Here's the January 2026 book list!

15 new novels to kick off the new year with

Image: Andrew Liptak

A new year means a whole bunch of new books to look forward to in the months ahead: January is always an interesting time, as I sort out what's on my TBR that's lingering from last year, and looking ahead to what's to come. This month brings a whole bunch of long awaited books from some favored authors, as well as some exciting debuts.

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Okay, here are 15 new SF/F (and related) books to check out this month:

Twelve Months by Jim Butcher (January 20th)

After a lengthy hiatus (six years since Battle Grounds), Jim Butcher is back with the latest adventure of Harry Dresden, Twelve Months!

In this new installment, Harry has been through a lot and is taking stock of things. He's saved Chicago countless times, and has lost people he's cared about along the way. He's struggling, but it's hard to take the time that he needs: Ghouls are hunting civilians throughout the city, his brother is dying, and the White Queen of the Fae and the White Court of Vampires are allying themselves – and he's been wedded off to the vampire Lara Raith to make things official.

Artifact Space by Miles Cameron (January 27th)

Miles Cameron is debuting the first installment of a new space opera trilogy: Arcana Imperii, in which follows a young woman named Marca Nbaro, who's long dreamed of escaping from her meager upbringing and heading into space via the city-sized Greatships that ferry humanity's cargo across space. She's made her way onto one of the crews, but now, she faces a new threat: something has begun targeting them.

The books originally came out in 2021 overseas, and at the time, Adrienne Martini reviewed Artifact Space for Locus Magazine, saying it was a delight and that "The plot dips and dives as Nbaro and her friends try to save the Athens from an unknown fate. In the process, Nbarro works through some of the baggage her early years saddled her with. It is both a familiar structure and a surprising one that works well in Cameron’s hands."

The good news is that the rest of the trilogy, Deep Black and Whalesong are hitting stores in March and August of this year.

The Starseekers by Nicole Glover (January 6th)

In an alternate 1960s, the space race is on, but the world also has magic at its disposal. Cynthia Rhodes is an arcane engineer at NASA and hosts a magical education show on television. When her show is disrupted by a cursed museum curator, she decides to investigate, along with Theo Danner, a professor of arcane archeology. As they begin looking into the curator and a recent theft, one of her coworkers dies in a lab accident, and Cynthia is convinced that it wasn't an accident, but a murder.

Moreover, the incidents appear to be linked, and that someone is trying to disrupt the space program and its goals. This is the latest in Glover's Murder & Magic series, and it's preceded by The Conductors, The Undertakers, and The Improvisers.

Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "Glover’s ability to weave and construct historical events within a layer of magic is astounding and entirely believable; this is another absolutely wonderful installment in her series."

A Hole in The Sky by Peter F. Hamilton (January 20th)

Peter F. Hamilton kicks off his new Arkship trilogy with A Hole in the Sky, following 16 year old Hazel, a passenger on a generation ship called the Daedalus, which is 500 years into its journey to a new world. The inhabitants have reverted to a agricultural lifestyle after their machines fell apart after a mutiny, and they're overseen by an artificial intelligence who makes sure that all of the ship's resources are recycled – including the passengers when they reach the age of 65.

Hazel soon discovers a population known as the Cheaters – people who've refused to be cycled, she learns that the ship has been damaged and that its atmosphere is depleting, and when her brother is paralyzed in an accident and is slated to be cycled, she joins up with them, discovering that much of what they've been told about their lives is a lie.

Through Gates of Garnet and Gold by Seanan McGuire (January 6th)

Seanan McGuire adds a new installment of her now long-running Wayward Children series, which started a decade ago with Every Heart a Doorway, about the inhabitants of the Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, who often find themselves headed off to magical worlds. In this one, Nancy was sent away from the Halls of the Dead and sent to the school, and when the opportunity came to return to the Halls, she took it.

She finds that years have passed, and that the dead are roaming the halls, killing the living statues, with the Lord and Lady who rule the place unable to stop the onslaught.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin (January 13th)

I don't usually include media tie-in re-releases, but with the release of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms earlier this week, I figured I might as well add this one on, because I really enjoyed the hell out of it.

This is a collection of three novellas that Martin wrote, all taking place around a century before the events of A Game of Thrones. They follow a hedge knight, Dunk, and his squire, Egg, as they go off on a couple of adventures. I felt that they really showed a different side of Westeros from the main novels, and I thought they were a lot of fun.

Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart (January 13th)

When Ryan Crane ended up saving the life of billionaire and presidential hopeful John Ward, he lucked out with an offer to join a space mission to Saturn's moon Titan. He was initially reluctant to go, not wanting to spend the two years away from his family, but the paycheck that he'd get would more than pay for the care that his son needed.

