Best Fantasy Books of Fall 2026: 9 New Reads From Rebecca Yarros, Sarah J. Maas and More
From Brandon Sanderson to Leigh Bardugo, the fantasy books you'll want on your Fall reading list
Key Takeaways
- Rebecca Yarros returns to the Empyrean world with 13 new 'Threshing Day' stories.
- Sarah J. Maas takes readers back to Prythian for the first time in five years.
- Brandon Sanderson closes out 2026 with standalone Cosmere novel 'The Fires of December.'
If you’re looking for the best fantasy books to curl up with as the weather gets colder, this Fall is going to make choosing what to read next unusually difficult. Between dragons, vampires, deadly magic, supernatural villains and at least one story described as Carrie meets The Witcher, fantasy readers have plenty coming their way between September and December.
And some of the biggest names behind the best fantasy books are leading the charge. Rebecca Yarros returns to the world of Fourth Wing with Threshing Day, 13 new stories revealing more about the pivotal ritual that bonds riders and dragons. Sarah J. Maas is finally taking readers back to Prythian with the still-untitled sixth A Court of Thorns and Roses book, arriving more than five years after A Court of Silver Flames. And Brandon Sanderson closes out the year with The Fires of December, a standalone Cosmere adventure that came to him so unexpectedly that he says he felt “compelled” to write it.
They’re hardly alone. Leigh Bardugo is concluding her Ninth House trilogy, V.E. Schwab is finally finishing the story she began with Vicious 13 years ago and John Gwynne is launching an entirely new epic fantasy series.
So clear some space on the nightstand. Here are nine of the biggest fantasy books headed our way this fall.
‘The Knave and the Moon’ (September 1, 2026)
Author: Rachel Gillig
Publisher: Orbit
What it’s about: Rachel Gillig returns to the world of The Knight and the Moth for the conclusion of her Stonewater Kingdom duology. The story continues the darkly romantic fantasy of Sybil Delling, a former Diviner whose ability to receive visions from the mysterious Omens drew her into a world of knights, gods, prophecy and a dangerous attraction to the enigmatic Rodrick.
Following the events of The Knight and the Moth, Sybil and Rodrick’s journey takes them deeper into the mysteries surrounding the Omens and the forces controlling their world, with the fate of both the kingdom and their relationship hanging in the balance. For readers who helped make the first novel a #1 New York Times bestseller, this isn’t simply another visit to Stonewater: it’s the book designed to bring Gillig’s two-part story to its conclusion.
Rachel Gillig says: “Knave hurt my feelings more profoundly than its predecessors, both on a crafting level and because of the subject matter. I think it’s quite clear how fond I am of these characters, which is how I am able to look beyond my own hurt feelings and say, with my whole chest: I’m proud of this book. I love this book. She’s strange and special and new, and also just the same. An adventure. A love story. An ode to how stories can change the world. A bit of despair, and a whole lot of hope. I can’t wait for you to read.”
‘Dead Beat’ (September 15, 2026)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Flatiron Books
What It’s About: Leigh Bardugo returns to Yale—and to hell—for the third and final installment of her Ninth House trilogy.
Alex Stern may have survived her journey into the underworld, but getting back doesn’t mean the danger stayed behind. Hell has been breached, demons are making their way into New Haven and Alex once again finds herself caught between Yale’s secret societies and supernatural forces that aren’t particularly concerned about keeping their activities hidden anymore.
The book brings to a close the story Bardugo began with Ninth House in 2019 and continued with Hell Bent in 2023, following Alex from an unlikely Yale freshman recruited to monitor the university’s occult societies to someone increasingly immersed in the dark world she was originally supposed to observe. Flatiron describes Dead Beat as the trilogy’s conclusion, making this a particularly significant fall release for Bardugo readers.
Leigh Bardugo says: “Dead Beat is kind of bonkers. It is a wildly unhinged book in many ways. I can tell you I loved writing it. Like, I missed these characters. I missed this world. And those books are incredibly challenging to write. When I was first envisioning the series, I was, like, it’s going to be 12 books long because it was going to be a detective series where she was solving magical crimes and then I understood the level of research and how thorny they were going to be.”
“This one is very dense with history, very dense with lore. There are many rewards in it for people who have read the first two books and particularly the interstitials. There are threads that run through all of them. So, I hope people will enjoy seeing that all come together. And I can also say there’s some very personal stuff in this book for me, which was very fun to write. It was super cathartic.”
‘Threshing Day’ (September 29, 2026)
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
What It’s About: No, it isn’t Empyrean Book 4, but Rebecca Yarros isn’t making Fourth Wing fans wait until the next full-length installment to return to Basgiath War College.
Threshing Day collects 13 new stories built around one of the defining events in Yarros’ Empyrean universe: Threshing, the day on which cadets attempt to bond with the dragons who may—or may not—choose them as riders. Yarros’ official description promises stories involving familiar characters and their dragons, allowing readers to experience the pivotal ritual from perspectives they haven’t seen before. Her site classifies the book as both an Empyrean installment and a Secret Project, making Threshing Day an interesting proposition. Rather than pushing the main narrative beyond Onyx Storm, she’s going backward and sideways, filling in moments from a ritual that has shaped many of the characters readers already know. The first printing is also being treated as something of an event edition, with 16 original full-color illustrations by Joe Requeza and silver-gilded edges.
Rebecca Yarros says: “When I said I needed to write this one first, I was really speaking from a place of burnout. Writing the graphic novels and then this allowed me to step back into Empyrean without anxiety-attack leftl pressure before walking right into book four. As for this being vital, I’d say it gives you backstory for deeper understanding and a couple of reveals, but I’m always conscious of everyone’s budget, so I’d never say this is vital to the enjoyment of book four.”
‘Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion’ (September 29, 2026)
Author: T. Kingfisher
Publisher: Random House Worlds
What It’s About: Fans of Baldur’s Gate 3 already know Astarion as the charming, manipulative and frequently hilarious vampire spawn who became one of the game’s breakout characters. Now T. Kingfisher is going back to the period before the game to tell the story of his attempt to escape the vampire lord who has controlled him for centuries.
Astarion Ancunin was supposed to become a magistrate, but instead was transformed into a vampire spawn and forced into servitude to Cazador Szarr. He’s spent centuries prowling Baldur’s Gate at his master’s command, procuring victims and surviving on rats rather than the human blood he craves. His chance to change things comes when Cazador announces a competition among his spawn, with the winner receiving an unusual prize. Astarion forms an unlikely alliance and begins plotting what may finally be his escape.
The 272-page novel is an official Baldur’s Gate 3 prequel and is being billed as the first in a new series of novels based on the acclaimed game.
WinterisComing.net says: “Astarion is a fantastic choice for a prequel novel, not only because he’s a fan favorite, but also because he’s lived for centuries. There are endless stories to tell of heartbreak, betrayal, and transformation. Astarion, before joining your party in BG3‘s campaign (if you wanted him to), was shackled to the cultic vampire family led by the abusive Cazador Szarr. As the player, you can decide the fate of Cazador and influence the destiny of Astarion, but the Elven vampire has a pre-written history waiting to be explored. Who knows, it might change your perspective about him on your next playthrough. As T. Kingfisher is the author, Stephen Rooney, a Baldur’s Gate 3 senior writer, serves as the lore master to make sure the book is consistent with Astarion’s character and how he impacts the world. Not only this, but Neil Newbon, who won Best Performance at The Game Awards for his role as Astarion, will narrate the novel. This alone makes me more excited to read it.”
‘Victorious’ (October 6, 2026)
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor Books
What It’s About: Thirteen years after V.E. Schwab introduced Victor Vale and Eli Ever in Vicious, she’s ready to bring their story to an end. The series began with two brilliant college roommates whose experiments with near-death experiences transformed them into EOs—ExtraOrdinaries with supernatural abilities—and ultimately turned them against each other. After expanding their morally murky world in 2018’s Vengeful, Schwab now returns to Victor and the question that’s hung over the series from the beginning: in a world filled with extraordinary powers, what actually separates a hero from a villain?
Victorious, the third and final novel in the Villains trilogy, picks up in the aftermath of Vengeful, and “aftermath” seems to be an important word here. Victor is alive, but the serum keeping him that way has suppressed his extraordinary abilities. He’s isolated, running out of the drug and struggling to find a reason to keep going. Then something—or someone—from his past reappears.
The larger series has always played with the line between superheroes and villains, following characters who develop extraordinary abilities following near-death experiences but aren’t particularly interested in using those powers to save the world. Victorious finally brings the story Schwab began with Vicious in 2013 to its conclusion.
V.E. Schwab says: “One of my primary goals when I sat down to write Vicious was to play with the idea of the superhero as social construct, and the fact that if you gave an ordinary person supernatural abilities, they probably wouldn’t feel a sudden imperative to do good deeds. So I wanted to strip away these terms of hero and villain and ask the reader, in the absence of those cues, who do you root for?”
“I’ve discovered it’s less about what a character does, and more about why they do it, so the motivations are key. I’m also a strong believer in solid origin story. In Vicious how a person dies directly impacts the ability they return with (if they return) so backstory is even more important. Also a purpose. Everyone in Vicious has something to gain, and something to lose.”
‘A Court of Thorns and Roses 6’ (October 27, 2026)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
What It’s About: Five years after A Court of Silver Flames, Sarah J. Maas is finally taking readers back to Prythian—and apparently one book wasn’t big enough to contain the story she came up with.
The still-untitled sixth A Court of Thorns and Roses novel arrives October 27, with Bloomsbury promising the return of the courts of Prythian along with “romance, danger, and intrigue.” Beyond that, plot details remain deliberately scarce: the publisher hasn’t revealed whose story will take center stage or even given the book an official title yet. What is confirmed is that this is the first portion of a much larger narrative. Book 7 follows remarkably quickly on January 12, 2027.
That’s a pretty significant publishing event by itself. The last ACOTAR novel, A Court of Silver Flames, arrived in 2021, and the series has only grown in popularity during the five-year wait.
Sarah J. Maas says: “By the time I got to the end of Part 1, it was 400 pages long. What I was writing felt right, that was what the story that needed to be told. And so I decided I wasn’t going to approach this project from a traditional format of a book. I realized it was going to be four parts, a book told in four parts. Part 1, which is out in October, and then Part 2 and 3, which will be out in January. It’s not a trilogy.”
‘The Wolves of War’ (November 3, 2026)
Author: John Gwynne
Publisher: Orbit
What It’s About: Following the conclusion of his Bloodsworn Saga, John Gwynne launches an entirely new epic fantasy series, The Wolfheart Chronicles, with a story inspired by Slavic mythology.
The Clans once lived freely, following their own gods and traditions, until invaders from the north conquered them through blood and fire. Years later, Ivan wants nothing to do with wars, kings or rebellions. His concern is keeping his family safe, particularly his daughter Halia. But Halia possesses a mysterious power, and when others begin to recognize what she’s capable of, Ivan’s efforts to keep his family out of the larger conflict become increasingly impossible.
Orbit describes the 496-page novel as combining ancient magic, heroic sacrifice and adventure, and the new series gives Gwynne a fresh world to explore after The Shadow of the Gods, The Hunger of the Gods and The Fury of the Gods established him as one of the more prominent names in contemporary epic fantasy.
John Gwynne says: “My new series, The Wolfheart Chronicle, is a duology. Book one comes out in the UK in November, and it’s called The Wolves of War. There’s a very unpleasant witch in this inspired by Baba Yaga, but you have your Slavic pantheon of creatures. There’ll be Rusalka and Domovoi and Leshen and Upyr. So that kind of is the tone and the flavor of the book. It’s also inspired by 10th century Eastern Europe, the period where the Rus, the Vikings from Sweden, were traveling down the Dnieper and kind of starting to establish—you have the link to the Vikings as well. I love Vikings. I have to bring them in somehow. So there’s some mercenary Vikings in there as well. But at the heart of it is a family with a disabled daughter, and she can’t speak, but she’s developing unusual powers. I kind of explain it in a sentence as it’s Carrie, Stephen King’s Carrie, meets The Witcher.”
“My mantra with writing has always just been, ‘Write what you want to read.’ And I just hope, and keep my fingers crossed, that other people will enjoy reading it too. It’s a John Gwynne book, so it’s got battles, there’s monsters, there’s themes of family, friendship, love, loyalty, grief.”
‘Defy the Dusk’ (November 3, 2026)
Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Publisher: Del Rey
What It’s About: Danielle L. Jensen, author of The Bridge Kingdom, launches The Sundering Duet with a fantasy in which darkness isn’t merely frightening, but deadly.
Centuries earlier, a Sundering tore the world apart, leaving humanity to survive on islands of civilization where light means life. The privileged live within protected cities, while those beyond their walls face the deadly creatures that emerge after sunset. At the center of the story is Aster, whose magic played a role in breaking the world and who must now find another way forward. Jensen describes the 672-page novel as adult post-apocalyptic fantasy, set in an alternate world with magic and told through dual points of view. And romance remains very much part of the equation: among the elements she identifies are enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity and found family.
Danielle L. Jensen says: “I have a new novel coming in November, which is called Defy the Dusk. It’s a post-apocalyptic fantasy with a dystopian edge, and of course it has romance! I love post-apocalyptic and dystopian books so much. It is my favorite genre. But it comes and goes as far as whether people are interested in it. If we think our world is about to implode, people tend to really gravitate towards people trying to come to terms with what they’re seeing. And I guess the catharsis of being survivable. And here we are, and the moment is nigh.”
‘The Fires of December’ (December 8, 2026)
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
What It’s About: Brandon Sanderson closes out the year with a standalone Cosmere novel that he says may contain the strongest opening he’s ever written.
December lives in Mountaincrest, a forgotten kingdom sustained by colorful rivers of demon blood. She knows that a devastating plague is coming that will eventually corrupt those rivers and destroy almost everyone she knows, so she sets out along the River Violet to convince the king’s court of what’s ahead. But there’s considerably more to December’s predicament. She has already experienced an entire lifetime—marriage, motherhood, loss and ultimately death—only to find herself young again with knowledge of the decades ahead. Now she has the opportunity to prevent tragedies she knows are coming, while discovering that changing one event can transform everything that follows. The book joins Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter in Sanderson’s loose collection of standalone Hoid-narrated Cosmere stories.
Brandon Sanderson says: “The Fires of December is one of those odd books that shows that even someone like myself who is sometimes regarded as a writer who is very disciplined, who knows the bones and the ins and outs of writing and all these things, someone even like myself is more artist than they pretend and less craftsman than they pretend, because it’s very hard for me to explain where the story came from. I got up the next morning and I wrote the first two chapters. They had entered my brain. I kind of was compelled to write them.”
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