Future Fiction #212 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

Welcome to Future Fiction, my reimagining of the Waiting on Wednesday meme! There are so many amazing new books coming out, that I can no longer pick just one. My goal with Future Fiction is to share at least three new books each week, a combination of recent cover reveals and books that I’ve recently added to my TBR pile. I’m still going to be linking up with Wishful Endings/Can’t Wait Wednesday, and I also want to give a shout out to Jill at Breaking the Spine for starting the original Waiting on Wednesday meme. I hope you’ll find some new books to add to your TBR piles, and as always, I look forward to hearing what YOU’RE looking forward to:-D


It’s a horror-themed Future Fiction today, with three upcoming horror titles, take a look:


A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

It’s autumn in the town of Harrow, but something else is changing in the town besides the season.

Because in that town there is an orchard, and in that orchard, seven most unusual trees. And from those trees grows a new sort of apple: Strange, beautiful, with skin so red it’s nearly black.

Take a bite of one of these apples and you will desire only to devour another. And another. You will become stronger. More vital. More yourself, you will believe. But then your appetite for the apples and their peculiar gifts will keep growing—and become darker.

This is what happens when the townsfolk discover the secret of the orchard. Soon it seems that everyone is consumed by an obsession with the magic of the apples… and what’s the harm, if it is making them all happier, more confident, more powerful?

And even if buried in the orchard is something else besides the seeds of this extraordinary tree: a bloody history whose roots reach back the very origins of the town.

But now the leaves are falling. The days grow darker. And a stranger has come to town, a stranger who knows Harrow’s secrets. Because it’s harvest time, and the town will soon reap what it has sown.

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig. Releases in September 2023 from Del Rey. I was so happy to see this cover reveal last week. Chuck Wendig (who is obsessed with apples, if you follow him on social media) has finally written a horror story about apples, lol. I can’t wait!


From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she’s hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they’ll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn’t be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing…only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport…and they’re far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates. Releases in July 2023 from Poisoned Pen Press. I discovered Darcy Coates last year when I read Gallows Hill, and I was thrilled to hear about her upcoming horror book, Dead of Winter. The plot might sound familiar, but I’m sure in her hands it’s going to be really good.


St. Vincent’s Orphanage for Boys.

Turn of the century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.

Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work and learn and worship. They live their lives in a methodical way and get along despite different personalities and pasts. Peter Barlow, orphaned by a nighttime murder at his childhood home, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future…family.

Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, his body covered with occult symbols carved into his flesh. Upon his death, an ancient evil is released that infests St. Vincent’s and the children within. Soon, boys begin acting differently, forming groups. Taking sides.

Others turn up dead.

Now Peter and those dear to him must choose sides of their own, each of them knowing their lives- and perhaps their eternal souls- are at risk.

Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi. Releases in July 2023 from Tor Nightfire. This was originally released by another publisher a couple of years ago, so the fact that Nightfire picked this up makes me very interested. I’m reading Fracassi’s Gothic as part of my February TBR, and I think this sounds fantastic.


What do you think of this week’s Future Fiction picks? Let me know in the comments!

Posted February 1, 2023 by Tammy in Future Fiction / 37 Comments

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37 responses to “Future Fiction #212 – Cover Reveals & Newly Discovered SFF Books

  1. These all sound terrifying! Dead of Winter seems like it would really hit the sweet spot for me — I love horror stories set in isolated locations with no way out, and the winter setting makes it even better!

  2. I’ve read a few books by Darcy Coates and enjoyed them. Dead of Winter sounds like a book I’d enjoy as well. Have fun reading this week.

    My WoW post.

  3. I don’t normally think of horror as my jam, but I recently finished Wendig’s The Book of Accidents and loved it (that reminds me, I need to write a review). So Black River Orchard might find itself on my TBR! And the others sound intriguing, too. Oh, heck, I didn’t think I was a romance reader and I sure enough am. Might as well say I’m a horror reader, too. LOL
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  4. Ahhhhh, there’s the new Darcy Coates novel! And after Wanderers, Wayward, and Zer0es, I’m a Chuck Wendig fan, so I’ll take a bite of that apple. 🙂

  5. What fabulous covers – given my wussiness, I shan’t be picking any of these up, but I LOVE the sound of Dead of Winter. Thank you for sharing, Tammy.

  6. Yep, yep need them all! I did not see that Chuck’s cover was revealed, so I am thrilled to see it (I think I had another edition of the book on Goodreads, so I fixed it!) I did see the Boys in the Valley, and I have it for review! Dead of Winter is new to me, but I definitely need it, so thanks for putting it on my radar! Amazing choices, as always!
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  7. I have to admit that I’m very wary of another Chuck Wendig novel. I always LOVE his work right up until about the 60 – 75% mark when it all goes sideways and I end up hating it. xD That being said, I definitely think I need to check out a horror that involves apples. I *definitely* need to read Dead of Winter (so weird that it releases in July, because it aaaalmost makes me wish we had some snow when I read it, even though I hate snow!) and Boys in the Valley, too, because they sound amazing!

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