This looks like another amazing year of speculative fiction! As usual, this is by no means a comprehensive list of books coming out this year, but it is a comprehensive list of 2020 releases I know about that sound most compelling to me personally—in some cases, these are new installments in series I love or books by authors whose work I’ve enjoyed, but there are also some books by new-to-me authors that sounded intriguing too. My personal taste tends to […]

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri’s fantasy debut novel inspired by Mughal India, is a gorgeous novel and one that I found deeply affecting—I loved it so much that it was my choice for Book of the Year in 2018 with its rich storytelling, fascinating world, and beautiful writing. Most of all, I was enchanted by the main characters and the vividly drawn relationships, especially the slow burn romance that grew from […]

Daughters of Nri is both Reni K Amayo’s debut novel and the debut publication of Onwe Press, whose website describes them and their mission as follows: We are an independent publisher based in the UK. Founded by 2 black women in 2018, we want to disrupt the publishing industry offering opportunities to voices we need to hear more from. ​ At Onwe Press, we value three things above all: unforgettable stories, author ownership and highlighting diverse voices. We’re small but we’re […]

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is Hugo Award–winning author Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel, and it is a treasure—enchanting, wondrous, beautifully written, a book that feels like it was penned specifically for bibliophiles and fantasy fans, a story that seems destined to one day be a classic. This historical portal fantasy set during the early 1900s is the tale of January Scaller, a young woman residing in a Vermont estate owned by Mr. Locke, the wealthy chairman of the New […]

Book Description: From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a new fantasy epic in which one mage must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic. Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic. Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts […]

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden’s debut novel and the first book in the Winternight Trilogy, is a beautifully written, atmospheric, Slavic-folklore-inspired book set in a fourteenth century Rus’ in which the old spirits are beginning to fade with the rise of Christianity in the region. This volume chronicles the childhood and young adulthood of Vasya, starting with her mother’s knowledge that her next child will be a daughter very much like her own mother, a woman resembling a […]