2023 SFF Books

We hoped to have this post out on New Years Day, but as we’ve been collating information we hit a few snags and had to contact publishers directly for details. Rather than give false hope, we’ve tried to source check as much as possible. With that in mind, lets hop to it!

It’s difficult to know what the next year has in store for us, so we’re here to help with a bit comfort. Books. We’ve compiled a list of our most anticipated releases for 2023. This is a focus on Science-Fiction and Fantasy, because in our opinion, they’re the best. Some of these releases are set in stone, but others are a little uncertain and subject to change, but have no fear - our socials will be shouting about them when we know for sure. So, in no particular order here are the releases we at The Imaginarium are most excited about.

Defiant - Skyward Book 4 by Brandon Sanderson

I thought it best to start with the book that delayed this post, Defiant by Brandon Sanderson is the 4th in the Skyward series. Very little is known about this release but the publishers have confirmed that the date of release is set for November 2023 in the U.K. This is subject to change though. Here’s a note on this release taken from Mr Sanderson himself:
"I continue to have a lot of fun with this series. Defiant is done, out for beta reads right now, and I have editorial feedback from Krista in hand.
The plan is to do revisions on this book starting in January. Which is, not by coincidence, also when Janci and I will sit down and really outline the sequel series.
Defiant will be our 2023 fall book launch, coinciding with Dragonsteel 2023! So, I’ll see you all there! "

I’d also like to take a minute to appreciate Sanderson’s work ethic, and his consistent updates to his fans and readers is nothing short of heroic! Mr Sanderson sir, you are awesome!

Defiant is due to be released in November 2023 and is published by Gollancz.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

If you’ve not yet read the Daevabad Trilogy, I highly recommend it. Chakraborty manages to mix historical fiction, Eastern Culture and adventure into a series you won’t be able to put down. So, when we found out that there’s a new series coming out, it sent us at the Imaginarium all of a flutter.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is a new trilogy of magic and mayhem with this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, and one woman's quest to seize a final chance at glory... A pirate of infamy and one of the most storied and scandalous captains to sail the seven seas. Amina al-Sirafi has survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she's offered a job no bandit could refuse, she jumps at the chance for one final adventure with her old crew that will make her a legend and offers a fortune that will secure her and her family's future forever. Yet the deeper Amina dives the higher the stakes. For there's always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savour just a bit more power...and the price might be your very soul.

This new book has hit the trifecta in my book must-haves. 1) pirates, 2) magic, 3) strong and non-conforming women. I happen to have an advanced copy of the book, and although I’ve not yet got to it, I’m sure I’ll devour it very quickly and I’ll let you all know just how awesome it is.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is out on 2nd March 2023 and is published by Harper Voyager.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

When Priory of The Orange Tree came out, it caused quite a stir. A relatively unknown Samantha Shannon was said to have redefined fantasy and blimey did she do it well! A Day of Fallen Night is a standalone prequel to that redefining book.

Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms - but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose. To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hroth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow - exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat. Intricate and epic, A Day of Fallen Night sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.

Unlike many on this list, we have a title, a release date, AND a proof. Jayde is taking one for the team and is working her way through the book so that we can hopefully do a review before the publication date.

A Day of Fallen Night, with a whopping 880 pages will be out on Tuesday 28th February 2023 and is published by Bloomsbury.

He Who Drowned The World by Shelley Parker-Chan

The wonderful historical fantasy She Who Became The Sun is part of The Radiant Emperor series and is followed up by He Who Drowned The World. We actually chose SWBTS as our first ever book club book. This series is set in 14th Century and is as historically accurate as a book with magic can be! The below synopsis contains spoilers for SWBTS.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.
But Zhu isn't the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband-and she's strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map.
To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with an old enemy: the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who has already sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father's killer, the Great Khan.
Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history-and in so doing, make a mockery of every value his Mongol warrior family loved more than him.
All the contenders are determined to do whatever it takes to win.
But when desire is the size of the world, the price could be too much for even the most ruthless heart to bear...

This is an eagerly awaited sequel (especially for Jayde), we can’t wait to see what Zhu’s quest for greatness brings her.

This is due to be released by Tor Books on 24th August 2023.

The Seven Sisters by Neil Gaiman

The eagerly awaited sequel to Neverwhere was first talked about in 2017, back when Neil Gaiman was working on other things and only had four chapters. A publication date of 2020 came and went and now we have reason to hope that 2023 will be our year. We did email the publishers, but have not yet heard back. As of yet, we’ve been unable to find anything concrete that the book is being worked on, let alone being published. What we have found, is:

The new book, titled The Seven Sisters, will expand the original’s London Below—a fantastical city in which London’s dispossessed wander among famous landmarks and legends such as the Old Bailey and the Black Friars—by incorporating changes in the world that have taken place over the past 20 years, e.g. the Syrian refugee crisis.

Our sleuthing has found rumours that Neil (himself) has stated at a talk that he has finished the draft, so as far as we know, it’s pretty far along. When we get more details, we’ll let you all know.

