2024 Derby Books
Fantasy
Science Fiction
Adventure
Tyler Blackford is an overworked office drone whose dreams of freedom are confined to his motorcycle posters. But everything changes one fateful morning when a disastrous encounter with the office coffee machine propels him into a bizarre multiversal experiment.
Now, Tyler must navigate a series of increasingly strange and dangerous realities, from a high-stakes restaurant kitchen serving mythical creatures to a Victorian-era detective agency investigating stolen mustaches.
With each new world, he faces unique challenges and uncovers a vast conspiracy involving shadowy overlords manipulating the fabric of reality. As he struggles to survive, he discovers that the stability of the entire multiverse might rest on his shoulders.
His journey is a whirlwind of chaos, humor, and unexpected heroism. Will he rise to the occasion and save the multiverse, or will he be forever lost in the labyrinth of lives?
Fantasy
Science Fiction
On the living Islands which swim through the Aether Sea, nothing ever seems to change.
For Deruzi of the fishing and diving village of Amphitria and partner of Mijaru of the same village, life on his home Island seems as tranquil as ever. Even as he travels to the central city of Purarius to sell his wares, it seems as if nothing will ever break this peace.
On a dive some days after his mercantile trip, Deruzi discovers an unfamiliar device. That night, he has a bizarre dream - one that imparts forbidden knowledge to the confused diver. And he discovers that the oracles will do anything to keep this knowledge from reaching the general populace.
Sent out into the farthest reaches of the Aether Sea along with other unfortunates, Deruzi fights his growing suspicion that they've been sent on a suicide mission. Nevertheless, he and his crewmates fight on through monsters, relics of the Ancients, and nature's own fury, only to find themselves among the people of an unknown civilization.
But will this civilization have the answers they've been seeking?
Fantasy
After a devastating invasion, the necromancers of the kingdom of Led are executed for their crimes against the sanctity of life. One such necromancer, Sybil Whitman, finds all of this really, really, really dumb. All she wanted was to have her own farm and work alongside her skeleton constructs, providing food and warmth to the surrounding towns. It just so happens that a sympathetic god is listening in. Can she let go of her past and allow herself to have a future with her loved ones?
Antonio de Cardenas is a young prince fraught with the demons of his country's bleak history. Cainern has long suffered from the Druidic Wars, where his ancestors were pushed cruelly from their homes. Now, he's in a position to take back the land and liberate his people from the wicked rule of necromancers! Only... Is everything really as it seems in Led? Maybe his only hope lies in the hands of Sybil Whitman and her black magic.
A cozy fantasy about one man rediscovering his birthright, one woman fleeing her duties, and a quiet town called Reisau.
Gamelit
LitRPG
How much harm could seeing a floating blue screen cause? Well it could cause the end of the world.
Luke Everett finds this out first hand when in the middle of a camping trip telling him only ten percent of humanity will survive the next five days.
Thats when he is thrust into a life and death battle with his worst fear, a giant spider. He barely survives only to be thrust into a series of increasingly desperate battles agaisnt enhanced wild life and his own anger issues.
Things only grow worse as a hoard of mutated spiders threatens to overrun the only settlement of survivors he's found. It falls to him to save them all.
Will Luke face his fears and grow stronger for it, or will his anger consume him and those Who rely upon him?
Urban Fantasy
When Levi’s weekly meeting goes awry, it leads to a chain of events that disturb his peaceful life and rekindles a millennia of guilt. Can a former angel be redeemed?
Find the book here!Science Fiction
Adventure
In a future where humanity and technology merge, Xanthe is Archon’s Lapdog—a cyborg with no memory of her past. Her missions are simple: complete the objective, return to base, and repeat.
But then a routine job goes disastrously wrong.
Xanthe finds herself in an unfamiliar place, with a man who looks familiar. But time is running out. Archon doesn’t tolerate disobedience, and he wants his asset back.
Science Fiction
Action
Dystopia
Hunt the monsters of the wasteland.
Bring them back alive.
