Speculative Fiction Titles
Speculative fiction encompasses genres that depart from reality, as in the supernatural, futuristic, and other imaginative realms, including sci-fi, fantasy, horror, utopian/dystopian, etc.
Works are alphabetized by author. Genres are listed beside works. For details about a specific work, refer to author’s Substack. The Library is not responsible for content on individual authors’ Substacks.
(N) Novel / (NA) Novella / (NT) Novelette (B) Nonfiction Book
(C) Complete / (I) Serial In Progress
(F) Free / ($) Paid / (F)→($) Preview Available
Speculative By Genre (Click Here)
The Castle Of The Naked Knights (TCOTNK) | Bertus | Speculative (N) (I) (F)
A strange little festival in the 1950's inspires a picture book and it will take a hundred years before its full reach becomes clear. Be careful with what you draw. Excerpt from the diary of Season 3: I'm ready to go. Didn't sleep. Finally it becomes light. I'm afraid. Once again I step out of my safety. That is unwise. I am unwise. That's exactly what I have to do. That's exactly what I don't want. I'm not ready to go at all. A bike ride of a thousand kilometers requires preparation. Not just inner urge. Not just a bike with potential. Purpleness doesn't matter, bicycle-bags do. And food, money, rain-gear. And I need to take what I don't want to leave behind. I'm standing at my drawing table crying. The smooth door on the dressers has served me well. How many hours have I sat under the dirty block window? How long is the line of ink that has flowed from my scratchy pens? How many colours did I layer on top of each other? Flow, I have to flow, every day. How is that possible on the road? Where do I leave what comes next? What comes next if I leave?
Battles Beneath the Stars | William F. Edwards | Speculative (N) (I) (F)
Fates collide at the Grand Festival, the first event to bring all the different lands of Hybridis together. The strongest and most ambitious have their eyes set on the tournament held at it. Aodh sees it as a chance to master his draconic powers so he doesn’t hurt anyone else, Quiahuitl seeks to demonstrate the strength of her new empire, Metrophanes is looking to escape the stain of his past villainy, and they’re not the only ones with their own reason to win. Battles Beneath the Stars blends mediums, being written like a script and guide for a video game. Each fighter has their own version of the story. Who will you choose as the protagonist?
The Beginning of Nations | Kim Hardy | Speculative (NT) (C) (F)
Do our origins arise from the evolution of stardust? Or were we created by an all-knowing God? The Beginning of Nations, a five-part speculative serial, uses key verses from Genesis to bind the age-old story to a future where we finally find out.
The Incredible Machines of Thinkery: Outpost #9 | Linnhe Harrison | Speculative Fiction (N) (I) (F)
Ezra and Betsy Cooper are thirty four years into a childless marriage, struggling to make ends meet, trapped in a repressive patriarchal system. Hope of a better life arrives when The Institute of Thinkery recruits the highly intelligent Betsy for a new scientific research programme. Thanks to his skills as a carpenter, Ezra is assigned to The Transmitters and posted to Outpost #9, a small cabin on a tiny island in the Wadden Sea, North Holland. The long separation – whilst difficult for Ezra - is a small price to pay to end Betsy’s unhappiness. But six months into the posting, Ezra and his Dutch colleague Ivo begin to unravel disturbing truths behind The Institute. Amidst a backdrop of death, lust, desperation and treachery, Ezra strives to be reunited with Betsy, in a totalitarian world on the verge of a sinister technological breakthrough.
Monster | Marion Jensen | Speculative thriller (N) (I) (F)
The book is free. Paid subscribers will get access to a podcast discussing the creative process, decisions made while writing each chapter, etc.
After a traumatic head injury, Nick Carson discovers he has an incredible ability; he can predict–and prevent–another person’s death. The burden of this ability tears his life apart in a matter of months. He’s left with little more than the recurring, exhaustive decision of who he can save and who he’ll let die. A chance encounter with Celeste, a clerk at a grocery store, leads to a series of revelations, each more unbelievable than the last. A singular event is coming where millions will die, leaving one small infant alive. Nick becomes convinced he can stop the event, while Celeste becomes convinced Nick is the one who must be stopped.
