Ten thought-provoking SFF novels

Zoraida Córdova started writing when she was thirteen years old and hasn’t stopped. As a teen, she attended the National Book Foundation’s writing camp. She studied English Literature and Latino Studies at Hunter College, and the University of Montana in Missoula, but neglected her classes in order to write the book that would be her debut novel.

Since 2012, Córdova has written more than two dozen novels and short stories for all ages, including The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina, Valentina Salazar Is Not a Monster Hunter, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate. Her 2016 novel Labyrinth Lost, book one in the Brooklyn Brujas trilogy, won an International Latino Book Award, and is under development at Paramount.

At Publishers Weekly Córdova tagged ten recent favorite SFF novels, including:

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Deep is inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group clipping. Rivers Solomon takes the inspiration and makes something truly original in the story of Yetu, a member of a society of water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women who were thrown overboard by slave owners. In the deep, their past is forgotten to save them from trauma. Except for Yetu, the historian—she remembers for everyone. This is Yetu’s burden. This is the recovery of memory and identity.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue