Jennifer Wortman 167 pages Split/Lip Press (2019)
Read this if you like: Susan Minot, Kristen Roupenian, writing flash fiction
Tl;dr summary: Stories of people trying to find and show love and mostly failing, but in a funny, beautifully-written way.
Nicky Drayden 313 pages Harper Voyager (2021)
Read this if you like: Vernor Vinge, unique worldbuilding, interpersonal and political intrigue tl;dr summary: Far future humans living inside giant space creatures navigate personal and political upheaval in their aim to live more symbiotically with their host.
Octavia E. Butler 264 pages Beacon Press (1979)
Read this if you like: Time travel sci-fi, Afro-horror, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Doomsday Book series by Connie Willis tl;dr summary: Modern black woman is pulled back in time to save her slaveholding ancestor.
Sarah Gerard 166 pages Two Dollar Radio (2015)
Read this if you like: Experimental literary fiction
tl;dr summary: Bulimic woman struggles with co-dependent relationship, astronomy, veganism.
Gwendolyn Kiste 250 pages Trepidatio Publishing (2018)
Read this if you like: Atmospheric horror, Rust Belt narratives, sympathetic monsters
tl;dr summary: The girls of Denton Street rusted in the summer of 1980 and survivor Phoebe Shaw is back 30 years later to find out why.
Kerstin Hall 436 pages Tor (2021)
Read this if you like: Unique magic systems, religious dystopias tl;dr summary: Young Acolyte living on a floating city is caught up in the intrigue of her cannibalistic magic sisterhood.
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Chris Tarry 128 pages Red Hen Press (2015)
Read this if you like: Kelly Link, Raymond Carver, Haruki Murakami tl;dr summary: Quirky merger of cryptids and fantasy with real-world settings and emotions.
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Monica Byrne 608 pages Harper Voyager (2021)
Read this if you like: Maya civilization, anarchist utopias, long-view fiction tl;dr summary: A story across three timelines spanning 2,000 years, from a dying dynasty in the Maya empire to a nomadic far-future civilization and a teenager on vacation in Belize in the middle.
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Valerie Valdez 416 pages Harper Voyager (2019)
Read this if you like: Antihero starship captains, space romps, galaxy-scale worldbuilding
tl;dr summary: The misadventures of Captain Innocente and her crew, combining all the fun and action of sci-fi adventure pulp with relatable characters and next-level worldbuilding.
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Christine Rice 361 pages University of Hell Press (2016)
Read this if you like: Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Alan Heathcock’s Volt
tl;dr summary: Life in New Canaan, MI is shitty, and lots of different characters tell you why.
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