50 Most Anticipated SFF Books of 2020
2020 looks to be another incredible year for new releases. The list below features diverse authors, self-published titles, long-anticipated sequels from established names, and fresh-faced debuts. We’re super excited to get our hands on this lot, and you surely will be, too!
(Note: The list was curated by our contributors, and is ordered by expected publication date. All blurbs and publication information have been gathered from Goodreads, Amazon, and publishers’ websites.)
Aaaand here we go!
THE BROKEN HEAVENS
(Worldbreaker Saga #3)
Kameron Hurley
The bloodsoaked concluding volume of Kameron Hurley’s epic fantasy, the Worldbreaker Saga, is unleashed.
The Dhai nation has broken apart under the onslaught of the Tai Kao, invaders from a parallel world. With the Dhai in retreat, Kirana, leader of the Tai Kao, establishes a base in Oma’s temple and instructs her astrologers to discover how they can use the ancient holy place to close the way between worlds. With all the connected worlds ravaged by war and Oma failing, only one world can survive. Who will be sacrificed, and what will the desperate people of these worlds do to protect themselves?
Expected release: January 2020 (Angry Robot)
AGENCY
(The Peripheral #2)
William Gibson
In William Gibson’s first novel since 2014’s New York Times bestselling The Peripheral, a gifted “app-whisperer” is hired by a mysterious San Francisco start-up and finds herself in contact with a unique and surprisingly combat-savvy AI.
Expected release: January 2020 (Berkley)
DUNGEONS OF STRATA
(Deepest Dungeon #1)
G.D. Penman
When Martin’s raiding guild join the latest virtual reality MMO, they discover a challenge like no other. Strata Online is a hundred-floor mega-dungeon, filled with an ever-shifting ecosystem of monsters.
Martin’s team soon find themselves in a race against the world’s strongest guilds, all competing to be the first to reach the unbeatable game’s lowest depths. With eternal fame and prizes on the line, Martin risks playing as a rarely chosen race; a Murovan rat-man, combined with the unusual exorcist class.
But unlike other games, he will need as much courage as skill to progress. Because the deeper he goes, the darker Strata gets.
Expected release: January 2020 (Portal Books)
OF SAND AND SNOW
(Wings of War #5)
Bryce O’Connor
With fifty thousand freed slaves at their back, Raz and Syrah leave the savannahs of Perce behind. Karesh Syl is no more. Karesh Nan burns at their backs. Beyond the border before them the South looms, ready and waiting, and together Raz and Syrah pray they are prepared for the great offense they must now undertake against the fringe cities.
All the while, however, another threat has threaded her way into the ranks of the Mahsaden, and is waiting only for the right time to pull her web of woven fire tight…
Expected release: January 2020 (Self-published)
THE SHADOW SAINT
(Black Iron Legacy #2)
Gareth Hanrahan
Thieves, dangerous magic, and a weapon built with the power to destroy a god clash in this second novel of Gareth Hanrahan’s acclaimed epic fantasy series, The Black Iron Legacy.
Enter a city of spires and shadows . . .
The Gutter Miracle changed the landscape of Guerdon forever. Six months after it was conjured into being, the labyrinthine New City has become a haven for criminals and refugees.
Rumors have spread of a devastating new weapon buried beneath the streets – a weapon with the power to destroy a god. As Guerdon strives to remain neutral, two of the most powerful factions in the godswar send agents into the city to find it.
As tensions escalate and armies gather at the borders, how long will Guerdon be able to keep its enemies at bay?
The Shadow Saint continues the gripping tale of dark gods and dangerous magic that began with Hanrahan’s acclaimed debut The Gutter Prayer.
Expected release: January 2020 (Orbit Books)
THE WOLF OF OREN-YARO
(Chronicles of the Bitch Queen #1)
K.S. Villoso
“I murdered a man and made my husband leave the night before they crowned me.”
Born under the crumbling towers of Oren-yaro, Queen Talyien was the shining jewel and legacy of the bloody War of the Wolves that nearly tore her nation apart. Her upcoming marriage to the son of her father’s rival heralds peaceful days to come.
But his sudden departure before their reign begins fractures the kingdom beyond repair.