Retire.
Ninety years after the devastating global "Fracture," the biosphere has collapsed. The few remaining cities, once bastions of human survival, have become fortresses of power ruled by ruthless corporations. Axel Mercer, a former soldier, explores the hostile plains to recover organisms for scientific research. But the corporations who run civilization want more.
As his last mission, Mercer is sent to recover a specimen that could bring eternal life to the corporate elites. He learns this organism is not a monster, but a teen girl—a wasteland fighter hardened by a life of survival. Her spirit and fierce determination challenge everything Mercer has believed about his job, his future, and his questionable past.
In a world where power is worth more than life itself, Mercer must decide which side of the fight he belongs on—and what kind of future is worth fighting for.
Fantasy
Dystopia
The Eclipse was supposed to be a sign of prosperity, a miracle from on high. A miracle that kills.
The last time Officers of Enforcement came to Saree's hometown, hundreds of people fled or disappeared. This time, Saree is alone in her parents' too-quiet house, keeping everything in order for her father while he's gone and trying to take care of two bed-bound women. One of them is her sickly mother. The other is the stranger she found bleeding in a ditch.
The stranger who says she is an immortal servant of heaven.
The OOE and the eclipse are connected, and both have been slowly strangling her hometown with fear and hunger for years.
They are coming for the stranger. They want her dead. And little Saree McGovern is the only thing standing in their way.
Science Fiction
Thriller
In the deep reaches of uncolonised space, a routine exploration stumbles on an alien vault far beyond the technological capabilities of any known species.
Unwilling to let the strange structure keep its secrets, every major empire on the galactic stage send their greatest minds in a collaborative effort to understand the technology at play.
Unfortunately, it quickly becomes obvious that collaboration does not come natural for everyone, and some might have more nefarious ulterior motives than others.
What was supposed to be a summit of the Galactic Union might turn out to be a race against all other empires, and nobody knows how high the stakes might get...
Science Fiction
Dystopia
WHAT WOULD YOU SACRIFICE FOR THE GREATER GOOD?
Nearly 200 years ago, half of humanity fled to the stars to escape an Earth butchered by climate change and nuclear war. Ever since, dozens of colonies have been attempted on distant planets, each one failing after the last. Today, remaining space-dwellers live on Space Stations orbiting resource-depleted planets, indifferent to the riots and unrest on the Earth they left behind.
Aboard the S.S. Obsidian Dawn, Captain Everest Eskandari navigates the harsh realities of a collapsing Space Republic with her crew and two passengers: Eridan, a navigator who thinks himself helpless to fix a broken world; Zeya, a mechanic with faith that the government will take care of everything well enough; Dorian, an electrician who's come to accept that they're all doomed anyways; Kalani, a scientist on the run; and Samson, an Earthling who's finally stopped running from his fate. When dangerous secrets come to light, the crew come to grapple with everything they thought they ever knew, and both Space-dweller and Earthling alike must make sacrifices capable of forging the future for centuries to come.
Through the lense of six lives, "Dissolution Protocol" explores themes of apathy and indifference, and warns of a world where ignorance is not just bliss, but a dangerous, corrosive force.
Urban Fantasy
When Riley joined a search for sea monsters, he didn't expect to become what they were looking for.
For as long as he could remember, Riley had felt a connection to the sea. It wasn't until he nearly drowned in an accident that he realized the connection ran far deeper than he even knew.
His life torn upside-down by the revelation, Riley finds himself torn between two worlds. His familiar surface life is no longer the safe haven it once was, now that he has become the very thing his crew is seeking.
Can Riley find somewhere he can belong, or will he become his crew's scientific discovery?
Fantasy
Adventure
Romance
Twenty-five years ago, Professor led a small group of Elves on a mission to rescue Aleksey, The Last Druid, from a magical slumber where he had been trapped out of time’s reach for almost two centuries. Waking to a world filled with human machines and a dark sickness spreading through the forest, five-year-old Aleksey spent the rest of his childhood with Professor, learning how to undo, piece by piece, the damage caused by the human kingdom of Laeopeld and trying to restore the dying magic that had once thrived in the forest.
