Hi, Marie and Alyc! Welcome back! What have you both been up to since we last spoke for the release of The Mask of Mirrors?

Marie: We finished out the Rook & Rose trilogy with The Liar’s Knot and Labyrinth’s Heart, and I’ve written some short fiction in the same setting — that’s something I’ve done for almost all my novels to date. With the richness of world we developed for the trilogy, it seemed a shame to use it for only three books! (Even if they’re chonky books.)

Alyc: Everything Marie said. We also ran a successful Kickstarter to produce a pattern deck and guidebook based on the version we created for Rook & Rose, and Marie also has some Lady Trent coloring books coming out. And although I can only tease about it for now, I’m working with some fellow authors to create book-related hand fans for several well-known series, including Rook & Rose. Marie and I have already seen some of the concept art, and it’s very cool.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Alyc: I’ve loved reading and telling stories for as long as I can remember, but my love for writing has been a slow burn. I finished my first story — an original fairy tale that had elements of the little robber girl from the Snow Queen — when I was in junior high. And I proceeded to start and NOT finish stories for the next decade or so of my life. Learning to see things through to the end was my first big hurdle as a writer, not helped by the fact that I much prefer writing long form to writing short fiction.

Marie: For me, it was when I read Diana Wynne Jones’ novel Fire and Hemlock at the age of maybe nine or ten. The two main characters in there are writing a story together, and it was the first time I’d thought about making up stories not just to entertain myself, but to entertain someone else. I put that book down with one thought in my head: “I want to be a writer.”

Your latest novel, The Eye of Leviathan, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Marie: Golden Age Spain, with faeries.

Alyc: The map isn’t the territory.

What can readers expect?

Alyc: Golden Age Spain, with faeries.

Marie: . . . okay, I won’t be that much of a smart aleck as to repeat Alyc’s answer from above. But let the record show that I was tempted!

This is a chewy historical fantasy about colonialism, religion, and identity. The same year that Columbus sails to the Caribbean, a different man figures out the secret of passing safely to and from the Sea Beyond: the Otherworldly ocean that lies to the west of the Strait of Gibraltar, if you traverse it under the right conditions. Ever since then, Spain has been exploring and colonizing the faerie islands there so as to exploit their magic . . . and, alongside that, baptizing fae.

Our protagonist, Estevan, is a changeling determined to learn the secret of how Spain is achieving their control over the Sea Beyond. As he infiltrates the halls of Spanish power, the daughter he displaced — known as the Hungry Girl — fights to find her way back home, to the mother she remembers only as a story.

Where did the inspiration for The Eye of Leviathan come from?

Marie: From Alyc!

Alyc: We had actually pitched an entirely different idea to our editor for the series we wanted to write after Rook & Rose, but she was concerned about how to market the idea, and requested something more ‘commercial’. Which stumped us a bit, and sent me spiraling on what ‘commercial’ even meant. Based on my awareness of Booktok/Booktube/Bookstagram at the time (autumn 2023), I decided it meant Romantasy, Cozy, Dark Academia, and Faeries, and I resolved to come up with the most romantasy-cozy-dark-academia-faerie idea of all time.

I knew I had to get Marie on board, and I figured I could do it through a call to mapmaking, which she was getting into at the time. I latched onto the Alfred Korzybski quote, “The map is not the territory,” and thought to myself, “but what if it was?” From there, the idea spun out to be a story about a faerie changeling infiltrating the institutions responsible for mapping Faerie and pinning it into place so it could be conquered and colonized.

So I failed at ‘commercial’ and only managed to hit 1.5 of my targets, but that’s the idea I ended up throwing at Marie.

Marie: From there, it was a matter of figuring out how to embed it properly in history. I was the one who suggested setting it in Spain, which of course implied that we should do something pivotal with the year 1492. But we also realized very soon that we wanted to embed it in mythology, too: while not all of our faerie islands come from real-world stories, some of them do, and our cosmology as a whole is a delightfully chaotic swirl of Mediterranean lore: Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Greek, Phoenician, we even get some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Sumerian bits in there. (Though I think those don’t really show up until the second book of the duology.)

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Alyc: If I’m not careful, side characters can easily take over my entire brain, and we have several in the story that ended up becoming far more important than I think either of us originally intended. One of those is Erauso, based on the real historical person of Catalina/Antonio de Erauso. In history, and by his own (apocryphal) account, he was kind of a belligerent jerk, but we caught him while he was still young, and dragged him to the Sea Beyond to give him a slightly kinder life path and the opportunity to become more of a lovable jerk as opposed to an unrepentant one. He still tends to solve problems by punching them, but that’s part of his charm.

Marie: I have to give a shout-out to the bull-fighting portion of your thesis defense. While reading up on early modern university education, I discovered — and this comes from an unimpeachably scholarly source, not some random internet post — that “in Salamanca, the new doctor was not in full possession of his title until he had killed a bull in a corrida (the paseo doctoral) and had written his name in the bull’s blood on the walls of the town.” Which is the kind of detail you can’t not include! Not when your protagonist is studying at Salamanca and also your invented cosmology features Behemoth, a creature often depicted in bull-like form. History is full of these outrageous, amazing things that seem too over the top for reality.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Marie: Research, definitely. I’ve fallen down this rabbit hole before, with my Onyx Court novels (different faerie fantasies set in various eras of English history), only this time I was starting from a position of knowing much less about Spain. But Alyc and I are both the kind of people who really want to embed our story in historical specifics when we can, because those give us amazing nuggets of weirdness alongside the kind of details that make the whole thing feel grounded.

So that meant a lot of research. And since writing is my full-time job, whereas Alyc also has a day job, I took point on the bulk of the reading — including bludgeoning my Spanish back up to something vaguely resembling reading comprehension, so I could check out a few sources not available in English. It was a hell of a challenge, but I’m pleased with the results!

Alyc: Research, and time. Marie was the research rock star on this one, and I was mostly reading to keep up. Writing was also generally slower due in part to research, and in part to disruptions in both our lives. Ultimately, I think the slower pace worked because it gave us time to do the spot research we needed, and to let ideas compost and develop. But it was a different experience than the four-month miracle that was writing our first collaboration.

How has your co-authoring process developed now over the years?

Alyc: We used to mostly write remotely, tagging each other and working out details via chat. These days, we’re writing in person almost all the time, one of us going to the other’s house. We used to only do that for sections that we knew would need a lot of discussion and fiddling, but I think the Sea Beyond books required us to take a lot more care around incorporating real historical details, plot, character motivations, and the multi-layered, syncretized mythologies we’d worked out for this version of the world.

Marie: We’re also a lot looser now with who takes point on which bits of the story. Because the Rook and Rose trilogy grew out of an RPG, there was a much more distinct divide where Ren (formerly my PC) was My Character, Grey and Vargo (formerly NPCs) were Alyc’s Characters, and so forth. We became more comfortable with crossing that line as we got deeper into the trilogy, but it was still there. Here, though in some ways Estevan is Alyc’s character and the Hungry Girl is mine, we were working all of it out together from the start, and so we tend to swap more freely as we go back and forth in writing a scene.

What’s next for you both?

Marie: I’ve got a solo series that will launch next year, with The Worst Monk in Omnu. It’s about a Buddhist-style monk with really terrible karma who goes on pilgrimage to try and fix that, so disasters will stop happening in their immediate vicinity. I’d call it one of the coziest things I’ve written, even though there’s the ghost of a murder victim in it!

Alyc: We’ve got our eye on the original idea we pitched to our editor before we pitched the Sea Beyond. It’s a sort of magical girl space fantasy where people use fantastical projections of their souls to fight giant chaos kaiju. It’s about as opposite to the dense, grounded historical setting of the Sea Beyond as we’re likely to get, though at this point, I think we can guarantee interesting worldbuilding and complicated and nuanced characters and relationships. Those are the things we love and strive to do justice by in every book.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

Alyc: Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga is my favorite series of the past several years, so I was very excited to grab her standalone novel, The Last Contract of Isako, when it came out last month. She’s so good at creating cool, interesting characters and personalizing the stakes of corporate espionage/intrigue. I’m also very excited for one of our pub-day siblings, which is John Wiswell’s The Dragon Has Some Complaints. It just sounds like a fun book, and I’m a sucker for dragons.

And although I’m not usually a horror fan, I want to pick up another July release, Megan Bontrager’s The Sea Hides its Dead. It doesn’t sound like it has any actual overlap with our book, but it’s about some academics who get trapped in a sea cave while looking for the Cult of Leviathan, and I’m left with the ‘I’d have two nickels… which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice’ feeling. So I’m interested in checking it out.

Marie: Earlier this year I discovered Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves trilogy, which I absolutely inhaled. You can tell in reading them that Owen must actually know her history, because her world is so full of solid little bits that make it feel real. Then she pairs that with compelling characters, great prose, some excellent touches of humor, and intermittent folkloric twists, and it’s like it was tailor-made for me!

As for what I’m looking forward to . . . oh, yikes, too many to name. I’m very bad at keeping up to date with what just came out — I’m constantly reading older books from two or five or ten years ago, if not longer — so my TBR is a giant stack of extremely eclectic stuff.

Will you be picking up The Eye of Leviathan? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: M. A. Carrick, Author of ‘The Eye of Leviathan’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hello Marie and Alyc! Thanks so much for joining us! Would you tell us a little about yourselves, and what made you want to start working together?

Marie: We’ve known each other for over twenty years now — we met at an archaeological field school in Wales and Ireland (field schools being where baby archaeologists go to learn how to dig). That’s actually where the pen name comes from, too; during the Ireland portion of the school, we were living in a town called Carrickmacross.

Alyc: And we’ve been writing buddies for most of our friendship — bouncing ideas and problematic drafts off each other. But we never seriously considered collaborating on something until we already had 50k words of fiction we’d written for a tabletop RPG that I started running as a birthday present for Marie. We were having so much fun doing that, we said ‘hey, maybe we should write something for an audience besides each other!’ … and the Rook & Rose trilogy is the result of that.

What can readers expect when they pick up The Mask of Mirrors?

Alyc: We like big books (and we cannot lie). Marie and I both cut our teeth on hefty, doorstopper fantasies that took time to develop plots and cultures and characters. We wanted to write something like that, but also something where we could really geek out about worldbuilding (we both studied anthropology and folklore in school), in a queer-normative setting that you sometimes see in YA, but much more rarely see in adult fantasy. We wanted to write something fun, full of politics and intrigue and capers and banter, but that also had some weighty structural underpinnings about colonialism, imperialism, power, and the tools those in power use for oppression. So… all of that. Our book is like a really good broth; we let it take time to develop, and we hope readers will take time to savor it.

Marie: I’ve been quoting The Princess Bride at people a lot — “fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles” — which I suppose is a little misleading, because while all those elements are present, our book isn’t a fairy tale satire like that film. There’s grim stuff in here . . . but it isn’t a grim story, if that difference makes sense. In the long run, this is a tale about how things can get better.

What are your favourite and least favourite fantasy tropes?

Marie: Oh, heck — I could go on for ages! And actually, the first step in our collaboration was to make a list of tropes each of us likes, looking for places where we overlap. Many of those wound up in this series, though not all of them. I love soulbonds, for example (more the Elfquest or Mercedes Lackey type than the destiny/red thread type), but we don’t have those in here. Least favorite . . . zombies, maybe? I’m on board with pretty much anything if it’s done well, but with that one, the best you can usually hope for is that I’ll enjoy everything around the zombies.

Alyc: I’m a sucker for thieves, assassins, and rogues. I love it when characters in conflict have to work together, and through that come to respect each other. I adore competent, smart, heroes whose morals and worldviews are constantly challenged and can change and grow over time. On the really tropey end of things, I love stuff like Enemies-to-Friends-to-Lovers, any of the fake relationship tropes (fake dating, fake marriage, fake-out/make-out), and other ridiculous things that rachet up romantic/sexual tension (only one bed, trapped in a closet, etc.) I think the trope I’m completely done with is love triangles (and love Vs pretending to be triangles). Either the attraction between the characters ends up feeling contrived for conflict’s sake, or friendship as a valid solution to the problem is dismissed, or the feasibility of a poly-style ‘Both, both is good’ scenario is completely ignored.

What were your inspirations behind The Mask of Mirrors?

Alyc: As we mentioned, it came out of a game I was running. There was a caper Marie wanted her character (Ren) to put together with a few of my NPCs (Grey, Vargo, and some others who will remain unmentioned for spoilery reasons). It wasn’t a thing that involved the other PCs, and it would have worked less well as a session, so we decided to write it out as a scene, with Marie writing Ren’s PoV, and me providing the plot structure, NPC activities, obstacles, etc. We had so much fun writing that scene that we wrote another. And another. And another. A lot of the final novel — the plot, the setting — changed between that and the original game, but the relationship dynamics between those characters formed the core of what excited us, and remain the warp that the rest of the story is woven through.

Marie: Of course, when we pulled those relationships out of their original context, we had to build a new housing for them. Many people have commented on Nadežra having a Venetian feeling, because of the canals and the masks, but if you scratch deeper you’ll see a whole lot of influences feeding into here — everything from the ancient Egyptian concept of a multi-part soul to pre-modern Chinese cuisine to the cross-cultural symbolism attached to different numbers. It’s a whole stew of our anthropological training, the tropes we both love, and that game’s character providing the beating heart of it all.

We see two vastly different magic systems in the story: the Liganti – based upon astrology, and the Vraszenian, centered around a divinatory card system called pattern. Would you tell us what your process of constructing both these magic systems looked like?

Marie: Pattern was very much my baby, in part because the game version of Ren was likewise a fortune-teller. But we didn’t want to just slap new names on top of the tarot deck, so I had to sit down and work out a completely different structure. I think my two starting ideas were the Faces and the Masks, and the three threads. Both Liganti and Vraszenian religion view gods as dualistic — one benevolent deity paired with one malevolent one — and in Vraszenian theology, those are the same entity, showing either their Face (the nice part) or their Mask (the wrathful part). Which led to the idea that the Face and Mask cards can be interpreted both positively and negatively depending on their position in the spread, because each contains the seed of the other. The other part was the threads, which are the suits of the deck: the spinning thread represents the “inner self,” matters of the mind and soul, while the woven thread is the “outer self,” social relationships and institutions, and the cut thread is the “physical self,” the body and the material world.

Alyc: Since Marie had done so much work on the pattern cards, I took on numinatria, which is a structured, ritual magic system used by the Liganti that draws inspiration from sacred geometry and numerology (and, tangentially, astrology). Each number from 0 to 10 has a portfolio of associated meanings that, when inscribed, channel the divine energy of the cosmos to create particular effects. Think of it almost like a magical circuit-board, with the numina (the numbers) as the code that tells the energy what to do.

It amuses me because I’m not a ‘math person’, but to develop numinatria I ended up getting really into using basic drafting tools (compass, chalk, and edge) to craft the various geometric figures that form the basis of numinatria. I even ordered some custom golden mean calipers from Australia so I could more easily draw the spira aurea (that nautilus spiral shape, aka the golden spiral) that is the framework for numinatrian workings.

For all that numinatria is a divine magic (powered by the Liganti godhead, the Lumen), it reflects the Liganti worldview that the cosmos is a place of structure, order, and rationality. That makes it a nice contrast for the intuitive, divinatory magic of the Vraszenians.

Tell us a little about the creative process of co-writing a novel. Do you map out all the plot points beforehand, or do you make it up as you go? What do you do if you disagree on where to take the story?

Alyc: We have so many spreadsheets. Color-coded spreadsheets. 3×5 cards. A wiki. A whiteboard that Marie won’t let me call a murderboard because it doesn’t have red threads connecting all the various plots we’re keeping track of. I think any collaboration requires communication and planning because the people collaborating don’t share a brain, but The Mask of Mirrors is a complicated book. There are multiple PoV characters running around with multiple identities, and all of them are keeping secrets. There’s political intrigue and incomplete information. There are seeds planted in the early part of this novel that won’t see fruition until the end, or even until later novels. I don’t think even a single author could pants their way through that and have it all work out.

Marie: It’s honestly remarkable how infrequently we disagree, though — at least in the problematic sense. I think that for any collaboration to work, you need the ability to say “this isn’t working” or “it could work, but I think we can do better” or even just “there’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t light me up.” That happens a lot, and it’s a good thing; by pushing each other, we make the result so much better. We pretty much always agree on where the story is going — it’s only a question of the best way to get there. (Amusingly, we’re pretty sure our two biggest arguments during the first book both involved putting Vargo into a state of semi-undress. We were in absolute concord about the goal; it was only specifics like “so what is he wearing” and “how do we get the coat off him if you’re adamant that he wouldn’t leave the house without it” that we butted heads over.)

If it isn’t too spoilery, can you tell us about any particular scene/character you enjoyed writing the most in The Mask of Mirrors?

Marie: It’s much easier to talk about characters than scenes without spoilers! Unsurprisingly, I like Ren; as we mentioned above, she’s my PC from the game, so I’m used to identifying pretty strongly with her. And I realized the other day that when you see her manipulating people, calibrating her behavior and actions to produce the results she wants . . . there’s a sense in which that’s a lot like what a writer does. I’m also very fond of Oksana Ryvček, who doesn’t show up a huge amount in this book, but she’s a badass middle-aged bisexual duelist — basically all the flirty flamboyance you could want, wrapped up in a package with a sword.

Alyc: There’s so much I love in this book — Vargo, Tess, Grey, the Rook, the banter, the capers, the fashion, the ballroom politics. I’m listening to the audiobook for the first time, and hearing it in a narrator’s voice separates it enough that it’s like getting to discover it all over again. One scene in particular is a short-touch con near the middle of the book that Ren and her sister Tess run (with some spoilery help) to get another character to trust them. It’s just so fun and smart to see what they’re doing and to know the hidden mechanisms that make the con work. I think that’s a lot of the fun in this book — watching smart people being competent and being in the know about what they’re doing.

Could you give us some hints as to where the story takes us in book two of the Rook & Rose trilogy?

Alyc: More secrets, more lies, more revelations… and I seriously think we have 2x the caper quota of the first book.

Marie: There are some small-seeming elements in the first book that are actually major load-bearing pieces for the second. This is the kind of story we hope people will re-read, because both within a book and across books, we’ve left all kinds of hints and clues that will make you go “oh my god, it was there all along!”

Aside from the Rook & Rose books 2 and 3, any other writing projects on the horizon you can tell us about?

Marie: For my sins, I have two books out within two weeks of each other! The other one is The Night Parade of 100 Demons, which takes place in the setting of the game Legend of the Five Rings. Think fantastical historical Japan, with two samurai investigating an outbreak of spiritual disturbances in a remote mining village, and getting tangled up in some mysteries of the past.

Alyc: Nothing with a home yet. I’m revising a hefty Mediterranean-inspired fantasy that shares some surface similarities with Rook & Rose, but also a lot of differences (it’s set in a port city, but it’s got winged traders, clockwork golems, and uncanny merfolk flying/running/swimming around). And I started working on a new cyberpunky thing about a memory-wiped assassin that is too SF to be romance, too romance to be SF, and too tropey to be marketable. Mostly, though, Marie and I are gearing up for the publication of book two (it’s coming out in November of this year!) and finishing book three (which is currently slated for November of 2022).

Finally, what are some books you would recommend to the fans of The Mask of Mirrors?

Alyc: Several readers have commented on how much they’ve enjoyed the fashion-as-plot in The Mask of Mirrors, which was an absolute joy to write because it’s a detail we both love that often doesn’t get emphasized as much as history suggests it should. But if you really want to dive into sartorial bliss, I highly recommend Rowenna Miller’s Torn, the first in The Unraveled Kingdom series. It’s sort of like if Tess stepped into a protagonist role and found herself in the middle of a revolution. It’s a complete delight.

Marie: Of all the things I’ve read in the last year, I think the one that feels the most like the Rook and Rose series to me — not in its plot, but in the general feeling of a sumptuously rich world with politics and intrigue and some really unusual magic — is Curtis Craddock’s Risen Kingdoms trilogy. That starts with An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors (. . . no relation, heh).

Will you be picking up The Mask of Mirrors? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: M.A. Carrick, Authors of ‘The Mask of Mirrors’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Ren has come to the city of Nadežra with one goal in mind: to con her way into House Traementis, one of the city’s noble houses, and secure her and her sister’s futures. However, as Ren gradually grows attached to the Traementis family, she discovers she’s not the only one hiding her identity. Soon Ren finds herself tangled up within the feuds of the city’s aristocrats, along with her landlord Derossi Vargo and Captain Grey Serrado of the Vigil, both of whom seem to be keeping a lot of secrets. Meanwhile a new, magically corrupt drug emerges in the underworlds of the city that threatens to bring alive nightmarish creatures from old children’s tales.

Firstly, I’m completely in awe of the extensive and complex worldbuilding in this book. The author duo has done a remarkable job portraying the city of Nadežra that spans several islands at the delta of the river Dežera. Carrick’s depictions of everything from a marketplace to a ballroom to the catacombs spanning the underbelly of one of the Nadežran islands are equally vivid and detailed. A major aspect of the story is also its focus on the fashion of Nadežra’s aristocrats, and despite being the farthest thing from a fashion enthusiast myself, I found the lush descriptions of Ren’s wardrobe quite delightful!

There are two primary magic systems in The Mask of Mirrors, one of the Liganti elite based on astrology, and another of the Vraszenians, centered around a divinatory card system known as the ‘pattern’. Both of them are quite refreshing and unique in their own ways, even though we don’t get to see either in action very often. The best thing about this book, for me, was the political intrigue, which makes up the bulk of the plot. The dialogue, as I’ve already mentioned, is pretty tightly wound, and since none of the characters are what they seem, the story manages to keep you on your toes throughout.

Coming to the characters, even though there were seemingly too many of them to keep track of in The Mask of Mirrors, the authors somehow managed to make every single one of them well fleshed out and gave each character a distinct personality, complete with graphic backstories and motivations. In terms of diversity, most of the characters are queer, and we get to see some other kinds of representation as well, like Vargo’s extreme aversion to germs and diseases. Out of the primary characters, Leato, the Traementis heir, and Vargo stood out to me the most; Vargo in particular is quite an intriguing character to follow around, due to his layered and morally grey personality. As for Ren, she’s one of the strongest protagonists I’ve come across in fantasy so far, and I absolutely loved witnessing her character arc over the course of the story.

The Mask of Mirrors is quite a large book, and I suppose many readers might find the pacing sluggish at times. That being said, personally I found the slow momentum suited the story perfectly, allowing the authors time to introduce the setting and the characters in a way that won’t be overwhelming, and the readers to savour the suspenseful plot thoroughly. The frequently used fantasy terms do take some getting used to, however. There’s also a secondary character who doesn’t get a lot of time on the page (for reasons that will be obvious to you once you finish the book) and I do hope to see more of them in the sequels to The Mask of Mirrors.

Overall, The Mask of Mirrors is a fantastic beginning to a trilogy I’m harbouring high hopes for, and I can’t wait to see where the second book in the Rook & Rose trilogy takes us! If you are a fan of fantasy fiction, The Mask of Mirrors is a book that should definitely be on your radar!

The Mask of Mirrors is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 19th 2021.

Will you be picking up The Mask of Mirrors? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling and darkly magical fantasy adventure by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing together as M. A. Carrick.

Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.

Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.

But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.

The post Review: The Mask of Mirrors by M. A. Carrick appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

2021 is absolutely jam-packed with fantasy and science fiction books that readers around the world are going to devour! Between the months of January and June, readers can expect magic, warring kingdoms, witches, magic, post-apocalyptic worlds, and so, so much more!

Read on to discover some of the January to June fantasy and sci-fi books we’re excited for and be sure to let us know in the comments what books you’re looking forward to!

Want more 2021 releases? Check out our lists for Most Anticipated 2021 Books, 2021 Queer Book Releases, 2021 Romance Book Releases, 2021 YA Book Releases, and 2021 Queer SFF Book Releases.

JANUARY

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a rich and dazzling fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city.

The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A princess with a powerful and dangerous secret must find a way to save her country from ruthless invaders in this exciting debut fantasy, the first novel in a thrilling duology packed with heroism, treachery, magic, and war.

Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley’s Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne.

The Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. 

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From award-winning author, Ilona Andrews, an all-new novel set in the New York Times #1 bestselling Kate Daniels World and featuring Julie Lennart-Olsen, Kate and Curran’s ward.

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The first book in a new environmental epic fantasy series set in a world where ships kept afloat by magical hearthfires sail an endless grass sea.

Brother Red by Adrian Selby
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From one of the most exciting new voices in dark epic fantasy comes an intensely brutal and brilliantly cinematic novel: the story of a soldier torn between loyalty to her family and her quest to preserve a kingdom’s future.

Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From Jeff Wheeler, the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Kingfountain novels, comes an epic new series of warring kingdoms, deadly family rivalries, and fearless loyalty.

FEBRUARY

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Ancillary Justice meets Red, White & Royal Blue in Everina Maxwell’s exciting debut.

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology.

The Black Coast by Mike Brooks
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Epic world-building at its finest, in an upcoming author’s fantasy debut. The Black Coast is the start of an unmissable series filled with war-dragons, armoured knights, sea-faring raiders, dangerous magic and crowd-pleasing battle scenes.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Award-winning author Aliette de Bodard returns with a powerful romantic fantasy that reads like The Goblin Emperor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in a pre-colonial Vietnamese-esque world. 

Game Changer by Neal Shusterman
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This high-concept novel from the National Book Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of the Arc of a Scythe series tackles the most urgent themes of our time, making this a must-buy for readers who are starting to ask big questions about their own role in the universe.

Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters has all the wonder and romance of a classic sci-fi novel, with the timelessness of a beloved fairy tale. 

A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Showing that truth is stranger than fiction, Sylvain Neuvel weaves a sci-fi thriller reminiscent of Blake Crouch and Andy Weir, blending a fast moving, darkly satirical look at 1940s rocketry with an exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence in A History of What Comes Next.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

An #ownvoices debut YA fantasy, This Golden Flame is an epic adventure full of magic, rebellion, and finding where you truly belong.

MARCH

Dead Space by Kali Wallace
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

An investigator must solve a brutal murder on a claustrophobic asteroid mine in this tense science fiction thriller from the author of Salvation Day. 

The Councillor by E.J. Beaton
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This Machiavellian fantasy follows a scholar’s quest to choose the next ruler of her kingdom amidst lies, conspiracy, and assassination

Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Skyward Inn is Jamaica Inn by way of Ursula Le Guin, bringing the influences, too, of Angela Carter, Michel Faber and Jeff Vandermeer to create a fantastic story of love, belonging, and togetherness. Asking questions of ideas of the individual and the collective, of ownership and historical possession, and of the experience of being human, it is at once timeless and thoroughly of its time.

A Trial of Sorcerers by Elise Kova
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

This is the first book in a young adult, epic fantasy that’s a tale of competition, coming of age, distant lands, elemental magic, and romance. It’s perfect for fans of the Legend of Korra, Truthwitch, and A Sorcery of Thorns.

Machinehood by S.B. Divya
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From the Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya, Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy.

Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In this charming debut fantasy perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Girls of Paper and Fire, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.

Burning Girls and Other Stories by Veronica Schanoes
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces readers to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own.

We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A Canticle for Leibowitz meets The Hunt for Red October in We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep, a lyrical and page-turning coming-of-age exploration of duty, belief, and the post-apocalypse from breakout newcomer Andrew Kelly Stewart.

APRIL

The ​Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout comes book three in her Blood and Ash series.

The Helm of Midnight by Marina J. Lostetter
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A legendary serial killer stalks the streets of a fantastical city in The Helm of Midnight, the stunning first novel in a new trilogy from acclaimed author Marina Lostetter.

The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

An evocative combination of fantasy, history, and Jewish folklore, The Light of the Midnight Stars is fairytale-inspired novel from the author of The Sisters of the Winter Wood.

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’ fast-paced, sf adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From award-winning author Akemi Dawn Bowman comes an incisive, action-packed tale that explores big questions about technology, grief, love, and humanity.

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set in a world where a virus stalks our male population, The End of Men is an electrifying and unforgettable debut from a remarkable new talent that asks: what would our world truly look like without men?

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6) by Martha Wells
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The New York Times bestselling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn’t admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry, a new standalone adventure!

Unity by Elly Bangs
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Evoking the grittiness of Mad Max and the idealism of Sense8, this absorbing sci-fi debut is a dynamic vision of the fluidity of identity. With Unity, breakout author Elly Bangs has created a prescient, moving, and unforgettable adventure that expands upon human consciousness and its possibilities.

MAY

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne forges a new epic, outside the traditional narratives of heroism and glory that leave no room for women.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In Blade of Secrets, the first book in Tricia Levenseller’s exciting new YA fantasy duology, a teenage blacksmith with social anxiety is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she’s ever made. 

