Fantasy — International Review of Books

Bestseller

Threshing Day

Rebecca Yarros

Fantasy
Entangled: Red Tower Books · 29 September 2026

Short review (217 words)

Threshing Day is not the next chapter of Violet and Xaden's story, and fans should know that before buying. It is a companion collection of thirteen short stories set in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean world, each following a different Basgiath War College cadet through Threshing, the brutal trial in which would-be riders try to win a dragon's bond or die trying. The cast list is a who's who of the series: Xaden, Rhiannon, Dain, Liam, Mira, Brennan and others.

This is a smart format for a world whose most memorable moments often happen in the margins of Violet's point of view. Seeing the same rite of passage from thirteen angles invites comparison. Who was afraid, who was ruthless, who got lucky? It also works as a deliberately bite-sized way back into Basgiath between full novels.

The limits are those of any franchise collection. At 224 pages, the stories are necessarily brief, and readers hoping for major new plot developments may find them more texture than revelation. Its retail description also advises reading it after Onyx Storm because of spoilers, so it is not a true entry point. None of that has slowed it down: it has held the top of the New York Times hardcover fiction list for four weeks. For committed fans, it is an easy yes.

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Bestseller

Other Worlds Than These

Stephen King and Peter Straub

Fantasy
Scribner (Simon & Schuster) · 6 October 2026

Short review (222 words)

Forty-two years after The Talisman and a quarter of a century after Black House, Jack Sawyer's story finally has an ending. Peter Straub died in 2022, so Stephen King wrote Other Worlds Than These alone, working from an idea Straub left him, but the book carries both names. That gives it real emotional weight: it is a finale, a collaboration completed after a partner's death, and a long-promised return to the Territories.

The new novel brings back an older Jack, who must face a gang of infected teenagers and other destructive forces threatening both worlds. At almost 700 pages and with 38 illustrations by Gabriel Rodríguez, it is a big, generous object, plainly built for readers who have waited decades.

Critical reaction is genuinely split, and it is worth being honest about that. Booklist called it "astonishingly good", while The Guardian's headline judged it "a self-indulgent finale." Our reading of the coverage is that its pleasures belong mainly to longtime readers of the trilogy and King's wider Dark Tower mythology. Newcomers should start with The Talisman rather than here.

Commercially, it did what a King event does: it debuted at No. 3 on Publishers Weekly's hardcover fiction list and was still on the New York Times list a month after publication. For devoted fans, the closure alone may be worth the length.

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Bestseller

A Trade of Blood

Robert Jackson Bennett

Fantasy
Del Rey (US) / Hodderscape (UK) · 4 August 2026

Short review (186 words)

If you think fantasy and detective fiction are separate shelves, Robert Jackson Bennett's Shadow of the Leviathan series argues otherwise. A Trade of Blood is the third case for the eccentric investigator Ana Dolabra and her assistant Dinios Kol, who serves as her eyes and ears. The series began with the acclaimed The Tainted Cup.

This time they must prove the innocence of a jailed heir, or the farming canton of Sapirdad faces war, while a mastermind wields an ancient weapon. Bennett's great trick is to bolt a classic locked-room logic onto a strange, biologically weird world, so the clues are as much about the setting's alien rules as about human motive.

The pairing of a brilliant, abrasive detective with a more grounded narrator is borrowed, knowingly, from Holmes and Watson and Wolfe and Goodwin. The pleasure lies in watching Bennett reinvent it. Newcomers can technically start here, but the series rewards reading in order.

Published in August, it is still climbing: today it sits at No. 2 in Amazon UK's fantasy chart and also ranks in crime. That crossover is exactly why it deserves attention.

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The Washwoman at the River's End

Megan Shade

Fantasy
Shade Made Publishing LLC · 1 September 2026

Short review (173 words)

Scottish folklore has given fantasy plenty of kelpies and selkies, but few writers have turned to the washerwoman seen at the river scrubbing the grave clothes of those about to die. Megan Shade builds her gothic romantasy around that figure, and the choice gives the book a distinctive atmosphere.

