7 SF/F Debuts to Watch for in 2016

Snakewood, by Adrian Selby
In this debut fantasy, a group of mercenaries, famous and feared before their group dissolved years ago, are being hunted and ruthlessly killed. Filled with action, revenge, blood, and magic, Snakewood has been compared to the works of  Joe Abercrombie, with an intricate magic system worthy of Brandon Sanderson. Fans of Abercrombie’s First Law and Shattered Sea series will eat it up. A gripping, highly entertaining first novel.

Infomocracy, by Malka Older
Older’s super-smart, tightly-paced debut takes place two decades and two election cycles after the world switched from sovereign nations to a worldwide “micro-democracy,” in which groups of 100,000 people each decide what government they’ll belong to. Another election cycle is coming up, providing opportunities for progress…and destruction. A complex and thought-provoking tale, Infomocracy has won praise from authors like Max Gladstone and Ken Liu.

Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
Captain Kel Cheris is in a tough spot. After disgracing herself in battle, she’s given a second chance: retake a star fortress recently seized by heretics. Unfortunately, the only way to do that seems to be to team up with the digital ghost of an undead general most known for going crazy and massacring his own army. The first in the planned Machineries of Empire series, Ninefox Gambit more than deserves the significant advance buzz it has received, and won’t disappoint fans of Lee’s brain-bending short fiction.

Borderline, by Mishell Baker
Hollywood meets Fairyland in this new urban fantasy series, a setup that honestly makes me want to jump up and down and just throw money at the author. Millie is a budding film director suffering from borderline personality disorder whose promising career was shattered (along with both of her legs, which had to be amputated) in a suicide attempt a year before the book begins. Her career on the rocks, she takes a job with the Arcadia Project, a secret organization in charge of monitoring fairy traffic between worlds, and proceeds to get into all kinds of trouble. Borderline is elevated by Baker’s nuanced portrayal of Millie, and promises to be a great start to an exciting new series.

Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer
Another exciting debut, Too Like the Lightning takes place in a 25th century technological utopia. Mycroft, a convict whose sentence requires him to roam the earth helping people, and Carlyle, a spiritual counselor, come upon a person who may threaten the complicated peace they live in: a boy who can make his wishes come true. The first novel from Palmer, a history professor at the University of Chicago, Too Like the Lightning is the premiere installment of the Terra Ignota series.

Roses and Rot, by Kat Howard
When Imogen was a little girl, she read fairy tales of wicked stepmothers and wished they would come true—because there was no way those stepmothers could be worse than the mother she already had. Now she’s grown up, and she and her sister have been accepted into an elite arts academy, but in a be-careful-what-you-wish-for twist right out of a storybook, there’s more to the academy than meets the eye. Rating a seal of approval from Neil Gaiman himself, this  exciting first novel hopefully heralds the start of a long career for Howard, also a celebrated short story writer.

United States of Japan, by Peter Tieryas
In this fast-paced but deeply thoughtful alternate history, Japan won WWII, liberating the U.S. internment camps and renaming the country the United States of Japan. Decades later, a group of rebels called the George Washingtons design a subversive video game intended to show players a different world, one in which the Allies won the war. Positioned as a successor to Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, The United States of Japan has received advance praise from authors like Ken Liu, Richard Thomas, and Jay Posey.
What’s the best SF/F debut you’ve ever read?