I’m constantly amazed by the prodigious imagination required of a novelist. Coming up with the fully realized plot, characters, and world of even one novel feels beyond me. So how does a fantasy writer like our cover subject, Brandon Sanderson, dream up an entire literary cosmos, as he’s done in Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, two separate series both set in his Cosmere universe? That’s not to mention the standalone novels, plus titles for young adults and children, that he’s written—more than 70 books in all. I seriously wonder if the guy ever sleeps.

As you’ll learn from the interview with Sanderson for our Science Fiction & Fantasy Issue, he’s embarking on yet another series, this time with a little help from a friend, author and musician Peter Orullian. Songs of the Dead (Saga/Simon & Schuster, June 16) is set in a recognizable contemporary London—but one that happens to be guarded by a secret society of magicians and that rests upon multiple strata of the city’s history (hence the series title, The Strata Wars). Our reviewer calls it a “headbanging beginning to what could be a remarkable urban fantasy series.” Did I mention that the protagonist is a heavy metal rocker? Sanderson plays in a very different key here, one that’s sure to delight old fans and bring him some new ones.

While all genre fiction lends itself to series storytelling, science fiction and fantasy narratives really benefit from the expansive worldbuilding that a series allows—after all, SFF writers are creating whole universes from scratch. Here are some recent SFF titles in series that offer readers the pleasure of exploring strange new worlds at length:

Novelist Jim Butcher launched his career in 2000 with Storm Front, about a Chicago PI who happens to be a wizard and is called in to investigate cases with a supernatural twist. Harry Dresden has returned in 17 more novels (and some stories) collectively known as the Dresden Files, a tantalizing blend of hardboiled crime fiction and fantasy. The most recent installment is Twelve Months (Ace/Berkley, Jan. 20). “The series’ snarky noir vibe might be dwindling, but there’s something of substance in its place,” says our starred review.

The Apple TV+ show Murderbot, starring Alexander Skarsgård, brought a whole new cohort of fans to Martha Wells’ award-winning Murderbot Diaries, about a lethal security cyborg that hacks its “governor module” and becomes the sarcastic narrator of its own adventures. The series kicked off in 2017 with All Systems Red; the eighth installment, Platform Decay (Tor), landed last month. The series is also a lot of fun on audiobook, where it’s engagingly read by Kevin R. Free. “Long live Murderbot,” says our Earphones Award review.

For an unnerving SF glimpse into a society distorted by artificial intelligence, check out Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series, in which a warmongering empire uses AI to control human bodies and crew its spaceships. The original trilogy began with Ancillary Justice in 2013; Leckie has extended the universe she created in standalone novels, including, most recently, Radiant Star (Orbit, May 12). Our starred review calls it a “skillfully rendered, thoughtful offshoot of the original story.” Are you ready to explore?

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.