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Summer 2025
Forthcoming SF Books
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Andrew Harlan’s job is to range through past and present centuries monitoring and even altering Time’s myriad cause-and-effect relationships. A Technician with the Allwhen Council, he must be dispassionate. Then Harlan meets Noÿs and falls victim to a phenomenon older than Time itself – love. Years of self-discipline are cast aside as Harlan uses the techniques of the Eternals to twist Time so that he and Noÿs might survive… together.
Gold by Isaac Asimov, Harper Fiction, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
The last Isaac Asimov science fiction collection which contains all of his previously uncollected stories. Gold is Isaac Asimov's last science fiction collection‚ one containing all of his uncollected SF stories that had never before appeared in book form. Gold is the final and crowning achievement of the fifty-five year career of science fiction's transcendent genius‚ the world-famous author who defined the field of SF for its practitioners‚ for its millions of readers‚ and for the world at large.
Magic by Isaac Asimov, Harper Fiction, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A final collection of original short fantasy stories assembles previously uncollected tales, stories about the two-centimetre demon Azael, several fairy tales, and a humorous adventure about Batman's old age from the grandmaster of science fiction. These stories are fascinating musings of a wide-ranging intelligence, discussing everything from Tolkien to Spielberg, from unicorns to King Arthur. Magic is the last word on fantasy by the renowned science fiction author.
The Study of Human Life by Joshua Bennett, Bloomsbury, £9.99, pbk, ISBN: 978-1-526-664532.
An award-winning collection and novella exploring speculative fiction, addressing abolition, Black ecological consciousness, and the boundless promise of parenthood, Across three sequences, Joshua Bennett’s new book recalls and re-imagines social worlds almost but not entirely lost, all while gesturing toward the ones we are building even now, in the midst of a state of emergency, together. Bennett opens with a set of autobiographical poems that deal with themes of family, life, death, vulnerability, and the joys and dreams of youth. The central section, “The Book of Mycah,” features an alternate history where Malcolm X
is resurrected from the dead, as is a young black man shot by the police some fifty years
later in Brooklyn. The final section of 'The Study of Human Life' are poems that Bennett has written about fatherhood, on the heels of his own first child being born.
Dissolution by Nicholas Binge, Harper Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Maggie Webb has lived the last decade caring for elderly husband, Stanley, as memory loss gradually erases all the beautiful moments they created together. When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn’t losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she’s told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back. Led by Hassan, Maggie breaks into her husband’s mind, probing the depths of his memories in an effort to save him. The deeper she dives, the more she unravels a mystery spanning continents and centuries, each layer more complex than the last. But Hassan cannot be trusted. Not just memories are disappearing, but pieces of reality itself. If Maggie cannot find out what Stanley did all those years ago, and what Hassan is after, she risks far more than her husband’s life.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A reprint of the classic collection of Bradbury SF/F shorts themed around a traveller showing a local is tattooed body whose images suck him into alternate realities and tales…
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A reprint of the classic SF/F collection of themed tales around the colonisation of Mars. SF with a decided fantasy riff with the enigmatic, dark they were but golden eyed Martians who can affect the human explorers' perceptions… Absolutely classic mid-20 century SF.
Whalesong by Miles Cameron, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61509-9.
Space opera. Recently retired DHC space pilot Thor Storkel is hired to move cargo from Terra in a shady deal he would never have accepted, had it not come from his former squadron mate, Marca Nbaro. Every part of the mission is loaded with doubt, and Storkel quickly realises that he hasn’t just been handed a cargo; he’s the stalking horse in a high-stakes game to uncover a violent political conspiracy – and some will stop at nothing to kill him and the cargo he carries.
Every Version Of You by Grace Chan, Verve Books, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-857-30915-0.
Billed by the publisher as Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Murakami surrealism thrown in… In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments. Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi’s mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia. When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future, or an authentic past.
Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow, Head of Zeus, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-54783-0.
Money-laundering, cyber-knavery and shell-company chicanery: Marty Hench is an expert in them all. He's Silicon Valley's most accomplished forensic accountant and well versed in the devious ways of Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (and there’s more crossover than you might imagine). Picks and Shovels explores Marty's first adventure after he comes west to San Francisco
and ends up working for the bad guys. The villains are an affinity scam PC company called
'Three Wise Men' that's run by a Mormon bishop, a Catholic priest and an orthodox rabbi who fleece their faithful with proprietary, underpowered computers and peripherals, and front for some very bad, very violent money-men.
The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52308-8.
Scientist Beth Darlow is at the peak of her career when she discovers a way for human consciousness to travel through time – to any point in the traveller’s lifetime – and relive moments of their life. An epic breakthrough to be sure, but it’s not perfect: the traveller has no way to alter, or control, the outcome; they can only observe. After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella – their only daughter – and continue the work they started. Mired in grief, Beth decides to travel back in time to find Colson and prove the value of the machine. But with each trip she takes, her own timeline begins to warp. Beth continues the experiments at a rapid pace, pushing herself to the limit. But after one fateful experiment, Beth returns to find her reality altered to a horrifying extent. Isabella has ceased to exist. Beth must do whatever it takes, pushing the limits of science and the hidden rules of the universe itself, to change her reality once more, and bring Isabella back before she is lost to her forever.
Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91942-4.
‘In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganised into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!’
With one speech, and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. In its place rose the Galactic Empire. Across the galaxy, people rejoiced and celebrated the end to war – and the promises of tomorrow. But that tomorrow was a lie. Instead, the galaxy became twisted by the cruelty and fear of the Emperor’s rule.
During that terrifying first year of tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy, while harbouring their own secrets, fears and hopes for a future that may never come, unless they act.
Metro 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, Gollancz, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62810-5.
The third in the post-apocalyptic series that began with Metro 2033 set in the aftermath of a nuclear war with the survivors being in Moscow's underground system while powerful monsters and mutations roam outside… This series has been a big seller in Eastern Europe, and – until recently – Russia. The author currently lives outside Russia and, in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been denounced by Putin.
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths, Quercus, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43333-3.
Ali Dawson works on cold cases, crimes so old, the joke goes, that they are almost frozen. What most people don’t know is that they travel back in time to complete their investigations. So far the team has only ventured a few years or decades back, but Ali’s boss has a new assignment for her. He wants her to step back to 1850, the heart of the Victorian Age, to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric ancestor of Tory MP Isaac Templeton. Duly prepared, she arrives in London in January 1850 – the middle of a freezing winter. She is directed to a house inhabited by artists and is greeted by a dead woman at her feet. Soon she finds herself in extreme danger. Even worse, she appears to be stuck, unable to make her way back to the present, to the life she loves and home to her son, Finn. Set your clocks to February 2025 and get ready for an new crime novel. Billed by the publisher as perfect for those missing the Dr Ruth Galloway series and for any crime and historical fiction fans.
A Short History of the Future by Liam Hogan, Northodox Press, £9.99 pbk/£2.99 eBook, ISBN: 978-1-915-17947-0.
42 Sci-Fi short stories by an award-winning writer, modern twists on retro themes from time travel to multiverses, via aliens, pocket spaceships, teleportation mishaps, and space pirates. Includes the award-winners 'Ana' (Quantum Shorts), 'Tribulations' (LA Sci-Fest Roswell Award), and 'Re-boot' (Quarancon), along with stories published in Best of British Science Fiction, Nature 'Futures', and Analog.
Star Wars: The Acolyte: Wayseeker by Justina Ireland, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91947-9.
Vernestra Rwoh has spent over a decade exploring the Outer Rim as a Wayseeker, answering to no other authority but the Force itself. When a request from the Jedi Council orders her back to Coruscant, Vernestra initially refuses, feeling that her first priority should be to the beings she’s already serving. But after Jedi Master Indara arrives to ask for Vernestra’s aid in person, Vernestra finds herself pulled back into Coruscant’s complicated world of Republic politics and underworld crime. As the two delve further into their investigation, and the lines between Jedi and Republic business blur, Vernestra must reconsider what it means to serve for Light and Life.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Faber, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-571-39086-1.
Anniversary edition to mark twenty years of Kazuo Ishiguro’s modern classic, with a new introduction from the Nobel Prize-winning author. In his multimillion-copy bestseller, Kazuo Ishiguro imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of 1990s England. Narrated by Kathy H, as she tries to come to terms with her childhood at the seemingly idyllic Hailsham School, it is a story of love, friendship and memory, charged throughout with a sense of life’s fragility.
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Heist to save an alien civilisation. Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artefacts to alien civilizations – until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life, but she's haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future. Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can't refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory. And they aren't the only ones hunting for it.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, Bloomsbury, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN: 978-1-526-68519-3.
Sara is returning home from a conference abroad when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside at the airport. Using data from her dreams, their algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming her husband. For his safety, she must be transferred to a retention centre, and kept under observation for twenty-one days. But as Sara arrives to be monitored alongside other dangerous dreamers, she discovers that with every deviation from the facility’s strict and ever-shifting rules, their stay can be extended – and that getting home to her family is going to cost much more than just three weeks of good behaviour. A tale about the technology that puts us in shackles even as it promises to make our lives easier, The Dream Hotel asks: how much must we keep private if we are to remain free? And can even the most invasive forms of surveillance ever capture who we really are?
The Armoured Dark by Megan E. O’Keefe, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52634-8.
Bitter Amandine and her pirate crew have plundered the stars around Votive City for decades, building a fearsome reputation. But after two decades of near-death experiences, they’re getting too old for this shit. They’re willing to hang up their blasters, retire, and finally get some rest . . . after one last job.
When Amandine hears that an old rival is planning to kidnap a highly protected navigator, she decides to swoop in, stage a rescue and press her for a reward. But the navigator has other plans. She turns the tables on Amandine and reveals that she was hoping the infamous pirate would catch wind of the meeting and interfere. She wants a ride to the Clutch, a graveyard for the ships of an extinct alien race, to chase down her missing mentor. What they discover will change the whole galaxy forever.
Some Body Like Me by Lucy Lapinska, Gollancz, £15.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62303-2.
Billed by the publisher as Never Let Me Go meets The Sea of Tranquillity, exploring our capacity for love at the end of the world. Abigail Fuller spends humanity’s final days looking after her husband David. Abigail isn’t David’s wife. She’s not even human. She’s a replacement of the real Abigail, who died sixteen years ago. In three weeks, when the law changes, she’ll be free to go where she likes…
The Quiet by Barnaby Martin, Macmillan, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-05148-9.
Isaac is Hannah’s entire world. She knows that her son is gifted, and that those gifts make him vulnerable. To keep him safe, she spends every waking moment by his side. If she lets her guard down, lets him out of her sight, lets him show what he’s capable of, he will be taken from her. When the Soundfield arrived twenty years ago, the world changed with it. Now, people are forced to live at night due to the deadly heat of the day, food and water are scarce, and everyday life is punctuated by the constant and disconcerting hum of the Field. A brilliant scientist, Hannah spent her early
career working on the enigma of the Soundfield, looking for answers; now, resigned, she has focused all her energies on keeping Isaac living, and not just alive. To do so, she will have to pretend she is someone else, lie to those closest to her and learn to trust in strangers, even those who might wish her and Isaac ill.
Marvel: Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91427-6.
Lost to time, space and legend, Wakanda’s rightful king must answer the call of rebellion… On Earth, Wakanda is a beacon of prosperity and a bastion of freedom. But across the expanse of space, thousands of light years away, lies another Wakanda. One that has grown to hold five galaxies in its iron grip. One that steals the memories of those it enslaves. One that has abandoned the values of its forbearers and seeks only the glory and power of Empire. Lost amongst unfamiliar stars, a man finds himself trapped in an imperial mining camp – one of the countless Nameless violated by the Empire. He knows not how he got there, who he is, or even his name. Only a haunting vision of a woman who he must have known once, imploring him to ‘Come back to me.’ The only thing he does know, in his bones, is that he must fight the oppression that binds him and the others around him.
The Rest is Death by James Oswald, James Oswald, £20, hrdbk, ISBN: 978-1-472-29888-1.
A macabre ancient artefact. An innovative bio tech company connected to the highest levels of government. And the trail of bloodshed in its wake. Inspector Tony McLean is called to a routine break-in at Drake BioTech, a trendsetting Edinburgh start-up at the cutting edge of DNA re-engineering. It’s well below McLean’s pay-grade, but given the extensive political connections of its eccentric owner Nathaniel Drake, he doesn’t have a choice. Even if nothing was stolen. A missing person soon turns up dead with no signs of trauma or suggested cause of death, and still the police can find no connection between the strange events at play in the city. But when another victim is discovered cradling an small wooden box, McLean and DI Janie Harrison realise that this might be just the beginning. What will those responsible do to finally get their hands on it? Or, more terrifying still, how much death and ruin might this unassuming object have in store?
Esperance by Adam Oyebanji, Quercus, £10.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43709-6.
This is billed by the publisher as SF. Detective Ethan Krol has been called to the scene of a baffling murder: a man and his son have been drowned in seawater a thousand miles away from the nearest ocean. But as Ethan’s investigation begins to point towards Abi, a Nigerian woman whose extraordinary abilities mark her as something more, he soon finds himself playing a part in a story that spans cultures, continents… and centuries.
The Perfect Stranger by Brian Pinkerton, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58896-7.
When Linda hires Alison, a remote employee, she grows suspicious her rising star is not the person she claims to be. While the rest of the company adores Alison, Linda goes on a mission to reveal the truth – and discovers Alison might not be human at all, but an AI infiltration programmed to carry out a terror attack of catastrophic consequences.
One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford, Nightfire, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-04827-4.
Kesta's life is turned upside down when her husband Tim is one of the last to be bitten in a zombie pandemic. A scientist by day, she spends her evenings in group therapy with others who have lost loved ones to the virus. Project Dawn is working hard to find a vaccine. But Kesta has a secret. Tim may have been bitten but he is not quite dead yet. In fact he is tied to a bed in their spare room. She is running out of drugs and time. Can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse… will they trigger another outbreak...? Debut novel from a BBC producer and presenter of arts and entertainment content and also documentaries.
Frankenstein Rex by Adam Roberts, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61773-4.
Frankenstein’s creation is strong, clever and effectively immortal. If he wanted to, he could rule the world. So he will… but for how long? Frankenstein is the name of the maker, but we always think of the monster… Such a being, released into our world, would sooner or later come to rule it. Welcome to Frankenstein Rex. Frankenstein Rex is a meditation on the nature of power. By making the monster the tyrant, Roberts invites us to think about how ordinary and how conventional such figures actually are.
Kyoto by Joe Robertson & Joe Murphy, Faber, £12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-40048-9.
It’s not a negotiation, it’s hand-to hand-combat. 11th December 1997. The Kyoto Conference Centre, 5am. The nations of the world are in deadlock. Eleven hours have passed since the UN’s landmark climate conference should have ended. Time is running out. Kyoto is a breathlessly urgent political thriller, from the writers of The Jungle. It opened at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in June 2024.
Fable For the End of the World by Ava Reid, Del Rey, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-94830-1.
By encouraging massive accumulations of debt from its underclass, a single corporation, Caerus, controls all aspects of society. Inesa lives with her brother in a half-sunken town where they scrape by running a taxidermy shop. Unbeknownst to Inesa, their cruel and indolent mother has accrued an enormous debt – enough to qualify one of her children for Caerus’s live-streamed assassination spectacle: the Lamb’s Gauntlet. Melinoe is a Caerus assassin, trained to track and kill the sacrificial Lambs. She is a living weapon, known for her cold brutality and deadly beauty. She has never failed to assassinate one of her marks. And this is a game she can’t afford to lose. The Gauntlet is always a bloodbath for the impoverished debtors. But Inesa’s had years of practice surviving in the apocalyptic wastes, and with the help of her hunter brother, she might stand a chance of staying alive. As Mel pursues Inesa across the wasteland, both girls begin to question everything they once knew. And both wonder if, against all odds, they might be falling in love.
Blightfall by Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61729-1.
The last of mankind fought their way out of an interstellar prison to reclaim the stars. They united their enemies, to take on an impossible threat – and won. But the battle is only beginning…
Idolatry by Aditya Sudarshan, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58851-6.
A near-future apocalyptic vision of the everyday in Mumbai, India featuring the threat of personal technology in a world of confusing religious motivations. Mumbai, India. In the decaying near future. A new technology for the engineering of customized gods is erupting in dangerous and mind-altering ways. One man, the so-called Happy Maker, wants to ride the wave all the way to godhood. What will it take for anyone to save their sanity? But is sanity even worth saving?
The Revelation Space Collection: Volume 1 by Alastair Reynolds, Gollancz, £16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61192-3.
The original novel Revelation Space Book was published a quarter of a century ago with at least one reprint a decade ago, so this is a very welcome reprint. This volume collects the novellas set in the same universe. It is hard-ish SF space opera and this series of books, novellas and short stories is part of the late-20th century British revolution in space opera from writers such as Ian Banks, Stephen Baxter and Paul McAuley.
The Sea Eternal by Emery Robin, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-51940-1.
Space opera, and that's all we really know.
Star Wars: Tempest Breaker (High Republic) by Cavan Scott, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91936-3.
The Jedi reluctantly team up with the nefarious Lourna Dee in this full script for the Star Wars: The High Republic audiobook original, Tempest Breaker. Lourna Dee is not a villain. She’s not a hero. She’s a survivor. The former Tempest Runner, wanted by both her Nihil allies and the Republic, has evaded imprisonment and death from both more times than she can count. But even Lourna Dee cannot outrun the mysterious blight that devours everything wherever it appears. And Marchion Ro, the Eye of the Nihil, has announced that only he knows the secret to stopping it. Desperate, the Republic and Jedi turn to Lourna Dee with an offer. Help the Jedi stop the blight and in return, Lourna will have a clean slate and the chance to decide her own future. Teamed with Avar Kriss and Keeve Trennis, the same Jedi who once hunted her, Lourna Dee leads the search for the Nihil’s chief scientist, Baron Boolan, the one being who may have answers to the mystery of the blight, as well as Marchion Ro’s true plans. Lourna weighs the Republic’s offer of true freedom against her own instincts for survival as her team heads deeper into Nihil territory, straight toward the very dangers Lourna has worked for so long to elude. And when the opportunity arises to face off against Marchion Ro himself, even Lourna Dee may be willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill a quest for revenge.
Made For You by Jenna Satterthwaite, Verve Books, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-857-30909-9
She got the bachelor. Now he’s dead…! Julia Walden – a Synth – was designed for one reason: to compete on the reality TV show The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairytale ending when Josh gets down on one knee. Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder. With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point – and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is... if Julia truly is a person.
The Thinning by Inga Simpson, Sphere, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-751-57859-1.
Kris grew up by an observatory, learning about telescopes and planets, inspired by the passions of her mother and father, then leaders in their fields of astrophotography and astronomy. Those days are long over. Now Kris, her mother Dianella, and a band of outliers live deep off the grid, always on amber alert and always ready to run. In the outside world, things are not good: extinctions and a loss of diversity threaten what’s left of the environment. With a new disaster looming, Kris finds herself thrust into an unlikely partnership with a stranger who has appeared in their camp. Terry is one of a new breed of evolved humans, the Incompletes, who are widely distrusted. But the pair will need to work together during a dangerous journey if they are to play their part in a plan to help restore the natural world – and humankind.
Burnout by Jonathan Sims, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62071-0.
