Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish and is now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Check out upcoming Top Ten themes on Jana’s blog!
This week’s theme is, you guessed it, the books we’re most looking forward to in the second half of the year. You are, of course, free to check out my list of Unmissable SFF of 2024, which features ALL the SFF I’m more excited for in 2024. But if you made me pick just ten for the second half of the year… I guess I’d have to go with these!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gender weirdness
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
A palace the size of a city, ruled by giant Ladies of unknowable, eldritch origin. A land left to slow decay, drowning in the debris of generations. All this and more awaits you within The West Passage, a delightfully mysterious and intriguingly weird medieval fantasy unlike anything you've read before.
When the Guardian of the West Passage died in her bed, the women of Grey Tower fed her to the crows and went back to their chores. No successor was named as Guardian, no one took up the fallen blade; the West Passage went unguarded.
Now, snow blankets Grey in the height of summer. Rats erupt from beneath the earth, fleeing that which comes. Crops fail. Hunger looms. And none stand ready to face the Beast, stirring beneath the poisoned soil.
The fate of all who live in the palace hangs on narrow shoulders. The too-young Mother of Grey House sets out to fix the seasons. The unnamed apprentice of the deceased Grey Guardian goes to warn Black Tower. Both their paths cross the West Passage, the ancient byway of the Beast. On their journeys they will meet schoolteachers and beekeepers, miracles and monsters, and very, very big Ladies. None can say if they'll reach their destinations, but one thing is for the world is about to change.
‘Eldritch’ is one of those terms that makes me pounce like a kitten jumping on a feather toy, and I adore everything I’ve seen and heard about The West Passage. It sounds weird and surreal, like a dream with teeth, and I have SUCH high hopes for it!
Plus, it’s going to be illustrated!!! You can see some of the art, and read an excerpt, here!
Genres: Adult, Sci Fi
Representation: Black MC
Published on: 1st August 2024
Goodreads
Marca Nbaro had always dreamed of serving aboard the Greatships, with their vast cargo holds and a crew that could fill a city.They are the lifeblood of human-occupied space, transporting an unimaginable volume - and value - of goods from City, the greatest human orbital, all the way to Tradepoint at the other, to trade for xenoglas with an unknowable alien species.And now, out in the darkness of space, something is targeting them.
Nbaro and her friends are close to locating their enemy, in this gripping sequel to the award-nominated Artifact Space, but they are running out of time - and their allies are running out of patience . . .
Written by one of the most exciting new voices in SF, this space thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
I’ve been dying for the next Arcana Imperii book since finishing book one, Artifact Space, aka one of my Best of 2021 reads! Yes, we got a collection of short stories set in this verse, BUT I NEED THE REAL SEQUEL, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC with clinical anxiety, brown sapphic love interest, brown trans secondary character
Published on: 13th August 2024
Goodreads
A socially awkward but determined phoenix keeper must partner with her longtime rival to save her beloved exhibit from falling into obscurity in this charming, romantic fantasy debut.
Aila is a little obsessed with phoenixes.
As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, her childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix-nabbing cripples the flagship program at a neighbouring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving a species takes more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks — Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. Inspiring zoo patrons? That’s another story. Finding the courage to ask for help from the hot dragon keeper at a neighbouring exhibit? Virtually impossible. And don’t get Aila started on her arch-rival from the glamorous leader of the zoo’s wildly popular griffin show, who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve better as a performer than a conservation exhibit.
Aided by both friends and enemies, Aila must conquer her social anxiety if she is to restore her breeding programme. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success isn’t only a matter of keeping her the future of a species depends on her.
I have been BEGGING for (Adult) fantasy featuring fantasy vets or zoos for YEARS – and now we’re getting one!!! And it’s queer!!! And it’s illustrated with ‘scientific’ diagrams of the phoenixes!!! HI YES I’LL TAKE A DOZEN PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 17th September 2024
Goodreads
A thrilling anthology of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.
From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy, through the realms next door to Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories. Here, among many others, we encounter:
• A mushroom witch who learns that sometimes the worst thing in the Scholomance can be your roommate.
• The start of the Dragon Corps in ancient Rome, after Mark Antony hatches a dragon’s egg and bonds with the hatchling.
• A young bride in the Middle Ages who finds herself gambling with Death for the highest of stakes.
• A delightful reimagining of Pride & Prejudice, in which Elizabeth Bennet captains a Longwing dragon.
• The first glimpse of the world of Abandon, the setting of Novik’s upcoming epic fantasy series—a deserted continent populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural mysteries.Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: wrestling with destiny, and the lengths some will go to find their own and fulfill its promise.
Naomi Novick is one of my auto-buy authors; if she writes it, I will read it! I love her prose, and I’m especially excited for a glimpse back into the Scholomance world, and a look forward to the world of her next series! (About which I know nothing, so I’m extra grabby-hands.)
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Nonbinary pansexual brown MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads
These are the voyages of the Starship Glam. The further adventures of Dess and Mira and Oort, and introducing Marvin the half-human, half-Esca ingenue on drums. Earth is safe, for the moment, and taking its first steps into the greater galactic community—you know that won’t go well. Another Grand Prix is always right around the corner. And of course, other possibly-sentient species can emerge at any time…
Catherynne Valente is another auto-buy author for me – I would pounce on anything she writes, but a sequel to the glitterpunk Space Opera?! I may just explode into sparkly confetti!!!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads
"The Naming Song understands the fundamental magic of language, and breathes that magic onto every page." --Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author
There's nothing more dangerous than an unnamed thing
When the words went away, the world changed.
All meaning was lost, and every border fell. Monsters slipped from dreams to haunt the waking while ghosts wandered the land in futile reveries. Only with the rise of the committees of the named--Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names--could the people stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. They built borders around their world and within their minds, shackled ghosts and hunted monsters, and went to war against the unknown.
For one unnamed courier of the Names Committee, the task of delivering new words preserves her place in a world that fears her. But after a series of monstrous attacks on the named, she is forced to flee her committee and seek her long-lost sister. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the shadows, her search for the truth of her past opens the door to a revolutionary future--for the words she carries will reshape the world.
The Naming Song is a book of deep secrets and marvelous discoveries, strange adventures and dangerous truths. It's the story of a world locked in a battle over meaning. Most of all, it's the perfect fantasy for anyone who's ever dreamed of a stranger, freer, more magical world.
Give me SFF that is genuinely like nothing else I’ve ever seen, and I’ll be there with bells on. The premise of Naming Song has had me hooked since I first heard about it, and I am extremely hopeful that I will be wowed!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 1st October 2024
Goodreads
In this new standalone, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin.
A demon. An angel. A city that burns at the heart of the world.
The demon Vitrine—immortal, powerful, and capricious—loves the dazzling city of Azril. She has mothered, married, and maddened the city and its people for generations, and built it into a place of joy and desire, revelry and riot.
And then the angels come, and the city falls.
Vitrine is left with nothing but memories and a book containing the names of those she has lost—and an angel, now bound by her mad, grief-stricken curse to haunt the city he burned.
She mourns her dead and rages against the angel she longs to destroy. Made to be each other’s devastation, angel and demon are destined for eternal battle. Instead, they find themselves locked in a devouring fascination that will change them both forever.
Together, they unearth the past of the lost city and begin to shape its future. But when war threatens Azril and everything they have built, Vitrine and her angel must decide whether they will let the city fall again.
The City in Glass is both a brilliantly constructed history and an epic love story, of death and resurrection, memory and transformation, redemption and desire strong enough to burn a world to ashes and build it anew.
It’s Nghi Vo; if you’re not excited for a new book from her, you’re doing this whole Life thing incorrectly. And Vo giving us her take on angels and demons, creatures I’m fascinated by but so rarely see done interestingly??? YES PLEASE!!!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Science Fantasy
Representation: Caribbean-coded MC?
Published on: 15th October 2024
Goodreads
Nebula and MIFRE award-winning author R.S.A. Garcia’s scifantasy debut novel—the first in a duology—in which Caribbean mythology meets The Witcher, introduces a world where women warrior-magicians rule, and a child princess and her bodyguard must flee an attempted coup and evade the wave of darkness sent to kill her.
For 500 years Gaiea’s Hand has stood as a ward against the Dark. The Age of Chaos is a faded memory. The Goddess has left Gailand and given her Blessing to the Queens to rule in her stead.
Princess Viella of the court of Hamber is the Spirit of Gaiea, presumptive heir to the throne and budding wielder of magic. And yet she’s still a child—not yet ten years old—and a day spent evading her teachers and her dutiful bodyguard, Luka, is much more satisfying than learning about telepathy, illusions, and other spells, or obeying even her mother, the Queen.
There is time enough…until there isn’t.
For the night the Queen hosts the Ceremony to confirm Viella as the next Hand of Gaiea, everything changes for her—in the most horrific way the assassination of Viella’s mother.
Now Viella is Queen.
Luka, despite resenting his position as royal babysitter, does not hesitate. He rushes his charge from the Court and vows to keep her safe. Yet he is unsure how to help a burgeoning Hand of Gaiea, let alone contend with his place as a man in a matriarchal world and the secret that is burning inside him.
Together, they are on the run from darkness in a world where the lines between magic and technology are blurring and it’s up to a child and her protector to bring clarity and light back to the Queendom.
Exactly which part of that premise am I NOT supposed to be swooning for??? Hmm??? HMM???
I’ll wait.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer cast
Published on: 22nd October 2024
Goodreads
For fans of The Princess Bride and Gideon the Ninth: a bloody lesbian revenge tale and political fantasy set in a glittering world transformed by industrial change – and simmering class warfare.
He who controls ichorite controls the world.
A malleable metal more durable than steel, ichorite is a toxic natural resource fueling national growth, and ambitious industrialist Yann Chauncey helms production of this miraculous ore. Working his foundry is an underclass of destitute workers, struggling to get better wages and proper medical treatment for those exposed to ichorite’s debilitating effects since birth.
One of those luster-touched victims, the child worker Marney Honeycutt, is picketing with her family and best friend when a bloody tragedy unfolds. Chauncey’s strikebreakers open fire.
Only Marney survives.
A decade later, as Yann Chauncey searches for a suitable political marriage for his ward, Marney sees the perfect opportunity for revenge. With the help of radical bandits and their stolen wealth, she must masquerade as an aristocrat to win over the calculating Gossamer Chauncey and kill the man who slaughtered her family and friends. But she is not the only suitor after Lady Gossamer’s hand, leading her to play twisted elitist games of intrigue. And Marney’s luster-touched connection to the mysterious resource and its foundry might put her in grave danger – or save her from it.
H. A. Clarke’s adult fantasy debut, writing as August Clarke, Metal From Heaven is a caustic, dizzying eco-fantasy that addresses labor politics, corporate greed, and the relentless grind of capitalism, while also embodying a visceral lesbian revenge quest against the people and institutions who control and oppress the helpless.
"A riotous phantasmagoria that epitomizes the phrase 'be gay, do crime.'" - Melinda Borie, Collection Development Librarian, Floyd County Library (New Albany, IN)
If you’ve been here a while, you know that I am absolutely rabid for the Scapegracers trilogy by HA Clarke. (Reviews of book one, two, and three!) Well, THIS IS HIS ADULT DEBUT.
MY SHRIEK WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THIS BROKE A WINDOW, OKAY, YOU CANNOT COMPREHEND HOW VIOLENTLY EXCITED I AM FOR IT.
It’s august clarke, I would eat his prose raw, but then that premise?!
*screams at a pitch only dogs can hear*
You can read an excerpt here!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Desi(-coded?) queer MC
Published on: 5th November 2024
Goodreads
Looking for your one shot to rise to the "top of the pots" in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further--you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!
Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili... and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus's austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. No one from Earth--where they're so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire--has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams. Until now.
Corporate prodigy Serenity Ko, inventor of the smash-hit sim SoundSpace, has just got messily drunk at a floating bar, narrowly escaped an angry mob and been put on two weeks' mandatory leave to rest and get her work-life balance back. Perfect time to start a new project! And she's got just the idea: a sim for food. Now she just needs someone to teach her how to cook.
A chance meeting in the back of a flying cab has Saras and Serenity Ko working together on a new technology that could change the future of food--and both their lives--forever...
Great British bake off in space, but anticolonial and queer??? IT’S AS IF THIS WAS WRITTEN JUST FOR ME PERSONALLY. I love foodie SFF, and this one sounds delicious. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it!
(I can never resist a bad pun, okay?)
Which books are YOU most looking forward to for the rest of the year???
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