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It’s hard to believe, but we’re closing in on the halfway mark for 2023. There has been no shortage of great books to dive into so far this year, but there are always more right around the corner. With the summer vacation season almost upon us, it’s the perfect time to start prepping your reading list so you don’t find yourself on a beach needing to do mundane things like stare at the sand or enjoy the water because you forgot to bring you next favorite book.
To that end, we’re here with our monthly round-up of new science fiction and fantasy book releases! June’s going to be a fun one, if this first book is any indicator:
THE GALACTIC ZOOKEEPER’S GUIDE TO HEISTS AND HUSBANDRY by A.C. Huntley — June 1
The Galactic Zookeeper’s Guide to Heists and Husbandry is the debut novel from author A.C. Huntley, and it sounds like a total blast. If you’ve ever wished for a story in the vein of Douglas Addams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but with more zoo animals and student debt, then this is a book you want on your radar.
You’re already curious, aren’t you? Here’s the back-of-book description:
For eight years, Saffron Savage has been stuck on a dilapidated zoo-planet on the outskirts of the galaxy. Her mountains of overdue student loans make it impossible to afford the cost of leaving, and her sleazy coworkers force her to work demoralizing jobs on a daily basis. Desperate to escape, she hatches a scheme that might just be crazy enough to work: steal the zoo’s rare, two-headed llama and sell it to the highest bidder.
When the poorly planned theft lands Saffron and her stolen companion as unwitting stowaways on an outbound ship, she must pose as an animal rights activist on a mission to return the animal to its home planet. To her surprise, the ride comes with some perks – an instant chemistry with Captain Michael Reyes and burgeoning friendships with the ship’s motley, animal-loving crew. Other than the lie that’s snowballing out of control, Saffron finds herself settling into this quirky, ship-bound life.
If only the buyer wasn’t the most notorious, cut-throat mob boss in the galaxy. Or there wasn’t a warrant out for her arrest.
The Galactic Zookeeper’s Guide to Heists and Husbandry is a fast-paced space romp about second chances, rediscovering purpose, and finding family in unexpected places.
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WAYBOUND by Will Wight (Cradle #12) — June 4
This month also marks the release of Waybound, the twelfth and final book in author Will Wight’s Cradle series. Cradle is an epic fantasy story with a magic system reminiscent of manga like Naruto, and it is finally coming to an end.
The story began with Unsouled, which introduced us to a young man named Lindon, an underdog who was unable to access the magic used by many other people in his society. After discovering an immense threat to his world, Lindon was forced to set off on a journey of self-discovery. We’ll see how it all concludes in Waybound.
Years ago, Lindon left his home as a powerless Unsouled. Now, he goes to war with the most powerful beings in the world over the future of Cradle itself.
The Weeping Dragon has a grudge to settle, and Lindon intends to take out the Dreadgod with his friends by his side. But rival Monarchs know his plans, and they won’t let things end so easily.
If Lindon does win, he will ascend to the heavens. But he may not find a safe haven there either.
In the worlds above, Suriel and Ozriel face off against the Mad King to determine the new shape of the cosmos. The victor will decide the fate of countless universes.
Whether he wins or dies, Lindon will soon leave this life behind.
The time has come to say goodbye to Cradle.
TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie — June 6
Translation State is the latest work from The Imperial Radch author Ann Leckie; it’s a standalone novel set in the same world.
The Imperial Radch trilogy began with Ancillary Justice, a novel about a sentient starship trapped in a human body who goes on a quest for revenge. We’re expecting something pretty different this time around; Translation State centers around different characters, but we expect the same sort of mind-bending storytelling that was a trademark of Leckie’s original series.
Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn’t “optimal behavior”. It’s the type of behavior that results in elimination.
But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.
As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.
Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe.
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THE WOODS OF ARCADY by Michael Moorcock (The Sanctuary of the White Friar #2) — June 6
Things are about to get meta. Michael Moorcock is a speculative fiction author who has been churning out novels for the better part of the last 50 years and editing them for far longer than that. Michael Moorcock is also the main character of his latest novel, The Woods of Arcady, which is the second volume in a series which is part autobiography, part fantasy escapism, and part rumination on literature and its impact on the author’s life.
It’s a pretty heady concept. Moorcock’s work has often been more on the experimental side, but this latest is really pushing the bounds. Read the book summary and see if that’s something you’re into:
In the 1970s, Michael Moorcock, a writer of genre fiction, attempts to save his failing marriage by taking his wife and daughters to Paris. One night in a bar he is amazed to find himself drinking with heroes of story and history. The next day he awakens aboard a sailing ship, kidnapped into another reality by a French highwayman and the four Musketeers, who know Moorcock well from adventures in London’s Alsacia…but that was another Moorcock, from another world.
Soon after they reach Africa, the company is rescued from an ambush by Antara, a poet-adventurer who offers to lead them across the desert and through several realities to the estate of Lord and Lady Blackstone. The trip is full of wonders Moorcock has read, dreamed, or written: an underground civilization of nonhuman creatures; a magical oasis where the lion lies down with the lamb; a lush garden inhabited by miniature dinosaurs.
