It feels impossible, but we’re entering the dog days of summer. Fall is truly just around the corner, with its cooler temperatures and massive release schedule that marks the unofficial publishing kick-off of the Christmas shopping season. (Basically, if you thought your TBR was unmanageable before September, please start emotionally preparing yourselves now.) And that’s not even counting all the great titles arriving in the month we’re actually in, particularly for fantasy fans.
This has been a banger of a year for fantasy readers already, and 2024 doesn’t seem as though it’s letting up anytime soon. No matter what titles are waiting in the wings, August has more than enough big-name reads to keep you occupied well into spooky season. From new stories from established favorite authors like T. Kingfisher, Kerstin Hall, and Devin Madson to buzzy debuts from newcomers like S.A. MacLean, there are must-reads for every kind of reader, no matter what kind of fantasy stories they’re into.
Here are the best books hitting shelves this August.
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Release Date: August 6 from Tor Books
Why You’ll Love It: A charming and often laugh-out-loud funny retelling of The Goose Girl set in a fantasy world inspired by Regency romances, A Sorceress Comes to Call — much like Kingfisher’s recent fantasies Thornhedge and Nettle and Bone — is satisfying from its very first pages. The highest compliment I can pay Kingfisher (and I’ve said this so many times at this point, but it once again bears repeating) is that her works remind me of the great Peter Beagle, full of heartfelt emotion, sly wit, and sparkling supporting characters who are a joy to read.
Publisher’s Description: Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms—there are no secrets in this house—and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him.
But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers.
When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother’s next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother’s plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.
This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings
Release Date: August 6 from Sourcebooks Fire
Why You’ll Love It: A sumptuous story of sapphic Black vampires set in an alternate version of 1920s Harlem, This Ravenous Fate is a thoughtful exploration of emotional and generational trauma told through perfectly on-point fantasy tropes.
Publisher’s Description: It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family’s thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can’t refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark
Release Date: August 6 from Tordotcom
Why You’ll Love It: This fantastical, steam-punkish story about a group of assassins who are not cats and who do not possess tails, but are most assuredly dead is an entertaining, quirky romp.
Publisher’s Description: Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows.
First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.
Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.
The third and the once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.
Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright
Release Date: August 13 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: A dark fantasy debut that follows a bloodthirsty heroine into the court of the vampire king to enact a complex plan of vengeance, Mistress of Lies shines because of its multifaceted and morally ambiguous characters whose motives are as murky as their scruples.
Publisher’s Description: The daughter of a powerful but disgraced Blood Worker, Shan LeC laire has spent her entire life perfecting her blood magic, building her network of spies, and gathering every scrap of power she could. Now, to protect her brother, she assassinates their father and takes her place at the head of the family. And that is only the start of her revenge.
Samuel Hutchinson is a bastard with a terrible gift. When he stumbles upon the first victim of a magical serial killer, he’s drawn into the world of magic and intrigue he’s worked so hard to avoid – and is pulled deeply into the ravenous and bloodthirsty court of the vampire king.
Tasked by the Eternal King to discover the identity of the killer cutting a bloody swath through the city, Samuel, Shan and mysterious Royal Blood Worker Isaac find themselves growing ever closer to each other. But Shan’s plans are treacherous, and as she lures Samuel into her complicated web of desire, treason and vengeance, he must decide if the good of their nation is worth the cost of his soul.
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
Release Date: August 13 from Del Ray
Why You’ll Love It: An ambitious and atmospheric reimagining of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth from Ava Reid, author of feminist, gothic-tinged tales that wrestle with complex issues of trauma and agency. (See also: A Study and Drowning and Juniper and Thorn.) Containing everything from dark magic to dragons, Lady Macbeth feels like a book everyone will be talking about this summer in one way or another.
Publisher’s Description: The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.
She does not know this yet. But she will.
The Doors of Midnight by R.R. Virdi
Release Date: August 13 from Tor Books
Why You’ll Love It: The sequel to R.R. Virdi’s epic fantasy debut The First Binding, The Doors of Midnight is another doorstopper of a story told across a dual timeline format that sees Ari in jail after the events of the first novel and flashes back to the ruins of the ashram and the various adventures that follow leaving it behind, including everything from a journey through the desert to a trip to another world. Virdi’s deft balance of his main character at two distinct, very different points in his life—and the clear lines he draws between the evolution from one to the other—remains a highlight.
Publisher’s Description: Some stories are hidden for a reason. All tales have a price. And every debt must be paid.
I killed three men as a child and earned the name Bloodletter. Then I set fire to the fabled Ashram. I’ve been a bird and robbed a merchant king of a ransom of gold. And I have crossed desert sands and cutthroat alleys to repay my debt.
I’ve stood before the eyes of god, faced his judgement, and cast aside the thousand arrows that came with it. And I have passed through the Doors of Midnight and lived to tell the tale.
I have traded one hundred and one stories with a creature as old as time, and survived with only my cleverness, a candle, and a broken promise.
And most recently of all, I have killed a prince, though the stories say I have killed more than one.
My name is Ari. These are my legends.
And these are my lies.
The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean
Release Date: August 13 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: A super cozy fantasy that follows the story of a phoenix keeper working at a zoo filled with magical animals while trying to save a critically endangered species is pretty much everything I never knew I needed. Bring on all the sweet, low-stakes romantasy that isn’t driven by trauma or betrayal, publishing world. We need it. Real bad.
Publisher’s Description: As head phoenix keeper at a world-renowned zoo for magical creatures, Aila’s childhood dream of conserving critically endangered firebirds seems closer than ever. There’s just one glaring caveat: her zoo’s breeding program hasn’t functioned for a decade. When a tragic phoenix heist sabotages the flagship initiative at a neighboring zoo, Aila must prove her derelict facilities are fit to take the reins.
But saving an entire species from extinction requires more than stellar animal handling skills. Carnivorous water horses, tempestuous thunderhawks, mischievous dragons… Aila has no problem wrangling beasts. But mustering the courage to ask for help from the hotshot griffin keeper at the zoo’s most popular exhibit? Virtually impossible.
Especially when that hotshot griffin keeper happens to be her arch-rival from college: Luciana, an annoyingly brooding and insufferable know-it-all with the face of a goddess who’s convinced that Aila’s beloved phoenix would serve their cause better as an active performer rather than as a passive conservation exhibit. With the world watching and the threat of poachers looming, Aila’s success is no longer merely a matter of keeping her job…
She is the keeper of the phoenix, and the future of a species – and her love life – now rests on her shoulders.
Asunder by Kerstin Hall
Release Date: August 20 from Tordotcom
Why You’ll Love It: This complex and emotionally complicated tale from the author of (the truly excellent) Star Eater mixes elements of fantasy, horror, romance, and adventure into a sprawling, briskly paced whole. Featuring a foul-mouthed medium that can communicate with the newly dead, a dying diplomat, smugglers, skin thieves, and shapeshifters, Asunder is likely the most original story hitting shelves this month.
Publisher’s Description: Karys Eska is a deathspeaker, locked into an irrevocable compact with Sabaster, a terrifying eldritch entity—three-faced, hundred-winged, unforgiving—who has granted her the ability to communicate with the newly departed. She pays the rent by using her abilities to investigate suspicious deaths around the troubled city she calls home. When a job goes sideways and connects her to a dying stranger with dangerous secrets, her entire world is upended.
Ferain is willing to pay a ludicrous sum of money for her help. To save him, Karys iadvertently binds him to her shadow, an act that may doom them both. If they want to survive, they will need to learn to trust one another. Together, they journey to the heart of a faded empire, all the while haunted by arcane horrors and the unquiet ghosts of their pasts.
And all too soon, Karys knows her debts will come due.
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan
Release Date: August 27 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: The adult debut from YA author Sarah Rees Brennan, Long Live Evil takes a favorite trope (a real-world reader who crosses over into the pages of a fictional story) and gives it a thrilling new twist (she’s actually the evil sorceress in her favorite fantasy tale). Entertaining, subversive, and downright fun, Brennan delights in turning expected aspects of the familiar villain’s tale on their heads and asking readers to consider whether the bad guys are really….all that bad.
Publisher’s Description: When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favorite fantasy series.
She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers, and her favorite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He’s impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she’s not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor’s tale.
So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they’re doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor’s fury increases, it seems Rae and her allies may not survive to see the final page.
Between Dragons and Their Wrath by Devin Madson
Release Date: August 27 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: A dense, complicated political fantasy told across three POVs as three different characters from disparate regions of the Shattered Kingdoms whose destinies will become increasingly entangled. Despite the title, there are not a lot of dragons (or wrath) in this story just yet, but it’s clear both those things are coming.
Publisher’s Description: The old kingdom of Paicha has been split into city states, but there are those who seek to reunite the shattered realm—by force if necessary. Amidst the turmoil there are three who will find their destinies inextricably tangled. Tesha is a glassblower’s apprentice who becomes a tribute bride when her city is conquered by the south. In the enemy’s court, she’s perfectly placed to sabotage them, but her heart has other plans. Naili is a laundress in the house of an eccentric alchemist who is awakening to strange new powers. When radicals approach her, she faces a choice between keeping her magic to herself and using it to change the world. And in the desolate Shield Mountains, dragon rider Ash protects the cities from the monsters in the Iipao sands beyond. But, soon he’ll have to learn how to protect his dragon when hunters unlock the secret to killing them. As war sweeps across the land, Tesha, Naili, and Ash must fight for survival against political enemies, dragon hunters, and monsters both within and without.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB