Speculative fiction is specially suited to address humanity’s rich diversity, with its various genres unconstrained by the expectation that they reflect a single view of the world. Rather than base their work on the world as it is, authors are free to imagine any sort of society in our future, in magical domains that never were, in a present just the other side of the looking glass, or in other realms entirely. The type of protagonists that these writers create are similarly unbounded, and the forthcoming fall/winter publishing season will see a number of releases that don’t rely on the stalwart white male to save the day—not that these aren’t still in good supply.

A multiplicity of characters

Executive editor Anne Sowards and senior editor Jessica Wade of Berkley’s Ace/Roc imprints “are actively looking for diverse stories and voices to add to [their] list.” In January, Roc will be publishing Daniel José Older’s Battle Hill Bolero, the third volume in his “Bone Street Rumba” urban fantasy series. “It takes place in Brooklyn with a cast as varied as the inhabitants of New York City,” says Sowards, who identifies Older as a leading figure in the sf/fantasy diversity movement.

Harper Voyager executive editor David Pomerico echoes Sowards’s and Wade’s sentiments. “Like most editors, I work with agents to let them know what I’m looking for, and this has resulted in some great new Voyager authors: Nicky Drayden, Rebecca Kuang, and Maggie Shen King. Further, I look for opportunities to reach out to authors who can possibly add new voices to both the list and the genre. Whether it’s at a conference or [via] email, we’re always looking to keep expanding sf/fantasy.”

In Chris Roberson’s Firewalk (Night Shade, Oct.; see starred review, p. 70), a supernatural thriller by the cocreater of the comic iZombie, FBI investigator Izzie Lefevre, a descendant of voodoo priestesses, and Patrick Tevake, a police detective of Polynesian extraction, draw on their ethnic heritage to trace the occult roots of a crime. September marks the publication of James Tiptree Jr. Literary Award–winning short story writer Nisi Shawl’s highly anticipated first novel, Everfair (Tor), a steampunk alternate history set in the Belgian Congo (see review, p. 70).

“It’s as diverse in about as many ways as you can count. The author is a queer black woman, and several of [her] characters are queer (and often women and/or nonwhite as well),” explains Tor Books editor Liz Gorinsky. “The [other] characters represent a multiplicity of voices that have been historically silenced—Africans, East Asians, and African Americans—as well as a few Europeans, in complex relationships with one another.”

Increasingly, mainstream publishers are releasing speculative fiction that features casts who are diverse not only in terms of race and ethnicity but who also represent a range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Coming in November from Roc is Emma Newman’s After Atlas, which further explores the theme of mental illness introduced in the acclaimed Planetfall and features bisexual and genderqueer characters.

New perspectives, new presses

Especially noteworthy in recent years is the rise of presses specializing in LGBTQ genre fiction, including Lethe, Interlude, DSP Publications, and Riptide. “We launched the DSP imprint about two years ago directly in response to requests for more genre fiction featuring LGBTQ+ characters and themes outside the romance market,” explains editor in chief Lynn West, who also notes that this is a direct reflection of the demand for increased diversity in mainstream media as a whole.

Urban fantasies dominate DSP’s fall list, headed by Rhys Ford’s Mad Lizard Mambo (Sept.), the sequel to the well-­reviewed Black Dog Blues, and C.M. Torrens’s The Alpha’s Weave (Oct.), the first volume in a new shape-shifting series. But given the submissions West has received over the past six months, DSP’s spring 2017 list will be heavy with sf, especially space operas as opposed to Earth-based stories.

Inkshares’ crowdsourced model of publishing (readers determine what is released through preorder campaigns) has made the publisher more open to fresh, unconventional voices. “Because of our democratic publishing model, readers, not editors or agents, decide what we publish,” says marketing manager Avalon Radys. In August, the company is releasing Zac Linville’s Welcome to Deadland, a debut that combines coming of age, coming out, and, of course, zombies in a deserted Florida theme park.

For Interlude, diversity has been a priority since it published its first title in 2014. Publisher Candysse Miller remarks that her authors “are now approaching representation as a matter of the complex intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender and sexual identity.” These themes are found in Interlude’s three fall sf/fantasy titles, two of which represent its Duet Books young adult imprint—C.B. Lee’s Not Your Sidekick (Duet, Sept.), Rachel Davidson Leigh’s Hold (Duet, Oct.), and Charlotte Ashe’s The King and the Criminal (Dec.), the second novel in her critically acclaimed “The Heart of All Worlds” series.

