S.C. Bandreddi, The Game of Oaths (Candlewick 6/26) Bandreddi’s debut outing is a young-adult historical dark fantasy novel about a magical circus in 1896 Paris. Performers trapped by contracts are forced to compete in a deadly tournament to entertain the elite while promising freedom for the winner – but one competitor is more interested in revenge. Full of magic and brutal action, with a diverse cast dealing with issues of colonialism that add a serious touch.

 

 

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Maurice Broaddus, A City Dreaming (Tor 6/26) The third and final volume in the Astra Black trilogy offers a complex mix of political intrigue and action, as a signal from a wormhole promises new arrivals, triggering conflicts across the solar system that threaten the Muungano Empire.

 

 

 

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Ellen Datlow, ed., Lovecraft’s Brood (Tachyon 7/26) A new anthology by noted editor Datlow offers 19 stories of cosmic dread from the last 20 years, with new takes on Lovecraftian themes. Authors include Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, Caitlín R. Kiernan, T. Kingfisher, Steve Rasnic Tem, Paul Tremblay, and L. Marie Wood.

 

 

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Kate Heartfield, Mercutio (Harper Voyager UK 5/26) In this ‘‘prequel’’ to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s witty friend Mercutio gets his own story told, as he and Dante Alighieri team up to stop a Faerie invasion into the real world.

 

 

 

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Allan Kaster, ed., The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 10 (Infinivox 6/26) The latest volume in this popular SF year’s best anthology presents 11 stories from 2025 by an impressive roster of writers, including Vera Brook, Isabel J. Kim, Nancy Kress, Allen M. Steele, Bruce Sterling & Paul Di Filippo, and Peter Watts.

 

 

 

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Justin C. Key, The Hospital at the End of the World (Harper 2/26) This near-future SF novel imagines a world ‘‘in which hospitals are run entirely by AI and where doctors are little more than glorified software engineers.’’ [Ian Mond] Pok, a medical student, is forced to work in the only hospital not run by algorithms and learn how to deal with patients in a human way, all while trying to uncover his father’s secret.

 

 

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Haralambi Markov, The Language of Knives (Mythic Delirium 7/26) A collection of 13 dark fantasy/horror stories, four new, many involving elements of Slavic myth, dark humor, and questions of queer identity. This is Markov’s first collection, with an introduction by Ann VanderMeer.

 

 

 

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Alex Shvartsman, The Best of All Possible Planets (UFO Publishing 7/26) A satirical SF space opera novel, inspired primarily by Voltaire’s Candide (and not a little Douglas Adams), but with dozens more inspirations (and targets) from genre and pop culture (a list is provided). ‘‘But an exhaustive hunt for every Easter Egg would go against the spirit of this breezy read. Just relax and let the ride take you away from the actual world for a bit.’’ [Adrienne Martini] A small group sets out to get a new protective force shield for Earth, AKA Planet Dirt, and chaos naturally ensues.

 

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Jen St. Jude, Where You’ll Find Us (Bloomsbury US 6/26) This young-adult fantasy novel follows a disowned queer teen who finds a farmhouse out of time where queer kids from different decades have found refuge and share their experiences – until one day the clock starts ticking again.

 

 

 

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Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky (Subterranean 6/26) A hefty collection of 37 stories, chosen by the prolific author as his best, and with an Introduction by John Scalzi. Tchaikovsky notes he chose to omit some previously collected stories (notably those in his Shadows of the Apt series and his Lovecraftian Mythos stories) – what remains is a plentiful and entertaining mix of SF, fantasy, and ‘‘weirdness’’ that spans most of Tchaikovsky’s career, from early to recent tales.

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