32 Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reads for Summer

So excited for this!

I think there is a great finale missing from this list of expectant SF coming later this year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

So much woke.

It seems very biased towards female and ethnic authors/stories.
It may be a good thing. I'm not sure, I wouldn't be aware of most of them otherwise. It can be nice with a fresh perspective on litterature.
But maybe it could be a little more balanced?

Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list....

I'm in total agreement with Lydia and Morten. The only title that interests me is the new Andy Weir novel. I have read four novels of N.K. Jemison , an African American female author, and love her work . However, the woke movement is in danger of discrimination against certain authors (Caucasians) based on the colour of their skin. And aren't we told that is racist?

Great list! Added a bunch of new books to my want-to-read!

Really looking forward to She Who Became the Sun and Becky Chamber's new book. Just finished The Long Way and wow such an amazing book.

Baz wrote: "Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list...."

It's the one that says cover to be revealed :)

Wow. Just looking at this list of authors names, I assume that about half of the authors are women. I’m not sure why someone would think that half the population being represented with about half the list is biased—sounds just right to me.

Baz wrote: "Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list...."

Joe Abercrombie's book is on there. It says Cover To Be Revealed, but if you hover over it, the description appears.

Brandon Sanderson save us! Please write Doors of Stone for Patrick Rothfuss. We give up waiting for this conclusion which seemingly will never come.

Excellent list! The diversity of the writers, topics, worlds - amazing. Added quite a few of these to my TBR list. Quite a treasure chest!

Maria wrote: "Wow. Just looking at this list of authors names, I assume that about half of the authors are women. I’m not sure why someone would think that half the population being represented with about half t..."

Agree. Quite refreshing.

It's about time we have complaints that there are too many women authors in this genre. In the past the complaints were the other way around.

I know it's due out next week, but what about Martha Wells' newest Murderbot Diaries installment, Fugitive Telemetry?

These look great! A lot of folks are complaining on the lack of male, Caucasian authors on this list, but I think it's great to see other authors in the spotlight! I likely wouldn't have heard of some of these releases and I'm excited to check them out!

I'm glad to see that more diverse authors are starting to tell their stories.

Simon wrote: "I'm in total agreement with Lydia and Morten. The only title that interests me is the new Andy Weir novel. I have read four novels of N.K. Jemison , an African American female author, and love her ..."

Racism against white people is not possible since it was a system made by white people to benefit themselves. If these sci-fi books are not to your liking may I recommend the decades worth of white male dominated science fiction? Or even better a history book?

Guys! You should definitely add The Crown of Gilded Bones to this.

Thanks for the list! I have a bunch to watch out for now

Tasha wrote: "Simon wrote: "I'm in total agreement with Lydia and Morten. The only title that interests me is the new Andy Weir novel. I have read four novels of N.K. Jemison , an African American female author,..."

Bruce wrote: "It's about time we have complaints that there are too many women authors in this genre. In the past the complaints were the other way around."

This comment is so good that I think I need to screenshot it.

Baz wrote: "Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list...."

it's there - cover is undisclosed as yet, but if you click on it, it's this book

Simon wrote: "I'm in total agreement with Lydia and Morten. The only title that interests me is the new Andy Weir novel. I have read four novels of N.K. Jemison , an African American female author, and love her ..."

Sadly, I agree. Once upon a time, we would go looking for fantasy/SF books. Now we are herded toward minority-written works, which I never thought should be a determining factor for my reading choices. The ironic thing is that most of the SF/fantasy stuff I read contains characters across multitudes of races, nationalities, even species of beings, with heroes being as likely female as male. Why then does it matter who wrote them? If the majority of fantasy and SF books are race, gender and species diverse, is it that important what the writer's skin color or gender is?

Maria wrote: "Wow. Just looking at this list of authors names, I assume that about half of the authors are women. I’m not sure why someone would think that half the population being represented with about half t..."


It's been shown that as soon as the "minority group" reaches about %40 in a given list or image, a lot of people will perceive them as being in the majority.

Also sad that one person in these comments think that white authors don't have ethnicities. Somehow, a (for instance) Chinese-American author writing Chinese-inspired fantasy is "ethnic" but a British-American white author writing a medieval British grimdark is just "an author." Suuuure...

Super excited for She Who Became The Sun, and giving like four more of these a look now!

Donna wrote: "Excellent list! The diversity of the writers, topics, worlds - amazing. Added quite a few of these to my TBR list. Quite a treasure chest!"

Question: how does being a minority better equip one to be a fantasy or science fiction writer, or put them at a significant enough advantage that they need to be headlined or boosted? It would seem that this/these genres of all genres would present the same opportunities and challenges for creativity for ALL humans, regardless of any category they belong to.

