Recently arrived science ficiton
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton
Humanity have fled a dying Earth, spreading into the stars in massive arkships, with one fleet finding home in Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with many habitable planets. Over the millennia these humans have evolved into Celestials, rulers of vast tracts of star systems. Born under the rule of the Celestials, Finn longs for freedom and to travel the stars, and when an arkship, previously thought lost, arrives at his home planet, he takes the chance to fly. Read the book thenplay the game.
Read for: dystopian fiction, humans as colonists, epic scifi, expansive world building, action and adventure
After a fortnight hunting off the grid in the remote Maine wilderness, old friends Jess and Storey return to civilisation, only to discover a world they no longer recognise. Succession mania has gripped the state, cities have burned, militia formed. Now the two men must find their way home through a violent and dangerous landscape.
Read for: social commentary, alternative futures, political scifi, survivalist, post apocalyptic
This Kingdom of Dust by David Dyer
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin captivated the entire world with their moon landing. But what would have happened if they couldn't get home? Dyer explores this alternative history through the voices of Buzz on the lunar surface, his wife Joan back at home caught up in the tumultuous 1960s, and a journalist writing about the event, who becomes increasingly obsessed with the astronaut's plight.
Read for: alternative history, moon landing, 1960s America, suspense, human resilience
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley
A once principal ballet dancer, now a refugee on Mars. A xenophobic politician bent on using him as a guinea pig. A marriage of convenience that may cause the downfall of an entire planet. The Mars House explores a possible post-Earth future where scripts are flipped and explores the complexities of humanity in a futuristic setting.
Read for: romance, political machinations, future humans, post-apocalypse, Mars
Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
On the Canadian tundra a small band of Anishinaabe people have returned to their wilderness roots in the wake of a far off apocalypse. A decade after the fall, they are living by their wits, ancestral knowledge and hope for the future, but with resources dwindling, they decide to head south to their homelands near the Great Lakes. Leaving the security of the far north comes with risks however, and the band will need to call on all their strength to survive.
Read for: horror, Indigenous stories, post-apocalypse, survivalists, end of the world
Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby
When a tech startup and their eccentric CEO celebrating the sale of a new AI algorithm crash land on a seemingly deserted tropical island, finding a fully stocked luxury smart house seems too good to be true. But as the survivors explore the palace, it soon becomes apparent that it holds dark secrets about the island's past and their purpose on it. Mixing Yellowjackets, Black Mirror and The Power, this is a smart and thought provoking tech-noir thriller.
Read for: dark tech, AI, women in tech, locked room mystery, corporate greed, human nature
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August
Scout is an Archivist who explores the remnants of dead civilizations in search of knowledge and technology that could help their own world. When they discover a message warning of a looming threat. With their brother Kieran and cat Pumpkin, they set out to save the universe.
Read for: queer fiction, space archeology, cats in space, space opera, morality and humanity, grief and loss
From cowgirl anarchists to revolutionary, Dawn Rae Bjornberg's (aka Aurora Artemyeva) life straddles east and west, and the sprawling expanse of the 20th century. Never one to shy away from an epic, Stephenson introduces an array of characters across Stalin's Russia, the American wild west and into the nuclear age, surely setting the stage for future sequels.
Read for: spy thrillers, historical fiction meets science fiction, cowboys, non-linear storytelling, intricate and twisting plotlines, alternative histories