world broadens beyond romantic and academic intrigue when he and a handful of other human survivors are snatched by the Carryx—an alien hive who kidnap species to their homeworld, only to pit them against one another in a competition for survival. While the idea of humanity justifying its continued existence is intriguing, I’m especially curious as to how humans made it off Earth in the first place; hopefully The Captive’s War trilogy will answer that and more.

Kerstin Hall, Asunder
(Tordotcom Publishing, August 20)

Kerstin Hall’s fiction delves into dark corners and underworlds that I might hesitate to enter as a reader, but I trust her enough to explore realms shaped by cannibalism (Star Eater) and populated by demons (The Border Keeper). To wit, I’m not usually a fan of eldritch tales, but I’m fascinated by her latest protagonist Karys Eska, a Deathspeaker whose power comes from one such nightmare being. But when a dying client pays Karys to investigate a suspicious demise and she accidentally binds him to her own shadow… a descent into the underworld seems all but inevitable.

August Clarke, Metal From Heaven
(Erewhon Books, fall TBD)

As excited as I am for H.A. Clarke to conclude their Scapegracers series with The Feast Makers in March, I’m even more psyched for the next phase of August Clarke’s literary career. They’ve signed a new book deal for three standalone novels, the first of which is an industrial fantasy whose setting was inspired by the steampunk anime Arcane: League of Legends but whose revenge plot is all Count of Monte Cristo. We don’t know much about it beyond the tantalizing pitch of a young woman presumed dead reinventing herself in a glittering world of industrial change in order to avenge her family’s murder by a ruthless mining company, but that’s all we need.

Freya Marske, Swordcrossed
(Bramble, fall TBD)

At the book launch for A Power Unbound, Freya Marske shared that her forthcoming standalone fantasy romance was equally inspired by the tradition of hiring a swordsman at your wedding and by the underrated queer romance Imagine Me & You, in which Piper Perabo falls for her wedding vendor Lena Headey. Now that Marske’s Edwardian-era magic series The Last Binding is complete, I can’t think of a better followup than this cozy romantasy about a wool merchant who hires a con artist to teach him swordplay for his nuptials, only to be seduced away from family obligations to a life where he can actually be himself, even if it’s with the last person he ever thought he’d love. Cross my heart, can’t wait to swoon over this one.

Elijah Kinch Spector, Kalyna the Cutthroat
(Erewhon Books, November 26)

My ruthless daughter Kalyna is back surviving and thriving in the sequel to Kalyna the Soothsayer. While her fake fortune teller shtick crumbled along with the demise of the Tetrarchic Experiment—four countries trying to coexist, only for the realm of Loasht to revoke peace—Kalyna has found a new application for her special set of skills: here, escorting a scholar-on-sabbatical back to his home country of Loasht amid the Tetrarchic tensions.

Partly narrated by the scholar (Radiant Basket of Rainbow Shells) himself, Elijah Kinch Spector’s latest adventure will see this motley crew joining up with the only people who will take them: a utopian community existing on the borders of Loasht and Tetrarchia. But if the Tetrarchic Experiment couldn’t succeed, we’re already suspicious of this cult and their seeming ability to have figured it all out. I can’t wait to see how Kalyna earns her new title.

Igbo goddesses! Trans Jesus! Queer political marriages! December doesn’t always have a wealth of SFF offerings, but the books being released before the end of 2023 seem to have the perfect hooks to make them irresistible additions to your TBR and/or gifting piles. This month’s list ranges from Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ’s debut to Geoff Ryman’s latest, to inventive fantasy sequels from Foz Meadows, Justin Lee Anderson, and K.J. Parker, to near-future visions of humanity’s self-extinction (via Debbie Urbanski) and researchers gone wild on distant planets (as depicted by Honey Watson). What a way to end the year.

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Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ, Dazzling
(The Overlook Press, December 5)

This British-Nigerian debut follows two girls’ coming-of-age at a Nigerian boarding school in the 1990s. Treasure, whose family was forced into poverty following her father’s death, has only gotten into this school because of the bargain she made with a spirit; in exchange for finding it “wives,” it brings her father back. Ozoemena is also struggling with a loss—her uncle, who passed on the magical gift of joining the Leopard Society, an Igbo sect dedicated to the goddess Idemili. Both friends must keep up their respective agreements with spirits, or else risk losing their social standing or (in Ozoemena’s case) succumbing to the fury of the Leopard.

Geoff Ryman, HIM
(Angry Robot Books, December 5)

Geoff Ryman’s award-winning (we’re talking Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, World Fantasy, and more) and genre-spanning books have put speculative spins on everything from the AIDS epidemic to the political history of Cambodia. His latest ambitious work goes back to an even earlier story: that of Jesus Christ, but if He were born a girl. In this retelling (is it sci-fi? is it alt-history?), virgin Maryam gives birth to Avigayil, who she raises with husband Yosef barLevi. But as Avigayil grows up, she envisions a different future for herself—as Yeshu, a man, who can see the future and work miracles on his growing followers. I love a thoughtful Biblical retelling (shout-out to the fiction podcast Almelem), and one with trans Jesus sounds like a must-read.

Foz Meadows, All the Hidden Paths
(Tor Books, December 5)

Last year’s queer fantasy romance A Strange and Stubborn Endurance saw Ralian aristocrat Velasain vin Aaro betrothed first to a princess from neighboring Tithena—then, when he was forcibly outed in his homophobic country, the Tithenai simply offered him a new betrothal, to the princess’ brother Caethari Aeduria. As Vel and Cae navigated a political union despite being strangers, they also had to contend with saboteurs who would see them never make it to the altar.

In the sequel, they are newly married and just beginning to figure out both their feelings (emotional and physical) for one another… only to get summoned to Qi-Xihan, the capital city of Tithena, to present themselves. Foz Meadows looks to be amping up the political intrigue in the sequel, with more courtiers and enemies for the lovers to contend with.

K.J. Parker, Saevus Corax Gets Away with Murder
(Orbit Books, December 5)

This fall, Orbit has published three slim volumes from comic novelist Tom Holt (writing here as K.J. Parker) back-to-back-to-back, with the conclusion being released just in time for you to catch up on all three over your holiday. A pseudonymous battlefield salvager, Saevus Corax starts by stripping bodies of useful trinkets; he’s on his way to retirement, but of course the poor chap gets dragged back in for one last score. That means stopping all-out war between rival powers, but also getting away with murder—after all, what’s one more body on the political battlefield?

Debbie Urbanski, After World
(Simon & Schuster, December 5)

Sen Anon is the last human on Earth; the rest of humanity has uploaded itself to a virtual network known as Maia in what is being called the Great Transition. Sen will stay behind long enough to observe the world rewind itself back to wilderness before she can join them. Except—when After World begins, Sen is a rotting corpse in her upstate New York cabin, discovered by an artificial intelligence. [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc is charged with its own task, then: to go back through all of the footage of Sen’s final months and compile a novel about her, drawing from 21st-century books. But along the way, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc finds itself transgressing against its programming by falling in love with its subject.

