Science Fiction & Fantasy

Queen Demon

Murderbot creator Martha Wells made her grand return to fantasy with 2023’s Witch King, and Queen Demon continues the story of Kai, a demon prince who was incapacitated and imprisoned for centuries before finally freeing himself, and must now face a world radically changed in his absence.

The Martian Contingency

By Mary Robinette Kowal

The Lady Astronaut series takes place in an alternate midcentury Earth, where a meteor strike in 1952 radically accelerated the planet’s various space programs, opening the doors for women to play a large part in the exploration of the stars. In the fourth book of the series, humanity has colonized the moon and is about to begin the process on Mars. Trailblazing astronaut Elma York lands on the red planet eager to begin, but soon uncovers troubling hints that there was some sort of disaster during the first expedition to Mars, a disaster that the current authorities seem anxious to cover up.

Cold Eternity

By S.A. Barnes

We loved both of S.A. Barnes’ previous sci-fi horror novels and cannot wait for her next terrifying excursion into the black. Cold Eternity’s setting is terrifying even by Barnes’ high standards: a space barge full of cryogenically frozen people, populated only by one woman on the run and the barge’s creepy AI hologram “hosts.”

The Library at Hellebore

By Cassandra Khaw

With the rise of the dark academia aesthetic, there have been a whole passel of fantasy novels set at magical schools. If anyone can take the trope in a new and terrifying direction, it’s horror author Cassandra Khaw, the bloodthirsty genius behind Nothing But Blackened Teeth and The Dead Take the A Train.

King Sorrow

By Joe Hill

It’s been more than eight years since Joe Hill published a novel, but fans of the Locus and Eisner Award-winning writer can look forward to a fifth full-length work of fiction in 2025. (And for Hill, “full-length” is likely to be at least 500 pages—he is, after all, a son of Stephen King.) While plot details are scant this early on, King Sorrow sounds like a fantasy-horror hybrid, a la Hill’s debut, Horns, as it tells the story of six friends who dabble in the occult and summon something rather unexpected.

A Far Better Thing

By H.G. Parry

We’re big fans here at BookPage HQ of Parry’s joyously nerdy approach to historical fantasy, whether she’s dreaming up a French Revolution but with sorcerers or a World War I fought with faerie magic. A Far Better Thing sounds like a combination of all of Parry’s books to date: faeries, the French Revolution and the classic literature revisionism of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep. In a brilliant spin on A Tale of Two Cities, Parry transforms coincidental lookalikes Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay into a boy kidnapped by faeries and the changeling left in his place, respectively. And as the book opens, the now-grown Sidney is out for revenge.

Written on the Dark

By Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay doesn’t usually write historical fantasy; most of his work is set in fictional worlds. But in every other way that matters, he’s one of the best historical fantasy authors alive. Many of Kay’s fantasies are set in worlds just one step away from our own, exhaustively researched and beautifully realized reimaginings of eras such as Tang Dynasty China or Renaissance Europe, whose separation from our reality allows Kay to comment freely upon our cultural foibles and historical sins. His latest, Written on the Dark, will take place in a world inspired by the chaotic, captivating tapestry of medieval France.

Wearing the Lion

By John Wiswell

John Wiswell’s debut, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, was a lovable and ambitious fantasy romance starring an inhuman monster impossible to not fall for. In his sophomore novel, Wiswell appears to be continuing in that vein: His retelling of the Hercules myth will see the iconic hero caring for the monsters set against him, rather than defeating them. Meanwhile, Hera, the goddess responsible for Hercules’ trials and tribulations, tries to come to terms with her guilt over her actions.

The Staircase in the Woods

By Chuck Wendig

Horror maestro Chuck Wendig’s latest doorstopper feels slightly Stephen King-esque: Five high school friends on a camping trip discover a staircase to nowhere in the middle of the forest. One walks up and never comes down, so when the staircase reappears 20 years later, the four remaining band together to rescue their lost friend from . . . whatever is up there.

Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

By Carissa Broadbent

Before readers get a sequel to Carissa Broadbent’s The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, the author will take a quick detour with this standalone novel. Sylina is a devoted acolyte and assassin of the Goddess of Fate, and her latest assignment is to gain the trust of Atrius, a vampire intent on conquering the kingdom of Glaea—and kill him. As one would expect, this plan hits several snags as Sylina learns more about Atrius and his mysterious past.

Before readers get a sequel to Carissa Broadbent's The Songbird & the Heart of Stone, the author will take a quick detour with this standalone novel. Sylina is a devoted acolyte and assassin of the Goddess of Fate, and her latest assignment is to…

The Ragpicker King

By Cassandra Clare

YA icon Cassandra Clare’s first series for adults picks up right where the first book, Sword Catcher, left off. After a massacre at the palace, Kel Saren, body double to the city-state of Castellane’s crown prince, is trying to hunt down those responsible. Meanwhile, physician Lin Caster is pretending to be the Goddess Reborn, her Ashkari people’s prophesied savior.

Hemlock & Silver

By T. Kingfisher

If you’ve read T. Kingfisher’s Thornhedge, a novella with a particularly inspired take on Sleeping Beauty, you know she does a great fairy-tale retelling. The acclaimed fantasy and horror author’s Hemlock & Silver will be a dark reimagining of Snow White, starring a late Renaissance healer tasked with figuring out which poison is slowly killing the king’s daughter.

A Drop of Corruption

By Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett’s superb new mystery series is best described as Sherlock Holmes in a high-fantasy version of Pacific Rim, but even that comparison doesn’t quite capture the inventive, character-driven cleverness of The Tainted Cup. In the follow-up, eccentric, brilliant sleuth Ana Dolabra and her long-suffering assistant are faced with an even more puzzling case than their first: A treasury officer has disappeared from a heavily guarded government building, even though all the windows and doors were locked.

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