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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 October or beyond, let me know by filling out THIS FORM, 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.
1st October – Death Dance (A Dreams of Dust and Steel Novella) by Michael Michel
Epic Fantasy, Grimdark, Sword & Sorcery
They sang the hymn of freedom. Now, they must fight to keep it.
The war for Namarr has just begun.
Willing to pay any cost to see his revolution grow, the legend of Danath the Namorite rises. With every slave freed, and every Scoth slain, the ranks of his small force swell. But it will take more than a rabble of freedom fighters and tribal warriors to end Scothea’s reign.
Much more.
When duty demands anything, anything is what must be given.
Danath will play assassin, bandit, and betrayer. He’ll compromise with murderers. Befriend slavers. Even bow and beg at the boot heels of the tyrants he’s so desperate to overthrow. He’ll stop at nothing to see his aims achieved.
So goes the deadly dance upon the blade’s edge of revolution. Strangers to allies. Allies to enemies. Enemies to friends.
Any misstep–any hesitation to sacrifice it all–and the dream of Namarr dies with him.
2nd October – The City of Sun and Stars (Mothers of Sorrow #2) by Alex Robins
Epic Fantasy
The Mother lied.
The Mists that writhe and swirl beyond the walls of Keselgraad are not her enemy; they are her creation, a way to eradicate the city’s inhabitants before they can grow strong enough to pose a threat to her paramountcy.
Precious few are aware of the goddess’s duplicity. Lord Matellas Thane was among the first to learn the truth, but it only led to his downfall. He now lies imprisoned deep below the Church of the Mother under the watchful eye of the tainted warden, Devrard.
Yet, there is still hope. The disgraced captain, Aldin Pine, has managed to escape the goddess’s tentacular grasp, the flecks of crystal embedded in his skin allowing him to pass through the Mists unscathed. He is following his partner, Selene, to another city, one that may hold the key to the Mother’s destruction.
And behind him, eleven orphans with eyes the colour of amethyst. Once abandoned and forgotten, they have been given a new purpose. New identities. A new beginning.
There is power in a name. Sometimes, a legend can be forged from a single word.
Brachyura.
3rd October – Circe’s Coven (The Inside Story of the British Bureau for the Arcane #3) by Phil Parker
Urban Fantasy
In this third and final fantasy noir story in the series, Arlo Austin has been abducted by a coven of witches. One month on and the lack of a ransom or ultimatum suggests dire alternatives: perhaps Arlo has gone rogue?
The simultaneous attacks by Circe’s Coven cannot be a coincidence either. The Bureau’s political masters want answers, hence the return of Arlo’s son, Tayn Banks, whose natural curiosity has served them well in the past. Even though his relationship with Arlo has broken down, Tayn agrees to investigate the mystery.
Tayn’s detective work places him in mortal danger, made complicated by not knowing who he can trust, not everyone is who they say they are. As Circe’s Coven ramps up their attacks, Tayn discovers a connection between ancient literature and the coven’s ambitions. Witches have been persecuted for millennia, their vengeance led to an attempt to enslave humanity once before – which failed. This time it looks like they could succeed.
3rd October – Hell Hath No Fury (Tear Down Heaven #4) by Rachel Aaron
Urban Fantasy
The Queen of Wrath may go down, but she’s never out. At least, that’s how it’s been for the last five thousand years. With the loss of her horns, hand, sword, name, and witch, Bex is closer to defeat than she’s ever been before, but the Blade of Ishtar has never been a quitter. She’s determined to come back from her ashes, which means it’s time to do something crazy, something she’s never attempted in any of her previous lives.
She’s going to hell. Literally.
If the only way to get back what she lost is for Bex and crew to personally storm the Eternal King’s prison, that’s what they’re going to do, because while the Hells were designed to contain demons, they’re completely unprepared for the fire of revolution Bex is bringing with her, especially since the demons aren’t fighting alone. Adrian is also deep in Heaven’s backstage, and like any good witch, he hasn’t been an idle prisoner. It’s time to show Gilgamesh that winning the battle isn’t the same as winning the war, and that hell hath no fury like a queen–or a witch–scorned.
9th October – Crimson Dusk (Annals of the Incidental Utopia #2) by E.P. Soulless
Epic Fantasy, Grimdark
The collision left them shattered. The truth left them enraged.
Left for dead, the disgraced shaman Idd wakes not to peace, but to imprisonment in the very institution that broke him.
Korthe discovers her crusade was built on a foundation of lies. Armed with a dead man’s ring, she carves a new path—not of revenge, but of total reckoning.
Brought together by conspiracy and bound by a shared trauma, they must navigate a fragile alliance. They were once weapons aimed at each other; now, they are a singular blade aimed at the heart of the Nine Realms. But in a world of lies, the most dangerous betrayal is the one that comes from within.
10th October – Crimsoncrest (The Weirkey Chronicles #10) by Sarah Lin
Epic Fantasy, Progression/Cultivation
Betrayed. Murdered. Reborn. One last chance, to make it right. Theo’s adventure ended with his mentor’s hands around his neck. The betrayal cost him his friends, allies and everything he had built… but not his life. Though broken and powerless, Theo has one last chance to enter the Nine Worlds, wielding the knowledge and expertise of his first life. This time, he needs more than just power, he needs to unravel the deception that killed him once… and is coming for him again.
The plans set in motion by Theo’s enemies have finally come to he has no choice but to face off against the empire of Tymetron. The invasion of overwhelming power threatens to destroy everything Theo has built, forcing old enemies to band together against the greater threat. Their only hope is to leverage an extraordinary sublime material, centuries in the making. But many forces are interested in seizing the material, from House Crimson to Tymetron to forces across the Nine Worlds…
13th Orctober – The Outsiders of Orkland by Kenneth Feller
Urban Fantasy, Sci- Fantasy, Gaslamp
What would you sacrifice for your family?
A plague ravages the Fringe, but a chance encounter with orcs from Bogan Island gives Boele hope for a cure.
With his lad, Willem, a dodgy crew, and a huge pair of stones, he sets off on a mission to once again unite the humans with the horde.
Or he could screw up and start a war. No pressure.
14th October – Phoenix Rises Dragon Soars (Four Guardians #1) by Charlotte Saulter
Epic Fantasy
An empire in turmoil. A forbidden magic promising death. Four lives changed forever.
The Emperor is dead and his widow’s rule drowns the land in fear. Soldiers terrorise the very people they should protect, taxes bleed the poor, and the executioner’s blade awaits any accused of using magic.
A mercenary haunted by his past risks his future for a chance at the family he thought he could never have.
A noblewoman, bereft of home and memory, begins reclaiming her past to avenge those she lost.
A disgraced commander hunts the truth behind his family’s murders, leaving death and destruction in his wake.
A shamaness is driven from sanctuary by the desperate actions of a grieving man.
Through everything, the thread of a dangerous magic runs deep. Volatile as its wielder’s emotions, it forges bonds of loyalty and love and holds the power to reshape the Empire’s fate.
But trust is fragile. And when long-buried secrets surface, bonds may shatter… And vengeance may be all that remains.
14th October – Arvia: Fangs of the Frost (Tales of Arvia #5) by D.H. Wilson
Epic Fantasy, Romance, Cozy Fantasy
Being sent on a quest to save an entire city and granted the city’s full resources is a grand honor. Unless that city is Xin, with no resources to speak of.
A magical secret from Xin’s founding threatens the city’s future, and Darin must lead a rag-tag group to a frigid city at the end of the world to save it. Their dilapidated old trade schooner may be haunted, but it survived conversion into the world’s first harpy aircraft carrier. And more importantly, it was cheap.
Can a misfit crew of humans and monsters overcome creepy creatures, mysterious magical phenomena, and the whims of the Empress of the Ice? How does a couple get alone time on a ship, when one of them is the size of the ship? And will Darin and Rinloh finally put the naughty in nautical?
15th October – Bounty Inc. by Adam Holcombe
Sci-Fantasy
A dream lives on while a will is strong, but a significant inheritance from a recently-deceased father sure helps too.
When Wyn throws away his easy life to open the galaxy’s first bounty hunter organization and become a bounty hunter himself, he soon learns that a strong support system will be needed. A support system like an unwise mentor, her giant lizard ex-girlfriend, a woman trapped within her armor, a suspicious cyborg, a possible war criminal, several thousand beetles, and a ten-year-old insectoid with a pet.
Money is never endless, however, and Wyn will need to lead his new friends down a dangerous path to prove Bounty Inc’s worth and keep his dream alive.
18th October – The Harvesting Angel of the Plains (Southwest Gothic #1) by Bladen Mercutio
Urban Fantasy, Horror, Weird West
When you’ve lost all you believe in, how will you know what’s worth fighting for?
An ancient villain draws Macarthy Black into its spiral as a mysterious drought overtakes the region. When legends such as the Marfa Mystery Lights and the Ghost Torch of the Chisos go missing, Macarthy returns to her witchy roots only to uncover that the enemy has set a target on her back. She finds herself in cahoots with renegade meteorologist and closet necromancer, Remy Gaumond; scholar and sassy librarian, Jonas Rodriguez; and the charmingly dark, cartel-associated Vincent Salmerón. Tensions and wit run high as this makeshift group of strangers race to uncover their villain’s weaknesses before it unleashes its world-altering Reaping.
20th October – The Sapphire Heart (The Erynvor Cycle #1) by Three Scribes (Sandra Miller, Abigail Bender, Victoria Hungria)
Epic Fantasy
IT IS WRITTEN THAT AN ERYNVOR WILL SAVE EOLEMAR. TEN HAVE FAILED. WILL THE ELEVENTH SUCCEED?
Elorah longs to revive her wasting homeland, but everything she’s been taught suggests the path is nothing but myths and legends. That is, until a vision from a Founding Dragon affirms her as the fated Erynvor, the one who will restore the power centers of Eolemar.
Now, Elorah and her assembled group—a noble-born terramancer, a wind-harnessing gryphon-tamer, a firestarter in love, a wide-eyed innocent, a deal-making rapscallion, and a mysterious dreamwalker—must align their powers and embark on a quest spanning not only a waking world full of dangerous men and terrifying beasts, but an even more perilous dreamworld, where an immortal being with a grudge threatens to steal their souls.
Will Elorah and her companions restore balance to Eolemar, or will their realm be forever lost?
21st October – The Assassin’s Skill (Assassin Without a Name #4) by Scott Marlowe
Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Sci-Fantasy, Gaslamp
An assassin possesses no greater skill than outsmarting one’s enemies.
The Holy Knights of Warding stand above all other threats, their influence reaching far beyond their honorable façade. Deeply entrenched in Alchester’s halls of power, these stoic fanatics have created a web of alliances that even the infamous Assassin Without a Name cannot untangle alone.
Once, a coalition of thieves, scientists, death priests, and King’s officers seemed the most implausible collaborators. Yet desperation breeds unlikely allies, and it will take them all to unravel the carefully laid plans of the Warder Primus before the Unifying Convergence becomes a reality.
If he hopes to succeed, the Nameless Assassin must join his lethal talents with the unique abilities of his diverse companions, forging a tenuous alliance amid clashing motives and hidden agendas. With Alchester’s fate hanging in the balance, the stakes have never been higher.
When treachery and ancient secrets lurk around every corner, only an assassin’s skill can navigate the perilous game of power threatening to consume them all.
21st October – Mirror of Argent (Blood of the Fae #4) by Sarah Chilson
Historical Fantasy, Gaslamp
Masquerades, monarchs, and . . . misalliances?
All her life, Jessa Caldwell has feared the Vigil—and now they’ve claimed her. Worse yet, they’re not acting alone. Someone directs their every move, someone all too interested in Jessa—and her sisters. Even if she breaks free of her unnatural prison, the Vigil will not so readily relinquish their claim, nor will the unknown fae who hunts her across realms.
As she struggles to clear her name, protect her family, and uncover the truth about her past, she soon finds herself in the center of a conflict that threatens both worlds, an age-old menace capable of harming mortal and fae alike. In partnership with fae arbiter Riven and her bonded kit-isne Jade, Jessa strives for a path that will keep endangered innocents safe—no easy task when someone is making her out to be the threat.
To have any chance of saving that which she loves, she must forfeit it all for a world of court rivalries, power games, and treacherous bargains, where no one is what they seem. If she can’t discern truth from illusion in time, she’ll lose not only her family, but also her very self.
27th October – Let Sleeping Gods Lie by Ben Schenkman
Urban Fantasy
If jumping off a building to save a raccoon doesn’t kill Corbin Pierce then his next altruistic impulses just might.
Pierce, ex-Ivy League community college adjunct and environmental activist, has his hands full keeping the local spirit-creatures out of the hands of poachers while teaching his students about history they shouldn’t repeat. As if he didn’t already have enough on his plate, he and his new mentee-turned-apprentice discover the murder of a homeless man.
As one murder becomes two, Corbin suspects the involvement of The Hand, a secret cabal of high magicians. It won’t be his first conflict with them, but if he can’t find a way to stop them, it could well be the last.
Even worse, ancient spirits are waking to wreak havoc on the city as the bodies pile up. To end it all, Corbin must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice. If he doesn’t, the city and everyone he loves will be gone. Can Corbin take the final leap, knowing he might pay the ultimate price?