Justin Lee Anderson, The Bitter Crown
(Orbit Books, December 5)

Justin Lee Anderson has said that while The Lost War, the first book in his four-part Eidyn Saga, is primarily an epic fantasy, it also contains elements of mystery and a conspiracy thriller. That bears out with the twist at the end of the first book: Laird Aranok has discovered that his best friend King Janaeus is actually the series villain, having erased the memories of everyone in the kingdom as to his dastardly deeds. Now that Laird knows the truth, he’ll team up with Mynyngogg, his supposed enemy from the first book, to try and convince everyone that their beloved monarch has violated their very minds.

Honey Watson, Lessons in Birdwatching
(Angry Robot Books, December 8)

I love SFF that focuses on people who may be extremely intelligent but also sound like hot messes, which is exactly how I would describe the cadre of researchers temporarily stationed on the planet Apech. Due to this far-off world’s time-distorting illness, Wilhelmina Ming and her four elite peers indulge in psychedelics and orgies to cope. But when they awaken to discover an impaled corpse as some sort of twisted warning, they realize that the diplomatic stakes are far more delicate outside of their insular sphere of sex, drugs, and research.

It’s hard to believe that we’re hitting the end of the year, and especially that hyperspeed span of time where you blink and it’s Thanksgiving, and again for Christmas. Whether you’ve got plane/train/automobile rides to pass with some catch-up reading, or if you need a handy excuse to duck out of family functions for a break, you’ll have plenty of November TBR options. This month’s list alone is chock full of prequels, sequels, and series finales, of the duology and trilogy kind. Enjoy cozy fantasy set in bookshops, cozy sci-fi featuring everyone’s favorite Murderbot, and riveting epics set in distant fantasy pasts or speculative near-futures.

Freya Marske, A Power Unbound
(Tordotcom Publishing, November 7)

Reader, when I realized that the final installment of Freya Marske’s Edwardian-era fantasy romance series The Last Binding would pair up cranky bisexual Lord Jack Hawthorn (introduced in A Marvellous Light) with smart-mouthed journalist and thief Alan Ross (from A Restless Truth)… I am not ashamed to say that I squealed with delight. Marske delivers a prickly love story while adeptly tying up all the loose ends of her series, involving a long-ago bargain between human magicians and ancient fae, and how the magic that resulted has been twisted by mortal greed.

Naomi Alderman, The Future
(Simon & Schuster, November 7)

A new near-future thriller from the author of The Power yet set on a different potential path for humanity, this is a fable about how knowing the world will end will only get you so far, unless you also have the resources to survive. The timeline-hopping narrative follows two sets of characters: tech billionaires who get early warning about a pandemic worse than covid; and their various beleaguered assistants, ousted ex-partners, and rebellious children, who are radicalized to activism in order to save the rest of the world, or at least warn them when the billionaires would not. Naomi Alderman has more to say about the novel’s many dualities, reflected in the fox-and-rabbit cover, which was revealed on Lit Hub.

Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal
(Ace, November 7)

In the second installment of Mur Lafferty’s Midsolar Murders series, amateur detective Mallory Viridian has reluctantly accepted that she’ll continue to solve crimes up in space; having fled Earth because people kept dying around her, she still encounters victims and murderers, now of the human and alien variety. Mallory’s home, sentient space station Eternity, has become her Cabot Cove (if we’re talking in Murder, She Wrote-speak), and it keeps getting human visitors—this time her teenage crush, her former best friend, and the law enforcement agent wondering why she was in the middle of so many deaths back on Earth. When someone on their shuttle winds up dead, it’s up to Mallory to solve the crime again.

Travis Baldree, Bookshops & Bonedust
(Tor Books, November 7)

Travis Baldree, who just won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, returns with a prequel to his cozy fantasy Legends & Lattes. Twenty years before battle-scarred orc Viv hung up her blade to open a coffee shop, she was a mercenary recuperating from a wound and terrified that her fighting days were over. Waylaid in a small town called Murk, Viv reluctantly passes her summer in a crumbling bookshop where the owner, rat-human Fern, has a knack for picking the perfect read for each customer. As Viv finds herself potentially falling in love with the book, the shop, and maybe even Fern, she considers whether she’s come to the end of her story or if she’s about to turn the page on a new chapter.

Davinia Evans, Shadow Baron
(Orbit Books, November 14)

I love a second book in an SFF series in which the protagonist has solved the high stakes of the first adventure but now has to figure out what comes next. In her sequel to Notorious Sorcerer, Davinia Evans delves into the new challenges facing Siyon Velo: Despite being named the Alchemist of Bezim, the only one who can keep the city from shaking into the sea, he may be no match for the new problems plaguing the streets. Namely, mythical creatures like djinn and naga popping into existence from other planes. Siyon stabilized the planes in Bezim once, but can he restore balance for a second time?

Martha Wells, System Collapse
(Tordotcom Publishing, November 14)

The seventh book in Martha Well’s Murderbot series is only the second full-length novel, picking up immediately after the events of previous adventure Network Effect. Stranded on a newly-colonized planet in danger, Murderbot must deter the colonists from jumping on the incoming rescue ships from the Barish-Estranza corporation—knowing that the company wants only to scoop up some free human slave labor. What’s the best way to convince a group of colonists to listen to a malfunctioning killer robot? By creating a propaganda video based on everything Murderbot knows about humans from beloved soap opera Sanctuary Moon, of course!

Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Warrior of the Wind
(Orbit Books, November 21)

Son of the Storm, the first book in Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s West African-inspired trilogy The Nameless Republic, pitted its trio of protagonists at literal and metaphorical crossroads. In the sequel, each must face the consequences of which road they chose: Lower-caste biracial scholar Danso and skin-changing warrior Lilong have escaped Bassa and the reach of the Red Emperor—for now—but Lilong wants to return the magical heirloom Diwi to her people. But Esheme, Danso’s ambitious former betrothed, wants the Diwi for her own caste-climbing desires.

Nnedi Okorafor, Like Thunder
(DAW, November 28)

Earlier this year, DAW released an expanded edition of Shadow Speaker, Nnedi Okorafor’s previously out-of-print Africanfuturist fantasy about two teenagers in the post-apocalyptic Sahara of 2074 following a power-bestowing nuclear catastrophe. While the first volume of the Desert Magician’s Duology was told from the perspective of Ejii, the eponymous shadow speaker tracking down her father’s executioner, Okorafor concludes the series through the eyes of Ejii’s former best friend, Dikéogu Obidimkpa. A rainmaker, enslaved because of his Changed One powers, Dikéogu seeks revenge on his parents but also seeks answers to what happened to him in the three years since Shadow Speaker and why he and Ejii have become estranged.

Lex Croucher, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
(Wednesday Books, November 28)

Every time I think about this book, which has the royals-in-love (though not with each other!) vibes of Red, White & Royal Blue yet set in a distinctly A Knight’s Tale-esque setting, I just grin. It’s a fun riff on tropes throughout, starting with the arranged marriage at its heart: Gwendoline, princess of Camelot, betrothed to Arthur Delacey, a distant descendent of Mordred. Though the two resent their shared obligation to secure a political alliance, their mutual discovery that they’re both gay leads at first to blackmail, and eventually to conspiratorial commiserating: Art will help Gwen offer her favor to Lady Bridget Leclair, the realm’s sole lady knight, while exploring his own romance with Gwen’s older brother Gabriel, the heir to the throne. Every autumn should have at least one queer remixed SFF romp like this.