A blood-curdling horror thriller. There’s something lurking in the stifling darkness and labyrinthine tunnels that run below London… something old, something vicious, and something very, very hungry. One fateful morning, five travellers on an unlucky Tube carriage find themselves bound together as witnesses to a single horrific event – an event they can’t quite seem to remember. They make an unlikely team but now they must come together to confront what they have seen and stop it in its tracks before it kills them all.
Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi (High Republic) by Charles Soule, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-94553-9.
The Star Wars: High Republic story comes to a conclusion, as the Jedi face off against the Nihil and Marchion Ro.
Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Head of Zeus, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-90145-6.
The end of the world has been and gone. There was no one great natural disaster, no all-consuming world war, no catastrophic pandemic. Rather scores of storms, droughts and floods; dozens of vicious, selfish regional conflicts. No single finishing stroke for Earth’s great global human society, but you can still bleed to death from a thousand cuts. The Red Planet fared better. Where Earth fell apart, Mars pulled together. Engineered men and beasts, aided by Bees, an outlawed distributed intelligence, survived through cooperation. There was simply no alternative. Fast forward to the present day. A signal – "For the sake of what once was. We beg you. Help." – reaches Mars. How could they not help? And now here they are – three hundred million kilometres from home. And it has all already gone horribly wrong.
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton, Bloomsbury, £9.99, pbk, ISBN: 978-1-526-67924-6.
Solve the murder to save what's left of the world. Outside the island there is nothing: the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists. Until one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing
that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn’t solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island. But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…
Judge Dredd: A Better World by Williams et al., 2000AD -- Rebellion, £19.99 / Can$33.99 / US$24.99, trdpbk, 144pp, ISBN 978-1-837-86421-8.
Graphic novel. Full colour. Drawing on the impact of the real-world ‘defund the police’ movement, in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One an accounts Judge called Maitland (who has been in a number of previous Dredd adventures over the decades) realises that, by taking funding from the vast police state apparatus of Justice Department and diverting it into education and housing, she could effectively wipe out crime. Such a radical message threatens the power of the Judges and if a large-scale experiment is successful then they could well be overthrown. Even as the experiment appears to work, powerful forces within Judges and the city will do everything in their power to destroy the better world it promises. Williams, Wyatt, and Flint have crafted a taut and visually stunning political thriller that challenges readers to reassess what they think of the world of Judge Dredd. This collection also includes key stories by Williams and Wyatt that give readers the full story of Judge Maitland’s plan to ‘defund the judges’ from its inception through to execution, including ‘Carry The Nine’ and ‘The Pitch’ with artist Boo Cook, and ‘The Hard Way’ with artist Jake Lynch.
Teachers vs Aliens vs the Kids! by Steve Williams, Farrago, £8.99, pbk, ISBN: 978-1-788-42537-7.
One for younger readers… When a school assembly is interrupted by an ALIEN INVASION, bookworm Finley Swinnerton finds himself catapulted into an unlikely quest to save the planet, humanity and even Derek the school Guinea Pig! Join Finley for an OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD adventure as he grapples with alien assassins, cowardly headmasters and intergalactic overlords in a tale of slime, grime and PE teachers past their prime. Get ready for the cosmic clash of the century... It’s TEACHERS versus ALIENS... versus THE KIDS!
The Spanner in the Works by Connie Willis, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62420-6.
Connie is well know as being a winner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards. Here she returns to her 'Oxford Time Travel' series, in this brand-new novel in which a tourist in Oxford finds themselves thrust into the future….
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Summer 2025
Forthcoming Fantasy Books
Untitled Rivers of London novel by Ben Aaronovitch, Gollancz, £15.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-473-22672-2.
A brand-new novel in the Rivers of London series that has sold over two million copies so far.
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, Gollancz, £16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-60357-7.
Europe stares into the abyss. Plague and famine stalk the land, monsters lurk in every shadow and greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions. Only one thing is certain: the elves will come again, and they will eat everyone. Sometimes, only the darkest paths lead towards the light. Paths on which the righteous will not dare to tread… When you’re headed through hell, you need the devils on your side.
Broken Souls and Bones by L. J. Andrews, Michael Joseph, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-241-72993-9.
She is fated to die. He is the bringer of death. Together they'll restore a divided kingdom… The only thing Lyra has understood about her magic is that she must keep it a secret. But she has the rarest of magical abilities, to be a bone meddler and be claimed by the crown. But to be a bone meddler is a death sentence…
Cage of Starlight by Jules Arbeaux, Hodderscape, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
After a decade on the run, Tory Arknett knows the ugly business of staying free better than he knows himself. But his freedom hinges on keeping his magic hidden. And, no matter how he tries, Tory cannot keep himself from magically healing those in need. So when a desperate display of power outs him to the authorities, Tory flees - right into the hands of cold and competent Sena Vantaras. Caged in a cruel training facility, and threatened with placement at the front lines of a deadly war, Tory needs to get out before he gets dead. Aside from escape, he has one goal: make Sena pay. But then a mission strands them in enemy territory, and they must cooperate to survive. As they learn more about each other and the myth behind the magic that connects them, Tory and Sena find belonging with each other. But the trackers the facility has implanted in them will kill them in three days if they don't go back. Soon, Tory and Sena face a desperate decision: their freedom, or their lives?
A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52530-3.
In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. But when Temi, a commoner from the slums, accidentally invokes a powerful spirit, she finds it could hold the key to ending a centuries-long war. But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. And some of the spirits that can be drawn from the ancestral realm are more dangerous than anyone can imagine.
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, Hodderscape, £22, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The sequel to The Tainted Cup. An impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air - abducted from his quarters in a building whose entrances and exits are all sealed. The brilliant and mercurial investigator, Ana Dolabra, and her assistant Dinios Kol have been called in to crack the case. Before long, Ana discovers that they're actually investigating a murder. Worse, the adversary seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and can predict every one of Ana's moves as though they can see the future. Ana's solved impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and the investigators seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, has Ana finally met an enemy she can't defeat? The author has received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Phillip K. Dick Citation of Excellence, and he has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Locus Awards.
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-01137-7.
Billed by the publisher as Succession meets magic. This is the the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential. Where there’s a will, there’s a war. Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne. Or at least, so they like to think. Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around. Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth – by confirming she'd been his favourite all along. On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins –but which Wren will come out on top? This is a compulsive contemporary fantasy of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the height of her powers.
The Hidden Queen by Peter V. Brett, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
The second book in the 'Nightfall Saga', the stunning new epic fantasy series set in the world of the 'Demon Cycle', from Peter V. Brett. Humanity thought the war with demonkind was over. Now, after less than a generation to rebuild, the demon corelings have returned with a vengeance.
Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent, Bramble, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-05173-1.
She was commanded to kill him with a single strike to the heart. She didn’t expect her own to betray her. Sylina has sacrificed everything for her goddess – her soul, her freedom, her eyes. Life in service to the Arachessen, a cult of the Goddess of Fate, has turned Sylina from orphaned street rat to disciplined killer, determined to overthrow Glaea’s tyrannical king. But when a brutal vampire conqueror arrives on their shores, Sylina faces an even deadlier adversary. She’s tasked with a crucial mission: infiltrate his army, earn his trust… and kill him. The conqueror Atrius is a terrifying warrior, carving an unstoppable path through Glaea. When Sylina becomes his seer, however, she glimpses a dark and shocking past – and a side of him that reminds her far too much of parts of herself she’d rather forget. Sylina’s orders are clear. The conqueror cannot live. But as the blood spilled by Glaea’s tyrant king runs thicker, her connection with Atrius only grows stronger. A connection forbidden by her vows. A connection that could cost her everything.
The Sun Blessed Prince by Lindsey Byrd, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-04690-4.
On a hotly-contested battlefield, a prince whose touch creates life meets a soldier chosen by death. But can they forge a future together, from opposite sides of a great war? This is a lyrical and character-driven queer fantasy for those who loved She Who Became the Sun, The Song of Achilles and Lucy Holland's Sistersong. Prince Elician is a Giver. With a touch he can heal any wound and bring the dead back to life. He also can’t be killed, so is cursed to watch his country fight an endless war he can do nothing to stop. Reapers can kill with a single touch. And when one attacks Prince Elician near the battlefield, but fails, the Reaper expects to be harshly punished. Instead, Elician offers him a chance at a new life and a new name on enemy territory. The Reaper didn’t realise he could still find something, or someone, to make life worth living – until Elician. And the prince is unaware that his kindness is part of his enemy’s plan, until danger engulfs him in turn. As the pieces of a deadly plot come together, featuring abduction, treachery and forbidden magic, the stakes rise and tensions escalate at court and on the battlefield. As the fires of conflict burst into new flame, who will wield the powers of life and death? And could love really change a world and stop a war?
Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-51944-9
This is the tale of Once Was Willem, who – eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England – rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham. Pennick for all its beauty was ever a place with a dark reputation. The forests of the Chase were said to be home to nixies and boggarts, and there was a common belief, passed down through many generations, that the castle housed an unquiet ghost of terrible and malign power. These rumours I can attest were all true; indeed they fell short of the truth by a long way…
The Last Soul Among Wolves by Melissa Caruso, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52529-7.
The second instalment in Melissa Caruso's 'Echo Archives' series.
Paris Celestial by Alice O. Chao, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Now a Minister of Hell, Lady Jing is mind-numbingly bored. All she wants is plain talk and time with her beau Tony Lee, who has been distracted with mortal matters of late (impending war is such a drag). But then Aengus, a visiting Celtic deity, turns up boneless and drained of yin qi. The only way to help him is to return him to his pantheon's healer, in residence in Paris. Ready for a new adventure, Jing immediately volunteers for the task. Accompanied by Tony Lee, the group settle into the Immortal Express for what should be a run-of-the mill journey… until the train is hijacked by the Vampire Republic, who are seeking hostages in their bid to demand recognition by the international pantheons. Jing fears the worst, but when she unwittingly reveals her heritage, the vampires embrace her as one of their own… if she abandons her friends. Caught in an impossible situation, can Jing use her wit and spark to save them all?