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward is the only debut novel on this list. I had the pleasure of meeting Emilia Hart and hearing her talk about her upcoming book. She spoke about what inspired her and how connected she was to her characters. Spanning several centuries, and following three connected women, this magical realism book should be a must read for fans of The Familiars, Circe and Outlander.

Kate flees London - abandoning everything - for Cumbria and Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great-aunt. There, a secret lurks in the bones of the house, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.
Violet, 1942Violet is more interested in collecting insects and climbing trees than in becoming a proper young lady. Until a chain of shocking events changes her life forever. Altha, 1619Altha is on trial for witchcraft, accused of killing a local man. Known for her uncanny connection with nature and animals, she is a threat that must be eliminated. But Weyward women belong to the wild. And they cannot be tamed...
Weaving together the stories of three women across five centuries, Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.

I was lucky enough to get a proof of this and devoured it. I liked that it’s character driven and follows each woman separately as the plot moves on to intertwine them together

Weyward is due out on 2nd February and is published by Harper Collins.

The Winds of Winter by George RR Martin

With several false starts with the release date, I’m advising a warning - this is not set in stone and subject to change. BUT we have trawled the internet and this is what we’ve found… if this doesn’t transpire, please don’t tweet GRRM with angry comments - I have a sneaking suspicion he makes us wait longer every time he receives backlash. Anyway, the book…

The Winds of Winter is the planned 6th book in the Songs of Fire and Ice series. From what GRRM says, it’s going to be well over 3000 pages, and as of October 2022, he had written over 3/4’s of it. We actually know very little about it currently but Martin stated in a 2012 interview that The Winds of Winter and the following book A Dream of Spring will take readers farther north than any of the previous books. The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, excluding at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers. Martin intends to resolve these storylines "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen — the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there." A Victarion Greyjoy chapter will begin five minutes after the end of A Dance with Dragons, taking place on the eve of the Ironborn’s arrival in Slaver's Bay. Arianne Martell sample chapters that Martin released on his website showed her heading for Griffin's Roost to see the young man who is calling himself Aegon Targaryen. At Guadalajara Internation Bookfair in 2016, Martin gave some clues about the dark nature of The Winds of Winter: ... "I've been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places. .... Things get worse before they get better, so things are getting worse for a lot of people."

Word on the rumour mill is that this book is due for release this year. However, I'm not convinced. Given the time that it’s taken GRRM to get this far, and the multiple missed deadlines, I think 2024 is more likely for a release. However, we’ve added it here as a show of faith. When we know about a release date, we will share with you all!

Cassandra Clare - Chain of Thorns

Chain of Thorns is the last book in The Last Hours, A Shadowhunter trilogy set in 1903 in Edwardian London. It follows the children of characters from The Infernal Devices Trilogy, though you can certainly read it without knowing those books. Now is a great time to start catching up to be ready for book three! Cassandra Clare is excellent at combining the “normal” with the “paranormal”, her books are filled with adventure, brave, self-sacrificing characters, and plot-lines that keep you guessing. Clare is quite clever in her story telling, all of her books take place in the same world and so you’ll see a cross-over of characters, artifacts and other cleverly thought out themes. The description for Chain of Thorns has some spoilers for the rest of the series.

Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her.
In only a few short weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter. After fleeing to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, Cordelia hopes to forget her sorrows in the city's glittering nightlife.
But reality intrudes when shocking news comes from home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped the Adamant Citadel, and London is under new threat by the Prince of Hell, Belial. Cordelia returns to a London riven by chaos and dissent. The long-kept secret that Belial is James and Lucie's grandfather has been revealed by an unexpected enemy, and the Herondales find themselves under suspicion of dealings with demons.
Cordelia longs to protect James, but is torn between a love for James she has long believed hopeless, and the possibility of a new life with Matthew. Nor can her friends help - ripped apart by their own secrets, they seem destined to face what is coming alone. For time is short, and Belial's plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind.
Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial's deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city - and their families - they will have to muster their courage, swallow their pride, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they may lose everything - even their souls.

Although the books are marketed at young adults, I think anyone can enjoy these highly exciting novels, although if this isn’t your thing, have no fear, Cassandra Clare is working on an adult fantasy series!

Chain of Thorns is due out on 31st January and is published by Walker Books.

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint has always had a fascination with the Greek myths and is probably best know for her mesmerising retelling of the classic myth about the Minotaur, Ariadne. Following Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur and her betrayal of her family to escape, its hard not to become emotionally invested in the story. Now comes another powerful retelling from Greek mythology, a story of the only female Argonaut.

When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment. Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.
Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason's band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?

This is a book for fans of mythology, strong female characters and beautifully written prose.

Atlanta is published by Headline Publishing Group and will be released on 13th April 2023.

There you have it, some of our most anticipated releases this year! We hope that some of these have piqued your interest and who knows, maybe helped you find a new series/author to check out. Why not let us know what books you’re eagerly awaiting this year?

To pre-order any of these books, send us a message or email (info@imaginariumbooks.co.uk) and we’ll happily get you a copy in.