When the ship ends up arriving in Saturn's orbit, they're rocked by a series of explosions, and end up returning home, where they're hailed as heroes. But Church and his fellow astronauts realize that something's different when they return. They soon find that they're being tailed and their messages are being scrambled, and they have to go to great lengths to figure out what's happened and how to resume their old lives.

Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds (January 27th)

A private investigator aboard a spaceship, the Halcyon, has been keeping the peace as it rockets its way through space, helping out his community while sometimes getting into trouble with the police. When he's hired by a woman named Ruby Red, she wants him to look into the death of one of the Halcyon's elite members, only to be told to drop it by another woman named Ruby Blue. Things escalate from there.

Russell Letson reviewed the book for Locus Magazine, saying that "the resolution finally makes all the parts of the puzzles consistent and places the whole multigenre mashup firmly in Reynolds’ usual hard-SF territory. But it’s the getting there that is the fun: roaming the mean streets of a starship, riddled with trapdoors and secret passages and deep-held secrets."

Monster in the Moonlight by Annelise Ryan (January 27th)

Annelise Ryan adds a new installment to her Monster Hunters Mystery series (A Death in Door County, Death in the Dark Woods, and Beast of the North Woods), in which a body turns up on an Wisconsin back road that might have some connection to the "Beast of Bray Road," bit of local folklore about a werewolf-type creature that's supposed to life there.

The police bring in cryptozoologist Morgan Carter, and as she begins her investigation, she finds that there's a bigger mystery at play.

On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah Yah Scholfield (January 27th)

Judith Rice fled from her home, leaving behind an abusive mother. She ended up in Southern Georgia, where makes a home in a house with its own violent past. She figures out how to coexist alongside the ghosts and spirits that reside there, and becomes something of a local healer in the area. But when a strange woman shows up on her doorstep, the peace that she's made for herself begins to come undone, and brings back memories of the life and family she thought she left behind.

Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "Through their vivid, intoxicating prose, Schofield creates a visceral tale infused with feminine rage and the inherited trauma from being Black in America that is beautiful, bloody, and gory."

Coyote Horizon and Coyote Destiny by Allen M. Steele

Last year, Open Road Media brought Allen M. Steele's initial Coyote trilogy (Coyote, Coyote Frontier, and Coyote Rising) back to print after lapsing for a couple of years, and now, the next two installments of the series, Coyote Horizon and Coyote Destiny are making their return!

In the first novel, the colonists on the titular moon have had to contend with a new wave of settlers from a diminished Earth, while they've also allowed the alien hjaad to set up an embassy, and who begin to run into some issues when one human begins to preach on their behalf. In the second, decades have passed since a starbridge was destroyed in a terrorist attack, cutting off contact with Earth. When a new ship arrives, they find that Earth has plunged into chaos.

These books are fantastic, and I'm really glad to see that they're available once again.

The Regicide Report by Charles Stross (January 27th)

Charles Stross brings his long-running Laundry Files series to a close with The Regicide Report. Over the course of her reign, Queen Elizabeth has accumulated a considerable amount of mana from believers in the British Commonwealth, which proves to be a major threat to the UK's new Prime Minister – an Elder God in disguise. When an assassin is tasked with killing the queen and negating the threat of the Black Pharaoh, Bob Howard and Dominique "Mo" O'Brien are brought in to protect the ruler from harm.

To Leave a Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy by Jon Tattrie (January 20th)

One of the recent tragedies in the fantasy and horror field was the quiet passing of Charles Saunders, who died in May 2020. Saunders was a longtime journalist in Nova Scotia who began writing fantasy (particularly of the sword and soul variety) in the 1970s.

A new book explores his life, written by one of his colleagues, who delves into his life to chart Saunders' story: how he fled to Canada during the Vietnam war, how he came up with his fantasy world Imaro, and the influence that he left behind. It looks like a fitting tribute, and hopefully, it'll help introduce more people to his work.

For We The Many by Dennis E. Taylor (January 20th)

Last month, Saga Press republished Dennis E. Taylor's novel We Are Legion, about a guy named Bob who cryogenically froze himself, only to discover that the future wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and decides to accept an offer to be converted into a self-replicating AI and get shot into space.

Now that he (and his fellow Bobs) have been dispatched into the depths of space, they now have to contend with some new problems: humanity has just about wiped itself out, and they've encountered an alien civilization that sees humanity and other life forms as food. And along the way, he's encountered a primitive civilization that now sees him as a sort of god.

As always, let me know in the comments what catches your eye, and what you've been reading lately. You can also discuss over on the TO Subreddit!