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Ahoy, shipmates! Here’s Alex, and we’re doing something a little bit different this Tuesday. There wasn’t much in the way of new releases again this week, so we’re going retrospective once more. And there are SO MANY THINGS I wanted to tell you about, I’m going to give you a double helping of news on Friday to leave more room for talking about books here. Enjoy!
17 SFF Series That Finished in 2019
I wanted to look at what series have finished in 2019, in case you know some people averse to picking up a series until it’s done. (Though seriously, please don’t wait until the bitter end. If the early books of a series don’t sell enough, the later books never get published.) There are a lot of great series to choose from here, and it’s an opportunity to put any bookstore gift cards to good use!
Huge thanks to everyone on book Twitter who told me their favorite series that finished this year. I could not have put this list together without all of the help–and I’m sorry I still couldn’t fit them all!
The Custard Protocol Series by Gail Carriger – World-hopping steampunk rebels with bonus werewolves and vampires. Start with Prudence. Book 2 is Imprudence; book 3 is Competence; book 4 is Reticence.
The Wormwood Trilogy by Tade Thompson – Aliens come to Nigeria and build a biodome; the humans try to build their own city and their own lives alongside this invasion. Start with Rosewater. Book 2 is The Rosewater Insurrection; book 3 is The Rosewater Redemption.
Dr. Greta Helsing by Vivian Shaw – Dr. Helsing is a medical provider for the undead, intent on living a quiet life of getting by… until there’s a murder to be solved. Start with Strange Practice. Book 2 is Dreadful Company; book 3 is Grave Importance.
The Tensorate Series by JY Yang – Silk punk where people choose their gender and ride on dinosaurs while they fight the authoritarian establishment. Start with The Black Tides of Heaven. Book 2 is The Red Threads of Fortune; book 3 is The Descent of Monsters; book 4 is Ascent to Godhood. (Full disclosure: I share an agent with JY.)
The Amberlough Dossier by Lara Elena Donnelly – A roaring twenties-flavored and very queer spy thriller that explores the roots of nationalism, fascism, and hatred–and the fight against them. Start with Amberlough. Book 2 is Armistice; book 3 is Amnesty.
Their Bright Ascendancy by K. Arsenault Rivera – In an Asia-based fantasy world, two fated lovers fight demons… and become goddesses. Start with The Tiger’s Daughter. Book 2 is The Phoenix Empress; book 3 is The Warrior Moon.
Gods of Blood and Powder by Brian McClellan – A young nation of settlers and sorcerers face a an ancient threat at the frontier they push forward. Black powder fantasy. Start with Sins of Empire. Book 2 is Wrath of Empire; book 3 is Blood of Empire.
A Dominion of the Fallen by Aliette de Bodard – Gothic fantasy in a Paris that’s been devestated by a magical war–and there are fallen Angels. Start with The House of Shattered Wings. Book 2 is The House of Binding Thorns and book 3 is The House of Sundering Flames.
Miram Black by Chuck Wendig – Hard-boiled, urban fantasy thrillers about a woman who sees everyone’s inevitable death and really hates it. Start with Blackbirds. Book 2 is Mockingbird; book 3 is The Cormorant; book 4 is Thunderbird; book 5 is The Raptor & The Wren; book 6 is Vultures.
Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee – I cannot put it better than I saw an anonymous poster do on the internet: Two ghosts argue about daylight savings time. Billions die. (And it’s military space opera.) Start with Ninefox Gambit. Book 2 is Raven Strategem; book 3 is Revenant Gun; book 4 is Hexarchate Stories.
Timekeeper by Tara Sim – An alternate Victorian world that’s controlled by clocktowers, in which those who repair the towers have the skill to repair the fabric of time itself. (Or stop it.) Start with Timekeeper. Book 2 is Chainbreaker; book 3 is Firestarter.
The Bone Witch Series by Rin Chupeco – Forbidden magic reveals terrible truths about the past in an Asian fantasy world. Start with The Bone Witch. Book 2 is The Heart Forger; book 3 is The Shadowglass.
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton – In Orleans, the Belles control beauty, and beauty is the only currency that matters. Start with The Belles. Book 2 is The Everlasting Rose.
Titan’s Forest by Thoraiya Dyer – In a giant, mythical rain forest where mortals can be reborn as gods, a youg woman fights to meet her own destiny. Start with Crossroads of Canopy; book 2 is Echoes of Understorey; book 3 is Tides of the Titans.
Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden – Vasilisa grows up at the edge of the wintery Russian wilderness and grows up on traditional stories. Then she meets one of the monsters of those stories, the winter demon Frost. Start with The Bear and the Nightingale. Book 2 is The Girl in the Tower; book 3 is Winter of the Witch.
Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence – A nine-year-old girl falsely accused of murder is bought by the Convent of Sweet Mercy and trained to be a mystical assassin. Start with Red Sister. Book 2 is Grey Sister; book 3 is Holy Sister.
Analog by Eliot Peper – Information is power in these very-near-future techno thrillers about politics in the digital age. Start with Bandwidth. Book 2 is Borderless; book 3 is Breach.
See you, space pirates. You can find all of the books recommended in this newsletter on a handy Goodreads shelf. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.