Climate change looms large in science fiction, fantasies draw from myth and legend, and horror takes on social inequalities in this season’s offerings.

Top 10

The Ballad of Perilous Graves

Alex Jennings. Redhook, June 21 ($28, ISBN 978-0-7595-5719-2)

Music is the magic that powers New Orleans in Jennings’s urban fantasy debut—and when nine songs escape, it’s up to failed magician Perilous Graves and his sister, Brendy, to save the city.

Book of Night

Holly Black. Tor, May 3 ($27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-81219-3)

Bestseller Black’s adult debut follows con artist Charlie Hall through a world in which shadows can be magically manipulated—but for a steep price. 400,000-copy announced first printing.

Boys, Beasts, & Men

Sam J. Miller. Tachyon, May 10 ($17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-61696-372-9)

The 14 speculative shorts in Nebula Award winner Miller’s debut collection feature futuristic tech and shape-shifting extraterrestrials, and explore queer love and heartbreak.

Braking Day

Adam Oyebanji. DAW, Apr. 5 ($27, ISBN 978-0-7564-1822-9)

A low-level engineer aboard a generation ship stumbles on a mystery that could have grave consequences for the ship’s long-awaited arrival on humanity’s new home planet.

The Circus Infinite

Khan Wong. Angry Robot, Mar. 8 ($14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-85766-968-1)

Wong debuts with an “intimate, joyful” space opera (per PW’s starred review) centered on queer found family and seedy crime rings, and set against the backdrop of an intergalactic circus.

Fevered Star

Rebecca Roanhorse. Saga, Apr. 19 ($27.99, ISBN 978-1-5344-3773-9)

The second Between Earth and Sky fantasy from Hugo and Nebula Award winner Roanhorse finds mortals and gods alike contending with the prophesied rise of a new world order.

The Hacienda

Isabel Cañas. Berkley, May 10 ($27, ISBN 978-0-593-43669-1)

A young wife left alone in the hacienda her husband once shared with his first wife encounters supernatural terrors in Cañas’s gothic horror debut—and only the local priest, who doubles as a witch, may be able to help her.

Mage of Fools

Eugen Bacon. Meerkat, Mar. 15 ($15.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-946154-66-8)

In a world ravaged by climate change and where literature is outlawed, one woman must find a way to topple the throne in order to save her children.

Siren Queen

Nghi Vo. Tordotcom, May 10 ($26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-78883-2)

Vo’s latest follows queer, Chinese American starlet Luli Wei’s ascension to fame in a 1930s Hollywood fueled by blood sacrifice and dark magic. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

Walk the Vanished Earth

Erin Swan. Viking, May 31 ($27, ISBN 978-0-593-29933-3)

Swan’s adult debut tracks seven generations through a climate apocalypse, beginning on Earth in 1873 and ending on Mars in 2073.

SF, Fantasy & Horror Listings

47North

The Quarter Storm by Veronica G. Henry (Mar. 1, $14.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5420-3391-6). Voodoo practitioner Mambo Reina investigates a murder, leading her deep into New Orleans’s seedy underbelly in Henry’s urban fantasy.

Ace

Heroic Hearts, edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie Hughes (May 3, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-593-09918-6), brings together 12 urban fantasy shorts from genre giants, many centered on fan-favorite characters.

Algonquin

Clean Air by Sarah Blake (Feb. 8, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-64375-106-1). A serial killer strikes amid a climate apocalypse, and listless Izabel and her daughter, Cami, find themselves at the center of the mystery.

Atria

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes (Mar. 22, $27, ISBN 978-1-9821-8270-0). A trans man sets out on a polar expedition to honor his late brothers, only to encounter supernatural terrors in the ice, in Wilkes’s historical horror debut.

Baen

Library of the Sapphire Wind by Jane Lindskold (Feb. 1, $16 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-9821-2591-2) launches a fantasy series in which human and nonhuman worlds collide, and groups from each must work together to find answers.

Berkley

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (July 12, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-20126-8). Adult siblings get more than they bargained for when they inherit their parents’ house, in bestseller Hendrix’s latest blend of horror and humor.

BHC

Ashes of the Firebird by Amy Kuivalainen (June 21, $28, ISBN 978-1-64397-301-2) follows Cry of the Firebird as series heroine Anya struggles to keep Russia safe in the face of new supernatural threats. 25,000-copy announced first printing.

Black Spot

Classic Monsters Unleashed, edited by James Aquilone (July 12, $31.99, ISBN 978-1-64548-122-5). Big-name horror authors offer fresh spins on canonical monsters, including Frankenstein and the Headless Horseman, in this illustrated anthology.