The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang, Gollancz, £15.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-63022-1.
Prophesied to become the Empress, Fei has spent her life raised in the imperial palace, groomed to marry the future Emperor. A chance encounter with the prince of a fallen empire grants Fei the chance at freedom she’s always dreamed of, however, when a war breaks out between the nations Fei finds herself caught in the middle. Torn between two kingdoms and two princes, should Fei embrace her destiny as the Empress or risk everything to seize her fate once and for all?
The Crimson Moth by Kristern Ciccerelli, Magpie, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
In the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is. Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Idolfire by Grace Curtis, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
ON ONE SIDE OF THE WORLD, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she's determined to prove every last one of them wrong. ON THE OTHER, Kirby of Wall's End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she'll have to leave everything behind. Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead - or waiting for a spark to
light it anew…
Damned by Genevieve Cogman, Tor, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-08382-8.
1794. Eleanor, once a lowly English maid, is now a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel and a promising conjuror. With a vampire plot thwarted in Paris, the League's next daring rescue is of the Pimpernel's beloved wife, Lady Marguerite, imprisoned in her London townhouse on unjust charges of treason and espionage. But Lady Marguerite’s captivity is only the first threat from the League's vampiric enemy. With the King known to be ill, possibly mad, England is not as it should be. Vampires conspire to take control over the whole country whilst challenging Eleanor and the League at every turn. But then using her growing magical powers, Eleanor uncovers a devastating, centuries-old secret that is so steeped in blood, it will change not only England, but the entire vampire world forever...
Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
In a tiny, miserable farm on the edge of the tiny, miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her equally tiny and miserable existence. Dividing her time between tormenting her feckless husband, inadequately caring for the farm's strange collection of animals, cooking up 'scrunge', and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can't help but think that there might be something more to life. So, while she's initially aghast when Mr. Nagg returns to the farm with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she soon starts to think: what harm could a little magic do? Thus begins Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, a novel of sentient depressed farm animals, a talking pot of basil, wizards, and an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin fruit Ponzi scheme.
Queen B by Juno Dawson, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
The next instalment of the sensational of 'Her Majesty's Royal Coven' fantasy series takes us back to the reign of Henry VIII and the origins of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven under the beautiful, the bewitching, Anne Boleyn.
The Malevolent Eight: The Bad, The Worse And The Wicked by Sebastien de Castell, Quercus, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-44092-8.
The stakes have never been higher. The world is teetering on the brink of annihilation. The Lords Celestine and the Lords Devilish, celestial and infernal beings locked in an age-old enmity, have at last found the perfect battlefield for their apocalyptic Great Crusade: the mortal realm. Cade Ombra, former Glorian Justiciar turned mercenary magician, leads a band of emotionally unstable mages in a desperate bid to prevent the impending clash of divine and diabolical titans. Failure will leave humanity to be conscripted into an eternal war, serving as foot soldiers doomed to oblivion. The mission seems impossible, but Cade and the Malevolent Seven aren’t exactly pacifists, so they’re determined to bring peace no matter how many people they have to kill first. With wit as sharp as their blades and a moral compass that points only toward survival, they’re ready to cut down anyone in their path to stop the war before it begins…
Witchlight by Susan Dennard, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-03035-8.
Paths converge and prophecies unfold as Safi and Iseult—the legendary Cahr Awen—fight their way across the Witchlands to heal the final Origin Well. With ancient figures rising from the past, the Raider King’s armies gathering for war, and the magic at the heart of everything dying too fast, the entire world is now on the brink of collapse. But when Safi and Iseult reach the Air Well with the Bloodwitch Aeduan at their side, they discover too late that Eridysi's Lament is not the prophecy they thought it was – and their journeys are only just beginning.
A Darkness Returns by Raymond E. Feist, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Hatushaly, Hava, and Donte have been transported across space and time to the relative peace of Midkemia. There, on Sorcerer's Isle, under the guidance of the magician Magnus and his erstwhile father Pug, Hatu will explore and expand his unique magical abilities. With the evil Pride Lords defeated, the Church of the One has risen to bring death and destruction to his home world. But an even greater menace than the Church of the One lies in wait… They must all join forces if they are to save the worlds of Midkemia and Garn from everlasting darkness.
A Fate So Cold by Amanda Foody & C. L. Herman, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61216-6.
Romantasy. Neither Domenic Barrow nor Ellery Caldwell wanted to be a Chosen One, burdened with the responsibility of saving their nation from looming catastrophe. But when the unprecedented occurs they are both Chosen together.
The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52381-1.
You don’t fu¢k with the Rakada. The people living in the Great Grass call them the Bone Raiders, from their charming habit of displaying the bones of those they kill on their horses and armour. But being a raider is tough these days. There’s a new High Chieftain ruling the Grass. He’s had it with the raider clans, and plans to use his sizeable military to do something about it. And then there are the araatan: fire-breathing lizards the size of rhinos – one of which happens to turn up in a cute little settlement the Rakada are in the middle of raiding. Sayana is a Rakada scout, and in the chaos of the raid gone wrong, she finds herself on the back of a rampaging araatan. Whoops. In a panic, she discovers she can steer it, like you would a horse. It’s frankly amazing she survives any of this. Once Sayana gets an idea into her head, it’s awful hard to dislodge. And now she has a doozy: what if the Rakada could swap their horses for araatan? Train the lizards to act as mounts? That would even the odds against the High Chieftain, no?
Silver Elite by Dani Francis, Del Rey, £19.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-93535-6.
TRUST NO ONE.Wren Darlington has spent her whole life in hiding, honing her abilities and aiding the uprising in small ways. But when one careless mistake places her in the hands of the enemy and she’s forced to join their most elite training programme: Silver Block, she’s finally handed the perfect opportunity to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks. LIE TO EVERYONE. But training for Silver Block can be deadly, especially when your secrets are big enough to warrant immediate execution. AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T FALL FOR YOUR GREATEST ENEMY. As the stakes grow ever higher, Wren must prove herself to Silver Block. But that’s easier said than done when your commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden, favoured son of the brutal General, and soon Wren must decide just how far she’s willing to go to protect herself… and how much of the Continent is worth saving.
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig, Orbit, £19.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52296-8.
Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from seven unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams. Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
A Reign of Rose by Kate Golden, Quercus, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43414-9.
Arwen Valondale began life as no one. But now she’s risen to unimaginable heights, done astonishing deeds and fallen in love… with her arch-nemesis, Kane Ravenwood. Yet only by working with Kane will she be able to save her kingdom.
The Voice of the Wretched by Kester Grant, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Return to a dark and dangerous alternate Paris with the sequel to The Court of Miracles. A complex reimagining of Les Miserables perfect for anyone who knows that Eponine deserved so much more.
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman, Penguin, £12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-95162-0.
Fantasy, sword & sorcery.
A Steep and Savage Path by J. J. A. Harwood, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Irina is about to be married to a dead man. She is the willing village sacrifice for the Wedding of the Dead: a desperate ritual designed to lay the hungry vampire that has been terrorising her Transylvanian village to rest. Irina’s beloved sister’s soul is trapped in the land of the dead. If Irina can retrieve it, she could bring her back – but Irina would need a guide, one who can walk between the living and the dead. Irina strikes up a deal with her new husband – if he agrees to get her safely there and back again, then he can drink her blood as much as he wants. They begin a perilous journey through the afterlife together, in which Irina realises Stefan isn’t the cruel and terrifying monster that she thought. In a land of three-headed beasts, winged creatures and walking corpses, the last thing Irina would have expected was to fall in love. Only, Irina learns that by bringing Stefan to the land of the dead she has put him in grave danger, and will be faced with an impossible choice. Will they be able to make it out, undead or alive?
Princess of Blood by Sarah Hawley, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62699-6.
A new dark romantasy series fi lled with monsters, magic and one wild woman who will risk her life for a better world.
The Devil’s Playbook by Markus Heitz, Arcadia, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-42496-6.
The retired gambler Tadeus Boch has come into possession of a mysterious playing card – and he soon discovers a great many people would like to get their own hands on the set it comes from. For this is rumoured to be Supérieur, an almost mythical game about death... and the legend is that it was created by the Devil himself.
I Kissed A Werewolf and I Liked It by Cat Hepburn, Wildfire, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-035-41988-3.
The howling doesn’t stop after the full Moon. My first term of university: bad grades and worse seΧ. After losing my sister/best friend Grace and spending my teenage years suffering for it, I thought academia could be my saviour. So, I buried my head in as many books as I could find. But it turns out you can’t just turn the page on years of guilt. Still, the university library has become something of a haven away from the darkness.
Until a werewolf bit me in the romance section. And to my surprise, I kinda liked it. I should have died - but instead, in true me form, I fell in love with the mysterious wolf that nearly tore me to shreds. Now I feel myself changing, experiencing urges like never before. Maybe I should run for my life, but suddenly a dark bond is pulling me in closer. Am I making a terrible mistake? Could they be luring me in to finish what we started? Or could becoming a werewolf be the best thing that ever happened to me?
The Articulations by Eliza Henry-Jones, September, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-914-61385-2.
Aged six years old, Lucien goes to live with his mother’s best friend in her flat above the flower shop. His father, a writer, awaits trial for the murder of his mother. Feral and frightened but now with a loving, if eccentric, home, Lucien seems to be forging a life of his own. Until the day his father is due to be released from prison, when the truth about his mother’s death will out and a self-styled gang of vampire hunters gather at the gates of Luc’s childhood haunt, Highgate Cemetery.
