Sometimes, when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy listening, you just want to escape to another world. And I’m not talking about just swapping our existing reality with a grim fantasy setting where kingdoms hover at the brink of war, or a planetary system faces social and environmental upheaval—I mean really escape. You want a world where the stakes are relatively low, and the characters are relatable. Where the resolution offers a little bit of hope for humanity (and beyond). We can’t imagine why, but lucky for us, cozy sci-fi and fantasy is having a bit of a moment right now. So grab your nearest blanket and favorite warm beverage, stop that doomscrolling, and sink into these 13 out-of-this-world stories that feel like a warm hug.
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Beloved BookTok sensation Travis Baldree wrote and performed this bestselling novel of high fantasy and low stakes. Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv, the orc barbarian, cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start filling mugs instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners, and a different kind of resolve. A hot cup of slice-of-life fantasy, with a dollop of romantic froth.
A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family—and a new love—changes the course of her life. As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don’t mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she’s used to being alone and she follows the rules ... with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously. But someone does.
Linus Baker works as a case manager in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He takes his job seriously, and he’s a strict rule follower. But when he receives an assignment to determine whether or not six magical (and dangerous!) children are likely to bring about the end of the world as we know it, he finds rules and order going out the window. Linus travels to the orphanage where the children live, cared for by Arthur Parnassus, who would do anything to protect these kids and their secrets. This delightful listen about magic and found family, with themes many LGBTQIA+ listeners can relate to, is narrated by Daniel Henning.
Slice-of-life fantasy is having a big moment right now—and this xianxia-inspired take on a hero who decides to leave the cultivator life behind in favor of farm life took us by surprise. There’s farce and plenty of humor here—but there are also characters that are downright fun to get to know. Travis Baldree, who is on fire this year as a performer (and author!), is a sheer joy to hear in this story. Reading its countless five-star reviews, it’s clear that listeners found this upbeat tale to be a wonderful escapist balm this year.
Hugo Award winner Becky Chambers has been our go-to for cozy science fiction since The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet became a staple of the genre, and her delightful Monk & Robot series is no exception. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how...
Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners. Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. An enthralling tale of books, first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat, The Cat Who Saved Books is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.
In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than 100 years. Local legend says this shop offers something else besides coffee: the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious, and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?
The Goblin Emperor is a vividly imagined fantasy of court intrigue and dark magics in a steampunk-inflected world. The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "accident," he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir. Entirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisers, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment.
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man. Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
With mesmerizing narration by actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi follows the titular character on his daily rounds through the House, a labyrinthine mansion full of statues, sea water, and a single mysterious “Other” who sometimes makes an appearance. Follow Piranesi through his daily routine of meticulous record-keeping—an unwavering labor of love and quiet optimism—and slowly uncover the mystery of how he came to be there and just exactly what it all means.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival, her insufferably handsome academic rival, Wendell Bambleby. But as Emily gets closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones, she finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
Starship Captain George Cottonhammer (Will Forte), bored by his job, stops his ship in middle space and floats, doing nothing. He refuses to answer distress calls, dodges anything that smacks of work, chooses instead to focus on his love life and his idea du jour: opening an intergalactic burger franchise. And while he perfects the art of killing time, his crew moves from baffled to annoyed to furious to borderline mutinous. But when an ignored intergalactic distress call turns out to be a trap, the limits of how high someone can fail upwards are stretched, and the captain must, to his dismay, do something.
Space: 1969 is a wild and outrageous sci-fi comedy from the mind of Emmy-winning writer Bill Oakley (The Simpsons) and starring Natasha Lyonne as Nancy Kranich, a night nurse on an orbiting space station. Nancy hates her job, is sick of space, and longs to find adventure and a safe place to smoke cigarettes that won’t blow everyone up. But when Nancy gets caught up in an outer-space conspiracy involving President Kennedy (serving his third term), former Vice President Richard Nixon (now a miserable, forgotten lawyer practicing estate law in New York City), and an intergalactic object that could change the course of history, she gets way more adventure than she bargained for.
