Let’s be real, we have all been looking forward to leaving 2020 behind as we get closer to the new year. While Hollywood has pushed back almost all movies and TV shows to a later date, authors have been making their debuts or launching the newest addition in their series all year. Get ready to finish out the year with a few of the most anticipated fantasy & sci-fi books.
- Prepare for the earth- shattering finale of Sabaa Tahir’s New York Times bestselling fantasy series An Ember in the Ashes. The evil jinn have erupted across villages and cities destroying everything in its path. For young commandant Keris Veturia, the fight is never ending as she declares herself Empress. Can she keep her title while fighting off the Blood Shrike as well as her family? Left alone the Soul Catcher battles with the desire to turn his back on everything he’s known. Will he rise and fight the supernatural to protect the human world? Crossing the borders of his land is an undertaking that will either save or destroy everything. Laia of Serra has sided with the Blood Shrike while battling with the loss of the two most important people to her. Determined to end the war once and for all she finds the one power that will either save or doom them all.
2. Herman Steuernagel’s dystopian debut Lies the Guardians Tell will have you turning pages long into the night as you dive into Sierra Runar’s world. In this post apocalyptic series, Sierra has lived under the thumb of the Guardians, ancient artificial intelligence, all her life. After multiple devastating events takes place, the blinds around her eyes are finally cast off as she’s thrust into a quest to find the only man who remembers the war. Stepping through the protective force field that has surrounded the city her entire life, Sierra will journey through love, loss, friendship and trust. All while realizing the Guardians are not what they claim to be.
3. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games. Jerri Chrisholm’s captivating debut hits the shelves on December 8th. When earth became uninhabitable four generations ago, Eve Hamilton’s world is crammed into one compound. In compound eleven, hierarchy rules by levels. Only the elite reside on the top floor while on Eve’s floor, it is all about the fight for survival. Her recent match is against a peculiar boy from the top floor. Although he completely showed her up in the ring, Eve senses a difference in him that makes her question everything. Could he be her one ticket to a better life? Done fighting for scraps Eve yearns for her freedom and this boy will either be her salvation or her undoing.
4. Harffy’s historical novel, A Time For Swords, will leave you enthralled. With pages full of battles, treachery, revenge and history you won’t be able to put this book down. Harffy takes you back to the dark ages, AD 793. When the viking age begins with the slaughter of a monastery in Lindisfarne, a young monk’s life is changed forever. In the face of all his horrors, Hunlaf no long turns the other cheek. He soon learns that justice comes from the sword and forgiveness is impossible.
5. Maya Motayne’s thrilling sequel to the #1 Sunday Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller Nocturna, hits the shelves on December 15th. In the first book Motayne introduces a face-shifting thief and a risk-taking prince who must band together when a deadly enemy terrorizes the kingdom and their fragile global piece. The sequel Oculta, brings Alfie, the prince, and Finn, the thief, back together to protect their kingdom once again. Assassins threaten and rage against their kingdom, close to destroying any hope of Castallan’s peace with Englass. Time is not on their side as they race to stop the sinister foes before another war begins that will destroy them all.
6. Alwyn Hamilton has done it again. The best selling Rebel of the Sands series author brings us this glittering novel of two girls who’s lives are turned upside down in The Notorious Virtues. Honora Nora Holtzfall is the daughter to the most powerful heiress in Walstead. Controlling every cent and all the magic in the country, she could not want more. Amidst all the jewels and power, Nora can’t help feeling like an outsider. When her mother’s murder rocks her world Nora’s throne and fortune are nowhere close to being secured. She has no option but to be pitted against her family in a competition for her mother’s throne. Lotte’s absentee mother rushes to bring her back from the convent she has grown up in due to being the illegitimate daughter of Nora’s aunt. Thrown into a life surrounded by a family she has never known, Lotte struggles to to find the identity of her father while surviving a family who want her dead.
7. An Invisible Library novel, Cogman introduces us to a new addition to The Library Series. The Dark Archives brings us back into the mysterious library, that harvests fiction from different realities, where Irene struggles with training her new fae assistant. When they become targets to multiple assassination and kidnapping attempts she pushes harder to teach the fundamentals of a Librarian’s job. To defeat the threats against her, Irene must dive deep into her own past and bring secrets to light that will forever change her life.