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Place your preorders and library holds now, because these are the biggest and buzziest queer fantasy books out in the fall. I started writing this list as simply “the most-anticipated queer books of fall,” but I soon realized they were all fantasy novels! There’s something about fall that lends itself to fantasy reading, I think.
Several of these are sequels, because do we ever anticipate a new release more than when it’s the next installment of a beloved series? There are also some standalones by favourite authors. They run the gamut from cozy fantasy to military fantasy. Let me know in the comments what you’d add to this list!
The Court of the Dead: A Nico di Angelo Adventure (From the World of Percy Jackson) by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro (September 23)
The Sun and the Star was a big bestseller, and now it’s getting a sequel from the same writing team! It’s a real gift to see the biggest, most popular middle grade fantasy series of the moment center queer characters. I can’t say much about this one without spoiling The Sun and the Star, but it’s sure to be one of the biggest kids’ book releases of the year.
The Sovereign (Magic of the Lost #3) by C.L. Clark (September 30)
I’m so excited about this book, I could scream. This is my favorite fantasy series, and now we’re getting the conclusion. (I really can’t say anything else without spoilers.) That cover is not easing my nerves about how this high-stakes story will conclude.
Somehow, C.L. Clark has another sapphic fantasy out the same day, Fate’s Bane, which is also one of my most-anticipated releases of the year.
A Mouthful of Dust (The Singing Hills Cycle #6) by Nghi Vo
The Singing Hills Cycle is a popular fantasy novella series starring nonbinary Cleric Chih, who wanders Singing Hills and documents people’s stories—which means these books can be read in any order. In A Mouthful of Dust, Chih is looking to find out more about a legendary famine that reduced royals’ lavish meals to dust, but they end up trapped in a mansion with hungry shadows…
The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (October 14)
One of my favourite subgenres is queer cozy fantasy, so I’m really looking forward to this one. Look at that cute cover! It has a flying cat! It follows Certainty, a struggling novice mage, who is paired with the brilliant and cold Mage Aurelia to help out in a small, non-magical town. As they work together, Aurelia and Certainty begin to question the Mage Guild’s hoarding of magic, which could be put to use to make the lives of the people in this town better.
The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (October 21)
I loved The Jasmine Throne, so I’m excited to a) read the rest of the trilogy and b) read this standalone romantasy novel. It takes place in an England “fueled by stories,” where the witch Simran and knight Vina are fated to fall in a tragic kind of love, lifetime after lifetime. To make matters worse, an assassin is targeting stories like theirs. But this time, they’re determined to write themselves a better ending.
I want to give an honorary mention to Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree (November 11), the sequel to the sapphic cozy fantasy Legends & Lattes. This one has a different main character, so I’m not sure if it will be queer, but it’s high on my TBR either way!
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