Years later, Talyien receives a message, urging her to attend a meeting across the sea. It’s meant to be an effort at reconciliation, but an assassination attempt leaves the queen stranded and desperate to survive in a dangerous land. With no idea who she can trust, she’s on her own as she struggles to fight her way home.
Expected release: February 2020 (Orbit)
THE UNSPOKEN NAME
(Serpent Gates #1)
A.K. Larkwood
What if you knew how and when you will die?
Csorwe does — she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice.
But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin—the wizard’s loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power.
But Csorwe will soon learn – gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
Expected release: February 2020 (Tor)
AGE OF DEATH
(Legends of the First Empire #5)
Michael J. Sullivan
Winter blankets the land, and more than just hope has died. Prevented from invading the Fhrey homeland by the tower of Avempartha, the western army seeks a way across the Nidwalden River before the fane obtains the secret of dragons.
As time runs out for both humanity and the mystic Suri, the only chance for the living rests with the dead. Having made their fateful choice, can a handful of misfits do the impossible, or are they forever lost to an inescapable grave? Do gods truly exist? Is it possible to know the future? And what lies beyond the veil of death?
In the tradition of Virgil’s Aeneid, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Milton’s Paradise Lost, the most epic of tales transcend the world of the living. It’s time to see what lies in Elan’s Age of Death.
Expected release: February 2020 (Self-published)
CARVED FROM STONE AND DREAM
(Los Nefilim #5)
T. Frohock
In this sequel to Where Oblivion Lives, the first entry in the Los Nefilim series set during the Spanish Civil War, a coded notebook containing the identities of Los Nefilim’s spies falls into enemy hands, and Diago is faced with an impossible choice: betray Los Nefilim or save his family.
February 1939
Catalonia has fallen. Los Nefilim is in retreat.
With the Nationalist forces hard on their heels, the members of Los Nefilim—Spanish Nephilim that possess the power to harness music and light in the supernatural war between the angels and daimons—make a desperate run for the French border.
Diago Alvarez, a singular being of angelic and daimonic descent, follows Guillermo and a small group of nefilim through the Pyrenees, where the ice is as treacherous as postwar loyalties—both can kill with a single slip. When a notebook of Los Nefilim’s undercover operatives falls into a traitor’s hands, Diago and Guillermo risk their lives to track it down. As they uncover a pocket realm deep within the Pyrenees, Diago discovers his family is held hostage.
Faced with an impossible choice: betray Los Nefilim, or watch his family die, Diago must nurture the daimonic song he has so long denied in order to save those he loves
Expected release: February 2020 (Harper Voyager)
THE WOUNDED ONES
(Witch of Empire #2)
G.D. Penman
Demons and serial killers are Iona “Sully” Sullivan’s bread and butter, but nothing could have prepared her to face off against the full weight of the British Empire at the height of its power. With the War for American Independence in full swing, she finds even her prodigious talents pushed beyond their limits when citizens of the American Colonies begin vanishing amidst rumors of crop circles, hydra sightings and worse.
Through a wild and lethal adventure that will see her clashing with the Empire around the world and beyond, the only constants in Sully’s life are an undead girlfriend, a giant demon crow that has taken a shine to her, regular assassination attempts by enemies on all sides, and the cold certainty that nothing and nobody is going to make it out of the war in one piece.
Expected release: February 2020 (Meerkat Press)
THE GOLDEN KEY
Marian Womack
An extraordinary, page-turning Gothic mystery set in the wilds of the Norfolk Fens from the BSFA-shortlisted author.
London, 1901. After the death of Queen Victoria the city heaves with the uncanny and the eerie. Séances are held and the dead are called upon from darker realms.
Samuel Moncrieff, recovering from a recent tragedy of his own, meets Helena Walton-Cisneros, one of London’s most reputed mediums. But Helena is not what she seems and she’s enlisted by the elusive Lady Matthews to solve a twenty-year-old mystery: the disappearance of her three stepdaughters who vanished without a trace on the Norfolk Fens.
But the Fens are a liminal land, where folk tales and dark magic still linger. With locals that speak of devilmen and catatonic children found on the Broads, Helena finds the answer to the mystery leads back to where it started: Samuel Moncrieff.
Expected release: February 2020 (Titan)
DARK RIVER
Rym Kechacha
Doggerland, 6200 BC. As rivers rise, young mother Shaye follows her family to a sacred oak grove, hoping that an ancient ritual will save their way of life.
