15 new fantasy and science fiction books to read in January 2024
By Daniel Roman
WOMB CITY by Tlotlo Tsamaase—January 23
The next book on our list sounds like it might be the first truly mind-blowing science fiction book of 2024. Womb City is the debut novel by acclaimed Motswana short fiction author Tlotlo Tsamaase. I could try to describe what this book is about to you...but honestly, I think the back-of-book does such a good job that it'd be better off to just let it speak for itself. Womb City is easily one of my most anticipated sci-fi releases of the month.
Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.
The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave.
As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone.
Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
FAEBOUND by Saara El-Arifi (Faebound #1)—January 23
From dystopian sci-fi we head next to the fae court. The Final Strife author Saara El-Arifi is releasing a new novel this month called Faebound, which follows two elven sisters who are exiled from their home only to find themselves in the mysterious court of the fae, where temptation and danger await. Faebound is the first of a new trilogy, so if you enjoy it there's more on the way.
Yeeran was born on the battlefield, has lived on the battlefield, and one day, she knows, she’ll die on the battlefield.
As a warrior in the elven army, Yeeran has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.
When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, both sisters are forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders.
There they encounter the impossible: the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world, torn among their loyalties to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts.