Welcome, friend! Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to the 14 fantasy nominees for this year’s Small Spec Book Awards (SSBA). Putting together this list has been such a blast—not just because of the variety of stories here, but also the wide range of subgenres represented, from mythic odysseys and romantic quests to magical noir, flintlock fantasy, and satirical trickster tales. A few of these subgenres were new to me, and maybe they will be for you too! I bet there’s something on this list that’ll grab your imagination.
First, you’ll find a visual gallery of all the nominated titles (borrowed from the SSBA official announcements). Then, dive into individual spotlights with insight on why you might love each book and what subgenre it belongs to. Let’s get started!
🐆 The Jaguar Mask by Michael J. DeLuca
Publisher: Stelliform Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: The Jaguar Mask blends political resistance, folklore, and identity in a gritty urban fantasy. Check it out if you’re drawn to climate fiction with neo-noir elements.
Quick Keywords: Guatemalan folklore • shapeshifters • political resistance • ancestral power • climate change
From the synopsis: Felipe and Cristina must overcome generations of institutionalized silence, uncover the secrets of their powers, and forge a path to justice, or else be swept away by another wave of violence.
What is Noir Fantasy? “Noir Fantasy is a subgenre that blends the gritty, morally ambiguous characteristics of noir fiction with elements of fantasy. These stories typically feature hard-boiled detectives, shadowy urban settings, and complex plots involving crime and mystery. The narratives are often characterized by their cynical tone, morally grey characters, and a focus on the darker aspects of society, all set within a fantastical world.” – Read Jon Cronshaw’s The Ultimate Guide to Fantasy Fiction.
👑 Ghost Apparent by Jelena Dunato
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: If you are in the mood for a dark political fantasy where power and poetry collide, Ghost Apparent promises a tale of rebellion and divine meddling.
Quick Keywords: political fantasy • divine bargains • rebellion & revenge • poetic magic • Renaissance intrigue
From the synopsis: A story of revenge and recovery, Ghost Apparent blends the history and folklore of the Eastern Adriatic with the bloody treachery of the Renaissance courts and is a perfect read for the fans of dark political fantasy.
🎪 The Extravaganza Eternia by Kristin Osani
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: With a cursed heroine and a murder under the big top, this story promises a tender mystery about grief and attachment.
Quick Keywords: supernatural circus • murder mystery • curses • found family
From the synopsis: A darkly fantastical mystery reminiscent of The Night Circus and Even Though I Knew the End, THE EXTRAVAGANZA ETERNIA will enchant and delight.
🫀 Cursed Under London by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch
Publisher: Farrago Books
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: A Grumpy x Sunshine undead romance in an alt-Elizabethan London, Cursed Under London promises a darkly charming story about immortality, identity, and finding something worth living for.
Quick Keywords: queer immortals • reluctant partnership • undead angst • gothic humor • dark comedy
From the synopsis: In a world where immortality is a coveted commodity, Fang and Lazare quickly realise that eternal life is far from a blessing. With both of their futures at risk, will they ever admit that they have finally found something – or someone – to live for?
⏳King Street Run by V.R. Ling
Publisher: Elsewhen Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: Wonderfully British, King Street Run is a satirical fantasy that turns Cambridge’s iconic colleges into eccentric characters in a race against time.
Quick Keywords: personified colleges • time-bending mystery • academic humor • Cambridge setting
From the synopsis: Thomas Wharton, an archaeology graduate, becomes drawn into the problems of a series of anachronistic characters who exist in the fractions of a second behind our own time.
🎭 The Harlequin: The Draper’s Reel by J.A. Mortimore & Penelope Hill
Publisher: Elsewhen Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: For the fans of trickster tales and reluctant heroes!
Quick Keywords: trickster fantasy • divine interference • high-stakes heist • witty narration
From the synopsis: But that’s the thrill, isn’t it? To dance with peril, to spin with the twists, to confound expectations and to embrace the trick for its own sake. The Harlequin doesn’t give up at the first hurdle.
👑 The Mystery of the Pale King by Sam Flynn
Publisher: Timber Ghost Press
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: Dark and daring, The Mystery of the Pale King is a fantasy that dissects faith, power, and performance with the haunting legacy of fallen heroes.
Quick Keywords: flintlock fantasy • fallen heroes • religious horror • theatrical darkness
From the synopsis: Inspired by the historical legend of Gilles de Rais, The Mystery of the Pale King probes the roots of modern American dysfunction in a grim flintlock fantasy setting that reflects the best and worst of humanity.
What is Flintlock Fantasy? “Flintlock fantasy, which is also referred to as gunpowder fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy that takes place a different period of time than traditional fantasy. Most traditional fantasy books take place during medieval times which was before the advent of gunpowder being used. This means more swords, spears, arrows, and siege engines and no guns or cannons. Flintlock fantasy, as the name implies, takes place after the invention of gunpowder. This places it more at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, around the end of the 1700s to the early 1800s in our time.” Continue reading more here, post by This Mythical Life.
🌑 Design of Darkness by R.D. Pires
Publisher: Midnight Meadow Publishing
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: Design of Darkness follows orphaned twins on a dangerous quest across continents, while the evil king turns to dark magic to keep his grip on power. This promises a great read for fans of sweeping journeys and high-stakes rebellion.
Quick Keywords: epic fantasy • sibling bond • dark magic & prophecy • rebellion & resilience
From the synopsis: After the destruction of the village by an evil tyrant, twins Mariana and Arsenio must travel across the Great Ocean to seek aid for their people. But the evil king has made deals with shadows that may affect the entire world.
🧪 Better Living Through Alchemy by Evan J. Peterson
Publisher: Broken Eye Books
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: If you love your fantasy with messy magic, check out Better Living Through Alchemy with a psychic PI, a drug called bardo, and a city full of monsters.
Quick Keywords: occult noir • psychic detective • weird Seattle • street drugs & sorcery • esoteric vibes
From the synopsis: An occult detective with a psychic sense of smell is hired to investigate a magical drug killing people in strange ways in a fantasy-noir Seattle.
👑 The Princess and the Thief by Mary Lynne Gibbs
Publisher: Midnight Meadow Publishing
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: If you love reluctant allies, magical curses, and slow-burning romantic tension, The Princess and the Thief may be a book to pick up!
Quick Keywords: romantasy • cursed magic • elf & half-elf duo • magical quest
From the synopsis: Velicity, a cursed Elven princess, escapes her home and reluctantly teams up with Wind, a half-Elf thief, on a quest to rid herself of the wild magic that could make her a dark queen’s weapon. Along the way, they encounter monsters, kidnappers, and betrayal, but nothing is as terrifying as their own secret feelings for one another.
🌲 Tree Gods by R. Lee Fryar
Publisher: Midnight Meadow Publishing
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: With an ancient forest fast failing in magic, a reluctant heir to its magic, and a doomed romance blooming between enemies, Tree Gods promises a bittersweet MM love story.
Quick Keywords: mythic fantasy • queer romance • forest magic • human vs. nature
From the synopsis: It’s a bad time for a lonely man to find his soulmate. It’s a terrible time for a would-be King of Trees to fall for a human. And if there’s one thing the enchanted forest won’t tolerate, it’s a human and Drus in love. The forest issues an ultimatum.
🕷️ Nine Levels by Elana Gomel
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This:
If you enjoy mythic journeys, Nine Levels promises a layered world of monsters, sentient graffiti, and Greek myth reimagined.
Quick Keywords: Greek mythology • surreal adventure • missing twin • monsters & gods
From the synopsis: A story of self-discovery, courage, and breathtaking adventure, Nine Levels is a highly imaginative, innovative, and engrossing retelling of familiar legends with a twist you won’t see coming.
⚖️ Talio’s Codex by J. Alexander Cohen
Publisher: Space Wizard Science Fantasy
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: Courtroom drama meets queer romantic fantasy in Talio’s Codex!
Quick Keywords: legal fantasy • queer romance • second chances • conspiracy thriller
From the synopsis: To stand a chance of winning the case, saving his career and the man of his dreams, Talio will have to uncover an explosive secret destined to blow the legal system apart.
🪄 The Witch and the Ostrich by Jordan A. Werner
Publisher: Space Wizard Science Fantasy
Links: Purchase from Publisher’s Site, Add to your Goodreads shelf
Why You Might Love This: The Witch and the Ostrich is a whimsical fantasy about unlikely alliances, magical misfires, and a very grumpy necromancer trapped in ostrich form.
Quick Keywords: comedic fantasy • reluctant allies • imperial backwaters • witches with attitude
From the synopsis: Never trust a necromancer ostrich.
What’s Next for SSBA 2025 on the blog
I love supporting indie and small press authors, and awards like the Small Spec Book Awards (SSBA) are such a fantastic way to explore a variety of bold, creative, genre-expanding titles. As an influencer championing these awards, I’ll be highlighting nominees and winners throughout the year in a few different ways:
- This post kicks off my nominee roundups with a focus on the Fantasy shortlist. Next month, I’ll spotlight the Horror titles, followed by Sci-Fi in July.
- I also had the pleasure of chatting with SSBA founders Millie and LN in an interview you can read here.
- Don’t miss the Indie Recommendations from Millie and stay tuned for LN’s favourites.
- In September, I’ll be featuring the semi-finalists, with in another possible roundup.
- Finalists and winners will be highlighted and reviewed on the blog!
- You know I won’t miss the opportunity to chat with the winning authors. 😀
You can follow along and catch all the latest updates at the links above. Indie publishing is doing exciting things in speculative fiction, and I’m so thrilled to be part of sharing it with you! Thanks for reading! 🙂
Check out the links below for updates on the Small Spec Book Awards: Official Page, X, Instagram, BlueSky.
Fantasy 2025 SSBA
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