Upcoming Speculative Fiction by Beloved Authors!

The next few months are giving us a lot to look forward to, book-wise! Authors we already know and love are coming out with new works in new worlds, offering that delightful combination of known quality in form with exciting novelty in content. Nightshade and Oak by Molly O’Neill coming in February, Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher coming in March, What We are Seeking by Cameron Reed coming in April, and Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Barry coming in June are all engaging and satisfying books that solidify their authors’ places in my list of faves.

Nightshade and Oak by Molly O’Neill will hit the shelves (or your ereader; you do you) on February 3rd, published by Orbit. Molly O’Neill’s previous book, Greenteeth first caught my attention because it was likened to T. Kingfisher’s work, and I certainly see the connection. Both authors have protagonists and supporting characters who lead with kindness, and try to do the right thing by each other in imperfect circumstances.

In Nightshade and Oak, a goddess of death is accidentally turned mortal, and she and the witch who is responsible end up questing together to try to save the witch’s sister and restore the goddess’s status. As they share situation after situation, and explore realm after realm, they develop a romance, but I do caution the reader (this is maybe a spoiler but I’m going for it) that this is not capital R Romance as a genre and thus one should not automatically assume a Happily Ever After for the couple.

I recommend Nightshade and Oak if you enjoy Arthurian legends but think they could use some more explicit sapphic elements.

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher is coming out March 24th from Tor Nightfire. My appreciation for T. Kingfisher is well documented, and I’m always excited to get a new one from her. Wolf Worm is horror, and while it is not part of the Sworn Soldier series, it takes place in a time and setting that feels pretty similar.

The main character is a scientific illustrator who takes a job with a reclusive scientist working on a definitive book about a specific parasite. Little does she know what peril awaits her in the surrounding woods! I personally find A House with Good Bones to be Kingfisher’s scariest horror novel, but I think Wolf Worm now takes the prize for grossest. I loved it.

I recommend Wolf Worm if you are the kind of person who can eat lunch while reading The Walking Dead.

What We Are Seeking is the highly anticipated next novel from Cameron Reed, author of The Fortunate Fall. The Fortunate Fall, which came out in 1996 and was recently rereleased in a Tor Essentials edition, took place in a cyberpunk dystopian Earth setting.

In contrast, What We Are Seeking, which comes out April 7th  from Tor Books, takes place on the planet Scythia in a very far future. It deals with the culture clash between settlers there, who are from different planets with different ideas about how to live right, especially concerning sexual relationships. The worldbuilding, both the descriptions of the planets themselves and the societies that form on them, is rich and engrossing.

I recommend What We Are Seeking if you like thought experiments about alternatives to marriage as a social construct, or stories about plants turning into bugs.

Kill All Wizards by Jedediah Berry is, as far as I know, unique in this roundup because it is the start of a new series! Coming out from Tordotcom on June 16th, Kill All Wizards has an extremely fun premise, with the lyrical, literary execution that I have grown to expect from Berry after reading The Manual of Detection and The Naming Song. Kill all Wizards also has one of the best official blurbs I’ve read:

The barbarian traveled far to consult the wizards of the empire. Instead of lending their aid, they ensorcelled him, exploited his strength, and stole his sword. They should not have done that.

Now the barbarian plans to kill every wizard who wronged him, even if that means blending in with their vile society: dressing in finery, taking tea in exclusive clubs, and reserving the best box at the theater.

Oh, he hates it all with the fiery passion of his savage heart—but not as much as he hates these wizards.

I recommend Kill all Wizards (which is only 144 pages) if you’d like to infuse mind-bending magic into P.G. Wodehouse for a weekend.

I hope you have a wonderful Spring of new worlds!