Every year is a new opportunity for someone to break through and stamp their place within the ever-expanding worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Many Black authors are making their publishing debuts this year, with novels of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and other speculative stories that are sure to delight, shock, and inspire.
As we build out our TBR lists for this year and beyond, here are six exciting SFF debuts to keep an eye on.
Junie
Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama. She spends her long days cooking, cleaning, and tending to white master’s daughter, Violet. At night, she dreams of faraway worlds where she can escape from reality and find peace to grieve for her sister Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act, one that rouses Minnie's spirit from the grave. Tethered to this world unless Junie can free her, Minnie haunts the plantation grounds. As Junie races against time to save her sister, she realizes that Bellereine, and the only life she knows, are not what they seem.
This book was released on February 4.
Listen to Your Sister: A Novel
Calla Williams is struggling. At the age of 25, she became the guardian of her younger brother Jamie. Now she has to be the responsible one while her kind-but-reckless sibling gets into mischief. Dre, the middle brother, promised he would help raise Jamie, but he's run off to do his own thing.
And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop. When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin in the woods, the siblings face threats old and new, some of which seem to have emerged straight from Calla's nightmares. Is there any escape from these terrors?
This book was released on February 4.
The Reaper
Amy is an empath, able to sense the auras of the supernatural creatures that move through the shadows of London. Gerald is a Reaper—a weapon for hire—on the verge of coming into his powers. When Amy stumbles onto Gerald one night, she notices his strange aura, unlike anything she has seen before.
And so, against her better judgement she helps him with his mercenary work. Soon, he offers for her to become his partner in business. He'll help her to hone her empathy skills and she'll assist him in tackling the dark side of their city. Their first mission: Find the girl who murdered Amy's parents.
This book will be released on July 10.
A Desert of Bleeding Sand
Mercenaries are raiding academies and taking students. Someone is feeding them intel. Is there a traitor in the palace? Zair, a half-aziza and elite military student, is sent to infiltrate the coronation ceremony to locate the traitor. It's the perfect opportunity for her to prove herself and also to save her little sister from the mercenaries before she's killed. But then she encounters Dathan, a clever rival spy who is also looking for the traitor but for different reasons.
They're on opposite ends of the fight. Zair and Dathan begin working against each other to get to their target first. As courtiers start dropping dead, however, they fear that the traitor might have them both in their sights.
This book will be published on March 27.
Blood Slaves (The Blood Saga Book 1)
In the Province of Carolina, 1710, Willie and Gertie are enslaved and living under the brutal control of James "Big Jim" Barrow. To flee this place is to be hunted and killed. One night Willie is offered a dark hope by Rafazi, an enigmatic slave with big promises of freedom. Hailing from the Kingdom of Ghana, Rafazi is the lone survivor of the Ramanga, an African vampire tribe rendered nearly extinct by plague. He has roamed the earth for centuries hoping to repopulate his kind and take over the human world.
In Willie, Rafazi has found his first biddable subject to be turned and to help in a hungry revolt. One by one, as an army of blood slaves thirsting for revenge is gathered, the headstrong Gertie fears that this vampiric legacy will only end in destruction. Willie believes that only evil can fight evil. Only one thing is certain: on the Barrow plantation, and beyond, blood will be spilled.
A Song of Legends Lost (Invoker Trilogy Book 1)
In the Nine Lands, only those of noble blood can summon the spirits of their ancestors to fight in battle. Temi is a commoner from the slums. Her life is destined to be one of poverty and struggle. But then, one day, she accidentally invokes a powerful spirit. Her surprise powers could be thing that helps to bring an end to a centuries-long war that has engulfed the Nine Lands.
But not everything that can be invoked is an ancestor. Some spirits are meant to stay in their place. Whatever Temi draws out of the ancestral realm might be more dangerous than anything humans have ever faced.
This book will be released on June 3.
