Fantasy Cafe

Michael Swanwick Guest Post and Book Giveaway

2026-03-07T19:14:30Z

I’m thrilled to have a guest post by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Swanwick to share with you today—and to be giving away a copy of his new SFF collection! His previous work includes the World Fantasy Award–winning novella “Radio Waves” and the additional stories collected in Tales of Old Earth; the collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow, which includes the Hugo Award–winning short story of the same name; and the Nebula Award–winning novel Stations of the Tide.

His latest book, The Universe Box, is described as containing “tales in which magic and science improbably coexist with myth and legend.” Containing an introduction by the author and 19 short stories total—including two brand new ones!—this came out in trade paperback and ebook earlier this month. More information on the book and how to win a copy is below, along with the essay “A Thumbnail History of Twentieth-Century Fantasy” by Michael Swanwick!

About THE UNIVERSE BOX:

Discover the vast worlds and pocket universes of Michael Swanwick (Stations of the Tide), the only author to win science fiction’s most prestigious award five times in six years. In his dazzling new collection, the master of speculative short stories returns with tales in which magic and science improbably coexist with myth and legend. With two stories original to this collection, Swanwick aptly demonstrates with poignant humor why he is widely respected as a master of imaginative storytelling.

[STARRED REVIEW] “Five-time Hugo Award winner Swanwick (Stations of the Tide) swirls together myth and science in this wildly inventive collection.
—Publishers Weekly

In engaging stories, Mischling the thief races through time to defeat three trolls before the sun rises for the first time and turns the inhabitants of her city into stone. A scientist is on the run from assassins, because her research in merging human intelligence with sentient AI is too dangerous. An aging veteran obtains a military weapon from his past: a VR robotic leopard in which he rediscovers the consequences of the hunt. In the biggest heist in the history of the universe, a loser Trickster (and the girlfriend who is better than he deserves), sets out to violate every trope and expectation of fiction possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction
“Starlight Express”
“The Last Days of Old Night”
“The Year of the Three Monarchs”
“Ghost Ships”
“The White Leopard”
“Dragon Slayer”
“The Warm Equations”
“Requiem for a White Rabbit”
“Dreadnaught”
“Grandmother Dimetrodon”
“The Star-Bear”
“Nirvana or Bust”
“Reservoir Ice”
“Artificial People”
“Huginn and Muninn—and What Came After”
“Cloud”
“Timothy: An Oral History”
“Annie Without Crow”
“Universe Box”

A Thumbnail History of Twentieth-Century Fantasy
by Michael Swanwick

Every history of fantasy I’ve read—and there are far from enough of them—starts at some carefully-chosen literary work in the distant past and proceeds to trace a line of influence and inevitability from that point to the present moment.

But I was there. I saw it happen. And I’m here to tell you that they all got it wrong.

Fantasy was born the day a neolithic spear-fisher exclaimed, “Did you see the size of the one I missed?” held hands apart, and on impulse doubled the separation. In that instant, storytelling was born. Fantasy has been an essential element of it ever since.

But modern fantasy—by which I mean fantasy as a thing apart, a genre—began the day the Ace Books legal-but-unauthorized edition of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy hit the streets. The excitement this caused cannot be exaggerated. Editor David Hartwell reported that entrepreneurs laid down blankets on Harvard Square piled high with pyramids of paperbacks and sold them all the same day.

I was in high school, but my sister Patty, attending nursing school in Manhattan, sent home a copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. I stayed up all night reading it. The next day, I launched a long, quixotic attempt to write the stuff myself.

Not coincidentally, I began frantically searching for more books like the trilogy.

As did every publisher in New York City.

Nobody, it transpired, was writing like Tolkien. So publishing houses reissued early twentieth century fantasies. Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan books rose from the grave. In a drugstore spinner rack in Richmond, Virginia, I saw a paperback cover obviously meant to evoke the trilogy. It was E. R. Eddison’s Mistress of Mistresses. I asked my mother for a loan so I could buy it. To my intense embarrassment and the visible amusement of the pharmacist, Mom examined the book to make sure it wasn’t smut.

The gold standard of these reissues was Ballantine’s Adult Fantasy line, edited by Lin Carter. Carter was a terrible writer, but a reader/fan possessed of a deep knowledge of forgotten fantasy. He restored to print 65 books, including Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter, Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique, Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist, several James Branch Cabell volumes, and Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword. More regrettable (but how many fantasies were there to be mined from the past?) were works by George MacDonald and William Morris better suited for scholars than readers. A generation of writers was kindled by them.

They were not, however, numerous enough to satisfy compulsive readers. So, many writers (again, me included) shifted loyalty from fantasy to science fiction.

This was not the betrayal it looks like.

Long before Tolkien, there were natural fantasists with no market for their work. They found workarounds. Some wrote Arthurian fantasies, which could be sold as historical novels. Others wrote romantic novels involving ghosts or time travel. Many found science fiction.

Alien worlds could look a lot like the lands of fantasy. Mars could substitute for Faerie.

Writers like C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett wrote adventures which began with a brawny Earth hero riding away from the (never shown) spaceport on his eight-legged horse. Suddenly, an eight-legged snake causes the horse to rear, throwing its rider and losing his zap gun. From which point, he has to smite with sword and fist native Martians who are too proud to use Earthian firearms. Though not too proud to stab him in the back.

This sounds dismissive. But, often, the fantasists driven into SF by market forces were superbly talented. Science fiction learned from them. They, in turn, took from science fiction lessons which later, when they felt free to leave, they took with them. This was what Theodore Sturgeon would describe as syzygy—an exchange of genetic material without the intent of offspring.

Then came Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara.

Though criticized at the time as a slavish imitation of Tolkien, it was what publishers had been lusting after for years—proof that high fantasy could be created by living writers. And it made money. A lot of it.

At the same time, the broad scope of Lin Carter’s Adult Fantasy line meant that by comparing sales figures, it was possible to discover exactly what fantasy readers wanted. The numbers confirmed that the more like Tolkien’s work a book was, the better it sold.

A predictable result was the rise of the multi-volume fantasy series. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time ran to fourteen volumes, three of them, sadly, written after his death. And it was far from the longest such.

Meanwhile, any emerging writer who could slap together a plot involving dragons, elves, or other recognizable fantasy tropes could get published, even if the result wasn’t very well written. They didn’t have to be solemn tales of war and destiny either. I vividly remember a fantasy editor bragging about how much money she was making with what she condescendingly called “silly little fantasies.”

This is not to say that there weren’t artistically ambitious fantasists forty years ago. There were. But their work could be easily lost in a flood of merely publishable books.

For the first time in human history, there were enough fantasy books to satisfy even the most devoted reader. Some bookstores even put fantasy and science fiction on separate shelves, a division that resulted in many ironies of placement. (Where does Anne McCaffrey belong? Or Jack Vance?)

Earlier, if you will grant me permission to go back a decade or two, Dungeons and Dragons remade everybody’s expectations of fantasy. A Dork Tower cartoon made fun of how little magic there was to be found in The Lord of the Rings, imagining its gamers using Gandalf as a battering ram in response to that lack. Magic underwent an Industrial Revolution because gaming required lots and lots of the stuff to be playable. And this bled into fiction. In my own The Iron Dragon’s Daughter and its sequels everyone employed magic as casually as we do technology. To understand the literature, full credit must be given to the game.

Which is not to say that commerce trumped art. In the early 1980s, whenever I found myself chatting with newmade fantasists, I did my best to promote literary ambition, citing writers like Greer Gilman and Tanith Lee, whom they invariably admired. I have no idea if I made any difference at all. But with or without me, the fantasy realm expanded to include pretty much anything you can imagine. High or low, here or there, go to the store and you could find what pleases you.

Which brings us to the end of the century.

In the quarter century since then, fantasy has undergone further transformations. People of color, who long felt excluded from the genre, took their rightful places within it, often at the very front. Writers from other continents found a warm welcome in North America. Natural historical novelists (remember the natural fantasists who took refuge in science fiction?) found a safe haven in fantasy. And then…

But that is a story best left for a later essay. Perhaps to be written by you. But if not, then surely by somebody who loves fantasy with a passion equal to yours.

Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed science fiction and fantasy short-story writers of his generation, having received an unprecedented five Hugo Awards in a six year period. He is also the winner of the British Science Fiction and World Fantasy Awards. Swanwick’s stories published in such collections as Gravity’s Angels, Tales of Old Earth, and Not So Much, Said the Cat, have also appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including OMNI, Penthouse, Amazing, Asimov’s Science Fiction, New Dimensions. Swanwick’s novels include The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, a New York Times Notable Book, the Nebula Award–winner Stations of the Tide, the Darger & Surplus series, Dragons of Babel, and City in the Stars. His work has also been translated into more than ten languages. Swanwick lives in Pennsylvania.

Book Giveaway

Courtesy of Tachyon Publications, I have one finished copy of The Universe Box to give away!

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out Fantasy Cafe’s The Universe Box Giveaway Google form, linked below. One entry per household and the winners will be randomly selected. Those from the US are eligible to win. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Friday, March 6. The winner has 24 hours to respond once contacted via email, and if I don’t hear from them after 24 hours has passed, a new winner will be chosen (who will also have 24 hours to respond until someone gets back to me with a place to send the book).

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

Note: The giveaway link has been removed since it is now over.

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February 2026 Virtual Book Recommendations

2026-02-20T20:28:12Z

If you missed the first of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can catch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction, I’m primarily focusing on fantasy book recommendations this year. (But if you’re looking for more science fiction books this year, Elizabeth Bear has you covered!)

For the first book recommendations event of the year, I recommended a couple of epic fantasy books, a novella involving Faerie, an alternate history with dragons, and time travel in a secondary world (surprisingly, since I think this is only the second book I’ve really enjoyed involving time travel after Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred!).

For more on these books and/or further related reading, you can also check out the following:

The Tethered Mage/Swords and Fire Series by Melissa Caruso
- Why I love the Swords and Fire Trilogy
- Review of The Tethered Mage (Swords and Fire #1)
- Review of The Defiant Heir (Swords and Fire #2)
- Review of The Unbound Empire (Swords and Fire #3), with some reflection on what makes a good ending
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar Book Review
The Scarlet Throne by Amy Leow
- Favorite Books of 2024 (featuring The Scarlet Throne)
- “Villains, Grey Areas, and What Women Can and Cannot Be” by Amy Leow
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, featured in Favorite Books of 2025
To Shape a Dragons Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
- Favorite Books of 2023 (featuring To Shape a Dragon’s Breath)
- Moniquill Blackgoose on Indigenous Media Representation

These book recommendation events are quarterly half-hour long discussions taking place on Zoom on the third Thursday of the month, and the next book chat will be from 6:30 to 7:00 ET on May 21. You can register for the next virtual book recommendations event here.

The post February 2026 Virtual Book Recommendations first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

February 2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recommendations Event

2026-02-12T19:52:51Z

One week from today, I’ll be doing the first quarterly virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts of this year. Unlike last year, I’ll primarily be focusing on fantasy books instead of fantasy and science fiction. There may still be the occasional science fiction recommendation, but I’ll mostly be featuring fantasy and author Elizabeth Bear is focusing on SF recommendations this year (and just did her first event last night!).

I’ll be sharing these fantasy book recommendations on Zoom from 6:30 to 7:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, February 19, and if you want to join us live next week, you can register here.

If you want to see it but can’t make it, I will be posting the video later. You can keep up with each video at this link, and last year’s recommendations event videos can be seen at the following links:

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Review of Masquerade by O. O. Sangoyomi

2026-02-10T17:46:22Z

Masquerade
by O. O. Sangoyomi
368pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
LibraryThing Rating: 3.84/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.9/5

As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Masquerade, O. O. Sangoyomi’s debut novel, is a rare instance of a book I read without really knowing what to expect. I believe it first came to my attention when it became a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Debut Novel, and after that, I saw some readers mention they enjoyed it. I knew it was loosely based on the myth of Persephone, that it promised politicking in a reimagined fifteenth-century West Africa, and that it likely crossed genres, having been recognized by awards for both fantasy and historical fiction (though it was more often categorized as the latter). Yet I didn’t know which elements were speculative, what the characters and their arcs were supposed to be like, or if the relationship inspired by Persephone and Hades was at all romantic or had a happy ending.

As it turns out, I had fun discovering these aspects without having too much prior knowledge of Masquerade, so I’m going to preface this review with something that may sound a bit odd: maybe you don’t want to read this review if you’re interested in reading this novel.

Maybe you just want to know the short version, which is that:

I rather enjoyed the story and eagerly turned the pages
I loved the themes and ending
I found the protagonist and her characterization frustrating

This means my feelings on this one are a bit complicated, but I ultimately thought Sangoyomi did some interesting things in her standalone debut novel, making it one that lingered a bit more than most books after I finished it—though part of the reason for that is just how vexing it is to read a book that’s so close to being great but has some aspects holding it back.

If you want the detailed version, keep reading.

Masquerade is a novel set in Medieval West Africa that is largely historical but also a bit speculative since Sangoyomi adjusted her setting to fit the themes she was exploring related to women living in a patriarchal society (as mentioned in this interview at Grimdark Magazine). Historically, Yorùbá blacksmiths were revered for their mystical-seeming ability to transform metal, but the author made this the profession of women in her story to examine how female artisans would have been viewed with suspicion and accused of witchcraft for the same abilities. It’s not a straightforward retelling of the story of Persephone and Hades and does not include the underworld or literal Greek deities, but it is sometimes classified as magical realism due to some otherworldly aspects involving some of the Yorùbá pantheon. (These parts are brief but consequential.)

This novel is similar in feel to a lot of modern fantasy with its first-person narration from the perspective of a young woman who must contend with being taken from the life she’s always known and thrust into an unfamiliar royal court with cutthroat, potentially deadly politics. Òdódó, a blacksmith and the daughter of one, is drugged and abducted at the command of the king of Yorùbáland, who decided he must have her as his wife after he came across her singing and working at her forge in Timbuktu. She is thrilled by the prospect of exchanging her days of toil for luxury, but she soon discovers that many of the king’s allies are against his marrying a “witch”—and she has much to learn and needs to change if she wants to continue to hold on to her new position.

In many ways, Masquerade is a novel about women’s lives in a patriarchal society: the struggles they face, the ways in which they feel like they need to turn on each other for their own survival, and their inability to be seen as individuals. Òdódó’s journey is largely about discovering how she can use misconceptions and being underestimated to her advantage, and I loved her story in general: the twists and turns and seeing just how far she was willing to go to hold on to the life she’d decided she wanted. However, it was difficult to believe in her as a character when she vacillated between overlooking the most obvious clues and being the smartest person in the room.

The most frustrating part of that is that I don’t think it would have taken much to make her someone I could believe in as a character. It didn’t seem like it was trying to be a book with especially complicated politics or characterization, so I wasn’t expecting labyrinthine plotting or a deep dive into personality from it. It also examined some ideas related to the duality of humanity, such as how someone can both care for someone and treat them horribly, as shown through Òdódó’s relationships with both her mother and her eventual husband, and it also showed Òdódó as someone who had feelings for the king and good moments with him while also being aggrieved by the way he treated her at times—so I didn’t expect the protagonist to be one dimensional in her skills and outlook, either.

Because of that, I was willing to believe there were reasons for a lot of the parts that struck me as odd at times, like how quickly Òdódó got over the fact that she was abducted and embraced her new role. It might have helped to get more of a sense of what her life was like before she was kidnapped to better illustrate why she would have been so glad to leave her old life behind, especially since a big reason I thought she’d be eager to leave it behind didn’t end up applying, but I could certainly understand how living as a queen would be preferable to toiling at a forge.

It also seemed a bit discordant to me at first that someone like Òdódó—a common woman who would have been treated as such—didn’t seem to fully grasp how a lot of people might hate their king and conqueror, but she’s also only nineteen years old and was probably rather sheltered in her community of female blacksmiths. Although we don’t see a lot of her life before her abduction, the first chapter showed that her over-protective mother didn’t like for her to wander the city alone and punished her for talking to strange men. When there were things I would have expected her to be more disturbed by or give more consideration to, I was also aware that her youth and upbringing could account for some obliviousness and naivete.

Between those reasons and the fact that she wasn’t the type of character whose narrative always clearly laid out all her thoughts and feelings, I think I would have found her journey perfectly believable if just a couple of things had been tweaked. For one, it would have helped if it had leaned into her being someone who took everyone at their word, at least earlier in her story. It came close to doing that, but there was one person she should have known very well whose words she did not take as truth and was shocked to discover didn’t react to everything the way she expected. This does work with her sometimes overlooking things that don’t fit with what she wants to believe, though, so that’s not the bigger problem for me.