London, AD 2156. In a city ravaged by the rising Thames, Shante hopes for a visa that will allow her to flee with her four-year-old son to the more prosperous north.
Two mothers, more than 8,000 years apart, struggle to save their children from a bleak future as the odds stack against them.
At the sacred oak grove, Shaye faces a revelation that cuts to the core of who she is; in the wilderness of the edgelands, Shante finds herself unprepared for the challenges and dangers that surround them at every turn.
As Shaye and Shante desperately try to hold their families together in the face of disaster, these two young mothers uncover a terrifying truth: that it is impossible to protect the ones they love.
Expected release: February 2020 (Unsung Stories)
THE HIDDEN GIRL AND OTHER STORIES
Ken Liu
From award-winning author Ken Liu comes his much anticipated second volume of short stories.
Ken Liu is one of the most lauded short story writers of our time. This collection includes a selection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from the last five years—sixteen of his best—plus a new novelette.
In addition to these seventeen selections, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories also features an excerpt from book three in the Dandelion Dynasty series, The Veiled Throne.
Expected release: February 2020 (Gallery/Saga Press)
THE CITY WE BECAME
(The City #1)
N.K. Jemisin
Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.
Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five.
But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.
Expected release: March 2020 (Orbit)
THE BREACH
M.T. Hill
From Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author M.T. Hill, The Breach is a unique science fiction mystery set in the dangerous underground world of the urban exploration scene.
Freya Medlock, a reporter at her local paper, is down on her luck. When she’s assigned to cover the death of a young climber named Stephen, she might just have the story she needs. Freya soon meets Shep: a trainee steeplejack with his own secret life. As Shep draws Freya deeper into the urbex scene, the circumstances of Stephen’s death become more unsettling – and Freya risks more and more to get the answers she wants.
Expected release: March 2020 (Titan)
THE DEEP
Alma Katsu
Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.
This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner’s illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers – including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher – are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.
Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic‘s sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not – could not – have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . .
Brilliantly combining fact and fiction, the historical and the horrific, The Deep reveals a chilling truth in an unputdownable narrative full of unnerving moments and with a growing, inexorable sense of foreboding.
Expected release: March 2020 (Transworld/Bantam)
BENEATH THE RISING
Premee Mohamed
All the Birds in the Sky meets Lovecraft Country in this whimsical coming-of-age story about two kids in the middle of a war of eldritch horrors from outside spacetime…
Nick Prasad and Joanna “Johnny” Chambers have been friends since childhood. She’s rich, white, and a genius; he’s poor, brown, and secretly in love with her.
But when Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens the primal, evil Ancient ones set on subjugating humanity.
From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they need to trust each other completely to survive…
Expected release: March 2020 (Solaris)
SERVANT OF THE CROWN
(Dragonslayer #3)
Duncan M. Hamilton
The exciting conclusion to the Dragonslayer trilogy.
Long laid plans finally bear fruit, but will it prove as sweet as hoped for? With the king on his deathbed, the power Amaury has sought for so long is finally in his grasp.
As opposition gathers from unexpected places, dragonkind fights for survival and a long-awaited reckoning grows close.
Solène masters her magic, but questions the demands the world will make of her. Unable to say no when the call of duty comes, Gill realizes that the life he had given up on has not given up on him.
Once a servant of the crown, ever a servant of the crown…
Expected release: March 2020 (Tor)
WAR OF THE MAPS
Paul McAuley
On a giant artificial world surrounding an artificial sun, one man – a lucidor, a keeper of the peace, a policeman – is on the hunt. His target was responsible for an atrocity, but is too valuable to the government to be truly punished. Instead he has been sent to the frontlines of the war, to use his unique talents on the enemy. So the lucidor has ignored orders, deserted from his job, left his home and thrown his life away, in order to finally claim justice.
Separated by massive seas, the various maps dotted on the surface of this world rarely contact each other. But something has begun to infiltrate the edges of the lucidor’s map, something that genetically alters animals and plants and turns them into killers. Only the lucidor knows the depths to which his quarry will sink in order to survive, only the lucidor can capture him. The way is long and dangerous. The lucidor’s government has set hunters after him. He has no friends, no resources, no plan.
But he does have a mission.
