10 Most Anticipated Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming Out in November 2026

November is when the reading plans get serious. The evenings are dark by five, the heating is finally on, and the books you meant to get to over the summer are now competing with a fresh wave of new releases. If you’re trying to work out which new science fiction and fantasy books are actually worth your time this month, November 2026 has made the job both easier and harder: easier because the big names are here, harder because there are a lot of them.

The headline act is John Gwynne, who opens a new epic fantasy series rooted in Slavic mythology with The Wolves of War. Cassandra Clare begins the final Shadowhunters trilogy, John Scalzi turns his comic instincts towards tentacled small-town horror, and TJ Klune swaps cosy warmth for something much stranger in Murmuration. Andrea Stewart and Melissa Caruso both close out trilogies, which means a lot of readers are about to find out whether years of emotional investment were worth it.

It’s also a strong month if you like your fantasy dark and your science fiction twisty. Danielle L. Jensen’s Defy the Dusk mixes romantasy with a post-apocalyptic world that sounds like Mad Max with monsters. Jesse Q. Sutanto, best known for funny murder mysteries, makes a sharp turn into dark fantasy. Anthony Ryan imagines a world where brain implants went catastrophically wrong, and Adam Oyebanji sets a locked-room style mystery aboard a generation ship that’s been travelling for more than a century.

What links the best of these books isn’t a single trope. Several of them are about what happens after a world has already broken: a conquered people, a fractured planet, a town gutted by private equity, a city abandoned to the Glitched. Others are about identity and memory, from a man who isn’t sure his name is really Mike to an investigator trying to solve her own murder. If you want escapism this winter, there’s plenty of it, but most of it has teeth.

We’ve ranked the ten most anticipated books on three things: how excited readers already are, how strong each premise looks on the page, and how much each one adds to the month. A big name alone wasn’t enough to guarantee a high spot, and a smaller release could climb if its idea was strong enough. You’ll find the UK and US release dates for each book, plus who it’s best suited to, so you can decide what goes on the pre-order list and what can wait for the paperback.

Whether you’re looking for new fantasy books for November 2026, the best new sci-fi books to read before the end of the year, fresh romantasy, grimdark-adjacent epic fantasy or just something to read under a blanket while the rain does its worst, this list should give you a few good options.

Here are the 10 most anticipated science fiction and fantasy books coming out in November 2026. Let’s get into it 👇

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10. Line of Descent by Adam Oyebanji

Release date: 17 November 2026 (US, DAW) Genre: Science fiction thriller

The Archimedes has been travelling towards Tau Ceti for more than a century, carrying a fifth generation of humans who have never known anything but the ship. Discipline is tight, so when a junior officer claims to have been snatched from outside one of the ship’s bars and released 24 hours later with no memory of what happened, officer Faisal Vasconcelos assumes it was a heavy night rather than a crime. His routine investigation quickly turns into something far worse: senior commanders are fighting for control, some factions want to turn the ship around, and a body turns up drowned in an artificial womb. The case could, quite literally, tear the ship apart.

Oyebanji works in counter-terrorist financing when he isn’t writing, and that background shows in the way this sounds built: the mystery is tied to power, surveillance and who gets to decide the future of a closed society. Generation ships are a great setting for a whodunnit because nobody can leave and everybody has history. Early reviews have compared it to James S.A. Corey, and Penguin Random House lists praise from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, both starred.

It sits at No. 10 because it’s the least talked-about book on the list and has so far been confirmed as a US release, so UK readers may need to rely on imports or ebooks. But as a standalone science fiction mystery with a strong hook, it’s the easiest recommendation here for anyone who wants a complete story without signing up for a trilogy.

Read it if you like: Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, The Expanse, or a proper fair-play mystery in a big science fiction setting.

Where to find it: Hardcover and ebook from DAW in the US. UK readers should check import and ebook availability with their usual retailer.