Blackstone

Half Outlaw by Alex Temblador (July 12, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-7999-3210-9). Biracial former foster kid Raqi takes a motorcycle ride cross-country in remembrance of her late uncle, throwing her into contact with family she never knew and forcing her to face childhood trauma, in Temblador’s magical realist adult debut.

Bloomsbury

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas (Feb. 15, $28, ISBN 978-1-63557-407-4). The sequel to Maas’s bestselling Crescent City sees Bryce and Hunt pulled deeper into a brewing rebellion against the Asteri. 750,000-copy announced first printing.

Brain Lag

Blight of the Arachna by D. Holden Kennon (Apr. 8, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-928011-69-9). Scrappy young Castor is determined to save his dying village—even if it means facing down monsters in a land long since abandoned by its heroes.

CamCat

Death Warrant by Bryan Johnston (May 10, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-7443-0508-1) centers on a reality TV show in which desperate contestants sign up to be hunted by an assassin and killed as a public spectacle.

City Owl

Bad Girls Drink Blood by S.L. Choi (May 17, $14.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64898-147-0). Half-fae Lane Callaghan muddles through mortal life as a Las Vegas detective—until a job goes sideways, forcing her back into the magical world that looks down on her.

Del Rey

In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power (Apr. 5, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-35497-1). Bestselling YA author Power makes her adult debut with this epic fantasy about immortal twins who set out to save their family—but end up at each other’s throats.

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez (May 3, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-15659-9). Determined to end the reign of the royal family that imprisoned her, a god escapes captivity with the help of two unlikely allies, in Jimenez’s sophomore outing.

Dundurn

The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert (June 21, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4597-4880-4). Human touch has become taboo in the hypochondriacal near future, leading people to go mad with “skin hunger” and turn to illegal human petting zoos for a fix.

ECW

The Sisters Sputnik by Terri Favro (May 17, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-77041-608-6) finds the eponymous sisters traveling the multiverse created by the detonation of a nuclear bomb as they spin tales of their childhood on the Earth That Was.

Erewhon

The Sleepless by Victor Manibo (June 21, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-64566-046-0). In the near future, 25% of the population no longer needs to sleep. There seem to be no downsides—until one of the sleepless is pulled into a murder investigation that reveals the dark truth about the condition.

The Sacred Apiary by E. Lily Yu (July 19, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-64566-048-4) is the first collection of speculative fiction from the Campbell Award–winning author.

Europa

Lambda by David Musgrave (July 12, $18 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-60945-764-8). Mild-mannered aliens integrate into human society, but can’t avoid unwanted attention from the government, extremist groups, or police officer Cara Gray.

Flame Tree

Resilient by Allen Stroud (Apr. 26, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-78758-713-7) follows Fearless as a terrorist attack on Earth and growing insurgency on Mars threaten the peaceful collaboration of corporations and governments that has made space colonization possible.

Flatiron

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro (June 7, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-83366-2). A female detective in Victorian England must escort two superpowered children to a school for similarly gifted students—and protect them from a shadowy evil.

Grand Central

Old Country by Matt and Harrison Query (July 26, $28, ISBN 978-1-5387-2120-9). A couple settles down on a remote Idaho ranch only to be haunted by the spirits dwelling in a nearby valley. 30,000-copy announced first printing.

Griffin

Kagen the Damned by Jonathan Maberry (May 10, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-250-78397-4). After palace guard Kagen fails to protect the Silver Lands royal family, the kingdom is overtaken by the Witch-King—until Kagen learns of possible survivors and sets out to find them, in bestseller Maberry’s series launch.

Harper Voyager

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport (Apr. 5, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-305848-4). Davenport’s genre-bending debut and duology launch follows a Black woman’s quest to avenge her grandfather’s murder by joining the elite Praetorian Guard, even in the face of racism and misogyny.

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe (Apr. 19, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-307087-5). Singer Monáe returns to the dystopian, Afrofuturist world of her album Dirty Computer in this collection of speculative shorts about artificial intelligence, mind control, and queer Black love.

Head of Zeus

The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings by Dan Jones (Mar. 1, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-80110-129-5) retells a 15th-century ghost story in which a tailor encounters shape-shifting animals and receives a dire warning during a stormy trek home.

Keylight

Spontaneous Human Combustion by Richard Thomas (Feb. 22, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68442-754-3). Weird fiction maestro Thomas showcases his talents in a collection of 14 stories that PW’s starred review called “equally devastating and refreshing.”

Mariner

Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason (July 19, $15.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-358-65889-4). The Bram Stoker Award–winning editors shine a spotlight on diverse voices in horror in an anthology that reexamines the fear of the “other.”

