Future Fiction #283 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D

Today I have a mix of genres, and each one sounds fantastic!

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She’s built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler’s lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it’s not perfect: the traveler has no way to alter or control the outcome. They can only observe.

After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her unscrupulous funder, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.

With each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp. The changes are small at first. Then they become horrifying.

With her reality constantly shifting, Beth is on the clock to reverse altered history. But once the dominoes have been tipped, can they ever be reset?

The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi. Releases in March 2025 from Orbit Books. This sounds different from Fracassi’s other books, and I’m really looking forward to it. I think he’s going to do a great job with the time travel trope:-)

When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND.

As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone… is up.

And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move.

The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks. Releases in January 2025 from Angry Robot. Whoa this sounds so good! And the colorful cover is making me so happy. I had a lot of fun with Hanks’ last book Swashbucklers, so this will be a must read for sure!

If a fairy godmother can get one sister into a marriage, getting another out of one should be easy… 

Lady Theodosia Balfour has certainly gotten the short end of the stick—her stepsister, the newly crowned Princess Beatrice, is telling everyone in polite society that Theo, her sister, and their mother are evil, wicked, and horrid people who treated her like a slave. Though Theo knows this isn’t exactly true, it seems her life is thoroughly ruined by the rumor. With the Balfour family estate on the verge of bankruptcy, Theo’s only path forward is a forced betrothal to the Duke of Snowbell, a foul-tempered geezer who wishes only to use her as a brood mare for spare heirs.

Desperate for help, Theo clings to the only thing that might save the rumor of a fairy godmother, one that supposedly helped her stepsister secure a prince. After discovering a way to summon a fairy in Beatrice’s old room, Theo thinks her prayers have been answered. But the fairy she meets isn’t at all what she imagined. Drop-dead gorgeous, incredibly cunning, and slightly devious, Cecily of the Ash Fairies is much more interested in gathering powerful favors and smoking her pipe than providing charitable magic for humans in a bind.

Before she receives magical assistance, Cecily sets Theo to three tasks, seemingly to prove that Theo is a selfless and kind person, though she begins to suspect there may be more to these tasks than originally stated. Helping her along the way are Cecily’s familiars, the flirty human-turned-mockingbird Phineas and the aloof Kasara, a fox shapeshifter who should not be as handsome as he is for someone with such cutting remarks. As Theo works on her tasks, she shockingly finds kinship with the magical creatures she’s helping, and starts to wonder if a continued life among her human peers is what she really wants after all.

How to Summon a Fairy Godmother by Laura J. Mayo. Releases in October 2024 from Orbit. I love the cover, and I think the story sounds like a lot of fun!

What do you think of this week’s Future Fiction picks? Let me know in the comments!

Posted June 12, 2024 by Tammy in Future Fiction / 46 Comments

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46 responses to “Future Fiction #283 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books”

  3. Roberta R.

    1 and 2 were already on my TBR list, and I saw the Hanks cover on Twitter (but high definition makes it ten times more gorgeous!) – while the Fracassi one is new to me, and I dig it! Simple but effective, plus a nice nod to the butterfly effect. Mayo’s book isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s got a killer cover! Boo to AI, kudos to real artists.
    Roberta R. recently posted…Quinn Connor: “The Pecan Children” (ARC Review)My Profile

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  7. Charlotte

    I was already intrigued by the tower story but the fairy godmother one has caught my eye now too. It definitely sounds like an interesting take on Cinderella and I never can resist a mention of Faeries.

    Reply
  15. Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

    The Way Up Is Death’s cover is legit perfect. I am so in love! (And mad at myself that I missed the cover reveal- I was like “I’ll respond to these on the weekend” but whoops it was over!) I am so excited for it! Also super excited for The Third Rule of Time Travel! How to Summon a Fairy Godmother is new to me, but I agree that it sounds fun and the cover is great! I will keep it on my radar for sure! Great picks as always!
    Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Reviews in a Minute: Hello, JuneMy Profile

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  18. Susy's Cozy World

    These sound all pretty amazing!! And the covers!! I can’t decide if I am more intrigued by the second or thw third one (I am not a fan of time travel so the first one is out, for the moment at least! I may always change my mind later on!) but they all are great picks! Thanks for sharing!!

    Reply
  20. Sammie @ The Bookwyrm's Den

    The Way Up Is Death looks amazing! Definitely need to keep an eye on that. And I need to say, I absolutely love the woman’s expression on the cover of How to Summon A Fairy Godmother. She looks like she’s scheming, and I like that!

    Reply
  21. todd

    The Way Up is Death reminds me vaguely of an Alastair Reynolds short story I once read about a person, or group of people, don’t recall, that had to travel up into a tower. It was pretty gruesome if memory serves. Not sure if this one goes that direction but I hope it’s a good read, either way.

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    • Tammy

      Ooh that sounds good. I’m curious about this one, and I wouldn’t mind if it’s gruesome too:-)

      Reply

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