January Hype Post!
Welcome to the third year of monthly hype posts! As a reminder, check out the massive all-encompassing 2022 post HERE – we’re going to try and not repeat books except to point you towards reviews we’ve written to try and give as many books the space to be featured, especially early in the year. From there, I’d like to mention Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, which I’ve reviewed over on Grimdark Magazine – check out the full review here. But without further ado, this is what the team is excited for in January.
Kat: Rhonda Parrish is the undisputed Queen of Canadian Speculative Fiction Anthologies, and on January 11th, she will be releasing the third installment in her Punked Up Fairy Tales series Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls. With this series, we’ve already seen retellings in the diesel/decopunk and steampunk/gaslap styles, and now with this new anthology, we’ll be introduced to a collection of cyberpunk-inspired fairy tales – both original stories and new spins on familiar favorites. Parrish is adept at curating themed anthologies, and I have no doubt this installment will provide a variety of cyberpunk tales that will engage any fan of the subgenre. You can pre-order Kindle or Paperback copies of this anthology from Amazon.
Fab: Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz has an incredibly stunning cover. It got my attention just based on that already – out on January 18th, this is the story of Hazel, who wants to become a doctor more than anything else in a time when women aren’t allowed to attend university. But she manages to convince a renowned professor to break the rules if she can pass an anatomy exam beforehand. So it’s a good thing she’s just met Jack, a resurrection man, one who digs up corpses to sell… But Jack has his own problems: there are strange men hanging around the cemeteries, and his friends are disapearing off the streets. Set in the early 19th century in Edinburgh, the story promises murder, bodies acquired both legally and illegally and of course mystery and tension in spades. Pre-order a copy from Book Depository here.
Fab: The Red Palace by June Hur, out on the 25th, is another very intriguing historical novel. Set in eighteenth century Korea, Hyeon is an illegitimate daughter with few options traditionally open to her. But she has persevered and crafted herself a place as a palace nurse – until she is thrown into the world of palace intrigue and politics when there is a string of murders and her best friend and mentor is accused of being the culprit. To save her mentor, Hyeon has to work fast and diligently to find the true murderer, and it looks like it may be someone very powerful indeed… This sounds brilliant and like a book that will keep me up reading late into the night – while showing me a world I don’t know much about. I can’t wait to learn more about Korean historical culture and dive into Hyeon’s story. Pre-order this via Book Depository here.
Fab: I’m a sucker for a good YA fantasy that I can get stuck into and read obsessively. And Echoes and Empires by Morgan Rhodes, out on the 4th of January sounds like it fits that bill perfectly. Just read this tagline: “A snarky seventeen-year-old must team up with an enigmatic criminal to cure herself of dangerous forbidden magic” – that sounds brilliant and addictive. It’ll probably not be the deepest of books but I don’t need it to be. I just want to be entertained and have an evening well spent with a fun book. Josslyn gets accidentally involved with dangerous magic – which may cost her her head in more than one way – and is desperate to rid herself of it as soon as possible. And the only person who seems to be able to help her is the wanted criminal Jericho Nox, who is as infuriating as he is handsome… Pre-order this one from Bookshop here (affiliate link).
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