Expected release: March 2020 (Gollancz)
A TIME OF COURAGE
(Of Blood and Bone #3)
John Gwynne
The Demon-King of the Otherworld is finally free. And armed with mighty new starstone weapons, Asroth prepares to lead his demonic war-host south. With the help of his dark bride Fritha, he plans to crush the warrior-angels and their allies.
In the shadows of Forn Forest, Riv and the surviving Ben-Elim hold a war council. After the catastrophic events at Drassil, they are desperate to unite those who would stand against Asroth and his army. So they fly west, to join the Order of the Bright Star. But Drem and the Order are besieged by a demon horde – and their fragile defence may soon shatter.
Across the Banished Lands armies are heading south, to settle ancient grudges and decide the fate of humanity. Drem, Riv and the Bright Star’s warriors will need every ounce of their courage if they are to join the final battle. But will their combined forces be enough to face down their greatest foe?
In A Time of Courage, angels, demons and heroes face the ultimate fight for the Banished Lands. Thousands of years of enmity will be put to the test, in the epic conclusion to John Gwynne’s mighty trilogy.
Expected release: April 2020 (Pan Macmillan)
CREEPING JENNY
(John Nyquist #3)
Jeff Noon
The third book in Jeff Noon’s widely acclaimed ‘Nyquest Mysteries’ find our protagonist caught up in a new mystery that delves into nightmares, Saints and the answer to his father’s disappearance.
Nyquist finds himself in a village where everyday is a different type of nightmare and whose bizarre rules are governed by whichever Saint rules that day. In between days of no talking, no going outside and only telling lies, Nyquist must find the answer to the mystery he could never solve; the disappearance of his father.
Expected release: April 2020 (Angry Robot)
THE RANGER OF MARZANNA
(Goddess War #1)
Jon Skovron
When their father is murdered by imperial soldiers, two siblings set out on opposite paths—one will destroy the Empire forever and the other will save it—in this thrilling new Russian inspired epic fantasy from Jon Skovron.
Sonya is training to be a Ranger of Marzanna, an ancient sect of warriors who have protected the land for generations. But the old ways are dying, and the rangers have all been forced into hiding or killed off by the invading Empire.
When her father is murdered by imperial soldiers, she decides to finally take action. Using her skills as a ranger she will travel across the bitter cold tundra and gain the allegiance of the only other force strong enough to take down the invaders.
But nothing about her quest will be easy. Because not everyone is on her side. Her brother, Sebastian, is the most powerful sorcerer the world has ever seen. And he’s fighting for the empire.
Expected release: April 2020 (Orbit)
THE GIRL AND THE STARS
(Book of the Ice #1)
Mark Lawrence
In the ice, east of the Black Rock, there is a hole into which broken children are thrown.
On Abeth the vastness of the ice holds no room for individuals. Survival together is barely possible. No one survives alone.
To resist the cold, to endure the months of night when even the air itself begins to freeze, requires a special breed. Variation is dangerous, difference is fatal. And Yaz is not the same.
Yaz is torn from the only life she’s ever known, away from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her days with, and has to carve out a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of difference and mystery and danger.
Yaz learns that Abeth is older and stranger than she had ever imagined. She learns that her weaknesses are another kind of strength. And she learns to challenge the cruel arithmetic of survival that has always governed her people.
Only when it’s darkest you can see the stars.
Expected release: April 2020 (Harper Voyager)
SHADOWS OF IVORY
(The Firenzia Company Chronicles #1)
T L Greylock
Expected release: April 2020 (Wraithmarked)
THE LAST GREEK
(Commander #2)
Christian Cameron
211BCE. The Roman invasion from the western seas is imminent, and from the south the Spartans are burning and pillaging their way north.
Battle-hardened Philopoemen believes the Achean League is facing annihilation if it does not arm. But without a formal army or cavalry, they don’t stand a chance. Convincing his friend and healer Alexanor that the threat is real, together they begin to build a massive cavalry guard from the ground up – one that will fight on all fronts.
It is the last roll of the dice for the Achean League. But Alexanor knows Philopoemen is one of the greatest warriors Greece has ever known – the New Achilles. The Last Greek.
Expected release: April 2020 (Orion)
PATERNUS: WAR OF GODS
(Paternus #3)
Dyrk Ashton
The stunningly epic conclusion to the PATERNUS trilogy.