I knew from the start of the year that October was going to be a solid SFF month, as our 2023 preview included  Molly McGhee’s Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind. But that was before I knew which creepy tales would be coming on the oh-so-convenient Halloween book release, like an eerie post-covid update on Rosemary’s Baby and a gothic fantasy with whispers of The Hazel Wood. Not to mention, retellings of Aladdin, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Beowulf!

Though they’re not books, special shout-outs this month to two graphic novels: Saga Volume 11, the always-brilliant and devastating space opera from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples; and Parasocial, Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson’s titillating cautionary tale about both sides of SFF fandom, from those who put too much expectation into their idols as well as the lonely people who embrace that misguided fan attention.

Thea Guanzon, The Hurricane Wars
(Harper Voyager, October 3)

Years ago I discovered a Star Wars fanfic that recast Kylo Ren and Rey into a retelling of one of my favorite Star Wars novels, The Courtship of Princess Leia. This epic, arranged-marriage, enemies-to-lovers romance was called landscape with a blur of conquerors, and I devoured it at my desk at work. Thea Guanzon demonstrated her chops in keeping readers hooked for weekly installments, so it’s no surprise that she parlayed that into her debut novel, The Hurricane Wars. It’s a Southeast Asian-inspired weather magic fantasy in which orphaned soldier Talasyn must learn to harness her light magic against the shadowy power of Alaric, the heir to the Night Emperor—but to use that magic for good, because in the wrong hands, it could create the Hurricane Wars all over again.

Nicola Griffith, Menewood
(MCD, October 3)

A decade after the stunning Hild, Nicola Griffith presents the next four years in the life of Hilda of Whitby, in a historical fiction medieval epic so meticulously researched and richly rendered that it feels like a fantasy doorstopper. As a child, Hild used her keen intuition to stay one step ahead of a murderous king in his court. Now, at eighteen, she will live through a lifetime’s worth of bloody coups as a half-dozen different men claim to be the true king of seventh-century Britain. Yet Hild will still carve out moments of peace and protection for those she holds dear, as she builds her stronghold of Menewood. Griffith describes it as “a trilogy in one volume,” so strap in.

Alix E. Harrow, Starling House
(Tor Books, October 3)

No one in the ironically-named Eden, Kentucky, has known anything but ill luck from the prosperous yet poisonous coal mining business that shapes the town; and no one has ever seen the inside of Starling House. Until Opal, constantly scrounging to put her brother Jasper into a prestigious boarding school, accepts a job as housekeeper from Arthur Starling, who intends to be the final Warden of Starling House. Because have we mentioned it’s a sentient manor? One that likes Opal very much, and wants to keep her close. And as Opal wrestles with escaping the house’s clutches and accepting its attention, she will learn more about the unofficial history of Eden, and what constitutes a better life for her and the ones she loves.

Samit Basu, The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport
(Tordotcom Publishing, October 3)

“Aladdin in space” is already an excellent elevator pitch for Samit Basu’s standalone novel, but he looks to be exploring every angle of the familiar story in this adventure set on a collapsing spaceport. Shantiport is a shadow of its former great self, but street-smart tour bus driver Lina is determined to save her home. Aided by her brother, monkeybot Bador, and storytellerbot Moku (also our narrator), Lina takes on the dangerous job of procuring an ancient reality-bending relic for the corrupt higher-ups. But when this trio encounters the eponymous jinn-bot, who will grant three wishes, it challenges the narrative they’ve already been following and presents a new opportunity for revolution and change.

Sharon Emmerichs, Shield Maiden
(Redhook, October 3)

If you’re like me, the only female figure from Beowulf that you may remember is Grendel’s mother. But here Dr. Sharon Emmerichs introduces us to Fryda, niece of the great warrior king, in this thrilling retelling of the last third or so of the epic poem. Despite a childhood injury that left her with a shattered hand, Fryda is determined to train as a shield maiden, against her father’s wishes to marry her off into a political alliance instead. But as the feasting begins to celebrate Beowulf’s fiftieth anniversary as king, Fryda becomes aware of a growing power within herself… which may well be linked to Frýdraca, a fearsome dragon stirring from her long slumber.

Aliette de Bodard, A Fire Born of Exile
(Gollancz, October 12)

Lately I’ve had the very specific yen to rewatch The Count of Monte Cristo, something to do with all the dark drama of a humble man betrayed and imprisoned by his best friend, only to escape and mold himself into a rich, melodramatic hero in order to wreak revenge on those who left him to die in the dark. So when I heard that the latest installment in Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya series counts Alexandre Dumas among its influences, I was hooked: A scholar long thought dead returns in disguise as Quynh, the Alchemist of Streams and Hills. As her enigmatic presence enraptures the inhabitants of the Scattered Pearls Belt, she ensnares two people in particular: noble daughter Minh, and engineer Hoà, someone she knew in her old lifetime. Ahh, I can’t wait! And while this is set in the Xuya universe, it’s a standalone, so a perfect entry point.

A.Y. Chao, Shanghai Immortal
(Hodder & Stoughton, October 17)

A.Y. Chao’s adult fantasy debut weaves between two Shanghais: the Hell version, in which half-vampire, half-fox-spirit (or hulijing) Lady Jing runs errands for the King of Hell; and mortal Shanghai, set in the Jazz Age of the 1930s. When Jing discovers that other hulijing courtiers are plotting to steal a priceless dragon pearl from the King, she teams up with sweet mortal Tony Lee (who is supposed to be setting up the Central Bank of Hell) to keep the tenuous balance between worlds, even as she discovers a realm she never knew.

E. Lily Yu, Jewel Box: Stories
(Erewhon Books, October 24)

Despite the pretty-sounding title of E. Lily Yu’s first short fiction collection (amassing 22 old and new stories over 16 years), these baubles sound like they tend more toward the strangely alluring and often surreal. There’s a love story between a street lamp and one man who always passes by underneath; adaptations of Orpheus and Eurydice (set in an underground prison) and Puss in Boots; and a dystopian one-percenter wedding story about tracking down impossible vanilla ice cream in a radioactive near-future. These fables are dotted with birds, crabs, lions, and, obviously, unicorns. Speaking of animals, get a load of the gorgeous cover (revealed on Lit Hub) and all of the three-dimensional work that went into it!

Nat Cassidy, Nestlings
(Tor Nightfire, October 31)

In Mary: An Awakening of Terror, Nat Cassidy delved into the horrors of how society treats middle-aged women and dredged up a familiar darkness that was incredibly satisfying in its bloody resolution. I’m even more intrigued by his follow-up, a modern take on the premise of Rosemary’s Baby: a lovely young couple move into their dream apartment, only for it to threaten their first-born. Except in this case, Ana and Reid are still recovering from a traumatic birth that left Ana paralyzed from the waist down, only for their fortunes to rapidly reverse as they get a coveted spot in the desired Deptford building via New York City’s housing lottery. But when things seem off from the first meeting with the creepy concierge, Ana—already struggling with postpartum depression dismissed by Reid, among others—worries about why their daughter Charlie wakes up screaming in the night, and what’s causing the needle-like bite marks all over her.

