Snowed in? A loather of Valentine’s Day? Feeling sluggish on the doom-laden treadmill of life? Perk up with this robust list of brand-new sci-fi and fantasy books coming out in February. We got Jedi! We got space nuns! We got monsters, slippery royals, thieves, and even a taser-wielding librarian! Read on!
Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen
The Graven space opera trilogy continues as Caiden comes out of hiding to fight an old foe… and his old foe’s sister. He’ll need to tap into his own mysterious genetic code if he wants any hope of defeating them and saving the multiverse. (February 1)
Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly
A perfumer who create scents that evoke immersive memories — a service so alluring people will murder for it — is pulled into an enticing deal with a rich client, and is soon on a desperate quest to complete the commission. (February 1)
Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian
A new fantasy trilogy beings with this tale of three princesses tasked with using their arranged marriages to topple kingdoms — so that their scheming mother, on the throne back in their homeland, can rule the entire continent. (February 1)
Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik
A bounty hunter in dire financial trouble reluctantly accepts a job from her nemesis — then has to team up with the guy when he insists on coming along. Things get even more complicated when the job uncovers a conspiracy that could shatter the peace between humans and their alien foes. (February 1)
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century: Stories by Kim Fu
This collection of 12 fantastical tales introduces a girl with wings on her legs, a haunted doll and other spooky toys, a bride who runs out on her wedding only to meet a sea monster, and more. (February 1)
Library of the Sapphire Wind by Jane Lindskold
When three monsters meet three humans (who the monsters assume are also monsters, since they’ve never seen humans before), they set out on an adventure together to find the ruins of a magical library. (February 1)
Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris by Anne Rice and Christopher Rice
In this posthumous release, the author (along with her son and longtime collaborator) continues the story of immortal pharaoh Ramses the Damned, who’s settled into Edwardian England but will soon need the help of his supernatural allies to battle Russian assassins. (February 1)
Star Wars: The High Republic: Midnight Horizon by Daniel José Older
The prequel-to-the-prequels saga continues as Jedi Masters Cohmac Vitus and Kantam Sy, along with their Padawans, travel to Corellia to investigate a suspected Nihil attack — and discover an even greater conspiracy in the works. Read an excerpt here. (February 1)
String Follow by Simon Jacobs
In small-town Ohio, a malevolent force targets a group of misfit teens in this darkly comic tale dubbed “a razor-sharp suburban gothic.” (February 1)
The Violence by Delilah Dawson
When a mysterious outbreak causes people to burst into sudden rages and attack anyone they come across, a wife seizes the dystopian moment to leave her abusive husband. Read an excerpt here. (February 1)
History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel
In this sci-fi thriller set in 1945, young woman is tasked with prying Von Braun away from the Nazis and getting him into the American space program, so that he can fast-track her family’s longstanding aim of getting humans to the stars. But there’s also a dark force that will do all it can to make sure that doesn’t happen. (February 2)
Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot
The pitch on this one is “lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space!” If you somehow need even more enticement, the main character’s girlfriend is described as a “taser-wielding librarian.” (February 8)
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
This sci-fi horror novel follows a salvage team who picks up a distress signal on their way back to Earth. What they find: a luxury space-liner that mysteriously vanished over 20 years ago… and seems to have picked up a highly malevolent force in the interim. (February 8)
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
After an accident on a remote peak leaves him terribly injured, a mountaineer is haunted by memories of the accident, and the strange feeling that an ancient evil might have been involved. (February 8)
Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams
Biracial twin sisters separated at birth reunite in the Deep South during the early days of the civil rights movement — where one of them falls under the spell of a deadly, ghostly curse. (February 8)
Rise of Mages by Scott Drakeford
A new trilogy begins as an aspiring weapons master teams up with an undercover mage to rescue his brother — and discovers he has his own magic talents waiting to be unleashed. (February 8)
Stan Lee’s Devil’s Quintet: The Armageddon Code by Jay Bonansinga
The work of the late Marvel comics legend inspired this thriller about a special ops unit whose members enhance their bad guy-nabbing skills, with a little help from the Devil himself. (February 8)
Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham
A new fantasy trilogy from the co-author of The Expanse series begins in the ancient city of Kithamar, following the story of a thief who turns detective (and discovers some powerful secrets) after her brother is murdered. (February 15)
Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe
Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this fantasy tale follows the adopted daughter of a powerfully magic family who simply longs to fit in — until she discovers some big secrets about her past and her island home. (February 15)
Dawnshard: From the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
This novella takes place between the author’s Oathbringer and Rhythm of War, following shipowner Rysn Ftori and her winged larkin as they undertake a dangerous quest to the ancestral home of all larkins. (February 15)
The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan
In the late 1700s, a young woman in Northern France excitedly realises she’s the first witch that has been born into her family in generations. But can she realise her destiny without being burned at the stake? (February 15)