The larger issue is that there is one scene that made her look smarter than everyone else in the room that followed closely behind her not seeing what should have been obvious (though that could fall into that category of her trying to see what she wanted to believe). I think the intent was for her to have a different perspective given some recent experience, how men in power tend to handle their problems, and what she was beginning to learn about how to best handle court in her position (and to illustrate that even when she had ideas and input, her soon-to-be husband got all the credit). Yet it just didn’t make sense that she was giving sound advice no one else had apparently considered to a room full of people who had a lifetime of experience and the success in their field to show for it, all while she’d only had introductory instruction in their area of expertise. It stood out since it didn’t seem like she was even supposed to be some sort of mastermind, just someone capable of learning how to use the strengths she had to her advantage. Simply removing or toning down this one part would have done a lot to make her a character I could believe in as someone young and inexperienced who just needed some time to acclimate to her new situation.

Aside from my frustration about some character inconsistency, I really enjoyed this story for its readability, setting, and overall arc with a perfect ending, and I loved what the author did with the alternative history of the blacksmith guild and its women. (And for those wondering, no, it does not have a romance by definition.) Yet there was enough done well in this debut that I am interested in checking out Sangoyomi’s second novel, a young adult dark academia book titled Dreamweaving, which is the opening installment in a contemporary fantasy series scheduled for release later this year.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: It was a Christmas gift.

Read or Listen to an Excerpt from Masquerade

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Strange Horizons Roundtable on Influence

2026-01-26T18:00:05Z

This week is the 2026 Strange Horizons Criticism Special, which includes a new essay and review every day, a podcast, an editorial, and a roundtable: “Giving Permission: A Roundtable on the Obscurity of Influence” with Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Charles Payseur, Daniel A. Rabuzzi, and me. You can read the entire discussion here.

Here’s a bit about the overall premise from the preamble:

“We were seeking to identify a score or so authors who defy easy classification, whose unique style and/or creative philosophy have influenced other writers (and are recognized as such by other writers) in perhaps subtle and oblique but demonstrable ways—even if they did not establish a ‘school’ or ‘distinct group of self-defined disciples.’”

I had a lot of fun with this: both thinking about unique works and influence and seeing what everyone else in this wonderful group thought and recommended. My to-read list kept growing while working on this, so be prepared to add more books to yours!

The post Strange Horizons Roundtable on Influence first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Guest Post by Fantasy Author Katie Hallahan

2026-01-20T21:42:14Z

I’m delighted to have a guest post by Katie Hallahan to share with you today! She is the author of McKenna Ellerbeck, a contemporary fantasy series starting with The Twice-Sold Soul, which is described as a “queer fantasy romance set in a magical high school reunion” for “fans of Buffy and Charmed.” The second and newest book in her series, The Twice-Wanted Witch, is out in trade paperback and ebook today—and you can read more about some of her favorite recent fantasy books with bisexual and queer characters below!

About The Twice-Wanted Witch (McKenna Ellerbeck #2):

When secrets are what protect you, can the truth really set you free?

It’s been six months since McKenna Ellerbeck killed her second Archdemon, saved Arcadia Commons, and earned a spot on the Witches Council.

Things should be good, right?

Instead she’s overworked, underpaid, disrespected by her fellow Council members, all while fighting demons on a regular basis and suffering through having her mother as a roommate. At least she has her friends–minus Bastien, her ex who told her to get the hell out of his life months ago.

When her friend Brooke is put on trial with the Council and may lose her magic, with Bastien reappearing to lead the charge, McKenna readily volunteers to represent Brooke. Then just when McKenna has hope there’s more to Bastien’s involvement and that they might reconcile, he goes missing, leaving a trail of clues and mystifying secrets: a strange new spell he’s working on with an unknown partner, a secret demon research project, a ring filled with corrupted magic, and a literal demon hiding in his closet.

With an epidemic of demon-induced blunt honesty sweeping the town, hints of another Archdemon making plans to invade, her mom’s mysterious and possibly criminal old flame showing up, time is running out for McKenna to find Bastien, figure out who’s keeping which secrets, how dangerous they are, and decide whose side she’s on: the powerless or the powerful.

Bisexual favs: Books with great bisexual and queer rep
By Katie Hallahan

It’s more clear than ever that books with representation of all identities are essential. Whether it’s centering people of color, queer identities, the gender spectrum, disability rep, or more, everyone deserves to be seen and deserves to be the hero. It’s arguably even better if this hero’s identity isn’t the focus of the book—it’s just a facet of their existence.

In fantasy, authors get to create those worlds and readers get to live in them for a while. And while we might not be able to conjure literal magic to the real world, maybe we can bring inspiration, hope, and empathy to it through these stories. In the spirit of that, here are some of my favorite recent books with bisexual and queer characters that are absolutely worth your time and a space on your TBR!

Back in a Spell (Thistle Grove Book 3) by Lana Harper. Kicking off in Payback’s a Witch with a John Tucker Must Die with witches plot, the Thistle Grove series is delightfully queer through and through. These modern fantasy romances are fun and compelling, and don’t just tackle magical shenanigans but grounded plots as well. Living up to familial expectations, recovering from heartbreak or other catastrophic mistakes, changing the narrative of your life and the world around you? Thistle Grove does it all. My personal favorite is Book 3, Back In a Spell, featuring the bi heroine Nina Blackmoore and her accidental but eye-opening and endearing romance with Morty, a non-binary bar owner who stumbles into the magical world he’s unknowingly been living in this whole time.

Behooved by M. Stevenson features an arranged marriage between two bisexual characters, Bianca and Aric. Unlike most arranged marriages, however, Bianca accidentally curses her new husband to turn into a horse during the day. Oops! The slow burn of their relationship is truly enjoyable. Starting from a place of grudgingly doing their duty, with neither trust nor love, Bianca and Aric’s tenuous relationship eventually blossoms because of the understanding and respect that forms between them. As a bonus, their world is a queer normative one, where all manner of relationships are accepted and welcomed. There are, of course, still villains and manipulators to confront and overcome, but it’s always nice when a character’s sexuality isn’t seen as part of the problem. This also has disability rep, as Aric is neurodivergent and Bianca has a chronic illness. Both of these significantly affect their daily lives and senses of self-worth, but are also sources of strength.

Six Wild Crowns (Queens of Elben Book 1) by Holly Race is a richly-detailed fantasy inspired by King Henry VIII and, more specifically, his six wives. What if Elben, the island kingdom Henry ruled over, was protected by magic? And what if the king needed to wed six wives, each connected to a specific region of Elben, to maintain his magical prowess and the barrier? Despite its historical inspiration, this, too, is a queernormative world. Dangerous politics and strict rules of inheritance may apply, but queer relationships, nonbinary gender identities, and even polyamorous marriages are all readily accepted. While this one isn’t a romance by genre, there’s plenty of romance in it, requited and not. The explorations of love, both romantic and platonic, between Seymour, Boleyn, and the other wives is core to this story and reinforces the truth that we are stronger together (and that the patriarchy is really only interested in protecting itself).

A Fae in Finance (How to Do Business in Faerie Book 1) by Juliet Brooks. If you’ve ever worked a crappy office job with a terrible boss and also like fantasy, I can’t recommend this enough! In this contemporary fantasy comedy, the real world has recently learned that the supernatural exists. Miri (a human) has a soul-sucking finance job with a boss so awful that when she gets stuck in the Fae realm, his only response is that since they have Wi-Fi, he expects her to immediately start working remotely. Miri is bisexual, though that’s only part of her story as she flirts with a few Fae, but mostly tries to struggle through dealing with her job, depression, and finding a way home. It’s not all bad though—she still has her adorable cat, Doctor Kitten, with her! This is one of those books where a character’s sexuality simply is without being a major part of the plot–proof that queer people have bad days at work and terrible bosses just like everyone else! Despite Miri’s existential and work crisis, her attempts to navigate the Fae world and teach them about humanity makes for some hilarious situational comedy.

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai is also a workplace romance, of sorts. A contemporary fantasy romance with xianxia inspirations, it tells the story of Elle, errant descendant of a Chinese god of medicine, and Luc, a half-elf assassin bound by his true name to an employer he’d like to give notice to. Elle uses her magic to create powerful glyphs, which brings Luc into her orbit. When romance blooms between them, things get complicated with Luc’s employer and the family Elle left behind—some of whom are out for revenge. Though they are a straight-presenting couple, Luc is bisexual and a significant queer relationship in his past factors heavily into his arc. A unique, beautifully written story of family, love, obligation, and sacrifice.

Sargassa (Ex Romana, Book 1) by Sophie Burnham. What if the Roman Empire never fell, but continued to expand, even across the ocean? In this speculative novel set in the city of Sargassa, in a land we might call North America, the Roman Empire has been thriving for centuries. But when Selah Kleios inherits the role of Imperial Historian after her father’s assassination, she finds herself drawn into conspiracies, secrets, and the arms of her old flame, any one of which could undermine the Empire. Told from multiple points of view, the world of Ex Romana is brimming with queer characters. Some of them must hide their truths, while others embrace them, but everyone has something to learn about themselves, the privileges they may or may not have been taking for granted, and if the systems they’re living in are ones they still want to accept or not. The queerness of many of these characters is a large part of why they’re against the Empire’s status quo, though not the only reason, and it’s inspiring to read the story of so many who have been othered standing up to the system that wants to keep them down.

This, of course, is but a small taste of what’s out there for fantasy books with great queer representation. If you’re looking for more, here are some others I recommend checking out—including mine!

The Twice-Sold Soul by Katie Hallahan
The Twice-Wanted Witch by Katie Hallahan
The Memory Hunters by Mia Tsai
Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno
Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy
Swordcrossed by Freya Marske

Katie Hallahan is a fantasy author who loves tabletop RPGs, vampire TV shows, corgis, dabbling in nail art, and pumpkin spice everything. She has designed award-winning narrative adventure games at Phoenix Online Studios, an indie game studio she co-founded. She lives with her husband and son in Boston, Massachusetts where, shockingly, she actually uses her blinker when making turns. Katie is on Instagram, Bluesky, and Twitter at @katiehal16, on her website at katiehal.com.

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Anticipated 2026 Speculative Fiction Book Releases

2026-01-12T16:58:02Z

Once again, I have scoured the internet for information on speculative fiction books coming out this year and compiled a list of works I wanted to highlight. After looking through book descriptions, early reviews, and any available excerpts, I’ve put together a list of 18 fantasy and science fiction books coming out in 2026 that sound particularly compelling to me. (Of course, some of these did not require research since I had already enjoyed previous books in the series or other work by the same author!)

As always, this is not a comprehensive list of speculative fiction books being released this year: it’s just those that sound most intriguing to me personally that are currently scheduled for publication in 2026. Like last year, most of these are fantasy, but one sixth are science fiction and one book is both fantasy and science fiction. All of these are adult books except for one young adult novel.

Given my interests, many of the books on this list are epic fantasy or SFF inspired by history and/or mythology, and there are some I added because they promised elements that particularly appeal to me like political intrigue, morally gray characters, dragons or other magical creatures, and libraries. I hope that those of you with similar tastes find something here that appeals to you as well!

The books I’m excited about this year are listed below, along with more information on them. They are ordered by scheduled publication date, and these are US release dates unless otherwise stated.

Due to the length of this blog post, I’m only showing the first 6 books on the main page. You can click the title of the post or the ‘more…’ link after the sixth book to read the entire article.

Cover images link to Bookshop. As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: January 20

Some early reviews convinced me that I must read this standalone epic fantasy novel since I kept seeing them mention elements like political intrigue, betrayal, and complicated characters that made it difficult to know how to feel about them.

Then I read this interview with Shen Tao on Publishers Weekly titled “If Poems Could Kill” and wanted to dive into it even more. When asked about how her story came to be, the author discussed how she found her way to it:

“I had a magic system and a world, but I still didn’t have a story. That came together through the heart-spirit poem, which is central to the plot. It’s a device where poetry gives you the power to kill somebody, but to do so, you first have to write a poem of love. The contradiction inherent within that led to the whole story.”

She also discussed her novel having some (very) loose inspiration from the Tang Dynasty of China, realizing she was writing a corruption arc, and the fact that though there might be aspects that appeal to romantasy readers, it’s not really a fantasy romance despite being published through Tor’s Bramble imprint. (Many of the early reviews I read also stressed that this was not the subgenre to expect.)

Debut author Shen Tao introduces readers to the lush, deadly world of The Poet Empress, a sweeping, epic and intimate fantasy perfect for fans of The Serpent & the Wings of Night, The Song of Achilles and She Who Became the Sun.

Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves.

Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel, dissolute heir of the blood-gutted Azalea House—where poetry magic is power, but women are forbidden to read.

But in a twist of fate, the palace now stands on the knife-edge of civil war, with Wei trapped in its center. . . with a violent prince.

To save herself and the nation, she must survive the dangers of court, learn to read in secret, and compose the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of love. . . and death.

The Poet Empress is an epic fantasy that explores darker themes, subjects, and scenes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please see the author’s content note at the beginning of the book.

To Ride a Rising Storm (The Second Book of Nampeshiweisit) by Moniquill Blackgoose
Read an Excerpt from To Shape a Dragon’s Breath (Book One)
Release Date: January 27

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, the first book in this series set in a version of our world with historical differences and dragons, was one of my favorite books of 2023—so of course the next book is one of my most anticipated books of 2026! Here’s some of what I wrote about this book and why it was one of my favorites of the year:

It follows Anequs, a young indigenous woman who discovers a dragon egg and bonds with the first dragon her people have encountered in ages. After her hatchling accidentally injures someone when startled, Anequs decides it’s her duty to go to the dragon academy on the mainland and learn all she can about being bonded to a dragon and how to prevent it from hurting others. Here, Anequs is thrust into a new world filled with social rules that make no sense to her, but instead of following a more traditional fantasy of manners arc—that of attempting to fit in with these customs or flouting etiquette here and there while building toward rejecting these ways in the end—Anequs constantly calls them out, loudly, and it is a delight. I was actually surprised by just how much I enjoyed this novel considering I tend to prefer characters that have internal conflicts, but I found Anequs’ security in who she was and what she believes to be refreshing.

Moniquill Blackgoose also wrote a guest post on media representation (particularly indigenous representation) and creativity for Women in SF&F Month that year, shortly before her novel’s release.

A young indigenous woman and her dragon fight for the independence of their homeland in this epic sequel to the bestselling and multi-award-winning To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, “a remarkable novel that is bound to be a staple of fantasy shelves for years to come” (BuzzFeed).

Anequs has not only survived her first year at Kuiper’s Academy but exceeded her professors’ admittedly low expectations—and passed all her courses with honors. Now she and her dragon, Kasaqua, are headed home for the summer, along with Theod, the only other native student at the Academy.

But what should have been a relaxing break takes a darker turn. Thanks to Anequs’s notoriety, there is an Anglish presence on Masquapaug for the first time ever: a presence that Anequs hates. Anequs will always fight for what she believes in, however, and what she believes in is her people’s right to self-govern and live as they have for generations, without the restrictive yoke of Anglish rules and social customs. And fight she will—even if it means lighting a spark that may flare into civil war.

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: February 24

According to the author’s website, The Red Winter is a “retelling of the history you think you know, with dark magic, dark humor, and the lore of the first werewolf.” This has been getting some excellent early reviews, and I have a particular fondness for stories that merge history with mythology/folklore—plus the emphasis on darkness and the inclusion of a “devastating love story” both appeal to me. (I love a good tragedy.)

A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption.

In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.

Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down.

Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse.

But Gévaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian’s unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian’s arcane activities – not to mention his demonic counterpart – have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war.

Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gévaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution.

Green and Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: March 3

This standalone novel interests me in part because I enjoy dangerous forests and necromancy, but I think the main reason its description resonated with me was the part that says “History remembers it wrong.” Though not uncommon, I love stories with a good exploration of how historical accounts were changed or twisted.

For fans of S.A. Chakraborty, Robin Hobb, and Martha Wells’s Witch King, a page-turning standalone fantasy of necromancy and magical mayhem from Jenn Lyons, the acclaimed author of The Ruin of Kings.

Centuries ago, necromancy almost destroyed the world. That’s how history remembers it.

History remembers it wrong.

Mathaiik has trained all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain, nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the world.

But when an even stranger kind of monster begins to wake, the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop them. Whole forests are coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, as if the land itself has turned upon humanity.

It’s a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights’ very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the unthinkable: he wakes her up.

This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless times–life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can’t find a new way to balance the scales, this won’t just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

The Library of Amorlin (The Age of Beasts #1) by Kalyn Josephson
Release Date: March 3

The Library of Amorlin is one of those books that sounds like it could have been written just for me given that it features so many elements I love: spying and infiltration, a library, magical creatures, and romantic tension between the con artist and her target. The author comparisons had me a little hesitant about this one at first since neither of the two I’ve read were really my cup of tea, but I’m going to have to try this one regardless given its various features.

A brilliant con artist and a secretive librarian collide in New York Times bestselling author Kalyn Josephson’s enchanting adult fantasy debut packed with twists, tricks, slowburn romantic tension, and magical creatures — perfect for fans of S.A. MacLean, Mai Corland, and K.A. Linde.

Kasira used to be a masterful con artist: choosing her target, building trust, judging the precise moment to make her move. Now, she’s working off a lengthy prison sentence by hunting dangerous magical creatures on behalf of the fanatical kingdom of Kalthos.

But Kasira’s past catches up to her when the ambassador from Kalthos arrives at her camp with a deal: her freedom in exchange for infiltrating and destabilizing the magical institution meant to protect all six kingdoms—the Library of Amorlin.

When Kasira assumes the role of the new Assistant Librarian, she enters an enchanting world brimming with books and beasts, tempting her with a life she can never have. But Kasira’s real future depends on her long con to bring down the Librarian. Unfortunately, Allaster is as prickly as he is handsome, and his monstrous secrets are about to catch up with them both . . .

The Book of Fallen Leaves (The Autumn Empire #1) by A. S. Tamaki
Release Date: March 17

A retelling of a Samurai saga sounded intriguing, but Nils Shukla’s wonderful review of The Book of Fallen Leaves on Fantasy Hive is the main reason this epic fantasy novel is on my list. She highlighted its inclusion of depth and philosophical reflection and wrote, “This was a book that very much embodied everything I love: characters with emotional complexity, a dark war torn world with myth and monsters, a story grand in scope.”

Shogun meets Game of Thrones in the blockbuster epic fantasy event of the year. A. S. Tamaki weaves a powerful tale of ambition, vengeance and sacrifice in this masterful fantasy retelling of an ancient Samurai saga, packed with memorable characters, stunning worldbuilding and epic adventure.

Sen Hoshiakari is an exiled prince of a clan that lost everything in his father’s failed rebellion. Deprived of his birthright, Sen is determined to restore his family’s lands and honor at any cost. Rui is a peasant girl who saved Sen’s life on the night his family were put to the sword. But now, she is adrift and unsure of her place in the world, not knowing that the gods themselves have plans for her …

As civil war throws the empire into chaos, and demons seek vengeance on the living, Sen and Rui must fight for both their clan and their shared future … But vengeance demands a bloody price.

Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell
Release Date: March 24 (US and CA); April 2 (UK)

It sounds like this debut novel reimagining of the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd is a dark fairy tale exploring autonomy (among other things), which sounds right up my alley. The early reviews I’ve seen have me excited for this one.

The Bear and the Nightingale meets Weyward in this enchanting, deeply compelling debut about love and power, autonomy and consent.

Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate-Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend.

Rory couldn’t be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last.

As Rory and Daye grow older and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye’s existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.

As a loose reimagining of the story of Blodeuwedd from Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is an entrancing, inventive, and unsettling debut.

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar
Release Date: March 24

Although I don’t read a lot of short fiction compared to novels, “fairy tales with teeth” tend to be my favorites. Amal El-Mohtar’s recent novella retelling the seventeenth-century murder ballad known as “The Two Sisters” and some of its variants, The River Has Roots, was the type of fairy tale I enjoy—and one of my favorite 2025 book releases. It also included a sneak peek at one of the stories in Seasons of Glass and Iron (“John Hollowback and the Witch”), and I enjoyed that enough to want to check out her upcoming collection.

Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.

With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” “The Green Book,” “Madeleine,” “The Lonely Sea in the Sky,” “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun,” “The Truth About Owls,” “A Hollow Play,” “Anabasis,” “To Follow the Waves,” “John Hollowback and the Witch,” “Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers,” “Pockets,” and more.

To Steal a Throne (Book #1) by Gabi Burton
Release Date: April 7

This young adult fantasy novel sounds intriguing because I really want to know how “lie-powered magic” works, plus I love stories with court intrigue and betrayal—and ones with girls seeking power for themselves.

In this YA fantasy novel perfect for fans of Heartless Hunter, a girl who has always served others decides to take power for herself.

Her magic feeds on lies.
His magic could destroy her.

Mira Kyler runs the court of Virdei from the shadows. Ever since she helped her half-brother Luc cheat his way into the role of Virdei’s leader, she’s used her lie-powered magic to collect secrets from members of court, then used them as blackmail to keep her brother in power.

But when newcomer Kaidren Vale shows up and challenges Luc’s leadership, he threatens the stability Mira has worked so hard for. Kaidren also has magic-magic that can detect the precise nature of someone else’s power with a single touch. If Kaidren so much as brushes against her, everyone will discover that Mira is the one who’s been manipulating the court for years.

As Kaidren and Luc compete in three deadly challenges called The Trials, Mira realizes that no matter who wins, she’ll be stuck serving a mediocre man who doesn’t deserve to be in charge. She’s done hiding in the shadows. She wants power of her own.

To get it, she’ll have to betray both her own brother and Kaidren-but the fiercer the competition gets, the more Mira realizes that the one boy who could destroy everything is the one boy she might not be able to resist.

They Made Us Blood and Fury (Chronicles of the Countless Clans #1) by Cheryl S. Ntumy
Release Date: April 14

Originally independently published, this fantasy novel was a finalist for the 2022 Nommo Award, which is judged by the African Speculative Fiction Society. I love the sound of this world and its dilemma with the Queen dying—and the magic they rely upon along with her—as well as the mention of a charming spy and a character with a dangerous secret.

Anyi is the gem of the Countless Clans. Their Queens make lifeblood, a magical substance used for everything from medicine to weapons. Once, Anyi had so much lifeblood that they gave it away. Now their Queen is dying, none of her daughters, the Diviewe, can produce lifeblood and the gods that guide the clan have gone silent.

In the Empire of Ka, Anyi native Aseye dreams of leaving her work at the imperial armory to strike out on her own. Kwame, a spy with a hidden heritage, is a charming distraction. A man of conflicting loyalties, he’s not to be trusted with Aseye’s heart – or her secret, buried so deep that even she doesn’t remember it. A secret that could end her life.

As Anyi’s lifeblood dwindles, the Diviewe beg the Elders to unleash an ancient weapon to save the clan. The Elders refuse. The Diviewe take matters into their own hands. But the weapon is not what they thought it would be, and it’s not the only thing to wake…

Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
Release Date: April 28

This upcoming science fiction novel by the Hugo Award–winning author of the novelette “The Secret Life of Bots” sounds interesting, particularly since it’s supposed to be about “coming to terms with your past, with who you’ve become and who you still want to be.” Its comparison to Monk and Robot in the description did make me wonder if this might be too “cozy” for my personal taste at first, but some of the early reviews I’ve read indicate this has higher stakes and darker themes than usual for the cozy SFF category.

In the abandoned New York Botanical Gardens, forty years after the world nearly ended, a worn-out robot is attacked, and realizes old evils are stirring

Wrestling with themes of loneliness, connection, and purpose, this hope-punk sci-fi is for fans of Becky Chambers’s Monk & Robot duology—featuring a cyborg dog!

Forty years ago, the world nearly ended.

Be is an old robot who was there, and doesn’t want to think about what happened, or what role they played in that conflict. They have settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned ruins of an old mill in the former New York Botanical Gardens, disinterested in what has happened in the outside world since they stepped away from the war. Someone out there, though, has not forgotten about them, and when they are attacked, their person vandalized, and one of their legs stolen, they set out to find the thief accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic.

The world has changed, but the recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle the old conflict and finish what was started. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become, and how everything and everyone else they knew has changed in their absence. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible.

This is a story about coming to terms with your past, with who you’ve become and who you still want to be: a tale of resilience and hope, an ode to those struggling to become whole in a world half-broken.

Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni
Release Date: April 30 (UK); May 12 (US/CA/AU/NZ)

“Dark academia” is a phrase that tends to make me take a closer look at a book’s description, and this fantasy romance novel is another one that sounds like it has a lot of elements I tend to love, like enemies forced to work together who end up discovering maybe they actually don’t hate each other after all. I’m also rather curious about the poison magic and how it’s tied to three magical snakes.

For fans of Naomi Novik and Kerri Maniscalco, a dark academia romantasy steeped in necromancy, forbidden love, and a twisty murder mystery about a death mage who hates her magic and a poison mage who hates her that are forced to work together to stop a killer before one of them is next.

