18 Books To Read in 2018

As 2017 grows shorter, the reading list grows longer! Here’s our top eighteen (in honor of 2018) new releases to check off on the calendar.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. The author of The Spiderwick Chronicles kicks off her next fantasy series this January. In her newest novel, Black introduces readers to Jade, a human captured by Faeries, who desperately wants to join their ranks. January 2.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author’s website: blackholly.com
Robots vs Fairies edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Eighteen of today’s best science fiction writers contributed stories for this brand new rivalry. John Scalzi, Seanan McGuire, Lavie Tidhar, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal and many more come together to decide which is deadliest (I assume. They could be playing pinochle or something). January 9.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Editor’s website: dominikparisien.wordpress.com.
Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire. McGuire knocked it out of the park during the 2017 awards season with her novella, Every Heart A Doorway. In 2018, she returns to the same fantasy universe for her newest novel. January 9.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author website: seananmcguire.com.
The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus. Idahoan librarians and obscure Brazilian science fiction writers clash in this quirky, odysseyan adventure. Wirkus’s novel spans two continents and multitudes of genres in an academic fantasy reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges. January 16.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author’s website: timwirkusficiton.com
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi. The modern Modern Prometheus has already won awards for it’s 2010 Arabic printings, but it’s getting a run in English this January. Replace Dr. Frankenstein with a well-intentioned man named Hadi who wants to stitch together pieces of corpses to create something the government will bury, this horror comes to life with its own electricity. January 23.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. I would love to be directed to the author’s website in the comments. I could not easily find one.
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander. Tor rolls its newest in a recent trend of alternative history in this novel about the Jazz Age, elephants, and radium. Uh-oh, this could be sad, especially since it’s based on the real life Radium Girls who contacted radium poisoning at their employment well before modern medicine could help them. January 23.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Check out brookebolander.com for more.
The Sky is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith. This dystopia turns genre up to eleven with a story about a futuristic city constantly under threat by a pair of dragons. Fantasy and science fiction combine underneath this alluring neon cover. January 23.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author website: chandlerklangsmith.com
Semiosis by Sue Burke. After a prolific career as a translator, Burke releases her debut novel about human colonists who find a “perfect planet” to settle after Earth. Too many viewing of Aliens has me skeptical of this planet, but the hard-sci-fi name and mysterious cover had my interest piqued. February 6.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Discover the constitution of Planet Pax and other information about the novel at semiosispax.com,
The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Dolnick. February’s chilling fourth novel by Dolnick sounds like a cross between The Amityville Horror and Gone Girl. A young couple moves into a remote house, one of them begins hearing sounds that don’t make sense, and readers don’t get any sleep. February 13.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author website: bendolnick.com.
Ambiguity Machines by Vandana Singh. In the next short fiction collection by physics professor Singh, we get hard sci-fi mixed with realism. Science fiction’s favorite small press, Small Beer, regularly brings its game face to an industry dominated by Tor and DAW, so it should be well worth twenty bucks. February 20.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Check out the author’s website: vandana-writes.com.
Starfire: Memory’s Blade by Spencer Ellsworth. Ellsworth’s rapidly released space opera trilogy concludes at the beginning of next year. The quick release of these grittier books has let them fly under the radar, but the words “sun-eating cosmic spiders” can’t help but command attention eventually. February 27.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author website: spencerellsworth.com.
The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy. Killjoy’s slim but hefty The Lion Will Slaughter the Lamb made such a splash that a sequel washed up along with it. Danielle Cain returns with her demon-hunting posse while evading a necromancer who wants to end the world. April 3.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Author website: birdsbeforethestorm.net
Paper Girls, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang. Vaughn’s fresh comics about four time-traveling Ohioan preteens continue to bend stories in bizarre directions into their fourth volume. Fans of Stranger Things and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure should love this nostalgia-laced time travel comic book series. April 10.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Free issues of Paper Girls are available for download at imagecomics.com. Also, check out more of Chiang’s work at www.cliffchiang.com.
Head On by John Scalzi. The sequel to Scalzi’s 2014 science fiction detective story, Lock In, about a mysterious disease that causes total paralysis and the robots that people use to cope with it. Agents Shane and Vann return and explore a bizarre blood sport where the threeps try their hardest to decapitate each other. April 17.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Scalzi remains active on his award winning blog, whatever.scalzi.com.
Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel. The sequel to Waking Gods and the final book in The Themis Files comes out in May. We’re just as anxious to find out how Vincent, Rose, and Eva will confront the aliens as we are to see a film version hit theaters. May 1.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Check out his website, neuvel.net.
American Hippo by Sarah Gailey. Gailey’s two Tor.com novellas about hippos living in the Louisiana bayou, River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, have homes in this volume. I want this hippopotamus for Christmas, but it doesn’t come out until May 22.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Check out the author’s website: sarahgailey.com.
Serpentine by Laurell K. Hamilton. The twenty-sixth book in the Anita Blake series rolls out in August. A vampire hunter can never find enough of the paranormal to confront, as this long running series will attest. August 7.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Learn more about the Anita Blake universe at laurellkhamilton.com.
Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen. A lot of people recommend this Hugo Award-winning Chinese author, from Ken Liu to Barack Obama himself. We’re stoked for his next novel which promises Tesla coils and Soviet tech. August 18.
Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. Check out translator Martinsen’s website, xiaokang2020.com, for the latest buzz about Chinese literature translations.