When Aleksey is forced to use blood magic to save Professor’s life, everything changes. Dark magic begins to eat away at his soul and they are separated for the first time. Eira, a sassy Elven warrior, takes Aleksey on a journey to find a forest spirit who might be able to save him, but as tensions rise with Laeopeld, the clock continues ticking away.
As his reliance on dark magic grows, Aleksey faces an agonizing choice: save the forest and those he loves, or sacrifice everything for a chance at redemption. As his entire being is threatened, can he hold on to his humanity, or will the darkness growing inside him win?
Science Fiction
Horror
LGBT
Within moments of his escape pod crash-landing in a night-clad frozen forest, musician Asher Hollin is frostbitten, bleeding, a thief, and a killer.
If not for technology looted from a dead prison guard, he’d be long dead, either from the frigid temperatures or from being attacked by axe-wielding marauders. If Ash wants to survive, he must venture out into this terra incognita unready, unsteady, and absolutely out of his element.
But exposure, thirst, hunger, and not-quite-human barbarians are the least of his concerns. In this world thrust into the depths of an unrelenting winter, the sun, moon, and stars rarely shine, and the darkness stalks survivors’ every move.
With each step he takes, Ash is reminded that survival and death are always one poor decision apart. And as the shadows close in around him, he must confront not only the darkness, but also the light.
Inspired by the tale of Ragnarok and its harbinger, Fimbulvinter’s Fires combines survivalism horror and first-contact sci-fi with queer love stories and romantic tragedy.
This snowpocalypse contains violence and death, steamy scenes, strong language, deep snow, and high heat.
Tread carefully.
Fantasy
Urban Fantasy
LGBT
For most of Riley Sparrow's formative years, the first of September was associated with the start of the school year. The start of a new adventure. A time that was rich with new experiences.
At thirty years old Riley associates the first of September with rent being due. There was no fresh start, only an interminably long middle.
Riley makes an idle wish to return to the past. Maybe this time with an older perspective it will be easier. She hadn't expected her wish to be granted. Returning to the past put her face to face with so many people she knew intimately who didn't know her, not yet. How will Riley navigate these past memories to find a new future? Is she ready to begin again?
The First of September is a slow meditative story about feeling stuck, regret, and regaining the courage to move forward.
Urban Fantasy
Science Fiction
Dystopia
In the towering cyberpunk metropolis of Neo-Athena, Rat, a resourceful junkyard scavenger with a knack for turning trash into treasure, stumbles upon Echo—a rogue AI fleeing corporate control. Their unprecedented mental fusion catapults Rat from the scrapheaps to the heart of a city-wide conspiracy faster than he can rewire a circuit board.
Armed with jury-rigged tech and a unique human-AI bond that's equal parts brilliant and bizarre, Rat must navigate a treacherous urban landscape of corporate moguls, rogue AIs, and cyber-enhanced mercenaries. Rat is reminded, he is once again outgunned but never outsmarted.
"Junkyard Rat: In the City"—where the best innovations are born in the scrapyard, and the future of Neo-Athena might just depend on a guy who talks to his toaster.
Fantasy
Romance
:LGBT
My whole life, I’ve heard stories of the Dark Lord of Ashfuror, horrifying tales of torture and death that gave me nightmares as a child. When I turned eighteen, I committed myself to defending my home city of Greatfalls against the threat, and in six short years I rose to the rank of Commander of the Archers. All I want to do is keep my city safe.
But when war finally comes, I find myself not on the front lines, but engaged to be married to the Dark Lord as part of a fragile treaty. I arrive for the wedding intent on destroying the source of the Dark Lord’s power and preserving my home’s security and autonomy forever.
But soon I find that all is not as it seems. The Dark Lord is not a monster, but a handsome, infuriating man. And my home city of Greatfalls is not the innocent sanctuary I always thought it was.
