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A new month is almost upon us, and that means a whole new slate of fantasy and science fiction books are speeding toward shelves. We kicked off the year with a list of fantasy and science fiction books that came out in January, and we’re continuing that trend into February. The first installments of new series, standalone books, and even long-awaited sequels to celebrated novels are all on their way.
But first, a note before we begin: due to the ongoing strike of HarperCollins employees, we are not including any titles from HarperCollins or its imprints on this list. As of this writing, HarperCollins and its union have finally entered mediations after more than two months on strike. We hope for a speedy resolution for all involved so that we can get back to reporting about the many exciting books coming from HarperCollins imprints this year.
Now let’s round up the eight sci-fi and fantasy books that we’re most excited to check out that are releasing during the month of February!
Update: Since the writing of this article, the HarperCollins union strike has finally resolved. We’ve added in one of the publisher’s titles we were extremely excited for in February, because it’s never too late to gush about great books!
VICTORY CITY by Salman Rushdie (February 7)
Hearing the name Salman Rushdie may not immediately evoke thoughts of fantasy stories, but his new novel is squarely in the realm of speculative fiction. Rushdie has been a public figure ever since his most famous book, The Satanic Verses, led to assassination attempts and a fatwa calling for his death being placed upon him by the leader of Iran. Last year the author was attacked during a lecture, suffering serious injuries from which he’s still recovering.
But the wheels of the book business keep on turning. Rushdie has a new novel coming out this month, a sprawling epic that spans centuries. Victory City explores an alternate history where a young girl has become the vessel for a goddess. Check out the description:
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for a goddess, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—“victory city”—the wonder of the world.
Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing from a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry—with Pampa Kampana at its center.
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OUR SHARE OF NIGHT by Mariana EnrÍquez, translated by Megan McDowell (February 7)
Moving into the realm of speculative horror, our next book comes from Argentine author Mariana EnrÍquez, translated into English by Megan McDowell. EnrÍquez is best known for her short story collections Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, the latter of which was a finalist for a bunch of awards back in 2021. Our Share of Night is a full-length novel that promises more of the author’s signature take on psychological horror.
A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travels to her family home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed. The woman they grieve came from a clan like no other—a centuries-old secret society called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of eternal life. For Gaspar, the son, this vampiric cult is his destiny.
Now Gaspar is in danger. As the Order tries to possess him, father and son take flight, yet nothing will stop the Order for nothing is beyond them. Hunted by evil and surrounded by horror, Gaspar and his father attempt to outrun a powerful family that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But can any of us escape the fate that awaits us?
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THE TYRANNY OF FAITH by Richard Swan (February 14)
The follow-up to Richard Swan’s breakout 2021 debut novel The Justice of Kings is arriving this month as well! Combining mysteries with the trappings of fantasy, Swan’s Empire of the Wolf series follows Sir Konrad Vonvalt, an Emperor’s Justice who serves as “detective, judge, and executioner all in one,” and his companion Helena Sedanka. The first novel garnered a ton of praise for its intricate political conflicts, detailed worldbuilding, inventive magic and compelling characters. The Tyranny of Faith is set to continue the story of Konrad Vonvault, delving even deeper into the difficult task of upholding the law in a land rife with corruption and intrigue.
The Battle of Galen’s Vale is over, but the war for the Empire’s future has just begun. Concerned by rumors that the Magistratum’s authority is waning, Sir Konrad Vonvalt returns to Sova to find the capital city gripped by intrigue and whispers of rebellion. In the Senate, patricians speak openly against the Emperor, while fanatics preach holy vengeance on the streets.
Yet facing down these threats to the throne will have to wait, for the Emperor’s grandson has been kidnapped – and Vonvalt is charged with rescuing the missing prince. His quest will lead him – and his allies Helena, Bressinger and Sir Radomir – to the southern frontier, where they will once again face the puritanical fury of Bartholomew Claver and his templar knights – and a dark power far more terrifying than they could have imagined.
