I’m thrilled to have a guest post by science fiction and fantasy author Michael Swanwick to share with you today—and to be giving away a copy of his new SFF collection! His previous work includes the World Fantasy Award–winning novella “Radio Waves” and the additional stories collected in Tales of Old Earth; the collection The Dog Said Bow-Wow, which includes the Hugo Award–winning short story of the same name; and the Nebula Award–winning novel Stations of the Tide. His latest book, The […]

If you missed the first of my 2026 book recommendations events with the Ashland Public Library last night, you can catch the video on Youtube here. While last year’s program focused on both fantasy and science fiction, I’m primarily focusing on fantasy book recommendations this year. (But if you’re looking for more science fiction books this year, Elizabeth Bear has you covered!) For the first book recommendations event of the year, I recommended a couple of epic fantasy books, a […]

One week from today, I’ll be doing the first quarterly virtual book recommendations event with the Ashland Public Library in Massachusetts of this year. Unlike last year, I’ll primarily be focusing on fantasy books instead of fantasy and science fiction. There may still be the occasional science fiction recommendation, but I’ll mostly be featuring fantasy and author Elizabeth Bear is focusing on SF recommendations this year (and just did her first event last night!). I’ll be sharing these fantasy book […]

This week is the 2026 Strange Horizons Criticism Special, which includes a new essay and review every day, a podcast, an editorial, and a roundtable: “Giving Permission: A Roundtable on the Obscurity of Influence” with Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Charles Payseur, Daniel A. Rabuzzi, and me. You can read the entire discussion here. Here’s a bit about the overall premise from the preamble: “We were seeking to identify a score or so authors who defy easy classification, whose unique style and/or […]

I’m delighted to have a guest post by Katie Hallahan to share with you today! She is the author of McKenna Ellerbeck, a contemporary fantasy series starting with The Twice-Sold Soul, which is described as a “queer fantasy romance set in a magical high school reunion” for “fans of Buffy and Charmed.” The second and newest book in her series, The Twice-Wanted Witch, is out in trade paperback and ebook today—and you can read more about some of her favorite […]

Once again, I have scoured the internet for information on speculative fiction books coming out this year and compiled a list of works I wanted to highlight. After looking through book descriptions, early reviews, and any available excerpts, I’ve put together a list of 18 fantasy and science fiction books coming out in 2026 that sound particularly compelling to me. (Of course, some of these did not require research since I had already enjoyed previous books in the series or […]