If you want to journey to far off lands through your summer reading, or want to bring some extra magic to the holidays, try one of these great sci-fi and fantasy reads!

2024 brought long-awaited sequels to beloved series by TJ Klune, Jeff VanderMeer and Karl Ove Knausgaard, as well as exciting new releases from authors including Keanu Reeves, Alan Moore and Leigh Bardugo. So explore the list below to find our highlights of the year and make sure you haven't missed your next favourite book!

High fantasy ⚔️

Mistress of Amber and Flame by Maria Linwood

Centuries ago, a kingdom was torn apart by old magik long forgotten. It caused a rift separating the lands into one of peace and one of torment.

Now, as the latest in the line of guardians, Tbalainthe has been chosen. She must be the one to banish the nightmares seeping over from Sgilorc, their afflicted brother-world. But as darkness begins to creep through the border, and sightings of the mysterious Frontierwalker become rampant, Tbala's sheltered home is in grave danger.

With age-old secrets, dangerous missions and questions of loyalty afoot, Tbala must do everything in her power to protect her people.

The Great Library of Tomorrow by Rosalia Aguilar Solace

Helia has served as the Sage of Hope for the Great Library of Tomorrow for centuries. She is one of the chosen few who embody and protect the values of humanity across the numerous realms of Paperworld, which are connected within the Library itself via magical Portals controlled by the Book of Wisdom.

But even her hope is tested when she and her partner Xavier, the Sage of Truth, are attacked and confronted by a deadly figure known to them as the Ash Man. With the Ash Man gaining strength, Helia soon finds herself in a race against time, searching for clues to the origins of their foe – and any possible way to defeat him.

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

Navola is a city built on trade, and presiding over it all is the Regulai bank. By guile, force of arms and the cast-iron might of their money and promises, in just three generations the Regulai family have risen far from their humble origins.

Soon, Davico di Regulai will take the reins of power. But the boy is not well-suited for his role. His heart is soft where it should be hard. He is credulous when he should be suspicious. In the shade of Navola's colonnaded porticoes, his family's enemies gather and plot. In the shadows of its deep catacombs, assassins sharpen their stiletto knives.

Davico's only hope rests in the heart of a girl whose own family was destroyed by the Regulai, and in a crystalline orb the size of a human head, said to be the eye of a long-dead dragon

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it!

To mark the thousandth year of peace in the Empire of Concordia, the emperor's ship embarks upon a twelve-day voyage. Aboard are the heirs of the twelve provinces of Concordia, each graced with a unique magical ability known as a Blessing. Except one – Ganymedes Piscero.

When a beloved heir is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Stuck at sea and surrounded by powerful people, odds of survival are slim. But as the bodies pile higher, Ganymedes must become the hero he was not born to be and unmask the killer before he ends up the next victim of their bloody crusade.

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The North Wind by Alexandria Warwick

Wren of Edgewood is no stranger to suffering. With her parents gone, it is Wren’s responsibility to ensure she and her sister survive the harsh and endless winter, but if the legends are to be believed, their home may not be safe for much longer.

For three hundred years, the land surrounding Edgewood has been encased in ice as the Shade, a magical barrier that protects the townsfolk from the Deadlands beyond, weakens. Only one thing can stop the Shade’s fall: the blood of a mortal woman bound in wedlock to the North Wind, a dangerous immortal whose heart is said to be as frigid as the land he rules. And the time has come to choose his bride.

When the North Wind sets his eyes on Wren’s sister, Wren will do anything to save her – even if it means sacrificing herself in the process.

Science fiction 👽

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

When the Southern Reach Trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation; each volume climbed the bestsellers list, awards were won, and the books even made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover.

And yet despite all this, there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold, and the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast – before Area X was called Area X – had never been fully told.

Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, there are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profound new surprises. Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.

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The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves & China Mieville

There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilisations rise and fall. He has had many names, but these days he is known simply as 'B'. And he wants to be able to die.

In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

The Carryx has waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy in its conflict with an ancient and deathless enemy. When they descend on the isolated world of Anjiin, the human population is abased, slaughtered and put in chains. The brightest are abducted and join prisoners from a thousand other species.

Dafyd Alkhor is captured along with his team. Unknowingly his insight and skills will be the key to seeing past their captors’ terrifying agenda. This is where his story begins.

