Isaac by Allee Mead
Allee Mead’s debut novella *Isaac* follows Elanor, a grieving woman who turns to a caretaker robot for emotional support. The story reframes common AI‑romance tropes by presenting the robot as a non‑sentient, large‑language‑model‑like assistant rather than a sentient lover. Both Elanor and the robot are asexual, confronting the industry’s habit of sexualizing artificial beings. Through alternating chapters with her late adoptive father’s perspective, the novella links past trauma to her reliance on an immutable AI companion.
Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn: Poems and Micro-Stories About Modern Midwest Monsters Edited by Randy Brown
Randy Brown’s anthology *Cryptids, Kaiju & Corn* gathers 77 Midwest‑set poems and micro‑stories that blend folklore, horror, and humor around three motifs: legendary cryptids, Japanese kaiju, and corn. The pieces explore how isolation and agriculture shape local monsters, from mutated...
Krackle’s Last Movie by Chelsea Sutton
Chelsea Sutton’s debut novella *Krackle’s Last Movie* follows Harper, an assistant who pieces together a documentary on people altered by Curious Monster Syndrome after filmmaker Minerva Krackle disappears. The work blends speculative horror with cultural criticism, using monsters as metaphors...
Refuse
Megan Branning’s poem “Refuse” debuted in the April 20 2026 issue of Strange Horizons, a leading speculative‑fiction magazine. The piece weaves vivid images of rusted bikes, a deer skull, and hot‑pink yarn to critique decades of waste and environmental neglect. Branning, a...
Book of Potions by Lauren K. Watel
Lauren K. Watel’s *Book of Potions* is a debut collection of prose poems that meld surreal absurdity with raw emotional insight. The work interrogates the gap between outward façades and inner realities, using recurring motifs like the white‑room and portrait...
The Faith of Beasts by James S. A. Corey
The Faith of Beasts, a 2026 novella by James S. A. Corey, continues the Captive’s War saga by scattering human survivors of Anjiin across labs, survey missions, and space fleets under the Carryx Empire. The story shifts from overt rebellion...
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older
Malka Older’s third Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti novel, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, deepens the series with a Sherlockian mystery set on the Jovian colony Giant. The book showcases intricate worldbuilding—new language, Jovian melancholy, and a society grappling with...
When They Burned the Butterfly by Wen-Yi Lee
Wen‑Yi Lee’s debut novel *When They Burned the Butterfly* reimagines 1972 Singapore as a magical underworld where fire‑wielding teenagers navigate gang politics, romance, and state repression. The protagonist, Adeline Siow, inherits flame‑magic and joins the all‑female Red Butterfly gang, confronting...
Dispelling Fantasies: Authors of Color Reimagine a Genre by Joy Sanchez-Taylor
Joy Sanchez‑Taylor’s *Dispelling Fantasies* critiques the Eurocentric, patriarchal foundations of mainstream fantasy and highlights a decade‑plus surge of speculative works by authors of color. By foregrounding characters who are non‑white, gender‑nonconforming, or asexual, the book argues for a reimagined genre...
The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter by Brionni Nwosu
Brionni Nwusu’s debut, The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter, reimagines the Faustian bargain through a Black diaspora protagonist who gains immortality to document humanity’s beauty amid oppression. The novel weaves real historical figures into Nella’s centuries‑spanning adventures across...
An STD Could Save Your (Chest)nuts
Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, has decimated American chestnut populations, killing billions of trees since the late 1800s. European researchers discovered that infecting this fungus with the mycovirus Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 (CHV1) dramatically reduces its virulence. The virus...
Shuten Order
Spike Chunsoft’s new title *Shuten Order* blends mystery thriller storytelling with five distinct gameplay genres, each tied to a government minister’s investigation. Players assume Rei Shimobe, the resurrected Founder, using the “Power of God” to uncover her murderer while navigating...
Monsters in the Archive by Caroline Bicks
Caroline Bicks, holder of the Stephen E. King Chair at the University of Maine, spent a year examining Stephen King’s personal archives—the first scholarly access ever granted. Her new book, *Monsters in the Archives*, dissects drafts of five early King...
The Iron Garden Sutra by A. D. Sui
A. D. Sui’s *The Iron Garden Sutra* follows Iris, a death‑monk of the Starlit Order, as he investigates a murder mystery aboard the ancient generation ship *Nicaea*. The story intertwines a sprawling, forest‑filled spacecraft, a hostile AI, and a clash of faith...
Beings by Ilana Masad
Ilana Masad’s debut novel *Beings* weaves three interlocking narratives—a modern archivist, the 1960s Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case, and a semi‑epistolary queer coming‑of‑age story of writer Phyllis Egerton—into a single triptych. Each chapter shifts perspective, linking characters through...