Here Are All The Best New Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books Out This November

Here Are All The Best New Sci-Fi And Fantasy Books Out This November

Halloween is over, and you’ve got a brief window of time before holiday-related activities take over all your free time. Now is the time to pounce on new books by George R.R. Martin (alas, not the one we’re all waiting for), M.R. Carey, and many others. Here’s our list of November releases to look out for.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen

The fantasy author (The Devil’s Arithmetic) presents a collection of old and new tales for all ages inspired by fairy tales and legends, with new author notes and original poems to accompany each. (Nov. 5)

An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories by Andy Duncan

Two new short stories (including the title tale, which concerns Sir Thomas More) top off this collection of works by the author, which takes on subjects as wonderfully weird as “an ageing UFO contactee, a haunted Mohawk steelworker, a time-travelling prizefighter, a yam-eating Zombie, and a child who loves a frizzled chicken.” (Nov. 6)

Diamond Fire by Illona Andrews

On the eve of her older sister’s wedding — when the use of magic is strictly forbidden — maid of honour Catalina wonders if she should break the rule in order to make sure the increasingly endangered fairy-tale celebration goes off without a hitch. (Nov. 6)

Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao

In this sequel to East Asian-inspired fairy tale Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, Princess Jade must learn to embrace her birthright, including the crown she doesn’t really want, and gather her strength to defeat the Serpent God and free her people once and for all. (Nov. 6)

Nothing to Devour by Glen Hirshberg

The Motherless Children horror trilogy comes to an end as a group of people across America — including a compassionate vampire and a woman who creates “monsters” like her — are drawn together for a variety of reasons, including (but not limited to) revenge. (Nov. 6)

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

The prolific fantasy author kicks off a new series with this tale of a young girl who dreams of being a pilot to help fight the aliens that have been the enemy of her world for generations. But a dark chapter in her family’s past may keep her grounded. You can read an excerpt here. (Nov. 6)

Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey

The author of The Girl With All the Gifts leaves zombies behind to investigate a new terror: A devoted mum who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and isn’t above activating her secret dark side to stay in control. (Nov. 6)

Static Ruin by Corey J. White

The Voidwitch saga concludes with Mars Xi on the run and with a hefty price on her head. To complicate matters, she’s got her mutant pet cat and a fellow “human weapon,” a young boy who can’t control his deadly powers, in tow. Can her long-estranged father, living somewhere on the edge of the galaxy, help her make things right? (Nov. 6)

They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded by James Alan Gardner

In this sequel that picks up just days after the events of All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, Jools and her gang of freshly minted superhero buddies get drawn into the wild scramble to find a villain’s inconveniently misplaced super-gun. (Nov. 6)

Bedfellow by Jeremy C. Shipp

In this dark fantasy, a beastly “thing” attaches itself to an ordinary family and forces them to make increasingly horrifying sacrifices on its behalf. If they stick together, can they break free from its grasp? (Nov. 13)

Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer

It’s the time of Prohibition, and a woman who’s helping put her brother through college counts on the money she earns from bootlegging booze. Her good intentions go sideways, however, when a batch of mushroom moonshine has some terrifying effects on those who imbibe it. (Nov. 13)

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

In this seventh Rivers of London instalment, Peter Grant — detective and wizard-in-training—must seek the help of a disgraced former colleague to catch a slippery murderer known as the Faceless Man, whose sinister grand scheme threatens the entire city. (Nov. 13)

Not One of Us: Stories of Aliens on Earth edited by Neil Clarke

This reprint anthology gathers stories by Cixin Liu, Ken Liu, Nancy Kress, Ted Chiang, Kelly Robson, and others, all writing about clashes between humankind and extraterrestrial life (as well as all the things aliens have come to represent in science fiction). (Nov. 13)

A Rising Moon by Stephen Leigh

This sequel to A Fading Sun follows Orla, a freedom fighter in alt-history ancient Britain, who struggles to find her place after the death of her mother, a powerful warrior. (Nov. 13)

Terran Tomorrow by Nancy Kress

The story that began in the Nebula-winning novella Yesterday’s Kin, and continued with If Tomorrow Comes, wraps up in Terran Tomorrow. The Earth scientists who only barely escaped the plague they encountered in space return home to find deadly spores have wiped out almost all of humanity in their absence. (Nov. 13)

Vita Nostra by Sergiy Dyachenko and Maryna Shyrshova-Dyachenko

Magic, suspense, horror, and science combine in this fantasy adventure, a Russian best-seller that’s now getting a definitive English language translation. It’s about a teenage girl who meets a mysterious and manipulative man, eventually enrolling (at his behest) in a strange school that teaches “special technologies” that test everything she knows about space and time. (Nov. 13)

City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender

In this fantasy debut, non-magical humans called sweepers are trained to destroy magic weapons. It’s a dirty job, and dangerously deadly facts that become all too clear for one rookie who suddenly finds herself serving as the last line of defence for her city. (Nov. 20)

The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman

The Lady Helen trilogy comes to a close with one more adventure, as the demon-hunter gets sidetracked during wedding planning by the even more towering task of defeating a terrible force that threatens to wipe out humankind. (Nov. 20)

Dragonshadow by Elle Katherine White

This sequel to Heartstone picks up that novel’s Pride and Prejudice-goes-fantasy story, as newlywed dragonriders Aliza and Alastair cut their honeymoon short to help fight an ancient evil that’s sparking a terrible new war. (Nov. 20)

Fire and Blood: 300 Years Before Game of Thrones (A Targaryen History) by George R.R. Martin

The author behind Game of Thrones — perhaps you’ve heard of him — takes a deep dive into Targaryen history in the first of two volumes all about the legendary dragonlords. (Nov. 20)

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

A Nigerian woman comes to the unsettling realisation that her beautiful younger sister is killing her boyfriends — and then becomes her unwilling accomplice, at least until her longtime crush takes an interest in her deadly sibling. (Nov. 20)

Willful Child: The Search for Spark by Steven Erikson

The parody series (of guess-which towering sci-fi franchise?) continues with more deep-space adventures for the starship A.S.F. Willful Child. (Nov. 20)

Bright Light: Star Carrier by Ian Douglas

The eighth volume in the author’s nine-part military sci-fi series finds hero Trevor Grey demoted just as Earth is about to fall to a race of technologically-advanced aliens. But he comes to realise that his new circumstances are all part of a plan, cooked up by a super-powerful AI, that might end up saving humanity. (Nov. 27)

Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates

In an oppressive future world, a rebellious girl is exiled 80 years into the past to be taught a severe lesson — but what she finds there isn’t exactly the punishment her contemporaries imagined for her. (Nov. 27)

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman

The new Invisible Library instalment begins with the murder of a dragon — amid a secret a dragon – Fae peace summit, no less. Librarian spies Vale and Irene begin their murder investigation by travelling back in time to 1890s Paris. (Nov. 27)

The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell

An engineer incarcerated on a prison planet must rally the galaxy’s worst criminals to work together when they’re stranded ahead of an impending disaster. (Nov. 27)

Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape by Gregory Benford

This “thematic sequel” to the author’s Nebula-winning Timescape sends a history professor back to 1968, where his 16-year-old self connects with some big names (Albert Einstein, Philip K. Dick) who share his ability to time travel. (Nov. 27)

The Spectral City by Lianna Renee Hieber

In the early 20th century, a teenage medium heads up “the Ghost Precinct,” helping the New York City police solve crimes of a supernatural nature — until a sinister new mystery that challenges her powers means she must pierce the veil to find answers. (Nov. 27)

The Dinosaur Tourist by Caitlín R. Kiernan

The author releases her 15th short fiction collection with this collection of 19 tales that “explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience”. (Nov. 30)

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