Author: Alex Acks

The tea is right in the title of the book, though what you might not know is that the tea master of the title is a sentient space ship who, Watson-like in many ways, joins up with the detective to investigate a murder. I know I’ve mentioned this book many a time, but it’s because I love it. I’m a sucker for both Sherlock Holmes pastiches and space opera.

This is actually the second book in this space opera series (the first is Ancillary Justice), but a huge chunk of the plot turns on the planet that produces the most tea for the Radch–an empire for which tea is a huge part of its ceremonial culture–and political machinations that are connected to it. And this, too, has a sentient spaceship as a main character… one that happens to be trapped in the body of an “ancillary.”

The opening scene of this fun novella takes place in a tea house, and will make you think of every kung fu movie you’ve ever seen where there’s a fight in a tea house. Found family, wuxia, gender critique, zany goings-on… there is everything I love in this little book and I will never shut up about it.

The start of a massive and long-running series about a human diplomat moving in an alien world. The whole series has a lot of fascinating politics and sociology in it… and a lot of the diplomacy takes place over slightly less formal teas or highly formal dinners. Tea and food both serve as a really neat window into character and culture. (Convergence is probably the most tea-heavy of the books, but it’s not a good starting place.)

Ah, my favorite sad gay elf book. This is sort of a sequel to The Goblin Emperor, though I think you can get away without reading that book since this one is about Thara Celehar, the aforementioned sad gay elf. Anyway, the point here is that in addition to being sad and solving mysteries, Thara drinks a LOT of tea and frequents a lot of tea houses for plot reasons, and it’s such a fun cultural note that makes the world feel very lived-in.

The kingdom of Zavonia is on the brink of war, held by a usurper king after the rightful king is assassinated and his queen goes missing. The man who set this political cataclysm off, an assassin named Lind, must right the wrong he did and turn on the one who hired him. He can’t do it alone, but he has help: the captain of the guard who was framed for the murder, and a healer witch charged with a task by the ghost of the murdered king himself.

Rue finds herself locked in a basement prison with no memory of how she got there. Worse, she has no magic and her allies are nowhere to be found. But she’s a girl from the East Row, and that means she doesn’t give up–she breaks out. Once she finds her friends, she must return the magic the Chancellor stole from her father’s people–and figure out how to be the leader they deserve.

Xingyin has grown up in solitude on the moon, the daughter of the goddess who was exiled there after stealing the elixir of immortality from the Celestial Emperor. But when Xingyin’s magic manifests, she can no longer hide in peace; she’s forced to flee to the Celestial Kingdom in disguise. There, she learns how to use her magic alongside the crown prince, whom she falls in love with, before embarking on a dangerous quest to save her mother that will end in challenging the Celestial Emperor himself.

Sparkle Dungeon is a VR game that combines medieval settings and raves, and Isobel is its queen by grace of her dance moves. Her skill and reputation earns her the opportunity to lean “power morphemes”–words that can warp reality, used by a powerful cabal to control California. But she’s also come to the attention of a resistance movement of magical anarchists. Isobel doesn’t have much time to choose a side, because far more alien threats are coming from other dimensions…

Fi and Shane are a treasure-hunting team of badass women, following a map to what they think will be riches. Then Fi pricks her finger on a bone spindle, which causes her to be hunted by the ghost of Briar Rose, a prince under a sleeping curse. Now it’s up to Shane and Fi to break the curse on his kingdom while a witch tries to steal Shane’s heart and Fi tries to avoid falling in love with the prince.

Publication date: April 19

This is the sequel to Black Sun, which is one of the best books I read in 2021 and one of two epic fantasy series that’s managed to truly grab me in recent days. If I was only allowed to buy one book in 2022, it would be this one. GIVE IT TO ME N O W.

Publication date: August 16

Since we’re talking sequels I’m super looking forward to, here’s another one–the next book in Tasha Suri’s “morally grey lesbian” series that started with The Jasmine Throne. Looking forward to it, hoping the guy I really hate gets set on fire.

Publication date: January 25

This isn’t a novel, but it’s about Octavia Butler–and it focuses on her childhood and early life during the space race and Civil Rights Movement.

Publication date: January 25

I’ve enjoyed every one of Mike Chen’s books I’ve read (and with each book it feels like he levels up) so I’m jazzed about his take on complicated sibling relationships and UFOs being real making things worse and then forcing sisters to figure their crap out.

Publication date: February 1

Andrea Hairston does gorgeous prose at all times, and I’m excited to see her bend her talents to alternate history that takes place in the vaudeville era, which has hoodoo conjurers also working as performers on the stage and struggling to find the magical world they envision.

Publication date: April 19

You had me at “queer Arthurian fantasy” and then you threw in “girl masquerades as a boy and becomes a warrior and hero who woos maidens.”

Publication date: July 26

I am weak to a good arranged marriage trope, particularly when it gets hit with a queer twist, which this one promises with its gay character whose politically arranged wife gets traded out for her brother, much to everyone’s surprise.

Publication date: August 9

In this contemporary fantasy, “The Family” is a secretive clan of book eaters, whose scions literally eat books and retain all the information therein. Devon got fed fairytales and cautionary stories, unlike her brothers, and then when her son is born, he seems more inclined to eat human minds…

Publication date: January 18

A fire mage who gets saved from indentured servitude by monarchists… and then she gets caught up by a conspiracy to destroy those same monarchists by killing the youngest royal child. Sounds fun, and I love me some Kate Elliott.

Publication date: February 1

I had a heck of a good time with Jessie’s previous science fiction romance series (start with Polaris Rising) so I am on board to read about a bounty hunter and a former general in an enemies-to-lovers trope fest.

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children isn’t the only place for those who have returned from their doors. There is also the Whitethorn Institute, where the headmaster runs things very differently–not friendly and not safe. Cora, the drowned girl, decides that she wants a different fate and asks to be transferred to this other school. She may get more than she bargained for.

When a student foretells the apocalypse, she’s sentenced to death in punishment. Her only hope for survival is to flee into the unknown, where she meets a broken soldier, a drunken prince, and an escaped prisoner who is also a thief. This group must learn to trust each other and uncover the secrets that could avert the coming doom… which draws closer every day.

A young tiger spirit named Sebin joins the Thousand World Space Forces to be like their Uncle Hwan, the captain of a battle cruiser. But when their acceptance letter arrives, so does the shocking news that Hwan is a traitor, having abandoned his duty to steal the Dragon Pearl and disappeared. Hwan’s new goal is to clear his name and restore honor to their clan–but Inspector Yi and their assistant Min are there to interfere with Hwan’s quest… and accuse them of sabotage as well.

Lenora lives in a world where adulthood is a magical transformation undergone by children going into the Crossing Gate. At seventeen years old, Lenora is determined to have her Crossing Day so she can start to work to support her family. It all goes horribly wrong when she’s accused of trying to foment a revolution. She must now obey every law to the letter to prove her loyalty… while trying to investigate why she can’t cross into adulthood.

Royal siblings Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya are estranged, to put it politely. They don’t particularly like each other. But what brings them back together is so important that mutual antipathy must be put aside; they must find the Ivory Key, which will lead them to a new source of magic for their country. Without it, their kingdom will surely fall. Each sibling will gain something different from finding the key, and lose something far worse if they don’t. And the enemies arrayed to keep it from them are deadly and numerous. Working together is the only path toward survival.

This is an anthology of short stories written entirely by authors of color and featuring diverse characters in coming-of-age YA adventures centered around magic and self-discovery.

This newly published box set contains the novels The Black Parade, She Who Fights Monsters, and The Holy Dark, chronicling the adventures of seer and demon-slayer Jordan Amador and her partner (and lover) Michael as they combat archdemons, ghosts, and any other supernatural baddy who would like to cause hell on Earth.