Born with the ability to speak with the dead, Viola’s magic killed her sister, Olivia, and if she doesn’t learn why, it will kill her too. Her only hope lies within the perilous walls of Gorhail Institute of Magic, where Olivia spent her final days.

There, Viola clashes with Sylas, a poison mage whose magic stems from three magical snakes. Immortal, tormented, and reckless, Sylas is tethered to a life he never asked for and haunted by guilt for his father’s death. His hatred for death mages runs deep, and he’s determined to keep Viola at a distance. But when an attack forces him to heal her, their fates become intertwined by a magical bond that threatens to upend his loyalties—and his common sense.

As more students start turning up dead, Viola and Sylas are drawn into an uneasy alliance that pulls them deeper into Gorhail’s treacherous passageways, where secrets fester beneath the stone and the dead do not rest. And as enemy lines begin to blur and their undeniable attraction grows, Viola and Sylas uncover a chilling conspiracy: someone is hunting mages for their magical relics, and if they can’t uncover the killer in time, Viola will be next.

The Republic of Memory (The Song of the Safina #1) by Mahmud El Sayed
Release Date: May 5

Mahmud El Sayed won the 2023 Future Worlds Prize with this science fiction novel set on a generation ship, then titled What the Crew Wants. Given that the author of one of my favorite books of 2025 won that same award based on a submission of that novel, I’m interested in reading more fiction recognized by the Future Worlds Prize. Plus this debut sounds extremely compelling: it’s an Arabfuturist novel exploring empire and revolution that I’ve seen praised for its political depth.

A Memory Called Empire meets Children of Time in this Arabfuturist debut set on a generation ship on the brink of revolution as its crew begin to ask why they should toil for a people, and an empire, none of them remember.

The Safina is a city ship halfway through its four-hundred-year voyage from the ruins of Earth to a new colony world. Its crew maintain the ship, generation after generation, while protecting their ancestors in cryostasis so that one day they will be able to enjoy a fresh start under clear blue skies.

But when blackouts start, unrest follows.

The ship can only continue running smoothly with the cooperation of the crew. And the crew has had enough. As coordinated acts of resistance coincide with a much more complex conspiracy, a chain of events is set into motion that will change life on the Safina forever.

Inspired by the real-world events of the Arab Spring, The Republic of Memory is a bold interrogation of empire and an energizing portrait of revolution.

The Rainshadow Orphans (Rainshadow Orphans #1) by Naomi Ishiguro
Release Date: May 26

This trilogy opener sounds like it could be just the kind of mythical fantasy/science fiction I love with inspiration from Japanese folklore and Studio Ghibli movies—and, of course, it also appeals to me because it includes dragons!

The first novel in a dazzling fantasy trilogy inspired by Japanese folklore and Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away, set within a mythical archipelago brimming with dragons and Sun Spirits, high-tech hackers and bubble tea.

Life is hard for the inhabitants of Rainshadow City, a place where poverty and corruption are rife and where they are terrorized by an underground criminal organization known as the Lucky Crows.

Toshiko, Jun and Mei Kawakami are a family, bonded through loyalty if not blood, who live outside the increasingly corrupt law and who are seeking revenge for the murder of their beloved “aunt” Reiko by the Lucky Crows. Haru is the son of the Emperor, destined to one day rule over the Archipelago and uphold his mother’s ignoble legacy, but he is more interested in making friends with the magical Sun Spirits it seems only he can see. Theo, forced to leave his homeland, is a reluctant foot-soldier for the Lucky Crows. He doesn’t want to be a gangster, but as an illegal immigrant to the city, his choices are severely limited.

When Toshiko steals a dragon pearl from the leader of the Crows, it sets them all on a thrilling path which will determine the future of Rainshadow City. Tightly set across two days and peopled with unforgettable characters, The Rainshadow Orphans blends the anime fantasy of works like Pokémon and Studio Ghibli and the anime science fiction of revolutionary cyberpunk like Akira to explore what it means to stand up to corruption and take charge of destiny.

The Heart of the Nhaga (The Bird That Drinks Tears #1) by Lee Young-do; translated by Anton Hur
Release Date: June 2

The first book in the acclaimed Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears is being published in English for the first time this year, nearly 20 years after its initial publication. This sounds like an interesting setting, and I’d like to read more translated SFF.

Welcome to Lee Young-do’s epic classic series, The Bird That Drinks Tears. The master of Korean fantasy—often cited as the J.R.R. Tolkien of South Korea—Lee Young-do has created a tale of castles built on the backs of flying mantas, giant birdmen, heartless immortals, and a quest that will change the very nature of the world and its gods, available for the first time in English by award-winning translator Anton Hur.

Three handles one.

The world is divided by the Line of Limit. To the north are the Tokkebi—fire people able to manipulate flames as both weapons and illusions; Rekon—giant birdmen with immense strength and warrior acumen; and the humans—as divided as the other races are unified. To the south are the Nhaga—a reptilian people who relinquish their hearts for immortality. For centuries, the races didn’t cross that line, but change is in the air. A Nhaga is being sent North…and a trio is being dispatched to make sure this agent from the South makes it out alive—one from each race.

But the illusion of a simple journey is quickly dispelled by the fact that the Tokkebi is merely a scholar, not an adventurer; the Rekon is deathly afraid of water; and the human hunts and eats Nhaga. And when the Nhaga they’re supposed to be escorting out of the Kiboren forest is murdered, the one sent in his place turns out to very much have a heart—meaning he’s quite vulnerable to the dangerous exodus.

The four must quickly forge an alliance and shed the distrust and prejudice that plagues them if they are to survive. And just as crucial, they must figure out what this mission is actually about, because unbeknownst to them, the very fate of the world might rest on this one Nhaga making it to the North intact.

A classic not to be missed, The Heart of the Nhaga is epic fantasy at its best, translated into English for the first time ever by award-winning translator Anton Hur.

Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim
Release Date: June 2

This will be Isabel J. Kim’s debut novel after having published several short stories, including “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” (a Nebula Award winner and Hugo Award finalist) and “Homecoming Is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self” (which her upcoming novel is based on). This sounds like the sort of thought-provoking science fictional scenario I enjoy: a story about people who literally split into two when someone immigrates to a new country, leaving a copy behind who continues life in their homeland.

Doppelgängers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you’d sacrifice for a different life from award-winning author Isabel J. Kim.

“One of the best debuts of the year.” —John Scalzi, New York Times bestselling author of Starter Villain

“After Sublimation, the immigrant story will never be the same.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind. One person enters their new country, the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Release Date: June 2

Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy is one of my favorite series from the last decade, so I was excited to see that her novel coming out this summer also blends history and myth: this time, in a fantastical story about Anne of Brittany.

With her country’s future and her own life at stake, an orphaned duchess must journey into a world of myth and there discover a power that may be her salvation—or her demise—in this enchanting historical fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

Anne of Brittany was a child when her realm was invaded, her home besieged, and her royal father driven to his death.

Now her treasury is empty, her land occupied by her enemies, and she is ordered, under threat of renewed war, to become queen of her conquerors and marry the King of France.

This marriage means her country’s annexation. But Anne promised her father that Brittany would never be conquered.

Defiantly, she betroths herself in secret to France’s greatest enemy. But in a world where courts may spy on each other by magic, there is only one way to solemnize this illicit union.

Anne takes her court deep into a legendary forest, where the court diviners’ skill cannot reach. The world thinks they are only a hunting party, coursing after unicorns. But that is a lie, a trick, a feint. No one in living memory has seen a unicorn. All Anne wants is this secret wedding, which is her only hope of salvation.

But when against all hope a unicorn appears and a stranger out of legend stumbles from the trees and falls at her feet, Anne is plunged into a world of enchantment where a doomed sovereign might find the power to change her own and her country’s destiny—or be lost in the shadows forever.

A Dance of Burning Blades (Invoker Trilogy #2) by M. H. Ayinde
Read an Excerpt from A Song of Legends Lost (Book 1)
Release Date: June 9

A Song of Legends Lost, the first book in this series and the novel that earned M. H. Ayinde the 2021 Future Worlds Prize, was one of my favorite books of 2025 due its fascinating world of ancient forbidden tech and people who could summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight for them. But of course, there is far more to this setting and its history than its cast realized, and I’m excited to learn more about the realities of the world in which they live along with them in the next book in this trilogy.

War rages on in the second heart-pounding novel in M. H. Ayinde’s relentless epic fantasy series The Invoker Trilogy, a sweeping epic of revenge and rebellion set in a richly drawn world of warring clans and ancestor magic.

