12 new SFF books to help beat back the January blues

Diamond City – Francesca Flores

Francesca Flores’ fantasy debut is an entertaining tale of assassins, magic and, yes, literal diamonds that power a dangerous form of blood magic, and which are traded as even more valuable versions of the jewels they are.

Diamond City follows the story of eighteen-year old orphan Aina Solis, who grew up on the streets of Kosín, a city full of diamond mines whose products are forbidden to the general population. Now a skilled assassin in “Blood King” Kohl Pavel’s tradehouse, she’s given an impossible job: Kill a high-profile diamond trader. If she’s successful, her mission will make her enough money to bankroll her own tradehouse. If she’s not…well, she probably won’t live to see what happens next. (Particularly once a bounty is placed on her head by various parties, including her own boss.)

The official synopsis is vague and more than a little familiar, but the overall story certainly feels dangerous and dark.

"Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten. Her boss is brutal and cold, with a questionable sense of morality, but he provides a place for people with nowhere else to go. And makes sure they stay there. DIAMOND CITY: built by magic, ruled by tyrants, and in desperate need of saving. It is a world full of dark forces and hidden agendas, old rivalries and lethal new enemies. To claim a future for herself in a world that doesn’t want her to survive, Aina will have to win a game of murder and conspiracy—and risk losing everything"

Diamond City is available on January 28.

What’s on your reading list for January? Will you be checking out any of these science fiction or fantasy titles? Let us know!