Top New Fantasy Books in June 2022

Magic, rebellion and war abound in this month’s new fantasy books. Take a look at our picks for best fantasy books in June 2022.

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

Type: Novel
Publisher: Del Rey
Release date: June 21

Den of Geek says: Looking to dive in to a complicated epic fantasy? Romance and intrigue take the center stage in this first installment of a trilogy about revolution and empire.

Publisher’s summary: Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.

Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts. 

Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm. 

As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn. 

Buy The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi.

Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro

Type: Novel
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release date: June 7

Den of Geek says: This adventure about X-Men style mutants in the Victorian era sounds like a full-length comic book alternate universe story in the best way.

Publisher’s summary: England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness―a man made of smoke.

Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When Alice Quicke, a jaded detective with her own troubled past, is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous.

What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theaters of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts―like Komako, a witch-child and twister of dust, and Ribs, a girl who cloaks herself in invisibility―are forced to combat the forces that threaten their safety. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Komako, Marlowe, Charlie, Ribs, and the rest of the talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of what is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts.

Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world―and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.

Buy Ordinary Monsters by J. M. Miro.

In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan

Type: Novel
Publisher: Tor Books
Release date: June 21

Den of Geek says: It’s quite a month for tomes to give you a new world to get lost in this summer. This one is on epic fantasy Brandon Sanderson’s recommendation, list too.

Publisher’s summary: Demir Grappo is an outcast―he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her killed: the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out.

Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powerful guild-families who are only interested in making the most of the scraps left at the table and uncover the invisible hand that threatens the Empire. A war is coming, a war unlike any other. And Demir and his ragtag group of outcasts are the only thing that stands in the way of the end of life as the world knows it.

Buy In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan