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Fantasy and Science Fiction October 2026 |
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| A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson BennettIn this 3rd in the Ana and Din Mysteries series, the great detective Ana Dolabra and her assistant Din have to de-escalate a conflict between rival families by exonerating one family's eldest son of murder before all-out war erupts. Fans of the immersive setting and sharp character writing of the previous series entries will want to keep digging for more. Read next: Malka Older's Mossa and Pleiti series or Melissa Caruso's Echo Archives series.
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Tempestad / Tempest
by Victoria Aveyard
Cat Rose knows what it is to live in two worlds, in two times. Before--as Lady Catrine Rose of the Meridian Empire, chained to a loathsome lord with a dwindling fortune. And after--as the Widow Rose, queen of a pirate tavern in the Lyrian Sea, determined to be the master of her own fate. But tides turn and winds change. The Meridian Empire looms on the horizon, the full weight of her navy falling on the Lyrian, bent on reclaiming the wealthy colonies and crushing the pirate republic once and for all. Ship after ship is captured, save for one, captained by a pirate who continually evades both noose and blade: the legendary Valerian Kane. With his fearsome ship and uncanny connection to the song of the sea, Valerian is the only man who might rally the pirates who remain. The only man who threatens the Empire. And the only man Cat has ever loved, blazing in and out of her life like a star.
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| Homebound by Portia ElanIt's 1983, and a college student is programming an adventure game to cope with the sudden loss of her uncle. This game, unbeknownst to her, will have an impact that echoes across centuries, coming into contact with a professor in the late 21st century and a sentient robot navigating a flooded Earth. Portia Elan's debut is "an ingenious narrative that explores the meaning of love and interconnectedness across time" (Kirkus Reviews) that readers of Silvia Park's Luminous or Jayson Greene's Unworld will devour. |
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Life Out of Order
by Audrey Niffenegger
Alba DeTamble has never lived a life in order. Born with the same rare Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father Henry, she slips unpredictably through decades, haunted by the secrets of a future she can witness but cannot change. As Alba strives to maintain a normal life with Zach, her safe, supportive anchor, she forms a tight-knit community of artists and activists who fight to take care of each other in an increasingly unstable world. At once intimate and expansive, Life Out of Order plunges readers into a world of Niffenegger's dazzling imagination: from the riot-torn streets of a dystopian Chicago, to a digital museum for forgotten memories and lost artifacts. Curating this ever-expanding museum is Isadora, Alba's mysterious stepsister and an unsettling presence in their family - whose fate may be intertwined with Alba's in more dangerous ways than she knows.
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| Palaces of the Crow by Ray NaylerIn this speculative alternate history of World War II, the blitzkrieg of 1941 brings together a Polish deserter, a Roma horse trader, a nonspeaking boy of unknown history, and a Jewish village girl with a strong connection to a murder of crows. Together, they work to survive the winter wilderness while evading enemy forces, guided by the crows who are more intelligent than they seem. This "impassioned paean to togetherness" (Publishers Weekly) and resilience will please fans of Kira Jane Buxton's similarly corvid-centric Hollow Kingdom. |
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The Gates of Midnight: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni
by Helene Wecker
Ahmad the jinni travels to Syria with the copper flask that holds the captured wizard Yehudah Schaalman. There in the desert he buries the flask for all time... or so he thinks.In The Gates of Midnight, the riveting conclusion to the saga of the Golem and the Jinni, it's 1930 and three decades have passed since Schaalman's defeat. Chava the golem quietly tends to her house and garden in Brooklyn, hoping to create a refuge for other magical beings. Meanwhile, Ahmad has found employment as an architect in Chicago, helping to build its towering skyline above the prairie. But all is not well in the desert. Schaalman has managed to trick an unsuspecting passerby into digging up the flask, and now it passes from hand to hand as the wizard possesses his victims -- first a French soldier traveling to New York, then a small-time mobster -- all in an effort to get to Chava, the only one who can release him from his prison.
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Exit Party
by Emily St John Mandel
Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party's host, vanishes into thin air.
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As You Wake, Break the Shell
by Becky Chambers
Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it's home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound--a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.It is that threat--the mindbleed, a dangerous side effect of her piloting--that brings her to Signy's shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it's soon apparent it's not just about losing her license--this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.
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Hemlock & Silver
by T. Kingfisher
Healer Anja regularly drinks poison. Not to die, but to save- seeking cures for those everyone else has given up on. But a summons from the King interrupts her quiet, herb-obsessed life. His daughter, Snow, is dying, and he hopes Anja's unorthodox methods can save her. Aided by a taciturn guard, a narcissistic cat, and a passion for the scientific method, Anja rushes to treat Snow, but nothing seems to work. That is, until she finds a secret world, hidden inside a magic mirror. This dark realm may hold the key to what is making Snow sick. Or it might be the thing that kills them all--
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Between Two Fires
by Christopher Buehlman
The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm--that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has become their battleground. Is it delirium or is it faith? Now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and give him--blood-stained and wretched as he is--a chance at redemption he long thought lost. As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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