Also, F/SF readers are a sort all their (our) own, in the type of literature they (we) consume. The subject matter requires that one accept that there are beings of different worlds than our own, and that they are more often than not on equal footing with humans. F/SF readers are introduced to and live in a world of diversity the likes of which readers of other genres rarely encounter.

Finally, I for one have never, EVER chosen a book or series because it was written by an author of any particular race, gender, or nationality - have you? Should we? If so, why now, if not ever before?

Baz wrote: "Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list...."

It's on the bottom row, the second book listed. You probably missed it because the cover art appears not to be ready yet, so it just says "Cover to Be Revealed". It's not an anti-male author conspiracy. ;)

Shane wrote: "Donna wrote: "Excellent list! The diversity of the writers, topics, worlds - amazing. Added quite a few of these to my TBR list. Quite a treasure chest!"

Question: how does being a minority better..."

Hi Shane, for me the issue that even if the contents are diverse, Sci-Fi fantasy has been dominated by white folks and are gatekeeping accessibility to willing publishers. As you say "all lives matter" but white livelihoods are not in danger. The "challenges of creativity" as you call them is only one aspect of publishing, and does not include the challenge of accessibility, awareness, resources and more that are necessary to write a book.

Besides, the title is "32 Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reads for Summer, it is a post to make people aware of upcoming books in the genre. Lists like this bring awareness to new books and stories we may not know about, I don't understand where this hostility is coming from and I am not entirely sure what your goal of this comment was. You are correct in that sci-fi has broken a lot of barriers, so let it continue to do so by introducing new voices and stories that we have not encountered before.

As per your previous comment, it matters who is writing the diverse cast of characters because it is the author and publishers who profit. So say I, a white author, write a story about a BIPOC character's experience of racism I would be profiting off of a story which is not mine to tell. In doing so I would be appropriating culture and trauma and earning money off of something which is not mine but have manipulated to my purpose. I also don't really understand where you are trying to go with your comments since it seems you are pro-diversity in books but anti-diversity in authors? By your own words, the colour of someones skin shouldn't decide what books we read but the publishing business does a good job of that.

I think it's a little bit telling that everyone is complaining about how few white men are included in this list, but no one seems to have any ideas of books that are missing. The only book I've seen people complain is not here is the new Joe Abercrombie, which actually is here but without a cover. In my opinion, these are the top books that I am excited about for the next few months. I welcome anyone to list books they think are missing. Personally, for books that aren't on this list, I am really excited for The House of Always by Jenn Lyons, which is releasing in 2 weeks and Requim of Silence by the amazing L. Penelope. On this list I am excited for new releases by John Gwynne, Becky Chambers, Naomi Novik, and She Who Became The Sun. and Son of the Storm

I'm anticipating #6 in Pierce Brown's "Red Rising". Please be soon...

Loving the diversity! 🥰🍵🍵🍵
How refreshing it is to see people like me being represented!

I'm so excited for these books! The Jasmine Throne and Master of Djinn have been my most anticipated books of the year since last summer. The hype is real!
I'm also very keen on Witness for the Dead, Son of the Storm, Under the Whispering Door, Library of the Dead, The Chosen and the Beautiful and Black Water Sister.
Not my jam but I gotta say it always bugs that it's Empire of the Vempire so it'd rhyme.

Very excited to add a bunch of these to my to-read list, thank you!! I'd agree with an earlier commenter, though, that Martha Well's new Murderbot installment, Fugitive Telemetry would be a good addition to this list.

Also, here, I fixed it for you...

"Finally, I for one have never, EVER chosen a book or series because it was written by an author of any particular race, gender, or nationality - and since that doesn't matter to me, I'm delighted to see a diverse range of potentially great books in this list to check out!"

So glad this list is full of women and POC, I'm tired of reading 15 books that seems it was written by the same boring white guy over and over again. Bruce say it louder!!

Morten wrote: "It seems very biased towards female and ethnic authors/stories.
It may be a good thing. I'm not sure, I wouldn't be aware of most of them otherwise. It can be nice with a fresh perspective on litt..."

I don't understand how you could be more biased toward several groups of ethnicities/races all at once.... are you saying that they are excluding/minimizing white men specifically? Is that what you're getting at? Because, if you'd like to lump all of the non-white male authors together, you get 24 total, with 8 white male authors (amounting to about 30% of the listed authors being white men). You're right, that's a minority! But I think it would be strange to amalgamate the other 24 people unless you think of white men as the standard perhaps? The norm while everyone else can be effectively grouped and "othered."

If you're concerned about over-representation of a demographic on this Goodreads list btw, it's white women who make up ~70% of the total women, the remaining 30% being Women of Color, of varying races and ethnicities.

