It might be a bad year in the world, generally speaking, but it has been a great year for books—especially genre books! I love some good literary fiction as much as anybody but I’m a sucker for a good book of magic, dragons, spaceships, monsters, slashers, ghosts, etc… and so I’ve been combing the calendar for the back half of 2024 to bring you a totally idiosyncratic and absolutely non-comprehensive list of 21 sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books to look forward to.
We’re living in a true golden age of genre fiction, so there’s a little something for everyone here—Big Five publishers, small indie presses, novels, short story collections, non-fiction, doorstoppers, single-sitting novellas—but feel free to sound off in the comments with books I didn’t include that you’re looking forward to, too!
*A note on my methodology: there are a handful of big books out this summer like Lev Grossman’s The Bright Sword that I’m not including here even though they are absolutely genre fiction, because they are getting what I like to call the “literary-fiction treatment” in terms of coverage and launch attention. Definitely read The Bright Sword but also… pick up some of these that you maybe haven’t heard of before, too.
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Cynthia Gómez, The Nightmare Box and Other Stories
Cursed Morsels, July 9
I’ve read a few of these stories and have been looking forward to the collection for ages. Gómez brings Oakland to a magical kind of life in these strange, sometimes scary, sometimes furious tales. Vampires, witches, Black Panthers, ACAB—this one’s got it all. Plus, that cover!
Chuck Tingle, Bury Your Gays
Tor Nightfire, July 9
As previously recommended: I loved Chuck Tingle’s traditional-publishing debut Camp Damascus (a terrific possession/demonology novel that managed to both terrify and uplift) and his Tinglers remain an absolute delight, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Bury Your Gays is his best work yet. It deserves to be the literary equivalent of a massive summer blockbuster, and I’m using that term specifically because it is set in Hollywood and written by somebody who gets it: the suits are going to drive us all off the cliff of increasingly crappy AI-driven stories that have zero humanity to them whatsoever, but we-the-artists (and we-the-audiences) can and must push back!
It also works as a total thrill-ride, following a screenwriter on the verge of his big moment (an Oscar nomination, critical and commercial success) only to discover that the suits want him to kill off the gay characters in his long-running series. When he declines, monsters from his horror movie days start appearing in real life and trying to kill him and his loved ones—coincidence? Outrageous publicity stunt? An over-the-top attempt to bring a rogue writer to heel? If you were on the picket lines last year, if original stories are important to you, if you too believe that love is real(!), then this one is for you—even if you don’t think you like horror, you’re gonna devour this.
Keanu Reeves & China Mieville, The Book of Elsewhere
Del Rey, July 23
I still can’t believe this book exists. Miéville and Reeves turn out to be a great match, and I for one will take new Miéville fiction however I can get it. Come for the action set-pieces and techno-thriller plotting but stay for the immortal pig(!) and the stirring digressions on ethics, morality, and humanity. It’s nothing like you could possibly expect, so don’t even bother: just dive in.
Gabino Iglesias, House of Bone and Rain
Mulholland, August 6
Five teenage boys set out to get revenge on the biggest gang in Puerto Rico after one of their mothers is murdered—just in time for a massive hurricane to sweep down onto the island. Trust Gabino Iglesias to deliver pulse-pounding scares, unflinchingly bloody violence, and achingly beautiful moments of friendship and humanity.
James S. A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
Orbit Books, August 6
For their first book since the end of The Expanse—for my money, one of the best and most satisfying space operas of the 21st Century so far—the writing duo of James S. A. Corey head back to the stars… but where those books were very much about humanity stepping out of the solar system into the stars and discovering space to be a somewhat lonelier place than we’d thought, The Mercy of Gods looks like it’s going to have aliens galore. I’m guessing we’ll have multiple points of view, thorny ethical quandaries, snarky banter, and the building blocks of the next big epic space opera series.
Carson Winter, A Spectre is Haunting Greentree
Tenebrous Press, August 15
Tenebrous Press is quickly establishing themselves as a must-read indie press for horror lovers. Since taking over Dread Stone Press’s Split Scream novella series, they’ve introduced me to some incredible up-and-coming horror writers—and I’ve been looking forward to something new from Carson Winter since reading “The Guts of Myth” in Split Scream, Vol. 1. This latest had me at the spooky scarecrows on the cover and in the blurb, not to mention the Marx reference in the title.
Emily Hughes, Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know about the Films You’re Too Scared to Watch
Quirk Books, September 3
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Emily Hughes is the go-to guide for all things horror. A sterling literary citizen and a relentless champion of others, now she turns her attentions to helping those among us who might like the idea of being scared a whole lot more than they do the actual feeling of being scared. Horror for Weenies is here to deliver all the info you might need about some of the greatest horror films of the past half-century or so but without a single jump scare and with a whole ton of good jokes along the way. (But make no mistake: it’s a great read for lovers of the genre too, as Hughes provides a true afficionado’s insights into these classic horror films!)
