Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
LightNews LightNews
banner
bookishsff.bsky.social
Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
@bookishsff.bsky.social
22K followers 680 following 1.7K posts
Posting Science Fiction, Fantasy, Geekery, bookshop life, occasional cats.

Expert Bookseller at Waterstones Ipswich. All views my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
bookishsff.bsky.social
Bookish Scifi & Fantasy @bookishsff.bsky.social · 22d
A thread I'll be adding to hopefully as new titles are announced: the upcoming 2026 books I've been making an excited note of in my diary so far.

Old favourite authors, new voices that just sound too intriguing, and very occasionally a stunning bit of cover art that really caught my eye!

#SFF
🪐📚💙
A green banner reading BookishSFF's 2026 watchlist: scifi fantasy horror and spec fic publishing
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
julie-phillips.com
When I wrote this a year ago I had no idea how bad things would get. Today, eight years after she left us, I'm trying to follow Ursula's advice: write and worry. Write and act. Worry and keep writing.

lithub.com/the-way-of-w...
The Way of Water: On the Quiet Power of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Activism
In the past two months, I’ve found myself thinking back to an essay Ursula K. Le Guin posted on her blog in November 2016. It was one of her last long essays, and she wrote it at a time when she—li…
lithub.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:48 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Trekked through the forest to Deadwater Fell this afternoon, pursued by mist which eventually overtook us, and everything went unnaturally silent.

Up on the moortop the shelter had been dramatically flattened, & dark towering shapes loomed out of the haze.

9/10 folk horror vibes. Would recommend.
A pile of black rotten planks and beams is all that remains of what the plaque tells us was an award winning shelter at the top of Deadwater Fell. Can you see the North Sea, glinting on the horizon, it asks? Oh, how we laughed, as we huddled damply by the side of the track to eat our sandwiches instead. A mist-covered moor, the pile of debris that was the shelter on the left, a single track mud road leading into the gloom on the right. A strange shape looms out of the mist in the middle distance: hard to tell what it is, but its bulk appears to be many meters off the ground. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me (it's easy to see shapes in the slowly-moving mist) until we got a little closer.
January 23, 2026 at 7:43 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
The Poet Empress is out now!

A colleague at the Peterborough branch says it's a brutal deconstruction of the #Romantasy genre: "This book is dark and will rip your heart out, but you'll be glad to have read something so hauntingly beautiful."

💙📚🪐
A pile of the book in a bookshop
January 22, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
bsfa.bsky.social
🚀 Congratulations to all those longlisted for BSFA Awards!

Check out the complete list here 👇and enjoy this celebration of diverse and exciting works!

bsfa.co.uk/bsfa-awards-...
Vote for the BSFA Awards
bsfa.co.uk
January 22, 2026 at 6:22 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
If you think a bookseller on holiday wouldn't go in every bookshop they see because why would you when you work in one every day, then I suggest you perhaps don't know many booksellers...

This is the lovely Accidental Bookshop, Alnwick (and the UK's tallest #bookshop bookshelf!)

💙📚
A very tall bookcase, at least two storeys high! How do they get the books down? Do they know what's up there? Maybe they have bookshop binoculars. How do they DUST?! The same very tall bookcase, at a jaunty angle.
January 22, 2026 at 8:13 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Happy book birthday to @rmlferrier.bsky.social's rather beautiful The Salt Bind, out today!

💙📚🪐
A copy of the Salt Bind on a table in a bookshop
January 22, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
neilwilliamson.bsky.social
Really looking forward to this tonight. Four genuinely brilliant writers in conversation. If you're a fan of SF or Fantasy and wonderful writing, drop in and join us!
solarisbooks.bsky.social Solaris Books @solarisbooks.bsky.social · 2d
🚨 TOMORROW! 🚨

@rainewilson.bsky.social will be taking part in an Evening of Scottish Speculative Fiction with Angie Spoto and Christopher Caldwell/ @seraph76.bsky.social chaired by @theelaineg.bsky.social at @waterstonesargyle.bsky.social - tickets £5.
Scottish Speculative Fiction
Feat. Lorraine Wilson - book now!
www.waterstones.com
January 22, 2026 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
grumpybookseller.bsky.social
Nine Goblins by @tkingfisher.com is the most perfect start to the reading year. Short and perfectly formed. You will fall in love with the goblins.
@titanbooks.bsky.social
#booksky.
Photo of book cover Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher.
January 21, 2026 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
folklorepod.bsky.social
In the latest episode of my podcast, which is out now on all platforms, I discuss the role of the ghost in the medieval period with my expert guest @goingmedieval.bsky.social

