New Books

Anderson, Kevin J.: Horror and Dark Fantasy Stories, Volume 2 (WordFire Press 9781680577198, $18.99, 332pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 11/19/2024)

Second volume of horror and dark fantasy stories in Anderson’s short story series, with stories about ancient gods and unleashed demons, resurrected rock stars and bloodthirsty drums, haunted trains, the boogeyman, as well as Bela Lugosi and the real Vlad the Impaler.

Ashta, Lucía: Ride and Die (Podium ...Read More

Bacon, Eugen & Editor), Abimbola Adelakun (Series, ed.: Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction (Bloomsbury Academic 9798765114674, $29.95, 256pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 11/14/2024)

Non-fiction anthology, a selection of original essays. Introduction by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. Authors including Dilman Dila, Nerine Dorman, Nuzo Onoh, Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Suyi Okungbowa, Tobi Ogundiran, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Cheryl S. Ntumy, Stephen Embleton, and Xan van Rooyen – offer boldly hybrid chapters (both ...Read More

Boop, David, ed.: Last Train to Kepler-283c (Baen 9781982193768, $18, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 11/05/2024)

Original anthology of 13 Weird West space stories, third in the series. Authors include Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Mark L. Van Name, Chesya Burke, Kevin Ikenberry, David Mack, and John Stith.

Compiet, Iris & Bende, S.T.: Star Wars Bestiary, Vol. 1 (Insight Editions/Titan Books UK 9798886630985, $40, 208pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 11/05/2024) ...Read More

Anderson, Kate: Lonely Places (North Star Editions/Flux 9781635831016, $14.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/29/2024)

Young-adult horror novel. After a traumatic experience steals Chase’s younger sister’s voice, the family moves to an isolated fire lookout in Pando, a grove of Aspen tree clones connected by a massive underground root system. They moved hoping for stability, but Chase learns that something bad happened at the lookout, and Pando appears to be ...Read More

Anderson, Kevin J.: Science Fiction Stories, Volume 2 (WordFire Press 9781680577259, $18.99, 350pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, 10/22/2024)

Second volume in Anderson’s short story series, including science fiction stories about asteroid miners, time travelers, body swappers, giant robots, space cadets, futuristic prisons, and more.

Carroll, Jordan S.: Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press 9781517917081, $10, 120pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 10/22/2024)

Critical non-fiction about ...Read More

Baxter, Stephen: Fortress Sol (Orion UK/Gollancz 9781399614610, $14.99, 480pp, formats: ebook, audio, 10/17/2024)

SF novel. Rab’s mother, in order to save him from a life in the hellish mines of Mercury, cut off his hand when he was a baby. Decades later, Rab works on the Mask, the structure that hides the Solar System from aliens, when a spaceship from a long-forgotten colony approaches, threatening that security.

Blake, Olivie: ...Read More

Ali, S.K.: Fledgling: The Keeper’s Records of Revolution (Penguin Random House/Kokila 9780593531242, $21.99, 544pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 10/08/2024)

Young-adult SF novel, the first in the Keeper’s Records of Revolution duology. A privileged and obedient princess from the Upper Earth, agrees to an arranged marriage to the Crown Prince of corrupt and volatile Lower Earth, in order to usher in a final age of enlightenment and put an end to ...Read More

Ajram, Sofia: Coup de Grâce (Titan Books 9781803369624, $19.99, 144pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 10/01/2024)

Experimental horror novel in the form of a sort of CYOA novel. Vicken has a plan: throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River in Montreal and end it all for good, believing it to be the only way out for him after a lifetime of depression and pain. But, stepping off the subway, he finds ...Read More

Alkaf, Hanna: The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s (Simon & Schuster/Salaam Reads 9781534494589, $19.99, 352pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 09/24/2024)

Young-adult horror novel. A highly reputable school for girls has an outbreak of screaming, first one student in the middle of class, and by the end of the day 17 girls are affected. ...Read More

Brom: Evil in Me (Tor/Nightfire 9781250622013, $31.99, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 09/17/2024)

Horror novel. Ruby Tucker’s dreams of making it big in the Atlanta punk scene are gone — until she gets possessed through a cursed ring. The only way to exorcise it is to get hundreds of people to chant a spell, so she gets her band back together for one last song. Illustrated by the author in ...Read More

Allen, Samantha: Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet (Zando 9781638931539, $18, 288pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 09/10/2024)

Ghost romance novel. An actor’s ghost with just enough energy to communicate via kitchen speaker wants Adam Gallagher to help write his autobiography before his body is found crushed by an avalanche. They have to get it done within one month, and ghost and ghostwriter don’t entirely agree on their visions for the ...Read More

Aiello, K.J.: The Monster and the Mirror: Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell (ECW Press 9781770417083, $18.95, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 09/03/2024)

Non-fiction, a memoir mixed with research and cultural criticism showing ways popular fantasy can serve as a framework for understanding mental illness and notions of what is good or evil, sane or mad.

Buffini, Moira: Songlight (HarperCollins 9780063358218, $19.99, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, ...Read More

Abtahi, Olivia: Twin Flames (Lee & Low/Tu Books 9781643790435, $24.95, 368pp, formats: hardcover, audio, 08/27/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel about teenaged Argentinian Iranian twin girls living in a small town, each one very different the other. On their eighteenth birthday a neighbor’s barn mysteriously burns down, and when one of the twins discovers a djinn arising from the fire she suddenly gains strange powers and can no longer touch iron.

  ...Read More

Anderson, Kevin J. & Morris, Jeffrey: Persephone (WordFire Press 9781680576207, $16.99, 292pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 08/20/2024)

SF novel. Colonists on the ark-ship Odyssey awaken to discover the ship’s tech has been damaged. Also, their new planet is barely habitable, and has a mysterious giant geoglyph that might be a massive ore deposit — or a message.

Burton, Gabi: Drown Me with Dreams (Bloomsbury USA 9781547610419, $19.99, 432pp, ...Read More

Ashby, Madeline: Glass Houses (Tor 9780765382924, $27.99, 272pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 08/13/2024)

Near-future whodunit mystery novel. A group of employees and their CEO, celebrating the sale of their remarkable emotion-mapping-AI-algorithm, crash onto a not-quite-deserted tropical island. The survivors find a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world). The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and ...Read More

Anderson, Leslie J.: The Unmothers (Quirk Books 9781683694298, $18.99, 320pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 08/06/2024)

Folk horror novel. After the death of her husband, and involvement in her own terrible accident, a journalist is sent to a small, backwards town to investigate the rumor that a horse has given birth to a human baby boy. Thinking the story is clearly ridiculous, she goes to investigate and finds two horribly ...Read More

Bracken, Alexandra: The Mirror of Beasts (Penguin Random House/Knopf 9780593481691, $20.99, 496pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/30/2024)

Young-adult dark fantasy novel, second in the Silver in the Bone duology. With the dream of Avalon in ruins, Tamsin and her friends are all that stands in the way of Lord Death’s plans to unleash the horrors of Anwnn on the world of the living. Legend tells of a “Mirror of Beasts” ...Read More

Aira, César: Festival and Game of the Worlds (New Directions 9780811237307, $15.95, 192pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/23/2024)

Collection of two novellas, one about a director of SF films, the other a far-future SF story set in a regimented world where an immersive video game encourages players to exterminate the inhabitants of distant worlds. Translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver.

Anderson, Kevin J. & Longueira, Allyson, eds.: Feisty ...Read More

Alering, Alisa: Smothermoss (Tin House 9781959030584, $17.95, 264pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/16/2024)

Dark fantasy/rural gothic/fairytale novel. Two sisters in 1980s rural Appalachia are drawn into the hunt for the murderer of two female hikers on a nearby trail, as darkness seems to take over their home and community.

Allen, Mike: Slow Burn (Mythic Delirium Books 9781956522037, $18.95, 296pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/16/2024)

Collection of short body ...Read More

Aryan, Stephen: The Blood-Dimmed Tide (Angry Robot 9781915202864, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 07/09/2024)

Historical fantasy novel, the second in the Nightingale and the Falcon trilogy inspired by the Mongol Empire’s invasion of Persia. Kaivon, the last Persian General, is celebrating as Hulagu Khan’s dream of conquering the whole world lies in tatters. But the fight is not yet done, as Persia is still occupied by Mongol invaders. ...Read More

Asaro, Catherine: The Down Deep (Baen 9781982193508, $28, 240pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 07/02/2024)

SF novel, first in the Dust Knights series set in the Skolian Empire. In a city divided between the rich and the poor, a member of the Royal class wants to help the Undercity, and recruits Major Bhaajan and her Dust Knights for a mission of good will. But the problems of the Undercity run deeper ...Read More

Ackley-McPhail, Danielle, ed.: The Chaos Clock: Tales of Cosmic Aether (eSpec/NeoParadoxa 9781956463354, $17.95, 328pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 07/01/2024)

Anthology of short stories involving time, mixing the cosmic weird of H.P. Lovecraft and the steam-age technology of H.G. Wells. Authors include James Chambers, Carol Gyzander, Will McDermott, Jody Lynn Nye.

