Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other genres sneak in occasionally too.
TWELVE books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Trans MC, trans love interest, M/M/F
Published on: 15th July 2024
Goodreads
Tony is one of a hundred security guards stationed at Green Endeavors, a cutting-edge scientific research facility on a lush jungle planet.
Like many of his co-workers, he’s a convict, working on an uncolonized alien world in exchange for years off his sentence. But while most of them are simple thieves, Tony, prior to his arrest, was heir to the infamously violent, staggeringly wealthy Red Vulture Cartel.
It would be easy for him to feel out of place among a bunch of dumb uniformed grunts and xenobotany nerds.Luckily, one dumb grunt in particular has become his best (and only) Thunder Skultz, disgraced veteran, fellow trans man, and cheerful idiot. (Possibly also the love of Tony’s life. Jury’s still out.)
So Tony’s less than thrilled when their bosses decide to expand the compound’s security and add a third member to his previously two-man team.
Her name’s Carol.
She’s unbearable.Bubbly, chipper, naïve – everything Tony hates.
Everything that Thunder, apparently, can’t get enough of.
SCIFI ROMANCE + DRAMA, M/M/F, POLY, TRANS MAIN CHAR
TJ Klune? No thank you, give me TJ LAND, please! I always end up having an IMMENSE amount of fun with Land’s books, no matter how far their premises might seem from what I usually enjoy… I expect this time will be no different!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
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.
A book that left me breathless; The West Passage is going straight onto my best-of-the-decade list. It is so weird and so beautiful and so POWERFUL and I cannot recommend it enough!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary MC
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
In this newest novella from the queer, mystical Birdverse, an apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist share their tales in order to make a fateful decision. Lush and lyrical, this cross-cultural tale of the beauty of language is a gift to anyone who appreciates the transformative power of storytelling.
In the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan waits for a first assignment. After their first kill, they will graduate, and attain the coveted cloth of bone. But instead of a commission, Stone Orphan gets an inquisitive linguist, Ulín.
Ulín has heard the Orphan Star’s song of despair, mirroring her own, and drawing her to the School of Assassins. But Ulín is far more interested in learning Stone Orphan’s language than deciding whom she wishes to kill.
Unable to contain their curiosity, Stone Orphan offers to exchange stories with Ulín to help her decide the fate of three men.
In R. B. Lemberg’s newest, lyrical Birdverse novella (The Four Profound Weaves; Geometries of Belonging), an assassin and a linguist negotiate their very different languages, past betrayals, and an unexpected bond. By turns, Stone Orphan and Ulín narrate tales of love, suffering, exile, and self-determination, and two hurt souls find hope in each other through a radical listening.
Lemberg has described this as their ‘fish communism novella’, and no, I have no idea what that means, but I am SO VERY INVESTED in finding out! I love their Birdverse and am excited to get back to it (although I THINK this works as a standalone – like most of the Birdverse stories – so you can probably jump in even if you haven’t read any other Birdverse stuff!)
You can read an excerpt here!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy
Representation: Desi-coded cast and setting
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
Delve into this debut fantasy and journey through the Spice Gates as Amir, a young man born with the ability to travel between the eight kingdoms, unravels the power that keeps the world in balance, perfect for readers of Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty, S.A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad Trilogy, and Andrea Stewart’s The Drowning Empire.
The weight of spice is more than you know.
Relics of a mysterious god, the Spice Gates connect the eight far-flung kingdoms, each separated by a distinct spice and only accessible by those born with a special mark. This is not a caste of distinction, though, but one of subjugation: Spice Carriers suffer the lashes of their masters, the weight of the spices they bear on their backs, and the jolting pain of the Gates themselves.
Amir is one such Spice Carrier, and he dreams of escaping his fate of being a mule for the rich who gorge themselves on spices like the addicted gluttons they are. More important than relieving his own pain, though, is saving his family, especially his brother, born like him with the unfortunate spice mark that designates him for a life of servitude.
But while Amir makes his plans for freedom, something stirs in the inhospitable spaces between the kingdoms. Fate has designs of its own for Amir, and he soon finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that could disrupt the delicate dynamics of the kingdoms forever.
The more Amir discovers truth and myth blurring, the more he realizes that his own schemes are insignificant compared to the machinations going on around him. Forced to chase after shadows with unlikely companions, searching for answers that he never even thought to question, Amir’s simple dream of slipping away transforms into a grand, Spice Gate–hopping adventure. Gods, assassins, throne-keepers, and slaves all have a vested interest in the spice trade, and Amir will have to decide—for the first time in his life—what kind of world he wants to live in…if the world survives at all.