“In Ashe’s fantasy realm, a full spectrum of sexual identity is a canonically accepted norm,” says Miller, who notes that the first book in this series, The Sidhe, has been a best seller for the press since its 2015 release.

Shifting strategies

For some editors, the biggest trend is not so much in terms of genre but in how they acquire and market titles. Harper Voyager’s Pomerico is seeing a shift back to big “make” books—novels that publishers believe are going to cross over genres and demographics and be breakout successes that transcend audiences.

“[With] the way publishers are approaching sf/fantasy (especially imprints that aren’t ‘traditional’ genre imprints), you’re seeing the genre emerge more into the mainstream,” says Pomerico. He cites Voyager’s own Spotlight program that identifies projects and authors “we think can be gateways into the genre.” Among the fall titles getting the Spotlight treatment are Sarah Beth Durst’s The Queen of Blood (Sept.), a new fantasy series that Pomerico compares to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and Amy S. Foster’s The Rift Uprising (Oct.), which blurs “the lines between YA and adult in a really fun way.”

Major houses are also releasing series titles in a more rapid sequence to attract and grow readership. Following the June publication of Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library, Roc is putting out the second volume in her “Invisible Library” trilogy, The Masked City, in September, and the third, The Burning Page, in December. According to editors Sowards and Wade, readers are responding well to intriguing high-concept ideas, and what could be a more fabulous hook than Cogman’s time-traveling librarian spies?

Works in translation

Increasingly, publishers’ fall lists are featuring speculative fiction in translation, and awards committees have taken note. In 2015, Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem became the first translated sf novel to win a Hugo Award and wound up on the reading lists of President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. Arriving in September from Tor is Death’s End, the highly anticipated conclusion to Lui’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy.

“I have somehow fallen into the Chinese [sf] publishing business, and I couldn’t be happier,” exclaims Tor’s Gorinsky. “This fall we actually have two books translated by Ken Liu (who’s an amazing author in his own right—the only one to ever win Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards for the same story).” [See Ken Liu’s profile in the “Diverse Voices” sidebar below.—Ed.] The second title is Invisible Planets, an anthology of Chinese short stories; it includes two tales by Liu Cixin and the rest by rising talents, including the Hugo- and Sturgeon Award–nominated “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang. Coming in October is Mariko Koike’s The Graveyard Apartment (Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s); known for her hybrid works that mix detective fiction with horror, the author is one of Japan’s most popular writers. Originally published in 1986, this novel follows a young family as they move into what they believe is the perfect home—despite the cemetery next door.

In terms of European sf and fantasy, associate editor Lindsey Hall of Hachette’s Orbit imprint is excited by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s “The Witcher” series (The Tower of Swallows, Orbit, May). “His world is rich and lush, with great characters and constant action. The books and the video games they inspired have been growing exponentially in popularity in recent years.”

Fantasy’s continuing allure

Last year’s sf collections survey (“Numbers Tell the Story: Sf in Libraries,” LJ 8/15) found that fantasy, in particular epic fantasy, was the most popular speculative genre in terms of circulation, and its popularity with readers has not waned. “[C]lassic epic fantasy is as ageless as [J.R.R. Tolkien’s character] Elrond,” says Del Rey editorial director Tricia Narwani, and the subgenre continues to grow, as Titan senior editor Miranda Jewess notes, “with every season of Game of Thrones.”

This January, epic fantasy master Tad Williams returns to the world of Osten Ard with The Heart of What Was Lost (DAW), the first in a new cycle of novels. For readers new to the series, this title introduces the story of how King Simon and Queen Miriamele force the Norns from the lands of humans. Fantasy fans who prefer their epics on the darker side, with dark deities to match, will find plenty to read this fall. Pyr editorial director Rene Sears is enthusiastic about the third volume in K.V. Johansen’s “Marakand” series. “Gods of Nabban (Sept.) returns to the world of Blackdog to continue exploring the nature of divinity, both in the gods and the humans they interact with, in evocative, lyrical prose.”

In Gabriel Squailia’s Viscera (Talos, Oct.), magical power in the city of Eth derives from the petrified viscera of perished deities. Skyhorse senior editor Cory Allyn, who oversees the Night Shade and Talos sf/fantasy/horror imprints, notes that Squailia “plays with issues of gender at the same time” as he breaks “apart the tropes of both sword-and-sorcery and grimdark fantasy.” Also twisting grimdark tropes is Will Panzo’s November debut, The Burning Isle (Ace), which Ace/Roc editors Sowards and Wade describe as a gritty epic revenge story, a magical version of The Count of Monte Cristo that draws upon diverse influences, from ancient Rome to modern-day video games.

Drawn from other lands

Although the traditions of medieval Europe have long been the inspiration for epic fantasies, a new generation of writers are looking to other cultures for their imagined worlds. Blogging on his website, author Ken Liu explains how his “Dandelion Dynasty” series drew on historical legends relating to the founding of the Han dynasty. But, more important, he wanted to “reimagine the stories in a new setting, with new cultures, new peoples, new technologies, and magic that are not tied to their Chinese roots directly.” His sequel to the Locus Award–winning The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms (Saga: S. & S., Oct.) finds Emperor Kuni Garu facing an invasion by the Lyucu Empire from the distant west.

Pseudonymous author Lian Hearn, who has lived in Japan and is a student of the Japanese language, explores that country’s medieval history and mythology in her four-volume “Tale of Shikanoko” series. In the third outing, Lord of the Darkwood (Farrar, Aug.), the warrior Shikanoko must confront the Spider Tribe that he had some part in creating. This September, Bradley P. Beaulieu returns to the Arabian Nights–­influenced world of his “Song of the Shattered Sands” series with Of Sand and Malice Made (DAW), in which his young pit fighter heroine Çeda must overcome an ehrekh, a creature of the desert created by the god of chaos.

Authors are also incorporating some unusual urban settings in the natural world for their epics. Australian Thoraiya Dyer’s series opener, Crossroads of Canopy, due from Tor in January, introduces a city set in the canopy of a rainforest ruled by gods. Unar, the young servant of the goddess Audblayin, must descend to the deprived realms of Understorey and Floor to seek her destiny. Fran Wilde introduced readers to her towering city of living bone and its flying inhabitants in her award-winning debut Updraft, but more trouble brews for residents in Cloudbound (Tor, Sept.; see review, p. 70).

Another look at faerie tales

Crediting the success of ABC’s Once upon a Time and Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Sowards and Wade of Ace/Roc have their eyes on new takes on old fairy tales. Juliet Marillier’s Den of Wolves (Nov.), the third entry in her “Blackthorn & Grim” series, is “a nuanced take on the trope of the changeling as found in many mythic tales.” Russian folktales are the source for Katherine Arden’s fantasy debut, The Bear and the Nightingale (Del Rey: Ballantine, Jan. 2017), about a young girl and her family living on the edge of the Russian wilderness. And some of sf/fantasy’s best writers reimagine classic and traditional fairy tales in new and startling ways in The Starlit Wood (Saga: S. & S., Oct.; see review, p. 72), edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe.

Something old, something new

Moving from one of the oldest types of speculative fiction to one of the newest, we turn to steampunk, that odd stepchild of the speculative fiction family. While Titan’s Jewess believes the subgenre has slipped out of the mainstream, it is still chugging along. In Susan Laine’s Skyships over Innsmouth (DSP, Aug.), Captain Dev of the scout airship Smoke Sparrow and his crew are sent to investigate Innsmouth, MA, a town that is mentioned in old tomes but that appears on no maps. And other writers are incorporating steampunk elements into their work. Barbara Barnett’s The Apothecary’s Curse (Pyr, Oct.) balances two story lines: Victorian London physician Simon Bell and apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune’s discovery of an elixir of immortality and the modern-day quest of pharmaceutical company Genomics to find a cure for death. “It’s a bit of a mashup,” explains Pyr’s Sears, “combining alchemy and genetics in a story line that spans from Victorian London to contemporary Chicago.”

On the historical fantasy front, which shares some commonalities with both steampunk and more classic fantasy, authors are expanding the range of time periods they want to explore. In Stephanie Burgis’s Congress of Secrets (Pyr, Nov.), set at the Congress of Vienna after Napoleon’s defeat, alchemist Caroline Wyndham conceals her true identity as she seeks to rescue her father from the secret police while her father’s old apprentice works his latest con game. This month, Mary Robinette Kowal, the author of the popular “Glamourist History” paranormal series, moves from Regency England to the trenches of World War I with her first stand-alone fantasy, Ghost Talkers (Tor). Tor’s Gorinsky raves, “It’s a wonderful and tragic story about the Spirit Corps, a group of mediums who contribute to World War I intelligence by taking combat reports from soldiers after they die.” And the Wild West is the setting for Lila Bowen’s Conspiracy of Ravens (Orbit, Oct.). Nettie Lonesome wears a badge and two wings, but it might not be enough to defeat the murderous alchemist roaming the plains.

