Can't Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2020

Science Fiction/Fantasy books for 2020

Fantasy by Decade:
1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s
1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s

Locus Recommended Fantasy:
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015,
2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Science Fiction By Decade:
1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s,
1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s

Science Fiction By Year:
2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
2009

Can't Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy By Year:
2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

New Speculative Writers by Decade:
2000s, 2010s
1

by
4.59 avg rating — 221,653 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.47 avg rating — 117,856 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.85 avg rating — 77,078 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.45 avg rating — 1,049,808 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.99 avg rating — 1,102,020 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.23 avg rating — 53,037 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.29 avg rating — 152,191 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
4.29 avg rating — 85,551 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.04 avg rating — 24,135 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
4.49 avg rating — 71,326 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.60 avg rating — 41,882 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.22 avg rating — 423,092 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
4.43 avg rating — 35,271 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.81 avg rating — 12,464 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.91 avg rating — 29,051 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.17 avg rating — 1,421,180 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.14 avg rating — 31,712 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.94 avg rating — 211,360 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
4.44 avg rating — 28,059 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
4.28 avg rating — 12,688 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.67 avg rating — 421,321 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.37 avg rating — 893,339 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
4.18 avg rating — 52,337 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.48 avg rating — 11,887 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.85 avg rating — 24,858 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
3.72 avg rating — 9,382 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.39 avg rating — 12,094 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.10 avg rating — 25,817 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.35 avg rating — 9,549 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.33 avg rating — 6,346 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.90 avg rating — 8,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.25 avg rating — 105,737 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
4.34 avg rating — 172,667 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.80 avg rating — 68,407 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.88 avg rating — 75,014 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.87 avg rating — 4,335 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
3.61 avg rating — 7,306 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.59 avg rating — 23,744 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
4.48 avg rating — 27,616 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.80 avg rating — 6,131 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.64 avg rating — 4,475 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.95 avg rating — 5,533 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
4.32 avg rating — 4,564 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.71 avg rating — 11,805 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
3.29 avg rating — 8,305 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
3.64 avg rating — 41,598 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.82 avg rating — 211,786 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.99 avg rating — 55,003 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
48

by
3.65 avg rating — 3,285 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.24 avg rating — 3,815 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.45 avg rating — 11,032 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
4.43 avg rating — 47,092 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
3.57 avg rating — 1,694 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.76 avg rating — 10,846 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.55 avg rating — 5,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
4.50 avg rating — 106 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.72 avg rating — 6,571 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.92 avg rating — 42,844 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.42 avg rating — 5,884 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.15 avg rating — 12,373 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
3.91 avg rating — 2,982 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.03 avg rating — 100,758 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.65 avg rating — 36,374 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
64

by
3.94 avg rating — 14,036 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
4.38 avg rating — 20,147 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.71 avg rating — 27,645 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.82 avg rating — 4,859 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.64 avg rating — 12,191 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
3.75 avg rating — 4,179 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
4.19 avg rating — 1,717 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.31 avg rating — 4,150 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
3.87 avg rating — 9,761 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.79 avg rating — 286,086 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
74

by
4.14 avg rating — 10,335 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
4.09 avg rating — 7,417 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
3.63 avg rating — 3,703 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
3.72 avg rating — 5,607 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
4.63 avg rating — 15,360 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
3.84 avg rating — 10,360 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.28 avg rating — 7,977 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
3.51 avg rating — 2,834 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
3.96 avg rating — 10,634 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
3.80 avg rating — 5,243 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
3.82 avg rating — 1,687 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
3.92 avg rating — 2,133 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
3.79 avg rating — 4,998 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.70 avg rating — 19,866 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.02 avg rating — 28,586 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.46 avg rating — 16,503 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.14 avg rating — 20,613 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.22 avg rating — 7,038 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
3.56 avg rating — 3,559 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
3.73 avg rating — 2,923 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.19 avg rating — 4,493 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
3.34 avg rating — 949 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.07 avg rating — 10,257 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.09 avg rating — 924 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.17 avg rating — 11,046 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.54 avg rating — 66,989 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
4.30 avg rating — 164 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
511 books · 1,301 voters · list created March 29th, 2019 by Katie (votes) .
230 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Katie 6759 books
6 friends
Jain 843 books
24 friends
Emma 1678 books
6 friends
Mark 1847 books
12 friends
Bar 7045 books
1 friend
Jon 196 books
0 friends
Mats 1193 books
12 friends
Betsy 5577 books
45 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-27 of 27 (27 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Rox (new)

Rox Would it be possible to have a separate list for YA titles (starting with this 2020 list and going forward)? I've just gone through the 2019 list, and at nearly 600 titles it got a little cumbersome to navigate, and as far as I gathered, at least half were YA titles. (My apologies if this has been brought up before.)


message 2: by Betsy (new)

Betsy Wow, someone added a bunch of books that don't belong here.

The Art of Racing in the Rain (#66) was released in 2008.

