10 new fantasy and sci-fi books to read in January 2023
By Daniel Roman
HELL BENT by Leigh Bardugo (January 10)
Leigh Bardugo may be best known for her Grishaverse novels, but she’s also carved out a space for herself in the dark magical academia genre with her acclaimed adult fantasy novel Ninth House. The first novel followed Galaxy “Alex” Stern as she was plucked out of her difficult life and tasked with uncovering secret occult activities at Yale University. This month Bardugo is back with the follow-up, Hell Bent.
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.
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LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND by Seanan McGuire (January 10)
The newest novella in Seanan McGuire’s Nebula and Hugo-award winning Wayward Children series is coming out this month! While this is technically Book 8 in the series, it’s also a standalone work that can be enjoyed whether you’re familiar with McGuire’s other stories or not.
The series revolves around a boarding school for children who have discovered fantastical realms, but Lost in the Moment and Found follows new character Antoinette, who finds herself trapped in a magical shop where all lost things eventually end up. In this place are many doorways to worlds beyond imagining, yet “however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.”
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EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by Heather Fawcett (January 10)
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is the beginning of a new fantasy series from author Heather Fawcett. It’s the story of Cambridge professor Emily Wilde, a genius scholar who prefers studying faeries to dealing with things like social interactions. Yet when Emily relocates to the small village of Hrafnsvik to study the reclusive fae who live in the forest nearby, she is interrupted by “insufferably handsome” fellow academic Wendell Bambleby. As Emily gets deeper into the mysteries of the elusive fae, she discovers Wendell might be keeping some secrets of his own.
Fawcett is best known for her middle grade and young adult novels like Ember and the Ice Dragons or Even the Darkest Stars. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries marks her first major foray into the realm of adult fantasy. It sounds like it’d be perfect to read while curling up next to a roaring hearth.