Expected release: May 2020 (Self-published)
BY FORCE ALONE
Lavie Tidhar
Everyone thinks they know the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of . . . whatever. You can look it up on Wikipedia. You can see it in those pretty Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
But there was never a painting that showed the true Britain, the clogged sewer Rome abandoned just as soon as it could. A Britain where petty warlords murdered each other in the mud, and all the while the Angles and Saxons and—worst of all—the Jutes, were coming over here and taking our lands and taking our jobs and taking our women.
And what of the only man who could stop them. What of Arthur, King of the Britons? An over-promoted gangster, in thrall to that eldritch parasite, Merlin. Excalibur? A shady deal with a watery arms dealer. The Grail Quest? Have you no idea about the aliens and the radioactive blight? Ach. Well, you’d better read this then.
Expected release: May 2020 (Head of Zeus)
HARROW THE NINTH
(Locked Tomb #2)
Tamsyn Muir
Harrow the Ninth, the sequel to the sensational Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor’s haunted space station.
She answered the Emperor’s call.
She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.
In victory, her world has turned to ash.
After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman’s shoulders.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.
Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor’s Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?
Expected release: June 2020 (Tor.com)
THE TYRANT BARU CORMORANT
(Masquerade #3)
Seth Dickinson
The hunt is over. After fifteen years of lies and sacrifice, Baru Cormorant has the power to destroy the Imperial Republic of Falcrest that she pretends to serve. The secret society called the Cancrioth is real, and Baru is among them.
But the Cancrioth’s weapon cannot distinguish the guilty from the innocent. If it escapes quarantine, the ancient hemorrhagic plague called the Kettling will kill hundreds of millions…not just in Falcrest, but all across the world. History will end in a black bloodstain.
Is that justice? Is this really what Tain Hu hoped for when she sacrificed herself?
Baru’s enemies close in from all sides. Baru’s own mind teeters on the edge of madness or shattering revelation. Now she must choose between genocidal revenge and a far more difficult path — a conspiracy of judges, kings, spies and immortals, puppeteering the world’s riches and two great wars in a gambit for the ultimate prize.
If Baru had absolute power over the Imperial Republic, she could force Falcrest to abandon its colonies and make right its crimes.
Expected release: June 2020 (Tor)
THE OBSIDIAN TOWER
(The Gate of Secrets #1)
Melissa Caruso
The mage-marked granddaughter of a ruler of Vaskandar, Ryx was destined for power and prestige at the top of Vaskandran society. But her magic is broken; all she can do is uncontrollably drain the life from everything she touches, and Vaskandar has no place for a mage with unusable powers.
Then, one night, two terrible accidents befall her: Ryx accidentally kills a visiting dignitary in self-defense, activating a mysterious magical artifact sealed in an ancient tower in the heart of her family’s castle.
Ryx flees, seeking a solution to her deadly magic. She falls in with a group of unlikely magical experts investigating the disturbance in Vaskandar—and Ryx realizes that her family is in danger and her domain is at stake. She and her new colleagues must return to the family stronghold to take control of the artifact that everyone wants to claim—before it destroys the world.
Expected release: June 2020 (Orbit)
THE ORDER OF THE PURE MOON REFLECTED IN WATER
Zen Cho
Zen Cho returns with a found family wuxia fantasy that combines the vibrancy of old school martial arts movies with characters drawn from the margins of history.
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there. Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.
Expected release: June 2020 (Tor.com)
THE SUNKEN LAND BEGINS TO RISE AGAIN
M. John Harrison
Shaw had a breakdown, but he’s getting himself back together. He has a single room, a job on a decaying London barge, and an on-off affair with a doctor’s daughter called Victoria, who claims to have seen her first corpse at age thirteen.
It’s not ideal, but it’s a life. Or it would be if Shaw hadn’t got himself involved in a conspiracy theory that, on dark nights by the river, seems less and less theoretical…
Meanwhile, Victoria is up in the Midlands, renovating her dead mother’s house, trying to make new friends. But what, exactly, happened to her mother? Why has the local waitress disappeared into a shallow pool in a field behind the house? And why is the town so obsessed with that old Victorian morality tale, The Water Babies?
