Books Received, November 30 — December 6
7 Dec, 2024
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Level: Unknown by David Dalglish (January 2025)
The magical world of Yensere holds the key to saving humanity from a horrific apocalypse. Too bad Nick can only get there in his dreams.
When an ancient alien artifact chooses research cadet Nick to explore the world stored within it — a place full of forgotten empires, heroes with strange powers, and monstrous creatures that he is automatically transported to when he sleeps — he finds he has no choice but to grow stronger within the realm of Yensere to uncover its mysteries.
But Yensere isn’t all fun exploration. In this land guided by statistics and levels, Nick is seen as a demonic threat by its diseased inhabitants and always killed on-sight. When he dies in Yensere, he awakens in his bed upon the research station, his body in a state of panic; when he sleeps again, Yensere drags him back for another life…and another death.
Nick can only keep this up for so long before he dies for real. But there’s a good chance Yensere holds the key to saving humanity from a terrible fate, and so he ventures on, getting stronger and stronger with each new enemy defeated. And there are a LOT of enemies to defeat…
The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott (June 2025)
Status is hereditary, class is bestowed, trust must be earned.
When an arrogant prince (and his equally arrogant entourage) gets stuck in Orledder Halt as part of brutal political intrigue, competent and sunny deputy courier Elen — once a child slave meant to shield noblemen from the poisonous Pall — is assigned to guide him through the hills to reach his destination.
When she warns him not to enter the haunted Spires, the prince doesn’t heed her advice, and the man who emerges from the towers isn’t the same man who entered.
The journey that follows is fraught with danger. Can a group taught to ignore and despise the lower classes survive with a mere deputy courier as their guide?
The Witch Roads is the latest epic novel by fan favorite, Kate Elliott.
If Wishes Were Retail by Auston Habershaw (June 2025)
In this cozy, chaotic, and deeply funny fantasy, an enterprising young woman and a clueless genie team up just to try to make a living.
Alex Delmore wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke, her brother is an idiot, and NYU seems like a distant dream. To make it out, Alex needs a miracle. Good thing there’s a genie in town―and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.
It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st century America. It’d help if he wasn’t at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory loving, gnome-hating dad.
(And then there are those gnomes Alex keeps running into at the mall―what’s their deal, anyway?)
When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face setback after setback. The mall is failing, and management will not stop interfering to protect its more lucrative tenants. Especially the big box store ValuDay.
But even when the wishing biz might even be working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are genuinely terrible at wishing for the right things.
Locus, December 2024 published by Locus Publications (December 2024)
Amplitudes edited by Lee Mandelo (May 2025)
Revolutionary and visionary, these twenty-two speculative stories edited by Lambda, Nebula and Hugo finalist Lee Mandelo explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures.
From self-styled knights fighting in dystopian city streets to conservationists finding love in the Appalachian forests; from social media posts about domestic “bliss” in a lottery-based, state-housing skyscraper to herding feral cats off of one’s scientific equipment; from street drugs that create doppelgangers to dance-club cruising at the edge of the galaxy — Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity interrogates the farthest borders of the sci-fi landscape to imagine how queer life will look centuries in the future — or ten years from now.
Filled with brutal honesty, raw emotions, sexual escapades, and delightful whimsy, Amplitudes speaks to the longstanding tradition of queer fiction as protest. This essential collection serves as an evolving map of our celebrations, anxieties, wishes, pitfalls, and — most of all — our rallying cry that we’re here, we’re queer — and the future is ours!
Featuring stories by Esther Alter • Bendi Barrett • Ta-wei Chi, trans. Ariel Chu • Colin Dean • Maya Deane • Dominique Dickey • Katharine Duckett • Meg Elison • Paul Evanby • Aysha U. Farah • Sarah Gailey • Ash Huang • Margaret Killjoy • Wen-yi Lee • Ewen Ma • Jamie McGhee • Sam J. Miller • Aiki Mira, trans. CD Covington • Sunny Moraine • Nat X. Ray • Neon Yang • Ramez Yoakeim
The Sufi Storyteller by Faiqa Mansab (March 2025)
An estranged mother and daughter urgently need to reconnect and navigate a world of Sufi story traditions to catch a killer, and to save each other.
There is a dead woman in the library.
Layla is a scholar of women’s histories and stories. Her life is a carefully constructed set of routines in her small American liberal arts college, but all of that is about to change…
Mira is a renowned Sufi storyteller who is running from a terrible past. When she learns that the murdered woman in the library was carrying a note from the killer addressed to her, she is presented with an opportunity to break a cycle of trauma and hurt. To confront her past, she must disclose the truth to Layla.
Together they enter the realm of Story, but can Layla find the forgiveness in her heart necessary to lead them to the answers they are looking for?