New Year, new books! That’s right, what better way to kick off 2024 than by updating your TBR pile with our pick of some of the best sci fi books in January 2024?!
Sci fi not your thing? Don’t worry, there’s even a couple of horror and fantasy gems that have been lurking on our bookshelves just waiting to be read.
Don’t forget to let us know on our socials if you think there’s anything we’ve missed and we’ll leave you to get your nose stuck into a good book!
Three Eight One
Aliya Whiteley
18 January – Solaris
Fans of Skyward Inn (read the review here) will know there’s something special about Aliya Whiteley’s writing. This January, she’s back with another story of discovery in a world of isolation but with a fun storytelling twist. The book is presented more as a history project, annotated throughout by someone from the far future analysing a 21st-century book trying to decipher whether or not it is a true story or if, in fact, it is a work of fiction.
The tale in question is a supposed autobiographical account of a young woman named Fairly who leaves a quaint walled village on a quest to find her place in the modern world, The Age of Riches. The commentator, Rowena Savalas, lives in the year 2314, an Age of Curation where all historical knowledge has been catalogued, such that everyone can know everything about history, should they desire.
Three Eight One is a story that is very much about the journey that slowly unpeels itself, with the reader behaving very much like the rest of us when we read; falling in love with characters, and making connections we didn’t know we needed.
The Principle Of Moments
Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
18 January – Gollancz
We couldn’t kick off the year without starting a brand new space opera trilogy. This month we’re deeply in love with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson’s unashamedly epic space adventure that spans time and galaxies.
Blending genres with a dusting of magic, prophecies, gods and even some space whales, The Principle of Moments continues to redefine the landscape of what epic SFF can be. Themes of colonialism and modern slavery are set against a backdrop of a time travelling queer romance that pulls you back from the brink of space to the heart of the British Museum. More Doctor Who than Dune, it’s unashamedly fun with an underlying powerful statement on humanity – just as all good sci fi should be.
What Kind of Mother
Clay Mcleod Chapman
31 January – Titan
An unnerving new Southern Gothic horror from Clay Mcleod Chapman, (author of Whisper Down The Lane – read the review here), What Kind of Mother is a tale of suspenseful, supernatural suspicion.
When teen mum Madi Price returns home to Virginia, earning a living as a palm reader, she reconnects with her high school sweetheart, Henry and is soon plagued by disturbing visions of Henry’s missing (presumed dead) infant son. This then leads to Madi making more uneasy discoveries of what might have really happened when the young child disappeared.
Deeply dark, and constantly unsettling, Chapman’s writing paints the edges of reality with a blackness that sucks you in and spits you out.
Relight My Fire
C.K. McDonnell
25 January – Bantam Press
It’s no secret that here at SciFiTowers we’re massive fans of the Stranger Times series by C.K. McDonnell.
Following the success of Love Will Tear Us Apart (which made February 2023’s list of best books), he’s back with book number four and we return to Manchester and the world of The Stranger Times newspaper who cover anything weird and wonderful.
This time it all starts with a man inexplicably falling from the sky, leaving a terrible dent in the pavement. What follows is the usual madcap investigation in a world of invincible gnomes, ghosts and of course… murderous cats.
The Dragons Of Deepwood Fen
Bradley P. Beaulieu
4 January – Head of Zeus
Now a little something for our fantasy friends. Bradley P. Beaulieu, author of the The Song Of Shattered Sands series has begun on a brand new epic fantasy series.
When an inquisitor and a thief team up while investigating a conspiracy between the Church and the cult of the ‘Red Knives’, they find themselves branded traitors and must take flight (on a dragon no less). With the impending awakening of a terrifying demi-god, the story becomes a race against time to try and turn enemies into allies.
A sprawling fantastical romp through a mystical land that crafts a unique set of magics, stalked by an underbelly of political machinations, this really is one to get your dragon’s teeth into.
That just about wraps up our best sci-fi books for January 2024, but check back again next month when we’ll have more. Now we’ll leave you to update your read list while we crack open another spine of science fiction splendidness!
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