Fantasy Cafe

Anticipated 2026 Speculative Fiction Book Releases, Part 2

2026-09-17T20:16:34Z

This is a sequel to my anticipated 2026 speculative fiction book releases post from January. There are always books released later in the year that I don’t hear about until after I’ve put this annual list together, and this year there were enough of these books that I decided to do a Part 2 with some titles coming out later in 2026 that I’m interested in checking out.

This features 8 books coming out late this year, starting with a couple that just came out. They are ordered by scheduled publication date, and these are US release dates unless otherwise stated.

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

An Empire in the Clouds by Ai Jiang
Release Date: September 8 (UK), September 15 (US/Canada)

This will be Ai Jiang’s first novel, although she has published shorter fiction including the Nebula and Bram Stoker Award–winning horror novella Linghun and the science fantasy novellas in the Natural Engines duology (starting with A Palace Near the Wind).

Like her duology concluded earlier this year, An Empire in the Clouds is science fantasy. I often find settings that blur the lines between fantasy and science fiction compelling, and I also love the sound of the drowning continent and Chinese-inspired world, as well as the drama of family turmoil, betrayal, and secrets.

Riveting and highly inventive Chinese-inspired science-fantasy of a royal family torn apart, painful betrayal and deadly secrets. Set on a drowning continent full of corruption and deception and strange technology this is a richly envisioned and powerful debut novel from the winner of the Bram Stoker® and Nebula Awards.

Long isolated from her family following her parents’ murder, Princess Xīlián of Piāo discovers the corrupt royal advisors are plotting to overthrow and kill her brother, the emperor. Desperately seeking help, she flees from the floating empire of lotuses to the drowning continent of Opera, a place of high tech and near environmental collapse where companies vie to sell a chance at immortality. There Xīlián tracks down her exiled brother Làng to assist in her efforts to disrupt the advisors’ plans and remove them from court.

Also residing on Opera is the outcast, No Face. Abandoned by the empire of Piāo, they plot to destroy those who tore their family apart. When Xīlián is caught and imprisoned and No Face discovers the shocking truth about their past, the two must work together to stop the advisors and unify their two lands or lose everyone they love to flood and revolution.

The Gates of Midnight (The Golem and the Jinni Trilogy #3) by Helene Wecker
Release Date: September 15

The Golem and the Jinni, the Nebula and World Fantasy Award–nominated first book in this trilogy, is just the sort of genre fusion I enjoy with its blend of historical fiction and fantasy. Beautifully written and immersive, it tells the story of a golem and jinni living in New York City around the year 1900 with a focus on immigrant life during that time, in addition to the mythological story of these two characters.

Of course I’m excited for the final book in the series since I also very much enjoyed the sequel, The Hidden Palace. (You can read more about the obstacles Helene Wecker faced when writing her second novel, as well as how the musical Into the Woods helped her consider the questions she wanted to explore and cement its final shape, in a guest post from Women in SF&F Month 2021.)

Helene Wecker will be doing some events for the publication of The Gates of Midnight.

The long-awaited final installment in the award-winning, bestselling Golem and the Jinni trilogy.

At the beginning of The Hidden Palace, the second book in Helene Wecker’s Golem and Jinni trilogy, Ahmad the jinni travels to Syria with the copper flask that holds the captured wizard Yehudah Schaalman. There in the desert he buries the flask for all time… or so he thinks.

In The Gates of Midnight, the riveting conclusion to the saga of the Golem and the Jinni, it’s 1930 and three decades have passed since Schaalman’s defeat. Chava the golem quietly tends to her house and garden in Brooklyn, hoping to create a refuge for other magical beings. Meanwhile, Ahmad has found employment as an architect in Chicago, helping to build its towering skyline above the prairie.

But all is not well in the desert. Schaalman has managed to trick an unsuspecting passerby into digging up the flask, and now it passes from hand to hand as the wizard possesses his victims — first a French soldier traveling to New York, then a small-time mobster — all in an effort to get to Chava, the only one who can release him from his prison.

Meanwhile others are gravitating to New York as well: Ahmad, who has lost his job following the 1929 stock market crash; the mysterious Thomas Beshara, a riveter on the rising Empire State Building, who also has hidden ties to Chava and Ahmad; and Kreindel Altschul, who still grieves her own destroyed golem Yossele. Does the reluctant Kreindel hold the key to saving Chava from Schaalman’s revenge? Will Schaalman succeed in escaping the flask, binding Chava to his will, and re-enslaving Ahmad? Or can they find a way to finally defeat him and free themselves from his power? An earth-shaking finale to the brilliant trilogy.

The Golem and the Jinni trilogy includes:

The Golem and the Jinni
The Hidden Palace
The Gates of Midnight

A Scholar’s Guide to Demonology and Other Dark Arts (Grayne’s Academy Trilogy #1) by Genevieve Cogman
Release Date: October 8 (UK)

Genevieve Cogman’s Invisible Library series is a lot of fun with its competent, adaptable protagonist who visits alternate worlds to procure/steal books for the Library, an organization existing outside of time and space. These are books I turn to when I want something not-too-dense and entertaining, and I enjoy the literary/genre references galore, the delightful narrative voice, and the way the main character takes even the most absurd situations in stride. (For more on the first book in the series, see my review of The Invisible Library.)

From its description, A Scholar’s Guide to Demonology and Other Dark Arts sounds like it may be stylistically comparable with a similar sense of humor. Unfortunately for those of us in the US, it seems to only have a UK release at the moment, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will end up here eventually, just like The Invisible Library did.

For those of you who are in the UK, Genevieve Cogman will be doing an event at the Waterstones in Leeds celebrating her newest book on October 15.

In the start of an original fantasy series, Genevieve Cogman, the author of the bestselling The Invisible Library, welcomes you to Graynes, a magical school for demon-summoning. This is St Trinian’s meets the legend of Faust.

Philomela once enjoyed the carefree life of a Cambridge Classics PhD – until her father’s gambling debts forced her to trade prestigious academia for a job on the windswept Yorkshire Moors.

Graynes, an isolated all-girls school, offers a quiet – if terribly damp – lifeline. As the new Latin mistress, Phil expects nothing more taxing than dreary weather and making dead languages interesting. Instead, she finds unsettlingly eccentric staff, frankly terrifying schoolgirl pranks . . . and a demonic summoning circle in the cellar.

For Graynes, it turns out, is no ordinary school. But the training ground for the Queen’s elite demonologists.

Guarding the realm from the forces of hell was certainly not on the job description. But as Phil is plunged into a world of dark arts, talking familiars (and many custard creams), she uncovers a sinister plot that threatens not just the school, but the fate of England itself . . .

An Auction of Souls (An Auction of Souls Duology #1) by Amber Chen
Release Date: October 20

Amber Chen’s latest young adult novel caught my eye with its striking cover art by Kuri Huang, designed by Lily K. Qian and Ellice M. Lee. It also piqued my curiosity because the spirits and journey involved made me think of two of my favorite somewhat recent young adult books, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh and A Thousand Steps Into Night by Traci Chee. (Coincidentally, these were both among my favorite 2022 book releases!)

A start to a new duology from Of Jade and Dragons author Amber Chen, perfect for fans of The Scorpion and the Night Blossom and A Forgery of Fate!

Meng Lingxi and her grandmother run a legendary auction house, Meng Wu—the House of Dreams. But when a mysterious traveler arrives bearing a fragment of a soul, all that Lingxi knows changes in an instant. Her grandmother mysteriously vanishes, and restless spirits descend upon Meng Wu.

Then two unlikely allies—Yan Jun and Yan Shan, guardians of hell itself—come to Lingxi’s aid, revealing a shocking secret about the only home she’s ever known: Meng Wu sits upon the gateway to hell, and her grandmother serves the god of the underworld himself.

Soon, Lingxi joins her two companions on a perilous journey to find her grandmother and unravel the mystery behind the dangerous fragment of soul. Along the way, the trio must outsmart humans, gods, and demons alike who try to stand in their way—before hell is let loose on earth.

The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories by Alix E. Harrow
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: October 20

I adored Alix E. Harrow’s novels The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Everlasting, particularly because of their beautiful writing and artistry, so I’m interested in checking out her upcoming short fiction collection. Given that I’ve heard that “The Six Deaths of the Saint” shares some similarities with The Everlasting, I’m especially curious about that one.

Dive into a dazzling collection of short fiction from Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House.

These are stories about the past as it wasn’t quite, but might have been—or could still be.

These are stories about dreamers and liars and lovers and ghosts; people just like you.

These are stories about places the world has seen, and some that hide just beyond the periphery of possibility.

Most of all, these are stories for anyone who ever wanted more.

What’s a legend, except a history told slantwise?

The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories presents the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” as well as five all-new stories. The collection also includes the author’s preferred text of previously published stories “The Long Way Up”, “Roadside Attraction”, “Mr. Death”, “The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly”, “The Sycamore and the Sybil”, “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, “The Whisper in the Weld”, “Dustbaby”, and Amazon Original short stories, “The Six Deaths of the Saint” and “The Knight and the Butcherbird”.

The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi
Release Date: October 27

A starred review of The Fist of Memory on Publishers Weekly calls it an “expertly executed epic,” saying “Talabi pours a heady cocktail of gripping action, fraught moral and philosophical dilemmas, mysticism, and hard science.”

I love epics and worlds that have elements of both the science fictional and the fantastical, but most of all, I love stories that explore moral and philosophical dilemmas so I’m excited about this one!

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

A hard science-fiction novel featuring an assassin-for-hire, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer, this fast-paced thriller is perfect for fans of Arrival

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil.

