Monsters, and spacecrafts, and curses, oh my! This month is filled with more books that Abraham Van Helsing could shake a stake at—including one involving his daughter. You might want to buckle yourself in before you read this list because you may be overtaken by giddy excitement.
There’s a two collections from amazing, award-winning authors; a teen whose summer vacation is spent at a magical inn; a queer space opera about the last of humanity and the monsters that fuel them; a dark revenge fantasy featuring the daughter of one of literature’s greatest vampire hunters; an immortal woman seeking the cause of her inability to die; a young boy grieving the loss of his father who travels back in time; and much more.
The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Out in March 2026
River of Bones and Other Stories by Rebecca Roanhorse (S&S/Saga Press, March 3)
The award-winning author of the Between Earth and Sky series and Trail of Lightning, among others, returns with a dazzling collection of speculative stories and a new novella that takes place in the same world of Trail of Lightning.
All Access members, read on for 11 more new sci-fi and fantasy books out this month.
Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (Tor Books, March 10)
It’s hard to give a better description of this book than the cover tagline, “Sapphic Moby-Dick in Space.” It’s a queer space opera in which the Earth is gone, and the remains of humanity are forced to live in space in domes, fueled by the bodies of dead monsters.
Voidverse by Damien Ober (S&S/Saga Press, March 10)
Fans of the short-lived but much-loved Netflix series The OA will also love this epic space opera by one of the show’s writers. It’s about the fight for survival and freedom in a space called—wait for it—the Void, a frightening, dark, and magic-infused nothingness populated by people who prefer it to the hells at home.
The Fox and the Devil by Kiersten White (Del Rey, March 10)
The prolific Kiersten White has blessed us with another dark historical vampire fantasy! In her last novel, she imagined the world of Lucy from Dracula in Lucy Undying. In this novel, the daughter of Dracula‘s notorious vampire hunter, Abraham Van Helsing, will stop at nothing to avenge his murder.
The Fountain by Casey Scieszka (Harper, March 17)
This debut paranormal fantasy explores what it means to be immortal. Vera Van Valkenburgh is unable to die, a condition that she has tired of after two centuries. So she returns to the Catskills, where she was born, eager to find out what it was about the area that made her immortal, and discovers a developer is buying up all the property around where her family lived.
The Book of Fallen Leaves by A. S. Tamaki (Orbit, March 17)
This historical epic fantasy, a retelling of an ancient Samurai story, follows an exiled prince and a peasant girl as he fights to restore his clan as civil war sweeps the lands and demons walk among them.
Mayhem and the Mortal by Shanora Williams (Entangled: Red Tower Books, March 17)
Best-selling author Shanora Williams turns her pen to dark fantasy in this tale of sorcery, assassins, and a quest. Zaira’s sister is dying from a curse, and the only cure lies in The Shallows, a ruined magical landscape. To safely pass through, Zaira hires a guide, Thane, but she doesn’t know if she can trust him to lead her to the right place.
Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui (Orbit, March 24)
In this debut inspired by Moroccan mythology, Aicha, the daughter of a freedom fighter, can no longer control her anger when occupiers harm her people. But it isn’t just anger in theory—Aicha has something living inside her screaming to get out and get revenge.
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar (Tordotcom, March 24)
The Best New Children’s and YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Out in March 2026
Queso, Just in Time by Ernesto Cisneros (Quill Tree Books, March 10)
Ernesto Cisneros is a Pura Belpré Award-winning author, and his newest release is a heart-squeezing middle grade novel about grief. Young Queso, who has recently lost his dad, wishes every day that he would be returned to him. And then one morning, after wishing on the moon, Queso wakes up in 1985 and meets Pancho, the twelve-year-old version of his father.
The Celestial Seas by T. A. Chan (Viking Books for Young Readers, March 31)
In this queer YA space opera, teen Ishara Ming searches for the sentient spacecraft that destroyed her whaling ship, leaving her the only survivor. Putting together a group of misfits, Ishara heads out into space once again, thirsty for revenge.
The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst (Delacorte Press, March 31)
And finally, following up her two cozy adult fantasies, Sarah Beth Durst has written a cozy YA fantasy about a young girl who winds up spending the summer in Vermont helping to fix up her great-aunt’s B&B, a rundown inn hiding magical secrets.
Bonus New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Out in March 2026
Because I can’t just stop at 12 books: in March, be sure to also watch for Green & Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons, Prodigal Tiger by Samantha Chong, Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo, The Library of Amorlin by Kalyn Josephson, Black as Diamond by U. M. Agoawike, Crawlspace by Adam Christopher, These Shattered Spires by Cassidy Ellis Salter, and Ava by Victoria Dillon.
There are also a bunch of excellent sci-fi and fantasy titles out in paperback this month, including Luminous by Silvia Park, Idolfire by Grace Curtis, The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, The Ephemera Collector by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson, Motheater by Linda H. Codega, and The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison.
Don’t forget the sequels! Amazing continuations of great stories are hitting the shelves, like Nobody’s Baby by Olivia Waite, Intergalactic Feast by Lavanya Lakshminarayan, The Dragon and the Sun Lotus by Amélie Wen Zhao, The Witch Without Memory by Maithree Wijesekara, and Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
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If you want to learn about more sci-fi and fantasy books, check out Black History and Futures — In Space, 5 Great Sci-Fi Books About Competitions, and 5 Exciting Fantasy Novels by Black Authors for Your 2026 TBR. Also, be sure to sign up for our SFF newsletter, Swords and Spaceships!
Finally, you can also find a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
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