Tension simmers across Nine Lands. In the capital, the people of Lordsgrave seethe with resentment after the horrors of the greyblood attack. Clan Adatali is in open rebellion against the king, and as war in the Feverlands rages on, a humble tree feller—who looks a lot like missing invoker Jinao Mizito—has not forgotten the promise he made to avenge his brother.

Meanwhile, in the shadows, the king’s daughter Lyela continues to move her pieces across the board. Can the people of the Nine Lands reclaim their stolen history and unlock the secrets that have been kept from them for centuries?

The post Anticipated 2026 Speculative Fiction Book Releases first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Favorite Books of 2025 & Year in Review

2026-01-11T21:42:40Z

Happy (slightly belated) New Year! The past year was at least a great one for reading and book-related projects. I discovered two new favorite books ever (which means I also have a new favorite series), started doing quarterly virtual book recommendation events with the Ashland Public Library, and spent the later part of the year working on an interesting piece with some cool people that I’ll tell you more about later this month.

As usual, I took the opportunity to cover some highlights of the year and discuss my favorite books from last year, including both those published in 2025 and new-to-me books from previous years.

Blog Highlights in 2025

As always, April’s Women in SF&F Month was a big highlight of the year. This was the fourteenth annual Women in SF&F Month, and it contained wonderful essays by speculative fiction authors discussing their thoughts related to reading and writing, experiences, influences, and work (along with the occasional book giveaway). Featured guest posts, which are eligible for nonfiction/related work awards, are as follows:

There were also some additional guest posts throughout the year:

In addition to featuring/discussing a bunch of books, I reviewed some of last year’s new speculative fiction releases, such as The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami and The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. If you enjoy lists, I also shared about my Favorite Books & Media of 2024.

Favorite Books of 2025

Once again, I reflected on the books I read over the last year and came up with a list of the ones that stood out the most to me, which ended up being five new releases and three books published before this year. Of all the new-to-me books I read, two books became new overall favorites, making that series one of the best I’ve read.

I did a lot of rereading since I wanted to refresh my memory on some books I loved so I could discuss them as part of the virtual book recommendation events I started doing with the Ashland Public Library this year (May, August, November). Since I liked these books enough to revisit them, they were of course some of the better reads of the year, but I’m limiting this list to new-to-me books although books like Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip, and The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh were certainly among the best I read this year!

Baldur’s Gate 3 was a highlight of my year for the third year in a row, but I don’t feel like I have much more to say about it except that I still played it a lot last year and have more plans for games, so I’m skipping the favorite media part this year and sticking to books.

Favorite Books Released in 2025

Although I didn’t love a lot of the books that appeared on my Anticipated 2025 Speculative Fiction Releases List that I read/tried to read this year as much as I’d hoped (and bounced completely off a couple of those I did get to this year, including one of the ones I was most excited for), two of those books were among my highlights of the year. Neither my Book of the Year nor my Book of the Year runner-up were on my list, so these were both lovely surprises! Interestingly, both of these books are standalone novels, although they are followed by a couple of series openers.

For a lot of the year, I wasn’t sure what I’d end up picking as Book of the Year since I had two clear favorites, one of which was more of a compulsive page turner and one of which was more unique and interesting. I had decided to go with the book I thought did something more innovative but then ended up making it my runner-up since one of the books I got for Christmas—the very last book I read this year—ended up being my favorite 2025 release.

Cover images link to Bookshop. As an affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Book of the Year
1. The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Read an Excerpt

“You know that history is mostly happenstance. Accidents piled on top of mistakes, a series of dice rolled in dim rooms by careless hands. It is not a lesson, until we learn it. It is not a story, until we tell it. And every story serves someone.”

Like my 2019 Book of the Year, Alix E. Harrow’s debut novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Everlasting is a beautifully written story that is difficult to describe because it is so much in the very best of ways. Also like that book, I don’t think anything I write will fully do it justice, as it’s a novel that needs to be experienced firsthand to see all the ways in which it works.

At its heart, this standalone novel is a love story between a war veteran/historian named Owen and the woman whose tales of valor inspired him: his nation’s greatest hero, the legendary knight Una Everlasting, who died about 1,000 years before he was born. Owen found strength in the stories of Sir Una performing mighty deeds, like drawing her sword from the yew tree to defend her queen and finding the grail that cured her monarch from disease. But when he’s sent back in time to chronicle Sir Una’s final quest, Owen discovers that not everything is as he expected and finds the revered saint is a woman who—like himself—is both physically and emotionally scarred because of her service to their nation. As he comes to admire her for more than just the stories he’s heard, he’s forced to choose: remain loyal to his country by leading Sir Una to the tragic death that ensures she’ll be remembered as an inspiration or try to find a way to change her story.

In paring it down to its essence without giving too much away, The Everlasting probably sounds trite. I actually hadn’t planned to read it when it first came out, mainly because its description didn’t sound compelling to me and time travel is not an element I particularly like. Then I heard enough good things about it that I decided to read a sample and ended up adding it to my wish list—and I was so glad I did, because this was masterfully executed. The prose is gorgeous with lines that made me pause and savor its writing, and I loved the style of the main characters telling their stories to each other. It doesn’t spend time rehashing the same specifics from different timelines so it doesn’t get stale, and the various details are revealed at just the right time. It’s largely serious but also has a sense of humor, and I enjoyed how it wove a lot of different things into the story about how there are no reliable narrators and how the stories told about history serve a purpose. (I also loved the ornery horse. And I kind of want a story about the villain because she may be evil, but what she did took some dedication.)

Book of the Year Runner-Up
2. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Read an Excerpt

Death of the Author is one of the more interesting books I’ve read this year, given its unique structure and how it tied everything together. This standalone novel alternates between a story set in a barely-alternate/very-near-technological-future version of our world focusing on an author’s life and the story that made her successful, a science fiction novel set in the distant future titled Rusted Robots. I loved the parallels between both stories and how they explored a lot of different subjects and provided a lot to speculate on before drawing to a satisfying conclusion.

The human’s story follows Zelu, a Nigerian American creative writing professor and aspiring published author who feels like she’s hit rock bottom after she’s fired and receives yet another rejection for her literary novel. She then writes a novel unlike anything she’s ever written, and it becomes a huge hit. Her story shows her struggles with her sudden rise to fame, from being more recognizable and scrutinized to seeing the removal of so many parts of what made her book hers when it becomes a movie, and it’s also about what it is to be someone who doesn’t fit in: as a person belonging to multiple cultures, as a person very different from the rest of her family, and as a person with paralysis from the waist down.

Zelu’s novel is set in Nigeria during a time when humanity has basically gone extinct and robots modeled to look humanoid (Humes) are in constant conflict with AIs who do not have a physical form (NoBodies). It follows a Hume who collects stories and learns of a great catastrophe headed their way, leading her to try to convince the different AI groups that they need to face this looming disaster together if they want to survive.

Death of the Author is a novel that explores a lot of different subjects, but ultimately, it is a wonderful book about the power of stories.

Most Fun Book of the Year
3. The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path #1) by Antonia Hodgson
Read an Excerpt

The Raven Scholar is the most fun book I read in 2025. The first book in an epic fantasy trilogy set in a world with eight monasteries dedicated to eight animal guardians, it (mostly) focuses on a member of the scholarly Raven sect named Neema. As High Scholar, Neema has been planning the opening ceremony for the upcoming competition to choose the next emperor, but shortly after this inaugural event, the Raven contender’s corpse is discovered. The current emperor makes Neema the new competitor for her corvid guardian and tasks her with solving the murder, a crime that many suspect she did given the infamous rivalry between her and the deceased Raven—and one she needs to prove to herself she didn’t commit since she was drugged and does not remember part of that night.

Although The Raven Scholar is a thick book, it is so well paced that it didn’t feel like a huge novel, and both the trials and the murder mystery are compelling. I always appreciate tournaments that aren’t just about who can win a physical fight, and though that was part of this one, there were also a variety of different trials: each of the monastic sects had a test based on their core tenets, and these ranged from the Ravens’ straightforward evaluation of knowledge to more convoluted situations that forced its participants to put some thought and effort into what they were supposed to do. The murder mystery was one of those that was about more than just who did it, as it kept bringing up questions that required delving into the empire’s history and various characters’ pasts.

The Raven Scholar is one of those books that’s a really entertaining, effective page-turner, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.

