If you’re a fan of science fiction and fantasy novels, you no doubt have your favorite authors, who you can count on to deliver a great read with every new book. But, you’re also likely always keeping an eye out for new authors to add to your reading list. While there’s no guarantee you will love each of these, here are four authors that you might consider checking out, when you’re looking for a new book.
Jay Kristoff
With several successful and award winning series under his belt, Kristoff is already well-established in the sci-fi arena. In particular, I wanted to focus on his Nevernight Chronicle, a trilogy of dark fantasy novels that tell the story of Mia, who is variously an assassin, gladiator, and possibly someone who will change the world. The first book reads a bit like a combination of Harry Potter and Deadly Class (the SciFy channel show). Book two owes a lot to the movie Gladiator and the third book ties things up in a more standard fantasy story climax.
The fact that the main character is something of an anti-hero, bent on revenge since childhood, gives it a different spin than more traditional fantasy coming of age hero journeys. But, while Darkness is a huge part of the story, Mia and her cohorts do indeed become fairly heroic, despite their many flaws and a high body count that piles up in their wake.
While the character arc may be a coming of age story in general, it is definitely not a young adult novel, either in tone or content. Just a heads up if the kids want to read it, this may be a bit strong for many of them.
Alex Smith
Smith largely began publishing books in 2018 (at least according to Amazon), but he has already made a mark in the sci-fi genre with his Salvagers series. The series currently includes three titles (A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe, A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy, and The Worst of All Possible Worlds). The series delivers a unique blend of science fiction and magic, mixed with a little piracy. One reviewer compared it to both The Expanse series and Firefly and I think that’s a pretty solid description.
The books are without fail - Fun. That’s not a requirement for a good science fiction story, but it’s welcome in this series, delivering a somewhat irreverent voice to what is already an interesting genre mashup. Without going into too much detail, the magic system is structured and very original and the sci-fi aspects really are right out of the Firefly playbook.
If you’re looking for an original take on space opera with a healthy blend of magic, you can’t go wrong with this series by Alex Smith.
Megan O’Keefe
Since 2016, O’Keefe has published 5 books, along with several shorter works. Her books span across traditional fantasy and science fiction genres. To date, I’ve only read her sci-fi work, but she has won awards for her fantasy novels.
The current series (a planned trilogy) has two books published (Velocity Weapon and Chaos Vector), but set in a hard sci-fi universe. The story blends some political intrigue with epic space opera plot points and a war between two factions of humanity in the distant future. It adds a few plot twists that you may or may not see coming, but are effective in either case.
The story is fast-paced, despite shifting between the viewpoints of its two main protagonists, separated in time and space. It also takes time to develop the main characters, one of which is an artificial intelligence built into an advanced spaceship. The series has already been nominated for various literary genre awards, so if a bit of hard sci-fi, mixed with interesting characters is up your alley, give it a shot.
Daniel O’Malley
With only two published books to his name thus far, Daniel O’Malley already had his first novel (The Rook) adapted into a TV series. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the TV series, the book and its sequel were both a lot of fun to read. The basic premise is that there are people living in our world with special abilities. Some psychic, some more supernatural. A number of them are recruited into highly clandestine agencies run by various governments around the world. The story focuses on the British agency that employs these talented individuals. It weaves in a main character suffering from amnesia and trying to learn about not only who she is but how her memories were taken, all while posing as… well, herself.
Both The Rook and the sequel, Stiletto are fairly quick reads. They include some enjoyable characters, an interesting plot, and some well-written action scenes. I’m not sure if O’Malley plans to continue the series or possibly write something new, but both these books are fun beach reads or diversions when you want to read a slightly different take on a standard mutant/psychic/supernatural story.