Fitting for the shifting of the seasons, this month we’ve got SFF tales of grief and moving on, achieving closure atop a mammoth’s back or by digging into an immortality program’s source code, leaving behind one home for another. There are retellings or translations of Hamlet and The Iliad, as well as debut fantasies that take place beneath unseasonable pomegranate groves or with as many minor gods as there are drying leaves we’ll be crunching underfoot. And if you want to bring that chill to your evening reads sooner, there’s a new Indigenous horror anthology reminding you why it’s never a good idea to whistle at night…

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Lavie Tidhar, The Circumference of the World
(Tachyon Publications, September 5)

 Lavie Tidhar’s trippy, metafictional ode to the golden age of science fiction is a book within a book—Lode Stars, the novel that may or may not exist, as it disappears after being read. When mathematician Delia Welegtabit’s husband Levi Armstrong goes missing after encountering the book, she teams up with face-blind book dealer Daniel Chase to track down the novel’s enigmatic author, Eugene Charles Hartley. But Levi has been kidnapped by Oskar Lens, a mobster with his own delusions about Lode Stars… And what about Hartley’s other creation, the Church of God’s All-Seeing Eyes, and its disturbing beliefs about whether we actually exist or if our memories are just black-hole-trapped fodder for hungry aliens?

Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates
(Tordotcom Publishing, September 12)

You can read Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle of novellas in any order, but this latest installment sounds like an especially emotional starting point: Wandering Cleric Chih returns to their home after years away, only to discover that their mentor Cleric Thien has passed away. But as Thien’s granddaughters prepare to storm the gates of the Singing Hills abbey demanding their grandfather’s body, Chih must hold space for their grief as well as their own, while also ensuring that in their anger they don’t destroy the storytelling archives to which Thien dedicated their life.

Em X. Liu, The Death I Gave Him
(Solaris, September 12)

When I was in undergrad at NYU Gallatin (you created your own concentration, it was rad), one of my classmates set up a Hamlet rave, where people simultaneously read the entirety of Shakespeare’s play while the rest of us created short pieces inspired by various famous passages. I get that same feeling of inspiration and imagination with recent pop culture like the TV adaptation of Station Eleven (which performs Hamlet several times over, each time with a new character taking on the title role) and now Em X. Liu’s reimagining of the tragedy as a locked-room sci-fi thriller: Set at Elsinore Labs, where the late Dr. Graham Lichfield has been murdered, yet his son Hayden can access the coveted neuromapper technology in order to converse with his father’s digital ghost. Trapped in the lab with his uncle Charles (the prime suspect), as well as the lab’s security head Paul and his daughter Felicia Xia, Hayden can only rely on his best friend, artificial intelligence Horatio. I cannot wait to see how Liu recreates “to be or not to be” from a man whose research focuses on longevity—not to mention what form Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might take, if they even make the cut.

Hannah Kaner, Godkiller
(Harper Voyager, September 12)

I couldn’t tell you why, but I’ve never been a huge fan of fantasy in which gods are fighting and humans get caught in the crossfire… the exception being when instead of a few omnipotent gods, it’s countless deities. Like Mindy L. Klasky’s Glasswrights series and its hundred-plus mundane divinities, and now Hannah Kaner’s new fantasy trilogy: In the kingdom of Middren, there’s a god for every quotidian experience, with humans choosing which ones to worship. No surprise, it’s mortals who muck things up, turning affiliations into grudge matches—like the fire god worshippers who murder Kissen’s sea god-affiliated family. Middren outlaws all worship, hiring people like Kissen as godkillers, eliminating both the divine figures and the flesh-and-blood people who still dare to attach themselves to outlawed gods. But when her latest kill is an innocent young woman attached to the god of white lies, Kissen must figure out a way to separate god and girl without any bloodshed. Joining her on her quest is a disgraced knight-turned-baker, as this motley crew stumbles into all sorts of political and romantic intrigue.

Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst (editors), Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
(Vintage, September 19)

Named for the shared belief that an ill-fated whistle after dark will summon all manner of evil spirits, this Indigenous anthology collects haunting tales from Rebecca Roanhorse, Tommy Orange, Darcie Little Badger, and many more. The contemporary horrors range from entitled men colonizing sacred lands and vulnerable bodies, to more speculative fare like doubles and zombies, all engaging with the power of storytelling and the terror of stealing someone’s story. Monsters wear many faces in these tales, and violence is both a cruelty and catharsis depending on who’s wielding it, the balance of power shifting according to who’s enforcing old patterns or carving new ones.

C. Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey
(Riverhead Books, September 26)

In some ways, this season of The Bear has whetted our appetite for a sumptuous speculative novel like this: getting to the heart of what it means to cook with dynamic ingredients, intensive training, and most importantly, the right amount of heart that gives you joy to serve others. But C. Pam Zhang’s second novel is set in a climate-ravaged near-future, which complicates all of those aforementioned well-meaning intentions. Because when a chef like the unnamed protagonist in this novel is stuck working with expired ingredients, too ashamed to even claim the title of chef, can you blame her for taking the incredible opportunity to cook for a rich enclave up in the mountains? Yet even as she is spoiled by scarce or even supposedly extinct ingredients—not to mention seduced by other bodily pleasures—this chef cannot help but think of the crucial missing element: the opportunity to cook for everyone, not just those who can pay the most for the privilege.

Ariel Kaplan, The Pomegranate Gate
(Erewhon Books, September 26)

Set in a fantasy world inspired by the Spanish Inquisition and Jewish folklore, Ariel Kaplan’s adult debut follows Toba Peres and Naftaly Cresques, each strange in their own way: She is unable to run or shout, but can translate books with both hands faster than she can speak; he dreams of another world populated by square-pupiled immortals. Forced out of their home by the Queen of Sefarad’s deadly edict—convert, or leave—they stumble upon the eponymous pomegranate portal to the realm from Naftaly’s dreams, in which the immortal Mazik reside. But while Toba finds some answers about her peculiar limitations, as well as a connection to the Mazik, this duo discovers that there is another Inquisition at work, one which will hunt them in both worlds.

Homer, Emily Wilson (translator ), The Iliad
(W.W. Norton & Co, September 26)

Ever since Emily Wilson stole our breaths in 2017 with the opening line of her translation of The Odyssey—“Tell me about a complicated man”—it’s as if we’ve been waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. That shoe, of course, being her translation of Homer’s other epic poem The Iliad, the prequel to Odysseus’ nigh-impossible journey home. First it’s the Trojan War, the gods’ meddling into human love affairs and betrayals, Helen and Paris, Achilles and Patroclus, and the Trojan Horse. No, it’s not traditional SFF, but it’s also the kind of fantastical story that has created the foundation for many other retellings. Waiting breathlessly for this first line feels like waiting for the opening chords of a song you already know will become one of your favorites.

Months ago when we were looking ahead to 2023, the most anticipated August SFF release was Jacqueline Carey’s romantic fantasy Cassiel’s Servant; in the intervening months, an astonishing number of August titles have since been released, which has made it incredibly difficult to narrow down this month’s list. As a fitting end to summer, this list is bookended with anthologies providing new takes on Greek gods and Halloween mischief. Plus, there’s first-contact space opera, a Sleeping Beauty retelling, vaqueros versus vampires, and climate fiction that envisions a Great Transition for our planet.

Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams (editors), Fit for the Gods: Greek Mythology Reimagined
(Vintage, August 1)

After the gender-swapping, genre-hopping fun of Sword Stone Table (co-edited with Swapna Krishna), I can’t wait to check out Jenn Northington’s next anthology, co-edited with S. Zainab Williams! Proving that the pantheon of Greek myths has not yet been exhausted, they have collected a bevy of intriguing new tales, from Williams’ reimagining of wine and revelry goddess (!) Dion to Sarah Gailey’s take on water nymph Thetis to the fully sci-fi retellings courtesy of Alyssa Cole, Valerie Valdes, and more. This collection sounds worthy of being shelved next to D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths.

James Sturz, Underjungle
(Unnamed Press, August 1)

If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we know so very little about the depths of the ocean; and that if we want to know more, we should trust the people who have done the careful work to explore it. James Sturz applies his extensive experience as a oceanic journalist and deep-sea diver to this vividly strange story told from the perspective of one of seven tribes of sentient ocean-dwellers, collectively known as the yc. “The rule of the ocean is finders-keepers,” our narrator explains—but when they find a decomposing human corpse, it forces the tribes of the yc to question their own existence and whether there is intelligent life up there.

Wole Talabi, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
(DAW, August 8)

A contemporary fairy tale heist in which a succubus and her lover, a nightmare god she turned into an incubus, must cross through two worlds to steal back a stolen orisha totem? You had me at “heist,” but I suspect I will fall hard for Nneoma and Shigidi as their mission takes them from Lagos to London and crosses their paths not only with the humans whose hearts they eat, but also with dark magicians and rival gods. Wole Talabi’s debut fantasy sounds like sheer fun, yet grounded with the modern-day dilemma of mythical figures struggling to remain relevant to their followers while still following their own desires.

Nick Fuller Googins, The Great Transition
(Atria Books, August 15)

Imagine thinking of our kids’ generation as being lucky to be born into this world. That’s the case with Nick Fuller Googins’ near-future debut, in which the eponymous Great Transition literally turned the tide regarding humanity’s future on Earth. But at what personal cost? The child of climate saviors, Emi Vargas has always been uncomfortable with her family’s fame. And when her mother Kristina goes missing—following the murder of climate criminals—Emi must dig into her parents’ past, discovering what really happened when Kristina met Larch while they fought off hurricanes and wildfires. I have a feeling that we’ll be stuck indoors with hazardous air quality at least once more this summer, and this seems like a grimly appropriate read.

Temi Oh, More Perfect
(Saga Press, August 15)

What was I saying about sci-fi retellings of Greek myth? Orpheus and Eurydice’s tragic love story gets dystopian with Temi Oh’s second novel, after the generation ship drama Do You Dream of Terra-Two? Here, the Underworld is entirely mental: The Pulse is an Internet connection straight into the brain, merging your memories and your waking mind with a mental flood of information. But when a real flood destroys London, Moremi desperately searches for her mother in the Pulse, risking getting swept away; even as her sister joins the Revelators, seeking to reverse the effects of the Pulse. And then there’s sweet Orpheus, raised on an island, exploring and eventually manipulating dreams using his own Pulse implant. I’m already tearing up in anticipation of how these two will connect and inevitably be separated.

T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge
(Tor Books, August 15)

This novella-length retelling of Sleeping Beauty leans into the thorny, but also the heartfelt, and the sweetly awkward. Toadling is the fretful, shapeshifting protector of the bespelled slumbering princess in a castle, who hopes against hope that people will forget this particular fairy tale. But when Halim, a Muslim knight, rides up as the latest would-be rescuer, Toadling must explain not only why the princess cannot leave the castle; but also how Toadling was once a regular human baby who was stolen by the faerie, raised by them, and eventually tasked with bestowing a blessing on another human baby… and how it all went wrong.

Isabel Cañas, Vampires of El Norte
(Berkley Books, August 15)

Last summer, Isabel Cañas chilled us with a sinister haunting in The Hacienda; her follow-up relocates to a ranch, where childhood sweethearts Nena and Néstor are torn apart by a brutal attack. But is it Anglo settlers greedy to feed off Nena’s father’s ranch, or the vicious vampires they’ve brought with them? Nine years later, when the United States declares war on Mexico in 1846, these estranged lovers are unexpectedly reunited: Nena now a curandera, and Néstor a vaquero. If they have any chance of survival, he’ll have to marry his cowboy experience to her healing expertise to face the most bloodthirsty of invaders.

Valerie Valdes, Where Peace is Lost
(Harper Voyager, August 29)

Known for her sci-fi trilogy about the adventures of Captain Eva Innocente, Escape Pod co-editor Valerie Valdes has written a standalone space fantasy in which a disgraced knight must battle the empire that disbanded her Order. Refugee Kel Garda comes out of hiding in order to investigate a war machine that threatens Loth, the quiet swamp world she’s sworn to protect. But when she meets two off-worlders who claim to know how to disable the machine, it sends Kel on an unlikely quest that culminates in facing off with the Pale empire, which forced her Order into obsolescence. Should Kel retain her quiet life of exile, or will Kelana Gardavros reclaim her role as First Sword of the Order?

Karen Lord, The Blue, Beautiful World
(Del Rey, August 29)

I’m a sucker for first-contact stories in which the humans put forward to touch base with alien civilizations are both the most and least fitting candidates. Here, it’s a VR inventor genius, a celebrity humanitarian (cackling), an adolescent ambassador nominated by a global council… and a popstar who may not be entirely human thanks to his uncanny control over his fans. Yep, this sounds like the kind of team that would be put forward were extraterrestrials to make contact tomorrow; and so I can’t wait to see what conversation Dr. Karen Lord has crafted in this sci-fi novel.

Shelly Page and Alex Brown (editors), Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight
(Wednesday Books, August 29)

It’s going to be miserable enough by the end of the summer that we’ll all be fondly looking ahead to Halloween—not least because it’ll be chilly (and chilling), but because it’s a night for transformation. When anything is possible, you want to experience All Hallow’s Eve through the eyes of these BIPOC teens, who get themselves into a lot more trouble than just trick-or-treating gone wrong—we’re talking demon summonings, urban legends, ghost-hunting in suburban malls, you name it. With co-editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page contributing stories alongside Kosoko Jackson, Em X. Liu, Maya Gittelman, Sara Farizan, and so many more, it’s a Halloween candy haul in book form.

July shone bright in our 2023 SFF preview, with a bevy of dying-to-read books from Chuck Tingle, Daniel Abraham, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. But if you can believe it, those picks were hard-won, with so many more to choose from. Basically, I’ve been waiting half a year to tell you about the rest of the start of summer reading.

We’ve got a morally gray Cinderella, an “unchosen one” trying to find the right door, a generation ship murder mystery (one of my personal favorite subgenres), and a thrilling space opera mystery from a fiction podcaster. What’s even better is that most of these are the starts of new series, new collaborations, and/or debut novels, so there’s just so much exciting energy crackling through these seven SFF books.

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D.L. Soria, Thief Liar Lady
(Del Rey, July 11)

When it comes to Cinderella retellings, I thought that Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted found the most unique way into the story… but I am super intrigued by this grifter take on the familiar fairy tale. Scullery maid Ash Vincent is no unfortunate stepdaughter, but a con artist who devises a scheme with her entire stepfamily to win Prince Everett’s heart as Lady Aislinn with her missing glass slipper. But even though Ash is in cahoots with her crafty stepmother Seraphina, she has her own agenda that involves the palace’s other royal, a hostage prince from the neighboring country of Eloria.

