Here’s the full list of SFF crossover titles heading your way in December!
Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Release dates are subject to change.
December 1
The Wondrous Life and Loves of Nella Carter — Brionni Nwosu (Lake Union)
Most humans cower in the face of Death. Not Nella May Carter. She sees him. She doesn’t hide. Instead, she bargains. Born enslaved in eighteenth-century Georgia, Nella still believes in the will to survive amid the most untenable of conditions, in the glory of life, and in the ultimate goodness of the human race. She asks that Death, doubtful and curious, allow her to live long enough to prove it. He’s giving Nella all the time in the world. Challenged, Nella embarks on an epic journey across the globe and centuries. Each new incarnation records the joys and losses, and the friendships and heartbreaks, throughout her lifetimes. When she meets handsome and passionate professor Sebastian Moore—the first man to whom she has ever revealed her secrets—Nella yearns for the mortality that escapes her. She can’t bear to leave this love behind. As Death keeps watch, has Nella’s journey come to an end? Or is a new one just beginning?
December 2
The Village at the Edge of Noon — Darya Bobyleva (Author), Ilona Chavasse (Translator) (Angry Robot)
What if summer never ends? The residents of a village outside Moscow wake up to discover that the road out to the motorway has disappeared without a trace and the usual paths into the woods somehow lead back into the village. And the woods? Overnight their weedy and rubbish-strewn copse has become a dark and overgrown forest inhabited by something mysterious and unfriendly. Anyone who makes it into the trees either vanishes into thin air or returns, not quite themselves… And, of course, the Internet, radio and TV have stopped working and the weather never changes. And time seems to loop seamlessly from one crop of apples and cabbages into the next. There are strange noises, and strange visitations. The villagers are plagued by odd thoughts and desires, and quiet but pervasive voices call from the river. Objects mutate; phones and radios emit strange mutterings; people disappear. What begins as a one-sided manifestation of the weird, becomes weirder still as the villagers split into factions and odd alliances with the new “neighbors” are formed. Meanwhile the forest looms closer every day. Is Katya, a solitary young woman, the only one beginning to glimpse what is going on?
Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death (SCYTHE Mysteries #2) — Maxie Dara (Berkley)
Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which might seem odd for someone as terrified of death as she is. But ever since her parents died in an accident when she was six, she’s been obsessed with avoiding risk, and what better place to learn how to cheat death than the company that employs the nation’s grim reapers? The work enables Nora to learn all about the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting… until one day, a file crosses her desk with a name she recognizes. Her twin brother’s. The twins haven’t spoken in six months, but Charlie is all Nora has left. Completely against her cautious nature, Nora steals the file and flees, racing to her brother’s house. She begs him to trust her that his death is imminent, and they hit the road (with his parrot, Jessica, who has plenty to say) in an attempt to evade both death and S.C.Y.T.H.E., whose sole mission of collecting souls has been disrupted by Charlie’s continued existence. Alas, every time Nora saves him, a new cause of death appears in his file. Someone is determined to take Charlie out, and Nora will have to use everything she’s ever learned about death to discover the culprit.
The Curse of the Cole Women — Marielle Thompson (Alcove Press)
The Cole women are cursed. Each generation will birth a daughter, lose their love, and, as surely as the tide beats against the rocky shore, take her own life by giving herself to the sea. For generations, the Cole women have lived as outcasts, maintaining a lighthouse on a small island off the coast of New Hampshire. Ever since their ancestor was accused of witchcraft and cast into the sea hundreds of years prior, the islanders have ostracized the Coles, distrusting their rumored magic and their control of the lighthouse. Despite their mistreatment, the Cole women are compelled to remain on the island because they know that if a Cole woman does not light the beacon on Juniper Island, anyone who is out at sea will be drowned. Out of guilt and obligation, the Cole women live out their solitary lives on the island, knowing someday their recompense for protecting the people from the sea will be to die in the sea themselves. Told in three interwoven timelines in the late twentieth century, The Curse of the Cole Women unravels the lives of three women who struggle with their relationships with each other as they contend with the reality of their fates—is it truly a curse, or is it generational madness that drives Cole women to the sea? Readers will be swept into this evocative and moving story about challenging misogyny, finding community, and struggling with fate.
December 9
Tailored Realities — Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books)
Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, Tailored Realities includes ten works of short fiction from the ingenious mind of one of the genre’s most beloved bestselling authors. From futuristic detective thrillers to inventive space opera, superhero action, high-tech fantasy, and beyond, these gripping standalone reads have never before been gathered into one volume, with many available here in print for the first time. Along with the thrilling new science fiction novella Moment Zero, this collection includes: “Snapshot,” “Perfect State,” “Defending Elysium” (from the world of Skyward), “Firstborn,” “Mitosis” (from the world of the Reckoners), and four other stories.
