Magical Birds, Small Fortunes, and Time Loops: November’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

November’s SFF offerings happen to tend more toward the fantastical, with deadly time loops, porous borders between worlds, and magic systems based on acquiring knowledge. We’ve got the epic conclusions to fantasy romances and the pulse-pounding starts of new series, slice-of-life cozy fantasy alongside body horror short story collections. And they’re all out before Thanksgiving! So whether you’ll be taking a break from overstimulating family time or putting your feet up after cooking and consuming a feast, these books should fight off a food coma.

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Carrie Vaughn, The Naturalist Society
(47North, November 1)

Among the tropes featured in Carrie Vaughn’s new historical fantasy are “BIRBS,” “Disaster Bisexual,” and “Love Tangle,” so I think we’re going to have a pretty delightful time with this one. In an alternate-universe 1880, birders like Harry Stanley follow Arcane Taxonomy, in which naming a creature grants the taxonomist a taste of that power. Except that it’s not Harry’s work; it belongs to his wife Beth, yet by society’s standards against women in science, she’s forced to put his name on it.

So when he dies unexpectedly, she loses more than a partner; she loses her future power. Potential salvation comes from Harry’s old friends, explorers Anton Torrance and Brandon West, who are setting out for the South Pole. When they discover Beth’s secret, they bring the widow along on their expedition to harness the power of magnetic poles… and perhaps harness a surprising attraction among all three of them.

Julie Leong, The Teller of Small Fortunes
(Ace, November 5)

In this debut cozy fantasy, traveling fortune teller Tao knows not to overstay her welcome, nor to offer fortunes too grandiose, lest she provoke villagers by failing to meet their expectations. But at her latest stop, the desperate search for a missing child ropes Tao in with seemingly unsavory types, a former thief and mercenary. Throw in a baker and a magical cat, and suddenly this soothsaying loner might have the opportunity for a found family who value her as more than just a passing amusement.

Tasha Suri, The Lotus Empire
(Orbit Books, November 5)

The Burning Kingdoms fantasy romance trilogy ends on an incandescent note with empress Malini and priestess Priya once again torn between desire and duty. Each is tasked with offering herself as a sacrifice—Priya for the omnipotent yaksa beneath the waters, which promises protection for Ahiranya; Malini to burn on the pyre of her throne… unless she can find another willing to die for the kingdom of Parijatdvipa. But their terrible dilemmas are rendered even graver by corruption within the priesthood and the rise of the yaksa’s power.

Alyssa Wees, We Shall Be Monsters
(Del Rey, November 12)

Alyssa Wees’ latest dark fantasy is perfect for fans of Melissa Albert, hingeing as it does on the dynamics between mothers and daughters living on the edge of an enchanted wood. Gemma knows she’s not supposed to play in the woods but does anyway, so her mother Virignia feels justified in stealing her memories away at the end of the day with a fairy-magic hairbrush. But when a witch steals Virginia away in accordance with a bargain wrought before Gemma was born, it’s up to the teenager to venture into the woods, piecing together half-remembered adventures, to discover the truth behind her parentage and her family’s long relationship with the monsters lurking within.

Eliza Clark, She’s Always Hungry: Stories
(Harper Perennial, November 12)

Eliza Clark’s short fiction collection explores body horror, matriarchal societies, future planetary exploration, and more through the lens of hunger. The title story gender-swaps the naming conventions of The Handmaid’s Tale by having a society of Mothers and their wayward sons, who can’t stop listening to the calls luring them to the sea. Teenage girls transform through weight loss via tapeworm and skin picking to reveal a flawless layer underneath. A botanist who can feel plants’ pain struggles with experiments on a seed strain that has the potential to reverse climate change. None of this may be enough to sate the stories’ protagonists, but it sounds like readers will find themselves with quite a literary spread.

Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls
(Knopf, November 19)

In a more Gothic twist on some of his signature tropes (a lost girl, a shadow world), Haruki Murakami spins his latest yarn about a middle-aged man who leaves Tokyo for a mountain town in which he becomes the head librarian, despite some misgivings about what happened to his predecessor. But as he catalogs books, the man finds his way back to a magical world he had glimpsed in his teens, when he fell in love for the first time without he or the girl trading names—which made it all the more heartbreaking when he lost her and couldn’t find her again. Aided by a ghost and a savant reader calling himself Yellow Submarine Boy, the librarian will reconnect with his power to read dreams, perhaps even finding his way back to his younger self full of love and hope.

Carissa Broadbent, The Songbird & the Heart of Stone
(Bramble, November 19)

Dark romantasy author Carissa Broadbent has a new duology with a pretty unexpected inspiration—Dante’s Inferno. Mische’s immortal life is one of constantly shifting dualities; when a vampire Turned her, it forcibly cast her into the darkness, far from her beloved sun god. But after she murders said vampire, she becomes aligned with Asar, the bastard prince of shadow, who needs her to join him in venturing to the underworld to resurrect the god of death. When the sun god offers Mische redemption in return for betraying Asar, she must decide between ascending back to her shining old life or deciding if she is better suited for the shadows.

Melissa Caruso, The Last Hour Between Worlds
(Orbit Books, November 19)

This time-warping, genre-bending start of a new series from Melissa Caruso sounds perfect for fans of This is How You Lose the Time War, as it’s set at a turn-of-the-year party stuck in a time loop as gods toss puny mortals through layers of time. Rival guild members Kembral Thorne—who’s technically on maternity leave but just wanted to enjoy a party and some grown-up time—and Rika Nonesuch are the only ones who know they’re stuck in a loop every time the clock resets to midnight and their world falls into the next Echo of time.

One or two layers, things are only slightly off, but any further and the world starts getting really surreal. Kem is the only person who’s been able to yank victims back from deep into the Echoes, but she’ll have to work through her distracting feelings for Rika for them to actually ally and claw their way back to their timeline, and Kem’s infant waiting at home.