Tracy Wolff and Nina Croft, Star Bringer
(Red Tower Books, July 11)

This year is seeing a number of new SFF romance imprints, including Tor Publishing Group’s Bramble and Red Tower Books, from Entangled Publishing. Both known for paranormal romance series, Croft and Wolff are collaborating on a space opera with big Breakfast Club vibes, if the misfits whiled away the time on their stolen spacecraft by getting into love triangles and more. Here it’s “a princess, a prisoner, a con artist, a warrior, a priestess, a mercenary, and an asshole in charge of us all,” and they’re being chased by everyone from the Sisterhood to the Corporation to the rebellion. I am here for all the romantic mess in SFF.

Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors
(Tordotcom Publishing, July 11)

Following a prolific SFF short fiction career, Sri Lankan author Vajra Chandraskera is publishing his first novel, written during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. This urban fantasy cleverly nods at portal fantasy tropes, especially those concerning chosen ones and supposed doors to another realm. Fetter is a former child soldier trained by his immortal mother to fight his cult leader father, only to escape to the big city of Luriat and try to rebuild his life in adulthood. Joining a support group for “unchosen” and “almost-chosen,” not to mention falling in forbidden love, Fetter finds himself fascinated by the city-wide phenomena of the “bright doors,” which may certainly be magical portals, but are just as likely to be simple doors.

Jessica Mary Best, Stars, Hide Your Fires
(Quirk Books, July 11)

I’ve been a fan of Jessica Mary Best since I first discovered her science fiction podcast The Strange Case of Starship Iris, featuring a queer found family embarking on intensely imaginative, zippy adventures between your ears. Her young adult debut taps into similar dynamics, sprinkled with some healthy class tension, as brilliant scavenger and thief Cass prepares to run a con at the Ascension Ball. But when the emperor is murdered, it’s the dazzlingly-dressed interloper who’s the prime suspect. And when your murder mystery borrows its title from Macbeth, you have to wonder what other kinds of conspiracy might be afoot…

H.M. Long, Dark Water Daughter
(Titan Books, July 18)

I will take every pirate story I can until Our Flag Means Death returns to our TV screens. Book One of H.M. Long’s Winter Sea series sounds like a promising magical nautical adventure: Stormsinger Mary Firth navigates between Jacobian-era naval officers and infamous pirates, trying to escape death while also harnessing hurricanes with the power of her voice. With a chase that will take these ships to eternal ice at the ends of the world, while also outrunning the eerie, Lovecraftian-esque ghistings, this series sounds like a creepy sea shanty you’d hear crooned on a dark night.

Yume Kitasei, The Deep Sky
(Flatiron Books, July 18)

My favorite generation ship stories are the ones where the specific personalities, baggage, and discord among this particularly chosen crew invariably work together to sabotage a potential mission to find a new home for humanity. In the case of Yume Kitasei’s engrossing debut, Asuka Hoshino-Silva wrestles with imposter syndrome despite being chosen among the Phoenix’s elite crew, due in part to being the last chosen for the mission and so deemed the Alternate.

Meant to represent Japan despite her complicated relationship with the country, the biracial Asuka also struggles with the other mission directive: the cis female and nonbinary crew are all expected to give birth to the next generation while on their voyage, but conception is not a guarantee. All of that before a bomb kills three crew members, and Asuka is the only living survivor, which makes her the top suspect. I can’t wait to delve into a sci-fi tale that nonetheless has so many relatable conflicts.

Gabriela Romero Lacruz, The Sun and the Void
(Orbit Books, July 25)

Summer feels like the perfect time to start a lush new epic fantasy series, and Gabriela Romero Lacruz’s Warring Gods series sounds like just the ticket: A sapphic fantasy set in a world inspired by colonial South America, it follows two young women who get wrapped up in dark magic while struggling to find their place in the world. Desperate Reina’s only chance at a successful life lies in her sorceress grandmother, Doña Ursulina Duvianos, into whose protection she becomes indebted after the Doña saves her life on the road to her. Then there’s illegitimate Eva, who has an affinity for magic but who fears that the darkness will swallow her whole. When a celestial event known as Rahmagut’s Claw grants the Doña the opportunity to summon the god of the Void, both Eva and Reina must decide whether to stop her or join her.

Nearly every entry on this month’s list of new and exciting SFF has me drawing connections between an upcoming title and either an existing work of art or a well-known trope upon which it’s providing an intriguing twist. It’s not surprising—that’s how we often shorthand our recommendations in personal and professional contexts. It’s also something of a comfort, as you’ll have a sense of what magical adventures will make up your summer TBR list.

Hope you’re ready for every possible option, whether you’ll be indulging in an SFF beach read with your toes in the sand, flipping through some doorstoppers and/or novellas on a long flight, or spending your summer Fridays with a cold drink and an even cooler book. In addition to this wonderful list, refresh your memory of our 2023 SFF preview, which includes new June books from Ann Leckie, S.L. Huang, Nicole Kornher-Stace, and Connie Willis.

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Indra Das, The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar
(Subterranean Press, June 1)

Here for all the dragons this year! Indra Das’ standalone fantasy novella opens with the arresting image of a baby dragon plucked from a living tree, a memory that narrator Ru convinces himself must have been nothing more than a dream. Yet as he grows up in Calcutta, feeling like it both could and could never be home, Ru delves into his family’s nomadic history and begins to wonder if they didn’t just come from another country, but from another realm altogether—one not unlike the fantasy world of his father’s novel The Dragoner’s Daughter…

Rita Chang-Eppig, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea
(Bloomsbury, June 6)

The same goes for pirate queens! Joining Shannon Chakraborty’s recent novel The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is Rita Chang-Eppig’s swashbuckling adventure based on the historical figure of Shek Yeung. A sex slave aboard the Red Banner Fleet, she is granted her freedom by the death of her husband, captain Cheung Yat, but must immediately remarry his second-in-command and adopted son Cheung Po in order to maintain control of the fleet. All while the Chinese emperor has sent a nobleman to rid the South China Seas of pirates once and for all. I’m delighted to see multiple adventures focusing on wives and mothers vying for power over surly sailors and the even more stubborn seas.

Claire Fuller, The Memory of Animals
(Tin House, June 6)

Claire Fuller’s fifth novel brings to mind Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark, inhabiting the early period of a pandemic post-apocalypse. Here it’s the “Dropsy” virus, which induces sudden memory loss as a precursor to death. With nothing else to do as the world is slowly ending, failed marine biologist Neffy enrolls in a vaccine trial but instead becomes wrapped up in the insular world of her hospital stay and the personal psychodramas of her fellow volunteers, especially as a potential immunity separates her fate from theirs. As the Internet cuts out, Neffy and her unlikely compatriots all turn to the seductive trap of memory, whether scrolling useless smartphones or (in her case) using the experimental “Revisitor” technology to get lost in her old recollections before they’re erased forever.

Kritika H. Rao, The Surviving Sky
(Titan Books, June 13)

If you’re looking for a cli-fi science fantasy to fill the Broken Earth-sized hole in your heart, cast your gaze upward to Nakshar, the floating civilization made of plants and held together by the mental trajection work of architects like Iravan. But the only person not impressed by him is his wife Ahilya, an archaeologist who regards the architects’ power not as holding things together but as suppressing everyone else. Their marriage is teetering on the edge, but a disaster on the planet’s jungle surface will bring them together, however reluctantly, to stop their home from falling out of the sky.

