More Spring Speculative Fiction by Beloved Authors!

The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko comes out today! It’s extremely exciting to have the start of a new middle grade series from this beloved author. Joining it this Spring, we also have The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale, a cozy new standalone from C.M. Waggoner, and A Long and Speaking Silence, a new installment in the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo, which can be read in any order! All these authors are ones I watch for, and it feels fitting for Spring to have these fresh starts.

I love Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer books, which are YA, and maybe I loveThe Maid and the Crocodile, which takes place in the same world, even more? After those, I was interested to see Ifueko go younger in her audience, since it feels like a lot of YA authors I enjoy (including Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson and John Green) are trying out writing for grown-ups lately.

The Genie Game is indeed aimed at tweens and young teens, but it doesn’t pull any punches. It presents our loveable heroine in a corporate dystopia, her parents brainwashed by oligarchs. She gets sucked into indenture slavery, where she is forced to play a “game” granting wishes to magically fuel the three corporate entities that control her world. Many of the wishes are for small things that provide a bandaid over much larger problems the corporations themselves have created.

The Genie Game kind of reminds me of The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex in its tone, but Ifueko’s satire is more pointed. In that way it also kind of reminds me of Dungeon Crawler Carl for kids, with its enforced and dangerous gameplay under the auspices of an uncaring and extremely powerful entity.

The story takes place in a futuristic and magic-inflected Los Angeles. The heroine loves film, and is paired up with a sentient Boba shop as her “bottle.” She’s the genie. Plan to get some bubble tea while you’re reading this one, and plan to think a lot about how creating films can also create change. Published by Amulet.

The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale by C.M. Waggoner came out March 17th, published by Ace. Like The Genie Game, it is a welcome addition to the author’s short but terrific list of books. I was blown away by Waggoner’s first book, Unnatural Magic in 2019, and have loved each of hers consecutively: The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry, which takes place in the same world as Unnatural Magic a generation later; and The Village Library Demon Hunting Society, which is ABOUT cozies but I don’t think actually qualifies as a cozy. This new one sure is cozy, though.

In The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale, in a new world for Waggoner, someone leaves a baby for a practicing witch to raise, and then several years later, someone else comes by and declares him to be the king. The witch knows that this sweet, handsome boy is not going to be happy OR good for the kingdom in this role, and sets out to save both her kid and the land.

It is both cozy and progressive, and while it is technically a book for grown-ups, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it on the list of Alex Award contenders for next year, since I think there is a lot in it to appeal to teens. It plays on fairy tale and folktale expectations in a very fun way, often reminding me of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books.

Finally for this list, A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo comes out on May 5 from TOR! If you haven’t read any of the Singing Hills Cycle books, this would be a great one to start with. While the books of the Singing Hills Cycle can be read in any order, this one tells a story from Chih’s very earliest days as a wandering cleric, and I think it would be a nice introduction to the world and character.

In A Long and Speaking Silence we see Chih new to their duties of traveling the countryside and chronicling stories, experiences and events for the archive back home. They’re unfortunately stuck waiting tables for cash,  in a town where tensions are mounting. Refugees are eyed with dislike and suspicion by many of the longtime residents and Chih must navigate different groups’ ways of life to learn how their stories merge.

As always with the Singing Hills Cycle, A Long and Speaking Silence offers us a fully realized world that has profound resonance with our own, in a lyrically written novella.

If you are in the mood for a new urban fantasy series, a standalone in a clever fairytale world, or a good starting point in an existing cycle, you’re in  for a treat this Spring!