Morrow

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane (June 7, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-316118-4) retells The Iliad, imagining Achilles as a trans woman and Helen of Troy as a cruel immortal who sees her as both a nemesis and an object of desire.

Mythic Delirium

The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss (July 12, $44.95, ISBN 978-1-7326440-7-6). World Fantasy and Locus Award winner Goss reimagines classic fairy tales in poetry and prose in this collection of original and reprinted stories.

One World

Invisible Things by Mat Johnson (June 28, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-22925-5). The deeply divided crew of a research ship discovers a secret human civilization on Europa comprising generations of alien abductees who’ve formed a bizarre society.

Orbit

Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham (Feb. 15, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-42184-3). The Expanse series coauthor launches an epic fantasy trilogy set over one year in the city of Kithamar as its citizens uncover its bloody origins.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (May 17, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-36876-6). Abdullah debuts with a One Thousand and One Nights–inspired epic fantasy in which a thief draws the attention of the sultan after saving the life of his son, sending her on a dangerous mission to locate a mystical artifact.

Penguin Books

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson (June 14, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-14-313714-6). Queen Elizabeth I installed a secret coven of witches within her government. Decades later, the stuffy sisterhood is bogged down in bureaucracy—until an extremely powerful transgender witch disrupts tradition.

Putnam

The Fervor by Alma Katsu (Apr. 26, $27, ISBN 978-0-593-32833-0). In 1944, Meiko and her daughter, Aiko, face horrors both real and supernatural in a Japanese American internment camp.

Redhook

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel (Apr. 26, $28, ISBN 978-0-7595-5733-8) turns the spotlight on the power-hungry queen from the Ramayana, offering her the chance to tell her side of the story.

Saga

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones (July 26, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-9821-8659-3) returns to the Proofrock, Idaho, setting of My Heart Is a Chainsaw, where serial killer Dark Mill South aims to avenge the 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862.

Seven Stories

Kraken Calling by Aric McBay (May 31, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64421-144-1). Alternating between 2028 and 2051, McBay’s dystopian cli-fi tale charts how the tepid response to a mounting climate crisis gives way to devastation and desperation.

Severn House

Island of Time by Davis Bunn (May 3, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-4483-0844-6). Interpol agent Jackson Burnett specializes in magical crimes, but his latest investigation is complicated by time travel in Bunn’s standalone urban fantasy.

Small Beer

Heroes of an Unknown World by Ayize Jama-Everett (June 14, $17 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-61873-197-5). Following the events of The Liminal War, series hero Taggert returns to the present day where his enemies, the Alters, work to bring about the apocalypse by sucking the joy out of life.

Solaris

Saint Death’s Daughter, Vol. 1, by C.S.E. Cooney (Apr. 12, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-78618-470-2). A necromancer born into a family of assassins must find a way to pay her family’s debts before they lose their ancestral home in this coming-of-age fantasy from World Fantasy Award winner Cooney.

Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor (July 5, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-78108-976-7). An aristocrat’s son, Koré becomes an unwitting political player in his corrupt home city when a fading god grants him magical powers in Ellor’s adult debut.

Subterranean

The Jade Setter of Janloon by Fonda Lee (Apr. 30, $40, ISBN 978-1-64524-062-4) returns to the world of Lee’s bestselling Green Bone saga, set two years before the start of the series.

TItan

Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta (July 5, $15.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-80336-044-7) kicks off when Lumi’s spouse, Sol, disappears, sending Lumi on a search that takes her from her cushy home on Mars to the climate change–ravaged Earth.

Tor

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (Mar. 15, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-8912-1). Bestseller Scalzi delivers a standalone sci-fi romp about a menial worker in a Covid-19–stricken New York City who unwittingly signs on to travel to an alternate dimension populated by massive dinosaurlike beasts. 200,000-copy announced first printing.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows (July 26, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-82913-9). The diplomatic marriage between Caethari Aeduria and the man who had been intended for his sister before his sexual preferences were known kicks off this historical fantasy from Meadows. 125,000-copy announced first printing.

Tor Nightfire

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher (July 12, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-250-83075-3). Hugo and Nebula award winner Kingfisher puts a new spin on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher in this gothic horror novel. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Word Horde

And at My Back I Always Hear by Scott Nicolay (Feb. 22, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-956252-02-6). The World Fantasy Award–winning Nicolay presents a new collection of fantasy and sci-fi shorts.

WordFire

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: Satisfying Stories with a Delicious Twist, edited by Lisa Mangum (Feb. 19, $33.99, ISBN 978-1-68057-294-0), brings together 19 speculative stories centered on eating, cooking, and sharing meals.

Return to Main Feature