Cathrall, Sylvie. A Letter to the Luminous Deep. Orbit. ISBN 9780316565530.

Cathrall debuts with a wonderfully charming epistolary novel in which an event known as the Dive has plunged humanity’s sky dwellers into the depths of the ocean. A mysterious sea creature spurs E. Cidnosin to correspond with scholar Henerey Clel, leading to love. After an explosion, they disappear, and their siblings go looking for answers. Readers will savor the delightful letters that comprise this cozy fantasy set in academia and an underwater world.

Kim, Sophie. The God and the Gumiho. Del Rey. ISBN 9780593599662.

Kim Hani was once the Scarlet Fox, a gumiho (nine-tailed fox) who disappeared after a long binge on livers and souls. The trickster god Seokga, who was banished to the mortal realm to be a detective, could become a god again—if he kills the evasive Scarlet Fox. Hani hides in plain sight as Seokga’s partner, but secrets rarely stay hidden. Korean mythology, morally gray characters, and a heated romance make Kim’s adult debut shine.

Klune, TJ. Somewhere Beyond the Sea. Tor. ISBN 9781250881205.

Arthur Parnassus ensures that the orphans under his care on Marsyas Island know love, happiness, and opportunity. Called before the Department in Charge of Magical Youth to talk about his past, Arthur finds himself pitted against those who believe magic is dangerous and don’t want Arthur, his children, or anyone like them to be near nonmagical people. Emotional arcs, bittersweet prose, and dramatic themes of belonging and acceptance bring readers to a heart-wrenching climax.

Leong, Julie. The Teller of Small Fortunes. Ace. ISBN 9780593815915.

In Leong’s delightful cozy fantasy debut, fortune teller Tao meanders through Eshtera in her tiny caravan, only telling small fortunes and never touching on her deeper gifts. When she tells one traveler that he’ll soon see his daughter, who turns out to be missing, Tao’s journey turns into a quest for a vanished child, a lost purpose, and a found family as she opens her heart and finds belonging.

Okungbowa, Suyi Davies. Lost Ark Dreaming. Tor.com. ISBN 9781250890757.

The world has succumbed to extreme climate change in a near-future Nigeria. Five towers known as the Fingers rise out of the floods and are home to thousands above and below the water line. When a report of a breach at the Fingers brings together three company workers of different levels, they must share their disparate perspectives to reveal the truth behind the problem. Multiple points of view are used to explore class and disparity through tense action in a brilliant, character-driven story.

Parry, H.G. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door. Redhook. ISBN 9780316383905.

There’s a secret world of magic hidden alongside the mundane, a world of power and privilege that is comfortable with papering over consequences. In World War I, however, the secret got out. Now the high-and-mighty mages are determined to put that genie back in the bottle, even as one young woman who never should have learned the truth inveigles her way to the inside, hoping to expose it all. An enchanting and mesmerizing story full of high magic and high society.

Revis, Beth. Full Speed to a Crash Landing. DAW. ISBN 9780756419462.

With her ship’s hull breached and little oxygen left in her spacesuit, Ada Lamarr sends out a distress signal and is rescued just in time, beginning a clever cat-and-mouse game with government agent Rian White. In this wild romp, they banter their way through a dangerous flirtation, but it’s just Ada’s opening gambit in this heist to end all heists and a wheels-within-wheels plot to save the galaxy—or die trying.

Rice, Waubgeshig. Moon of the Turning Leaves. Morrow. ISBN 9780358673255.

Twelve years after an inexplicable blackout led to the collapse of society, a group of Anishinaabe people have established a small community in the bush in northern Ontario. Their resources are beginning to dwindle, and the elders send a scouting party to see if their ancestral land along Lake Huron is habitable. Rice writes about this fraught journey in evocative language and offers an achingly realistic portrayal of a broken world that still manages to contain hope and beauty.

Tchaikovsky, Adrian. Service Model. Tor. ISBN 9781250290281.

What would Earth look like if the humans were all gone, leaving robots, their former servitors, as the dominant sentience on the planet? One service model robot, having no program for what to do after they killed his master, goes on a journey through a robot’s version of the circles of hell, finding enlightenment, purpose, and even humanity along their sometimes dangerous and occasionally farcical way. Tchaikovsky offers a thoughtful and compelling postapocalyptic story.

Wiswell, John. Someone You Can Build a Nest In. DAW. ISBN 9780756418854.

Shesheshen, an amorphous creature, is woken by monster hunters and chased off a cliff. She is rescued by a monster hunter named Homily, who thinks Shesheshen is human. Shesheshen believes she has found the perfect co-parent for her eggs, which will eventually devour Homily. As romantic feelings develop, family curses and big secrets might tear them apart. This is a delightful monster-slayer story where the monster is just a misunderstood creature searching for love.