They are pursued by the notorious Jacob Nixer, who also remembers the Alsacia and is determined to destroy Moorcock and his companions.
The main narrative of The Woods of Arcady is punctuated by episodes from the story of the Blackstones and by spirited, freewheeling appearances by Captain Buggerly Otherly and his companions from the Second Ether. As readers move deeper into Moorcock’s multiverse, it rises up on all sides, ready to astound.
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GHOSTS OF ALDA by Russell Archey (The Obscured Throne #2) — June 6
Ghosts of Alda is the second installment in Russell Archey’s The Obscured Throne trilogy. The first novel, Ashes of Aldyr, was a dark fantasy which followed the rise of a cult known as the Black Gnarl who were trying to help a force of eldritch horror invade the fantasy world of Alda. Elves, dwarves, and humans were all reduced to shadows of their former selves as they sought to survive among the post-apocalyptic wreckage. What horrors await them in Ghosts of Alda?
Secrets have been unveiled and their revelations don’t bode well for the scattered peoples of Alda’s post apocalyptic fantasy world. The Black Gnarl grows in strength. A scant few individuals, protected by the remaining life energies of the world known as the Fifth magic, seek answers to give the world hope. Among their pivotal journeys lie the stories of others caught in the grasp of the Obscured Throne’s eldritch Inheritors, whose true purpose is not yet fully known.
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THE COMBAT CODES by Alexander Darwin (The Combat Codes #1) — June 13
If you like a bit more martial arts in your sci-fi/fantasy, then June has a treat for you: The Combat Codes. Originally a contender in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off back in 2020, The Combat Codes is being re-released by Orbit Books this month. Author Alexander Darwin is an expert martial artist, and that knowledge is on full display in this novel where the fate of nations is decided by organized bouts of hand-to-hand combat.
The Combat Codes is set in a science fantasy world, which isn’t super common. Expect elements from science fiction as well as fantasy, alongside pulse-pounding martial arts battles in this story about a washed-up champion who takes an up-and-coming fighter under his wing. There’s even an extremely cool trailer for the book which is styled after the classic JRPGs of yore!
In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland — but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.
In underground and ruthless combat rings, an orphaned boy called Cego is making a name for himself. Murray believes Cego has what it takes to thrive in the world’s most prestigious combat academy – but first, Cego must prove himself in the vicious arenas of the underworld. And survival isn’t guaranteed.
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THE SURVIVING SKY by Kritika H. Rao (The Rages trilogy #1) — June 13
I know I just said science fantasy isn’t all that common, but we get two big releases in that niche this month. The Surviving Sky is the debut novel from Kritika H. Rao. It follows a power couple dealing with a strained marriage as they try to uncover a mystery which threatens their floating civilization.
Based on the back-of-book description, The Surviving Sky sounds like an immensely imaginative debut. Jungle-planets! Plant-made floating civilizations! Devastating earthrage storms! I’d be lying if I said some of those phrases didn’t make me think of a Hayao Miyazaki movie, which just makes this book all the more enticing.
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. Here, architects are revered deeply, with humanity’s survival reliant on a privileged few. If not for their abilities, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic and powerful, Iravan is one such architect. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his archeologist wife, they are a method to suppress non-architects. Their marriage is thorny and fraught—yet when a jungle expedition goes terribly wrong, jeopardizing their careers, Ahilya and Iravan must work together to save their reputations. But as their city begins to plummet, their discoveries threaten not only their marriage, but their entire civilization.
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THE FIRST BRIGHT THING by J.R. Dawson — June 13
The First Bright Thing is J.R. Dawson’s debut novel. It’s a tale of magical circuses, time travel, sapphic romance, and found family that has been compared to Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus. It takes place across multiple timelines and is a great choice if you’re looking for a story centering LGBTQ+ characters to read this Pride Month.
Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.
With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.
But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.
It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.
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SAVAGE CROWNS by Matt Wallace (Savage Rebellion #3) — June 13
Stepping back into the realm of epic fantasy, Hugo Award-winning author Matt Wallace is finishing out his Savage Rebellion trilogy this month with Savage Crowns. Characters like Evie have come a long way since the first novel, Savage Legion, introduced us to an empire which conscripted its poor and abandoned citizens as expendable soldiers. We saw how those so-called Savages eventually forged their own bloody path.
Things have now come full circle for the trilogy’s explosive final chapter, which sees Evie and the Savages face their deadliest challenge yet: finding a way to stop the fighting before it consumes them all.
The final war for the nation of Crache has begun.
At the helm of the people’s rebellion is Evie, the Sparrow General. She has been captured by the Skrian, Crache’s vicious army, and is being brought back to the Capitol for punishment. But reinforcements are coming for her.
Dyeawan, who has climbed from street urchin to Crache’s highest seat of power through clever schemes and ruthless bloodshed, finds trouble on every front once she arrives. The rebellion approaches, and there are whispers of a martyr within the city who holds enough sway to stage a coup. If she doesn’t act quickly, her rule will be short-lived.