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9. Reapers by Anthony Ryan

Release date: 3 November 2026 (US/Canada, Blackstone; UK, Orbit as A.J. Ryan) Genre: Post-apocalyptic science fiction thriller

Brain implants were meant to save humanity. They boosted skills and brain function for millions, until the Glitch. Five years ago the implants suddenly malfunctioned: many people dropped dead, and those who survived became zombie-like drifters or murderous psychopaths. Dalton, a convict turned Contracted Collection Agent, is working off his sentence inside the Sector, a whole city abandoned to the Glitched. His job is simple and horrible: collect enough implants to meet his quota and earn his way out. Then the Glitched start acting more human, moving in groups and leaving strange symbols on the walls, and his unseen handler sends him to find out why.

Ryan is best known for epic fantasy like the Raven’s Shadow books, but he’s been building a parallel career in horror and thrillers with Red River Seven and The Feeding. Reapers sounds like the sharpest version of that side of his writing so far. The idea is uncomfortably close to the real world, and making the protagonist a man paid to harvest tech from the people it ruined gives the story a nasty moral edge.

It ranks above Line of Descent because it has a bigger built-in readership and a premise that’s instantly easy to explain, and it’s getting a full release on both sides of the Atlantic. It sits below the fantasy heavyweights because it’s a lean thriller rather than a major series event. Note that the UK edition is published by Orbit under the name A.J. Ryan, with a different cover, as Ryan confirmed on his website.

Read it if you like: Black Mirror, zombie fiction with a twist, or survival stories that are more interested in what the survivors are becoming.

Where to find it: From Blackstone Publishing in the US and Canada, and from Orbit in the UK under A.J. Ryan.

8. An Edge Sharp Enough by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Release date: 17 November 2026 (US, Harper Voyager; UK, Daphne Press) Genre: Dark fantasy

Mara has no memory of life before her assassin training inside the fortress walls of Tchu-Morrokhai, where she has lived since she was five. She has been raised to resist the Divine Empress, who wants to wipe out what little magic is left in the world. Far away in the city of Velingard, Livya is the bored, privileged daughter of the scientist whose indestructible new metal sparked a revolution. When a secret salon invitation leads to a kidnapping attempt, she goes on the run with Kaian, a charming con man and former childhood friend who has inexplicably gone cold on her. Meanwhile Captain Fonde learns the miracle metal is crumbling. Ships, bridges and buildings are about to come apart, and something ancient may be behind it.

This is the biggest genre jump on the list. Sutanto is best known for the warm, funny murder mysteries of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and the Dial A for Aunties series, so an adult dark fantasy duology is a bold move. The setup has a lot going for it: four point-of-view characters, a revolution built on a lie, and a nice tension between magic and industry.

It earns No. 8 because the multi-thread structure and crumbling-metal mystery sound genuinely fresh, and Sutanto already has a large readership willing to follow her. It stays below the series finales and big-name launches because this is her first epic fantasy, and multi-POV debuts in a new genre can take a while to find their rhythm. Daphne Press is publishing the UK edition on the same day as the US release.

Read it if you like: Fantasy with assassins and con artists, slow-reveal mysteries, and worlds where magic and technology collide.

Where to find it: Published on 17 November in both the US and UK.

7. The Last Star in the Void by Melissa Caruso

Release date: 10 November 2026 (UK and US, Orbit) Genre: Adventure fantasy, mystery

Kembral Thorne is back at work and, for once, life is going well. She hasn’t been in mortal danger for months, her baby daughter is learning to crawl, and she’s thinking about getting serious with her girlfriend, the cat burglar Rika Nonesuch. Then a simple job goes wrong, and a mysterious Echo hires her for her most dangerous case yet: solving her own murder before it happens. Cryptic warnings give her an edge (the first is “Watch out above you”), but rips in reality are spreading through the Echoes and only Kem’s blood can close them. With a traitor among her allies, Kem has to work out who to trust, while Rika decides how much of her humanity she’ll trade for the power to protect her.

The Echo Archives books, starting with The Last Hour Between Worlds, have built a loyal following thanks to their mix of murder mystery, slippery magic and a central relationship readers care about. A heroine investigating her own death is a brilliant finale hook, and having Kem juggle parenthood, romance and the end of reality gives the book a lot of emotional range.

It ranks at No. 7 because it’s a trilogy finale with plenty of goodwill, and the premise is one of the cleverest of the month. It isn’t higher because it’s the third book, so new readers can’t start here, and it doesn’t have the crossover pull of the names further up. Orbit publishes it in the UK and US on the same day.

