There’s at least one universal truth among readers: waiting for sequels is hard. It’s especially hard for books that have just come out, and the sequel’s date hasn’t been announced. Readers worry: will I remember how much I loved this book when the sequel rolls around? What if I miss it? How much will I forget about the details before I return?
Paste is here to help! These are some of our most anticipated sequels of 2024. You might have to do a little rereading to get your details up to speed, but here’s what we think you need to know before you pick up these next books.
The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake
Release Date: January 9 from Tor Books
Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six took BookTok by storm with the story of six initiates to the Alexandrian Society, competing for only five open spots among the caretakers of lost knowledge. As it turns out, the Alexandrian Society is more than just a secret society that preserves history, it’s a group of magicians with the power to shape the world—and questionable goals about how that world should be shaped.
Sequel The Atlas Paradox takes the rivalries and romances of the first novel and ups both the stakes and the conspiracies. Now, in the final installment The Atlas Complex, the recruits have to determine just what price they’ll pay for knowledge, and what (or who) they’ll sacrifice to get it. This is sure to get plenty of coverage on BookTok, both lovers and haters, and it’s definitely a conclusion not to be missed!
Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah
Release Date: January 9 from Sourcebooks Fire
In Berwah’s debut novel, Monsters Born and Made, Koral Hunter entered the Glory Race to save her family from ruin. By the end of the book, she realizes that it’s not just the caste system of her island that’s rigged against her, nor the race, it’s the whole world—and while the ending doesn’t satisfy reader needs to upend the unjust system, it left plenty of loose ends for those awaiting a sequel.
In Somewhere in the Deep, however, Berwah focuses on a new protagonist, another young woman forced to fight monsters as she searches for a better life. Here, Krescent Dune has to fight in the pits, struggling to survive in order to pay off her family’s debt. When a fight goes wrong, she’s given an opportunity to clear her debts once and for all—with a dangerous job that could kill her. Somewhere in the Deep, which came out January 9, 2024, explores a different part of the setting from Monsters Born and Made, and it’s possible that more adventures set in this same world will send the protagonists on a collision course—but only future installments will tell!
Kinning by Nisi Shawl
Release Date: January 23 from Tor Books
It’s been eight years since Nisi Shawl’s acclaimed novel Everfair was released, but the barkcloth airships and the alternate society of that novel have continued to capture the minds of readers. Now, in the sequel Kinning, Shawl returns to the Neo-Victorian world, where a diverse group of interests purchased the land of the Belgian Congo from King Leopold II to create a utopian nation. There, the people of the Congo would join with formerly enslaved people returning from the Americas, creating a better, brighter future.
In Kinning two siblings travel the world in an aircanoe following the Great War to spread spores of an empathy-generating fungus. Meanwhile, the heirs to the throne of Everfair are set against each other by their own mother, who seeks to take advantage of an influenza-weakened Europe. Shawl explores ideas about decolonization and conflict, as well as what it might mean if empathy could be spread like a virus.
A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair
Release Date: February 7 from Union Square & Co.
How can an assassin know who to trust, especially when she discovers the truth behind her lineage? When Blair introduced Keera in the first book of the Halfling Saga, A Broken Blade, readers knew her as an assassin entrusted with tasks by a corrupt king, but secretly caring for others, like her, trained as assassins and spies due to their mixed heritage. Moving from quiet rebellion to openly joining the forces of a revolutionary force in A Shadow Crown, Keera puts her weight and talents behind Prince Killian, who intends to overthrow his corrupt father. But when everything they’ve worked for goes wrong at the end of the second novel, she’s driven back into self-destructive habits she meant to leave behind.
That’s where readers find her at the beginning of A Vicious Game, which comes out February 6, and luckily, the found family that she’s grown isn’t about to let her fall into her own worst self again. They haven’t lost hope, and new information about ancient magical seals, left behind by Keera’s ancestors, could help them change everything—if the truth they discover doesn’t destroy them first. Blair keeps raising the stakes in the Halfling Saga, and readers will be eager to follow Keera deeper into the truths that created the world she and her friends are trying so desperately to decolonize.
Tales of the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tan
Release Date: February 6 from Harper Voyager
Have you ever wanted a behind-the-scenes look at some of your favorite novels? In Tales of the Celestial Kingdom, author Sue Lynn Tan moves through time with nine short stories that take place before, during, and after her novels Daughter of the Moon Goddess and Heart of the Sun Warrior. The novels focus on the journey of Xingyin, the daughter of Chang’e, the moon goddess, and the mortal archer, Houyi. Raised on the moon, away from the wrath of the Celestial Emperor, Xingyin has to flee her home when her magic reveals her to the ruthless ruler. But it’s not just her own fate at stake, and over the course of the two books, Xingyin must vie for her mother’s freedom—as well as face a power that threatens everything she loves.
While readers might be able to pick this up without reading the first two, be wary of spoilers! Fans of the first two books will be excited to see new stories from multiple points of view, giving them deeper insight into these stories of immortals and quests, of immortality elixirs and heavenly vengeance.
All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: February 6 from HarperCollins
In This Woven Kingdom, Mafi spun a Cinderella story of a servant girl and a prince, whose love is forbidden not due just to class restrictions, but because Alizeh, the long-lost heir to a Jinn empire, is destined to bring down the royal family. By the events of These Infinite Threads, Prince Kamran is desperately in love with Alizeh, which means he must question everything he’s been taught about the Jinn. Meanwhile, Alizeh is stolen away by the ruler of a neighboring kingdom, who promises her everything she needs to truly become a Jinn queen. The only thing she’d have to give up is her love for Kamran.
Now, in All This Twisted Glory, it seems that the deal is stranger than she realized: Alizeh can become a queen in truth. All she has to do is marry—and then murder—her benefactor. But Cyrus, the king who stole Alizeh away, may not be the villain that he seems, and Kamran is still on his way to get both revenge for his murdered grandfather and to be reunited with his love. Full of court intrigue, shifting allegiances, and a serious love triangle, this is a trilogy conclusion fans have been itching for.
The Diablo’s Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa
Release Date: February 20 from Random House Books for Young Readers
While Mar’s story in The Wicked Bargain concluded their full story arc (full of magic, danger, and deals with devils on the high seas), the demon who helped Mar defeat el Diablo wasn’t quite finished with their story.
In The Diablo’s Curse, Dami takes center stage, as they search for a way to restore their humanity. To do so, they have to cancel every deal they’ve ever made. But Silas is relying on his deal with Dami to stay alive. He has no interest in undoing his bargain—unless Dami can help him undo the family curse that’s destined to kill him. Dami’s a standout character from the first novel, and getting to see them as the hero of their own story in Novoa’s fantastically built Caribbean setting, is going to be a treat.
Blood Justice by Terry J. Benton-Walker
Release Date: April 23 from Tor Tee
It’s hard to be the heirs to a stolen throne. That’s a truth for teens Cristina and Clement Trudeau, whose family was dethroned thirty years before the events of Blood Debts. While the backdrop for both of them is a magical massacre in New Orleans, the two of them are more concerned with caring for their sick mother. When it turns out she’s not sick, but cursed, and that Cris and Clem may be the next targets, they have to overcome their estrangement and work together, or New Orleans may be due for another disaster.
Blood Justice builds on the conspiracies the siblings started to uncover in the first book, with a true antagonist rising out of the shadows. Full of intrigue and conspiracy, Blood Justice doesn’t bring the series to an end—instead, it leaves readers on a cliffhanger, so get ready to watch for news on when the next book is due!
The Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
Release Date: June 4 from S&S/Saga Press
The writers at Paste have been anticipating the finale of the Between Earth and Sky trilogy for so long that it appeared in a post hoping it would come out in 2023, as well as our most anticipated releases of 2024! Rebecca Roanhorse’s exquisite worldbuilding is a huge reason for that, but the characters who drive the series also have readers waiting on the conclusion to their adventures.
In Black Sun, Serapio journeyed to the city of Tova in order to enact his life’s goal: overthrowing a powerful priesthood that had cast out his god. Naranpa, a priestess, is seeking to remake Tova into a better, more equitable place. But she doesn’t have a chance to do so before she’s undermined by her own supposed allies—and before Serapio casts the city into chaos. In Fevered Star, both Serapio and Naranpa have become living avatars of their gods; Xiala, a ship captain who befriended Serapio before his godhood, is swept into the chaos. Now, in The Mirrored Heavens, the three must take different paths to save Tova, or see it, and each other, ultimately destroyed. Blending prophecy and sacrifice into a world of very active gods, Roanhorse brings the series to an intense conclusion.
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas
Release Date: September 4 from Feiwel & Friends
When The Sunbearer Trials ended on a cliffhanger, leaving the fate of the world in limbo (and on hero Teo’s shoulders), readers might have gnashed their teeth. Just a little. Using the teens-competing-to-the-death trope and absolutely turning it on its head, author Aiden Thomas created a world where semidioses (demigods) strive to become the next sunbearer, who will bring light to the world. But the cost of the games is that one of them must be sacrificed for the magic to work.
Teo thinks this is a bum system—why should any of them be sacrificed?—and when everything goes wrong at the end of The Sunbearer Trials, it’s not just a disaster. It’s an opportunity for Teo and his friends to reshape the world into a better one, if they can only save it first. That’s where Celestial Monsters picks up when it releases in September, and it’s going to be an exciting ride to see how Teo and his friends not only defeat the monsters (and rescue the captured semidioses), but find a way toward a brighter future.
The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri
Release Date: November 12 from Orbit
The third and concluding volume in Tasha Suri’s Burning Kingdom trilogy is due out in November! The series starts with The Jasmine Throne, which was a World Fantasy Award winner when it came out in 2021. The first novel (which also gained attention as one of the “sapphic trifecta”) centers on the crossing of paths between an imprisoned princess, Malini, and a supposed servant, Priya, who is in truth a powerful priestess.
As Malini sets off to recover her throne, she finds that her chosen destiny puts her on a different path from Priya in the sequel, The Oleander Sword. But while their motives and goals are separate, the pair’s souls are entwined—which may lead them both to their own destruction. The Lotus Empire is set to bring their conflict to a head, but there are even greater enemies in store. They may have to rejoin forces in order to save both their kingdoms. (For a more in-depth recap, check out this review of The Oleander Sword.)
Alana Joli Abbott is a reviewer and game writer, whose multiple-choice novels, including Choice of the Pirate and Blackstone Academy for Magical Beginners, are published by Choice of Games. She is the author of three novels, several short stories, and many role-playing game supplements. She also edits fantasy anthologies for Outland Entertainment, including Bridge to Elsewhere and Never Too Old to Save the World. You can find her online at VirgilandBeatrice.com.