Here's my count:
19 women total (13 are white, 6 non-white)
12 men total (8 are white, 4 non-white)
1 non-binary person

I am not trying to shame you, but I think it would be valuable for you to address your unconscious bias. I think diversifying book pick authors is great, but if you don't, do not fret: there are plenty of white male sci-fi authors for you to read! I personally like it when I can see the world that I live in reflected back to me rather than a white-washed version of reality; there are simply a great deal of non-white people that exist and any booklist that doesn't reflect that is not worth much to me.

I tip my hat to any writer who finishes a book and has it published. That being said, this avid science fiction and fantasy fan has become jaded by the genre to the point that reading Victorian literature has become more rewarding. “Saving the universe” is too grandiose. Saving the village or saving grandma’s house is more interesting. Social underdogs, especially the underdog who discovers his/ her unknown power is banal reading. Characters are too often plastic shapes found in cereal boxes, and in most cases the writing is mediocre, sans sparkle, sans style. Personally speaking the only writer who successfully novelized a myth was Mary Renault who created “The King Must Die” and “Bull From the Sea” from the myths of Theseus and The Minotaur. This summer’s crop of offerings cannot distract me from rereading all of Dickens.

Baz wrote: "Where is Joe Abercrombie in this list? The Wisdom of Crowds is due out in September. Perhaps the plethora of female authors crowded another male out of the list...."

I see The Wisdom of Crowds in this list. It says "Cover to be Revealed"...

Shane wrote: "Donna wrote: "Excellent list! The diversity of the writers, topics, worlds - amazing. Added quite a few of these to my TBR list. Quite a treasure chest!"

Question: how does being a minority better..."

"When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression."

Perhaps you should ask yourself why this particular list of authors bothers you so much. Where does it say that a "minority" is "better" equipped to write fantasy/sci fi? Seems like you're reading a lot into this.

To answer your question, YES I have and continue to choose books because they are written by Black writers, queer writers, female writers, writers from different countries - precisely because I want to expand my world and learn something new. In particular, as a Black woman, I am starving for books that feature characters who look like me.

Your post is an "all lives matter" reductionist devil's advocate position, that fails to address the quality of the books presented.

B. wrote: "Maria wrote: "Wow. Just looking at this list of authors names, I assume that about half of the authors are women. I’m not sure why someone would think that half the population being represented wit..."

Exactly. Really sad to read these closed minded comments.

Infinity's wrote: "I think it's a little bit telling that everyone is complaining about how few white men are included in this list, but no one seems to have any ideas of books that are missing. The only book I've se..."

Cannot wait for The House of Always!

Garry wrote: "Brandon Sanderson save us! Please write Doors of Stone for Patrick Rothfuss. We give up waiting for this conclusion which seemingly will never come."

Great Comment LoL - and solution. Get off the pot Rothfuss or hand Sanderson the pen!

Madison wrote: "Morten wrote: "It seems very biased towards female and ethnic authors/stories.
It may be a good thing. I'm not sure, I wouldn't be aware of most of them otherwise. It can be nice with a fresh pers..."

Thanks for breaking down the statistics! I am always looking to support other nonbinary authors so Rivers Solomon has been added to my TBR. Have a good day!

I really don't care who writes them, but I wish that science fiction and fantasy would be divided into separate categories. The great majority of these are fantasy and that's fine. But for those of us who have little or no interest in magic, a separate list of upcoming science fiction would be nice.

lol everyone's just mad they can't pronounce some names. If you are looking for a booklist with majority or even-distribution white men as authors, I am sure that you do not need look too far!!! If you're looking for white male author sci-fi, simply head to your nearest bookstore; I'm sure some white dude's book will be on display :) Fret not!!

The fact is, you see a several names look foreign to you on a list and it's time to comment about the waning white influence in literature or whatever. Go join Marjorie Taylor Greene's America First caucus if you're concerned about lack of anglo-saxon types on a book list.

Surprised not to see the final book in The Expanse sequence (James A Corey ).

Oh my god, I love this list! Thanks, I just added about half of them to my TBR. I've loved other books by a lot of these, and wasn't aware a new one was this close!

Madison wrote: "lol everyone's just mad they can't pronounce some names. If you are looking for a booklist with majority or even-distribution white men as authors, I am sure that you do not need look too far!!! If..."

They are sooooo mad.

I like lists like this because they give me insight into what I might want to read in the coming year. I am disappointed to see that David Weber is not listed with plans to continue his "Honorverse" series, not his "Safehold" series. I keep hoping those will reach a satisfactory conclusion before I do. Please Dave, get busy!

As far as the "woke" comments, I read books that appeal to me, no matter the sex, race, or age of the authors.

I'm looking forward to COVER TO BE REVEALED the most 👍

Most of these books have been on my TBR for some time now! Their release dates are getting closer and I'm so excited!

Marcus wrote: "I'm looking forward to COVER TO BE REVEALED the most 👍"

LOL