Sam J. Miller lives in New York City now, but grew up in a small town in upstate New York. He is the last in a long line of butchers. In no particular order, he has also been a film critic, a grocery bagger, a community organizer, a secretary, a painter's assistant and model, and the guitarist in a punk rock band. His fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, was long-listed for the Hugo Award, and has won the Shirley Jackson Award. He's a graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop. His husband of fifteen years is a nurse practitioner and is way smarter and handsomer than Sam.
Down in the Sea of Angels (2025) Khan Wong "These vivid worlds will make your mind expand and maybe burst; these flawed wonderful characters will make your heart ache and maybe break."
The Death I Gave Him (2023) Em X Liu "Don't tell anyone.... I've always been kinda lukewarm about Hamlet. But The Death I Gave Him finally gives me a Prince of Denmark I can feel: someone whose pain and brokenness are so powerful and beautiful that they can change the world."
The Saint of Bright Doors (2023) Vajra Chandrasekera "I've never seen a fantasy world like this, and I've never met a hero like Fetter. Both will haunt me for a long, long time. Keeps on dropping bombs and surprises and brilliance and heartbreak to the very end."
The Strange (2023) Nathan Ballingrud "The protagonist, Anabelle Crisp, is a young woman out for revenge. Vividly drawn, she seethes with outrage and is armed with the sharpest of sharp tongues. I thoroughly enjoyed her journey. Pure joy, to finally see Nathan Ballingrud's astonishing storytelling gifts applied to the broad canvas of a novel. A killer score for those of us who are already hooked on the pathos and haunting power of his worlds, The Strange is sure to swell the ranks of the addicted immeasurably."
Saturnalia (2022) Stephanie Feldman "Nina is an unforgettable narrator, and I loved every twisty turn in her thrilling journey to find safety and meaning in a twilight future where everything might be lost, but some things still matter."
The Sleepless (2022) Victor Manibo "Fittingly titled, as the compulsive plot will keep you turning pages, way past your bedtime. The Sleepless does what only the best science fiction can do: create a world so boldly changed - but so hauntingly true - that it teaches us much about our own."
The Bruising of Qilwa (2022) Naseem Jamnia "I adored this city, with its vibrant history and super-fresh magic system, but I loved these astonishing complex vivid characters even more. A fun and fast-paced ride that keeps you guessing all the way (and, yeah, it's tough to grapple with the ugly legacies of empire and oppression and still have fun, but Jamnia pulls it off)."
The Anomaly (2021) Hervé Le Tellier "A uniquely, gloriously, provocatively French contribution to the sci-fi thriller genre - it will keep you guessing, get your heart pounding, and make you feel and wonder and - above all - think."
Nothing But Blackened Teeth (2021) Cassandra Khaw "This book burns and crackles and slithers, its prose as beautiful and deadly as its horror. Cassandra Khaw is a master of the terrifying tale."
The Ghost Sequences (2021) A C Wise "A.C Wise's stories set my guts on fire, make my heart hurt and my head spin. I am so grateful for her brave and brilliant work—and for this collection."
Summer Sons (2021) Lee Mandelo "Hooks you hard and fast from the start, then drags you kicking and screaming and loving it on a twisted backroad nightmare full of bad boys and badder revenants."
No Gods, No Monsters (2021) (Convergence Saga, book 1) Cadwell Turnbull "The Lesson was a perfect debut, and this (No Gods No, Monsters) is a perfect second novel. Big and bold and ambitious, packed with everything we need right now: more heart, more monsters, more cooperative solidarity economies."
The Body Scout (2021) Lincoln Michel "A delirious, thrilling ride. I loved Kobo and his bad habits and broken heart, and his world is so weird and wonderful and packed with eye-popping tech that it's easy to miss how much it has to say about our own."
Appleseed (2021) Matt Bell "Myth meets science; fable confronts existential crisis. In its bountiful prose, gleeful genre-hopping, and the sheer scope of its storytelling, Appleseed points toward hopeful futures for literature—and the planet."
The Album of Dr. Moreau (2021) Daryl Gregory "Reading Daryl Gregory is so much fun you never notice until it's too late that he's got you by the feels, and he's about to squeeze."
Unity (2021) Elly Bangs "Breakneck pacing, non-stop action, and delightfully-damaged characters combine with some of the most intricate and clever worldbuilding I've seen in ages to make this an incredibly memorable debut."
On Fragile Waves (2021) E Lily Yu "A stunning heartbreaker. The prose is as sharp and beautiful as the story it tells . . . bringing into painful beautiful focus all the ways the world is horrible, and all the ways the world is magic."
Architects of Memory (2020) (Memory War, book 1) Karen Osborne "Exciting and scary and fun and smart and sad and moving all at the same time. You need this book in your life."
Every Bone a Prayer (2020) Ashley Blooms "There's magic in this book - and pain, and beauty, and horror - but the magic is what will keep you glued to the page, and have your heart singing the whole way."
Crossings (2020) Alex Landragin "An exquisite novel. My initial melancholy rage at not having written it myself swiftly transformed into blissful gratitude that it exists at all, and that I am lucky enough to read it. Sure to be one of the biggest literary events of the year."
The Nobody People (2019) (Resonant Duology, book 1) Bob Proehl "Smart, exciting, lyrical, and fun. This astonishing book brings the superhero universe of Marvel or DC into our own, with all its rough edges and ugliness. Once you start reading, you won't be able to stop."
Escaping Exodus (2019) (Escaping Exodus, book 1) Nicky Drayden "Don't be alarmed - that dizzy pleasurable sensation you're experiencing is just your brain slowly exploding from all the wild magnificent worldbuilding in Nicky Drayden's Escaping Exodus. I loved these characters and this story, and so will you."
The Only Good Indians (2019) Stephen Graham Jones "Stephen Graham Jones is one of our greatest treasures. His prose here pops and sings, hard-boiled poetry conspiring with heartbreakingly-alive characters."
The Nine (2017) (Thieves of Fate, book 1) Tracy Townsend "George R. R. Martin and China Mieville have nothing on the audacious, intricate world-building, gritty politics, and compelling characters in this excellent debut."