The Chronicles of Samuel Carter | Alexander Ipfelkofer | Speculative (NA) (I) (F)
One rainy Sunday morning, Doctor Samuel Carter answers a phone call that would change his life. Curious, he joins a secret expedition to Egypt to “find what no one else could,” only to stumble from one mishap into the next. Upon his return to London, not quite himself, his whole world starts to unravel.
The Glaciermen | Xavier Macfarlane | Action-Adventure (N) (I) (F)
(May be partially paywalled after completion, est. late 2024)
A boy survives a plane crash on the ice sheet of Southern Greenland, soon learning that man is not the apex predator, and an ancient evil holds the secret to survival. A science team searches a long-frozen airline crash for clues to unlock the mysteries hidden in DNA, but discovers something much more sinister underneath the ice. "The Thing” meets “Apocalypto.”
Worst Thing in the Universe | Russell Nohelty | Speculative, Satire (N) (C) ($)
Albert Ross is an anomaly. Karma doesn't think anything he does is wrong. It's a glitch in the universe that God can't fix. Every trillion or so births in the universe, there is a karmic anomaly. That's not to say karma doesn't have its retribution. For every horrible act Albert Ross commits, karma punishes Vikram Suresh. Poor, sweet Vikram. He doesn't know why his life is so horrible. He doesn't know why the universe is unkind. It's unkind because of Albert Ross. That is the crux of the karmic anomaly. Karma thinks everything that Albert Ross does is actually carried out by Vikram Suresh. What a horrible lot in life. That's why Vikram kills himself. It usually doesn't matter when a poor, miserable schlub dies, but this death has instant ramifications. With his death, Karma can instantly see Albert Ross again and realizes its mistake. Like a rubber band, all the horrible things that Albert's ever done slingshot back to him at once, and God watches with glee as karma has its revenge.
Shade | PennPowel | Action-Adventure | (N) (I) (F)
Alyssa Knight thought getting caught in a bushfire at thirteen would be the worst moment of her life. Then she went to New York. The city has been under martial law since a gang war in 1989. Only Marine officers, like Alyssa’s father, and rebels get to leave these days - the Marines to visit their families, the rebels to prison cells. The worst of these rebels - Shade - has just escaped, and he has a score to settle with Colonel Knight. Fearing Shade will go after his family, the Colonel brings them to New York, where he and his men can protect them. Alyssa thinks this is a bad idea. She’s not wrong.
Down in the Holler | Bridget Riley | Mystery (NA) (C) (F)
Judith Temple, a software developer, feels most at home with theories and cold, hard facts. But she also experiences seemingly psychic visions. When Judith finds herself drawn into a missing person cold case in rural Kentucky, she must learn to use both her hyper-analytical, logical mind and her newfound ability (skill? gift? curse? delusion?) to find the mysterious woman reaching out to her.
The Hollow Men, Or, The Opera Ghost | Iris Shaw | Speculative (NT) (C) (F)
Martin writes a message on a piece of scenery and brings a ghost to life. Years later, the ghost is still there, and though Martin forgot about it long ago, it hasn’t forgotten him.
Tidelands | Gareth Southwell | Sci-fi/Fantasy | (N) (I) (F)→($)
Parts 2 onward are behind a paywall (Part 1 will remain free for all to read)
In a flooded city on the brink of collapse, the arcology provides a high-tech haven – for those who can afford it. Here, safe in her pampered confinement, Eva longs for escape. But each day she is made to play The Game, a mysterious virtual environment that seems more designed to monitor and test than to entertain. Outside, life is a different story, where unregulated tech spawns nightmares to rival those of fairytale and folklore – ghosts and monsters, the no-longer-human and the never-should-have-been. Here, Squirrel is a memory thief, eking out a fraught existence in service to the criminal gangs that trade in illicit gene hacks, blackmarket augments and – her speciality – stolen secrets. But with skills she didn’t know she had, Squirrel steals a secret its owners would do anything to keep hidden. And as her new-found talents attract the attention of bad people keen to utilise them for their own ends, her only route out leads to the arcology itself, to Eva, and the answers that will upend both their lives.
Island People | Von | Young Adult (N) (I) (F)
A young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.