Bea has haunted the River's End for over a century, cursed to wash the garments of the dying while searching them for the pieces of a spell that might let her rest. Brennen arrives as her guard, sworn to avenge a death he blames on her. When women across the kingdom begin to vanish, they are forced into an uneasy alliance.

The river, the rune magic and a legend told from the wrong side give the story real mood, and Bea's loneliness carries as much weight as the romance. The slow burn is genuinely slow. It has plainly found its audience: when we checked, it was No. 4 in the entire US Kindle Store. Fans of The Knight and the Moth should start here.

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Full review (264 words)

Scottish folklore has given fantasy plenty of kelpies and selkies, but far fewer writers have turned to the bean nighe, the washerwoman seen at the river scrubbing the grave clothes of those about to die. Megan Shade builds her gothic romantasy around that figure, and the choice gives the book an atmosphere that stands out on a crowded shelf.

Bea has haunted the River's End for more than a century, cursed to wash the bloodstained garments of the dying while searching them for fragments of a spell that might let her rest. Brennen arrives as her guard, carrying a vow of vengeance against the monster he believes killed the woman he loved. When women across the kingdom begin to vanish, the two are forced into an uneasy alliance.

What lifts this above a familiar enemies-to-lovers setup is its texture. The river, the rune magic and the sense of a legend told from the wrong side give the story real mood, and Shade is careful to let Bea's loneliness carry as much weight as the romance. The slow burn is genuinely slow, which will delight readers who prize yearning and frustrate those who want momentum from the first chapter.

The numbers say this has found its audience. When we checked Amazon's US charts, the Kindle edition was No. 4 in the entire Kindle Store, ahead of Fourth Wing, and the paperback was No. 1 in Gothic Fiction. For readers who loved The Knight and the Moth or One Dark Window, it is the discovery of the season, and the start of a series worth following.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Matt Dinniman

Fantasy
Ace (Penguin Random House) · 30 December 2025

Short review (159 words)

If one book shows how far reader enthusiasm can carry a series, it is this one. Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl first appeared in 2020. Ace now publishes the print editions, and the first volume is No. 2 on Publishers Weekly's trade paperback list after 43 weeks.

The premise is gleefully absurd. Aliens turn every human-made structure on Earth into a vast, trap-filled dungeon that doubles as an intergalactic reality show, where survival depends on keeping the viewers entertained. Carl, a Coast Guard veteran, goes in alongside his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning show cat, Princess Donut, who becomes the breakout star.

This is the leading edge of LitRPG, in which characters level up and gain loot as if inside a video game. Dinniman uses the mechanics for comedy and satire, and there is real grief beneath the exploding goblins. It is crude and frenetic, and the game notifications will not suit everyone, but it is also very funny and surprisingly humane.

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Full review (240 words)

If one book sums up how far reader enthusiasm can carry a series, it is this one. Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl first appeared in 2020. Ace now publishes the print editions, and six years on the first volume is No. 2 on Publishers Weekly's trade paperback list after 43 weeks, and No. 8 in Amazon's entire US Kindle Store. Every one of the eight main series novels was in Amazon's US fantasy top 20 when we checked.

The premise is gleefully absurd. Aliens collapse every human-made structure on Earth into a vast, trap-filled dungeon that doubles as an intergalactic reality show. Survival depends less on strength than on keeping the viewers entertained. Carl, a Coast Guard veteran, enters it alongside his ex-girlfriend's prize-winning show cat, Princess Donut, who turns out to be the breakout star.

It is the leading edge of LitRPG, a genre in which characters level up, gain skills and loot as if inside a video game. Dinniman uses the mechanics for comedy and for satire of spectacle-hungry media. Beneath the exploding goblins and drug-dealing llamas there is real anger and real grief, and that emotional undertow is why readers who would never call themselves gamers keep going.

It is crude, violent and sometimes exhausting in its energy, and the game-system notifications will not suit everyone. But it is also very funny and surprisingly humane. As an introduction to the fastest-rising corner of fantasy, nothing beats it.