As the women who hold the nation’s future meet each other from different sides of the battlefield, will they be able to find a shared vision of Crache, or will they destroy each other first?
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ISLA’S REACH by Francisca Liliana (The Breaths and the Depths #1) — June 16
We come next to Francisca Liliana’s debut book Isla’s Reach, which is the first novel in her The Breaths and the Depths duology. A ragtag group of heroes going on an adventure is always a sure bet in the fantasy genre. Throw in some dragons, assassins, and magic, and it’s hard to go wrong.
The world of Iona has forgotten the time when dragons ruled the skies and their Viden riders controlled the wind.
The Evandis War, started by the long dead Cinead the Decayed, was won, but at the extermination of every dragon and rider. Evelyn, the last Viden, has been in hiding for her entire life, but no more. Once she bonds with Oretem, the last dragon, her purpose quickly turns from being the shield for those she loves, to the blade that fights to survive.
A Reticent assassin haunts her steps, one who has his own demons to battle. They both seek a single person-Meric, a bounty hunter Venandi, who the assassin endeavors to destroy and the Viden hopes to save. These three lives intertwine in ways that leave them questioning everything they’ve ever known. The roots of Isla’s Reach burrow deep to carry the world, and it won’t be long until they’ve broken entirely.
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THE BOOK OF GEMS by Fran Wilde (Gem Universe #3) — June 20
The latest novel from Nebula Award-wining author Fran Wilde’s Gem Universe series hits shelves soon. Each novella in the Gem Universe stands somewhat on its own; sometimes years pass in between entries. They’re short reads at around 100 pages each, meaning that if you haven’t dipped your toes into the Gem Universe this is a great month to binge through all three books to get the full picture before reading Wilde’s latest work.
It’s been centuries since the Jeweled Valley and its magical gems were destroyed. In the republics that rose from its ashes, scientists craft synthetic jewels to heat homes, power gadgetry, and wage war.
Dr. Devina Brunai is one of these scientists. She also is the only person who believes true gems still exist. The recent unearthing of the Palace of Gems gives her the perfect opportunity to find them and prove her naysayers wrong.
Her chance is snatched away at the last moment when her mentor steals her research and wins the trip for himself. Soon, his messages from the field transform into bizarre ramblings about a book, a Prince, and an enemy borne of the dark. Now Dev must enter the Valley, find her mentor, and save her research before they, like gems, become relics of a time long forgotten.
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GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD by RJ Barker (The Forsaken Trilogy #1) — June 27
The Bone Ships author RJ Barker is launching a new series this month: The Forsaken Trilogy, which kicks off with Gods of the Wyrdwood. It doesn’t sound like there’ll be any seafaring this time around, which marks a departure from Barker’s previous series. Instead, the author will be taking readers into a mystical forest under the watchful eye of gods and goddesses. A child is missing, and something tells me the people looking for them will find more than they expect in the mysterious Deepforest.
Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester—a man who can navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no one else. But once he was more. Once he belonged to the god of fire.
Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of small things; when she ventures into the Deepforest to find a lost child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land where territory is won and lost for uncaring gods, where temples of warrior monks pit one prophet against another—Cahan will need to choose the forest or the fire—and his choice will have consequences for his entire world.
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THE ARCHIVE UNDYING by Emma Mieko Candon (The Downworld Sequence #1) — June 27
AI is a hot topic at the moment, so this book comes along at a good time. Author Emma Mieko Candon’s latest novel The Archive Undying is a mecha fiction story that brings in a ton of intriguing sci-fi elements like AI deities and police states. With an LGBTQ+ lead, this is also a solid choice for Pride Month. This one sounds like a mind-bender:
WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT
WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND
WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK
When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to life: its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he’s seen. He’s run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines.
The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon’s Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies.
Come get in the robot.
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THE FRUGAL WIZARD’S HANDBOOK TO SURVIVING MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Brandon Sanderson — June 27
What, you thought a month would sneak by without a new release from Brandon Sanderson? Think again!
Okay, so this isn’t a completely new release, but it’s still worth noting. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England is the second of Sanderson’s “Secret Projects,” the four books he revealed as part of his record-shattering Kickstarter campaign last year. This one went out to the Kickstarter backers and was available as an ebook as of April 2023, but in June we’ll see a proper hardcover release courtesy of Sanderson’s longtime publisher Tor Books.
This is interesting, because up until now the plan according to Sanderson was for the Tor hardcover versions of each Secret Project to come out four months after the ebook was released; this happened with the first one, Tress of the Emerald Sea, which went out to the Kickstarter patrons and on the ebook market in January and was followed up with a physical release in April. Something has changed, since The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England was originally released in May, with a much shorter gap between that and the hardcover version.
Whatever the background, it’s certainly good news if you’ve been waiting to pick up a physical copy of this book! It’s a fun, somewhat outrageous romp in the vein of Terry Pratchett, and since it’s not a part of Sanderson’s wider Cosmere universe, no prior reading is necessary to fully enjoy it.
A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?
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And so ends our monthly round-up of science fiction and fantasy books. Which ones will you be reading this month?
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