The Indie Author Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror New Release List: January 2025
Happy new year and happy new books coming soon!
A note to email subscribers: Due to the number of new releases this month, the email may be clipped by your email provider. Please look for the “view entire message” link at the bottom of the email to see the full list of titles.
New Releases in Science Fiction
Quibble by Joshua Lavender: New Stories Available January 2, 2025
Serial novel
Subgenre(s): Cybermonk
49371. Long ago, the transhuman Infinite stripped Earth of resources to build arks for interstellar travel, leaving the planet ravaged. Now, cursed with longevity, unaware they’re enslaved to technology, and awaiting transcendence to the few remaining arks, transhuman Ones inhabit an underground night world ruled by the surreally powerful Zeros and the AI Unity, their god.
Clear-sighted, Quibble sees what no One should see — people’s shadows in the dark. Raised by heretics, she chafes at Unity’s religion. But now she doesn’t want any part of heresy or her preternatural gift. She only wants to find her mother Quiddity, vanished without a trace.
Venturing aboveground with the heretics’ help, Quibble discovers a bewildering new world. She falls in love with Definition, a fragile woman beset with grief. When her gift of sight ignites a war among the Zeros, Quibble is hounded by the phantom-like, similarly gifted Asuja, the messiah of a fascist vision for the Ones’ future. To prevail, she must find her own powers in her unique grasp of reality and human nature.
But when Asuja reveals what became of her mother, Quibble’s loyalties are confused as she struggles to learn the most elusive human trait — the ability to forgive.
Tangled Wires: Secrets that Bind by D.M. Foyle: Available January 11, 2025
Subgenre(s): Crime/Thriller
With a fragmented memory and a grim future, Raz only feels confident about two things: hacking computers – and that people can’t be trusted. However, with her best friend missing and the head of the Russian mob hot on her tail, Raz must quickly decide if FBI agent Emet Shultz is the exception rather than the rule, and whether he can find her friend before another falls victim to her treacherous past. As the mystery of her missing memory begins to unravel and becomes inextricably linked to the present, one thing becomes clear- nothing is as it seems. Sometimes lies are easier to stomach than the truth.
Animus Paradox by Adam Bassett: Available January 27, 2025
A Digital Extremities Story
Subgenre(s): Cyberpunk
There’s a thief on the loose. The Tigres excel at tipping the scales in their favor, be it through bribes, politics, or blood. They unofficially run Viterbo, Italy—and somebody stole from them.
Private investigators David and Mafalda De Campo have been hired to help find the thief. They’re in it for the money, but the Tigres just want to make a statement.
Meanwhile, the Heredes have returned: ruthless idealists and revolutionaries. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they keep getting in the way.
The De Campos will need to decide how far they’re willing to go for this job and the Tigres. Viterbo may soon become a battlefield, and one wrong move could set it aflame.
New Releases in Fantasy
God Ascended by Jeffrey Speight: Available January 1, 2025
An Archives of Evelium Tale, Book 3
Even gods can die.
Umhra the Peacebreaker has ascended to the heavens of Kalmindon. He follows the wake of destruction Spara leaves as she pursues the annihilation of Vaila’s pantheon in her bid to become the One God. To thwart Spara’s ambitions, Umhra must travel the planes of existence to consolidate untold celestial powers.
In Evelium, there are whispered hopes of the Peacebreaker’s inevitable return as future queen Turin Forene struggles to lead the remnants of mankind against the Grey Queen, whose army of blights has wreaked havoc across the continent for the last two decades. Turin hatches a daring plan to bring her enemies to their knees with the support of the Barrow’s Pact. But they face impossible odds.
With nothing left to lose, an epic final battle rages, with the futures of both Kalmindon and Evelium at stake.
Shadows & Sorcery by Seán Hill: New Stories Available January 5, 2025
Flash fiction, serial novel
Subgenre(s): Dark Fantasy / Weird Fantasy
Every week, the author shakes up some digital names in a digital hat (by which they mean running a very crude C# first name/last name randomizer) and write a quick flash fiction tale about the names that inspire some image or concept in their head.
And every month, a new chapter of an ongoing adventure serial in a world of faith and sorcery, The Path of Poison. New chapter releases January 19th.
The Strange Grey Everything by Rebecca Crunden: Available January 8, 2025
Subgenre(s): Paranormal Fantasy
Damien Giles hasn’t seen his husband in twelve years. Not since Carlisle left him on their honeymoon. All Damien got was his father-in-law telling him that Carlisle wasn’t coming back. (Twice.) And yet divorce papers never arrived.
Now Carlisle’s back in town for his brother’s wedding and keeps crossing Damien’s path. More baffling to Damien is how little Carlisle’s changed – and how much he still seems to care for Damien. Which, after twelve years of silence, is more than a little ridiculous.
As tensions rise and secrets resurface, Damien begins re-examining their relationship for all the things he missed and soon learns that there is far more to his husband and their history than he knows. But the more he learns about the reasons behind his husband’s disappearance, the more Damien realises that leaving him the first time might just have been the kindest thing Carlisle could have done for him.
Artifice & Access: A Disability in Fantasy Anthology: Available January 25, 2025
Contributing Authors: Adie Hart, Tam Ayers, Natalie Kelda, Ashley N. Y. Sheesley, Elior Haley, Harper Kinsley, Rascal Hartley, Lynne Sargent, Kara Siert, Casper E. Falls, Rory G., M. Stevenson, Zira MacFarlane
Editor: Ella T. Holmes
Subgenre(s): Cozy Fantasy
It’s long been known that disability representation is lacking in the fantasy genre landscape, so in this anthology, fourteen writers from around the globe come together to bring you wonderful fantasy stories centering disabled and chronically ill characters.
Teeming with magic, otherworldly creatures, discoveries and journeys, every story is as thrilling and fascinating as it is passionate and meaningful. Worlds are discovered, lives are changed, swords are drawn.
Disabled and chronically ill characters go questing, fighting dragons, healing, and enacting strange magics. Familiar fairy tales are reimagined and new fairytales are forged, with each story shattering stereotypes and challenging traditional narratives. Come see yourself reflected—or discover something new.
Blood of the Guardian by Ashley Capes: Available January 25, 2025
Book of Never, Book 9
Subgenre(s): Epic Fantasy
Never and Rikeva are stranded.
Forced to cooperate with untrustworthy allies, they must escape a hostile land where Never’s powers are no longer the peerless advantage they once were…
Forged in Flames by Jessica Barberi: Available January 29, 2025
Part of the Fires of an Empire Saga
Ciran did it. He survived his torture, and stood up against the empire’s cruelty. He is now again free to resume the search for his family. He has returned to his old stomping ground, the walled stone city of Dunmaer.
The city looks to hold the key he has been searching for as to where they might have gone, but the effects of his ordeal linger and his survival is far from certain. His path is now set to cross with a healer named Roshin, who found herself in the city as part of a mission to spread hope to the people through word of the coming of a prophet. One small problem, it seems she believes that prophet is him!
He’s fine to just ignore such talk as the ramblings of the dogmatic followers of the faith, but then the secret of what he has been hiding in the woods is discovered, and he finds himself challenged again with a responsibility he’s not sure he wants. Will he heed the call and listen to the believers? Or is the sacrifice of doing so too great to bear?
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