July’s sci-fi and fantasy novel releases are as scorching because the temperatures. Lev Grossman returns with a beautiful rendering of Arthurian legend, whereas Peng Shepherd’s newest is an creative exploration of physics and altered realities. Cozy fantasy romance readers will love new books by Sarah Beth Durst and India Holton, whereas readers preferring grittier fantasies gained’t be disillusioned by a Peter Pan retelling by P.H. Low and a novella based mostly on Yoruban mythology by Tobi Ogundiran. Other books have dragons, witches, magical battles, and a lot extra.
We’ve tried to search out one thing for each reader on this month’s sci-fi and fantasy roundup. Which ones are you trying ahead to studying? If you are trying to avoid wasting money, it may be price selecting up this particular early Prime Day three-month free membership of Audible. It’s price nearly $35 and nets you a free audiobook each month — nicely price contemplating. Here are the perfect sci-fi fantasy books to think about in July 2024, or try our high sci-fi and fantasy picks for June, May, and April if you happen to’re involved in much more nice reads. It can get a bit costly to purchase books.
The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons
The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons
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This uncommon stand-alone fantasy is nice on audio.
There can by no means be too many dragon novels. not less than for fantasy followers. This newest addition to dragon lore is an action-packed, enjoyable learn. It’s a heist novel a couple of group of misfits stealing from a dragon’s hoard, however this isn’t simply any treasure; it belongs to the regent, Neveranimas.
Anahrod lives within the wild deep, distant from the cloud cities. She’s a mercenary whose finest buddy is a titan drake named Overbite, who helps her survive the deep’s many risks. When a ragtag group of outsiders saves her, she reluctantly agrees to help them on their quest—for pay, in fact. Little does she know that she’s the individual they search, and so they imply to take her again to the place she vowed by no means to return to.
See Here for UK – Tor
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Release: July 9 – Bramble
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
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This charming novel is stuffed with magical surprises, like spirit bears and cute flying cats. It’s a pleasant change from Durst’s darker fantasy novels, and the audiobook is well-narrated.
This cozy romantic fantasy is so candy. Grumpy librarian Kiela flees her war-torn metropolis with crates of spellbooks and her solely buddy, a sentient houseplant named Caz. Soldiers set fireplace to the library, and he or she needed to take the books to save lots of them, but it surely’s unlawful to have spellbooks until you’re an empire-approved magic customers.
With nowhere else to go, Kiela and Caz return to the distant island the place Kiela was raised, the place an absence of magic has brought on the village to fall on laborious instances. She strikes into her household’s deserted, derelict cottage and meets a good-looking neighbor who herds merhorses. Kiela decides to assist the villagers by utilizing the spellbooks to create magical cures for the dying bushes and blocked rivers, however she is aware of if she attracts the empire’s eye, she may very well be put to dying. She hides her spellshop behind the ruse of creating jam.
See Here for UK – Tor
All This & More by Peng Shepherd
Release: July 9 – William Morrow
All This & More by Peng Shepherd
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Shepherd’s earlier novels — The Cartographers and The Book of M — each had distinctive ideas. Her newest, if something, is much more singular. It’s a captivating pick-your-path novel for adults.
A actuality TV present, All This & More, makes use of a physics breakthrough to permit contestants to change their lives seeking their excellent actuality. Anything might be modified, and on the season finale, contestants can select their excellent life, for actual. Season one’s star, Talia, hosts season three after a disastrous second season. 45-year-old divorcee and mom Marsh has been chosen for the third season. Marsh tends to place her personal needs final, however now, after a latest divorce, she’s prepared to search out one thing, something, to assist her really feel fulfilled. But what adjustments ought to she make? The reader will get to resolve. However, each actuality Marsh chases is haunted by Season two’s mysterious disaster.
See Here for UK – William Morrow
These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low
These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low
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There have been fairly just a few reimaginings of Peter Pan over time, however this gritty model needs to be one in all my favorites.
Jordan and Baron have been as soon as misplaced boys—the twins, regardless of being unrelated. Jordan hid her gender from Peter so she may very well be accepted, and he or she and Baron lived fortunately in Peter’s world, hooked on pixie Dust and happening adventures, till Peter discovers Jordan is a lady and kicks the 2 out.
The novel opens with an grownup Jordan, who has a prosthetic arm, within the combating rink. She’s determined to earn sufficient cash to purchase extra Dust, an habit she will’t appear to interrupt. But a disastrous battle causes her boss to name in her money owed. Meanwhile, Baron is struggling in engineering programs at school. His time as a Lost Boy means he’s woefully behind in schooling, and his continual anxiousness doesn’t assist issues. Baron initially resists when Jordan proposes they attempt to discover the island once more. But what else does he have in life? This is a singular, grimdark retelling of the traditional story, humanizing one of the vital well-known villains in British literature: Captain Hook.
See Here for UK – Angry Robot
A Rose by Any Other Name by Mary McMyne
Release: July 16 – Redhook
A Rose by Any Other Name by Mary McMyne
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This complicated, well-researched novel grapples with LGBTQ+ and ladies’s company whereas giving a brand new slant to William Shakespeare’s life.
This haunting, queer historic fantasy takes place in Elizabethan England and follows the girl who impressed William Shakespeare’s love sonnets.
More than something, Rose needs to carry out music at court docket, however although she’s a superb musician, nobody will give her an opportunity as a result of she’s a lady. Rose can be an professional in astrology and may glimpse into the previous, current, and future by charting individuals’s astrological charts. Her mom is a witch, and when Rose’s father dies, a neighbor accuses her mom of witchcraft and burns down their home.
The household and Rose’s beloved buddy, whom she harbors deeper emotions for, flee and discover refuge with the sons of a not too long ago deceased household buddy. Rose’s mom casts a spell for the eldest son to fall in love with Rose, with disastrous outcomes. Rose refuses to bow to conference and sneaks out to play music at a brothel. She meets William Shakespeare there, and the 2 start a turbulent relationship.
See Here for UK – Orbit
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
Release: July 16 – Viking
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
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It’s a phenomenal rendering of Arthurian legend, one in all my favorites. The audiobook, narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith, is stellar.
I see reviewers say The Bright Sword is to Arthurian Legend what Grossman’s wildly common The Magicians sequence was for The Chronicles of Narnia, however I disagree. Unlike The Magicians, his latest novel is a richly detailed historic fantasy that meanders by means of character backstories to not subvert the magic behind the legends however to humanize them, displaying that turning into a knight of the Round Table is much less about bodily power and wealth and extra about discovered household and friendship.
Collum goals of turning into a knight of the Round Table. An abused bastard of a distant isle, this looks as if an absurd want, however he seizes an opportunity to flee and makes his method to Camelot nonetheless. When he arrives, the good battle that kills Arthur and Mordred has already occurred, and solely a handful of knights stay. They’re not those individuals sing praises about, however as they battle to resolve who ought to be the following king of Britain, their tales unfold, tales of being queer and trans and international but nonetheless discovering a house at Camelot when nobody else would settle for them.
See Here for UK – Del Rey
Queen B by Juno Dawson
Release: July 23 – Penguin Books
Queen B by Juno Dawson
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Fans of the sequence or of this time interval will love this quick, slim learn.
This tremendous enjoyable prequel to the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven sequence additionally offers a queer tackle British historical past, this time throughout King Henry VIII’s reign. Because it’s a prequel, it really works as a stand-alone, so if you happen to haven’t learn the opposite books within the sequence, you may nonetheless take pleasure in it.
Dawson alternates between two timelines. In the primary, Anne Boleyn, not but queen, is head of a secret royal coven. Grace Fairfax has not too long ago fled an abusive marriage within the North to serve Queen Catherine as one in all her women in ready. The coven rapidly notices her powers, and he or she joins them, slowly falling in love with Anne. In the second timeline, Anne has been beheaded, and Grace and the remainder of the coven search the girl who betrayed her. A witch hunter follows their steps.
See Here for UK – HarperVoyager
In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran
Release: July 23 – Tordotcom
In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran
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This is an immersive and distinctive chosen-one story about self-identity and religion. The second novella within the sequence ought to launch in January.
This fantasy novella, the primary in a duology, defies its slim format with wealthy world-building based mostly on Yuroban mythology and well-defined character arcs.
Ashâke has been an acolyte for thus lengthy that she’s watched all her friends ascend to priesthood, but an orisha has by no means spoken to her. She decides to take issues into her personal fingers by summoning and trapping an orisha in a forbidden ritual, one which matches horribly flawed. She has positioned herself within the midst of a struggle she understands even lower than she does herself.
See Here for UK – Titan Books
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton
Release: July 23 – Berkley
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton
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With numerous steampunk devices (flying parasols!?), hijinks, and witty innuendoes, this can be a humorous and charming first e-book in a brand new sequence.
Holton’s latest romantic fantasy is an absolute delight, excellent for followers of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and Holton’s earlier Dangerous Damsels sequence. I couldn’t cease smiling as I learn it.
Professor Beth Pickering, ornithologist, typically accompanies rich fellow bird-lover Hippolyta on adventures to search out uncommon birds. But the good-looking Professor Devon Lockley, who additionally travels with a wealthy patron, typically foils their makes an attempt. Beth is set to be named Birder of the Year by discovering the endangered and magical caladrius chicken, however Devon is correct on her heels with the identical aim.
See Here for UK – Penguin
The Night Ends with Fire by Ok. X. Song
The Night Ends with Fire by Ok. X. Song
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This immersive fantasy journey retells Mulan for grownup readers.
Meilin longs to flee her abusive father, who declares she’ll be engaged to an ageing, violent man who has already killed one spouse. After she involves the help of a prince of the Three Kingdoms, she poses as a person and solutions the imperial draft to grow to be a soldier. Before she goes, her stepmother offers her a necklace that belonged to Meilin’s deceased mom, who went mad earlier than her dying.
As Meilin trains, she hears a voice prompting her in the direction of violence. She worries she would possibly grow to be like her mom, who additionally spoke of voices nobody else might hear. Then Meilin begins inflicting issues to occur by means of magic, and her necklace vibrates when she does so. Now Meilin wants to cover not solely her gender but additionally her magical powers. Meanwhile, the extra she trains for Sky, the deeper her emotions for him grow to be.
See Here for UK – Hodderscape
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Margaret Kingsbury is a contract author, editor, and all-around e-book nerd based mostly in Nashville, TN. Her items on books and studying have appeared in Book Riot, BuzzFeed News, School Library Journal, StarTrek.com, Parents, and extra. Follow her on Instagram @BabyLibrarians and Twitter and Bluesky @AReaderlyMom