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as “Baba,” it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden
Read an Excerpt
Release Date: November 10

Gracie Marsden’s debut novel is the only book on this list that I’ve already read, and it’s one of my two favorite 2026 releases. I really enjoyed how it intertwined two different timelines, the fairy-tale-like parts of the story with jing, and the mix of tragedy with a bit of sweetness to make it less bitter.

One aspect I loved about it is summed up in the starred review of Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice on Publishers Weekly: “Marsden luxuriates in moral grayness, refusing to let her heroine be simply good or simply ruined.”

A young woman makes a bargain with a shapeshifting demon who promises her power, if she will give up love—a painful price that sets her on a dark journey in this historical fantasy inspired by Taiwanese myth

Eleventh century Kangzhu. In a small village, far from the political conflicts of the royal dynasty, a too-young Yu’er is sold off to be married at the word of a jing, a shapeshifting-demon who prophesizes that her parents will thus gain wealth beyond their imagination. Her new husband Xiaozhu is, like her, barely more than a child himself—but he’s kind, and, over the years, Yu’er heals as they build a home together. They become allies, then friends, then lovers.

Until misfortune befalls them, once again at the hands of a demon. They’re left destitute and estranged. Reeling from loss, and determined to never leave her fate in another’s hands, Yu’er decides to strike her own bargain with a jing: she will have all the agency and riches she desires. She just has to leave Xiaozhu and their home together, forever—a price that will cost her more than she then understands.

Yu’er’s choice sets off a saga that will lead her to the heart of the royal court, and bring her more power than she ever dreamed of, but may kill her humanity along the way, in this sweeping tale of love, revenge, and redemption.

The Empire Burns at Dawn (The Ages of Alifan Trilogy #1) by Fatima Al-Shemary
Release Date: December 1

This debut novel about sisters sounds rather intriguing, promising political schemes, romance, dark magic, and awakening gods!

The Arabian Nights meets romantasy in this debut about two sisters sent on separate missions to help their father seize power, but dark magic is brewing across the land, and they might be pawns in a much larger game…

The Adani sisters have never been free. Their father has been scheming for years to seize the corrupt Shah’s throne, and he’ll use his daughters to do it.

Dunya has carved her path as a warrior. On her father’s orders, she travels to a distant desert kingdom to secure an alliance. When she learns she was sent not as a diplomat but as a bride for the formidable Bezouin King, she refuses to submit to the arrangement, even if it means she might never return home. The strangely gentle ruler offers her a place in his court, but their friendship quickly turns into an intense connection that Dunya isn’t prepared for.

Shayda is sent straight into the viper’s pit. Married off to the ailing Shah himself, her mission is to uncover the court’s secrets and then get rid of him. But as her father and his supporters conspire against the Shah, a violent uprising looms, and Shayda must find a way to ensure her own survival. In secret, she seeks the help of the Daggers—a rebel group at war with the ruling class—and their ruthless leader. Danger lurks around every corner, but Shayda is willing to risk everything for a chance at freedom.

As Dunya and Shayda battle their enemies, their circumstances, and their own hearts, they discover a resurgence of dark magic spreading throughout the land. A pantheon of ancient gods awakens once again, and the sisters must stop them, or see their worlds plunged into darkness.

The post Anticipated 2026 Speculative Fiction Book Releases, Part 2 first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

The Leaning Pile of Books

2026-09-06T19:48:31Z

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.

Two books I want to read arrived last week, but I’m only covering the first of those today because I already included the other in a post I have in progress. Hopefully that will be going up soon!

Habila by Wayétu Moore

Wayétu Moore’s second novel will be published on January 12, 2027 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

I was especially intrigued by Habila after reading about the type of character Wayétu Moore said she wanted to write in the cover reveal in People:

“For my sophomore novel, I asked myself: What happens when a heroine does not want to be good? What wars would she wage, and against whom, when she taps into the wholeness of her being?”

Its description also mentioned other elements that sounded interesting to me, such as its inspiration from the legend of Mami Wata, its inclusion of power that comes with a cost, and its exploration of themes related to womanhood and identity.

From the acclaimed author of She Would Be King, a dazzling and daring work of magical realism that weaves through the lives of a Liberian immigrant family and the water goddess who haunts them

In this ambitious new novel, the bestselling and prize-winning writer Wayétu Moore delivers us into the lives of a young girl, Melanctha, and her family amid the loss of their patriarch, Tokpa. They relocate from Liberia to the backwater town of Hunt, Texas, a land that proves hostile to them—until one day, a school bully pushes Melanctha into a lake, and she finds that she can breathe underwater. Melanctha discovers that her newfound ability comes from Habila, a gorgeous, beguiling half woman, half sea deity who bestows on her a gift: a comb that, if touched, can lure people into the water and make them disappear for good.