The maturing of urban fantasy

For the editors at Ace/Roc, the market for urban fantasy has matured, but certain authors continue to do very well. This month, Faith Hunter spins off a new series from her popular “Jane Yellowrock” stories with Blood of the Earth (see review, p. 68.). It features Nell Ingram, a character who will be familiar to fans of Hunter’s New York Times best-selling series. But Skyhorse’s Allyn disagrees with their assessment.

“We’ve heard rumblings that urban fantasy is on the decline,” says Allyn, “but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still interesting and worthwhile ground to cover.” He cites Roberson’s Firewalk, which swings urban fantasy toward the police procedural. It’s this genre crossover appeal that keeps publishers selling these kinds of fantasies. This October, City Owl is releasing Danielle DeVor’s Sorrow’s Edge, which introduces a defrocked priest–turned–exorcist trying to solve the mystery of why his long-dead mentor recommended a client to him. Originally released as an online serial, Max Gladstone’s Bookburners (Saga: S. & S., Jan. 2017), coauthored with three other writers, is an urban fantasy about a secret Vatican-backed team that stops deadly magic within dangerous books.

Other urban fantasies don’t hew as closely to the procedural format but still maintain a gritty, noir feel, such as E.J. Russell’s Wolf’s Clothing (Riptide, Oct.), in which werewolf Christophe Clavret tries to resist the growing attraction he feels for Trent Pielmeyer, a man who hates all things supernatural, as dark forces threaten them both. A new Jim Butcher story about Harry Dresden’s apprentice Molly Hunter headlines Shadowed Souls (Roc, Nov.), a collection of dark stories by Seanan McGuire, Tanya Huff, and other urban fantasy stars, edited by Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes.

Investigating the near future

Sf often challenges the status quo, according to Skyhorse editor Allyn, and the best speculative fiction can be highly political and controversial. High on the Talos fall list is Exploded View (Oct.), a near-future sf thriller from Sam McPheeters. “It is both a simmering noir filled with impressive technology (the title refers to virtual reality (VR) eyewear—what Google Glass might turn into 50 years from now), and a deft commentary on many important topics being debated in the news today: government surveillance, social media, and the refugee crisis,” says Allyn. In 2050, LAPD detective Terri Pastuzka must investigate the murder of one of the city’s immigrants, using all of the VR tech at her disposal.

Another unusual sf thriller landing on bookshelves this October is Hugo Award winner Will McIntosh’s stand-alone, Faller (Tor), in which the title character exists, like everyone else, with no memories of his past on an Earth transformed into islands floating in an endless sky. Other titles explore cutting-edge technology’s unintended consequences. In Chuck Wendig’s Invasive (Harper Voyager, Aug.), Hannah Stander, an FBI futurist consultant, confronts the weaponization of nature itself. “I’m really digging the ants from Wendig’s Invasive,” says Voyager’s Pomerico, who is also intrigued by the premise of Connie Willis’s new novel, Crosstalk (Del Rey: Ballantine, Oct. ). In the near future, a simple operation increases empathy between lovers, but when Briddey Flannigan’s procedure goes awry, she becomes connected to someone else entirely.

Space operas forever

While space operas may not dominate the field as they once did, they are still holding their own. Indie publisher Inkshares partners with pop culture website Nerdist to sponsor several contests to find new sf/fantasy titles. “Based on the themes Nerdist has chosen for its contest, we’re seeing a large rise in space opera, hard science, and video game–themed submissions,” explains marketing manager Radys. Nerdist editor in chief Rachel Heine adds that “[s]pace operas have been a staple in genre storytelling for nearly a century and...show absolutely no signs of slowing down.”

Orbit senior editor Will Hinton describes the worlds of today’s space operas as “places we’ve dreamed about but [that] feel real enough that they are easy to live in.” One of his favorite books for the fall is Forsaken Skies by D. Nolan Clark. This series launch about first contact with an alien race “has all the adventure and comforts of classic space opera but tells a story that’s both epic and intimate in a way that felt fresh to me. It all begins with a silent, massive armada that emerges from deep space and for unknown reasons sets its sights on an isolated colony planet. I don’t want to give anything away, but this is an alien encounter full of surprises.”

