#only through september because that's as far out as the catalogs i've seen go

[veliseraptor]

since it came up with @my-lady-knight and all the cool websites are doing it, I thought I’d go ahead and share my

Most Anticipated SFF of 2020

(it’s a lot of sequels, but not all sequels.)

Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton. I loved her take on King Lear in The Queens of Innis Lear; I’m very interested in seeing what she does with a genderswapped Hotspur in this one. (January 7, 2020)

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett. The sequel to Foundryside, aka the book where I spent the first third grumpily comparing it to the Divine Cities series (unfair of me) and then promptly went “oh shit this is actually really good” and slammed through the rest of it and then went looking under the book for the rest. Suffice to say that I’m very excited. (January 21, 2020)

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood. This one comes highly recommended, for me, personally - the basic conceit (”an orc priestess destined to be a sacrifice turned wizard's assassin”) had me listening, but I hear there are also empires involved, and a queer relationship. I have an early copy sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read - I plan to make it one of my January books. (February 11, 2020)

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso. This is one of the ones in the first half of the year I’m really holding my breath for. The jacket copy includes what I’m guessing is the first line: “They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me.” Hello there, I’m listening. (February 18, 2020)

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Yes, I know I know this came out this year (2019) but I couldn’t manage carrying that hardcover brick and the ebook from the library hasn’t yet arrived, so I’m putting it on here for the paperback which I am planning to buy. (February 18, 2020)

Docile by K.M. Sparza. I actually have this one sitting on a stack in my apartment waiting for me to read it - I just need to get around to it. It’s been pitched to me as in concept looking at consent under capitalism. (March 3, 2020)

The Poet King by Ilana C. Myer. This is the third in a series I don’t talk about much, mostly because the first one (Last Song Before Night) didn’t impress me that much; the second one (Fire Dance) a great deal more. I’m looking forward to seeing how this one compares to both; it’s definitely a very original world and concept, which gives it credit in and of itself. (March 24, 2020)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Tor.com tends to publish novellas that I either love or am distressingly indifferent to - but they’re almost always fascinating in concept (and the cover designs are spectacular). The keynote for this one mentions “empire” and “storytelling” (gotcha, Lise!) and it’s East Asian fantasy (inspired by imperial China) so there’s three points that have my interest right off the bat. (March 24, 2020)

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin. It’s a new N.K. Jemisin book; of course I’m here for it. I’ll probably be here for anything she writes from here on out. (March 24, 2020)

The Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth. I am a sucker for “what happens after” stories, and this one - pitched as being about five teenagers who fought and defeated an Evil Overlord, but after, when they’re all fucked up - sounds right up my alley. Enough that I’m not letting ‘author of the Divergent series’ turn me off. (April 7, 2020)

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The sequel to Gideon the Ninth is coming out this year and I already have a standing request with my book hookup at the publisher to get me an advance copy as soon as they land. (June 2, 2020)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. This is one of those books where when it comes out I’m going to drop everything I’m reading at the time to pick it up, because this is a series I am so deeply attached to. Even if I didn’t like The Monster Baru Cormorant as much as the first one (a very high bar), I’m holding my breath to see where this one goes. (June 9, 2020)

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho. I have loved Zen Cho’s other books (particularly Sorcerer to the Crown) and this one (”found family wuxia fantasy” sounds very promising. (June 23, 2020)

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty. I believe this is the finale? to the trilogy begun with City of Brass and continued in The Kingdom of Copper. I loved the first two - the second I think even more than the first. I look forward to seeing if Chakraborty can continue that crescendo and finish strong. (June 30, 2020)

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler. This is an author I’ve been circling around for a while - I read the first book in his YA series (and will probably read the second), and the first in the series he’s most well known for (and probably want to read the rest at some point), but this book at least by description sounds very much up my alley. Siblings in conflict! There’s an empire involved! It’s published by Orbit (which isn’t a guarantee of quality but they have been acquiring a lot of good shit lately)! Yeah, I’m there. (July 21, 2020)

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. Another sequel, this one to A Memory Called Empire, which was among my favorite books of the year in 2019. I don’t read a lot of science fiction, but that book hit a lot of the same buttons as the Imperial Radch series, mixed with Embassytown by China Mieville. (September 15, 2020)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. We don’t know much about this one yet, but it’s the first book in over a decade from the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (which I loved) so that alone is a selling point. What we knows so far (it’s about a man in a seemingly endless labyrinth who starts to realize that there may be in fact a world outside his walls) doesn’t have me grabbed in terms of concept, but neither did Jonathan Strange - I’m willing to let Susanna Clarke take me for a ride anyway. (September 15, 2020)