If you would like to be kept up to date with the upcoming lists, please subscribe to my newsletter by clicking this link. I don’t send out letters too often, pretty much once a month when this list goes out… and occasionally if I release a book or something.
As always, this is not a comprehensive list, but only includes all the books I have heard about so far.
If you have a fantasy novel you are self publishing in January or beyond, let me know either in the comments, or by emailing me, and I shall add it to the page. There are but 3 requirements:
1) It must be a self published fantasy novel.
2) It must have a Goodreads page.
3) It must have a cover.
31st December – Half-Bloods Rising (The Rogue Elf #1) by J.T. Williams
War calls the elves of Urlas to battle. But Kealin, a young half-elf training to be a Sacred Blade, is forbidden to go. He is not ready, or so he’s told. But Kealin’s lineage has a dark secret and the High Council of Urlas fears what he may become…
Kealin is about to learn that secret. Urlas will soon tremble and wish they would have embraced it.
When the soothsayer of Urlas tells Kealin that doom comes for all that left for battle, including his parents, he and his siblings set off on what may be a one way journey to the edge of the world. Darkness is upon them and an ancient specter that dwells between the borders of the living realms has been waiting for its chance.
The Rogue Elf awakens… but is it too late to save those he loves?
1st January – Wolfmother (Convergence #3) by J.M. Riddles
With the goddess’s help, Halea was able to capture Lord Anshar within the dark mirror, but how can she save him? The demons have grown more powerful and learned to mimic their prey, and all the warning signs point to the coming of another convergence. In his despair and madness, Lord Anshar vows to never again perform a sacrifice to banish the Chaos Dimension, but Varg does not believe him and fears that if Halea succeeds in her mission and frees the dragon, the ultimate price may be her life. As the danger mounts, the few remaining priestesses must look to Halea and the lycans for help. Varg and Halea call for a gathering of the wolves to battle against the looming threat, but does Halea truly have what it takes to become a Wolfmother?
1st January – Bitter Sky (Fractured Empire #1) by Tim Stretton
War is in the air. In every sense, as the aeronauts of Lauchenland prepare to take their airships aloft against the mighty Beruzil Empire.
It’s the chance for Heino Voss to fulfil his life’s ambition and fly an airship into battle. At his side is his aloof navigator, Saskia von Eck. Soon they realise that war is not a game, and that unquestioning loyalty can take them to some dark places.
Saskia’s brother Erich finds himself fighting for the other side. As the bloodshed and horror mount, he learns there is no place for honour on the battlefield.
As the conflict draws to its grim conclusion, all three realise that the price of victory could be higher than they’re willing to pay. And that, even in wartime, there are fates worse than death…
1st January – The Ranger’s Path (The King’s Ranger #2) by A.C. Cobble
A ranger’s duty. The rotten heart of a king. Rebellion spilled from the blood of family.
Rew, the King’s Ranger, leads his young companions on a deadly journey to find their father. On a path that twists across the Eastern Territory, they fight toward the prison where Baron Fedgley is held. The party will face bandits, assassins, treacherous noblemen, spellcasters, and Rew’s fellow rangers to get there.
Raif and Cinda, desperate to recover their kidnapped father, will risk anything to find him. Raif, equipped with his family’s enchanted greatsword, but forced to acknowledge he’s not as strong or as skilled as he once believed, will charge into a world he’s never experienced. Cinda, awakened to strange and dangerous necromantic magic, will have to control vast power she never expected.
Confronted with the truth of his past, and terrible knowledge he cannot ignore, Rew will choose between hiding and saving his soul, or sacrificing it all to protect those he’s come to love. Will the ranger’s path take them into the wilderness and safety, or into the heart of the kingdom and an epic confrontation?
1st January – Heavy: The Weight of It All by J.J. Thorn
An Affinity.
Most humans never get one, but everyone is given the chance to receive one from the Goddess when they turn 16.
With an Affinity, humans are given access to their own internal energy and Skills. Magical powers that allow you to interact with the world in ways you could never imagine.
When Terrence receives his Affinity, he is shocked to discover it has never been seen before within the Kingdom. Worse yet, his Affinity reinforces the thing he was made fun of for his entire life. His weight.
Not letting it get him down, follow Terrence as he tries to use his affinity to progress with the hopes of eventually becoming a Dungeoneer – someone who explores and conquers Dungeons.
Through it all, he must practice and train, learning as much as he can about his affinity AND himself.
Discover a new world where Terrence and his friends learn about their new abilities.
Their Skills will grow, and if they work hard enough, they might eventually Rank up.
1st January – Not a Prophet (Not a Trilogy #3) by Ladd DeWinter
A harsh winter settles over Beloved Garden. Without a harvest and despite Sesily’s and Thayson’s formidable magic and best efforts, the town is running out of food and people are starting to die. Then, for the first time in living memory, someone is murdered.
The elders charge Sesily to leave the valley and brave the outside world in search of people who will sell them food.
At the same time, Thayson must discover the identity of the murderer before they strike again. Not even knowing where to start, he gains the help of an unlikely ally in Sesily’s younger sister, Morandis.
Will they succeed before more people die?
2nd January – At the Gates and Other Stories [ANTHOLOGY] by Patrick Samphire
A ghost searches for revenge in ancient Egypt. A boy unearths the bones of a dragon. A girl risks awakening a dark god to save her dog…
He reached out a hand and touched Grace’s cheek. The touch made her shiver. “You can’t save everyone, Grace.”
“I don’t want to,” Grace whispered. “Just her.”
At the Gates and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen fantasy short stories.
3rd January – The Shadows of Dust by Alec Hutson
The Streams bind together the vast reaches of the stellar tributary, plied by brave streamsurfers and their telepathic starbeasts. Some of these adventurers are heroes. Some are rogues. And some just want to return from the void with their bodies and minds unbroken . . .
Kerin thon Talisien is the heir to a legendary name. When he was a young boy, his grandfather swooped down from the stars and rescued him from the slums of his homeworld. But with the death of the infamous old streamsurfer, Kerin and his crew have fallen on hard times, exiled from the Starfarers Guild and forced to take on risky contracts in the shadowy margins of the stellar tributary. A strange encounter in a glimmer den offers a chance at redemption and glory . . . but the stakes are high, with the fate of the Known potentially hanging in the balance.
5th January – Glitch King (MythRune Online #2) by Derek Alan Siddoway & A.J. Cerna
Thousands of players. Two God Mode users. One winner.
Zane’s quest to win ten million dollars and save his brother in MythRune Online is far from over. Following a clash with a fellow God Mode hacker, he and his companions find themselves on the road to the worldwide Tournament of Champions. Their destination is Mythgard, the in-game location of the tournament, a massive city surrounded by thousands of players with their sights set on the same goal.
Life in MythRune Online can be a real glitch.
If the competition wasn’t tough enough, an army of beta players has the city under siege, determined to keep potential tournament participants out. In virtual total war, the only certainty is this: one does not simply walk into Mythgard.
Enemies become allies. Loyalties shift as each round of battle royale raises the stakes. Does Zane have what it takes to run the table or will his greatest advantage, the God Mode hack, become his downfall?
8th January – Dragon Mage by M.L. Spencer
Aram Raythe has the power to challenge the gods. He just doesn’t know it yet.
Aram thinks he’s nothing but a misfit from a small fishing village in a dark corner of the world. As far as Aram knows, he has nothing, with hardly a possession to his name other than a desire to make friends and be accepted by those around him, which is something he’s never known.
But Aram is more. Much, much more.
Unknown to him, Aram bears within him a gift so old and rare that many people would kill him for it, and there are others who would twist him to use for their own sinister purposes. These magics are so potent that Aram earns a place at an academy for warrior mages training to earn for themselves the greatest place of honor among the armies of men: dragon riders.
Aram will have to fight for respect by becoming not just a dragon rider, but a Champion, the caliber of mage that hasn’t existed in the world for hundreds of years. And the land needs a Champion. Because when a dark god out of ancient myth arises to threaten the world of magic, it is Aram the world will turn to in its hour of need.
10th January – The Cursed Witch (Nightcaster Chronicles #1) by R.L. Perez
She’s a witch with no powers. He’s a shape-shifting vampire. Trusting him could save her . . . or cost her everything.
Brielle Gerrick can’t access her magic. In an effort to awaken her powers, she gets sucked into a time portal—to a castle in Spain in the year 1735.
The castle is attacked by demons. Their leader is a shape-shifting vampire named Leo Serrano, an arrogant creep who enjoys taunting Brielle.
When Brielle’s dark powers awaken, the others in the castle turn on her. They try to capture her and uncover the source of her magic before it unleashes itself.
Desperate to escape, Brielle must put her trust in Leo and his coven of vampires. She’ll do anything to master her powers and get back home.
Even if it means surrendering herself to her enemy.
18th January – Daughter of Flood and Fury (Tidecaller Chronicles #1) by Levi Jacobs
Aletheia Vjolla is a walking heresy: a girl born with a man’s magic, she studies among the city’s revered monks only on the authority of her father, head seer of the temple. Already disliked for her gender and blasphemous magic, things fall apart when her father is deposed and murdered. Searching for answers to his sudden death, Aletheia stays on at the temple only by being the best—and by burying her grief in the quest.
