The rousing sequel to Ezell’s Magelight, this romantic ménage à quatre fantasy takes recently jilted Aelys and her three burly protectors to Zandrine, where she hopes to escape her stifling heritage and polish her newly minted powers as a magic-wielding Bellatrix. The spell that once bound this band of characters together has broken, leaving emotional and sexual entanglements up in the air: former forester Daen grumpily nurses the mistaken conviction that Aelys doesn’t want them as badly as they desire her; Vik, a not-so-reformed thief, tenderly yearns to be back under the spell, able to send energy into Aelys and receive it back through the bond; and Romik, a fierce warrior, still adores Aelys but fears going to Zandrine, site of the upcoming Imperial Games, where he may be forced to enter the arena again. With new men falling under her spell and an emperor to save from malignant rebels, Aelys learns to enjoy her reverse-harem arrangement. Colorful scene-setting backdrops the well-defined and sympathetic characters and their intricate loves, some of which are here finally fulfilled. Series fans will not be disappointed. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Baker (Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng) creates a breathless collision of timelines, cultures, and destinies in this impressive horror outing. In 2006, troubled New York City college student Lee Turner turns up at his father’s doorstep in Japan on the run from a horrific crime that he doesn’t totally remember and hoping to finally get some answers about his mother’s disappearance when he was a child. His father’s ancient house is crowded with ghosts, including that of Sen of Shimazu, the daughter of one of the last remaining samurai families in 1877, who is snared in a time loop, perpetually training for a battle she will inevitably lose. Sen and Lee develop an uneasy rapport that illuminates for both of them the darkest parts of themselves. As Sen careens toward her brutal fate, Lee learns that the truths that haunt him might be better off staying buried. In wrenching prose, Baker renders her characters both deeply flawed and profoundly human. The unsparing, poetic voice propels the story to its bitter end while evoking the nightmare of feeling like an outsider even among family. It’s as gruesome as it is un-put-downable. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

In this stellar second entry in the Captive’s War series, bestselling author duo Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, writing as Corey, ingeniously expand on the worldbuilding of The Mercy of Gods. The arthropodlike Carryx aliens are bent on subjugating all other intelligent life forms, including the humans of the planet Anjiin. From Anjiin, the Carryx abducted those it believed could help them in their eternal war, including genius scientist Tonner Freis and his subordinate, Dafyd Alkhor. After the humans were transported to a Carryx vessel, they were pitted against other species to prove their worth and justify their continued existence, leading to difficult moral choices, including Dafyd’s decision to betray other humans planning a revolt he knew would only accelerate all their deaths. The repercussions of that choice play out here, with the protagonists of the first book mostly working and living apart. Meanwhile, one human is revealed to be the host for a parasitic swarm bent on gathering intelligence about the Carryx to enable its kind to defeat these merciless foes. The authors continue to expertly balance character and plot development, setting the stage effectively for the series’ denouement. This wows. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/30/2026 | Details & Permalink

Bouazzaoui’s wrenching debut, set during the Portuguese occupation of Morocco and drawn from the story of Aicha Kandicha, a warrior goddess from Moroccan folklore, resounds with rage and violence. Aicha, the motherless daughter of a revolutionary blacksmith, is raised to be a warrior in a citadel that has been subjugated by the ruthless Portuguese commander Duarte Almeida. At age 20 and in obsessive love with handsome rebel leader Rachid, she joins the fight against their oppressors, discovering unexpected power within herself along the way. The politics are complex, Aicha’s anger is palpable, and Bouazzaoui takes cinematic liberties with the violence. For those unfamiliar with this tumultuous period of history, Bouazzaoui’s vivid fantasy retelling offers a colorful glimpse through the eyes of a committed female freedom fighter. The characterization at times feels thin, but the worldbuilding and high-octane plot entice. It’s an intense and fascinating tale. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Dotson (The Cut) keeps the twists coming in this ambitious but not entirely believable haunted house story. The narrative toggles back and forth in time between 1998, when Amber Walker endures teen turmoil with her scolding mother and father, and 2020, when adult Amber; her husband, Ben; and school-age children Xander and Marigold have newly moved into her parents’ old homestead in northern Ohio. By then the house has a grim reputation—her parents were murdered there by masked intruders only a few months before the move—and shortly after settling in, Amber and Ben begin seeing strange reflections in its mirrors and hearing disembodied voices in its vacant rooms. As Amber struggles to cope with the weird influence that appears to be manifesting in their home, troubling aspects of her past come to light—including her contentious relationship with her younger sister, Hannah, who died in a mysterious fire years earlier, and her fraught teen friendship with juvenile delinquent Nathan Teldegardo—that cast suspicion on her motives. Dotson propels her tale to a pyrotechnic finale replete with shocking revelations that stretch credibility even as they make sense of the mystery. Readers able to set aside their skepticism will be pleased. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

This lovely near-future foray from Hugo Award winner Palmer (Ghostdrift) skillfully brings hope and humor to a complex postapocalyptic world. The nameless narrator is a robot assassin who, after achieving independence from their programming, secluded themself at the abandoned New York Botanical Garden, where they have remained in isolation for 20 years. When, at the start of the story, they wake in an unfamiliar room to discover one of their legs has been stolen, it sets them on a seemingly straightforward quest to find a mechanic to replace the leg. They quickly discover, however, that all is not as it should be in the world outside the gardens. Joined by unexpected and charming companions—including a snarky cyborg dog—the narrator must confront their violent past if they hope to achieve their dream of a peaceful, equitable future. Palmer’s vision for how society might reshape itself after massive conflict is inventive, but where the tale truly shines is its captivating characters and the ways in which they’re willing to work together. The result is a refreshing ray of hope in the darkness. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Brown (Recipe for a Perfect Wife) successfully blends horror and science fiction to offer a peek into an all too plausible dystopian future. A recent pandemic has devastated male fertility rates and led to extreme population decline. In its wake, pressure is placed on women to have as many children as possible, with wearable AI fertility trackers used to monitor women’s menstrual cycles. Against this backdrop, art conservator Mathilde Crewson balances her job with raising a young daughter, Clementine, grieving a recent miscarriage, and desperately trying to conceive another baby with her controlling husband, Wyatt. Mathilde receives the assignment of her dreams when she is tasked with restoring a painting titled The Mother by an obscure artist who died violently. After getting pregnant, finishing her new assignment before giving birth becomes a race against time—but sinister things start happening as her work progresses, all perhaps connected to the possibly haunted painting. The danger and mystery only increase as Mathilde begins to doubt her own perceptions. Brown packs a lot into the narrative and there are some loose threads left dangling at the end, but, for the most part, it all comes together beautifully. A riveting and insightful ghost story about parental grief and bodily autonomy, this is sure to linger with readers long after the final page. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

A darkly loving tribute to and viscerally affecting example of the “mommy horror” genre, Cleary’s intimate and unsettling debut tackles bloody themes of bodies gone rogue, obsessive care, and desires that will be fulfilled at any cost. Brooke Noone, still hurting from a breakup with the horror movie–loving girlfriend she met during her time in Japan, travels to Vancouver to support her sister, Izzy, through the removal of an abdominal growth that ends in a surprise hysterectomy. As the sisters navigate their complicated relationship, and Brooke discovers how deep Izzy’s grief around not being able to have children goes, she perceives a sinister air in Izzy’s apartment building, and is especially disturbed by the creepy old woman skulking around the halls whom residents have nicknamed Medusa. Cleary does a beautiful job blurring the narrative lines between Brooke’s memories, dark dreams, and surreal experiences in the present, pulling the reader into her increasingly unmoored perceptions and her feelings of losing control. Repeated elements, such as a dark nursery song Brooke first heard in Japan being sung by the neighbor’s daughter, weave through the story and form a scaffolding for the reader to move through the character’s internal world. The result is a gory, feminist, and stirring take on the gendered terror of pregnancy as parasite. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

Jauregui Eccles riffs on the Phantom of the Opera in her uneven fantasy debut. In a world where music is magic, Selene is the daughter of a notorious mage more famous now for how he went mad in the service of magic than his incredible discoveries. She has spent her life training with L’Opéra du Magician to sing the strongest and most creative magics, hoping one day to be named King’s Mage, as her father was, and redeem his name. But the competition for the position is vicious, and when one of her classmates steals her aria and ruins her performance, she must come up with something better. While hiding in a storeroom, Selene discovers a man trapped in a mirror, perhaps the legendary ghost said to haunt the opera house. The magic he shows her is unlike any of the songs she knows, drawn from pain, blood, and grief, and its power demands a dreadful price. But with everything she’s ever wanted on the line, there’s nothing Selene isn’t willing to give up. Jauregui Eccles’s magic system is fascinating and clearly underpinned by her own musical training, but the worldbuilding goes frustratingly underexplored, save for the odd chunk of clunky exposition. Meanwhile, overt nods to the source material and easter eggs for Phantom fans occasionally distract. This is best suited to diehard devotees of the original. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink

At the start of Jacobs’s fun debut novella, Benjiro Ibn Benjiro Ayad Nakamura, or Ben, as he is known to most, is poised to take over leadership of the Nakamura cybersinecure, a far-future aristocratic line, when the ceremonial katana that plays an integral role in the ascension ceremony is stolen. Ben assembles a diverse group of talented commoners from the “outerboroughs” that he would otherwise never come into contact with to help retrieve the katana before the ceremony takes place. What ensues is an Ocean’s 11–style heist plot as Ben and the group, all of whom have distinct skills that will help them find and take back the katana, scheme and train together in preparation. This premise is undeniably entertaining, but Jacobs leaves some big questions about his central conceit unanswered: why, for example, is this government so dependent upon these ceremonial objects? And why, then, does Ben choose to keep his predicament secret from all except this group he found on the dark web? A final twist clarifies some, but not all, of these mysteries. Still, cyberpunk fans will find this a fast-paced, action-packed romp with plenty to hold their attention. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/23/2026 | Details & Permalink