Where the Crawdads Sing (#64) isn't sci fi or fantasy and was released in 2018

Nevernight (#63) was released in 2016

Wonder Woman (#61) was released in 2017

Scythe (#60) was released in 2016

Verity (#58) was released in 2018 and isn't sci fi or fantasy

Of Ice and Shadows (#55) was released in 2019


message 3: by Betsy (new)

Betsy OK, I just went through and deleted all the ones from my previous comment.


message 4: by Liz H (new)

Liz H {Redd's Reads} Deleted Queen of Nothing as it was bumped up to a 2019 release!


message 5: by Brian (new)

Brian Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer and Burning White by Brent Weeks are 2019 releases


message 6: by Rachel Adiyah (new)

Rachel Adiyah The Never Tilting World has already been published in 2019.


message 7: by Abendstern (new)

Abendstern why even bother to list the next GOT books, or the gentleman bastards next book, for that matter.


message 8: by [deleted user] (last edited Dec 27, 2019 03:51AM) (new)

Please, please take Doors of stone off the list, why do people do this to themselves when there's so many great books coming out and i can't find anything to suggest it's out in 2020?
I haven't added as they are cross genre but shouldn't A Longer Fall and Alpha Night and maybe even Wicked Bite be in here too, they all have release dates


myfortressofbooks Please take off The Never Tilting World as it has already been released in October of 2019


message 10: by Taiwo (new)

Taiwo Madison The Burning White came out in 2019


message 11: by WillowRaven (new)

WillowRaven "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini is listed twice ( #105 and #281 ).


message 12: by Kistopher (new)

Kistopher Langdon Missing out on The Black Shade of White - Justice by the polish author Renata Cattleya Levy


message 13: by Janet (new)

Janet Martin While you're removing things, Fire & Blood II, #49, isn't even scheduled yet. Since Martin has at least 6 other things coming out in some edition or another in 2020, I think it's a way off. And most of the "untitled" entries don't belong here either--nearly always these end up with duplicate entries when someone else enters them when a title is announced.


message 14: by Janet (new)

Janet Martin I wonder why #112, "A Murderous Relation," is on this list. None of the previous books in this series of "historical" mysteries had any supernatural or scifi elements. I like this series a lot, but it's not fantasy other than in the sense that all fiction is.


message 15: by Janet (last edited May 16, 2020 08:39AM) (new)

Janet Martin #382, The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks, isn't fantasy, nor is#231, Carrie Vaughn's The Ghosts of Sherwood--no ghosts at all in that one, just a lurking outlaw. #31, A Desolation Called Peace has a scheduled date of March 2, 2021


message 16: by Mari (last edited Jun 20, 2020 07:52AM) (new)

Mari There are literally NO good fantasy/sci fi books being written today. The writing quality is on a par with Wattpad. The storytelling is just gone. No, I don't care about some modern thinking chick in a Medieval/Renaissance or something world which has magic tarot cards, and can sword fight, and because of the recent news, the must have physical description so we know she isn't fair skinned. Just NO. Oh, yeah. Forgot the evil father in my description.


message 17: by Janet (last edited Jun 22, 2020 07:26AM) (new)

Janet Martin Mari wrote: "There are literally NO good fantasy/sci fi books being written today. The writing quality is on a par with Wattpad. The storytelling is just gone. No, I don't care about some modern thinking chick ..."

I very much disagree--there actually are writers producing genre novels that are all about terrific characters and strong stories. I will agree that most of the stuff that publishers are pushing are exactly as you describe, and I find myself slogging through all too many of them, particularly in "epic" fantasy. Some of the very bestnew stuff is published as "horror," although I would have to say horror light--there're dark elements in Lord of the Rings, etc, and these books aren't any more horror than those. Try Christine Henry, T Kingfisher, Stephen Hopstaken. In scifi, Lois McMasters Bujold (also fantasy) keeps on producing great stories as do Martha Wells, Peter Clines, Jack Campbell, and Elizabeth Moon. These are just a few of the many examples of both new and older writers who continue to put out great stories year after year.


message 18: by Janet (last edited Jun 23, 2020 01:57PM) (new)

Janet Martin The Witness for the Dead, #48 on this list, by Katherine Addison, is probably not a real book. There is no sequel to The Goblin Empire that anyone knows about, but Addison does have a book scheduled this year titled "The Angel of the Crows." I am very excited to read it!


message 19: by Ezgi (new)

Ezgi T Empire of the Vampire says Fall 2021 on its cover.


message 20: by Lukas K (last edited Jul 08, 2020 11:51PM) (new)

Lukas K Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
Expected publication: November 24th 2020

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...


message 21: by Janet (new)

Janet Martin Someone is doing it again--The Unkindness of Ghosts, #398, was published in 2017! Please delete.


message 22: by Janet (last edited Aug 26, 2020 06:36AM) (new)

Janet Martin #88, A History of What Comes Next, won't be out until Feb 2021


message 23: by AliciaJ (new)

AliciaJ I accidentally added An Illusion of Thieves to this list instead of the 2019 list. Can you remove it?


message 24: by Elaine (new)

Elaine I feel like it would be helpful if the list description clarified that "can't wait 2020" means can't-wait-for-these-books-to-be-published in 2020. You can be in a state of anticipation for 2020 for books coming out at much later dates (if ever), which would mean the ASOIaF or KC titles or anything 2021+ would suit. So, which is it intended to be? "Published 2020" or "still excited in 2020"?


message 25: by A.M. (new)

A.M. Hi, could someone move these 5 books since they are not 2020 releases? Thanks!
Doing Time (The Time Police #1) - 2019
The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry - 2021
A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2) - 2021
The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (Montague Siblings, #3) - 2021
The Seven Sisters (London Below, #2) - no publication date yet


message 26: by Viscious (new)

Viscious Shouldn't "The Thorn of Emberlain" be removed from the list too? Now that it is moved to 2021)


message 27: by Dua (in reading slump) ✨ (last edited Jan 31, 2021 04:05AM) (new)

Dua (in reading slump) ✨ Removed The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey which comes out in 2021.
Removed The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch which comes out in 2021.


back to top



Related News

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Anyone can add books to this list.