Read it if you like: Fantasy detective stories, queer romance in a fantasy setting, and heroines who solve problems with sharp wits as well as swords.

Where to find it: UK hardback and US trade paperback from Orbit.

6. Defy the Dusk by Danielle L. Jensen

Release date: 3 November 2026 (UK and US, Del Rey) Genre: Post-apocalyptic romantasy

Twenty years ago, Lirien’s magic fractured the world and unleashed nocturnal creatures that brought civilisation to its knees. The most powerful survivors were invited aboard Dawnrider, a high-speed rig that keeps moving to stay ahead of the night, while everyone else was left to die. Lirien has spent the years since powering Dawnrider with her magic while secretly plotting to overthrow the tyrant who runs it. Just as she’s ready to strike, she’s abducted by Vox, king of the feralists, who gives her a choice: fight the creatures that hunt the dark or be fed to them. Lirien agrees to join him, planning to seduce her way back to Dawnrider, but the longer she spends with Vox, the less sure she is which side she belongs on.

Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom and Saga of the Unfated books have a big romantasy readership, and Defy the Dusk takes her somewhere new: a moving fortress, a broken world and a heroine who is directly responsible for the apocalypse. That guilt is the most interesting part of the setup. Lirien isn’t a chosen one trying to save the world; she’s someone who broke it and is trying to live with that.

It takes No. 6 because it’s one of the most distinctive romantasy premises of the year and Jensen has a proven fanbase, which also made it a Goodreads most-anticipated pick for November. It sits below No. 5 because seduction-as-strategy plots can tip into familiar territory, and at 672 pages in the UK hardback it’s a serious commitment. More details are on the Penguin UK page.

Read it if you like: Mad Max, Snowpiercer, enemies-to-lovers romantasy and morally grey kings.

Where to find it: Hardback from Del Rey in the UK and US. It’s the first book in the Sundering Duet.

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5. Murmuration by TJ Klune

Release date: 17 November 2026 (US, Tor); 19 November 2026 (UK, Tor/Pan Macmillan) Genre: Speculative fiction, psychological thriller

On a mild morning in 1954, Mike wakes up in Amorea, a town that seems perfect. He works his dream job at the local bookshop, leads lively literature discussions for the women’s club, and the diner staff know his order, especially Sean, the waiter with a smile just for him. After years of waiting, the two of them are finally ready to take the next step. But the edges of Amorea are fraying. There are no children or parents in town, and nobody who leaves for the far mountains ever comes back. One night Mike wakes to a storm cloud of starlings filling the sky, and soon he’s not sure his name is really Mike. As violent memories of another life break through, he’ll do anything to keep Sean safe from what’s coming.

Klune’s readers know him for warmth and found family in books like The House in the Cerulean Sea, so Murmuration is a tonal swerve. Pan Macmillan pitches it for fans of Black Mirror, and the idea of a sweet 1950s romance curdling into a psychological thriller is a great use of what Klune does well. The love story gives the horror real stakes.

It sits at No. 5 because Klune has one of the biggest readerships on this list and the premise is irresistible. It stays just outside the top four because perfect-town-hiding-a-secret stories have a well-worn shape, and how much this works will depend on the reveal. Pan Macmillan has the UK edition two days after the US one.

Read it if you like: Severance, The Twilight Zone, Pleasantville-gone-wrong stories and queer love stories with real stakes.

Where to find it: Hardback, ebook and audio from Tor in the US and UK. It’s a standalone.

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4. The Legend Eternal by Andrea Stewart

Release date: 17 November 2026 (UK and US, Orbit) Genre: Epic fantasy

Hakara and her rebels have won a small victory against the tyrannical god Kluehnn, but defeating him for good means allying with Ayaz the Cutter and his army of gods, and Ayaz has his own plans for conquest. Hakara’s sister Rasha once served Kluehnn as a godkiller. Now she just wants to be free, and the only way out is to kill his aspect, a fight she knows she can’t win alone. Her only chance is to turn her own acolytes against the god they love. Meanwhile Sheuan plays the dangerous politics of Bian, balancing Ayaz’s demands against her own ambitions, and Mullayne searches for an answer to the biggest question of all: how do you kill a god and still save the world?