As Shaw and Victoria struggle to maintain their relationship, the sunken lands are rising up again, unnoticed in the shadows around them.
Expected release: June 2020 (Gollancz)
THE EMPIRE OF GOLD
(Daevabad #3)
S.A. Chakraborty
The final chapter in the bestselling, critically acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy, in which a con-woman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war.
Daevabad has fallen.
After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.
But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.
Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.
As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.
Expected release: June 2020 (Harper Voyager)
A FOOL’S HOPE
(The Last War #2)
Mike Shackle
Sequel to WE ARE THE DEAD.
Expected release: July 2020 (Gollancz)
DEMON IN WHITE
(Sun Eater #3)
Christopher Ruocchio
The third novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire.
Hadrian and his Red Company have been serving the Empire in military engagements against the Cielcin, the vicious alien civilisation bent on humanity’s destruction. And they’ve been successful: a cult-like fervour building around Hadrian following a particularly impressive victory. But popularity comes at a price: an assassination attempt, triggered by those within the Imperial government who are scared of his rise to prominence.
Now the Empire has turned dangerous, Hadrian and his crew leave to pursue his true interest: a search for a long-rumoured connection between the first Emperor and the Quiet: the ancient, seemingly long-dead race. And he will find the next key to unlocking their secrets in a massive library on a distant world.
The coordinates for their origin planet.
A planet that no longer holds life, but may still contain answers.
Expected release: July 2020 (Gollancz)
THE FIRES OF VENGEANCE
(The Burning #2)
Evan Winter
The much-anticipated sequel to THE RAGE OF DRAGONS.
Expected release: July 2020 (Orbit)
PEACE TALKS
(Dresden Files #16)
Jim Butcher
Harry Dresden is back and ready for action, in the new entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series. When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago–and all he holds dear?
Peace Talks is the sixteenth novel in the Dresden Files series and follows Harry’s adventures after the events of Skin Game.
Expected release: July 2020 (Orbit)
MASTER ARTIFICER
(Silent Gods #2)
Justin Call
The much-anticipated follow up to Master of Sorrows.
Expected release: August 2020 (Gollancz)
SORCERY OF A QUEEN
(Dragons of Terra #2)
Brian Naslund
Sequel to BLOOD OF AN EXILE.
Expected release: August 2020 (Tor)
THE MEMORY OF SOULS
(A Chorus of Dragons #3)
Jenn Lyons
WHAT IF YOU’RE THE ONE WHO HAS TO DIE?
Now that the city of Atrine has been destroyed and Relos Var’s plan to free the dark god Vol Karoth has been revealed—the end of the world is closer than ever.
To buy time for humanity, Kihrin, Janel, and Thurvishar must convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual that will strip the vané of their immortality—a ritual that certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the ones bringing the news.
Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to Vol Karoth is steadily growing in strength. How can Kihrin hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?
Expected release: August 2020 (Tor)
THE BLACK SONG
(Raven’s Blade #2)
Anthony Ryan
A matchless warrior is pitted against a near-God in the second epic installment of the Raven’s Blade series.
It has long been our lot in life, brother, to do what others can’t.
Vaelin Al Sorna was known across the realm as the greatest of warriors, but he thought battles were behind him. He was wrong. Prophecy and rumor led him across the sea to find a woman he once loved, and drew him into a war waged by the Darkblade, a man who believes himself a god–and one who has gathered a fanatical army that threatens all of the known world.
After a costly defeat by the Darkblade, Vaelin’s forces are shattered, while the self-proclaimed immortal and his army continue their terrible march. But during the clash, Vaelin regained some of the dark magic that once gave him unrivaled skill in battle. And though the fight he has been drawn into seems near unwinnable, the song that drives him now desires the blood of his enemy above all else…
Expected release: August 2020 (Ace)
THE LAST RITUAL
(Arkham Horror)
S.A. Sidor
A mad surrealist’s art threatens to rip open the fabric of reality, in this twisted tale of eldritch horror and conspiracy, from the wildy popular world of Arkham Horror.