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, Hodderscape, £22, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
She might win the throne. She might destroy an empire. Either way, it begins with murder.
After twenty-four years on the throne, it is time for Bersun the Brusque, emperor of Orrun, to bring his reign to an end. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders will compete to replace him. Trained at rival monasteries, each contender is inspired by a sacred animal - Fox, Raven, Tiger, Ox, Bear, Monkey, and Hound. An eighth - the Dragon proxy - will be revealed only once the trials have begun. Eight exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists - the best of the best. Then one of them is murdered. It falls to the brilliant but idiosyncratic Neema Kraa to investigate. But as she hunts for a killer, darker forces are gathering. If Neema succeeds, she could win the throne - whether she wants it or not. But if she fails, she will sentence herself to death - and set in motion a sequence of events that could doom the empire.
What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge, Magpie, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A rich and romantic fantasy loosely inspired by the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia's palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep – and silencing the kingdom's gods. Born with a miraculous gift, Lia's destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god – or die.
Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson-Crouch, Farrago, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-788-42505-6.
In an alternative Elizabethan London, Fang and Lazare awake from their deaths to discover they are not quite human anymore. In fact, despite having acquired the power of immortality, they’re also not like any of the other supernatural beings that reside in the underground city of Deep London. As they set out to reverse the curse, they find themselves at the centre of a dangerous plot. And when in grave danger, surely the worst thing they could do would be to fall in love...
The Gentleman and His Vowsmith by Rebecca Ide, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-05288-2.
Billed by the publisher as Bridgerton with magic and murder! Lord Nicholas Monterris is the only heir of Monterris Court, a crumbling ducal house. Bored and trapped, Nic spends his days crafting new automatons and his nights enticing handsome rogues into his bed, fiercely ignoring the fact that one day he must marry to save his family from complete decline. One day comes swiftly when his father selects his intended, Lady Leaf Serral. Tradition dictates the two families be locked in together while the marriage contract is magically drawn up, which Nic assumes will be the worst part. Until he learns the Serrals’ head negotiator is Dashiell sa Vare, an old flame he has neither forgiven nor forgotten, a man their rigid class structure forbids him to love. Locked in the mouldering grandeur of Monterris Court, tension is thick and that’s before the first dead body turns up. The second body seems to be a warning that someone doesn’t want the contract to go ahead. As things become more precarious, Nic will have to team up with his former lover and his future bride to uncover the mastermind behind the murders before it’s too late.
A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen, Del Rey, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91646-1.
A shield maiden fights to break the shackles of prophecy – and to overcome the betrayal of the man who broke her heart – in this searing conclusion to the Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology that began with the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling A Fate Inked in Blood. With the secret of her divine heritage revealed, Freya finds herself on a path that could see thousands of lives lost to the magic in her blood. Desperate to avoid this dark fate, she risks an alliance with Skaland’s greatest enemy – the same seer who sent Bjorn to kill her. While Freya still seethes with rage over Bjorn’s betrayal, the blood oaths that bind her demand that she keep him close as she hunts for a way to avert the looming war. Her magic draws her to the front lines of an old enmity, and the king she was raised to fear; the same king who, unlike Bjorn, is now willing to fight at her back. As war approaches, gods and mortals must choose their weapons. Yet the fiercest battle will be the one Freya wages within herself. With the magic of two goddesses burning in her veins, she must weave the threads of destiny to decide her own fate: will she be the shield that protects her people or the curse that destroys them?
The Windweaver by Julie Johnson, Michael Joseph, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-241-69473-2.
Enemies-to-lovers romantasy in the war-torn world of Anwygvn where magic is seen as a scourge.
Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner, Harper Voyager, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The conclusion to the 'Fallen Gods' trilogy, masterfully weaving together love and sacrifice, loyalty and betrayal, and the true meaning of faith. War has come. The fire god Hseth is leading an unstoppable army south, consuming everything in her path. Middren’s only hope of survival is to unify allies and old foes against a common enemy. Elo navigates an uneasy alliance with Arren; his friend, his enemy, and his king. Now they each must decide how much they're willing to sacrifice to turn the tides of war. Meanwhile, Inara joins her mother on their ship, the Silverswift, to seek aid. Still grappling with her powers, Inara must reconcile who she is and where she belongs, while Skediceth has to question if their bond will be enough to keep them safe. Kissen has no allegiance to the old ways of Middren. But, as she tries to find her family, she is forced to question what, and whose, future she is fighting for.
The God and the Gwisin by Sophie Kim, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Seokga the No-Longer-Fallen is looking for his love. Since he lost Hani and was reinstated as a god, nothing has felt right - and he's been desperately searching for her reincarnated form ever since. But when the red thread of fate leads Seokga to a cruise down the river of the dead, the woman he finds isn't Hani… she's Yoo Kisa, and she has no memory of him whatsoever - with seemingly no interest in regaining it either. But when the Heavenly Emperor of Okhwang is murdered, Seokga and Kisa must solve the crime before the cruise ends. And as the mystery draws them closer, they will have to decide what they truly mean to each other. There's something bigger at play aboard the ship, something that holds the key to their fated connection - and the very fate of the world.
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52431-3.
Whilst foraging for startleflower, perfumer Grace finds herself pursued by ruffians and rescued by a handsome paladin in shining armour. Only, to outwit her hunters they had to pretend to be doing something very unrespectable in an alleyway. Stephen, a broken paladin, spends his time knitting socks and working as a bodyguard, living only for the chance to be useful. But that all changes when he saves Grace and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now, Stephen and Grace must navigate a web of treachery and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind.
Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52433-7.
He’s a paladin of a dead god, tracking a supernatural killer across a continent. She’s a nun from a secretive order, on the trail of the raiders who burned her convent and kidnapped her sisters. When their paths cross at the point of a sword, Istvhan and Clara will be pitched headlong into each other’s quests, facing off against enemies both living and dead. But Clara has a secret that could jeopardise the growing trust between them, a secret that will lead them to the gladiatorial pits of a corrupt city, and beyond…
Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52435-1.
Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard’s investigations. It’s a peaceful, if solitary profession . . . until the day when he’s called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force. Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the maze of the mysterious killer, it’s Galen’s job to protect Piper from the traps that await them. He’s just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of all.
Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52437-5.
Marguerite Florian is a spy with two problems: a former employer wants her dead, and one of her new bodyguards is a far-too-good-looking paladin with a martyr complex. Shane is a paladin with three problems: his god is dead, his client is much too attractive for his peace of mind, and a powerful organisation is trying to have them both killed. Add in a brilliant artificer with a device that may change the world, a glittering and dangerous court, and a demon-led cult, and Shane and Marguerite will be lucky to escape with their souls intact, never mind their hearts.
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed.
The Last Vigilant by Mark A. Latham, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52449-8.
Shunned by the soldiers he commands, haunted by past tragedies, Sargent Holt Hawley is a broken man. But the child of a powerful ally has gone missing, and war between once peaceful nations is on the horizon. So, he and his squad have been sent to find a myth: the Vigilant. They are a rumoured last survivor of an ancient order capable of performing acts of magic, and they’ve been lost to the world for decades. No one truly expects Hawley to succeed. When he is forced to abandon his men, he stumbles upon a woman who claims to be the Last Vigilant. Enelda Drake is wizened and out of practice, and she seems a far cry from the heroes of legend. But they will need her powers, and each other, to survive. For nothing in the town of Scarfell is as it seems. Corrupt soldiers and calculating politicians thwart their efforts at every turn. And there are dark whispers on the wind threatening the arrival of an ancient and powerful enemy. The Last Vigilant is not the only myth returning from the dead.
Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle, Bloomsbury, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-526-68394-6.
When dead-end dishwasher Kostya discovers the ability to summon spirits through the food he cooks, he embarks on a journey to open a New York City restaurant that serves closure – something he’s craved for as long as he can remember. There are just three problems:
1 . Kostya has some ghosts of his own.
2 . His advancing menu of spirit cuisine is threatening the stability of the Afterlife itself.
3. He’s falling in love with Maura, a party psychic with her own secret connection to the Afterlife – who also happens to be the one person who knows he must be stopped.
A bittersweet cocktail of humour and heart, Aftertaste is an imaginative odyssey through food and love, life and death: the things that sustain us, connect us, transport us, and remind us who we are
The Book That Broke The World by Mark Lawrence, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.
The Book That held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence, Harper Voyager, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The third volume in the 'Library' trilogy, following The Book That Broke the World. The secret war that defines the Library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The fate of an infinite library hangs on one book, a book that holds the power to break the unbreakable. In the face of such forces, fragile things like hearts, family, and the world seem certain to fail. The end threatens and no one, not characters, readers, or even the author, will emerge unscathed.
Love, SeΧ & Frankenstein by Caroline Lea, Michael Joseph, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-241-49301-4.
1816, Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva. A summer storm is brewing. Forced to wait out rain and thunder, Mary Shelley – daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft – is locked in a villa with Percy Shelly and their baby, her infuriating sister Claire, Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori. Each arrived to outrun a scandal. Byron suggest they each write a supernatural tale. Mary has an idea… This is a feminist fictional account of that time.
Spellbound by Georgia Leighton, Transworld, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-0-857-50591-0.
In a remote castle perched atop a windswept island, a long-awaited royal heir is born. In accordance with ancient custom, a blessing ceremony takes place to bestow the princess with magical gifts – along with a terrible curse. Except this is not the love story you may think you know. There is no enchanted sleep for the princess, and no handsome prince to save the day. Just three women, who together concoct a desperate plan of misdirect that changes the course of all their lives. But dark magic cannot be tricked, and as the end of the curse edges closer, each of the women has a choice to make. They can wait to find out if the worst will happen, or they can turn to face the coming storm.