Hildur Knútsdóttir, tr. Mary Robinette Kowal, The Night Guest
Tor Nightfire, September 3
“When we all fall asleep, where do we go?” takes on a new and even-eerier dimension in this English-language debut from Knutsdottir (and translation debut from the celebrated Kowal), about a woman in Reykjavik who can’t shake off her constant tiredness… only to discover that, when she thinks she’s asleep, she’s actually been walking over 40,000 steps every night. A true nightmare.
TJ Klune, Somewhere Beyond the Sea
Tor, September 10
Klune returns to the world of The House in the Cerulean Sea to follow Arthur, the caretaker of the magical orphanage that so enraptured a legion of readers, as he must return to the mainland and take a stand to defend his found family. Expect tears, laughter, and a feeling of glowing warmth so lovely you’ll never want to leave.
Laird Barron, Not a Speck of Light: Stories
Bad Hand Books, September 10
For my money, Laird Barron is one of the best horror writers working—his particular grasp of the Weird speaks directly to the dark caves of my soul. His recent turn to noir with the Isiaiah Coleridge novels was a delight, but I’m excited to see him back at work in the form that terrifies me the most: a short story collection.
Dan Kois, Hampton Heights: One Harrowing Night in the Most Haunted Neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Harper Perennial, September 17
Teenaged paperboys confronting a bunch of monsters in a Milwaukee suburb? From the guy who brought us Vintage Contemporaries and the oral history of Angels in America?? Say no more, just let this fill the Stranger Things-shaped hole in your fall.
Jedediah Berry, The Naming Song
Tor Books, September 24
I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time: Barry’s first novel The Manual of Detection was an instant favorite when it came out and his story-in-cards The Family Arcana has been deeply inspiring to my own creative practice. Now, he’s back with a fantastical epic about a world that lost its language and is trying to get it back. Plus, there’s a magical train! You probably couldn’t design a book more keyed into my personal interests, but I have the feeling this one is going to hit the sweet spot for a whole lot of people.
Nghi Vo, The City in Glass
Tordotcom, October 1
I love fantasy cities and am always looking to visit new ones—so the promise of Nghi Vo squiring us away to a city beset by angels, protected (and maddened) by a demon, and caught in a cycle of history is very exciting indeed. Publicity copy cites Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin—and if anybody could live up to that trinity, Nghi Vo can. Stamp my passport for Azril now.
Rivers Solomon, Model Home
MCD, October 1
A haunted house novel dealing with family, segregation, and racism in the American South, released on the first day of spooky season and five weeks before the election? Blurring the line between the supernatural and the all-too-human evils around us?? Rivers Solomon has their finger on the pulse of things, to be sure. I’m betting on this one to be Solomon’s breakout.
Alan Moore, The Great When
Bloomsbury, October 1
When a fictional book out of an Arthur Machen story ends up in a used bookstore in post-WWII London, a young man’s entire sense of the universe is turned upside down. It’s a rollicking adventure, the first in an apparent series. Imagine if Neil Gaiman commissioned Kevin Barry to write a prequel to Neverwhere and gave him some acid to help get things going, and that’s just the start of it.
Sofia Ajram, Coup de Grâce
Titan Books, October 1
A suicidal young man on his way to throw himself into the Saint Lawrence River instead gets stuck in an endless Montreal subway station. Shades of Piranesi and House of Leaves abound.
Nicholas Pullen, The Black Hunger
Redhook, October 8
A queer historical gothic structured in classic epistolary style? A journey across a dark and fantastically dangerous Europe? I’m always looking for something I know next-to-nothing about to win me over during spooky season and I’m thinking that Pullen’s debut might just be that, this year.
CJ Leede, American Rapture
Tor Nightfire, October 15
There really seems to be something in the air right now when it comes to horror writers tackling the apocalypse as brought on by (or relating to) the forces of repression and shame. CJ Leede might have the most audacious yet, featuring lust-zombies and a good Catholic girl trying to find her family in a world on fire. Maeve Fly was one of my favorite reads of last year and I have the highest hopes for this one.
Andy Marino, The Swarm
Redhook, November 5
Cicadas are scary! I mean think about it: they come out of the ground at these cyclical intervals and we talk about them in such near-apocalyptic tones… so what would happen if they really were harbingers of the apocalpyse? Trust Andy Marino to meld the 70s-horror-premise to a truly terrifying modern sensibility. Plus, it’s coming out on the scariest day of the year so I bet it’s going to be a banger.
Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
Tor Books, December 6
Start adding weight to your arm workouts: Sanderson’s latest doorstopper, clocking in somewhere north of 1200 pages, brings the first arc of his Stormlight Archive series to an explosive conclusion—featuring godfights, magic swords, and literally-world-shaking decisions.
Arkady Martine, Rose/House
Tordotcom, December 10
Originally published as a limited-run one-off, Tordotcom is bringing Martine’s AI-haunted Hill House to the masses. Not only is it a great haunted house novel, but Martine’s exceptional eye for structures and systems (as seen in her Teixcalaan series) really shines here as she looks into architecture and design and the way such things shape our very perceptions of the world.