But Melanctha’s power has not come without a price. Habila has languished alone for millennia, blaming men for her loneliness. She harbors a hatred so potent that she has committed her existence to ridding the world of them. As Melanctha’s ties to Habila deepen, a family mystery unravels, and Melanctha learns that the siren may have secrets, too.

Inspired by the African legend of Mami Wata, Habila is a kaleidoscopic tale tracing a family and a woman through the years as they navigate supernatural forces and long-buried truths. In lush, lyrical prose, Moore crafts an elegant story that probes the corners of womanhood and motherhood, immigrant identity, and the legacies wrought by men who take but never give back.

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August 2026 Book Recommendations Video

2026-08-21T19:41:04Z

If you missed the third of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can watch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction books, 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!)

This time, I highlighted the following books (links go to reviews):

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, a standalone novel with poetry magic that involves a poem that can kill (and my favorite 2026 book release!)
Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman-Tell, a fairy-tale-like story about the relationship between a sentient being made of flowers and her creator, told through both perspectives, that explores autonomy and consent
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip, a beautifully written story about a mage pulled into human affairs after a life of isolation with magical beasts for company (and one of my favorite books of all time!)
The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin, a novel set in a city-state where peace and order are maintained through dream magic
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, the first book in an eight-book series about a competent heroine who procures/steals books from various alternate worlds for an organization that exists outside of time and space known as the Library
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, a blend of historical fiction and folklore set in fourteenth century Russia with a heroine who can see spirits

(The first two books are 2026 releases that I have not yet reviewed. I planned to write about them after I had more time after this April’s Women in SF&F Month event and then life things kind of happened.)

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 November 19. You can register for the next virtual book recommendations event here.

All event videos can be found here.

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August 2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recommendations

2026-08-18T18:36:53Z

This is just a heads up that I’ll be doing another virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts this Thursday evening. While last year’s recommendation events included both fantasy and science fiction books, I’m focusing on fantasy this year and author Elizabeth Bear is covering science fiction. (The chat she did last week left me very intrigued by Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler!)

I’ll be sharing these fantasy book recommendations on Zoom from 6:30 to 7:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, August 20, and if you want to join us live next week, you can register here.

These book recommendation events are quarterly on the third Thursday of the month, and the next one after this will be in November.

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 the previous recommendations event videos can be seen at the following links:

2025 (Both Fantasy and Science Fiction Recommendations)
2026 (Fantasy Recommendations)
- February 2026
- May 2026

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

Review of Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni

2026-08-13T17:19:57Z

Deathbringer
by Sonia Tagliareni
432pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 4/10
LibraryThing Rating: 3.8/5
Goodreads Rating: 3.67/5

Book Description:

For fans of Naomi Novik and Kerri Maniscalco, “a slow-burn dark academia filled with delicious yearning, dripping with atmosphere, and a compelling mystery” (Ellis Hunter, author of Blood Bound) 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.

Everything about Sylas Archyr feels like a sin.

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.

There haven’t been many fantasy romance books that have managed to catch my eye this year, but Sonia Tagliareni’s debut novel, Deathbringer, did since its description mentioned several elements that intrigued me: dark academia, death magic, poison magic involving snakes, and enemies who discover they might not actually hate each other after all once they’re forced to work together. Furthermore, the author cited Viola as a softer heroine, which is the same type of character as some of those who have stuck with me the most (such as Phèdre from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy books, Mehr from Tasha Suri’s Empire of Sand, and Amani from Somaiya Daud’s Mirage).

Unfortunately, I didn’t think Deathbringer was a good book, but at the same time, it was entertaining enough that I actually finished it, which is more than I can say for a lot of books. It worked in the sense that I needed to read something that moved fairly quickly without being overly complex at the time due to illness, and there were promising aspects, like the murder mystery that involved digging into the story of the previous generation and the academy’s past. (It’s possible that would have made a more engaging novel.) I also liked that the House of Poison used magical snakes for both killing and healing, but that had more to do with snakes being neat and underutilized in fantasy than this system’s implementation. In general, I thought some of the ideas that went into Deathbringer had potential but ended up feeling like everything about it could have been executed so much better, especially the worldbuilding and character development.

This is one of those fantasy books that has a lot of different types of magic and explanations about how they work and differ, and it never really gelled for me. Maybe this is in part because I read it when I wasn’t feeling well, but the specifics felt like they were there because they sounded neat or served the plot rather than because they fit (like magical snake venom conveniently functioning as birth control for some reason).

In particular, I found the setting puzzling. Each chapter is preceded by a date with most of the story occurring from late November to early December 1939, which makes it feel like it’s supposed to be historical fantasy set in an alternate version of our world. Yet there is nothing that indicates this is not set in a semi-modern secondary world other than the fact that it uses a familiar calendar. Perhaps that’s just because the first book in this trilogy is somewhat limited in scope given that it’s almost completely set in the academy with just a bit of the beginning showing Viola’s hometown, but it seemed odd to me that such a basic aspect of the world was left murky. It ended up seeming like these dates were used just to show that not much time passes throughout this story’s events without putting thought into why they were being used and precisely what this meant in context of this world.

