Standalone Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads

Jason Dessen’s world is (literally) upended when he wakes up after a kidnapping to find himself surrounded by strangers who claim to know him, in a world where nothing about his life as the same as the one he left behind. From the author of Wayward Pines trilogy, you can expect Dark Matter to be the mind-bending sci-fi thriller you had no idea you’ve been waiting for.

Naomi Novik took a break from her popular Temeraire series to pen Uprooted, a dark fantasy novel about a valley that is terrorized by an ominous Wood. Protecting the villagers from the Wood’s evils is a callous wizard called the Dragon, who every ten years demands a steep price for his help. Uprooted may not be part of a series, but it contains all of the high-stakes action and epic storytelling that you would expect from one.

This dark tale is about twelve children called librarians raised by a godlike figure known only as Father, and it’s one of the more twisted novels on this list. After Father disappears, the knowledge of his power that is stored within his library are suddenly unguarded, and a battle for a new god is about to begin.

A recent college grad gets a job as a bartender, only to discover a gang of mixologists across Chicago who use the magic of their trade to fight demons. So clearly, this isn’t your typical paranormal novel, and it’s perfect for readers who want all the fun of the urban fantasy genre while feeling just slightly more adult than what you might find in the teen fiction.

The neighboring Eastern European cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma rarely interact, but when a woman is murdered, an inspector from Beszel’s Extreme Crime Squad teams up with an Ul Qoman detective find her killer. As they descend deeper into the case, they uncover an underworld culture of nationalists and unificationists who are each intent on changing the fates of the two cities to very different ends.