Jackson Prdye has never been good with actually casting spells, so he’s turned his magic instead to creating enchanted devices as an artificer. But his nextdoor neighbor, Xander Wright, is a pretentious jerk–and worse, an actually good mage–who constantly clashes with him over all the noise. These neighborhood enemies are forced to team up with a strange fever starts tearing through their community, driving mages into murderous rages.

This is a collection of 48 pieces of speculative prose poetry and micro-lit, 22 of which are brand new and never before published. This collection also includes 35 illustrations from Elena Betti.

An anthology of 19 stories by Black speculative fiction authors, this imagines a future where the Singularity is freed from its Eurocentric shackles. Authors in the anthology include Eugen Bacon, Zig Zag Clayborne, Kyoko M, Violette Meier, and more!

At the age of six, Carmen Grey was taken away from her family by three men in black and brought to an underground facility that housed those like her–Clairvoyants. Those who run the facility strip away her identity and carefully train her into a weapon that they aim at their enemies.

The Kingdom of Aves is an oligarchy where most of the bird clans follow the phoenix goddess who united them, and the Order governs the churches and therefore the lives of the people. After successfully solving one mystery, Hawk Prentice Tasifa returns to her university to find a sacred relic has been stolen from the Museum of the Goddess–and her mentor is being framed for the crime. With the Order breathing down her neck, Prentice is on a short timetable to solve this mystery… but all is not as it seems.

For generations the Massey family has lived in the same house, on land that’s belonged to them for even longer. It’s a place where everyone comes for fun in the summer, a place of fun and games. And in the winter? The children have to train for their turn to fight what lives in the basement. No child knows what they will be facing down there–it’s a secret–but winning that battle every solstice is what makes the house the warm, beautiful place it is every other day. But this year something is wrong…

College students Evan and Matt (and Evan’s sister Kate, who’s always been responsible for keeping him in one piece) decide to go spelunking during a holiday in Belgium, and that desire takes them to an unexplored cave in the Ardennes. What they find is a portal to another world, and across its threshold could wait adventure… or death.

Persephone (yes, that Persephone, the queen of the Underworld) finds her mother in the ruins of the forest, having been driven mad by some unknown force. Demeter’s madness manifests widespread death and destruction in the world, and Persephone has little time to stop the destruction before it will be too late. She must either save her mother by delving painfully into her own past… or save the world by committing the ultimate crime.

Considering I wrote an entire spot on how much I freaking love this book, its inclusion in my favorites should be no surprise. All I can say is that I’m still thinking about and recommending this book to anyone who will listen, even months later. It’s gorgeous, and thoughtful, and healing. But remember, trigger warnings in this one, particularly for sexual assault.

This is just such a fun book, a combination of bananapants mecha action (I’m glad we’re apparently riding a mecha wave in SF novels right now) and absolute rage against the injustice of gender roles and patriarchy. All I can say is there darn tootin’ better be a sequel.

This is a fairly short novella that I would argue is more character portrait than story, in which you learn about the title character through the imprint she’s left in the lives of others. It’s so delicately and deftly done that it was a pleasure to read.

Another “no surprise” book–everyone knows by now that I love The Goblin Emperor, and I was pretty much doomed to love anything that followed, but particularly since it’s about my favorite sad gay elf, Celehar. This is very slice of life at times, which I find delightful, and was just screaming for a sequel… which is coming next year: The Grief of Stones

I am not much of a one for epic fantasy, but Rebecca Roanhorse got me good with this one. Her world is vivid and well drawn, she manages to make the politics of it legible and interesting, and she got me to buy all in on what is fundamentally a religious dispute with historically conquered people still resisting (partially) their conquest. The characters absolutely make it.

This book is honestly a bit too on the didactic side for my general taste, but it’s still on my list because there are just so many crunchy, interesting ideas… and it also offers a sense of hope about the slow motion climate catastrophe. There’s no airily waving the disaster away with science fiction, but offering that one can imagine a potentially realistic way to get through this, even with a world that isn’t terribly united.

The second installment of a series I love (first book: Savage Legion) and looking at it from a distance, I can say that I love it for many of the same reasons as I love Black Sun. It’s epic fantasy that operates on an imperial scale that’s very interested in examining how messed up empire fundamentally is and how it’s predicated on the existence of second-, third-, or worse- class citizens. Matt does it with such an economy of language that the books just fly.

I’ve been hearing for years how good and important this book is, and everything I’ve heard was true. Carmen Maria Machado takes on a topic that gets swept under the rug far too often in the LGBTQ community (domestic abuse, so big TW on this one) and does so with beauty and very necessary empathy for for herself.

Another absolutely gorgeous book that I was destined to love because it’s about the geological depths of the earth that have been created over millions of years. I’m a geologist, I can’t help it.

I mostly read romance when I need a little break from SFF, but I decided to give this cozy mystery a try–and it’s the first cozy I’ve read, I’d say. This book was just hecka fun, and it’s also got a cookie recipe in the back that I want to try.

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?

This is a collection of two pairs of science fiction stories. One set is about an engaged couple on separate missions trying to coordinate a return to Earth at the same time through the grace of relativity–and the Earth they return to will be profoundly different. The other pair of stories is about the interaction between humanity and the godlike beings that created it, and our different views on the necessity of rebellion.

Shizuka made a literal deal with the devil to escape damnation. The price? She has to convince seven of her fellow violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She’s managed to swindle six, but in her pursuit of the final soul, she runs into complications she could have never imagined: a retired starship captain who she can’t help but love and a runaway with a wild talent who all too quickly feels like family.

Myrra is a contract worker, and has been since she was five years old. In fifty years, she’ll be free… but until then, her life and labor belong to whoever is the highest bidder on her contract. She’s worked many jobs, but her latest, for the Carlyles, ends abruptly when she finds them dead. She must care for the orphaned daughter of her dead “employers” and face the secret they died to escape.

A pregnant woman escapes from a religious compound to give birth to her twins in the woods. But cults don’t let go easily, and she’s forced to fight against that community and the outside world to defend her family–a battle that begins an uncanny metamorphosis of her body that can only be understood by facing the past.

Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke, and jobless, so she’s moving back to Malaysia, a country she hasn’t seen since she was a toddler, with her parents. When she starts hearing a voice in her head, at first she assumes it’s stress… but then she finds out it’s the ghost of her grandmother, who in life was the avatar of a god called the Black Water Sister. Grandma wants Jess to help her settle an old score with a local business magnate… whether she wants to or not.

A new brain implant called a Pilot is sweeping the nation, quickly going from a curiosity to a necessity to keep up with school or work. Soon all people face a choice: get a Pilot or be left behind. The new technology divides a family, setting Sophie against her parents and her brother… and then against the powerful manufacturer of the device.

The Montoya family is one surrounded by inexplicable magic and mysteries they know better than to ask about. But when Orquídea Divina, the matriarch who refused to ever leave their home, even for weddings and baptisms, invites them to her own funeral, rather than answers or a direct inheritance, her transformation leaves them only with more questions. After seven years, this inheritance has manifested differently for each of her descendants… and put them in the line of fire of a mysterious enemy that seems determined to pick them off, one by one.

Andromeda has been training as an debtera, a special kind of exorcist that cleanses the Evil Eye… except her mentor threw her out before she could complete her training. Her only hope is to find a rich patron to vouch for her, so when Magnus Rorschach contacts her, it seems like her best opportunity. Only she arrives to find that he runs his house on a set of weird and capricious rules, and he’s gone through quite a few debtera before her…

Jordan has anything a woman could want in 1920s America: money, education, social clout, a great talent with golf. But as a Vietnamese adoptee who is also queer, she also gets treated like an exotic pet by her peers and finds many doors are closed to her. Her world isn’t just money and parties though–it’s also ghosts, magic, and infernal pacts. And Jordan has always been a fast learner.

Laina gets tragic news one October morning: Boston police have shot and killed her brother. But soon, this horror reveals something far stranger: monsters are real. And they’re coming out of the shadows now, looking for safety. This shift in the social fabric of the world leads to strife and protests. But the one question no one seems to be asking as society reshapes itself is: what has frightened the monsters so badly that they came out of the dark?

