New Books: 23 January 2024

Bristow, Su: The Fair Folk
(Europa Editions 9798889660125, $18, 400pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Faustian fairytale fantasy novel. In 1959 eight-year-old Felicity accepts a gift from the fairy queen. As an adult she is constantly visited by the queen’s companions, wreaking havoc with her friendships and love life. Felicity finally begins to explore the true nature of the Fair Folk with the help of a folklorist professor, to try to find out what the fairies want from her.

 

Dickinson, Seth: Exordia
(Tordotcom 9781250233011, $29.99, 544pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Science fiction novel. Anna Sinjari ― refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker ― has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes. While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror.

 

El-Arifi, Saara: Faebound
(Penguin Random House/Del Rey 9780593723005, $28.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Queer fantasy romance novel, the first in a trilogy inspired by West African lore. Elven tribes fight a Forever War amongst themselves, but exiled soldiers discover the fae, long believed extinct, still live in an strange, underground world.

 

Gibson, Natalie: The Last Immortal
(BHC Press 9781643972541, $30, 422pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Gothic horror novel. Lady Ramillia Winmore has holes in her memory, but even when an arranged marriage frees her from a cruel asylum, her husband’s household of bloodthirsty immortals is even worse.

 

McDonnell, C.K.: Relight My Fire
(Penguin Random House UK/Bantam UK 9780857505354, $£18.99, 528pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/25/2024)

Humorous fantasy novel, fourth in the Stranger Times series about a weekly newspaper dedicated to investigating the unexplained and inexplicable — including an unusual outbreak of grave-robbing in Manchester.

 

Modesitt, L.E., Jr.: From the Forest
(Tor 9781250877284, $30.99, 464pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Fantasy novel, the first in a new storyline in the Saga of Recluce series (23rd in the overall series). Alaylakal hides his magus abilities as he climbs the ranks of Cyador’s Mirror Lancers.

 

Murray, Andrew Hunter: The Sanctuary
(Blackstone Publishing 9798200966349, $26.99, 342pp, formats: hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Near-future SF novel. Ben is a painter from the crowded, turbulent city. For six months his fiancée, Cara, has been working on the remote island of Sanctuary Rock, the private estate of millionaire philanthropist Sir John Pemberley. Now she has decided to break off their engagement and stay there for good. Ben travels to the island to try and win Cara back. After an arduous journey, he finds himself compelled to stay. But as Ben begins to traverse Pemberley’s kingdom, he begins to uncover the truth of the apparently perfect society the enigmatic Sir John is building.

 

Neiheiser, Tyffany: Not Dead Enough
(Penguin Random House/Viking 9780593205549, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Young-adult thriller/horror novel. Charlotte survived the crash that killed her abusive boyfriend, but now it looks like he’s stalking her — and she doesn’t believe in ghosts. A first novel.

 

Shawl, Nisi: Kinning
(Tor 9781250212696, $28.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Neo-Victorian alternate-history SF steampunk novel, sequel to Everfair. The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done. Tink and his sister Bee-Lung are traveling the world via aircanoe, spreading the spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus. Through these spores, they seek to build bonds between people and help spread revolutionary sentiments of socialism and equality ― the ideals that led to Everfair’s founding.

 

Thiru, Dinesh: Into the Sunken City
(HarperTeen 9780063310513, $19.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Young-adult post-apocalyptic retelling of Treasure Island. Jin, orphaned and barely getting by at her family’s inn, signs on with a drifter with a plan to dive for gold in the drowned ruins of Las Vegas. A first novel.

 

Tsamaase, Tlotlo: Womb City
(Kensington/Erewhon 9781645660569, $28, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 01/23/2024)

Dystopian afrofuturist SF novel with elements of body horror. A woman put in a borrowed body 15 years after death finds her police-officer husband tracks her every move, and then an accidental death complicates everything. A first novel.

 

Ward, J.R.: Mine
(Simon & Schuster/Pocket 9781982180232, $10.99, pp, formats: paperback, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Paranormal romance novel, third and final in the Lair of the Wolven series. In this finale, Lydia and Daniel are bracing themselves for his inevitable decline but first, they must go on a rescue mission that will put both their lives in danger.

 

Willett, Edward, ed.: Shapers of Worlds Volume IV
(Shadowpaw Press 9781989398883, $29.99, 434pp, formats: trade paperback, hardcover, ebook, 01/23/2024)

Original anthology of 19 stories (four reprints), all by authors featured on The Worldshapers podcast in its fourth year. Authors with new stories include David Boop, Sarah A. Hoyt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jean-Louis Trudel. Illustrated by Wendi Nordell. Funded through Kickstarter.

 

Yaniv, Nir: The Good Soldier
(Shadowpaw Press 9781989398821, $18.99, pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, 01/23/2024)

SF novel. The Imperial Navy has long been at war. It is a well-oiled machine, a mighty galactic power in which nothing can go wrong. Enter Pre-Private Joseph Fux, self-proclaimed Idiot, Second Class. When Fux arrives on board the light frigate UPS Spitz, things immediately begin to go wrong. It’s not Fux’s fault. It never is. Accidents just happen when he’s around, despite the best intentions. And as the always-cheerful Fux bungles his way through one job after another, he throws the whole ship and its orderly crew into chaos.