Listen free on your podcast apps, or at www.thefolklorepodcast.com/episode-186....

or watch at youtu.be/UXT9f5sWD5Q
Title card for Medieval Ghosts with a picture of Eleanor Janega
January 21, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
londonreviewbookshop.co.uk
we've been troubled for a while by mysterious clanking and scuffling sounds from the ceiling, and also small objects going missing and reappearing in unlikely places, so finally anya cut a hole and we were able to extract the culprit. it appears to be a haunted puppet
January 21, 2026 at 4:39 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Last couple of chapters of @finnlongman.com's The Wolf and His King and I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

I'm going to need a few quiet minutes before having to talk to anyone after this, I can tell.

💙📚🪐
#MedievalWerewolfKnight 🐺❤️
A copy of the book on a colourful Andean blanket. Not exactly medieval, I know, but I love how bright the colours on the cover are so went for it. On the book cover there's a deep blue vaulted sky with stars, a wolf atop a crown, a background of forest trees, all in a rich vibrant palette of blues, reds, greens, gold and yellows.
January 21, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
stephanieburgis.bsky.social
Hooray! Wooing the Witch Queen's UK paperback edition is out today, and it's beautiful. I'm so happy!

(And there are now a kajillion signed copies at my wonderful local Waterstones, which has been SO supportive.)

Grab your copy now: stephanieburgis.com/books/wooing-the-witch-queen

#romancelandia
Steph, grinning, stands by the counter of her local Waterstones beside multiple tall stacks of copies of the beautiful Wooing the Witch Queen paperback. A photo of the front stack of Wooing the Witch Queen paperbacks, showing the gorgeous yellow stars on the blue spines. The very top book is set face out, with a "Signed by the Author" sticker. The illustration shows a man in a cloak riding headlong through the night towards an ominous castle with an illuminated, crowned female figure in its doorway and bats flying overhead in the moonlight. A potion vial surrounds that central image and is further framed by leaves and branches. Crows sit on the branches, and a tagline reads: Love can be a witch. A blurb from Sarah Beth Durst reads, 'Absolutely irresistible!'
January 15, 2026 at 9:46 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
rainewilson.bsky.social
Aberdeen & north-east Scotland folks, I and the fabulous @mkhardywrites.com duo are coming to Waterstones Aberdeen. In LESS THAN TWO WEEKS, so please book tickets and come join us!

There may be book origami creatures 🐈‍⬛🐝🐳🐙

tickets here: www.waterstones.com/events/conve...
@solarisbooks.bsky.social
graphic for an event at waterstones aberdeen on Jan 31st at 7:30pm. It has a yellow/amber background with dark tree roots at the top and tentacles at the bottom, and over that headshots of the auathors and covers of the books The Needfire, The Salt Oracle, and We Are All Ghosts In The Forest.
January 19, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
genni.bsky.social
Available now. 💞 @flametree.bsky.social, @sauutiverse.bsky.social
www.flametreepublishing.com/sauuti-terro...
January 20, 2026 at 9:25 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
It's been a tough year. More than ever, the city of Chicago needs Harry Dresden the wizard - but after loss and grief, is there enough left of Harry Dresden the man to rise to the challenge?

Twelve Months, the new Dresden Files novel from Jim Butcher, is out now!

💙📚🪐
#Fantasy
The cover of the book, showing the main character in his trademark hat and long coat with a staff, and glowing sigils behind him.
January 21, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
marklawrenceauthor.bsky.social
The Waterstones signed edition is nearly sold out - so don't say I didn't warn you.

A little googlefu will find it for you.
January 20, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
wtalabi.bsky.social
Sauúti Terrors Has Arrived!

Here we go. “Sauúti Terrors”, the second anthology of stories set in the first SFF Shared World created by African and African Diaspora authors which we've been working on as a collective for more than 4 years, has finally been published by Flame Tree Press! So here's…
Sauúti Terrors Has Arrived!
Here we go. “Sauúti Terrors”, the second anthology of stories set in the first SFF Shared World created by African and African Diaspora authors which we've been working on as a collective for more than 4 years, has finally been published by Flame Tree Press! So here's wishing a happy book release day to all of us who made this happen, especially those of you who preordered the book or even picked up copies of…
wtalabi.wordpress.com
January 20, 2026 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
davidmbarnett.bsky.social
I know SCRATCH MOSS isn't even out yet but I've been given the go-ahead to share the cover design (by the always excellent Sarah Whittaker) for the fourth book in my folk horror series, TWISTED PIKE. Scheduled for October, this is one you won't want to miss as we return to a certain Withered Hill...
The cover of forthcoming Folk Horror novel TWISTED PIKE by David Barnett, to be published by Canelo in October
January 20, 2026 at 9:54 AM
bookishsff.bsky.social
And it's here!

T. Kingfisher's Nine Goblins is out today, with a shiny silver banner hidden under the dust jacket ❤️

#Booksky
🪐📚
A copy of the book in a bookshop. A quote from John Wiswell on the front reads "the comedy that goblins deserve!" A photo of the book alongside another copy with its dust jacket removed to show the black cover with silver embossed flag below
January 20, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
runalongwomble.bsky.social
Great #Bookpost coming this April will be The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe which sounds a fascinating urban fantasy - thanks to @solarisbooks.bsky.social
The ARC for The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe has red and yellow crossed spears again as blue and purple dark background The Killing Spell Shay Kauwe THE KILLING SPELL Out in paperback, eBook and audiobook: 23 April 2026 SHAY KAUWE Combining the creative worldbuilding and anti-colonial themes of R.F. Kuang's Babel with the clever, intricate world building of Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education, The Killing Spell is a fresh, exciting urban fantasy novel based on Hawaiian culture and mythology. Kea Petrova is dealing with more than her fair share of trouble. At just twenty-five years old, she's the youngest of five Hawaiian clan leaders living on the Homestead in outer Los Angeles following catastrophic flooding. Kea struggles to keep her small clan afloat, scraping together rent each month through odd jobs and selling her own crafted Hawaiian language spells. Just when she thinks things can't get any more complicated, the murder of Angelo Reyes —LA's most prominent Filipino activist—turns her world upside-down. Angelo was killed by a death spell-something that, due to the properties of each school of language magic, can only exist in Hawaiian. With independent spellsmithing being technically illegal, Kea quickly becomes the prime suspect, known for her spellwork on the Homestead. To clear her name, she must unravel the mystery behind Angelo's murder and confront LA's most powerful (and dangerous) players, each wielding their own type of magic. The clock is ticking-can Kea save herself, her clan, and the Homestead before it's too late? Shay Kauwe was born and raised on the island of O'ahu and grew up on the Hawaiian Homelands in Waimãnalo. She worked in Russia as an English teacher but was eventually drawn back home. While she has a corporate job in telecommunications, Shay continues to educate with the Hawaii Literacy Project. She resides in Honolulu with her husband, Denis, and their poi dog, Iris. Learn more about Shay at www.shayzykova.com and on Instagram as shayzykova.
January 20, 2026 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Bookish Scifi & Fantasy
lunapress.bsky.social
Join us on the 29th of January, on YouTube! With @lyndseycroal.bsky.social and @aknighton.bsky.social !
Luna Novella Launch: #24-25
YouTube video by Luna Press Publishing
youtu.be
January 19, 2026 at 6:38 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Yay!

*crosses Tor off the SFFH Bluesky bingo*

Hopefully one less publisher I need to faff over to Facebook to check up on. Think that's almost all of them now 🤞
torbooks.bsky.social Tor Books @torbooks.bsky.social · 4d
omg what’s that 👀
January 19, 2026 at 5:56 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Vampire hunter Rebecca goes undercover at a vampire academy hoping to avenge her parents, slain by vampires. Instead finds the most beautiful woman she's ever seen: will she kiss her or kill her?

Sapphic vampire #romantasy The Book of Blood & Roses by @anniesummerlee.bsky.social is out now!

💙📚🪐
A copy of the book on a table in a bookshop. It has a "signed by the author" sticker on the front
January 19, 2026 at 5:45 PM
bookishsff.bsky.social
Hollow by Celina Myers is now out!

25yo Mia dies in a car crash, awakes as a vampire, and must leave behind everything she knows to join a new family.

It's been huge over on the ol Booktok: a new vampire tale of rival clans, supernaturally gifted humans, desire, found family, love triangles 🦇

💙📚🪐
A hand holds a copy of the book in a bookshop
January 19, 2026 at 12:38 PM