My go to genre is Fantasy, and although Science Fiction has taken a back burner position over the last couple of years, it is one of my favorite genres to immerse myself into. I decided to put together a list of both new fantasy and science fiction books that I am shooting to the top of my TBR list over the next couple months. All of these book releases are either recently out in December 2022, or coming out January 2023.
Related Link: underrated Fantasy Books
*Blurbs for each book curtesy of Good Reads*
New Fantasy and Science Fiction Books out December 2022
12/06/2022 Fractured Infinity
Listen, this book was pitched to me as being perfect for fans of both The Time Traveler’s Wife and Rick and Morty, and I’m sorry, but NOTHING sounds more intriguing than a mash up of those two works so COUNT ME IN.
Film-maker Hayes Figueiredo is struggling to finish the documentary of his heart when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan shows up, claiming Hayes is the key to understanding the Envisioner – a mysterious device that can predict the future.
Hayes is taken to a top-secret research facility where he discovers his alternate self from an alternate universe created the Envisioner and sent it to his reality. Hayes studies footage of the other him, he discovers a self he doesn’t recognize, angry and obsessive, and footage of Yusuf… as his husband.
As Hayes finds himself falling for Yusuf, he studies the parallel universe and imagines the perfect life they will live together. But their lives are inextricably linked to the other reality, and when that couple’s story ends in tragedy Hayes realizes he must do anything he can to save Yusuf’s life. Because there are infinite realities, but only one Yusuf.
12/06/2022 Where it Rains in Color
I read the synopsis of this book over the weekend and knew that I had to read it. I have purposefully been seeking out books in the Afro-futurism/Sci Fi genre after falling in love with N.K Jemisin last year and this feels like a perfect next read.
Lileala has just been named the Rare Indigo – beauty among beauties – and is about to embrace her stardom, until something threatens to change her whole lifestyle and turn the planet of Swazembi upside down.
Colonized by the descendants of Earth’s West African Dogon Tribe, the planet of Swazembi is a blazing, color-rich utopia and famous vacation center of the galaxy. No one is used to serious trouble in this idyllic, peace-loving world, least of all the Rare Indigo.
But Lileala’s perfect, pampered lifestyle is about to be shattered. The unthinkable happens and her glorious midnight skin becomes infected with a mysterious disease. Where her skin should glisten like diamonds mixed with coal, instead it scabs and scars. On top of that, she starts to hear voices in her head, and everything around her becomes confusing and frightening.
Lileala’s destiny, however, goes far beyond her beauty. While searching for a cure, she stumbles upon something much more valuable. A new power awakens inside her, and she realizes her whole life, and the galaxy with it, is about to change…
12/27/2022 Queen of Myth and Monsters
My number one love language is vampires and I’m not ashamed of this fact in the slightest. I wasn’t a huge fan of A Touch of Darkness but I am keeping an open mind and going into this vampire book with open arms…and a willing neck. (I had to, sorry) This is also the second book in the Adrian and Isolde series so I evidently have to read the first because I’ve been living under a rock and didn’t see that it came out.
Isolde, newly coronated queen, has finally found a king worthy of her in the vampire Adrian. But their love for each other has cost Isolde her father and her homeland. With two opposing goddesses playing mortals and vampires like chess pieces against one another, Isolde is uncertain who her allies are in the vampire stronghold of Revekka.
Now, as politics in the Red Palace grow more underhanded and a deadly blood mist threatens all of Cordova, Isolde must trust in the bond she’s formed with Adrian, even as she learns troubling information about his complicated past.
Related Link: Smutty Fae Fantasy books
New Fantasy and Science Fiction Books out January 2023
1/03/2023 Vamps
Speaking of Vampires…I absolutely had to add this Dark Paranormal Fantasy to the list as well. I also immediately decided it was a must read when I read the words “elite vampire academy”. Am I about to read a dark fantasy/Paranormal romance mash up with dark academia? Is this about to be my new favorite book of all time?
Nestled in the Swiss Alps, VAMPS is the ultimate academy for the children of the most wealthy and powerful vampire families. Unfortunately for Dillon, he’s an outsider—to be more specific, he’s a dhampir: a vampire that is half human.
If he wants to survive more than a single term, he’s going to need to embrace his fangs. But blood never lies and soon, it becomes clear there is something special and deadly in Dillon’s veins. But as his power grows, so does the target on his back…
1/10/2023 Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies
If any book has worked its way into having the highest of high hopes it’s this one. I am trying to reign in my excitement for this book so I don’t overshoot my expectations but…it looks like the most charming “cup of warm tea” book I have ever seen. I am also instantly drawn to books where the main character(s) are described as “curmudgeonly”.
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. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other 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 dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also 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.
1/10/2023 The Daughters of Izdihar
I added this book to my list to fill the category of fierce women characters. I am honestly so excited to meet the characters in this book!
As a waterweaver, Nehal can move and shape any water to her will, but she’s limited by her lack of formal education. She desires nothing more than to attend the newly opened Weaving Academy, take complete control of her powers, and pursue a glorious future on the battlefield with the first all-female military regiment. But her family cannot afford to let her go–crushed under her father’s gambling debt, Nehal is forcibly married into a wealthy merchant family. Her new spouse, Nico, is indifferent and distant and in love with another woman, a bookseller named Giorgina.
Giorgina has her own secret, however: she is an earthweaver with dangerously uncontrollable powers. She has no money and no prospects. Her only solace comes from her activities with the Daughters of Izdihar, a radical women’s rights group at the forefront of a movement with a simple goal: to attain recognition for women to have a say in their own lives. They live very different lives and come from very different means, yet Nehal and Giorgina have more in common than they think. The cause–and Nico–brings them into each other’s orbit, drawn in by the group’s enigmatic leader, Malak Mamdouh, and the urge to do what is right.
1/10/2023 Hell Bent
This is the second book to Ninth House, and although I didn’t LOVE the first book I am still really excited to continue the story. No matter how disgusting this cover is…
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory―even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale.
Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows these aren’t just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if she is going to survive, she’ll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
1/31/2023 Barrow of Winter
I read Hall of Smoke last year and absolutely loved the authors writing style. I had never read a viking fantasy book before but clearly have been missing out! If I’m reading the description correctly I believe this is about new characters in the same world as Hall of Smoke.
Thray is the Last Daughter of Winter, half immortal and haunted by the legacy of her blood. When offered a chance to visit the northern land of Duamel, where her father once ruled, she can’t refuse – even if it means lying to the priesthood she serves and the man she loves.
In Duamel, Thray’s demi-god siblings rule under the northern lights, worshipped by arcane cults. An endless winter night cloaks the land, giving rise to strange beasts, terrible storms and a growing, desperate hunger. The people of Duamel teeter on the edge of violence, and Thray’s siblings, powerful and deathless, stand with them on the brink.
To earn her siblings’ trust and find the answers she seeks, Thray will have to weather assassinations, conspiracies and icy wastelands. And as her siblings turn their gaze towards the warmer, brighter land she calls home, she must harness her own feral power and decide where her loyalties lie.
Because when the spring winds blow and the ice breaks up, the sons and daughters of Winter will bring her homeland to its knees.
