7 SF/F Books for a Speculative Holiday Season

Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
A godlike race taking out a contract hit on Santa Claus (known in Pratchett’s Discworld universe as The Hogfather, because of course he is), Death himself wearing a fake beard and driving a sleigh pulled by four immense hogs in order to save Hogwatch Night, an assassin named Mr. Teatime, and literal Bogeymen who must be battled in children’s dreams? It’s Pratchett at his best. Where most holiday stories are sweet, heartfelt, and perfunctory, leave it to the late master of fun fantasy to make his take on the holidays one of his strongest, strangest efforts.

Krampus: The Yule Lord, by Brom
Why more SFF writers haven’t explored the wonderful myth of the Krampus is a mystery to me, but artist and author Brom’s take on it more than makes up for the oversight. Struggling songwriter Jesse witnesses Santa being attacked by demonic forms and comes into possession of Santa’s magic sack—only to discover that it actually belongs to the Yule Lord Krampus, who was imprisoned by Santa ages ago. Now Krampus wants it back, Santa is looking less saintly by the moment, and this dark tale of the holidays isn’t guaranteed to have a happy ending.

All Seated on the Ground, by Connie Willis
Connie Willis is no stranger to holiday-themed stories (she even published Miracle and other Christmas Stories, a collection of seasonal short fiction), but All Seated on the Ground is her best-known and most enjoyable holiday-themed work. Aliens have landed in Denver, but all they do is stand around and glare disapprovingly at everyone. A citizen committee is formed to attempt communication with them, and the narrator is part of it, putting us in the center of the action as they lead the aliens to various places in increasingly desperate attempts to figure out how to bridge the language gap. Naturally, Christmas—and specifically, Christmas choir music—comes into play in this lighthearted, delightful story that brims with bona-fide SF ideas.

In This Season, by Harry Turtledove
Harry Turtledove once described himself as “Jewish, although not particularly active.” His work has occasionally touched on Jewish issues, but he also authored one of the few Chanukah-themed science fiction stories ever written, the intense “In This Season,” which has been collected several times, most recently in Counting Up, Counting Down. The story of three Jewish families who are warned to escape Poland during the Nazi occupation, and the creation of the ghettos in 1939 by a Golem, is tense and uplifting at the same time, incorporating a definite Chanukah Miracle that makes their escape possible. Turtledove being Turtledove, of course, the rest of the stories in this collection are also worth reading once the holidays are at an end.

The Claus Effect, by David Nickle
What would bring about the apocalypse faster than anything? If you’re thinking giving everyone exactly what they want for Christmas, you’re the audience for this dark, twisted book. A continuation from a prequel novella, The Toy Mill, the story is filled with ant-like Elves who swarm and destroy, international intrigue on par with the best spy thrillers, and a dark take on greed, holiday traditions, and the future of the world that is so depressing, it might be Scrooge’s ideal Christmas SFF novel.

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, by Charlaine Harris et al
Fourteen masters of speculative fiction—including Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur, Carrie Vaughn, and Karen Chance—offer up short stories that take two things that taste great (werewolves and the holiday season) and mash them together in delightfully scary, demented, and entertaining ways. There’s a real shortage of werewolf-themed holiday stories (you may have noticed), and this book takes care of that nicely, and with the wide range of authors involved there are guaranteed to be several stories that will appeal to any reader.

The Stupidest Angel, by Christopher Moore
Although this novel is heavily connected to Moore’s other work, it can be read as a standalone, as long as you’re not offended by harsh language, NSFW situations, and a generally gleeful tone towards religious iconography and traditions. Moore story of an angel come to Earth—whose efforts to grant a child’s wish by bringing a man dressed as Santa back to life go off the rails so horribly, they morph into a zombie attack on the town—is laugh-out-loud funny, and the ideal antidote to all those animated specials that assume things like magical men dressed in red suits and angels on Earth are universally positive developments in the lives of mere mortals.
The holidays can be long and dark, and as with most other long, dark teatimes of the soul, books can help you get through them. What stories do you love to read this time of year?