Stewart made her name with the Drowning Empire trilogy, which began with The Bone Shard Daughter, and the Hollow Covenant books (The Gods Below and The War Beyond) have pushed her further into big, mythic, god-versus-mortal fantasy. The sisters are the emotional centre of the series, and the question of whether they end up as allies or enemies is what this finale has to answer.

It ranks at No. 4, the highest of the month’s three trilogy finales, because Stewart’s worldbuilding is some of the most inventive in current epic fantasy and the series has been building to this. It sits below the top three because, like any third book, it’s mainly for readers who are already invested. Orbit publishes it in the UK and US on 17 November.

Read it if you like: Gods with agendas, complicated sister relationships, and epic fantasy with genuinely strange worlds.

Where to find it: Hardback from Orbit. Start with The Gods Below if you’re new to the series.

3. Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi

Release date: 3 November 2026 (US, Tor Books); 5 November 2026 (UK, Tor/Pan Macmillan) Genre: Science fiction, comic horror

Richland, Ohio is a small rural community on the brink. Its biggest employer is closing, and in the UK edition’s blunter description, a predatory private equity firm has defrauded the local factory. Mike Boyd left Richland decades ago and only comes back to tie up some loose ends. He has no plans to stay. But the town has other ideas for Mike, his old friend Dave and newcomer Andi, who get caught up in local troubles, executive theft and something extremely weird involving Jeremy Keller’s prize cow. Teaming up with the town’s overwhelmed police chief, Mike is pulled into a chain of events that could put Richland on the world map, change humanity and possibly doom it. The publisher’s advice: bring a tarp.

Scalzi is one of the most reliably entertaining writers in science fiction, from Old Man’s War and Hugo winner Redshirts to The Kaiju Preservation Society and Starter Villain. Monsters of Ohio puts his humour to work on something with real anger behind it: what happens to towns that get stripped for parts. Pan Macmillan’s tagline asks whether becoming a monster could make you a better human, which sounds like Scalzi at his best.

It takes No. 3 because it might be the most purely fun book this month, and the satire gives it more bite than a simple monster romp. It sits below the top two because, at 272 pages, it’s a lighter read than the series-defining releases above it. You can find more on Tor Publishing Group’s page, and Scalzi’s own blog confirms the UK date of 5 November.

Read it if you like: The Kaiju Preservation Society, Stranger Things, Stephen King’s small towns played for laughs, and stories with a grudge against corporate greed.

Where to find it: Hardback, ebook and audio. It’s a standalone.

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2. The Last King of Faerie by Cassandra Clare

Release date: 3 November 2026 (US, Knopf Books for Young Readers; UK, Walker Books) Genre: YA urban fantasy, romantasy

Drusilla Blackthorn is a student at Shadowhunter Academy when a chance encounter at a nightclub turns into a kidnapping. Dru wakes up a prisoner of Prince Ash Morgenstern in the land of Faerie, a place as dangerous as it is beautiful. Despite herself, she’s drawn to Ash and the darkness around him, but one wrong move could cost her life. Meanwhile, a shocking disappearance shakes the Shadowhunter world, and Kit Herondale and Ty Blackthorn have to put aside the bitterness between them and join forces on a dangerous quest to save everything they care about. It’s the first book of The Wicked Powers, the trilogy that brings the saga begun in The Mortal Instruments to an end.

Few fantasy releases come with this much history. Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles have run for nearly two decades across The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices and more, and Wicked Powers has been promised for years. Dru and Ash, and the long-running tension between Kit and Ty, are storylines fans have been waiting to see play out. Walker Books publishes the UK edition on the same day as the US.

It ranks at No. 2 because no other book this month comes close to its built-in excitement, and the first edition is a proper collector’s object, with sprayed edges and illustrated endpapers. It stops short of No. 1 because it’s firmly aimed at existing fans: newcomers face years of backstory, and Kirkus called it a bloated opener that will mainly appeal to readers who already love the series. At 576 pages, they may have a point.

Read it if you like: Shadowhunters, faerie courts, dangerous princes and big YA fantasy with plenty of romance.

Where to find it: Hardback, with a collectible first edition. Ages 14 and up. New readers should start with City of Bones.

1. The Wolves of War by John Gwynne

Release date: 3 November 2026 (UK and US, Orbit) Genre: Epic fantasy

The Clans once lived freely, honouring their gods and traditions, until northern invaders swept through in a tide of blood and fire. Now they’re a conquered people. Ivan doesn’t care about wars or kings. All he wants is to keep his family safe, especially his daughter Halia, whom he would protect with his life. Halia has been trapped in her own body since birth, but at night she dreams of running with wolves and talking with the fae creatures of the forest. Many people believe she’s cursed. As two princes become mortal enemies and an iron-toothed witch lurks in the shadows, Halia’s awakening powers may be the only thing that can save her family. To use them, she has to accept that sometimes the only way through the darkness is to embrace it.

Gwynne is one of the most popular epic fantasy writers working today, with The Faithful and the Fallen, Of Blood and Bone and the Bloodsworn Saga behind him. Moving from Norse-inspired fantasy to Slavic mythology gives him a fresh world of forests, fae and witches, and making a father and his disabled daughter the centre of the story sounds like his most personal book yet. Goodreads picked it as one of November’s most anticipated books, and the early reviews quoted by Orbit are glowing.

The Wolves of War takes No. 1 because it combines everything the books below it have only some of. It has the big-name excitement of The Last King of Faerie, but you can start here with no homework. It has the emotional pull of Murmuration and the epic scale of The Legend Eternal, without the risk of a twist or the need to know two earlier books. And unlike Monsters of Ohio, it’s the start of something big. For a series opener, that’s a rare combination. Orbit publishes it on 3 November.

Read it if you like: Heroic fantasy, found family, folklore-inspired worlds, and books that make you cry and cheer in the same chapter.

Where to find it: Hardback from Orbit. It’s the first book in the Wolfheart Chronicles.

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Conclusion

November 2026 is a month of endings and beginnings. Andrea Stewart and Melissa Caruso are closing out trilogies, Cassandra Clare is starting the end of a saga that’s run for almost twenty years, and John Gwynne is laying the foundations of a new one. In between, John Scalzi, TJ Klune and Jesse Q. Sutanto are all trying something different, which makes this one of the more surprising months of the year.

If you only read one fantasy book this month, make it The Wolves of War. If you want something funny and sharp, go for Monsters of Ohio. Shadowhunters fans don’t need us to tell them what to do, and anyone after romantasy with a post-apocalyptic edge should look at Defy the Dusk. For science fiction, Line of Descent and Reapers show two very different sides of the genre: one a clever mystery in deep space, the other a grim warning about technology getting too close to the brain.

The thread running through the list is how many of these books are about people trying to rebuild, resist or simply hold on after something has broken. That fits the time of year. November is dark, but these stories are full of people looking for a way through.

Gwynne takes the top spot because The Wolves of War has the scale, heart and accessibility to be the book a lot of fantasy readers are still talking about at the end of the year. The Last King of Faerie will probably sell more copies, but Gwynne’s is the one we’d hand to almost anyone.

Which November 2026 release are you most excited to read? Did we rank your favourite too low, or miss a book that should have made the cut? Let us know.

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Still building your winter TBR? Try one of these:

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FAQs About November 2026 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

1. What are the most anticipated fantasy books coming out in November 2026?

The biggest fantasy releases of November 2026 include John Gwynne’s The Wolves of War, Cassandra Clare’s The Last King of Faerie, Andrea Stewart’s The Legend Eternal, Danielle L. Jensen’s Defy the Dusk, Melissa Caruso’s The Last Star in the Void and Jesse Q. Sutanto’s An Edge Sharp Enough. Between them they cover epic fantasy, YA romantasy, adventure fantasy and dark fantasy, so there’s something for most fantasy readers.

2. What new science fiction books are out in November 2026?

The standout science fiction releases are John Scalzi’s Monsters of Ohio, a comic tale of tentacles and small-town struggle; Adam Oyebanji’s Line of Descent, a mystery set aboard a generation ship bound for Tau Ceti; and Anthony Ryan’s Reapers, a post-apocalyptic thriller about brain implants gone wrong. Reactor’s full list covers many more.