Esso is having the worst week of his life… and then an accident lets him see beyond space and time, into the past and future. If what he saw is reality and not just a hallucination, however, he needs to change history if he wants to survive. In order to do so, he must seek out the help of Rhia, the student he’s supposed to tutor at physics, and with her unravel a fifteen-year-old mystery.

Odette faces her final death, and only the half fey Arjun Desai could possibly save her… if he’s willing to cross over into the Sylvan Vale, a world that he absolutely despises. This, he’s willing to do to save Odette; but unknown to him, Pippa Montrose is following his path between worlds on her own search for a friend… which may just help her find the love and security she’s been missing.

Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2089 is a strange place where climate catastrophe has been averted by pumping a sufficient amount of nanotech into the people of this densely-populated city that it can sustain its own microclimate… if no one moves. But the people are getting restless, and all the nanotech is started to have some weird effects. This is the reason the mercenary Djibrel has to carry a machete with him at all times, because beheading someone is now the only way to make sure they’re actually dead. He’s trying to track down the Djinn, a race of magical super geniuses that have seemingly disappeared… and he’s being tracked by the Cyber Mage, a snotty, privileged teenager who also moonlights for a Russian crime syndicate.

Twentynine Palms is a military base in the Mojave Desert, and a place Rylie has been avoiding since he death of her father. There are too many memories and too many contentious relationships with both family and friends. Yet when she’s forced to return there due to her mom’s new work assignment, the place seems at least somewhat welcoming. But not everyone is happy to see her, there might be a killer on the loose, and Rylie starts having visions of monstrous creatures stalking the desert.

Liam is a reclusive, shell-shocked veteran who has few memories of his time during the Great War… until he’s saved from a brutal attack at a Chicago speakeasy by Grace. Formerly, Liam was from a squad known as the Devil’s Henchmen, who were given experimental treatments to make them telepathic killing machines. As Liam tries to dig into his past and his newly-remembered powers, his former commander will stop at nothing to keep those secrets. And as the President of the United State, he’s got a lot more resources than Liam.

Elise is a Death Oracle who can experience how her loved ones will die with a single touch–she’s already proven it works by predicting and being unable to prevent her brother’s death. Claire is a vampire assigned to help Elise master her powers. It would be complicated enough already if the two girls, who are at first suspicious of each other then perhaps sliding toward romance, weren’t also sharing their town with a killer who also has paranormal powers.

Followed by Jade War and Jade Legacy to make up the completed Green Bone Saga!

This is an epic trilogy that features lots of kung fu action scenes in a fantasy metropolis where rival clans battle it out. Green Bone warriors use jade to fuel their magic in adherence with ancient tradition, but times are changing–and foreigners would like to get their hands on that jade.

Followed by Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate, Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon’s Ashes, Persepolis Rising, Tiamat’s Wrath, and Leviathan Falls to make the completed Expanse series.

What is there to say? This is a nine-book space opera behemoth that takes humanity from squabbling in the Sol system to across the galaxy–and it’s the basis for one of the most beloved sci-fi series on TV today, which is also finishing up this year.

Followed by The Silvered Serpents and The Bronzed Beasts to complete the series.

An alternate history fantasy that starts out at the close of the nineteenth century, where a Parisian treasure hunter assembles a strange team to help him steal an ancient and powerful artifact so that he can earn his rightful inheritance.

Followed by The Long War and Days of Storm to complete the Wild Trilogy. It’s one of those strange ones that was all published this year!

Disaster has forced humanity to make its home on a wild continent inhabited by cruel and hostile spirits of nature that want them all dead. To survive, humans need to seek new alliances–and new magic.

Followed by Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle, and Perhaps the Stars to finish the Terra Ignota series.

Set about 430 years in the future, this series starts in a world where the nation state hasn’t existed for 300 years and humanity is made up of seven remaining “hives.” The four books follow the events that lead this strange Earth to war for the first time since the 22nd century.