Booklist’s Top 10 SF/Fantasy/Horror reading lists of 2018* include these outstanding Macmillan titles:
Top 10 SF/Fantasy: 2018 (full list)
BALL LIGHTNING by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen
While devoting himself to studying the atmospheric occurrence called ball lightning which struck and killed his parents Chen meets the beautiful but ruthless Lin Yun, an army major whose devotion to creating strange new weapons matches his own obsessive quest.
BINTI: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
After the destruction of her home and presumed death of her family, Binti, with her friend Mwinyi, must find a path to peace between the Khosh and the Meduse in the satisfying ending to Okorafor’s Binti trilogy.
STARLESS by Jacqueline Carey
In a starless world, a young man and a princess born at the exact same time journey through killer vegetation, across an ocean, and into a volcano with a diverse corps of individuals, including intelligent giant sea wyrms.
WITCHMARK by C. L. Polk
The magnetically handsome Tristan brings a dying man to Dr. Miles Singer’s doorstep, aware of Miles’ secret identity as a witch, in a debut with nest-doll-like layers, a will-he-or-won’t-he romance, mages, wizards, political intrigue, and the atmosphere of a historical mystery.
Top 10 Horror: 2018 (full list)
AFTER THE END OF THE WORLD by Jonathan L. Howard
The second Carter and Lovecraft novel is diabolically clever and convoluted, with a new time line, an epic conspiracy, and a dangerously magical book that is not supposed to exist.
HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by Carmen Maria Machado
Women and their bodies, and the violence done to them both by themselves and others, occupy the center of Machado’s inventive, sensual, and eerie debut horror collection, describing situations that are at once familiar and completely strange.
Top 10 SF/Fantasy & Horror for Youth: 2018 (full list)
MIRAGE by Somaiya Daud
Also available in audio
Amani is nearly identical to the cruel Princess Maram, whose people have enslaved her planet, and when she’s kidnapped to serve as Maram’s body double for public events, she must play the part to perfection.
BONUS! Our Core Collection: Afrofuturism picks:
BINTI by Nnedi Okorafor
The Hugo and Nebula Award–winning start to the Binti series is a coming-of-age story in space that follows a young Himba girl to Oozma University, where she must learn to use both her galactic and ancestral knowledge to survive an alien war.
EVERFAIR by Nisi Shawl
Shawl’s debut is a steampunk-influenced alternate history of the Belgian Congo with alternating perspectives and episodic chapters, offering an engrossing tapestry compellingly told.
Titles included were reviewed between August 2017 and July 2018.