I was disappointed by this one, but hopefully it will find readers who love it. It’s such an interesting premise!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Portal Fantasy
Representation: Asexual MC, M/M
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie’s sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months—for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
Lost Story takes a while to get going, but the time is spent developing the characters – and I think it’s well-spent; the characters are pretty great. Haven’t finished this one quite yet, but I’m enjoying it so far!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gay character, Muslim character, character with clinical anxiety and depression, trans character
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive.
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides; the Saracen Knight; and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.
But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.
I’m very wary of King Arthur stories…but a book set after King Arthur’s death, featuring the Round Table’s misfits??? All right, sir, you have my attention!
Genres: Adult, Speculative Fiction
Representation: East Asian cast and setting
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
A beautifully crafted, enriching saga inspired by East Asian mythology, The Melancholy of Untold History is Minsoo Kang’s debut novel, steeped in history like R.F. Kuang’s Babel, epic in scope like Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, and lyrically exciting like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, interweaving four complex yet entertaining stories as they shape and create a nation’s literary narrative through the themes of love and grief.
A history professor mourning his wife. His young protégé’s search for a path forward. Four witty mountain gods with much to say and not enough time to listen. A gifted storyteller bringing a world into being out of thin air...
Famous for his dispelling of the national myth, the Historian understands the power of narrative. He has inspired another young professor to search for her own truths, while trying to understand the way fiction creates fact and how sometimes the past can only be understood by filling in holes with a new narrative. Which is exactly what he needs when his wife passes away to parse meaning out of a world that no longer makes sense.
Together the protégé and the Historian find comfort in each other. Yet they know their time together is fleeting, as time usually is. Only the gods have an abundance of time, and yet—the two discover—even that might not be so clear cut. Part of their homeland’s myth tells of four gods who squabbled and argued and destroyed and rebuilt time and again.
Or did they?
Because, of course, even the gods need mouthpieces on earth. And the one the Historian knows of—the elusive Storyteller—may have just been spinning tales for his own amusement and, ultimately, revenge. By fabricating the exploits of the gods, he could have set a course for certain events to unfold and a particular story to survive today.
Spanning 3,000 years and multiple voices—with tales within tales woven expertly together—The Melancholy of Untold History reveals a people and its individuals who seek to confront the hardships of life through storytelling. Mixing the East Asian mythos with a postmodern approach to standard sci-fi/fantasy narrative tropes, Minsoo Kang has created a challenging, beautiful, sad, humorous, and ultimately unforgettable novel of love, grief, and myth-making.
‘Empires fall. Love dies. Myth endures.’ is one hell of a tagline. I have very little idea of what to expect, but the reviews I’ve read were full of praise, and I mean – gods, storytellers, revenge, history??? This is ticking a lot of boxes on the Things Sia Loves list, sooo…
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC, M/M, nonbinary character
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
Is love worth destroying his reputation?
Ten years ago, the theft of his codex destroyed Talio Rossa’s career as a magistrate in the four cities. But when his ex-wife—finally willing to forgive finding him in bed with a man—presents him a long-shot legal case, he has the chance to get his career back on track.
While fighting to rejoin the legal community, Talio uncovers a conspiracy so big it threatens the origins of the four cities themselves. Their prosperity is only thanks to their connection by magical floating waterways and the brilliance of their legal system, now regarded as near scripture.
To save his career, Talio must work with both the one who doomed his marriage and the hooded, heretical man who sets his heart aflame but is determined to plead guilty to a murder he didn't commit. To stand a chance of winning the case, saving his career and the man of his dreams, Talio will have to uncover an explosive secret destined to blow the legal system apart.
Find out what happens in Talio’s Codex by J. Alexander Cohen!
Fantasy / Thriller / Legal / Adventure / Gay / LGBT
Adult
This…was a bit rough around the edges; much more drama than thriller, with a well-intentioned but unsatisfying (for me) exploration of religious differences and being nonbinary in a society that has no concept of that. But I hope it finds the right readers. Expect my review soon!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Portal Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Asexual MC; sapphic MCs; fat MC; major trans character, major Hispanic/Latino character, major Japanese(-American?) character
Protagonist Age: 16-18ish
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
Hugo Award for Best Series
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire is the story of Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, a boarding school for children who come home from portal fantasy worlds and can’t adjust to their new lives.
"A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy — a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll's and C. S. Lewis' classics" —NPR
The first five books in Seanan McGuire's multi-Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series.
Join the students of Eleanor West, and jump through doors into worlds both dangerous and extraordinary.
This ebundle
Book 1: Every Heart a Doorway
Book 2: Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Book 3: Beneath the Sugar Sky
Book 4: In an Absent Dream
Book 5: Come Tumbling DownChildren have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.
But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.