J.R. Dawson, The First Bright Thing
(Tor Books, June 13)

It’s 1926, and the world is still reshaping itself after the Great War—not least because many people found themselves touched by power, forever known as Sparks. At the Circus of the Fantasticals, a trio of women—time traveler Rin (a.k.a. the Ringmaster), her healer wife Odette, and seer Mauve—have created a home for Sparks cast out of society, free to use their gifts beneath the Big Top. But Rin can see that this world war is only the first, with a Second World War to threaten their found family. And before then, they must contend with the dark circus, led by its own malevolent ringmaster, that will endanger their day-to-day survival.

Matt Wallace, Savage Crowns
(Saga Press, June 13)

Matt Wallace’s epic fantasy trilogy Savage Rebellion comes to a bloody close with the confrontation between the two women trying to change the supposedly utopian nation of Crache for the better. Evie, who infiltrated the land’s Savage Legion for answers and has risen to the rank of Sparrow General, faces punishment at the hands of Crache’s vicious Skrian army. By contrast, street urchin Dyeawan now occupies Crache’s highest seat of power through clever subterfuge, only to commit a foolish misstep that could clear the way for another coup.

Hannah Fergesen, The Infinite Miles
(Blackstone Publishing, June 20)

For anyone who grew up watching Doctor Who, and then kept watching well into adulthood, Hannah Fergesen’s sci-fi debut pulls those heartstrings of yearning for timey-wimey adventure. But heroine Harper is not the human companion plucked from linear time to join the Doctor; she’s the one left behind when best friend Peggy gets picked up by the Argonaut, the hero of their beloved childhood sci-fi show. But the fictional Argonaut is actually called Miles, he’s burnt out from time travel, and when Peggy gets taken over by a parasitic alien called the Incarnate, he strands poor Harper in 1971. With nothing but her shattered rose-colored glasses of nostalgia to guide her, Harper must navigate the past and figure out if her best friend is worth saving.

Emma Mieko Candon, The Archive Undying
(Tordotcom Publishing, June 27)

Mecha stories regularly engage with gods versus mortals and life versus death, but what intrigues me about Emma Mieko Candon’s foray into this subgenre is her focus on the afterlife—as in, what happens when an AI god kills itself? Here, the madness-induced death of Iterate Fractal destroys the city of Khuon Mo and wipes out all of its priest-pilots… except for its favorite, Sunai, who it resurrects. For seventeen years, poor Sunai has wandered the world as a lonely immortal, fleeing those who would force him to pilot the mecha created from Iterate Fractal’s corpse. But when he falls into bed with the mysterious Veyadi, who wants him to investigate an undiscovered AI, Sunai fears that he will be sucked back into his past life, with even worse consequences this time around.

I’ve said it before, but I love watching motifs and storytelling tropes dovetail in monthly releases. This May, almost every sci-fi, fantasy, and horror offering has a twin of sorts. There are two speculative short fiction collections, one excavating everyday horrors and the other delving into alternate dimensions and space. A pair of dragon tales reexamine the familiar fantasy creature through the lenses of colonialism and gender. Siblings clash in contemporary and second-world fantasy, struggling with the magical destinies they’ve inherited. Consider these books fraternal twins, then, which makes it all the more intriguing to watch different authors’—some you may well know, others exciting debuts—complementary and wonderfully specific takes on the same general ideas.

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Cassandra Khaw, The Salt Grows Heavy
(Tor Nightfire, May 2)

This elegantly gruesome novella feels like the perfect way to kick off this chilly spring, a sly dark twin to the forthcoming live-action Little Mermaid. Because when this mermaid walked on land and married a prince, her sharp-toothed children consumed him and the kingdom where she, with her tongue cut out and teeth pried out, could not. Amidst the ruins of her adopted home, she sets out with a mysterious, genderless plague doctor to find a new home. But when they encounter a village of bloodthirsty children, they will have to tap into their own darkest impulses in order to survive the nightmare.

Rory Power, In an Orchard Grown from Ash
(Del Rey, May 2)

The Wilder Girls author concludes her fairy tale-inspired fantasy duology The Wind-Up Garden, having split up the magical Argyros siblings at the end of In a Garden Burning Gold. Twins Rhea and Lexos couldn’t be farther apart figuratively or physically, as he makes a deal with the rival Domina family, and she ventures north with rebels who follow her due to her power over death. Meanwhile, their other siblings Chrysanthi and Nitsos pull their own strings, with polarizing intent to either further estrange the Argyros or unite them for the sake of the kingdom.

L.R. Lam, Dragonfall
(DAW, May 2)

The first installment of the Dragon Scales trilogy sees a wary partnership between two people existing on the fringes of society in Vatra: Arcady, a thief who steals an artifact that conjures the mysterious Everen. Except that Everen is actually a male dragon in human form, the last of his kind after humanity banished dragons beyond the Veil and disingenuously worship the expelled creatures as gods. In order to regain his true form and his destiny, Everen must trick Arcady into bonding their bodies, minds, and souls… and then kill them. Dynamic dragon/human conflict wrapped up with a smoldering queer romance? Hell yes.

Sarah Pinsker, Lost Places: And Other Stories
(Small Beer Press, May 2)

Loss has infinite meanings in Sarah Pinsker’s second short fiction collection (after Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea), detailing characters’ escapes within and from eerie childhood TV shows (“Two Truths and a Lie”), the modern liner notes of a song lyrics website (“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”), and silent films (“A Better Way of Saying”). Gathering wildly inventive speculative tales published everywhere from Uncanny to Strange Horizons to Tor.com, Lost Places also invites readers to immerse themselves in a brand-new story: “Science Facts!”, which recalls childhood Girl Scout trips where you were certain that there was something beyond spooky lurking in the woods.

Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath
(Del Rey, May 9)

The First Book of Nampeshiweisit incisively examines colonialism through dragon lore: After the Anglish conquered the remote island of Masquapaug, their dragon breeds supposedly drove out the native Nampeshiwe dragons. But when fifteen-year-old Anequs discovers the first dragon egg in generations, she longs to raise it in the tradition of the Indigenous people. Unfortunately, the Anglish colonizers will only allow her to raise the hatchling within their dragon school on the mainland. And if this fledgling Nampeshiweisit (one with a unique relationship to a dragon) fails, then her dear Kasaqua will be killed. This has strong The Traitor Baru Cormorant vibes—especially with the wonderfully nerdy worldbuilding of the theorems around dragon-rearing—yet sounds like it will reshape epic fantasy itself, in addition to the breath of a dragon.

Megan E. O’Keefe, The Blighted Stars
(Orbit Books, May 23)

The new space opera trilogy Devoured Worlds kicks off with a secret-identity-laden adventure as spy Naira Sharp goes undercover as the bodyguard to Tarquin Mercator, heir to the space family that is responsible for finding new habitable worlds—and then gutting them for resources. Determined to stop the Mercators from destroying yet another planet, Naira plans on sabotage… but instead winds up stranded on a strange planet with Tarquin, who only wanted to study the worlds that his family is so determined to strip for parts. Megan E. O’Keefe’s latest series looks to contrast planet-sized stakes with down-to-earth, intensely personal conflict.

