Fantasy and Science Fiction
June 2022
Recent Releases
A Rip Through Time
by Kelley Armstrong

In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland-in an unfamiliar body-with a killer on the loose. May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She's drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness. May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Thomson had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she'd been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot. When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late. Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong's A Rip Through Time, the first book in this utterly compelling series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.
Book of Night
by Holly Black

In a world...where Gloamists trade in shadows, bartender and (sort of) retired con artist Charlie Hall becomes embroiled in intrigue surrounding a missing book known as the Liber Noctis (Book of Night).

Is it for you? More similar in tone to the Curse Workers novels than to the Folk of the Air trilogy, YA author Holly Black's adult debut ends on a cliffhanger that may signal a sequel.

For fans of: Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House.
All the Seas of the World
by Guy Gavriel Kay

What it is: a richly detailed and immersive historical fantasy by Guy Gavriel Kay, featuring a large cast of characters that includes an assassin, a captured diplomat, and a spymaster.

Can you start here? Set in the alternate 15th-century Europe of A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky, this novel stands on its own, although familiarity with the previous books is helpful.

Reviewers say: "necessary sustenance for the starving reader" (Booklist).
Nettle & Bone
by T. Kingfisher

Three sisters: one dead, one wedded to a cruel prince, and the youngest, Marra, who leaves the convent to seek the aid of a dust-wife.

Three tasks: build a dog of bones, sew a cloak of nettles, and capture moonlight in a jar. If Marra succeeds, she may be able to kill the prince and save her remaining sister.

Three companions: Joining Marra in her eerie quest are a demon-possessed chicken, a fairy godmother, and a disgraced knight.
The Discord of Gods
by Jenn Lyons

What it is: the eagerly anticipated conclusion of the five-volume Chorus of Dragons series, which began with The Ruin of Kings.

What's at stake: As immortal adversaries Relos Var, Vol Karoth, and the demon Xaltorath battle each other for control of the universe, it's up to our heroes to stop all three of them and save their world.

Read it for: inventive world-building, an intricately plotted and action-packed story that unfolds from multiple perspectives, and a large ensemble cast whose relationships evolve throughout the series.
Seasonal Fears
by Seanan McGuire

Introducing: Melanie and Harry, inseparable friends with an unusual destiny that they don't want but may not be able to escape.

Read it for: rich characterization, inventive and layered world-building, and a high-stakes quest-slash-competition.

Series alert: Set in the world of Middlegame but featuring a different cast and storyline, this "epic road-trip novel" (Booklist) is the 2nd book in the Alchemical Journeys series.
This Time Tomorrow
by Emma Straub
 
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, its her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
Kaikeyi
by Vaishnavi Patel

What it is: a "mesmerizing" (Publishers Weekly) debut novel inspired by the infamous queen from the Ramayana.

Starring: Kaikeyi, the magic-wielding woman determined to gain power and exert control over her own life, even if that means defying the gods.

For fans of: Madeline Miller's Circe, Genevieve Gornichec's The Witch's Heart, or Christa Wolf's Medea.
Siren Queen
by Nghi Vo

What it is: An atmospheric historical fantasy by the author of The Chosen and The Beautiful.

Starring: Chinese American actress "Luli Wei," who makes a Faustian bargain to achieve stardom in 1930s Hollywood.

For fans of: Taylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or Amanda Koe Lee's Delayed Rays of a Star.
City of Orange
by David Yoon

Introducing: a man who can't remember who he is, or what happened to him -- and the entire world.

What happens: As the unnamed narrator, injured and alone in a desolate landscape, focuses on survival, he attempts to piece together his own past. However, he may not like what he discovers.

For fans of: Peng Shepherd's The Book of M or Iain Read's Foe. 
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