There is an avalanche of speculative fiction coming out this summer that is absolutely perfect for crime readers, so much so that there is no possible way to round it all up, but I’ve done my best to assemble some highlights!Article continues after advertisement
While many of the books below count as both horror and speculative, I’m working on another soon-to-publish listicle with tons of horror releases coming out in the rest of the year. So, if you read the following list and wonder where all the vampires are, that is where the vampires will be. And ditto for worms, tradwives, demons, and other terrifying creatures that belong more in the horror category.
This list is more of an aliens, unicorns, and time travelers list. Also angels. There are a lot of angel books out this year. Probably because Daniel Krauss’s Angelfall left us all wanting more visits from the heavenly host. Or perhaps last year’s literature was so preoccupied with sexy antichrists that sexy and/or scary angels are really the only logical next step. Humans do tend to get turned on by whatever we’re afraid of, and we’re all freaking out about the end of the world these days. Bring on the horny apocalypse!
Other trends include a preponderance of alien first contact stories and technofascist dystopias, both of lend themselves quite easily to the thriller genre. Magic appears less in this list than it will in the horror list, as everyone in books using magic these days seem to be doing so in rather nasty ways. Heists also appear a bit less than they should, simply because I didn’t have enough time to read them. But if you’re looking for epic speculative heist novels, I’ll make sure to add some—just add a comment.
