The Indie Author Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror New Release List: January 2026
Celebrate the New Year with some new reads!
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.
Hysterical by Amber Dean: Available Now
Subgenre(s): Femgore , Psychological Horror, Queer Horror
She’s not the final girl. She’s the reason there isn’t one.
In the chaotic allure of 2013 New York City, Jessie Anne appears to have it all together: sharp wit, quiet intensity, and a wild nightlife filled with underground raves and unconventional gigs. But beneath her composed exterior lies a fractured psyche consumed by unrequited love for her best friend, Tinsel, and a dangerous fascination with death.
As her infatuation with Tinsel deepens, Jessie’s double life begins to blur. The lines between love, envy, and obsession vanish, pulling her further into fantasies she can no longer control. People in her life become pawns—tools to process her frustration and rejection, leaving a bloody trail in their wake.
The Woman of Steel and Scars by K.E. Andrews: Available Now
The Grinning Assassin, Book 2
Subgenre(s): Dark Fantasy
A woman demands vengeance. A soldier questions loyalty. A prince seeks justice.
After surviving her fight in the Aikhtiar tournament, Serein picks up her blades again—this time as King Sethos’ assassin. With each enemy she hunts down, she wades deeper into a world of death and secrets, faking the deaths of those who could be potential allies and help Rameses overthrow his father. Lurking around every corner is the threat of discovery and Xansas’ shadow.
Beneath the mask of loyalty, Serein plots against Xansas and Sethos while old magic stirs and hidden forces make their move. She and Uriah follow leads to track down the leader of the Bone Vipers, who evades capture. Rameses faces an impending betrothal that forces him to decide when to make a move against his father. Rebel attacks increase, striking at the heart of the city. With each dangerous mission Serein undertakes, more pieces of the Malik’s plans are revealed, but with them come more questions.
Success balances on a knife’s edge, and one wrong move could destroy Serein’s chance to kill her enemies and finally be free.
Primal Silence by Steffen Jack: Available January 3, 2026
Armageddon’s Child Trilogy, Book 2
Subgenre(s): Speculative Fiction
There are no winners or losers, only survivors.
Ariel is on the run from her mother’s transhumanist cult. All she wants to do is disappear into the wilderness, forever, and protect her unborn daughter Eden from those who would exploit her tech. But first she will seek redemption for the horrible crime she unknowingly committed by saving the man who she framed.
Caleb has been jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. Tortured, beaten, and threatened with death, he begins to look forward to his public execution. Then the authorities give him an out: they will let him escape if he agrees to be bait to find the real killers. But he has other plans. His hallucinations are guiding him; his destiny is calling. Ariel must die.
Strange Awakening by Dorothy Quick: Available January 20, 2026
This is a reprint/rerelease of a 1938 novel by From Beyond Press.
Subgenre(s): Romance
“She remembered reading a book by someone named Burroughs about a man who had been transported to Mars. Now she had reached Venus by some strange agency. Perhaps some day a book would be written about her.”
Dorothy Quick, one of the most prolific women writers in pulp science fiction and horror magazines including Weird Tales, also wrote a planetary romance novel in 1938—with an emphasis on romance. Strange Awakening is the tale of Iva, a girl from Long Island who finds herself transported to Venus by the Great Mind, the planet’s despotic and sexually frustrated ruler. Coming to her rescue is Ota, the leader of Venus’s Blue People, who risks his kingdom and his immortality to overthrow the Great Mind so he can marry the Earth Girl. A blend of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and John Carter of Mars (but with more kissing), Strange Awakening is a fascinating and forgotten work by one of pulp’s premiere women writers.
Snowmane by Iseult Murphy: Available January 27, 2026
A standalone novella
The sea around a sun-drenched island suddenly freezes.
A groom returns for his wedding with his hair turned as white as snow.
Neci has never known cold or snow on her idyllic island home. Yet her groom, Hoddle, brings ice as bright as his newly whitened hair when he returns to the island with her wedding gift. Nothing will stop Neci from going ahead with the wedding. Not the cold, Hoddle’s changed appearance, nor the odd behaviour of the rest of his party.
On her wedding night, Neci wakes to find Hoddle gone. Her village cloaked in freezing snow. And two enormous creatures, a white wolf and a white owl, who want her help.
As the cold seeps into Neci’s family and friends, the wolf and owl give her one option. Help them stop Hoddle or lose her home and everything she loves to permanent snow and ice.
But Neci doesn’t know if she can trust the wolf and owl. There must be another way to save her husband.
Lianna and the Hombit by Valinora Troy: Available January 29, 2026
A standalone novel
Subgenre(s): Middle-grade Fantasy
A grieving girl in need of a friend. A magical creature with a secret task. Can they end the ancient curse threatening their new home?
13-year-old Lianna has lost everything: her home, her friends, and most devastatingly, her beloved Papa. Sent to live with her uncle, Lianna is certain he will be cruel and unkind, for why else would Papa have run away when he was young? Robbed on arrival of her precious keepsakes, Lianna receives a worse-than-expected welcome from her uncle. His servants are hostile and even her grandparents seem to glare at her from their portraits over the fire.
When a magical creature resembling a small glass bird bursts into her life in a mix of sparks and fire, Lianna is eager to assist the hombit with its secret mission if it helps her return home. Which leads to Lianna undertaking a risky dive near perilous sea stacks known as ‘living rocks’.
When her dive goes wrong, she awakens a creature that seeks to rob her of her humanity.
To survive, Lianna must uncover the dark secrets of her father’s past. Now she faces a stark decision: does she save herself or the town that rejects both her and her father?
A heart-warming story of the healing power of friendship when all seems lost.
Tainted Throne by Dylan Altoft: Available January 31, 2026
The Werewolf Saga, Book 5
Subgenre(s): Young Adult
The kingdom of the Werewolves has been scattered. Halls filled with bodies. Nowhere is safe. The muzzled have risen up to destroy their captures, and let Vampires take over. Backed by their leader, Apollo Reinhardt, none are safe. Arthur Thorn, Gwence Lighter, and Drake Borne must now have to fight for their lives to try and save the Werewolf world. With Cratos Mane, and Delfer Septus journeying their way back to the kingdom to help, Arthur and his friends must work together, defeat the muzzled threat, and see if they can save the Werewolf throne, or uncover the dark secrets that lie beneath its seat of power.
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