TOP PICK
The Jasmine Throne
Set in a South Asian-inspired empire where a disgraced princess and a prisoner with forbidden magic are forced together by circumstance — and drawn together by something far more dangerous. Tasha Suri builds her world with the patience of a poet, layering political intrigue, colonial resistance, and a magic system rooted in ancient rot and bloom that feels genuinely unlike anything else in the genre. If you've been waiting for an epic fantasy that earns every one of its emotional beats, this is the one to clear your schedule for.
MUST READ
Elatsoe
A Lipan Apache teenager who can raise the ghosts of dead animals sets out to solve her cousin's murder in an America where magic, monsters, and Indigenous tradition coexist with the mundane — and the result is one of the most quietly original debut fantasies of recent years. Little Badger's voice is warm, precise, and utterly her own, and the world she's built feels both deeply familiar and startlingly new in ways that linger long after the final page.
HIDDEN GEM
A Master of Djinn
Set in a lush alternate Cairo of 1912 where djinn walk openly among humans following a magical revolution, this novel follows Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha'arawi as she hunts a killer who claims to be the man who opened the way between worlds fifty years prior. Clark writes with the propulsive confidence of a seasoned thriller writer and the world-building richness of the best speculative fiction — it's a book that makes you wonder why nobody thought to write it sooner.
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