A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim, Hodderscape, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
A gifted art forger, Truyan Saigas has the unique ability to paint the future. But when her father is lost at sea, not even magic can heal her family, or save her two younger sisters from the dangerous consequences of her mother's gambling debts. Then Elang, a mysterious dragon lord, offers her a deal: in exchange for a fresh start for her mother and sisters, Tru must enter a marriage contract and join him in his desolate undersea palace. Once there, Tru will embark on her most dangerous forgery yet. To infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle and paint a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms…
Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
The novel follows a group of young women as they face the stress of harsh elements, a mysterious monster, and an unravelling of secrets after their yacht is wrecked off the coast of North America. Liv Whitlock knows she doesn’t belong there. But after years of stumbling between foster homes, often due to her own self-destructive tendencies, Liv desperately needs to change the trajectory of her life… so she steals her perfect sister’s identity.
What If… Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? A Scarlet Witch & Spider-Man Story by Seanan McGuire, Penguin, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94660-2.
Wanda and Peter Parker embrace great responsibility in the next adventure of an epic multiversal series that reimages iconic Marvel origin stories. So many worlds, so little time. Infinite possibilities, creating infinite realities. Long have I watched death court the Scarlet Witch. But… what if Wanda didn’t have to suffer her grief alone? All Wanda has ever known is her friendly little neighbourhood in Queens. Faced with unbelievable truths, Wanda is forced to choose between the life she knows and the life she could have.
A Testimony of Blood by Rogba Payne, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61216-6.
The sequel to The Dance of Shadows High fantasy inspired by West African spirituality that follows a young musician drawn into a battle between gods. Billed by the publisher as perfect for fans of S. A. Chakraborty, Joe Abercrombie and Marlon
James’s Black Leopard, Red Wolf.
Paved With Good Intentions by Peter McLean, Quercus, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43716-4.
Billed by the publisher as a stand-alone epic fantasy, perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Alex Marshall, featuring an unforgettable female anti-hero. Eline is a mother, a wife and a survivor. Following an act of horrific – if righteous – vengeance, Eline is blackmailed into the service of the spies known as the Queen’s Men. But the Queen’s Men aren’t just asking her to risk herself. She must risk everything she knows and loves in their service. And if she fails… civil war and the deaths of everyone she loves will be just the beginning.
Elphie: A Wicked Childhood by Gregory Maguire, Headline, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-41639-4.
The prequel to Wicked, the novel that inspired the stage show. Young Elphaba is destined to be a witch, she bears the markings from childhood. But what happened before her powers took hold? Elphie is a girl like any other and no other. Nothing like her parents - one beautiful, the other pious - nor her saintly sister, Nessarose. Her skin is green, her mind is cunning. One day she will command this strange and wonderful world. For now, her journey is just beginning. The road ahead is full of lessons and heartbreak, the first bruising attempts at friendship - and tantalising whispers of magic. It will lead Elphie to the doors of Shiz University, and to the girl who will change her life forever. This is the coming-of-age story of the most iconic witch in Oz.
The Tainted Khan by Taran Matharu, Harper Voyager, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Jai dreams of being a dragon rider. He dreams of freedom from the Sabine Empire and a world in which he can lead his people, the Kidara, to freedom. But even though he has his dragon, Winter, she is still growing, just as he’s still growing in his own power. And the road to victory is even more fraught than he had hoped… Because even when he finds a tribe on the Great Steppe, they are not his people. He is a stranger amongst his own kind, for Jai’s uncle rules, and is loath to cede power to his nephew. But the legionaries and Gryphon Guard of the Sabine Empire are wreaking havoc against the other tribes of the Great Steppe, and Jai is forced to learn a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in a matter of months. From levelling up his magic, to becoming a true warrior, saving the woman he loves, and strengthening his bond with Winter, Jai is a dragon rider with a massive weight on his young shoulders. And his greatest hope is that the shoulders of Winter will soon be strong enough to help carry him.
Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Jai has spent his life forced to serve the cruel empire that killed his family and now rules his people. To grow ever more powerful, the emperor’s young son is betrothed to Princess Erica of the Dansk Kingdom. An unconquerable realm, where ancient beasts roam. The princess brings with her a priceless gift: dragons. Only Dansk Royalty can bond with these magical beasts to draw on theirpower and strength. Until now. When the betrothal goes wrong, a bloody coup leads to chaos at court. Finally, Jai has a chance to escape. He flees with a fierce Dansk warrior, Frida, but not before stealing a dragon egg. To vanquish the empire, he must do the impossible: bond with a dragon.
A Witch's Guide To Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Sera Swan was once one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her magical Guild. Now she runs an inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep the fox in check, and longs for the magical future she lost. Until she discovers an old spell-book that could hold the secret to restoring her power - and turns to Luke Larsen, brilliant historian and human glacier. Luke has his own reasons for staying at the inn, and none of them involve letting certain grumpy innkeepers past his icy walls. So no one is more surprised than he when he not only agrees to help, but also finds himself thawing. And as Luke and Sera work together to decipher the book, Sera starts to realise that love - and the family he's made - could be the best magic of all…
The Lady of the Lake by Jean Menzies, Michael Joseph, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-241-67569-4.
A Sapphic romantasy re-telling of the Arthurian legend. The author is the 2022 BAMB Breakthrough Author Award prize-winner.
The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Quercus, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43102-5.
A missing actress, long ago cast in a blockbuster film, which is never made. A reporter, decades later, trying to unravel fact and fiction. And Salome herself, the Biblical temptress at the heart of the story. The truth binds them all together.
Gods & Monsters Book 4 by Amber V. Nicole, Headline Eternal, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-035-41459-8.
As the rebellion intensifies, Dianna discovers more of her past and soon finds herself immersed in a tumultuous family history that she and Samkiel never saw coming. Forced to venture through the Otherworld, Dianna and Samkiel start to comprehend the real power of the medallion, as figures and threats from the past surface once again to threaten their future together, and Samkiel finds himself faced with a choice: will he truly become the World Ender once again? And what does that mean for Dianna?
In Universes by Emet North, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-95407-2.
A kaleidoscopic literary debut about love and self, set across parallel universes.
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94706-7.
An anthology of short stories from the author of the 'Scholomance' trilogy and 'Uprooted', spanning each of her realms and including a sneak peak into the world of her next series. From the gothic, magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy, through the realms next door to Spinning Silver and Uprooted, and the dragon-filled Temeraire series, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories.
The Wondrous Lives and Loves of Nella Carter by Brionni Nwosu, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
When Death comes to claim Nella May Carter, she catches His interest with her capacity to find beauty and love even amidst the hell of slavery. So Death - bored, disgusted by humanity, and believing the Earth would be greatly improved should humans no longer exist - lures Nella into a Faustian bargain: the chance at immortal life if she proves that Death is mistaken. The price: Nella must entertain his fascination and challenge his beliefs until he is satisfied... or surrender herself - and the entire human race - to him forever. Nella's solution is to never stop travelling and writing, documenting the beauty in every place and person she encounters - from writing in Victorian ladies' tattlers and reporting in Gilded Age New York, to penning bestselling novels and memoirs under countless noms de plume. Nella experiences joy and loss, passion and pain; she finds love in its many forms with friends, partners, and lovers.
The Floating World by Axie Oh, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-399-74932-9.
Ex-soldier Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. Two years ago, he woke up without his memories, in possession of just his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime - a chest of coins for anyone who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light. Ren is a cheerful, spirited acrobat, travelling as part of a theatre troupe with her adoptive family. But everything changes when they are attacked by a demon. In fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light and kills the monster - but cannot stop her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded. Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, to where the creature came from - and from where Ren fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realise she's who he is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts - and destinies - are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined.
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, Gollancz, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62172-4.
Book One of the Checquy novels. ‘The body you are wearing used to be mine.’ When Myfanwy Thomas wakes in a London park with no recollection of who she is, she discovers a letter from herself with instructions on how to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her. She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organisation called the Checquy – and that she possesses a rare and deadly supernatural ability of her own.
Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley, Gollancz, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62175-5.
Book Two of the Checquy novels. After years of enmity and bloodshed, two secret organisations with otherworldly abilities must merge, and there is only one person with the fearsome powers – and bureaucratic fi nesse – to get the job done. Rook Myfanwy Thomas must broker a deal between deadly rivals, but when a bizarre attack sweeps London, threatening to sabotage negotiations, old hatreds flare. Only Myfanwy and two women who detest each other can seek out the culprits before they trigger a devastating otherworldly war.
Blitz by Daniel O’Malley, Gollancz, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62166-3.
Book Three of the Checquy novels. Lynette Binns, a new recruit to the most powerful supernatural intelligence agency on Earth, is accused of going rogue – and must go on the run to clear her name. As Lyn fights off powered thugs and her own vengeful colleagues, she will find that the solution to the murders and to the mystery of her own past lies in the events of World War II, and the covert actions of three young women during the Blitz.
In Waiting by Daniel O’Malley, Gollancz, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62169-4.
The explosive conclusion to the exhilarating Checquy series.
Forged by Beth Overmyer, Flame Tree Press, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58950-6.
The third book in the 'Blade and Bone' trilogy. When Verve falls through a portal leading to another realm, there are no known ways to escape and just as many fae she trusts there. She must find a way back to the fairy realm and claim the fae throne before a would-be king executes her husband and throws the worlds into chaos. First, though, there is power to grab and thieves of magic to unmask.
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
It has been almost two years since she defeated the vengeful spirit of her mother, but Vanja Ros - no longer Schmidt - has finally made a name for herself. She is a God Daughter, a (reformed) thief, and now a folk hero. She stands up for those with nothing, bringing justice and prosperity where she can. But members of the royal families are turning up dead, found with Vanja's calling card on the bodies. And as old flames, adversaries, and allies resurface, Vanja must face what it took to become the Pfennigist once and for all. It will take everything she is to save not only herself and the people she loves, but time as we know it.