Adeyemi, Tomi: Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Macmillan/Holt 9781250171016, $24.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/25/2024)

Young-adult fantasy novel ...Read More

Breakwell, James: The Gods of Spenser Island (Rebellion/Solaris UK 9781786189967, $15.99, 384pp, formats: trade paperback, 06/18/2024)

SF thriller novel, second in the series The Chosen Twelve. A colony world with the last 12 humans, all of them children, struggle to create a new civilization on the alien island that is now their forever home—a place full of monsters and the deadly robots brought with them on the colony ship.

  ...Read More

Bowles, David & McCall, Guadalupe García: Hearts of Fire and Snow (Bloomsbury USA 9781547610044, $19.99, 320pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 06/11/2024)

Young-adult fantasy romance about two people linked by a magic conch: a woman in modern day Mexico fleeing gang violence and a man in 1521 Tenochtitlan under siege by Spanish invaders. The authors provide a long note on working together and their inspirations.

Cashore, Kristin: There Is a Door ...Read More

Cerilli, Matteo: Lockjaw (Penguin Random House Canada/Tundra 9781774882306, $17.99, 328pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)

Young-adult horror novel of two queer teens in a community that doesn’t accept them. When one is killed by a monster the other has to prove it’s real to clear herself and save the town.

Cobell, K.A.: Looking for Smoke (HarperCollins/Heartdrum 9780063318670, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)

Young-adult thriller novel set on ...Read More

Barnet, Frankie: Mood Swings (Astra House 9781662602597, $26, 304pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/31/2024)

Humorous, near-future SF novel. An Instragram poet starts an affair with the California billionaire who destroyed all the animals on Earth after they started attacking humans, but now promises a time machine that will make everything “normal” again. A first novel.

For a novel that doesn’t feature a single paradox, time loop, or change to history, ...Read More

Bell, Crystal J.: The Lamplighter (North Star Editions/Flux 9781635830989, $14.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/21/2024)

Young-adult historical horror novel. Temperance takes over as lamplighter in the 19th-century whaling village of Warbler after her father’s death, and has to prove she can do the job after a girl disappears and her investigation shows there may be a monster at large. A first novel.

Boldizar, Alexander: The Man Who Saw ...Read More

Beagle, Peter S.: I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons (Simon & Schuster/Saga Press 9781668025277, $26.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 05/14/2024)

Fantasy novel. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad’s job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart, in part because he likes dragons. Illustrated by Justin & Annie Gerard.

Bedi, Aman J.: ...Read More

Adler, Sarah: Happy Medium (Penguin Random House/Berkley 9780593547816, $18, 416pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/30/2024)

Paranormal romance novel. A con woman posing as a spirit medium is hired to investigate odd phenomena on a skeptical farmer’s goat farm, and finds a very real ghost.

Al-Essa, Bothayna & (Translator), Sawad Hussain: The Book Censor’s Library (Restless Books 9781632063342, $17.99, 272pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 04/30/2024)

Satirical dystopian SF novel ...Read More

Akers, Tim: The Eccentrics (Baen 9781982193393, $18, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 05/07/2024)

Dark fantasy/sword & sorcery novel, the third in the Knight Watch series. Led by the eighth incarnation of Nikola Tesla, the Society of Eccentric Geniuses protects the Mundane world from the horrors of the Gestalt, a timeline of the future that never was.

Almada, Selva: Not a River (Graywolf Press 9781644452851, $16, 104pp, formats: trade paperback, ...Read More

Carpenter, Daniel: Hunting by the River (Black Shuck Books UK 9781913038885, $15.99, 172pp, formats: trade paperback, 04/25/2024)

Collection of urban weird stories set in England. A first collection.

Cathrall, Sylvie: A Letter to the Luminous Deep (Orbit US 9780316565530, $18.99, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/23/2024)

Fantasy novel of magical academia in an underwater world. Two people piece together the letter, sketches and field notes left behind to ...Read More

Castro, V.: Immortal Pleasures (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593499726, $17.99, 304pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, audio, 04/16/2024)

Dark fantasy novel about Malinalli, once the infamous Malinche who aided Cortés in his destruction of the Aztec empire, now an immortal vampire avenging conquered peoples by regaining their plundered artifacts, but also looking for love and intrigued by a horror novelist who finds her strange condition fascinating.

Chang, Molly X.: To ...Read More