The Last of the Dark Lords is a 49,000-word MM fantasy romance with a guaranteed HEA and no cliffhanger. It contains a snarky dark lord and the too-noble-for-his-own-good military commander that falls fast for him. It also contains steamy scenes between two men and moderate violence. Not suitable for readers under 18.
Fantasy
Adventure
Action
Comedy
High above the clouds, freedom has a price—and the Marauder's Flock is ready to pay it.
When the infamous Dread Captain is captured, her loyal crew refuses to abandon their leader. As Talvis celebrates its grand victory with parades and fireworks, a daring plan unfolds in the shadows. Jewel heists, explosions, and audacious disguises set the stage for the most ambitious rescue ever attempted in the skies.
With guards closing in and time running out, the crew must navigate a city on high alert. Every stolen gem, every well-timed distraction, and every whispered code word could mean the difference between triumph and disaster. As chaos engulfs the streets and the crew's makeshift plans spiral into improvisation, they'll need every ounce of skill, luck, and loyalty they possess.
In the skies above Talvis, a legend is about to be reborn.
Fantasy
Horror
A blood substitute offers the chance for vampires to live in peace with humans, however, not all vampires want to change, and not all humans want peace.
It’s inevitable, humans will find out about the existence of vampires and their human acolyte society. After surviving The Trials which led to a thousand years of peace among vampires, Minuet must once again choose the best path forward.
Fearing humans will attempt to eliminate vampires, Danielle maintains the only way to save their kind is by launching an attack to take over the human world. But when Vincent discovers a blood substitute called necroplasm, a new option presents itself. The possibility of living in peace with the humans.
The fate of vampires and humans rest with the success of necroplasm.
Examine humanity through the eyes of vampires and learn who are the real monsters of the world.
Fantasy
Action
Dark Fantasy
Two years ago the village of Aldersgrove fell to the armies of evil. Or three years. Or four. Stuck in the empty town alone with only corrupted forests beyond its boundaries, Torrin has just about lost track. When the strange druid Erlandril wanders through seeking a road to the old growth at the center of the grove, Torrin’s last shot at cleansing his beloved home flashes before his eyes.
If he can get Erland to the shrine at the woodland’s heart, the druid can break the spell corrupting the ancient trees that give the Lord of the Forest life. And if they can kill the tormented Lord, the forest can finally be reborn to rest and heal. In their way stand twisted thickets, roaming mages who seek to feed on the forest’s magical lifeblood, and beyond it all the corrupted Lord himself wielding the collective power of his time-lost trees.
At stake is something even more precious than Torrin’s life, though—the way home.
Science Fiction
Action
Adventure
At the edge of the galaxy, humanity's greatest hope for expansion lies with the City of Olympus - a sprawling spaceship the size of a metropolis. Commanded by Colonel Felix Hawkins, the ship's mission is clear: find new worlds to colonize. But when they venture through a wormhole, everything changes. Reality and time is warped, and the crew descends into chaos.
Sent from Earth to assist, Captain Katie Manning and her small, tight-knit crew must work with Colonel Hawkins to uncover the truth behind the anomaly. Together, they must calm the chaos, restore order, and repair the city's failing systems.
Time is running out.
Fantasy
Adventure
Comedy
For generations, tiny rabbit-riding gnomes lived a life of peace thanks to the protection of a towering Wall and strict rules from their elders to keep the world locked out. That is, there was peace until the young and pampered Onion got tired of hiding while he watched the world pass by on the outside.
When a human hammers a mysterious message into the outside of the Wall, Onion jumps at the chance to do something Big and Important. He must venture out beyond the Wall into the territory of the humans to find the only gnome that can understand the humans and their message: a gnome-witch exiled years before.
Onion expects a world full of cars, cats, and cranky humans. He discovers that not only are they even bigger up close, but the outside also holds clues that not everything back home is as it seems.
Science Fiction
In the vast expanse of space, where faster-than-light travel is fueled by the harvesting of planets, one crew's mutiny ignites a revolution that will shake the foundations of the universe.
