Fantasy and science fiction are go-to genre’s for many, but with such a large variety, it can be near impossible to choose.. From witches and wizards, to a land far away filled with creatures, or perhaps a space station where many members of the human race now live. Well, here’s some top picks from this month’s new releases for you to cast your eye over and then head to your bookstore so you can bury your nose in one of these intriguing reads!
Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you have read or will be reading one!
From a Certain Point of View (Star Wars Disney Canon Novel) | Goodreads
In celebration of Star Wars’ 40th anniversary, it’s time to shine the spotlight on those unsung weirdos, heroes, and villains with a unique, new anthology. Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View will bring together more than 40 authors for 40 stories. Each will be told from the perspective of background characters of A New Hope — from X-wing pilots who helped Luke destroy the Death Star to the stormtroopers who never quite could find the droids they were looking for.
The Two of Swords, Volume 1 by K.J. Parker | Goodreads
A soldier with a gift for archery. A woman who kills without care. Two brothers, both unbeatable generals, now fighting for opposing armies. No-one in the vast and once glorious United Empire remains untouched by the rift between East and West, and the war has been fought for as long as anyone can remember. Some still survive who know how it was started, but no-one knows how it will end.
Children of the Fleet by Orson Scott Card | Goodreads
Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies. Dabeet Ochoa is a very smart kid. Top of his class in every school. But he doesn’t think he has a chance at Fleet School, because he has no connections to the Fleet. That he knows of. At least until the day that Colonel Graff arrives at his school for an interview.
Mageborn by Stephen Aryan | Goodreads
It’s been ten years since the battlemage war, where thousands died as mages sundered the earth and split the sky. Habreel believes eradicating magic is the only way to ensure a lasting peace. He will do anything to achieve his goal, even if it means murdering every child born with the ability. As deaths involving magic increase and the seat of magical learning – the Red Tower – falls under suspicion, two students and one lawbringer must do everything they can to combat Habreel and his followers, before magic disappears from the world for good.
La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman | Goodreads
The companion series to the His Dark Materials trilogy follows eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta. He lives with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames (which Malcolm navigates often using his beloved canoe, a boat by the name of La Belle Sauvage) is the Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a guest with them, a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua . . .
The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss | Goodreads
This deluxe, illustrated edition celebrates the tenth anniversary of the New York Times-bestselling series, The Kingkiller Chronicle, a masterful epic fantasy saga that has inspired readers worldwide. Featuring more than 50 pages of additional content, including illustrations, an updated world map, pronunciation guide, a new author’s note, and more.
Strange Weather by Joe Hill | Goodreads
A collection of four chilling novels: In “Snapshot”, a Silicon Valley adolescent finds himself threatened by a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap; “Aloft” follows a young man take to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud; “Rain” sees the clouds open up in a downpour of nails; and “Loaded” finds a mall security guard prevent a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement, until he unravels…
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Goodreads
Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle among high society. Under the tutelage of the beautiful but cold Valérie Beaulieu, she hopes to find a suitable husband. However, the haphazard manifestations of Nina’s telekinetic powers make her the subject of malicious gossip. Yet dazzling telekinetic performer and outsider Hector Auvray sees Nina’s powers as a gift, and he teaches her how to hone and control them. As they spend more and more time together, Nina falls in love and believes she’s found the great romance that she’s always dreamed of, but Hector’s courtship of Nina is deceptive.
The Genius Plague by David Walton | Goodreads
What if the pandemic you thought would kill you made you more intelligent instead? In the Amazon jungle, a disease is spreading. To those who survive, it grants enhanced communication, memory, and pattern recognition. But the miracle may be the sinister survival mechanism of a fungal organism, manipulating the infected into serving it. Paul Johns, a mycologist, is convinced the fungal host is the next stage of human evolution, while his brother Neil, an analyst at the NSA, is committed to its destruction. Is the human race the master in this symbiotic relationship, or are we becoming the pawns of a subtly dominating and utterly alien intelligence?
The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand | Goodreads
On Christmas Eve five years ago, Holly was visited by three ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she’d become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways, but she died instead. Now she’s stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge–as the latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable, but this year, everything is about to change. . . .
A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne | Goodreads
In the city of Pelemyn, Fintan the bard takes to the stage to tell what really happened the night the giants came… From the east came the Bone Giants, from the south, the fire-wielding Hathrim – an invasion that sparked war across the six nations of Teldwen. The kingdom’s only hope is the discovery of a new form of magic that calls the world’s wondrous beasts to fight by the side of humankind.
The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear | Goodreads
The Gage is a brass automaton created by a wizard of Messaline around the core of a human being. His wizard is long dead, and he works as a mercenary. He is carrying a message from a the most powerful sorcerer of Messaline to the Rajni of the Lotus Kingdom. With him is The Dead Man, a bitter survivor of the body guard of the deposed Uthman Caliphate, protecting the message and the Gage. They are friends, of a peculiar sort. They are walking into a dynastic war between the rulers of the shattered bits of a once great Empire.