The characters also seemed to serve the plot rather than behaving like believable people. There were times they reached the right, not-so-obvious conclusion extraordinarily quickly during the course of their investigations, but then they took a long time to figure out something incredibly obvious that was waiting for a Big Reveal closer to the end. Though this was my biggest problem with the characterization, the romance also felt more like an author coaxing two people together than one that was given room to breathe and unfold naturally.

The story is narrated from the first-person present tense perspective of both main characters, Viola (who hates her death magic) and Sylas (who also hates her death magic). Their dynamic had potential for a compelling romance arc with Sylas coming to admire Viola’s heart and resolve despite his prejudice against death mages like the one who killed his mother, but it seemed too one-sided since Viola mainly seemed pushed toward Sylas because he was there, he was hot, and she didn’t really have anyone else. While there are certainly times he’s there for her, the way he vacillated between appreciating her and being unsure whether he could trust her or forgive her for something she didn’t even do came across as indecisive rather than making for an interesting situation where he was in conflict with himself—and he certainly did not seem like an equal match for Viola, who deserved better than that. Their romance is not at all a slow burn since they reach the point where they are so in love they’re ready to do anything for each other in the course of something like two to three weeks, so even aside from that, it was far too rushed for my taste.

In some ways, I feel like I should be rating Deathbringer lower than I am since I ended up feeling like it was a bit of a mess that didn’t live up to its potential once I finished it, but I also think it deserves some credit for keeping me interested enough to actually read the entire book. Although it didn’t make me want to continue the series, I leave books unfinished far more than I used to so I appreciate that the idea of magical snakes and curiosity about the past behind the murders kept me reading (even if I was disappointed in the lack of dark academic aspects and depth in the end).

My Rating: 4/10

Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the publisher.

Read or Listen to a Sample from Deathbringer

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The Leaning Pile of Books

2026-07-05T19:56:58Z

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

It’s been quiet around here due to some things going on, but a book that sounds rather intriguing arrived in the mail last week!

Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice by Gracie Marsden

This adult fantasy debut novel will be released on November 10 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

The Penguin Random House website has an excerpt from Bones of Jade, Flesh Like Ice.

I love the sound of this: Taiwanese myth–inspired historical fantasy that follows a darker/morally gray character pursuing power. It would have been on my anticipated 2026 speculative fiction book releases list if I’d known about it at the time!

“Scintillates with power, sacrifice, and sisterhood.” —Shen Tao, nationally bestselling author of The Poet Empress

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The Leaning Pile of Books

2026-05-24T20:37:46Z

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

It’s been a little while since the last one of these, partially because I got new books when other things were going on (like my birthday-related gifts in April) and there have been a lot of weeks there just hasn’t been anything new. But I added a few books to the TBR over the last couple weeks and thought I’d highlight those that haven’t already been featured this year (like A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo and The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed, which I’ve been hearing such great things about).

Since this is the first of these I’ve done this year, I’m not going to link to every single post since the last one of these features, but here are a few highlights in case you missed any of them:

On to the newest additions to the TBR!

The Salt King by Natasha Pulley

This novel by Natasha Pulley, whose debut The Watchmaker of Filigree Street was a Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel, will be released on August 18 (hardcover, ebook, audiobook).

I’ve not read any of her books before (although I now also have my eye on The Hymn to Dionysus), but this sounded intriguing to me given that it sounds like it blends multiple genres and focuses on some interesting themes, like the power of myth.

An apocalyptic novel about belief, religion, and the power of myth that blends the gripping, end-of-the-world storytelling of The Passage with the biting wit and epic queer romance that makes Natasha Pulley’s books “delightful” (The Washington Post).

Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine-the Salt King-and the mythology that killed his whole family.

When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town’s gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures-and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.”

Avelyn and Jericho team up to protect the world from the salt light-but they may already be too late: strange happenings are occurring at mines all around the world. At an archaeological dig on the Dead Sea, electrical devices froth salt; at another salt mine in Russia, a KGB officer finds the bodies of five tourists who seem to have turned to salt; and at the huge salt works at Wieliczska in Poland, all communication is lost, and rumors circulate of total annihilation.

As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe-and whether his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.

The Sourdough Compendium: Dark and Dangerous Fairy Tales by A. G. Slatter

This collection of stories set in the Sourdough universe will be released in trade paperback and ebook. It’s scheduled for publication on June 9 in the US and UK and June 16 in Australia and New Zealand.