Fans of Star Wars–style adventures are bound to relish K.B. Wagers’s “Indranan War” series, which launches this August with Behind the Throne (Orbit, see starred review, p. 67) and continues in December with After the Crown. Hail Bristol has gone from living as a gunrunner to becoming Empress but when she is betrayed during peace talks, she must return to her gunrunning skills to set things right. In Kameron Hurley’s The Stars Are Legion (Saga: S. & S., Jan. 2017), Zan must rescue her sister Jayd from an arranged marriage to their family’s worst foe so that the twins may lead their fleet of world-ships through space.

S.K. Dunstall’s third “Linesman” novel, Confluence (Ace, Nov.), has linesman Ean Lambert, his friend and bodyguard Radko, and the Crown Princess of Lancia working together to prevent the destruction of the New Alliance. The publisher has been pleased so far with the response to this series about intelligent alien spaceships that features plenty of adventure and a strong emphasis on character.

Military sf/fantasy marches on

While armed conflict is a part of the space opera, military sf concentrates on warfare, whether in its far-reaching aspects or small unit tactics. The fall publishing season sees a new work by a veteran as well as fresh recruits taking up the standard. David Weber’s 19th Honor Harrington book, Shadow of Victory (Baen, Nov.), has his protagonist facing her biggest challenge yet because the Mesan Alignment is trying to engineer a war between her Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League, the most powerful star nation in the galaxy. Instead of a dishonorable discharge, court-martialed Commander Elena Shaw and Capt. Greg Foster are tasked with patrolling the Third Sector, but they uncover a plot to foment war that leads back to their own Central Gov in Elizabeth Bonesteel’s new “Central Corps” novel, Remnants of Trust (Harper Voyager, Nov.).

Arriving in September from Ace is J. Patrick Black’s Ninth City Burning (see review, p. 67), which pits aliens and their thelemity weapon against the few humans on Earth who can also wield this power. Crown executive editor Julian Pavia calls it “a big ambitious debut.” Ace/Roc editors Sowards and Wade praise the book for its cast of engaging narrators, complex worldbuilding, and page-turning adventure. “This novel has echoes of [Orson Scott Card’s] Ender’s Game and [Pierce Brown’s] Red Rising—and has crossover appeal to both adult and YA readers.” Ace launches another new military series in October with William C. Dietz’s Into the Guns, in which corporations attempt to seize power after a massive meteor strike and its aftermath devastate Earth.

On the epic fantasy front, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Guns of the Dawn, coming from Pan Macmillan in November, pits war machines against warlocks. Medallion’s September release of Andrew Post’s Rusted Heroes has the fairly straightforward and delightful premise of a tank squad, accompanied by a bard, against orcs and a necromancer.

The horror, the horror

Tor publicity director Patty Garcia is seeing lots of ghosts this season. In Cherie Priest’s haunted-house tale, The Family Plot (Sept.), Chuck Dutton sends his daughter Augusta to oversee the salvaging of the Withrow estate, little suspecting that the Halloween prank graveyard on the premises is all too real.

And the insatiable hunger for zombie fiction remains undead. Out this month from Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint is Max Brallier’s choose-your-own-horror-adventure title, Highway to Hell: Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? This October, Orbit releases Mira Grant’s new stand-alone “Newsflesh” novel, Feedback, which goes back to the events of her breakout novel, Feed. Both books center on a presidential election in an America overcome by fear, paranoia, and less-than-virtuous politicians and bureaucrats. Sound familiar? “We don’t have hordes of the flesh-eating infected yet, but there is plenty of time until November 8,” jokes Orbit’s ­Hinton.

In October, Inkshares will publish acclaimed Hollywood screenwriter, producer, and director Patrick Sheane Duncan’s (Courage Under Fire; Mr. Holland’s Opus) historical fantasy horror Dracula vs. Hitler. This homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, written in an epistolary format, answers the burning question, What if Dracula were brought back to life to fight the Nazis? Also arriving just in time for Halloween is the catchily titled What the #@&% Is That? The Saga Anthology of the Monstrous and the Macabre (Saga: S. & S., Nov.), edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen.

Regardless of what kind of book readers want, where they want it to take place, or who they want to write it or star in it, they have a wide range of choices this fall and winter, and that’s as it should be. Nerdist editor in chief Heine notes that “there is always room to play with tropes, themes, and characters in sci-fi and fantasy…that’s what makes it so much fun.” And Harper Voyager’s Pomerico reminds us that, all other issues aside, “ultimately...what we’re looking for [are] good books.”

Eric Norton is Head of Customer Services at McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids. He is a lifelong fan of speculative fiction

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