Homegrown Magic by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-95111-8.
Yael might be an indifferent warlock, but as the only heir to an obscenely wealthy banking family, they’re poised to have their fingers in every pie in the realm. But on the precipice of a predetermined life, a loveless political marriage, and children who’ll be raised exactly as they were, they flee in search a grand adventure. Margot – talented plant witch, tea lover and stressed greenhouse owner – has never felt further from adventure in her life. She’s been on her own since her parents lost the family fortune, so when her childhood friend – and former crush – gallops back into her life, she offers Yael a job in the greenhouses. And, in amongst harvesting strawberries for heartbreak jam, tending the greenhouse and some totally, absolutely harmless flirting between friends, they form a plan to take back everything that was stolen from Margot. But can any plan survive a swiftly-blooming mutual attraction, not to mention the machinations of a set of parents determined to get their heir back – no matter the cost?
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
As an assassin for the rebellion, Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. When a rival bounty hunter shatters her world, Raeve finds herself captured by the Guild of Nobles. Crushed by the loss of his great love, dragon rider Kaan Vaegor is on a tireless quest. A clue lures him into the capital’s high-security prison where he stumbles upon the imprisoned Raeve… Together, they seek truths that threaten to unravel everything they knew about their world – and each other.
The Expanded Earth by Mikey Please, Corsair, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-472-15834-5.
One sunny Sunday, without warning, humankind is reduced to the height of a handspan – an unsightly transformation as potentially fatal as it is inconvenient. On a remote coastal path, Giles awakes in his new body to discover a world reshaped and magnified into a place of astounding abundance and deadly peril. Desperate to reconnect with his loved ones, he seeks the help of fellow survivors, and together they embark on a quest across the altered landscape. But as their journey unfolds, the more the question persists – are they still truly human, or has their reduction in size marked the beginning of a descent into savagery, an evolution into something other? Elsewhere, one week earlier, Professor Elizabeth Goodwin makes a monumental discovery – God is alive and physically among us, but not in the form we’ve been taught to expect. As Goodwin prepares to make first contact with the omnipresent ocean-spanning creature, forces conspire in the wings, and the spectre of immanent catastrophe inches closer and closer still. Dark, witty, and wildly ambitious, BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Mikey Please guides us into The Expanded Earth, high-stakes adventure packed with jeopardy and life-affirming beauty – a story that ultimately celebrates the capacity of small things to effect great change. The first in a spellbinding trilogy, this beautifully illustrated debut novel marks the arrival of a new talent and perhaps a new genre – the world of the micropocolypse.
The Deathly Grimm by Kathryn Purdie, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
After surviving the Forest Grimm and defeating theWolf, Clara and Axel have made it back to their village, the one place they can be safe behind the forest's borders. But when the forest itself begins luring in more villagers, it's clear that Clara and Axel have only treated the symptoms of the forest's curse, not the cause – and it's getting worse. Burdened with visions of the past and learning to navigate her fragile new relationship with Axel, Clara finds herself entering the forest with Axel yet again to discover the truth once and for all: the identity of the murderer who caused the curse. Romantic, eerie, and beautiful.
Six Wild Crowns by Holly Race, Orbit, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52266-1.
The king has been appointed by god to marry six queens. Those six queens are all that stand between the kingdom of Elben and ruin. Or so we have been told. Each queen vies for attention. Clever, ambitious Boleyn is determined to be Henry’s favourite. And if she must incite a war to win Henry over? So be it. Seymour acts as spy and assassin in a court teeming with dragons, backstabbing courtiers and strange magic. But when she and Boleyn become the unlikeliest of things – allies – the balance of power begins to shift. Together they will discover an ancient, rotting magic at Elben’s heart. A magic that their king will do anything to protect.
Spells, Strings and Forgotten Things by Breanne Randall, Head of Zeus, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-035-91220-9.
For as long as history can remember, there have been three Petridi sisters, whose legacy is to protect the town from dark magic and other covens of ill-intent. It’s a thankless task for a town that knows nothing of magic. But the price of the sisters' magic is high: memories. The more powerful the magic, the greater the memory required. Luckily, all Calliope Petridi wants to do is forget. Forget her judgmental oldest sister, Thalia, who refuses to do magic because of the cost. Forget how her other sister, Eurydice, only uses small magic, yet her spells are still more powerful. Forget about her absent parents, the cost of her magic, and the love of her life who shattered her heart. But something is coming. Something that is slowly fraying the strings of protections that generations of Petridi sisters have put in place…
Reigncloud Palace by Philippa Rice, Michael Joseph, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-241-73457-5.
A cosy, craft-filled fantasy about an apprentice spell-maker who has to save the world. When the Palace learns of Evnie's abilities she is whisked away. But disaster strikes when a dragon threatens the kingdm….
Rebel in the Deep by Katee Robert, Del Rey, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91721-5.
Nox has been steadfastly working as a quartermaster for the rebellion for years. They don’t ask for much in return, except for one crucial condition – their ex, the noble Lord Bastian, stays as far away from them as possible. To say things ended poorly between them is a gross understatement . . . and it’s the only relationship Nox has never quite recovered from. But now, the rules have changed. Siobhan, the rebel leader, has emerged from hiding to tell Nox that Bastian’s involvement in the rebellion has been discovered, and he’s been taken to stand trial in the capital as a traitor. The fate of the entire rebellion now rests on Nox and Siobhan’s ability to rescue Bastian from the Cwn Annwn ship. Saving Bastian is only the start of their trials, as the trio is tracked by ferocious pirates across Threshold. And Nox’s complicated relationships and entanglements with Bastian and Siobhan puts more than their life at risk – it puts their heart on the line.
Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana, Magpie, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A spicy cottagecore fae romance with a love triangle. In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu's village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile-her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a fae lord. She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she's after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own. As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she's forced to rely on two fae males to survive.
Masterpiece in Death by Megan Scott, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Return to Megan Scott's world of forbidden magic and forbidden romance with the highly anticipated sequel to The Temptation of Magic.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-06464-9.
Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high and one grows deep and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth.
The Lost Story by Me Shaffer, Quercus, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-436358.
Jeremy and Rafe have a secret: the truth about the magical realm they called home for the six months they went missing as children. But to find another missing person, they’ll need to return to the enchanted world they found.
Love and other Paradoxes by Catriona Silvey, Harper Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Billed by the publishers as the sweetness and romcom Britishness of About Time collides with the rich melancholy and high-stakes romance of Time Traveller's Wife in this new love story. The year is 2024. The city is Cambridge. The poet-to-be is Joe. Joe has waited all his life to find the right words that will unlock his future – the words that will make him the writer he knows he could be. A chance encounter with a beautiful and uninterested girl in a teashop changes everything. For Esi, yesterday has always been more important than tomorrow: unmoored from her own time in the future, Esi is looking for her mother in the past. Bearing clues as to Joe’s possible future as a literary star, the two decide to put aside their differences and help one another. Esi will help Joe become his future self, Joe will help Esi discover where she comes from. But with them both looking to the future and to the past, who is minding the present? One thing is for sure… It will be timeless.
The Hatter’s Daughter by W. A. Simpson, Flame Tree Press, £9.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58911-7.
In a wonderland where the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat rule, The Rot
threatens the sanity and lives of all... In the third tale from the 'Riven Isles' universe, discover that there is more to the Vine than mortals and immortals know. On the night Faith was born, her mother perished, but not before sending her to safety in Underneath. Discovered by The Mad Hatter, he raises her as his own. When Rot invades, Faith decides to fight. She won’t be alone.
Archangel’s Ascension by Nalini Singh, Gollancz, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62599-9.
A standalone novel, part of the Guild Hunter series, set in the dangerous world of archangels, vampires and mortals.
Untitled Nalini Singh Psy-Changeling Trinity 1 by Nalini Singh, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62606-4.
A brand-new series set in the world of the Psy-Changeling Trinity series.
The Spice Gate by Prashanth Srivatsa, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Relics of a mysterious god, the Spice Gates connect the eight far flung kingdoms, each separated by a distinct spice and only accessible by those born with a special mark. This is not a mark of distinction, but one of subjugation: Spice Carriers suffer the lashes of their rich masters and the jolting pain of the Gates themselves Amir is a Spice Carrier dreaming of escape. But something is stirring in the inhospitable spaces between the kingdoms. As Amir makes his plan for freedom, he’s drawn into a plot that threatens to unravel the power keeping the gates in balance.
Behooved by M. Stevenson, Hodderscape, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighbouring kingdom's heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca's betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight. To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry-leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety. Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric's murder, and she's now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.
As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.
The Dark Feather by Anna Stephens, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Rebellion rages in every land as the Empire of Songs battles to maintain control, but nowhere more fiercely than in the Singing City. In the great pyramid at its heart, Shadow Tayan faces the awful consequences of his actions, and their seductive possibilities. In the city streets, Xessa and Lilla lead their warriors in increasingly desperate battles, their unity riven by betrayal and deception, while Whisper Ilandeh discovers the freedom – and obligation – in making her own choices. But war is fickle, and so are people. Sometimes, the only peace possible is that bought with blood.
The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater, Headline, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-40619-7.
A genre-defying novel with Appalachian magic… High in the Appalachian mountains is a place quite unlike any other. The Avallon Hotel and its enigmatic General Manager, June Hudson, are famed for offering unrivalled luxury, season after season, to those who come from far and wide to indulge in its beautiful hot springs and take the healing waters. Everything is perfect. Perhaps too perfect. So when the Avallon is called upon to help the war effort - to oust its guests and host three hundred diplomats and Nazi sympathisers - June’s priority is business as usual. But as dark alliances and unexpected attractions crack the polished veneer of the hotel, she is forced to reckon with the true price of luxury. After all, only June knows the sacrifice required to keep everyone happy - her staff, the FBI and, above all, the tumultuous sweetwater running through the heart of the hotel.
