The Raven Tower

Ann Leckie

The main character of this book is a stone. A literal stone. Well, a god in the form of a stone, but a stone nonetheless.

Akata Warrior

Nnedi Okorafor

The second book in Okorafor’s Akata series finds Sunny settled in to her new magical school, observing the changes in her body as she grows and becomes stronger.

Akata Witch

Nnedi Okorafor

This young adult series centers on Sunny Nwazue, a New York-born Nigerian and albino.

Semiosis

Sue Burke

Sue Burke’s debut novel follows a small group of human colonists who have landed on a new planet and must learn to survive.

Blackfish City

Sam J. Miller

Qaanaaq is a floating Arctic city ruled by a group of invisible shareholders in the wake of the climate wars. One day, a woman arrives riding an orca and traveling with a polar bear.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Ottessa Moshfegh

With the help of a deranged doctor and a cornucopia of drugs, the narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation embarks on an adventure to sleep for an entire year.

Binti

Nnedi Okorafor

The titular character in Nnedi Okorafor’s novella is the first of the Himba people to leave Earth to travel to Oomza University, the most prestigious institution of higher learning in the galaxy.

Binti: The Night Masquerade

Nnedi Okorafor

The conclusion of Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series finds Binti trying desperately to prevent a war between the Khoush and the Meduse.

Binti: Home

Nnedi Okorafor

The second book in Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series brings Binti back home after her dramatic transformation.

The Emissary

Yoko Tawada

Something terrible has happened in Japan, and the country has cut itself off from the world.

Melmoth

Sarah Perry

This is a horror story, and a ghost story, and an enormously compelling reflection on what it means to be complicit, to repent, to suffer punishment.

Ka

John Crowley

Ka recounts the adventures of a crow named Dar Oakley, who—nearly two thousand years ago—ventured to the underworld with a young girl and stole the gift of immortality she meant to acquire for her fellow humans.

Future Home of the Living God

Louise Erdrich

Cedar is four months pregnant when orders go out asking all pregnant women to turn themselves in amid reports that evolution is running in reverse.

Washington Black

Esi Edugyan

George Washington Black, known as “Wash,” is born enslaved on a Barbados sugar plantation where cruelty is the norm. When his master’s brother, Titch, arrives and chooses Wash to serve him, Wash is initially terrified; but the eccentric brother turns out to be a naturalist and abolitionist who takes Wash under his wing.

The Mere Wife

Maria Dahvana Headley

A masterful, modern take on Beowulf.

White Fragility

Robin DiAngelo

This is a necessary book for all white people.

The Inheritance Trilogy

N. K. Jemisin

This is an epic of (literally) Greek proportions, as it concerns a group of gods and their godling children as they love and fight among themselves and their human creations.

So Lucky

Nicola Griffith

So Lucky begins with Mara Tagarelli, the successful leader of an AIDS foundation, saying farewell to her wife, who is leaving for another woman.

Universal Harvester

John Darnielle

Someone is cutting scenes from a creepy homemade movie into the rentals from the Video Hut.

The Stone Sky

N. K. Jemisin

The third and final book in Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy focuses on Essun’s daughter—who has inherited her mother’s extraordinary abilities but with little of the training.