New releases: From The Terraformers to Black’s The Stolen Heir and Tchaikovsky’s Children of Memory. These are the 20 most anticipated new sci-fi and fantasy books in January 2023
From epic planetary sci-fi to space opera, YA romance to dark adult fantasies – these are all the most anticipated new sci-fi and fantasy books in January 2023.
20 New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books in January 2023
The Fevered Winter
1 Jan 2023 (TBC)
We don’t know much about the fourth book in Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Origin series – least what the cover looks like! The award-winning YA author’s been quite tight-lipped about this one. But we do know it was originally slated for a mid-Covid 2021 release and held back – reportedly due to the plot involving a global pandemic and the author presumably not wanting to offend people. Anyway, we’ll be keeping an eye out for Armentrout‘s The Fevered Winter.
Genre Young Adult (YA), Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction, Aliens
Author Jennifer L. Armentrout | Home Martinsburg, West Virginia, US
Publisher Tor Teen
The Stolen Heir
3 Jan 2023
The first of two new Elfhame books, Holly Black’s new Young Adult novel sees Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, hiding from her royal past in the human world. But her charming, beautiful and manipulative former betrothed, Prince Oak, finds her and has a proposition. Can she guard her heart, avoid the horrors she sought to leave behind and face a new threat from Lady Nore’s icy north? All in The Stolen Heir.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Fae, Fairies, Fantasy Romance, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy
Author Holly Black | Home born New Jersey, US; lives Amherst, Massachusetts, US
Publisher Bonnier Zaffre Ltd. | Buy it
A Ruinous Fate
3 Jan 2023
Kaylie Smith’s debut novel follows Calliope Rosewood. Cursed with such terrifying powers, she’d been forced to desert her coven and live on the run from a secret prophecy: that she would be the one to destroy the world and her people, and eradicate magic forever. But now, there might be a chance to alter her fate – though she’ll have to face many new temptations and ultimately decide if choosing what’s best for herself is worth damning everyone else, in A Ruinous Fate.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Witches, LGBTQ, Paranormal
Author Kaylie Smith | Home Louisiana, US
Publisher Disney Hyperion | Buy it
Unseelie
3 Jan 2023
In her debut novel, Ivelisse Housman weaves a YA fantasy tale about two sisters. One is a professional thief and the other a changeling – both on the run for different reasons. The thief is in pursuit of a legendary treasure, while the changeling is seeking answers about her true identity and a sense of belonging among both the fae who created her and the humans who reject her, in Housman’s Unseelie.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Fae, Disability, Fairies, Autistic, Romance, Paranormal
Author Ivelisse Housman | Home Blue Ridge Mountains, US
Publisher Harlequin | Buy it
Song Of Silver, Flame Like Night
3 Jan 2023
What a treat! This new xianxia duology (Chinese fantasy inspired by Buddhism, Taoism and mythology) sees Lan struggling to uncover the secrets of her colonised kingdom’s past – because they might hold clues to the hidden powers within herself. Aided by magician Zen, she journeys to the Last Kingdom in search of answers and a way to overthrow their oppressors. But they must confront their own secrets as they unearth the potential for great power, as it could just as easily liberate their land as bring about its destruction. More in Song of Silver, Flame Like Night.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Dragons, High Fantasy, Magic, Asian Literature
Author Amélie Wen Zhao | Home childhood Beijing, China; lives New York, US
Publisher Random House Children’s Books | Buy it
Hell Bent
10 Jan 2023
Billed as one of Amazon’s most recommended new books of 2023, the second instalment in Bardugo’s Alex Stern series sees Alex hellbent on breaking Darlington out of purgatory. But she can’t call on the university’s Ninth House (from the first book, set to be adapted by Amazon Studios into the new Ninth House TV show) this time and must assemble a rogue squad of dubious allies to help decipher the secrets to accomplishing this feat. When university faculty members start to die off, though, she realises there’s more to this than meets the eye. In Hell Bent.
Genre Fantasy, Adult, Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Thriller, Horror, New Adult
Author Leigh Bardugo | Home born Jerusalem, Israel; lives US
Publisher Flatiron Books | Buy it
The Daughters Of Izdihar
10 Jan 2023
Hadeer Elsbai’s debut novel is the first in a duology set in a modern-Egyptian-inspired world where Nehal, a spoiled aristocrat, and Giorgina, a poor bookshop worker, discover they have more in common than they thought. They want to stand up for women’s rights. And they both can wield forbidden elemental magic to do it. Look out for The Daughters of Izdihar.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBT, Adult, Urban Fantasy
Author Hadeer Elsbai | Home Queens, New York, US
Publisher HarperCollins | Buy it
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia Of Faeries
10 Jan 2023
A Cambridge professor’s quest to create the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore leads to the small town of Hrafnsvik. A rival academic, Wendell Bambleby, charms the townspeople and hampers her search. But the investigation into the Hidden Ones also yields clues about Wendell’s true intentions. And to solve that mystery, Emily must confront her own feelings.
Genre Fantasy, Romance, Adult, Historical Fiction, Fairies, Magic
Author Heather Fawcett | Home Vancouver, Canada
Publisher Random House Worlds | Buy it
City Of Nightmares
10 Jan 2023
This YA fantasy set in a Gotham-like city run by crooked politicians and sinister cults sees a cowardly girl embroiled in a criminal syndicate conspiracy. But this city is also a place where dreaming means becoming your worst nightmare – like in Strange the Dreamer. And clearing her name will mean confronting terrible monsters, including some of her own in this City of Nightmares.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Horror, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Vampires, Dystopia, Dark
Author Rebecca Schaeffer | Home Canada
Publisher HarperCollins | Buy it
Lost In The Moment And Found
10 Jan 2023
Can lost innocence be reclaimed? Even discovering the place where all lost things go, Antoinette cannot find the one thing she is looking for, in Seanan McGuire’s standalone novella, Lost in the Moment and Found.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Novella, Adult, Urban Fantasy, Magical Realism, LGBTQ
Author Seanan McGuire | Home California, US
Publisher Tor Publishing Group | Buy it
Barrow Of Winter
17 Jan 2023
When an endless and maddening night cloaks the frozen northern land, the last Daughter of Winter returns from her new home in the warm southern lands to see her former people and siblings teetering on the brink of mad violence. It will take everything she has to prevent the madness from spreading. And do so before the spring winds blow, for then the sons and daughters of Winter will bring her southland to its knees, in Barrow of Winter.
Genre Adult, High Fantasy
Author HM Long | Home Ontario, Canada
Publisher Titan | Buy it
(Set yourself a reminder on this page: Barrow of Winter release date.)
The Keeper’s Six
17 Jan 2023
Space, time, dragonlords – they have nothing on this parent’s love. Even being banned from travelling the “Beyond” can’t stop spell-slinger mother Esther from assembling her magical party to go into it and find her captured son in The Keeper’s Six.
Genre Fantasy, Dragons, Adult, Science Fiction, Magic
Author Kate Elliott | Home Hawaii, US
Publisher Tor Publishing Group | Buy it
Godkiller
19 Jan 2023
A former champion of the god wars must trick a slayer of gods, a young girl and an unkillable god into coming back to the city of fallen shrines – without any of them figuring out the reason for this strange new quest. All in the new fantasy book, Hannah Kaner’s Godkiller.
Genre Fantasy, Adult, Mythology, LGBTQ, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Young Adult
Author Hannah Kaner | Home United Kingdom
Publisher HarperCollins UK
The House At The End Of The World
24 Jan 2023
Embattled artist Katie lives ensconced in her fortress-like island home when a terrible secret from a nearby island turns her world upside down. And soon Katie’s embroiled in a terrifying battle against an omnipresent terror that might just threaten to bring about the end of the world. Discover it in Dean Koontz’s new book, The House at the End of the World.
Genre Science Fiction Horror, Thriller
Author Dean Koontz | Home born Everett, Pennsylvania; lives Newport Coast, California, US
Publisher Amazon Publishing | Buy it
The Infinite
24 Jan 2023
The third and final book in Ada Hoffmann’s The Outside series sees the chaos-ravaged planet Jai in dire peril. But a new prophecy claims Yasira Shien can save everyone by sacrificing herself. And now, as ancient enemies close in, it’s a desperate race to find an alternative in The Infinite.
Genre Science Fiction, LGBTQ
Author Ada Hoffmann | Home Ontaria, Canada
Publisher Angry Robot | Buy it
Spice Road
24 Jan 2023
In the first book of an epic fantasy series set in an Arabian-inspired world, 16-year-old Imani must use her skills and knowledge of secret spice magic to protect her nation from the monsters lurking in the sands. When her brother, the person she trusts most, betrays the country and becomes its greatest threat, Imani is determined to find him and bring him back to the right path, in Maiya Ibrahim’s Spice Road.
Genre Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, High Fantasy, Mythology, Asian Literature
Author Maiya Ibrahim | Home Sydney, Australia
Publisher Random House Children’s Books | Buy it
Village In The Sky
31 Jan 2023
In the 9th instalment of McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series, archaeological crew Alex, Chase, and Gabe travel to the Orion Nebula to investigate newly discovered intelligent life that had simply vanished without a trace, mere months after its first discovery. Only to find something both miraculous and absolutely terrifying. All is revealed in the sci-fi mystery novel Village in the Sky.
Genre Science Fiction, Mystery
Author Jack McDevitt | Home Brunswick, Georgia, US
Publisher Simon and Schuster | Buy it
The Terraformers
31 Jan 2023
Probably the most talked about and anticipated novel on this list. Annalee Newitz’s The Terraformers is a sci-fi epic spanning thousands of years during the terraforming of Earth-like planet Sask-E. You have one network analyst discovering a hidden city and making decisions that ripple through the ages. To engineers many generations down the line discovering dark real estate secrets, with desperate planet-altering choices along the way. Plus: humans helped by moose, mole rats and cyborg bovine – check out The Terraformers.
Genre Science Fiction, Epic, Speculative, Sci-fi Fantasy, Adult, LGBTQ
Author Annalee Newitz | Home born Irvine, California, US
Publisher Tor Publishing Group | Buy it
Children Of Memory
31 Jan 2023
In the third instalment of Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series, life is tough for the people of Heorest Holt’s new human colony, established elsewhere after earth’s apparent downfall. Much technological knowledge has been lost, but humans survive. Until a highly-advanced new threat appears, throwing everything into jeopardy. Can Holt’s granddaughter Liff save the colony? Find out in Children of Memory.
Genre Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space, Adventure
Author Adrian Tchaikovsky | Home born Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire; lives Leeds, UK
Publisher Orbit | Buy it
Vampire Weekend
31 Jan 2023
Being a vampire kinda sucks… There’s no flying or turning into bats, no murdering (ever!) and, for loner vamp Louise Chao, just blood bags, terrible night jobs and enjoying decades of punk rock from afar. Unless she can find a way to hide her “dark” nature and start her own band… Why not? All in Mike Chen’s Vampire Weekend.
Genre Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Adult, Paranormal, Supernatural
Author Mike Chen | Home San Francisco, US
Publisher MIRA | Buy it
Note: I try my best to get every bit of info I can, and will keep updating this page all the time. If you know of an author and book that should be on this list, let me know at elvorne@scifixfantasy.com and I’ll make it happen.
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