How to Mars by David Ebenbach
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

What happens when your dream mission to Mars is a reality television nightmare? This debut science-fiction romp with heart follows the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, with a dash of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a hint of The Real World.

Spells Trouble by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of Gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals, but entire nations. It is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief begins a ‘dazzling’ (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other. 

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

For fans of The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and David Mitchell, a genre bending, time twisting alternative history that asks whether it’s worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you’ve ever loved. 

JUNE

Star Eater by Kerstin Hall
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A phantasmagorical indictment of hereditary power, Star Eatertakes readers deep into a perilous and uncanny world where even the most powerful women are forced to choose what sacrifices they will make, so that they might have any choice at all.

The Tangleroot Palace: Stories by Marjorie Liu
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel, Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut story collection, dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women.

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Practical Magic meets Twister in this debut contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate.

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Cassandra Khaw’s debut novel is a page-turning exploration of humans and machines that is perfect for readers of Ann Leckie, Ursula Le Guin, and Kameron Hurley.

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From award-winning author Benjamin Percy comes an explosive, breakout speculative thriller in which a powerful new metal arrives on Earth in the wake of a meteor shower, triggering a massive new “gold rush” in the Midwest and turning life as we know it on its head. The first of a cycle of novels set in a shared universe.

The Coward by Stephen Aryan
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Who will take up the mantle and slay the evil in the Frozen North, saving all from death and destruction? Not Kell Kressia, he’s done his part…

Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Swordplay, magic, intrigue and friendships stronger than iron: the first volume in the new swashbuckling fantasy series by the bestselling author of The Greatcoats.

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they’re fighting for a common purpose–and falling for each other–in Zoe Hana Mikuta’s high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu’s Legend series.

What 2021 fantasy and sci-fi books are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post 48 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases To Look Out For In 2021 appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Read on to discover a few of our January picks and tell us in the comments below if you will be checking any of them out!

Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

An alien artifact turns a young girl into Death’s adopted daughter in Remote Control, a thrilling sci-fi tale of community and female empowerment from Nebula and Hugo Award-winner Nnedi Okorafor.

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A delicious twist on a Gothic classic, Rachel Hawkins’s The Wife Upstairs pairs Southern charm with atmospheric domestic suspense, perfect for fans of B.A. Paris and Megan Miranda.

The Divines by Ellie Eaton
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

With the emotional power of Normal People and the reflective haze of The Girls, a compulsively readable literary debut set in a secluded boarding school, exploring the intoxicating, destructive relationships between teenage girls. 

The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Public radio co-hosts navigate mixed signals in Rachel Lynn Solomon’s sparkling romantic comedy debut.

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Darkly magical and intricately imagined, The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a rich and dazzling fantasy adventure in which a con artist, a vigilante, and a crime lord must unite to save their city.

The Perfect Guests by Emma Rous
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The USA Today bestselling author of The Au Pair returns with another delicious, twisty novel–about a grand estate with many secrets, an orphan caught in a web of lies, and a young woman playing a sinister game.

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Artemis Fowl meets Men in Black in this exhilarating debut middle grade fantasy, the first in a trilogy filled with #blackgirlmagic. Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, the Percy Jackson series, and Nevermoor.

The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A princess with a powerful and dangerous secret must find a way to save her country from ruthless invaders in this exciting debut fantasy, the first novel in a thrilling duology packed with heroism, treachery, magic, and war.

Be Dazzled by Ryan La Sala
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Project Runway goes to Comic Con in an epic queer love story about creativity, passion, and finding the courage to be your most authentic self.

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A historical YA novel that takes place during the Greenwood Massacre of 1921, in an area of Tulsa, OK, known as the Black Wall Street.

If I Tell You the Truth by Jasmin Kaur
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Told in prose, poetry, and illustration, this heartrending story weaves Kiran’s and Sahaara’s timelines together, showing a teenage Kiran and, later, her high school–aged daughter, Sahaara.

Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

From award-winning author, Ilona Andrews, an all-new novel set in the New York Times #1 bestselling Kate Daniels World and featuring Julie Lennart-Olsen, Kate and Curran’s ward.

What January 2021 releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post January 2021 Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.