Political correctness and ideological proselytizing have become a ball and chain for traditional sci-fi and fantasy book publishing. Just look at Tor.com retitling as “Reactor” to avoid association with the publishing house that established the brand, bad author behaviors such as review bombing, and degenerate conduct in the larger sci-fi and fantasy communities. Things are rotten, and readers are starting to notice the bad smell.
As the old pillars of publishing crumble and their scandals continue to rise, where should fans of good books turn?
Enter the indie sci-fi and fantasy book market.
Former fans of popular IPs such as Star Wars and Marvel are looking at the drivel those studios now produce and thinking to themselves, “I could write better stories than this.” More and more creatives are considering the ridiculous prerequisites for traditional publishing, including all the usual victimhood checklists, and deciding to take their stories directly to readers.
Periapsis Press has collected the 2024 plans from 26 such authors in sci-fi and fantasy, including over 40 novels, audiobooks, and comics that will be released this year.
All of these authors have at least one book already recommended positively on the review site, which features both browsable covers for a spoiler-free experience and long-form analysis for those who really want to know what they are getting into ahead of time.
Paul Thompson
Paul is working on a fantasy short story game this year.
He also has plans for a mystery novel. This will be a new direction from his now completed Nutcracker Trilogy!
Michael F. Kane
Kane plans on publishing book 5 of After Moses early in the year (titled After Moses Sanctum) with his sights set on publishing book 6 as well by year’s end.
Jonathan Shuerger
Jonathan will release Afterlight, the second book in his Shades of Black series. He will then work on running a Kickstarter for and fulfilling Shades of Black III: Knightfall.
He will also be busy writing a zombie apocalypse novel for a military press detailing the Collapse from the viewpoint of the Marine Corps (titled Semper Die).
William Jeffrey Rankin
Rankin plans to continue work on a project he began last year, tentatively titled The Horror of Mistvale Hall. This will hopefully be released in the spring.
Following that he plans to work on the next Samuel Thomas Birch story (likely a novella) and another collection of occult detective short stories.
John A. Douglas
John is planning to release the second entry novel for his Age of Adventures setting with the release of The Lionheart (Age of Adventures II).
If all goes well, this will release with his first indie comic, a companion to the novel.
Paul Leone
Paul has three collections of Championsverse short stories coming out this year.
The Dweller in Drury Lane and Other Curious Chronicles is slated for a spring release, followed by Terror Beneath Times Square and Other Adventures of the Champions in summer and The Hibernian’s Revenge and Other Legends of the Champions in the winter.
Blake Carpenter
Blake intends to release Lifebinder, the second book in his Spellsword Saga trilogy.
He’s also working on an stand-alone, dark gothic fantasy, inspired by the game Bloodborne and Homer’s Odyssey, tentatively titled Beyond the Dread Gate.”
Frederick Gero Heimbach
Fred has a 3-novel series to be released one by one in the first half of 2024. Set in an elite boarding school, the Baneberry Hall Books is satirical YA.
He will also have a short story published by Cirsova.
R.H. Snow
Snow will be releasing the second book of her new series “Watcher of the Damned: Wanderer” titled Caballeros del Camino in the first quarter of 2024. The third book of the series will follow before next fall, and if all goes well, the series will be completed before next Christmas!
Audiobooks are in the works for the first series Watcher of the Damned: Watcher, as well as continued development of the TTRPG world.
Isaac Anderson
Isaac plans on releasing A Song of Bones, inspired by Brian Jacques’s Redwall books.
He also plans to release a sequel to The Garden Maze called The Book of Broken Doors, in which the Squire and Missy venture into the wider world while pursued by a vengeful foe.
J. Trevor Robinson
Robinson plans to continue work on his WIPs: a shipwreck story about stranded planetary colonists, an action-packed adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and, of course, his much anticipated sequel to The Mummy of Monte Cristo.
Rob Rimes
Rob’s next book will be released in the next few weeks. An Axe to Eat the Gods is the fourth book in Barbarians of the Storm.
He intends to slow down the release pace a bit, but we should see two more after that for 2024.
Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Donald hopes to publish the second volume of Jiao Tu’s Endeavour in the first quarter of 2024.
The story is available now as a web serial, but the published edition will be edited into a better format and include additional bonus material.
Mark J. Engels
The new year will see Mark focusing on marketing the Forest Exiles Saga, all three of which released last year.
He plans to attend a handful of live events in Wisconsin and elsewhere on the continent in 2024 for this purpose!
Jeff Stoner
Jeff plans to drop the sequel to Made in His Image in the first quarter of 2024.
The Unwilling Goddess follows the continuing exploits of Raina, the Demiurge reborn, as she tries to ignore her divine nature and return to being a carefree, planet-hopping dilettante. Unfortunately, there’s a galactic war raging, and she’s every belligerent’s Target Number One.
T.J. Marquis
TJ plans to get the fourth book in his Hero’s Metal series out during the spring.
He also plans to spend some time on card game ideas while recovering from writing the series, and then start and finish a couple of other WIPs.
TJ has been working on music as well, and intends to start releasing tracks under an artist name.
L. Jagi Lamplighter
Lamplighter will have two more Fantastic Schools anthologies coming out this year.
Fantastic Schools Vol 8 is slated for March, and special Fantastic Schools: Sports, for the summer.
Kaylena Radcliff
Kaylena is working on the final installment of the Elmnas Chronicles.
She will also finalize a new high seas adventure fantasy called The Tower of Cortico, which is contracted to be published with a small press.
N.R. LaPoint
LaPoint will release the follow-up to Chalk and Dusklight early in the year titled Archangel.
He also has a collection of Virgil Everness stories called Dead by Dawn, featuring the main character from his story in the first Shoot the Devil anthology. This is expected to release in spring.
He also aims to have a bunch of all-ages chapter books he has been working on with his boys out in the summer.
Yakov Merkin
Yakov is focused on getting the Amaranth Angels Kickstarter fulfilled by early summer with a public release shortly after.
He also plans to crowdfund and hopefully release another couple of Light Unto Another World volumes.
William Hastings
This year Hastings will be releasing the third installment in the Vagabond Legacy, The Cerulean Flare. Everything from the first two books has been leading to this moment.
He also has books coming to audible this year: The Opal Embers and Seven Wonders: Vatican Championship Wrestling 2!
C.S. Johnson
Johnson is aiming to get crowdfunding up and running for the second Dizchord light novel in April. She plans to do so on FundMyComic.
A Fatgirl spin-off series “Spygirl” is starting with a quick bonus episode in January. This will be Johnson’s first subscription-based story, with new episodes every month. It will be available on her substack subscription option only.
Subscribers will also be the first to see a few surprises with more graphic novels, as well as any news about a few more stories that may be released next year.
Kit Sun Cheah
Cheah plans to release Books 5 and 6 of the Saga of the Swordbreaker this year, concluding the series.
The Babylon series will also receive an additional installment titled Babylon White.
Fenton Wood
Fenton Wood is working on Dwellers in the Abyss—an undersea adventure about a hyperbaric welder!
Roy Griffis
Griff will publish the fourth book in Cthulhu, Amalgamated titled, The Supply Closet of Eternal Terror, in June.
He is also prayerfully considering a number of other projects he has in the works.
As the publishing industry continues to change, keep an eye on indie authors this year. Nope out of stories that prioritize a politically motivated lecture over quality entertainment, but not out of reading completely; there are great alternatives out there!
Do you have an author you think people should keep an eye on in 2024? Leave a comment and let us know!
NEXT: Marvel’s Echo The Second Worst-Reviewed MCU TV Show And Media Shills Go All-Out Trying To Salvage It
Keep an eye on WarGate Books this year. They are aiming to publish multiple books across multiple series!