The smart and exciting sequel to Blackgoose’s Nebula Award–winning debut, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, digs into the colonialism and classism of magic academy and dragon rider tropes. Indigenous heroine Anequs’s Naquisit community on the island of Masquapaug faces increased surveillance from the Anglish colonizers following the events of the previous book. Whisked away to the wealthy, male-dominated Kuiper’s Academy, Anequs navigates prejudice and struggles to adapt to the gendered mores of Anglish culture while studying dragon handling and skiltakraft, the manipulation of natural elements using the controlled power of dragon’s breath. She also develops feelings for both Theod, the only other “nackie” dragoneer, and Liberty, a young blackfolkish woman indentured to the school. Meanwhile, the philosophical discussion group The Disorder of the Grinning Teeth wants Anequs to join its ranks, but its members soon feel challenged by the level to which she wants them to put their ideals into action. All the invented language takes some adjusting to, but once the story gets underway, Blackgoose creates a deep sense of immersion. It’s satisfying to watch Anequs comes into her own, and Blackgoose sets things up nicely for the next installment. Readers will be eager for more. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Hall (Audrey Lane Stirs the Pot) makes an ambitious pivot from witty romance to epic space opera in this dazzling retelling of Moby Dick set in the gaseous miasma above Jupiter after humanity’s exodus from Earth. The plot follows the original beat for beat as Captain A of the hunter-barque Pequod’s obsession with the Mobius Beast puts his crew in danger, but almost every aspect of the world has been cleverly reimagined. The spermaceti from the Leviathan is a psychoactive cerebrospinal fluid, processed by the Olympus Extraction State to power everything in the solar system; the narrator’s harpooner friend Q hails from Old Earth; captain A’s replacement leg comes from the predatory Venusian pharma-state; and the narrator’s relationships with both Q and A turn sexual. Hall’s prose is mostly modern, but he retains some of Melville’s grandiose lyricism and pays homage to his famous fact-filled tangents. The narrator, a schoolmistress turned monster hunter who opens by instructing readers to call her “whatever the fuck you like,” provides detailed technical exposition about the spaceship’s functions and the process of hunting the alien creatures called Leviathans, which she muses about as both biological creatures and mystical quasi-gods. Along the way, she serves up whole chapters of philosophical asides and jokes of dubious relevance. Most impressively, Hall captures a breathtaking sense of adventure throughout. This thrills. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/16/2026 | Details & Permalink

Unfolding like a fairy tale, this enchanting fantasy from Kechacha (To Catch a Moon) plays out over a single day in the life of a dance company devoted to performing an otherworldly ballet. No one knows the origins of the show. The Grub, the train on which the company lives, travels from town to town, and upon the company’s arrival in a new place, their theater building, The Grit, manifests as well. Once pledged to the company—for one year and one day—dancers become beholden to the show, and reneging on a pledge can have dire consequences depending on the will of the Crow, the deity to which they all answer. The narrative jumps between members of the company, exploring their relationships with both each other and the show itself, their motivations for joining the odd and dangerous endeavor, and their intentions for the future. Kechacha weaves these individual strands into a glimmering, dreamlike whole, darkened by nightmares that lurk in the wings. Fans of traditional stories of the Fae won’t want to miss this. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Sui (The Dragonfly Gambit) blends horror and religion in this thrilling sci-fi outing, the first in a series. As a monk of the Starlit Order, Vessel Iris tends to the dead—in this case an entire generation ship, the Counsel of Nicae, which is full of deceased passengers and has just reappeared in known space at the nearby Doshua Station. An academic team is already on board when Iris arrives, along with a few members of station security. They find no human life on board, but the city-size ship is completely overgrown with mysterious alien plant life. When a door malfunctions, trapping Iris and Yan, the lead engineer, in a compartment rapidly losing breathable air, they begin to suspect another malign presence aboard the ship. This is confirmed when one of the security personnel is found murdered. As the rest of the team struggles to stay alive and identify their foe, Iris questions his faith and reconsiders how he relates to those around him, including his companion AI, VIFAI. Throughout, Sui skillfully balances the cerebral, the spiritual, and the terrifying. Readers will eagerly await Iris’s next adventure. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Set in Victorian England, Mandula’s charming debut introduces an impoverished female fossil hunter who fights to gain entry to London’s upper-crust, all-male Geomagical Society. Acknowledged as an expert in geomagic, an academic field at the intersection of paleontology and sorcery, Mary Anning knows she deserves to be nominated to the Society, but her appeals have so far been rejected. After a gale storm hits her rural seaside village, Mary discovers a fossilized dinosaur egg that later hatches. She names the baby pterodactyl Ajax and hopes his existence will finally earn her a spot in the Society. Unfortunately, the Society sends member Henry Stanton, the man who broke Mary’s heart a decade ago, to investigate her claims. With Mary’s attachment to Ajax growing, she fears what will happen to him if he falls into the wrong hands, and must determine who, if anyone, to trust. As both the intrigue and second-chance romance slowly ramp up, Mary must also come to terms with her own magical abilities. The pace is sluggish, but the heroine is easy to root for and Mandula does a good job capturing the magic and snobbery of this alternate England. Readers in the mood for cozy historical fantasy should check this out. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Al-Wasity’s debut blends gothic fantasy with grounded refugee and class concerns to engrossing, if occasionally uneven, effect. Three years before the start of the book, Leena Al-Sayer developed “an affliction”­—the ability to see ghosts. With her widowed father imprisoned for trying to form a union and her brother desperately ill, Leena takes the secret of her affliction to the powerful Bram St. Silas, also called the Saint of Silence, in hopes of trading it for enough money to buy medicine. St. Silas does indeed pay for Leena’s secret, and also, unexpectedly, hires her to track down a ghost for him, leading Leena deep into the secrets and conspiracies woven into the fabric of both their lives. The details of Leena’s cultural heritage and refugee community are well-drawn and fascinating, but, in the second half of the story, they take a backseat to more familiar feeling aristocratic drama. Still, captivating characters, unexpected romance, and a devastating cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for more. Agent: Chloe Seager, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

A child’s perspective creates both suspense and whimsy in this dream-like, far-future science fiction novella from Gordon (One Bronze Knuckle). The young protagonist, Anny, lives in the village of Tsedt with her family. She spends her days making toy mice out of bits of discarded fluff and bonding with her grandfather, who recently arrived in town with his loyal caretaker robot, Osker. Her peaceful life is upended, however, when two strangers and a sentient robot called an Amau visit from Harbor, the mysterious nearby city, and ominously invite older village children to return with them for “well-being and learning.” When Anny’s older sister, Leeza, is called to Harbor, her parents follow, but Anny and her grandfather retreat to the family farm. Eventually, however, the city people track them down and take Anny to participate in a series of mysterious experiments. As Anny struggles to escape and reunite with her loved ones, she discovers unexpected powers within herself. Anny’s sweet narration keeps the creepier worldbuilding elements from getting too dark, and her innocent confusion adds to the sense of mystery, though some readers may grow frustrated with the drawn-out ambiguity. Still, anyone looking for fascinating cyberpunk told with all the comfort of a children’s classic will be delighted. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

This tongue-in-cheek cozy fantasy from Waggoner (The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society) pokes gentle fun at fantasy archetypes, including prophetic woodland creatures and wicked witches. When sensible Gretsella, who bills herself as “the Witch of Brigandale with the Reasonable Prices,” discovers a baby on her doorstep, she adopts the child, despite knowing that he’s more than likely a lost prince. Gretsella’s crone friends bless the boy, dubbed Bradley, with beauty, politeness, and a strong right hook (if not a surfeit of intelligence), and he grows up to become a perfectly adequate young man. Upon turning 18, Bradley is called to reclaim his rightful throne, much to Gretsella’s dismay. When Bradley’s tenure as king gets off to a rocky start, Gretsella travels to the castle and takes charge with some witchy magic and a no-nonsense attitude. It soon becomes clear to her that Bradley isn’t cut out to be king, so she resolves to overthrow him for his own good. But her plan of introducing democracy to Brigandale proves difficult. The plot feels breezy and the characterization doesn’t go particularly deep, but Waggoner’s humorous and warmhearted approach charms. Readers seeking fun and clever comfort reading will find this hits the spot. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

From Nebula award winner El-Mohtar (The River Has Roots) comes a collection of 14 stories and four poems that shine both individually and as a whole. Blending fantasy, magical realism, and speculative fiction, and often rooted in history, myth, or legend, these tales range widely across time and place but are connected, as El-Mohtar writes in her introduction, by her love of women: “I love women talking to each other. I love women... offering up the stories of themselves to each other’s tender scrutiny. I love women being friends and being lovers, in all of their shapes, across the breadth and depth of their lives.” Indeed, her wonderfully unique heroines are drawn with depth and compassion. In “Madeleine,” the eponymous heroine, grieving the death of her mother, who had Alzheimer’s, participates in an experimental anti-dementia drug trial and begins to have intense flashbacks in which an unfamiliar figure becomes a new friend. “Florilegia; or, Some Lies About Flowers,” follows a Blodeuwedd, a woman constructed out of vegetation drawn from Welsh mythology, who has been brought into existence by magic to be an ideal wife. Meanwhile, the poetry, presented in both English and Arabic, delves into real-world struggles while still showcasing El-Mohtar’s characteristic lyricism and striking imagery. There’s not a false note here. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink

Kaplan (When the Night Bells Ring) serves up an eerie feast for the senses in this addictive horror novel. Brynn Werner, lead singer of the metal band Queen Carrion, vanished into thin air after an unexplained episode of mass hysteria during one of her shows. Now, on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance, her former bandmates Harlow, Wendy, Lou, and Rhys, along with Rhys’s girlfriend, Jacqueline, gather at a remote cabin in the Oregon forest. Their excursion quickly goes awry: the cabin has a menacing aura, the surrounding woods echo Brynn’s voice, and Rhys soon succumbs to a mysterious infection. It slowly becomes clear that the group has been deliberately caught in the web of a biological experiment—and their captors have no intention of letting them leave. Kaplan smoothly blends body horror and emotional trauma, imbuing each memorable character with psychological depth. Most impressively, all the chaos and gore never overshadow the intense grief at the heart of the page-turning plot. The result is as beautiful and moving as it is creepy. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/09/2026 | Details & Permalink