Aspiring painter Alden Oakes is invited to join a mysterious art commune in Arkham: the New Colony. When celebrated Spanish surrealist Juan Hugo Balthazarr visits the colony, Alden and the other artists quickly fall under his charismatic spell. Balthazarr throws a string of decadent parties for Arkham’s social elite, conjuring arcane illusions which blur the boundaries between nightmare and reality. Only slowly does Alden come to suspect that Balthazarr’s mock rituals are intended to break through those walls and free what lies beyond. Alden must act, but it might already be too late to save himself, let alone Arkham.
Expected release: August 2020 (Aconyte)
CALL OF THE BONE SHIPS
(Tide Child #2)
RJ Barker
Expected release: September (Orbit Books)
THE TROUBLE WITH PEACE
(Age of Madness #2)
Joe Abercrombie
Expected release: September 2020 (Gollancz)
THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER
Stuart Turton
A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon who may or may not exist.
The outstanding new novel from Stuart Turton, author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Expected release: October 2020 (Raven Books)
THE BURNING GOD
(The Poppy War #3)
R.F. Kuang
Sequel to THE POPPY WAR and THE DRAGON REPUBLIC.
Expected release: November 2020 (Harper Voyager)
RUINSONG
(Series)
Julia Ember
Revolution or silence?
In a world where magic is sung, a powerful mage named Cadence is forced to use her power to torture her country’s disgraced nobility at her ruthless queen’s bidding.
But when Cadence is reunited with her childhood friend, a noblewoman with ties to the underground rebellion, she must make a choice: take a stand to free her country from a tyrant — or follow in her queen’s footsteps and become a monster herself.
In this dark and lush LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy, two young women from rival factions must work together to reunite their country as they wrestle with their feelings for each other.
Expected release: November (Farrar)
THE RHYTHM OF WAR
(Stormlight Archive #4)
Brandon Sanderson
The eagerly awaited sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling Oathbringer, from an epic fantasy writer at the top of his game.
After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage.
Now, as new technological discoveries begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.
Expected release: November 2020 (Tor)
HOLLOW EMPIRE
(Poison Wars #2)
Sam Hawke
Moving from poison and treachery to war and witchcraft, Sam Hawke’s Poison Wars continue with Hollow Empire, a fabulous epic fantasy adventure perfect for fans of Robin Hobb, Naomi Novik, and Scott Lynch.
Poison was only the beginning…. The deadly siege of Silasta woke the ancient spirits, and now the city-state must find its place in this new world of magic. But people and politics are always treacherous, and it will take all of Jovan and Kalina’s skills as proofer and spy to save their country when witches and assassins turn their sights to domination.
Expected release: December 2020 (Tor)
IDOLS FALL
(Iconoclasts #3)
Mike Shel
Sequel to ACHING GOD and SIN EATER, and the epic conclusion to the Iconoclasts trilogy.
Expected release: TBC (Self-published)
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Wow! Great book covers. I noticed how different the Book cover used now a days, compare to year 90`s. As time goes by literature also is improving from book covers to writing.
Great List of Books. I only need 15 books of these to complete my collection.
That’s quite the collection!
A really nice list of books here! One I was expecting to see was Fake Chocolate, by Amber Royer, coming out in April. Looking forward to the final book of the Chocoverse trilogy.
No interest in FALSE VALUE, the next Rivers of London book by Ben Aaronovitch?
I thought the Wolf of Oren-Yaro already came out? Could a sworn I read lready. Loved the urban details if that’s the case.
This new series from M Lawrence looks intriguing. I’d love to see some arctic apocalyptia. All too overlooked in fantasy
It was already re-released in ebook, but the paperback is coming in Feb. I loved it so much I couldn’t not include it here. 🙂
There’s a book called Ever Winter releasing in January by Peter Hackshaw that might scratch your arctic apocalyptica itch. Can probably nab you a review copy when it’s available if you like. 🙂
Amazing list! I’m bookmarking this to come back later and add some of these to my TBR?
So many great releases coming in the new year – THE BROKEN HEAVENS, THE WOLF OF OREN-YARO, THE UNSPOKEN NAME, THE RANGER OF MARZANNA, THE GIRL AND THE STARS, THE MEMORY OF SOULS, and THE RHYTHM OF WAR chief among them.
HOLLOW EMPIRE is one to catch my eye. Fortunately, I should have time to catch up.
Yes! I read OREN-YARO earlier this year before it was picked up by Orbit, and am so excited it’s being unleashed in bookstores next year. It’s SO GOOD.