This edition is a compilation of three previous collections, starting with the World Fantasy Award–winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, which is then followed by Sourdough and Other Stories and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales. They are in that order instead of publication order since the first of those was a set of prequel stories, according to the author’s note in the beginning of this volume.

I’ve been interested in discovering the Sourdough universe for a while, and although I tend to read more novels than short stories, the short fiction collections felt like the right place to start to me for some reason. (I do have a particular fondness for dark and dangerous fairy tales; after all, one of the very first books I remember reading and loving was a Hans Christian Andersen collection.) Given that the Sourdough collections all seemed to be out of print when I looked for them at one point, I was thrilled to learn they were being rereleased in one volume.

A. G. Slatter was also here shortly after the release of one of her novels set in this universe, The Crimson Road, during Women in SF&F Month 2025 with an essay about writing stories of various lengths titled “The Long and the Short of It.”

Award-winning stories from the world of All the Murmuring Bones and The Briar Book of the Dead, this is a compendium of fantastic tales from the dark gothic heart of the Sourdough universe. Witches, assassins and pirates are brought to life in immersive, sinister and magical prose.

Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on an old lover; the Little Sisters of St Florian devote their lives to knowledge good and bad; a dying forest god is reinvigorated; mermaids and seamstresses make dangerous bargains; changelings bring havoc. Saints slumber, hind-girls dance across the countryside, bears show their true colours, and the fate of the upper and lower worlds rests on the whim of a volatile plague maiden…

Comprised of three collections (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales) these award-winning storms form much of the foundational mythology for Slatter’s dark fairy-tale gothic Sourdough novels. Exquisite, compelling and rich with unforgettable characters, these tales layer and intertwine in the dextrous hands of a master storyteller.

Everybody’s Perfect by Jo Walton

Jo Walton’s next novel, set in a fantasy version of Venice, will be released on June 30 (hardcover, ebook).

The publisher’s website has an excerpt from Everybody’s Perfect, although the formatting is a bit off since all the paragraphs seem to run together. (I tried to find another sample, but that’s the only one I could find!)

This sounds mythical and compelling, and I’ve been meaning to read more by Walton since I very much enjoyed her World Fantasy Award–winning novel Tooth and Claw with its very proper flesh-eating dragons in a Victorian Era setting.

Piranesi meets Swordspoint in an elegant relay race through fantasy Venice from Hugo award-winning author Jo Walton

The Serenissima is built from mist and belief, a mythical shadow sister to Venice and crossroads of the nine worlds.

When a laborer called Tiry has a dream that Serenissima will have a doge, and that they will marry the sea, he tells it to a fortune teller named Khadsha. She tells her apprentice, a gondolier called Taddeo, who tells a cop named Gom, who’s heard it from five people this morning already. And by that point, it’s already settled into the bones of the Serenissima, more than half-fated.

Everybody’s Perfect is a gentle, shifting, structurally inventive narrative of startling beauty that will make you rethink everything you think you know about fantasy.

A Reaper at the Gates (An Ember in the Ashes #3) by Sabaa Tahir

Technically, I recently got both this and A Sky Beyond the Storm, the fourth and last book in this New York Times bestselling YA fantasy series.

It’s been a stressful month or so, and when that first started, I was looking for something fun to read. After scouring my bookshelves, I decided to finally pick up An Ember in the Ashes (which I have had for some time seeing as I got for Christmas 2017).

I’m a mood reader, and this is why I like having so many books I haven’t read to choose from at any time. This was a case of the right book at the right time for me, and it ended up being just what I needed: something entertaining and not too complicated, meaning I could just get lost in it and read. Shortly after that, I bought and read the second book in the series, and I just went ahead and got the last couple of books once I finished that one.

It’s bothering me that it was literally impossible for me to get copies matching my edition of the first book in the series since the cover styles changed after the second book came out, but at least I could still get them all in hardcover… although the newer editions are not even the same size hardcover, which is also annoying me.

BOOK THREE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • An Entertainment Weekly Summer Reads pick!

“The perfect summer read.” –The Washington Post

The beloved and bestselling fantasy series that “glows, burns, and smolders.” (Huffington Post).

Beyond the Martial Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger.

Helene Aquilla, the Blood Shrike, is desperate to protect her sister’s life and the lives of everyone in the Empire. But she knows that danger lurks on all sides: Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable and violent, while Keris Veturia, the ruthless Commandant, capitalizes on the Emperor’s volatility to grow her own power–regardless of the carnage she leaves in her path.

Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But in the hunt to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would help her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she’d have to fight.

And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that demands his complete surrender–even if that means abandoning the woman he loves.

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

May 2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recommendations

2026-05-22T21:08:45Z

If you missed the second of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can watch 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!)