The Last Soldier of Nava by Yejin Suh, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Court intrigue and a lush environment fuse in this tender, Korean mythology inspired sapphic fantasy. Awakened after a thousand-year slumber, a young woman with coveted shadow magic fights to heal her nation’s dying climate and her own troubled memory, even as she falls for the sister of a woman she killed in her past life.
Tales of the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tan, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
This collects nine spellbinding stories – two previously published, seven original, including the epilogue to the duology – set in the enchanting world of Sue Lynn Tan’s debut. Filled with magic and mythology, friendship and love, these stories intertwine through the past, present, and future of the two novels, told from the perspectives of multiple characters, including Chang’e, Shuxiao, Liwei, and Wenzhi. With beautiful illustrations from Kelly Chong throughout, these wondrous tales make the perfect complement to Sue Lynn Tan’s breathtaking series.
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52564-8
Dr Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions. Walden is good at her job – no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. But it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from is herself…
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou, Wildfire, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-41614-1.
In a mysterious apartment filled with ghosts, our unnamed narrator attempts to explain this to her child - how do I talk about this? she wonders. The truth must become something beautiful. We must begin with a fairy tale. And so she begins to construct a beautiful fairy tale for her child - one that begins with a strange baby boy whose nails grow too fast and whose skin smells of soil. As he grows from a boy into a man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Tragedy strikes in cycles - and wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. These ghosts call out desperately to our narrator as she tries to explain, in the very real world, exactly what has happened to her. And they all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin: If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
Shadowstitch by Cari Thomas, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Anna survived the attempt to bind her magic, but Anna and her coven aren’t free from danger yet. Haunted by her aunt’s death, living in fear of her curse, and fated to love the one man she can never have, the last thing Anna needs is a witch hunt. Now she must conceal her magic once more or risk losing everything.
The Burial Witch by Cari Thomas, Harper Voyager, £14.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The unopenable box. A mythical object that appears in fairy tales and folklore across all cultures around the world. Sometimes the box can only be opened by the right person at the right time, such as a rightful heir, and in other tales it is considered a warning. A test given to the protagonist who are typically forbidden from opening the box. When they eventually succumb, what they unleash cannot be put back in. We follow Miranda Richardson, a highly strung, highly driven member of the coven who discovers a mysterious, unopenable box in her parents' loft.
Smith of Wooton Major by J. R. R. Tolkien, Harper Fiction, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
A charming new paperback edition of one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s major pieces of short fiction, and his only finished work dating from after publication of The Lord of the Rings. This enchanting tale of a wanderer who finds his way into the perilous realm of Faery is being published once again as a pocket hardback. This new edition is enhanced with
a facsimile of the illustrated first edition, a manuscript of Tolkien’s early draft of the story, notes and an alternate ending, and a lengthy essay on the nature of Faery.
Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien, Harper Fiction, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Brand-new paperback edition of J. R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy story about the adventures of a bewitched toy dog, written before The Hobbit. While on holiday in 1925, four-year- old Michael Tolkien lost his beloved toy dog on the beach at Filey in Yorkshire. To console him, his father, J. R. R. Tolkien, improvised a story about Rover, a real dog who is magically transformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard who wronged him in order to be returned to normal.
The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver by Rafael Torrubia, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62367-4.
This is a story of murdered gods and stolen magic, where grief destroys the world but love remakes it . . . No one remembers the calamity that killed the gods and stole the names of their people. Now Shipwright and Shroudweaver are known only by their professions. She’s a master of magical shipbuilding. He’s a maker of the gilded gods that fuel their sails, stitched from the souls of dead sailors. When a chance to save their world sets the horizon alight, they embark on a deadly race against time to stop the grief-wracked sorceress Crow-kisser unleashing the ancient evil entombed at its heart – the one that could destroy them all.
Fallen Gods by Rachel Van Dyken, Bramble, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-05074-1.
The legends of the past are never truly dead and buried… Liv Olson has been drawn to Norse mythology her entire life. After earning her degree and working as a curator at one of New York’s most prestigious museums, she gets an unexpected offer for her dream job in Norway – the same place her brother disappeared months ago – after a cryptic message about finding their long-lost father. Finding herself surrounded by superstitious townspeople who refuse to even look at the water, Liv soon realizes that the small town of Vonn is nothing like it seems. Shops close before dark, and things she’s only read about seem to suddenly exist. To top it off, Tristan, her new boss, is insultingly mean and engagingly beautiful – and, as part of the job, she must live with him in his mansion. As her life quickly unravels into chaos, she’s left wondering who’s pulling the strings in this mysterious place where nothing makes sense, yet everything feels familiar. Her studies have always told her the gods are who you trust. But what happens when the man who’s destined to kill you…is your saviour?
The Crimson Crown by Heather Walter, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-95198-9.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most wicked of them all? Snow White’s dark queen tells her side of the story in this queer, witchy reimagining of the classic fairy tale.
We Shall Be Monsters by Alyssa Wees, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94181-2.
A dark, lyrical fantasy blending the world of the Fae with the stories mothers tell to keep their daughters safe – and the consequences of disregarding the truth, no matter how sinister.
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91427-6.
Horror. A group of friends investigate the mystery of an inexplicable staircase found deep in the woods in this horror novel. ‘Don’t go near them. Don’t touch them. And never, ever, go up them.’ Five high-school friends, bonded by an oath to protect each other no matter what. On a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up – but never comes back down. Now, twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared, and the friends return to find the lost boy – and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods…
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White, Penguin, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94771-5.
Gothic fantasy, a vampire escapes the thrall of Dracula and embarks on her own search for self-discovery and true love, from the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide. ‘White has crafted a gothic-tinged tale as deep and dark as grave dirt and as lush as spilled blood’ Ava Reid, A gorgeous tapestry of interconnected stories layered atop one another; add in heartbreak and Lucy’s absolute badassery, and serve cold, like the best revenge often is’ Rin Chupeco, author of Silver Under Nightfall.
The Prince Without Sorrow by Maithree Wijesekara, Harper Voyager, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
WELCOME TO THE RAN EMPIRE. Where winged serpents fly through the skies. Giant leopards prowl the Earth. And witches burn blue as they die. Shakti is a witch, a mayakari trained to commune with nature and never to cause harm. But her people have been hunted by Emperor Adil’s brutal reign for decades. Will she betray their most sacred laws and choose violence to save them? Prince Ashoka was raised by his father, the emperor, to rule the world with cruelty and fear. And yet he can’t even kill a deer and detests his father’s brutality. He must find a way to tear apart his father’s violent legacy before succumbing to it. Together they are powerful. But can the son of an oppressor and the oppressed fix a broken world? Before they are crushed by it...
The Whisper of Stars by Cristin Williams, Gollancz, £15.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62303-2.
This follows three people who are sent to prison on Solovetsky Island: Katya is an anarchist whose words hold power, Dima is a shape-shifting aristocrat and Natasha is the witch who has been sent to spy on them. Their fates are inextricably linked together through an age-old secret magic on the island, and they soon learn there are others who are also desperately seeking it.
Wearing The Lion by John Wiswell, Quercus, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43138-4.
God. Hero. Idol. Monster. Murderer. The story of Hercules is one of the most famous ever told. But what if it’s wrong? Furious with Zeus for once again siring a child with a mortal woman, Hera finds herself redirecting all her fury at the baby himself, Heracles, an innocent named in her honour. As Heracles grows into a man – an unfathomably strong, loving man – he thanks Hera for all the blessings he feels she’s seen fit to bestow upon him. In a moment of misdirected rage, however, Hera sends a Fury to kill Heracles’ family. Heracles sets out on an epic quest to discover the name of the god who set their murders in motion. Desperate to keep him busy until she can come up with a solution, Hera sets Heracles a series of tests as impossible as they are deadly: the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Stymphalian birds, the Aegean stables… But Heracles’ innate kindness, along with his determination to discover the identity of the god who cost him everything he loves, carries him through each task. And as his legend grows, so does Hera’s desperation. The author has won the Nebula Award for his short story ‘Open House on Haunted Hill’ and won the Locus Award for his novelette ‘That Story Isn’t The Story’. He has also been short-lised for the Hugo, World Fantasy and British Fantasy awards.
The Gaia Chime by Johnny Worthen, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58893-6.
Patricide, an echo of Zeus rising up against Cronos, the young gods replacing the titans. Now, a public murder televised live and across the world prompts filmmakers Seth and Charlotte to trace the threads of blood to the rich and powerful, and the horror of global destruction. Can they stop the Gaia Chime? But what is the Gaia Chime?
Songs of the Mysteries by Janny Wurts, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
In the final battle of Light against Shadow, warring factions prepare to meet the bare fist of Arithon’s fury, sparked by the execution of the innocent murdered by divine decree. As the Fellowship Sorcerers clash with rebellious dragons bent on catastrophic annihilation, those faithful to the True Sect raise armies to extinguish the clans and fight a last, bloody conquest of the free wilds. All while the Prime Matriarch courts reckless power to seize charge of Mankind’s destiny.
Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao, Harper Voyager, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided.
Years ago, the Elantian colonisers invaded Lan's homeland and killed her mother in their search to uncover the legendary four Demon Gods. Lan is determined to destroy the Gods and yet, there are others searching for them, too. Zen knew his soul was forfeit the moment he made a deal with the Demon God known as the Black Tortoise, but he's willing to lose himself if it means saving the Kingdom–and the girl–he loves. The Elantians may have stolen their throne, but the battle for the Last Kingdom has only begun.
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