Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns  

Blake, Olivie. The Atlas Complex. Tor. Jan. 2024. 496p. ISBN 9781250855138. $28.99. FANTASY

In The Atlas Six, a self-published debut that went viral and was subsequently republished by a major house, six chosen magicians compete for the right to study the secrets of the lost library of Alexandria. In this wrap-up to the trilogy, they are still competing, even as the outside world rallies against them and the Caretaker seeks to carry out his own devious plot.

Dickinson, Seth. Exordia. Tor.com. Jan. 2024. 544p. ISBN 9781250233011. $29.99. CD/downloadable. SF

A refugee and genocide survivor, now a put-upon office worker, Anna Sinjari joins a group of civilians, soldiers, and scientists investigating a terrible threat to the universe. Fantasy master Dickinson goes sf; you gotta love a book described as Gravity's Rainbow meets Marvel's Venom. With a 125,000-copy first printing.

Esslemont, Ian C. Forge of the High Mage: A Novel of the Malazan Empire. Tor. Jan. 2024. 416p. ISBN 9781250788610. $30.99. CD. FANTASY

Just as the Malazan empire seems ready for peace and prosperity, the emperor decides to invade Falar in the far north and sends a ragtag bunch of soldiers to do the job. Alas, an ancient horror is arising to block their path, and the empire’s new High Mage doesn’t know what to do. Next in a best-selling series; with a 60,000-copy first printing.

Fawcett, Heather. Emily Wilde’s Map of the Outerlands. Del Rey. (Emily Wilde, Bk. 2). Jan. 2024. 352p. ISBN 9780593500194. $28. FAIRY TALES

In the LJ-starred, nationally best-selling Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Cambridge scholar Emily Wilde, who specializes in faerie folklore, learns that rival scholar Wendell Bambleby is actually a faerie king, exiled by his bloodthirsty mother and eager to return home. In this second book in the series, Bambleby has proposed marriage—Emily’s tempted—but then his mother sends assassins his way.

Golden, Christopher. The House of Last Resort. St. Martin’s. Jan. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781250285898. $29. HORROR

When U.S. couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi move to the fading Italian town of Becchina, whose mayor is selling off houses for a euro apiece in a desperate attempt at revitalization, they end up in a spooky abode with rooms they didn’t know about and locked doors that swing open. Soon they learn that the Church once owned the house and that many people have died in its chapel. And that’s just the start of the horror. From the Bram Stoker award-winning Golden; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Khan, Shubnum. The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years. Viking. Jan. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9780593653456. $28. GOTHIC

In a tumbledown boardinghouse on the South African coast that was once a grand mansion, curious tenant Sana begins exploring, finally discovering a room unopened for decades where the original owner’s second wife, Meena, died horribly. Sana doesn’t know it, but a djinn who loved Meena and mourns her still is watching from the corner. From an award-winning South African author making her U.S. debut.

Knútsdóttir, Hildur. The Night Guest. Tor Nightfire. Jan. 2024. 208p. tr. from Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal. ISBN 9781250322043. $19.99. HORROR

Iðunn is constantly exhausted, but doctors can find no cause, and the anodyne advice of friends affords her no relief. Then she falls asleep with her watch on and discovers she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night. What’s going on, and why will no one believe her? From Icelandic author Knútsdóttir; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

McGuire, Seanan. Mislaid in Parts Half-Known. Tor.com. Jan. 2024. 160p. ISBN 9781250848505. $22.99. Downloadable. FANTASY

When Antsy enters Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, the resident mean girl—gifted with the ability to persuade anyone to do anything—wants to use Antsy’s locational gift to find forbidden doors. That put Antsy on the run with a group of friends to return to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. Next in the Hugo and Nebula award-winning "Wayward Children" series; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Modesitt Jr., L.E. From the Forest. Tor. Jan. 2024. 464p. ISBN 9781250877284. $30.99. FANTASY

Soon Alayiakal will be considered either a hero or a tyrant, but right now he’s just climbing the ranks of Cyador’s Mirror Lancers with the help of both ancient and never-before-seen weapons. Next in the durable “Saga of Recluse” series; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Pokwatka, Aimee. The Parliament. Tor.com. Jan. 2024. 368p. ISBN 9781250820976. $27.99. FANTASY

When tens of thousands of angry owls descend on the town library, Madigan Purdy is trapped there with her students, whom she tries desperately to distract. Leaving isn’t an option unless you want to be beak-and-taloned to death. What do the owls want? Following Self-Portrait with Nothing, a New York Times Best Fantasy; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Sanderson, Brandon. The Sunlit Man: A Cosmere Novel. Tor. Jan. 2024. (Secret Projects). 400p. ISBN 9781250899712. $29.99. FANTASY

Forever on the run from the Night Brigade, Nomad hopscotches from planet to planet in the Cosmere universe and finally ends up in a place where rebels are ranging themselves against a tyrant even as sunrise promises to melt the planet’s very stones. He can’t even understand the language, but he’s game to join the fight. The last of the New York Times best-selling author’s Kickstarter project; with a 300,000-copy first printing.

Shawl, Nisi. Kinning. Tor. Jan. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9781250212696. $28.99. ALTERNATIVE HISTORY

Published in 2016, Shawl’s attention-getting Everfair imagined a Fabian socialist sanctuary for Africans within 19th-century Africa maintained by steam-powered tools and airships. In this follow-up, infighting among the royal family threatens the country even as European countries struggle to hold onto their colonial holdings on the continent after World War I. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Weber, David & Chris Kennedy. To Challenge Heaven. Tor. Jan. 2024. 320p. ISBN 9781250907394. 29.99. CD/downloadable. SF

Confounding news: apparently, the Shongairi attack on Earth, which wiped out half the population four decades ago, was not sanctioned but orchestrated behind the scenes by the ancient, evil Founders. Indeed, the battle against the Founders may require accepting the Shongairi as allies. From the New York Times best-selling military sf author Weber and self-published Kennedy; with a 125,000-copy first printing.

Click here for additional new Prepub Alert columns