Aboard the CSS Vagabond, veteran harvester Jayken and his crew uncover a terrifying truth: the planets they hunt are alive and screaming. As psychic sensitivity grows among the crew and their captain descends into madness, they're faced with an impossible choice - continue their grim work or risk everything to expose the lies that power their world.
But rebellion comes at a cost. Pursued by corporate attack ships and grappling with their own inner demons, the crew of the Vagabond race to a mysterious space station that promises salvation. There, they'll confront the true nature of their mutiny and the devastating plans of those who would reshape the universe.
Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Ever since the discovery that portals between planes can be weaponized, there has been no peace. Anywhere can become a battlefield, anyone can become a soldier.
All Nadiya wants is to keep her kids safe, so they never see the destructive war that portals enable. Riesa has seen too much of that war, even in the new life she has carved for herself. In the halls of the University, Elamine searches for a way to atone for a mistake she cannot voice. Hami, who once dreamed of a warrior's honor, now joins her in that secret search for a way to end the underhanded fighting. And Lewe, born from the disruption of portals, might have found the place at the center of it all. A place that could allow them to create a final rift between their world and all other planes.
With a secretive project promising to bring a new era of devastation, such a rift might be the only chance. But no one really understands the full extent of portals, and they’re running out of time to learn. If the five of them are going to make that rift, they’ll have to make a final decision.
What are they willing to sacrifice—from themselves, and from their entire world?
Fantasy
Ash, the Keeper of the Flame Wolf, is missing.
Of the twelve elemental Wolves, Em loves Brun, the Flame Wolf, most of all. He saved her life when she was a child, and she’s dedicated the last twenty-five years to making glass spheres to be filled with his magic and distributed to the people of Bala.
When Brun asks for her help to find Ash, she doesn't hesitate to agree. Travelling through Bala, Em finds it unrecognisable as the land of her childhood. People eat poisoned pellets while soulless beasts tear up the ground and fill the air with noxious fumes. Champions go to war against each other because of different allegiances, and The Bull, a violent group that seeks to end elemental magic, is stronger than ever despite the death of its leader almost thirty years before.
What’s worse, Brun tells Em that the very people who should be protecting Bala can’t be trusted. The Bull is making Keepers disappear, and only another Keeper could have told them how to do it.
Em will do anything for the Flame Wolf, even if it means becoming a bigger monster than her worst enemy to save him.
Science Fiction
Adventure
Action
A computer megavirus crafted by the nefarious organization ImperiCorp wreaks havoc upon the city. Objects from vehicles to vending machines have become tools for corporate surveillance, reacting with aggressive behavior if provoked after infection.
With this insidious array of weaponized machines, ImperiCorp has thinned The Rebellion’s offensive forces to three remaining agents: Jett, Nerva, and Lorik.
The last of the Runners.
These rebels patiently await a calling from their mysterious allies, The Fates, who summon them to infiltrate the ImperiCorp mainframe and free the city at last from its digital chokehold...
But The Rebellion's trust in The Fates is about to be tested beyond the limits of expectation.
The day is May 13th, in an age not too far away. The time, 6:07 p.m. — and Jett has just been called.
Runner Available.
Fantasy
The Chronomancers used to keep the peace, but they've been gone for years....
Kai has spent his life fighting to stay alive. Now he finds that he can manipulate time, a skill not seen in generations.
Leaving the only place he's ever known, Kai must track down the fabled Seat of the Chronomancers, the home of an ancient sect that were wiped out centuries ago. There he will learn who he is, and maybe find a place in the world.
Someone else is aware the line of the Chronomancers has awoken, and they want to make sure that they do not rise to power again. The shadowy figures chasing Kai will do anything they can to stop him.
With the world out of balance, will the Chronomancers rise again?
Fantasy
In a world torn apart by power and chaos, three unphatomable beings known as the Triggennan emerge to reshape history.