Theodore McCombs, Uranians: Stories
(Astra House, May 30)

You might know Theodore McCombs from his wonderfully unsettling Electric Lit interview with Carmen Maria Machado about the reprint of Carmilla, which dissolves the bonds between reality and fiction as it challenges our expectations about the typical pre-publication interviews in the bookish sphere. McCombs’ debut collection looks to employ similar reality-shifting techniques, as the five stories explore hangings in the past versus a dystopian future (“Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women”) and the quantum mechanics of queer love (“Toward a Theory of Alternative Lifestyles”). And if you’re wondering about the titular novella, “Uranians” was a Victorian-era term for homosexual men, which has been transplanted onto a generation ship where an expedition of queer artists try to keep each other alive long enough to create a new form of existence.

Emma Törsz, Ink Blood Sister Scribe
(William Morrow, May 30)

Emma Törsz’s contemporary fantasy debut finds the magic buried within ordinary objects like books and mirrors, refracting the journeys of two half-sisters linked by their late father’s collection of magical texts. Despite devoting his life to the study of his spellbound library, Abe Kalotay is ultimately killed without discovering how these books actually channel magic. His death propels his daughters toward their fates: Joanna, who inherited their father’s affinity for sensing magic in books, carries on his life’s work cut short; while magically-immune Esther must keep fleeing the same mysterious entity that murdered her mother. From cozy libraries to remote Antarctic science stations, Törsz seems to reveal how magic is threaded into every space, if you know how to look for it.

After a very weird, protracted winter with just enough days of fool spring to give you seasonal whiplash, it might… finally… be spring?! But even if you can’t trust the weather, what you can trust is these excellent SFF releases. April has novellas aplenty, including new adventures from the familiar world of The Last Unicorn and strikingly original new worlds from the minds of Fonda Lee and Vivian Shaw; not to mention a massive new collection of Catherynne M. Valente’s vastly imaginative stories.

And once you’ve whetted your appetite with those shorter works, you can conclude Andrea Stewart’s epic Bone Shard trilogy or read Emily Tesh’s heartbreaking standalone space opera. Finally, fresh takes on everything from Pinocchio to King Arthur—spring is the time to crack open new takes on old stories.

Peter S. Beagle, The Way Home
(Ace, April 4)

The title of Peter S. Beagle’s new book set in the world of his beloved classic The Last Unicorn carries emotional resonance for author and readers: After a protracted legal battle in which Beagle finally regained the rights to his works in 2021, this collection of two novellas does sound like returning home after a long absence. Collected here are Hugo-winning novelette Two Hearts, in which a plucky young girl named Sooz encounters the eponymous Last Unicorn, Molly Grue, and Schmendrick the Magician; and the never-before-published Sooz, which reintroduces her as a woman with another journey ahead of her.

Emily Tesh, Some Desperate Glory
(Tordotcom Publishing, April 11)

Despite not being a fan of space opera with a militaristic bent, nor of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (which seems a spiritual influence on Emily Tesh’s novel debut), Some Desperate Glory has become one of my early favorites of the year. Tesh embeds the reader so deeply into the bowels of Gaea Station, which holds the last scraps of humanity fighting to avenge Earth a generation after its destruction by the alien majoda and their reality-warping Wisdom device.

But Tesh achieves this not just through plot mechanics but through Kyr herself, trained to become Gaea’s greatest warrior and unable to see anything beyond retribution. Her emotional journey—from her disillusionment at being forced to bear sons instead of fight on the front lines, to her slow realization that aliens are people—had me ugly-sobbing on the train.

Juliet E. McKenna, The Cleaving
(Angry Robot Books, April 11)

Juliet E. McKenna retells the familiar Arthuriana epic through the eyes of enchantress Nimue, who possesses the same magic as Merlin but has more scruples than he does about interfering in mortal lives. So while Merlin helps Uther Pendragon trick the lady Ygraine into conceiving Arthur, Nimue is by Ygraine’s side, disguised as her handmaiden.

While the saga’s familiar male characters—Merlin, Uther, Arthur, Lancelot, Mordred—make their big moves through the rhythms of war, The Cleaving focuses on the women’s work and equally vital intrigues back at court. When Arthur’s half-sister Morgana and future wife Guinevere are brought into the mix, Nimue’s interactions with each provide additional context as to why both women make such dangerous choices that will eventually spell the fall of Camelot.

Fonda Lee, Untethered Sky
(Tordotcom Publishing, April 11)

Best known for her epic fantasy crime thriller series the Green Bone Saga, Fonda Lee explores a new world via a standalone fantasy novella with a focus as razor-sharp as the talons of its deadly rocs. After a manticore (a mythical monster that is part-man, part-lion, part-scorpion) tears her family apart, Ester devotes her life to vengeance. Her only means for justice is becoming a ruhker, the humans who train the fearsome birds called rocs. But to do so requires an exacting relationship with Zahra, the fledgling roc she trains, as any miscommunication will result in the roc turning on its ruhker. This tight, tense volume examines how single-minded dedication can so easily slip into life-consuming obsession.

Vivian Shaw, The Helios Syndrome
(Lethe Press, April 15)

If you’ve ever gone down a late-night rabbit hole reading deep dives about aviation mysteries, this sounds like the novella for you (and at just 140 pages, much more satisfying than the endless scroll). Vivian Shaw’s contemporary thriller follows freelance necromancer Devin Stacy, who investigates horrific plane crashes by interviewing their dead. But Stacy is burning out on this gruesome work, and his latest assignment from the National Transportation Safety Board conjures an unexpected side effect: being haunted by a dead pilot. Except that Captain Warner perished in a different crash, so his unfinished business must have something to do with the missing plane Stacy’s been hired to find…

Andrea Stewart, The Bone Shard War
(Orbit Books, April 18)

Andrea Stewart concludes her epic fantasy trilogy the Drowning Empire with the final test for Emperor Lin Sukai to prove herself worthy of holding her family’s dynasty together through her hold on bone shard magic. Faced with threats from the Alanga—legendary magicians, returned—and the Shardless Few, Lin tracks down a myth about seven swords, forged centuries ago but waiting to be found. If only Lin can get to them before her enemies do…

TJ Klune, In the Lives of Puppets
(Tor Books, April 25)

T.J. Klune’s latest fable inventively builds upon the familiar scaffolding of Pinocchio, focusing on a found family of robots living in the forest. Android Giovanni Lawson seems like a paternal inventor, saving and restoring android family members like Nurse Ratched and baby vacuum Rambo, while raising his human son Victor. But the family’s latest salvage project is an unfamiliar android called “HAP,” who shares a dark history with Gio of hunting humans. When Gio is kidnapped to the City of Electric Dreams, Victor must confront his father’s past sins and save their family.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Best of Catherynne M. Valente, Volume One
(Subterranean Press, April 29)

While Catherynne M. Valente’s many readers can trace back their individual introductions to her impressive body of work—growing up with the Fairyland series, or more recent discoveries of her incredible sci-fi worlds in Radiance Space Opera—this collection from Subterranean Press spans 18 years and 45 short stories. This first (!) volume includes Orpheus and Eurydice, sleuths in Purgatory, zombies and time travelers and Santa himself, all enfolded within dust jacket illustrations from Alyssa Winans.