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USERS by Colin Winnette (February 21)
A standalone novel that delves into the realm of tech start-ups, Users follows a VR designer who creates a new program that slowly derails his life. Called “The Ghost Lover,” it creates a VR experience where players are haunted by the ghost of an ex-partner, which sounds pretty awful. Which I guess makes it perfect for big tech, really.
Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its “original experiences,” has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. The “game” is simple: a user’s simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they’re haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. Responding to and manipulating the user’s mind and body in perfect, dystopian harmony, The Ghost Lover becomes wildly popular—and wildly controversial—in the VR world.
When Miles receives a series of anonymous death threats—typed notes sealed in envelopes with no postage or return address—paranoid panic begins blurring his own sense of reality, catalyzing the collapse of his career, his marriage, and his relationship with his children.
The once-promising road to success becomes a narrow set of choices for Miles, who, in a last ditch effort to save his job, pitches his masterpiece, a revolutionary device code-named the Egg, which will transform the company. The consequences for Miles seal him inside the walls of his life as what was once anxiety explodes into devastating absoluteness.
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ARCH-CONSPIRATOR by Veronica Roth (February 21)
Veronica Roth is best known for her Divergent series of YA sci-fi novels, but come this February she’ll be releasing Arch-Conspirator, an adult science fiction novel that reimagines the Greek myth of Antigone in a dystopian future where humanity is on its last legs and the future rests on the genes of the fallen.
Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.
Antigone’s parents – Oedipus and Jocasta – are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father’s vacant throne, all Antigone feels is rage.
When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.
But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.
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THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SIRAFI by Shannon Chakraborty (February 28)
February is an exciting month for fans of S.A. Chakraborty, the author of the highly-acclaimed Daevabad trilogy. While Daevabad may have come to an end for now, Chakraborty is starting a brand new series this month with the release of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. It’s a high seas pirate adventure, and it sounds like a total blast.
Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.
Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.
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EMPEROR OF RUIN by Django Wexler (February 28)
Django Wexler’s Burningblade and Silvereye trilogy is coming to an end this month with the release of Emperor of Ruin. The journey of siblings Gyre and Maya, which began with 2020’s Ashes of the Sun, has been fraught with action, intrigue and magic. Emperor of Ruin will finish out the tale of these two disparate siblings, forcing them to lay aside old grudges to face an even greater threat.
In the final book of Django Wexler’s brilliantly imagined epic fantasy trilogy about two siblings divided by magic and revolution, Gyre and Maya must finally join forces and rally the people to take down the Twilight Order once and for all.
The last surviving Chosen, Ashok has finally risen up and taken control of The Twilight Order. He promises equality and prosperity, but Gyre and Maya know the truth. Only death follows in Ashok’s wake. To take him down, Gyre will have to unite old allies–from all across The Splinter Kingdoms and the depths of Deepfire. And Maya will have to seek out a legendary weapon hidden in the mountains that could turn the tide in their battle for freedom.
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A DAY OF FALLEN NIGHT by Samantha Shannon (February 29)
Walk into any bookstore that carries fantasy books, and there’s a decent chance you’ll stumble upon a massive chonker of a novel called The Priory of the Orange Tree. Samantha Shannon’s standalone epic fantasy book was a powerful tale centering queer protagonists that developed an incredibly passionate fanbase. But a sequel was far from guaranteed; after all, Priory was designed to stand on its own.
But in February, we’ll be getting the follow-up to Shannon’s breakout novel. A Day of Fallen Night is another standalone story set in the same world as Priory. Following the events of the first novel, four women must embrace their destinies in order to decide the future of their world amidst a catastrophic volcanic eruption. Dragons may be involved.
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory’s purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother’s past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
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And thus concludes our round-up of new science fiction and fantasy books we’re looking forward to in February 2023. Which will you be reading this month?
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