This captivating collection of stories explores conflicting accounts of the Triggennan's origin and reign, questioning the nature of power, the reliability of history, and the consequences of humanity's deepest desires.br>
From humble beginnings to unimaginable influence, the Triggennan's tale is one of sacrifice, benevolence, and the burden of immense power.
Romance
Eighteen-year-old Katie Grath has one goal: get through the summer without getting attached. Her job at the library brings her in contact with several local matchmakers and she is determined to make it to college without falling into one of their plots. She is so determined that when Alec Miller walks into the library, she point blank tells him that she’s not interested.
Twenty-year-old Alec Miller is confused but amused when the cute library clerk tells him to take a hike. Despite his mother’s insistence on the need to focus on work, he’s taken up the hobby he’d abandoned in high school: the Tuesday evening photography club. Romance is the last thing on his mind, but he can’t stop thinking about Katie.
Will these two find a genuine connection neither were looking for, or will they let romance pass them by because of Tuesday’s troubles?
Fantasy
Adventure
Action
Azureth, a prince tested by war after war, is fine with listening to his father, the king. Day after day, he carries out the King's orders, slaughtering other kingdom's soldiers with ease. With every victory Azureth brought to his father's name, jealousy grew within the king.
The Prince has no choice but to fight his father because of the bounty placed on him. With danger lurking around every corner, Azureth needs all the help he can get. But making a deal with the Evil Dragon that would kill him if his father's troop didn't? And not just any bargain: Find the hero who has been missing for centuries.
He has thirty days to find the hero. Thirty days to try stopping one more being from taking his life.
Science Fiction
Adventure
Mystery
There are many reasons to join the Arcadian Fleet.
Grace Dillard joined to make her family proud.
Dean Lindsay joined to meet the family's expectations.
The fleet is currently traveling to an undisclosed location to draw a faceless enemy away from their home worlds. Communications are limited. Commitment to the mission is strong. Crews have been stretched thin to limit the likelihood of casualties.
And then a freak accident leaves Grace and Dean stranded, abandoned by the rest of the fleet. While they are waiting for a pickup they have the time to think about the questions they were never allowed to ask. That leads to them digging into some places they aren’t supposed to go, where they find hints that things are not as they appeared.
Urban Fantasy
Romance
LGBT
Samantha Morrison is stuck: after crashing her car years ago, she's reliving the same day over and over again. Every escape attempt ends in failure and an angry boss; all she can do is wait tables, bide her time, and try to keep others from falling into the same trap.
Jennifer Kieu's ex-girlfriend ends their cross-country road trip by dumping her on the side of the road, next to a decaying mining town called Sulfur Falls, where she finds a place to stay on Sam's couch. Intrigued by Sam's pretty face, refusal to talk about her past, and strange insistence that she leave, Jennifer decides to stay. After all, what has she got left to lose?
If hell is other people, then purgatory is a nosy roommate... but escape might require both of them to reveal things they'd rather leave unsaid.
Fantasy
As the petals fall, I ask the Fates did you love me not?
Saved from the brink of death by arcane magic, Subin is transformed from a cast aside woman into an undead vessel fit to haunt the castle she sought to rule. But, there are no rulers here in Nilport. His red eyes staring into hers, Lord Anargyros is the Lord Commander of the Midnight Remains that handles when bodies show up in the Nilport bay. Subin realizes that her lover let her die in a terrible way.
Revenge is welcome here as all magic is legal in Nilport. Subin begins to unravel the mystery of her own death. With her own life extended for only seven days, Subin will have to choose if finding the truth at all costs is worth it even if it is her own life on the line.
Fantasy
Middle Grade
Kenji's earliest memories are of accompanying his father on annual trips to the veil, where families have the chance to bring home a loved one lost too soon. Each year, he speaks to his mother, and each year, his parents help a stranger cross the veil. Kenji dutifully helps the returning souls fulfill their purpose and go back to their old lives, but as the years pass, Kenji starts to wonder: Why won't his mother come home?
Set in the late 1800s, Where the Veil Thins poignantly explores the power of community and the value of embracing newcomers.