Meet Nancy, cast out of her world by the Lord of the Dead; Jack and Jill, each adopted by a monster of the Moors; Sumi and her impossible daughter, Rini; Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than live up to the expectations of the world around her.
Five worlds, Five adventures, Five sets of lives destined to intersect.
Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations / No Visitors / No QuestsBut quests are what these children do best...
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A huge Wayward Children bundle! As an ebook omnibus! (I have an obsession with digital omnibuses. Omnibi???) I love this series, and this would serve to get your hands on the first five books at once, if you want that for some reason (I do think having a few sequels on hand is a good idea when starting – I adore the characters of the first novella, but imo it has the least interesting story. I think the later books are more likely to get you hooked!)
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
A haunting, imaginative, and twisting tale of two sisters and the menacing, unexplained forces that threaten them and their rural mountain community.
Ferns grow knee-deep along the shoulder, laced with briars and unripe raspberries, so thick they could hide a bear. Could hide anything, really.
In 1980s Appalachia, life isn’t easy for Sheila. She endures relentless taunting and bullying at the hands of her classmates; she takes care of her great-aunt, the garden and home, and the rabbits; and forages for mushrooms in the forest, all while her mother works long, back-breaking shifts at the nearby state asylum. But it’s her peculiar little sister, Angie, who worries her the most. Angie is obsessed with nuclear war, Rambo, zombies, a Russian invasion of their community, and the ominous, tarot-like cards that she creates that somehow speak to her. As if all that weren’t enough, Sheila feels an unexplainable weight around her neck. Is it the ancient and strange mountain that they live on that casts its shadow on her, or something or someone else unknown? Unseen?
When a pair of female hikers are brutally murdered on the nearby Appalachian trail, Sheila and Angie find themselves inexorably drawn into the hunt for the killer. As the ever-present threat of violence looms larger, the mountain might be the only thing that can save them from the darkness consuming their home and their community.
Unsettling, propulsive, and chillingly atmospheric, Alisa Alering’s Smothermoss opens a hidden door into a world caught between rural gothic and fairytale, inviting the reader to renegotiate what is seen and unseen, what is real and what is haunted
Early reviews are very mixed for this one, but I’m willing to give it a try. Seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it book, and there’s rarely any way to predict which it will be for you!
Genres: Horror, YA
Representation: BIPOC MCs
Published on: 16th July 2024
Goodreads
13 SCARY STORIES. 13 AUTHORS OF COLOR. 13 TIMES WE SURVIVED... THE FIRST KILL.
The White Guy Dies First includes thirteen scary stories by all-star contributors and this time, the white guy dies first.
Killer clowns, a hungry hedge maze, and rich kids who got bored. Friendly cannibals, impossible slashers, and the dead who don’t stay dead....
A museum curator who despises “diasporic inaccuracies.” A sweet girl and her diary of happy thoughts. An old house that just wants friends forever....
These stories are filled with ancient terrors and modern villains, but go ahead, go into the basement, step onto the old plantation, and open the magician’s mystery box because this time, the white guy dies first.
Edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker, including stories from bestselling, award-winning, and up-and-coming contributors: Adiba Jaigirdar, Alexis Henderson, Chloe Gong, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, H. E. Edgmon, Kalynn Bayron, Karen Strong, Kendare Blake, Lamar Giles, Mark Oshiro, Naseem Jamnia, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Terry J. Benton-Walker.
A collection you’ll be dying to talk about… if you survive it.
WELL. This should be awesome. Fingers crossed!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Sapphic asexual MC
Published on: 20th July 2024
Goodreads
Estelle’s life is pretty boring, all things considered: she doesn’t have much to worry about, she spends her days on archeological digs deep below the surface of Mars and writing scientific articles on the aliens who ruled over the Solar System many millennia ago.
But nothing lasts forever. Unexpectedly, Estelle and her mentor unearth long-lost knowledge which, if revealed, could dramatically shift the balance of power between nations, and possibly even turn the ongoing cold war between the major factions in the Solar System into a blazing hot one.
So now Estelle has to flee, leave her home behind in a bid to keep that knowledge from falling into the wrong hands; and along the way, she’ll have to decide where the lines of loyalty are drawn… and whom she can trust.
I saw this pitched as ‘Bond story from the point of view of the Bond Girl (who’s a lesbian and asexual)’ in a hard sci-fi, 24th century setting, and I am sold! I mean, I’d be sold ANYWAY, because I am a massive fan of archaeologists working on alien ruins, but a 24th-century setting?! With a QUEER BOND GIRL IN SPACE?! Hi, where do I sign???
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
As a super-fast reader, I have been waiting for an ebook omnibus of the Wayward Children books… but it’s over $40?!? Maybe I should be careful what I wish for…
I know :/ Tor’s novellas are top quality, but they really are expensive…