3. When does The Wolves of War by John Gwynne come out?

The Wolves of War was published by Orbit on 3 November 2026. It’s the first book in the Wolfheart Chronicles, Gwynne’s new epic fantasy series inspired by Slavic mythology, and follows Ivan and his daughter Halia as war comes to the conquered Clans. You don’t need to have read any of Gwynne’s earlier books to start here.

4. Is The Last King of Faerie the start of a new Shadowhunters series?

Yes. The Last King of Faerie is the first book in The Wicked Powers, the trilogy that concludes Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles. It follows Dru Blackthorn after she’s kidnapped into Faerie by Prince Ash Morgenstern, alongside a quest for Kit Herondale and Ty Blackthorn. It came out on 3 November 2026 from Walker Books in the UK and Knopf Books for Young Readers in the US.

5. Do I need to read other Shadowhunters books before The Last King of Faerie?

It will help a lot. The Wicked Powers follows on from The Dark Artifices and draws on characters and events from across the Shadowhunter Chronicles. Goodreads’ editors suggest newcomers begin with City of Bones, the first Mortal Instruments book. If that sounds like too much, at least read The Dark Artifices trilogy, starting with Lady Midnight, for Dru, Kit and Ty’s backstory.

6. What is Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi about?

Monsters of Ohio is set in Richland, Ohio, a rural town facing ruin after its biggest employer closes. Mike Boyd returns after decades away and gets caught up in local troubles, private equity, executive theft and something very odd involving a prize cow. It came out on 3 November in the US and 5 November in the UK. It’s a standalone, and like most Scalzi books, it’s very funny.

7. Is Murmuration by TJ Klune a cosy fantasy?

Not really. Murmuration starts as a sweet 1950s small-town romance but turns into a dark psychological thriller as Mike starts to realise his perfect town of Amorea isn’t what it seems. The publisher compares it to Black Mirror. There’s still a love story at its centre, but readers expecting the gentle warmth of The House in the Cerulean Sea should be ready for something much stranger. It came out on 17 November in the US and 19 November in the UK.

8. Which November 2026 books are series finales?

Three big series end in November. The Legend Eternal concludes Andrea Stewart’s Hollow Covenant trilogy, The Last Star in the Void finishes Melissa Caruso’s Echo Archives, and Tara Sim’s The Meridian Forge wraps up the Dark Gods saga. L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s Premier also concludes The Grand Illusion. If you’re new to any of these, start with book one.

9. What romantasy books come out in November 2026?

Romantasy readers should look at Danielle L. Jensen’s Defy the Dusk, a post-apocalyptic romantasy, and Cassandra Clare’s The Last King of Faerie. Other November options include Jacqueline White’s Souls in Ruin, Brigid Kemmerer’s Captive Traitor King, Tina Mars’s This Wretched Alchemy and Alexandra Christo’s Cursekeeper, all listed in Gizmodo’s November round-up.

10. Are UK and US release dates the same for these books?

Mostly, but not always. Orbit’s books (The Wolves of War, The Legend Eternal, The Last Star in the Void) share UK and US dates, as do Defy the Dusk, The Last King of Faerie and An Edge Sharp Enough. Monsters of Ohio arrives two days later in the UK, and so does Murmuration. Reapers is published in the UK under the name A.J. Ryan. Line of Descent has so far been confirmed as a US release.

More Places to Find Great Books

Looking for more science fiction and fantasy recommendations? These sites are worth bookmarking:

• Reactor (formerly Tor.com) publishes monthly lists of new science fiction and fantasy releases, plus reviews and original short fiction.
• Locus covers science fiction, fantasy and horror publishing news, reviews and awards.
• Goodreads is useful for tracking your TBR and seeing what other readers are excited about.
• Polygon runs monthly most-anticipated science fiction and fantasy book lists alongside its games and TV coverage.
• Orbit and Tor Publishing Group share upcoming releases, extracts and news from two of the biggest SFF publishers.
• Kirkus Reviews publishes early, independent reviews of new books.

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