The Best Indie SFF of 2021

In deep space far from our solar system, an alien race struggles to avoid possible extinction. Arlo Crane, a known felon from Earth, is abducted to serve as a tool of salvation–leaving the child he was supposed to be watching alone while his partner, Agent Lawson, is away in London. But Crane unfortunately has far bigger worries, with a multiverse war about to begin…

Darshima and his companions have made a daring escape to the kingdom of Tiriyuud on the planet Iberwight, a place that’s been long sealed away from the rest of worlds. These refugees steep themselves in the new culture and find unexpected truths about their own history in it… but they will soon be called upon to defend their new home.

Leslie, a romance author who just wants to unwind by going on a cruise, should have died when she fell overboard into the North Sea. Instead, she’s rescued by something that looks suspiciously like Nessie, who actually turns out to be a shapeshifting dragon. Unfortunately, his last minute intervention turned her into a vampire and sucked her into a supernatural world she knows nothing about.

The war effort is threatened by the depletion of the Hybrid population. Hana joins forces with some truly shady government organizations to convince people to keep hybrids. The results is… not what he wanted: an underground sex market for those who can afford it. Hana needs to devise a new plan to get humanity back on track before it’s too late.

Zazi Ravendark is the scion of an outcast mage family who would like to live her life free of any supernatural obligations, particularly considering her once-proud family is a laughingstock due to their lack of magic. But it turns out Zazi isn’t as magic-less as she thought, and she has no choice but to attend the Shadowcrest University of Magical Arts and Reaping, where it the syllabus doesn’t get you, the gate to the underworld just might.

With the opening of the Centauri Gate, humanity has at last stepped into a wider galaxy. But when a freighter from Earth is destroyed in this new space, Zara Ortega and her crew are sent to investigate. Soon, they’re finding themselves facing off with a heavily armed fleet who will happily destroy them to keep the truth unknown… and cause a war in the process.

Once the Dragon Singers liberated humanity from the tyranny of the orcs, using their songs to summon typhoons and destroy armies. With a new cataclysm threatening the world, the legends must be reborn, and the best hope is Kaiya, a misfit blessed with a perfect voice. With no one else to guide her, she must rely on a disgraced paladin whose motives may not be entirely noble. (This is a reissue of a book first published in 2018, which contains two new chapters and a short story.)

Chrystine Brown is an insomniac who hasn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in over a year. But she’s found a new music app that can put her to sleep–and keep her asleep–but there’s something hiding behind the interface that is a horror that may never let her sleep again…

A former nova fighter pilot turned owner-operator of a freelance star freighter, Captain Evridiki Bardacki has had enough betrayal and trouble to last a lifetime. He just wants to trek across space in the Evasion and deliver his cargo on time. But when the victim of a powerful crime syndicate stows away on his ship, he finds he might finally have something to fight for again.

Barrett Boyd was dead a short time ago. Alive again, he’s trying to make sense of a life that’s baffling to him. He’s a guard in the Eternal Dungeon, the royal prison of the queendom; that at least makes sense. But why do some of the prisoners feel so important to him? Why do some of the other guards act as if they have claims to him? And how is he going to survive all this?