13 fantasy and science fiction books to read in August 2023
By Daniel Roman
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Summer is winding down. Soon the leaves will be turning and the pumpkin spice will be flowing. But until then, we’ve got one more month of summer books to get hyped about!
June and July held a ton of exciting new fantasy and science fiction releases, and August is no different. With new entries in beloved series, fantasy worlds rife with intrigue and magic, historical sagas, and even a heist set in Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City, there are a lot of new books to add to your shelves this month. Here are 13 worth checking out.
CASSIEL’S SERVANT by Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel’s Legacy #4) — August 1
Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart is a fantasy story famous for its sweeping political intrigue and explicit sex scenes. First published in 2001, it follows a courtesan spy named Phèdre nó Delaunay who has a rare gift from the goddess Kushiel: whatever brings her pain also makes her experience pleasure. While the book series is notorious for its depictions of BDSM, it’s also a grand, epic fantasy series filled with politics, schemes and magic.
The original Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy wrapped up with Kushiel’s Avatar in 2016. This month Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange with Cassiel’s Servant, a sidequel novel which explores the events of Kushiel’s Dart from the perspective of Phèdre’s protector Joscelin.
In Kushiel’s Dart, a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it.
Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive.
From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind… and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep.
Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul.
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OUTLAW MAGE by K.S. Villoso (The Dageian Puppetmaster #1) — August 1
K.S. Villoso is best known for her epic fantasy series The Chronicles of the Bitch Queen, which began with The Wolf of Oren-Yaro. This month she’s kicking off a new series with Outlaw Mage, a story about a young woman who joins a magic school only to find it rigged against her. With elements of gothic murder mysteries and Villoso’s knack for building fantasy worlds and vivid characters, we’re excited to see what she does with a magic school story set amidst a complex political landscape.
Despite Rosha’s best efforts, she will never fit in. To her classmates, she is forever an outsider, a girl from the fringes of the empire just lucky enough to have well-off parents. To her teachers, she is either a charity case or an exception to the rule that Gorenten just aren’t capable of performing complex magic. Worse, still, she is nothing but a status symbol to her father—a child gifted with magic to show his powerful friends that even people like them could belong in the empire. As if she doesn’t have enough problems already.
Haunted by the invisible rules that pull her dreams just out of grasp, she walks out on the eve of her final exams, throwing away her one chance at becoming an official mage of the empire. She practices magic outside the mage council’s grasp, one of the worst crimes anyone could commit. A dropout. A failure. An outlaw.
Years later, her father’s shoddy business deals have finally landed him in trouble and he disappears without a trace. Rosha reluctantly enters the services of a rich sorcerer, his last known connection. The sorcerer’s sudden death leaves her stranded in a sea of enemies—and the knowledge that the man is the voice behind the ageless, faceless emperor. To protect herself and her family, Rosha must impersonate the most powerful man in the empire. As she becomes everything she has ever hated, she stumbles upon conspiracies that seek to break the empire from within…