Summer Reads 2023 from Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

Fourth Wing

Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower)

The addictive romantic fantasy that launches Yarros’s Empyrean series takes readers inside an elite and brutal war college for aspiring dragon riders. Physically delicate Violet makes an unlikely cadet, and she’s got a target on her back thanks to the crimes of her mother, but as she undergoes dangerous trials and wins over prickly classmates, she comes into her power. Combining thrilling action sequences with sizzling romance, this proves un-put-downable.

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Immortal Longings

Chloe Gong (Saga)

Bestselling YA author Gong’s adult debut puts a high-octane fantasy twist on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. In her take, the star-crossed lovers come together while competing in gladiatorial games made more treacherous by Gong’s inventive magic system: the characters can jump between bodies at will. The resulting twisty page-turner should win Gong a legion of new fans.

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Silver Nitrate

Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)

A new book from Moreno-Garcia is sure to get genre readers buzzing. In 1990s Mexico, best friends Montserrat, a film audio editor, and Tristán, an actor, team up with struggling director Abel to produce a screenplay written by a Nazi occultist that’s rumored to grant good luck to whoever finishes the film—but their efforts go horrifically awry. Our starred review called it “a powerful and chilling thrill ride.”

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Some Desperate Glory

Emily Tesh (Tor)

Tesh’s sweeping space opera epic follows Valkyr, a human woman raised in a fascistic cult that brainwashed her to believe the alien majoda race are inherently evil. After she leaves home bent on exterminating the majoda, however, she’s forced to question her beliefs. The ensuing chronicle of Valkyr’s deradicalization “deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler,” per PW’s starred review.

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The Surviving Sky

Kritika H. Rao (Titan)

On a semi-sentient temple city floating above an uninhabitable near-future Earth, Iravan, who can control plant life with his mind, and his estranged wife, Ahilya, a rebel, must work together to save their home from climate collapse. Rao’s gorgeous debut blends scientific concepts, botanical magic, and Hindu mysticism into an equally mind-bending and heart-pounding cli-fi adventure.

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