It isn’t enough.
Enemies in her class bring her to the new head seer, who publicly sentences her to death while privately admitting he killed her father. Calling on those few loyal to her father, Aletheia manages to escape, but finds herself alone in a hostile city, unsure how to survive and unable to hide her heritage. Hunted by the temple and darker elements in the city, to vindicate her father she must first learn the lesson he couldn’t teach her: how to find the strength in her heresy.
19th January – Arisen (The Shards of Etherious #1) by Colin J.D. Crooks
For too long the battlefield has denied my soul, and Strothheim beckons. In these hours of my final judgment, I stand on the precipice of victory, one that will purchase my lord’s transcendence. Khyber, God of the sword and shield, will break the shackles of the mortal realm and take his rightful place in the afterlife, joining the Ethereal Battle. All I need do is slay a goddess and all her mortal children.
So I ride to assassinate an ally. This will be my legacy. This gamble that I cannot lose, for the price of failure is too high. Once I strike the death blow, Khyber’s remaining allies will know. And they will come for us. Three gods, each with a nation at their backs and vengeance in their hearts. If Khyber doesn’t claim the Mother Tree’s soul, the ascendancy war will destroy all I love. My nation will burn. My people will fall, and there will be nothing I can do to stop it.
21st January – The Dark Disciple (The Daybreak Saga #2) by Dan Neil
The adventures of Keia Atlos continue in The Dark Disciple, second installment of The Daybreak Saga. Return to the world of Alea and follow familiar faces and newcomers alike as they contend with dark forces and ancient evils.
24th January – Winds of Strife (Dawnless Night #1) by Uri Gatt Gutman
“They burned me and mine. I’m not done until I burn them and theirs in return.”
Witch-hunts have plagued the kingdom of Olyanath for decades. Thousands were slain due to the king’s paranoia of women who practice Senspiritic magic.
No more.
Nye and his companions have seen enough of murder and misogyny.
Fifteen years have passed since he joined the witch-hunters, and now, at long last, an opportunity to destroy them from the inside reveals itself.
An opportunity to overthrow the king and end his reign of cruelty.
But fifteen years of pretense have taken a toll. The strive for vengeance has steered Nye toward a path of violence and villainy. His hands are stained by the blood of countless innocents, his heart is scorched by grief, and his sanity hangs by a thread.
Even if he can kill the king and see this revolution through, it may not suffice to purge the voices from his head.
26th January – Pawn’s Gambit by Rob J. Hayes (A Mortal Techniques Novel)
Even Pawns can checkmate Kings.
Once a century, the gods hold a contest to determine who will rule from the Jade Throne. Each god chooses a mortal champion, and the fate of heaven and earth depends on the winner.
Once a world-renowned strategist and general, Yuu made one wrong move, and the Steel Prince paid for her mistake with his life. Now on the run, she relies on her wits to evade royal bounty hunters. But what if there is a way to bring back her dead prince?
On a playing board full of heroes, warriors, assassins, and thieves can Yuu survive long enough to even learn the rules of the game, let alone master it?
29th January – Falls of Iron (Magelands Eternal Siege #4) by Christopher Mitchell
Lostwell – a dying world of volcanos, earthquakes, endless wastes and wild dragons.
For Corthie and Aila, Lostwell is a stepping stone to the home of the Holdfasts, and for Blackrose and Maddie it is the way to Dragon Eyre. But for Belinda, Lostwell means something else – the land where she once ruled as Queen.
Within the sanctuary of the Falls of Iron, the exiles from the city of Pella and Tara make their plans, but unknown to them, on Implacatus, the home of the Gods, a task force is being assembled – their mission, to find and secure the source of Salve, the miracle material that grants everlasting youth to the gods.
Sable Holdfast works alone. Tasked with finding a Quadrant, the former assassin is trying to redeem herself. Can she stop the gods of Implacatus from finding the world of Maddie and Aila, and help Corthie get home, or will she succumb to the old temptations…
Space for more…
Thanks for the list. I subscribed to your newsletter. I’ll revisit this in October, when I self-publish my book. 🙂
I self-published a fantasy novel on the 1st. Here’s the goodreads page https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56522782-not-a-prophet
Hi Rob,
Thanks for doing this. I think it’s a great idea and really helps shine a light on these self-published works.
I have a self-published fantasy book due out 23rd Feb, called Wolfeater. Here’s the Goodreads page:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56552125-wolfeater