The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken

The Morning Star kept readers up all night, immersed with nine characters whose individual lives are heightened by the sudden appearance of a blazing new star. Now, in The Third Realm, the effects of the star are felt around the world, as people start to reckon with what it might possibly mean.

Shapeshifting visitors, unsolved murders in the forest, black metal bands and an online bank of thousands of people’s dreams – the star is back, and the limitless scale and ambition of Karl Ove’s new universe is clear. This is life, death, the human condition, and the opportunity to bring readers in on the real-time creation of an epic and utterly immersive world.

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu

2080, the world is divided, dominated by two antagonistic factions, the Pacific League and the Atlantic Alliance. Tensions are high and the smallest disturbance in the status quo could set the world on fire.

And a signal flickering through deep space could be just that spark.

As three young scientists form an alliance to decode the signal, they realise that the answers don't only lie in deep space, they also lie deep in humanity's past. What they discover will change everything – our past, present and future.

Cosy fantasy 🌿

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

This is the hugely-anticipated sequel to TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea, an international bestseller and one of the best loved fantasy novels of the past decade.

Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one. He's the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there. Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago.

When Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

An intrepid professor must uncover faerie secrets in the delightful and heart-warming second instalment of the bestselling Emily Wilde series.

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore, and has catalogued many secrets of the Hidden Folk in her encyclopaedia with her infuriatingly charming fellow scholar, Wendell Bambleby, by her side. But Bambleby is more than just a brilliant and unbearably handsome scholar. He's an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, in search of a door back to his realm.

By lucky happenstance, Emily's new project, a map of the realms of faerie, will take them on an adventure to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby's realm, and the key to freeing him from his family's dark plans.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to. She's spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite.

But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, Kiela steals whatever books she can and flees to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, she discovers the empire has slowly been draining power from the island and the town is in disarray.

Kiela is determined to make things right, but opening up her own spellshop comes with risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down her own walls ...

Historical fantasy 👑

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The Great When by Alan Moore

The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital is Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen-year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?

Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks bizarre and disastrous repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out ...

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

When Luzia, a servant in the household of a Spanish nobleman, reveals a talent for domestic magic, her social-climbing mistress demands she use her gifts to win over the royal court. But what begins as simple amusement turns dangerous, as the king seeks any edge in his ongoing war with England.

Overmatched and at risk of revealing herself as a heretic, Luzia will have to use every bit of her wit and resilience to survive – even if that means enlisting the help of an embittered (and rather dashing) immortal familiar.

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

It is the end of the nineteenth century and the world is awash with marvels. But there is nothing so marvellous as the Wastelands: a terrain of terrible miracles that lies between Beijing and Moscow.

Nothing touches the Wastelands except the Great Trans-Siberian Express: an impenetrable train built to carry cargo across continents, but which now transports anyone who dares.

Onto the platform steps a curious cast of characters: Marya, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Weiwei, a famous child born on the train; and Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist. But there are whispers that the train isn't safe. As secrets and stories begin to unravel, the passengers and crew must survive their journey together, even as something uncontrollable seems to be breaking in ...

Urban fantasy ✨

The Oxenbridge King by Christine Paice

Richard III is trapped in the afterlife, waiting with his guide, Raven, for an angel to take his soul to Heaven. Though he's been between worlds for hundreds of years, up in the real world it's 2013 and Molly Stern has a broken heart from losing her father and a recent breakup.

Leaving London, Molly goes home to seek solace from her Aunt Peggy and Uncle Frank in Oxenbridge. But there are strange noises in the basement of her childhood house and nothing feels right, not even between Peggy and Frank. When the angel encounters Molly – and Raven at last finds the angel – life and the afterlife meet, with surprising and unexpected consequences.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she's doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message.

This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.

Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book – a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous – or dreadful and terrifying – things.

Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it.

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

The first shadows fall on a Friday afternoon when a single, dying raven lands on the pavement in front of Diana Bishop, harbinger of an invitation that reads, 'It's time you came home, Diana'.

The governing Congregation has decided it must test the magical powers of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Becca. Concerned with their safety, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family's future and travels to Ravenswood, the Proctor family home.

There, Diana begins a new era, becoming her great aunt Gwyneth's pupil in higher magic. It's time to confront her family's past – and her own inescapable desire for greater power.