Gwendy’s Final Task by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
The Gwendy’s Button Box Trilogy concludes as Gwendy — now a senator — must travel from Castle Rock to outer space in order to protect the dangerously magical box from evil forces desperate to get their hands on it. (February 15)
House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas
The author’s Crescent City series continues as Bryce (half-human, half-fae) and Hunt (a fallen angel) find their hopes of returning to their normal lives dashed when rebels begin to organise against the ruling Asteri — and they decide to join the fight. (February 15)
Lord Quillifer by Walter Jon Williams
The Quillifer series continues. The former butcher’s son is now a high-ranking member of the court — but such a position brings with it great danger, including assassination plots against both Lord Quillifer and his secret love, Queen Flora. (February 15)
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
A clone who regenerates a new body (with most of his memories intact) each time he dies joins a human mission to colonise a far-off planet. Trouble starts for the “disposable employee” when a mishap means two versions of him begin to exist simultaneously, and things only get worse as the colony struggles to survive. (February 15)
Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James
The author follows up his universally acclaimed Black Leopard, Red Wolf with the second book in the Dark Star trilogy, which revisits the story of the first book from the point of view of its adversary, Sogolon the Moon Witch. Read an interview with James here. (February 15)
Reclaim the Stars edited by Zoraida Córdova
Authors from across the Latin American diaspora contribute to this collection of 17 short sci-fi and fantasy tales, including Vita Ayala, Romina Garber, Daniel José Older, Lilliam Rivera, and more. (February 15)
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
On an isolated island, two longtime foes must work together using their musical and magical talents to discover why so many young girls in the community have gone missing. (February 15)
Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell
In a time when Earth’s population has fled on massive colony ships, a woman joins a search party hoping to track down her sister, who vanished after responding to an alien distress call. What she finds is both terrifying and a potential source of hope for humankind’s survival. (February 15)
The Thousand Eyes by A.K. Larkwood
The Serpent Gates series continues as Csorwe and Shuthmili busy themselves studying the ruins of an ancient snake empire, with Tal Charossa in tow. Things get hairy when they uncover a relic that brings them back into contact with a wizard they’d all rather not meet again. (February 15)
Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms
A woman tired of her dead-end life longs to leave everything behind — and realises she actually has a chance to, because her town is home to mysterious doors that offer one-way tickets to worlds unknown. Will she dare take the plunge? (February 15)
Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett
Two decades after best friends Clare and Abby snuck into an abandoned, allegedly haunted house that was once the scene of a terrible crime, Abby returns and attempts suicide there. In the aftermath, Clare tries to puzzle through the dark mystery of her motivation. (February 22)
Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road by Kyle Buchanan
This oral history of George Miller’s Oscar-winning dystopian action hit Fury Road features new interviews with Miller, Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and dozens of other cast and crew members. (February 22)
Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman
He’s a quirky archivist, she’s the widow of a famous TV writer who wants to donate her late wife’s papers. There’s a spark between them, but their romance is complicated by several things — and including the fact that he happens to be a vampire. (February 22)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
The classic Korean folktale The Tale of Shim Cheong gets a feminist retelling in this fantasy about a girl who must strike a bargain with the Sea God to protect her family and her homeland. (February 22)
The House of Cats and Gulls by Stephen Deas
In a plague-ravaged and demon-infested city, a trio of friends uncover a royal conspiracy while attending to various bits of personal business — finding missing family members, facing dark pasts, and uncovering secrets hidden by warlocks. (February 22)
Inheritors of Power by Juliette Wade
The Broken Trust sci-fi series continues as multiple parties scheme for power, and the politically tense situation becomes further complicated by the discovery of a hidden library. (February 22)
League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
After the death of his mother, a teen becomes determined to devote his life to taking down illegal magic users. But his outlook changes once he’s apprenticed to a public defender — and realises his first case involving illegal magic is far more complex than he realised. (February 22)
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin
A trio of trans men and women fight to survive by harvesting the organs of feral humans (while avoiding murderous TERFs) in this post-apocalyptic tale. (February 22)
Misfit Soldier by Michael Mammay
This tale billed as “Ocean’s Eleven meets John Scalzi” follows a con man turned soldier turned con man again who assembles a team of fellow misfit soliders when he catches wind of a top-level score. (February 22)
The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
When a murder occurs at a hotel for time travellers, the head of security must race to solve the crime while dealing with an array of powerful guests and what certainly appear to be ghosts roaming the halls. Read an excerpt here. (February 22)
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather
In this sequel to Sisters of the Vast Black, the Order of Saint Rita’s queer space nuns are on the run after standing up against the cruel Central Governance on a remote planet. Will they remain in hiding or use their growing legend to help bolster a revolution? (February 22)
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.