This time, I highlighted the following:

A Song of Legends Lost by M. H. Ayinde, an epic science fantasy novel with complex worldbuilding mysteries and several main characters from a variety of backgrounds
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan, a fictional memoir about a woman who became a famous dragon naturalist when this had been a male-only field in her culture
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, an epic fantasy novel set in an alternate historical version of our world (also the first book in one of my absolute favorite series)
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, a high fantasy novel about choice and connection with magic based on Indian classical dance and Hinduism (and one of my favorite books released in the last decade or so)

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 August 20. You can register for the next virtual book recommendations event here.

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

May 2026 Virtual Fantasy Book Recommendations

2026-05-14T16:08:31Z

One week from today, I’ll be doing the second quarterly virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts of this year. If you followed last year’s recommendations, both fantasy and science fiction books were covered. This year, I’m focusing on fantasy books and author Elizabeth Bear is covering science fiction recommendations. (She just did her second recommendation event last night, which made me want to start a couple of books on my shelves I still need to read!)

I’ll be sharing these fantasy book recommendations on Zoom from 6:30 to 7:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, May 21, and if you want to join us live next week, you can register here.

2025 (Both Fantasy and Science Fiction Recommendations)
2026 (Fantasy Recommendations)
- February 2026

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

Review of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

2026-05-06T16:39:59Z

To Shape a Dragon's Breath
by Moniquill Blackgoose
528pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 8/10
LibraryThing Rating: 4.18/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.1/5

As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, the first book in a trilogy set in an alternate historical version of our world with dragons, was one of my favorite books published in 2023. Since I wanted to refresh my memory before reading To Ride a Rising Storm, the second book in the Nampeshiweisit trilogy that was released earlier this year, I decided to reread it and write a lengthier review than my previous best-of-the-year summary before continuing the series.

Fortunately, I found To Shape a Dragon’s Breath every bit as delightful as it was the first time I read it. Once again, I was a bit puzzled by just how much I enjoyed it since I tend to gravitate toward books with complex, messy characters dealing with internal conflicts, and this novel’s protagonist is very much the opposite: someone with a strong sense of self who comes close to being a bit too neat and perfect at times, though I felt this fit her background and character since she doesn’t quite cross the line into unbelievably faultless. I suppose my love of academic settings, fantasy of manners, and characters who call out ridiculous social rules supersedes my love of deeply flawed protagonists when handled as well as Blackgoose did in her award-winning debut novel—and it actually ended up being refreshing to follow a self-assured character helping those who are still trying to figure out who they want to be in this case.

Though published through an adult speculative fiction imprint, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath has received recognition in both young adult and adult fiction award categories. It tells the story of a young Indigenous woman who attends a college-like academy for people bonded with dragons in an alternate 1840s North America (set in the New England region, namely versions of Rhode Island and Massachusetts). The novel opens with the protagonist, Anequs, becoming the first person from her island to see a dragon in ages, prompting her to discover an egg that was left behind. After this egg hatches, Anequs also becomes the only one of her people in living memory chosen to be a dragon’s companion. Since much of her people’s knowledge about dragons and their bonds with humans has been lost over time, Anequs ends up deciding it is her duty to go to a dragon academy run by the colonizers on the mainland after her dragon accidentally burns her younger sister when frightened.

Life at the academy is a challenge for Anequs, between navigating a different culture with different social rules and learning some unfamiliar subjects, particularly the chemistry-based system that allows someone to shape a dragon’s breath into various elements. Worst of all, many people do not want Anequs at the academy, and her studies are made more difficult by several people—ranging from her fellow students to her teachers to powerful politicians—who feel threatened by the idea of Indigenous people having dragons, particularly now that there are a grand total of two of them. But Anequs is determined to succeed: if she cannot prove she’s capable of shaping her dragon’s breath and preventing her from being a danger to others, the cost will be her dragon’s life.

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath has collected several awards and accolades since its 2023 publication—including winning the Andre Norton and Lodestar Awards and being nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel—and it’s easy to see why. I found it riveting from start to finish, and I loved the world, the oral stories sprinkled throughout, and the school setting. Although I prefer stories with more richly developed characters, felt conflicts were often resolved too quickly and easily, and thought major events toward the end were not given the weight they deserved, I found this to be an engaging, delightful book that stood out more than most of those I read.

I can’t comment on the next book in the series yet, but this novel is somewhat small in scale, focusing on a localized region containing a couple of islands and the area on the mainland relatively close to the school. The stakes are not the fate of the world, and although a lot of it feels low stakes given the heavy focus on classes and social gatherings, the stakes certainly aren’t low for Anequs and her dragon. While dragons are sacred to Anequs and her people, she discovers that the Anglish people who came across the ocean kill dragons they consider feral and have even put them to death because they don’t like their choice of companion. These dragons are wild animals that can be a danger to people, and although they form a bond with a human, they aren’t the type who use language or communicate clearly. The dragon and their human companion can only sense what the other is feeling in the moment, such as when Anequs picks up on the fear that makes her dragon loose the breath that hurts her sister early in the novel—and it’s vital for these creatures’ safety and longevity that they learn to refrain from actions making them seem too prone to violence.

