In the speculative fiction genre, everything is not what it seems. People shapeshift, time may or may not be real, and dystopia is ever near. Whether you read this genre for its creative commentary on modern systems or characters discovering magic in new forms, there’s plenty of recent and upcoming releases to choose from to get your speculative fiction fix. Here are Inglenook’s picks for some of the best speculative fiction books to read in 2026.
When eight translators from different countries gather to visit the world-renowned author Irena Ray deep within the Polish forest, they become bound by more than their love for language. Within days of the translators’ arrival to translate her magnum opus novel, Grey Eminence, Irena disappears. With nothing but Irena’s words, exotic belongings, and ancient wooded refuge, they gather clues to find their beloved author – but not without discovering a few of her long-kept secrets along the way. Readers will love this adventurous tale of a global cast of characters learning to navigate love, creation, and obsession in a place both old and new.
Nominated for the 2024 Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction Award on Goodreads, Beautyland is a tale of finding belonging in the most unexpected ways. Born at the exact moment the spaceship Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, Adina Giorno is jaundiced and weak – but attracted to warmth and light. As Adina gets older, she realizes she is different from others beyond this affinity for light. She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet, one where her extraterrestrial relatives live. After she contacts them through a magical fax machine, these beings ask her to report on the lives of her Earthling counterparts. For years, Adina struggles to fit in on Earth, always observing what humans do but never participating in it herself. But what if there are others like her? Would finding community be worth the risk of telling the world who, and what, she really is? Lovers of Colored Television by Danzy Television and All Fours by Miranda July won't be able to put these 324 pages down.
Joe Mungo Reed’s third novel is a time-bending family saga at the intersection of hope and environmental collapse. Readers begin their journey in a cottage off the coast of Scotland, where Hannah, a fusion scientist, is visited by Roban, a time traveler from the future coming to warn Hannah of her planet’s fate. Roban has spent his entire life as a member of the Colony, a sterile outpost of civilization on Mars, yearning for an Earth he never got to know. Between Hannah, Roban, and the onset of powerful tech companies developing the first of the Colonies that will one day become humanity’s only homes, the fight to save Earth in Reed’s dystopia is rife with sacrifice, hubris, and resistance in the face of evil. This novel burns with quiet strength and beautiful prose.
Blending fantasy, magical realism, and historical fiction, Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records follows Lina and her father as they migrate towards a better future. When they arrive at an enclave called The Sea, a shape-shifting building that exists between migrations, Lina befriends a 17th century scholar, a 1930s philosopher, and a Tang Dynasty poet. With them, she acquires the wisdom and inner peace necessary to learn about her family’s tragic past – and her father’s key role in it. Written with heart and verve, Thien’s exploration of humanity’s history of migration and finding our place in the world is the ideal read for fans of Susan Choi’s Flashlight and Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper.
What would a world without Western influence look like? Adam Johnson dares to answer this question in his ambitious new magical realist novel, The Wayfinder. When young Kōrero is chosen to save her people from the brink of starvation in the Polynesian islands during the Tu’i Tonga Empire, she must embark on a dangerous journey across the ocean – confronting the worst of the colonization and bloodshed that has overtaken her home island. With canoes, celestial navigation, and the lost art of storytelling, The Wayfinder isn’t your average adventure. Its heart beats with themes of resilience, cultural legacy, and indigenous coming-of-age.
Cameron Reed’s queer sci-fi novel takes us to the planet of Scythia, where insects are born from plants and artificial monsters stalk the desert. Light years from his home forests, John Maraintha must learn to make a life for himself while surviving the dangers of the foreign world around him. To do so, he must change to fit in with Scythia’s ways – even if this means losing a part of himself forever. Readers who enjoy stories of queerness, biology, and intergalactic exploration will want to preorder this novel asap!
As one of Book Riot’s “Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2026”, Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author John Chu’s The Subtle Art of Folding Space is the perfect novel to end our list. Readers join Ellie as she confronts her universe falling apart at both the macro and micro levels. On one level, her mother is in a coma, and her sister, Chris, is narrowly surviving assassination attempts. On another, a secret group of engineers is trying to hack into the skunkworks, the technology that keeps the physics of each universe in order. Beyond that? It gets complicated. Chu weaves generational trauma, quantum physics, and coming-of-age with his signature sharp prose and microprocessor architect wit. Seth Dickinson, author of Exordia, called this book “A thorny, savory story about our deepest dependencies and the lies we tell to maintain them.” Preorder here!
Alexandra Rae is a feminist writer, editor, and revisionist from Ohio. She is a submissions reader for Narratively and editorial assistant for Brink Books. Find her on Instagram @theresonationofalexandra.
Inglenook Lit is an online literary magazine for magic enthusiasts and enchantment seekers
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