If 2020 already seems daunting to you, then perhaps it’s time to bury your nose in a new book! These January fantasy and sci-fi releases will whisk you away into a new world or immerse you in an exciting story!
January sees the release of new books from authors William Gibson, Joanna Kavenna, Charlie N. Holmberg, and Melissa Albert, along also debuts from authors Simon Jimenez and Francesca Flores!
Plus there’s some exciting retellings including a gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of Cinderella, a retelling of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and a gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Read on to discover our picks and tell us if you will be picking up any of these fantasy and sci-fi releases!
The God Game by Danny Tobey
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of runes, gods, mythical creatures, and more. But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?
Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
A princess fleeing an arranged marriage teams up with a snarky commoner to foil a rebel plot in B. R. Myers’ Rogue Princess, a gender-swapped sci-fi YA retelling of Cinderella.
Agency by William Gibson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
This thrilling YA retelling of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai features a girl tasked with saving the world from eternal darkness. Perfect for fans of Six of Crows and Marie Lu.
Diamond City by Francesca Flores
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten.
Zed by Joanna Kavenna
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
From the winner of the Orange Award for New Writing comes a blistering, satirical novel about life under a global media and tech corporation that knows exactly what we think, what we want, and what we do–before we do.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever in this captivating debut of connection across space and time.
Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Packed with high-stakes adventure, romance, and dueling identities, this gender-swapped retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo is the first novel in an epic YA fantasy duology, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Sabaa Tahir, and Leigh Bardugo.
The Will and the Wilds by Charlie N. Holmberg
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
A spellbinding story of truce and trickery from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician series.
The Night Country (The Hazel Wood #2) by Melissa Albert
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
In The Night Country, Alice Proserpine dives back into a menacing, mesmerizing world of dark fairy tales and hidden doors. Follow her and Ellery Finch as they learn The Hazel Wood was just the beginning, and that worlds die not with a whimper, but a bang.
The Heap by Sean Adams
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Blending the dark humor of Patrick deWitt and the jagged social and techno-satire of Black Mirror, an audacious, eerily prescient debut novel that chronicles the rise and fall of a massive high-rise housing complex, and the lives it affected before—and after—its demise.
Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository
Strange Exit is Parker Peevyhouse’s next suspenseful, near-future, stand-alone thriller, perfect for fans of Kass Morgan’s The 100 and Patrick Ness’s More Than This.
