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Book reviews and excerpts from exceptional speculative, sci-fi, fantasy & alternate history novels.

Speculative, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Alt. History

Recommended books found: 326

UnWorld

A Novel

by Jayson Greene

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the author of Once More We Saw Stars comes a gripping novel about four intertwined lives that collide in the wake of a mysterious tragedy. Set in a near-future world where the boundaries between human and AI blur, the story challenges our ...

The Dream Hotel

A Novel

by Laila Lalami

Hardcover: Mar 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY ● From Laila Lalami—the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a "maestra of literary fiction" (NPR)—comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman's ...

How to Dodge a Cannonball

A Novel

by Dennard Dayle

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A cutting, revealing caricature of the American Civil War, told through the eyes of a white teenager who joins an all-Black regiment of soldiers, for fans of Colson Whitehead and James McBride.

Song of the Six Realms

by Judy I. Lin

Hardcover: Apr 2024 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Judy I. Lin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Magic Steeped in Poison, weaves a dreamy gothic romance worthy of the heavens in Song of the Six Realms.

Katabasis

A Novel

by R. F. Kuang

Hardcover: Aug 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Dante's Inferno meets Susanna Clarke's Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put ...

The Compound

A Novel

by Aisling Rawle

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Love Island meets Lord of the Flies in this must-talk-about-it read, as bingeable as the best reality TV.

Meet Me at the Crossroads

A Novel

by Megan Giddings

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of Lakewood and The Women Could Fly, a dazzling novel about two brilliant sisters and what happens to their undeniable bond when a mysterious and possibly perilous new world beckons.

Angel Down

A Novel

by Daniel Kraus

Hardcover: Jul 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

The critically acclaimed author of the "crazily enjoyable" (The New York Times) Whalefall returns with an immersive, cinematic novel about five World War I soldiers who stumble upon a fallen angel that could hold the key to ending the war.

Seek the Traitor's Son

by Veronica Roth

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

An epic, romantic dystopian fantasy begins in Seek the Traitor's Son, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.

Homebound

A Novel

by Portia Elan

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.

Gliff

A Novel

by Ali Smith

Hardcover: Feb 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing.

Eat the Ones You Love

by Sarah Maria Griffin

Hardcover: Apr 2025 | Paperback: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

This is a story about desire, dreams, decay―and working retail at the end of the world.

The reviewer of each book decides which categories it belongs in - but we're only human, mistakes happen. If you see a book that you think is in the wrong place, tell us!

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