Best Debut Novel of the Year
Best Secondary World of the Year
4. A Song of Legends Lost (Invoker Trilogy #1) by M. H. Ayinde
Read an Excerpt

A Song of Legends Lost is my favorite debut novel of 2025 as well as the new release I read with the most fascinating world and mysteries related to its workings and past.

The first book in an epic fantasy trilogy, this novel follows five main characters from a variety of backgrounds ranging in age from barely out of childhood to well into adulthood, though some are not introduced immediately. The first of those characters met is a young woman living in the poor part of a major city whose family finds themselves in trouble for using tech—whose use is forbidden to all but monks—to purify drinking water for themselves and their neighbors. The other character introduced in the early part of the novel is a nobleman who feels like a failure as the only person in his family who cannot fight the way nobles often do, by summoning the spirit of their ancestors to aid them in battle. Others include an older monk serving one of the noble families, a middle-aged woman who belongs to the quartet dedicated to protecting her husband when he summons his ancestor, and a young woman living in the poor part of her city whose father gifted her a mysterious pendant that may be the key to saving her younger brother’s life.

Each viewpoint shows a different piece of this setting and starts unraveling some of its many mysteries through the different situations these individuals find themselves in. There’s far more to the ancient tech and ancestor summoning than the characters have been led to believe, and I love that sort of thing when it’s done well, which this is. I was riveted by all these characters’ stories and eager to learn more about their world along with them, and I’m excited for the second book in the series (coming June 2026).

5. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
My Review
Read an Excerpt

The River Has Roots is a beautifully written standalone fairy tale that retells the seventeenth-century murder ballad “The Two Sisters” and some of its variants, making it into a story about the strength of the bond between the two eponymous characters. It’s an enchanting story not just due its content but its lovely prose, and I especially loved the earlier passages describing the setting and grammar as magic.

Given that this is short, even for a novella, it’s a difficult book to describe without giving too much away about how it unfolds. The two sisters of The River Has Roots live near the edge of Faerie, where their family has tended to and harvested the enchanted willow trees that absorb the magic that seeps into the river for generations. When a man in possession of land neighboring theirs decides he would like to unite their estates and pursues the elder sister’s hand in marriage, his relentlessness and refusal to accept that she does not want to wed him puts both sisters in jeopardy.

It’s a story about love, transformation, and a difficult choice, and its carefully crafted writing is a perfect fit for the tale it tells.

Favorite Books Published Before 2025

1. Kushiel’s Legacy #2 and #3 by Jacqueline Carey
(Kushiel’s Chosen and Kushiel’s Avatar)
Read an Excerpt from Kushiel’s Dart (Kushiel’s Legacy #1)

The absolute best book decision I made this year was reading the rest of the first Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy after rereading Kushiel’s Dart from the end of 2024 into the beginning of 2025. Kushiel’s Chosen and Kushiel’s Avatar are easily my favorite books I read this year, and the progression of this series made me appreciate both the first book and Cassiel’s Servant, a companion novel to Kushiel’s Dart told from a different perspective and my 2023 Book of the Year, even more. I think I love the third book in the series the most, but all of these books work together to create one of the best series I’ve read.

These books are epic fantasy set in an alternate version of our past in which a group of people descended from angels follow the message of the one their ancestors came from heaven to protect: “Love as thou wilt.” Phèdre nó Delaunay, the protagonist of this trilogy, is dedicated to one angel as a courtesan and bears the mark of the punisher angel known as Kushiel’s dart. Trained to use her gifts as a spy, she becomes involved in political machinations and big events, and the gods push her to her limits throughout the course of the series (especially in book 3).

I love everything about these books, but most of all, I love the main characters and their journeys. Phèdre is an iconic heroine with her rich voice that captures her intelligence and thirst for knowledge, her deep compassion, and her remarkable inner strength, but though admirable, she’s imperfect and has struggles. I was particularly struck by Carey’s masterful handling of voice throughout these three books and Cassiel’s Servant, not just due to the differences between individuals but the subtle adjustments that showed personal growth from book to book. By the end of the series, Phèdre’s narrative feels more mature, but she still feels like the same person: just an older, more experienced version of herself.

2. The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Read/Listen to an Excerpt

Written in part to shed light on the horrific practice of reform schools and to honor the memory of the author’s great-uncle, who died in one as a teenager, The Reformatory is a chilling standalone historical/horror novel with paranormal elements. Set in 1950s Florida, it follows two Black siblings dealing with the younger being sentenced to six months in a reform school for boys after trying to defend his sister from the unwanted advances of the son of a powerful white man. Robbie’s story focuses on his time in the reform school and what he learns through his ability to see haints, and his sister Gloria’s story follows her efforts to get her brother released.

Though Robbie’s story was faster-paced and had more plot, I appreciated Gloria’s parts just as much. She had so much on her teenage shoulders, dealing with guilt over what happened and striving to free her brother in the absence of her parents (though she did have some help from friends, so she wasn’t completely on her own).

The Reformatory is a compelling story with an ending that kept me on the edge of my seat, and it’s no surprise that it won multiple prestigious awards.

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The Leaning Pile of Books

2025-12-07T17:20:54Z

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature in which I highlight books I got over the last week that sound interesting—old or new, bought or received in the mail for review consideration. Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included, along with series information and the publisher’s book description.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org, and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

One book that I’m excited about showed up in the mail last week, but first, here’s what you may have missed since the last one of these features:

Dominion of the Fallen Cover Reveal — See the covers for the rerelease of Aliette de Bodard’s Dominion of the Fallen trilogy here. (This series includes one of my favorite books of 2017, which won my awards for Best Atmosphere and Best Dragons of the Year.)

On to the latest book on the TBR!

Seasons of Glass & Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar

This collection, which contains 18 short stories and an introduction by the author, will be released on March 24, 2026 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

Many of these are award-winning and award-nominated stories. “Seasons of Glass and Iron” won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for Best Short Story, and both this and “Pockets” were World Fantasy Award finalists. Other acclaimed stories include “Madeleine,” “The Green Book,” and “The Truth About Owls.”

Written over a course of about 15 years, the author’s introduction says that the main thread she found when she looked at these stories together was her love for women.

I’m curious about this one because I enjoyed Amal El-Mohtar’s novella The River Has Roots, a retelling of a murder ballad featuring two sisters and Faerie, as well as the sneak peek at a story from this collection at the end of it (“John Hollowback and the Witch”).

Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” “The Green Book,” “Madeleine,” “The Lonely Sea in the Sky,” “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun,” “The Truth About Owls,” “A Hollow Play,” “Anabasis,” “To Follow the Waves,” “John Hollowback and the Witch,” “Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers,” “Pockets,” and more.

The post The Leaning Pile of Books first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

Dominion of the Fallen Cover Reveal

2025-12-03T17:12:10Z

I am excited to share the covers for the rerelease of the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy by Aliette de Bodard: The House of Shattered Wings, The House of Binding Thorns, and The House of Sundering Flames. These new editions, which have cover art by Tara O’Shea, will be coming out on March 10, 2026.

I’m delighted that these are being republished, particularly since The House of Binding Thorns was one of my favorite books of 2017 (which is probably the best year of books ever for me!). It earned my awards for Best Atmosphere and Best Dragons of the Year, and I wrote the following about it:

The House of Binding Thorns is an incredibly atmospheric work of mythic art with gorgeously written descriptions of its alternate version of Paris lying in ruins, and Aliette de Bodard particularly excelled at capturing the wonder and decay of the dragon kingdom beneath the Seine. It’s both thoughtful and different (in a very good way!) as it follows the struggle for survival in this devastated city populated by fallen angels and other powerful individuals. In particular, I enjoyed exploring the dragon kingdom and reading about Thuan, a dragon posing as a teenager in order to investigate House Hawthorn’s potential involvement in the affairs of his kingdom. (I liked the dragons. A lot.)

Read more about the series and check out the new covers below!

Enter a Paris wrecked by magical cataclysms and the mysterious Houses that hold the city together in this beloved series of fallen angels, devious alchemists, and Vietnamese dragons…

With a deliciously gothic atmosphere, queer characters from across the world, and high intrigue as the various Houses strive for control of the shattered city, the DOMINION OF THE FALLEN trilogy asks ‘what is the price of power and what is the price of peace?’

Incisive, atmospheric, enchanting. These new editions of the award-winning trilogy feature bonus stories in the world of the Fallen and introductions by SFF luminaries Kate Elliott and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Perfect for longtime fans of the series and new readers alike!

The new editions of the FULL TRILOGY are available for preorder now in ebook and paperback, wherever books are sold. Check out book 1 here.

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