In this version of the world, there never was a Roman Empire. The people who colonized North America followed Scandinavian culture and traditions, and though the names have been slightly altered, many of their stories and holidays are steeped in Norse mythology. In addition to containing alternate history, there are also speculative elements in the form of steampunk/Gaslamp fantasy technology like automated horses, chairs with crab-like legs for those unable to walk, and various inventions powered by the dragon’s breath that can be broken down and shaped into different elements.

Despite these speculative and historical changes, the Anglish people in this setting did carry over the hierarchical views and social rules associated with the Victorian era. Part of what I found compelling about this book was being immersed in this society while getting the first-person perspective of an outsider who didn’t grow up with these rules and often challenges them. Anequs doesn’t see any reason she can’t befriend a maid or consider courting a woman (or a man and a woman at the same time), and it doesn’t make sense to her that some things are “for ladies” and others are “for gentlemen.” But as much as I enjoyed her character, I sometimes wondered if maybe she seemed a little too wise and together, given she always seemed to have all the answers and not one drop of uncertainty. Although I can’t think of many qualities she has that would be considered flaws, I feel like she’s just imperfect enough to be realistic. There are times she speaks her mind when it may not be advisable, even if she does tend to be in the right and being outspoken doesn’t get her into as much trouble as one might expect. Given that, the main factor that convinced me was a moment when she realized she’d previously been wrong to dismiss her roommate’s offer of help as not being useful after she’d gained a better understanding of Anglish society.

After putting some thought into it, I ended up deciding that being wise and together fit her character. Although she’s only fifteen years old at the start of the novel, she’s been an adult in her culture for two years at that point. As the older daughter in a family with four children, she’s also been raised to understand how to run a household with the expectation that she’ll take her mother’s place one day, and she’s helped look after her two younger siblings. Her reactions to life among the Anglish showed she was raised in a culture that valued respecting others and allowing them to be who they were so long as they weren’t hurting anyone else. Starting from this point earlier in life seems like it would make it easier to be self-assured and secure in oneself at a younger age, and she wouldn’t have to unpack all the social baggage so many accumulate and end up contending with when they leave home for the first time.

With these qualities, Anequs is the person in the friend group who is always giving good advice, trying to help, and supporting everyone else. The other students and young people around her have more internal conflicts and struggles with figuring out who they want to be and how they can exist in their society. Liberty, an indentured maid with a talent for sewing whom Anequs befriends and crushes on, has had to hide that she is only attracted to other women. Theod, the other Indigenous student (whom Anequs also crushes on), only knows what the Anglish have told him of his heritage, having been raised among them after his parents were executed when he was a child, and is frustrated by Anequs’s refusal to behave as expected and try to blend in. Sander, who becomes Anequs’s friend after he helps her in one of their classes, is often treated poorly and underestimated due to his autism. Marta, Anequs’s roommate as the only other young woman attending the academy, has a lot of the aforementioned social baggage but seems to have a good heart underneath it all—if only she can learn to follow it instead of pursuing status and propriety, which she feels is even more necessary given she’s going into a male-dominated field and is therefore a bit of an oddity.

I enjoyed all these characters and their dynamics with Anequs, and I also appreciated the variety of adults at the academy. Its headmistress is the type who has often been the protagonist in a fantasy novel: she disguised herself as a boy to gain access to the male field of dragoneering when she was young, eventually becoming the first woman in the field. Though she has some clashes with Anequs due to her overall Anglishness and insistence on “proper” behavior—in large part because she realizes there are many people looking for excuses to make her stop doing unusual things like teaching people who aren’t young white men—she’s also advised by the softhearted matron of the house who tends to be sympathetic to the students. The professors range from one who actively tries to sabotage Anequs’s education to one who supports her by showing that she knows a lot more about natural philosophy than she thinks she does when starting his class. Most of the others are between those two: it’s common for them to do things like show surprise at Anequs’s knowledge or make uncomfortable comments related to her people and culture, but they don’t seem to be trying to make her studies any more difficult than they’re supposed to be.

As much as I enjoyed the dragons and the scholastic setting, I found the alternate world and the mythological stories covering subjects like how one of Anequs’s people became the first to bond with a dragon stood out more (and as previously mentioned, I love fantasy of manners). Yet in the end, what I found most memorable was Anequs herself: like many characters in this novel, she was shaped by her background and circumstances, and she showed what formidable strength can come from growing up among those who value community and acceptance. I look forward to reading more about her and seeing where her story goes next in To Ride a Rising Storm.

My Rating: 8/10

Where I got my reading copy: Finished copy from the publisher.

Read/Listen to a Sample from To Shape a Dragon’s Breath

Read Moniquill Blackgoose’s 2023 Women in SF&F Month Essay

The post Review of To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.