Alex Acks is a writer, geologist, and sharp-dressed sir. They've written for Six to Start and been published in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Shimmer, Daily Science Fiction, and more. Alex lives in Denver with their two furry little bastards, where they twirl their mustache, watch movies, and bike. Twitter: @katsudonburi Website: katsudon.net
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It’s Alex, with some news and books for you…but since there aren’t many new releases today (December is a barren place when it comes to new books), I’m doing something a bit different this week: focusing on standalone novels that were released this year.
(Standalones make really great gifts for people you might be trying to tempt into reading more science fiction. Just saying.)
16 Standalone SFF Novels from 2019
Disclaimer: These are standalones to the best of my knowledge and ability to google. If I’m wrong, mea culpa.
The descendants of pregnant African women who were thrown overboard from slave ships live deep under the ocean, forgetting their traumatic memories by giving them to their historian, Yetu.
A young woman in the jazz age dreams of escaping a life of domestic drudgery until she accidentally frees the Mayan god of death and is handed a life or death quest.
Seske, a young woman unexpectedly thrust into the role of leader, must find answers to tremors disturbing the new vacuum-breathing space beast her clan has moved into—while fending off a challenge by her confident, cunning sister.
January, the ward of a wealthy hunter of arcane artifacts, finds a book in his mansion that promises adventures in other worlds and truths about her own.
“David Mogo, demigod and godhunter, has one task: capture two of the most powerful gods in the city and deliver them to the wizard gangster Lukmon Ajala.”
In a world brought to ruins by a third world war, Arika Cobane meets a new student who forces her to question her most deeply held beliefs: What does peace matter if innocent lives are lost to maintain it?
Sisters of the Order of Saint Rita respond to the distress call of a new colony and find themselves caught in a web of politics and corruption that runs through both the central government and the church.
Alex Stern, the only survivor of an unsolved multiple homicide, is offered a too-good-to-be-true deal: a full ride to Yale, and the only price is that she has to monitor the school’s secret societies.
Tess, from the future, has dedicated herself to shifting the past to create a safer world in her time, trying to find a way to make her edits stay while she avoids fellow travelers willing to stop her with deadly force.