Hooray for SFF!

David Wellington

6th April – Orbit

Paradise-1 is the first book in a truly terrifying new outer-space horror trilogy from Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated author David Wellington.

When Paradise-1, Earth’s first deep space colony goes dark with no communications for months, Firewatch Agent Alexandra Petrova and the crew of deep space exploration ship, the Artimis, are tasked to investigate. To explain what follows would be to spoil this eerily dark and sinister space thriller. Well-paced and driven with smartly relatable characters, Paradise-1 will leave you haunted and wanting to explore Wellington’s world while hiding behind a cushion.

Brandon Sanderson

4th April – Gollancz

Fans of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride pay attention! We have magic, pirates and a good old-fashioned fantasy adventure for you in the shape of Tress of the Emerald Sea.

When Tress’s friend Charlie is sent on a voyage to find a bride, her simple and peaceful life is quickly uprooted. Finding herself stowed away, she is soon crossing deadly seas in search of a mysterious and powerful sorceress in the hopes of understanding how she can take her place in the world.

The result of Kickstarter’s biggest and most successful campaign ever, Gollancz have now published a fantastic hardback copy of Brian Sanderson’s newest foray into the world of fantasy which, by his own admission, is what happens when he’s given no time constraints, no expectations and no limits on his imagination.

Juliet E McKenna

11th April – Angry Robot Books

Flipping the script on Arthurian legends, The Cleaving by Juliet E McKenna focuses on the powerful women oft-sidelined in the tales of Camelot. This time around we focus on Morgana, Guinevere, Nimue and Ygraine as they band together, refusing to act as pawns in the games of men as they play knights in silly armour.

Not content to be a footnote in alt-history, the women strike out to carve their own destinies, rewriting the rules on chivalry, magic and the real meaning of power.

TJ Klune

25th April – Tor

If you haven’t already been swept away by TJ Klune’s ever-imaginative and whimsical style of storytelling then In The Lives Of Puppets might just be the perfect gateway book for you.

Focusing on a secluded and bizarre robotic family unit: fatherly inventor android, Gio, a loving yet sadistic nursing machine and a vacuum desperately searching for love live among the depths of a peculiar forest alongside their human companion, Victor. When on the hunt for robotic salvage, Victor uncovers an unfamiliar android that has a tangled past with Gio and opens up a whirlwind game of cat and mouse as Gio’s painful history of hunting humans is reopened and forces Vic to re-examine his unconventional familial relationships.

Ann Claycomb

25th April – Titan Books

A modern fairy tale that haunts with more tangible and relevant darkness than expected, Silenced by Ann Claycomb is a biting update to traditional fables.

Four women have been cursed… by the CEO of their company in a cover-up attempt for his abuses of his power. While he continues to try and use his dark powers to keep them silent, the women discover that they have power themselves. United, angry and motivated, they band together to fight back with grim vehemence.

Claycomb’s writing is uncompromisingly sharp, cutting to the pit of the stomach and dropping nightmares-turned-reality while serving female characters with an achingly hopeful level of agency.

The post Best Sci Fi Books April 2023 appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

From dystopian lanscapes and andoid futures to the intersteallar wild west and medieval magic, these books will take you on an adventure to new worlds so fun you’ll not want to return! (Unless you need another cup of tea that is…)

Lavanya Lakshminarayan

28 March – Solaris

A story of uprising and quiet rebellion in the dystopian future of Bangalore (now Apex City), where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. If you have the right image, values and opinions you can rise above your station to the walk among the top twenty percent. A virtual elite, wanting for nothing, ruling everything. But one slip can have you tumbling to bottom, forced to live out your time as an Analog in a digital world, scraping by, forgotten and ostricised among the lowest ten percent. The system is perfect, until The Ten Percent Thief steals the fruits of the city and plants a seed of hope and revolution in the hearts of the oppressed.

An outstanding debut with a unique voice, drawing parallels with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, The Ten Percent Thief crafts an indelible image of a world that has lost it’s humanity, trapped by it’s reliance on statistics and devotion to technology and productivity. Told through a complex mosaic of interwoven stories The Ten Percent Thief is a new masterpiece of science fiction wiriting. This really is dystopian future at its best, a heartfelt admonition of covetous behavour that is inspiring, and hopeful.

Jane Hennigan

14 March – Angry Robot

A retrospective look back on a world that sucucmbed to a toxic plague, carried by the titular Moths, infecting every man and boy and either killing them or transforming them into maniacal killers. As humanty adapts into a matriachal society, the surviving men are kept isolated, and imprisoned for everyone’s protection and the world begins to move on. But there are those who still remember the old world and wrestle with the dichotomy between the rose-tinted memory of a bygone age and a new feminist utiopia.

Recommended for fans of Naomi Alderman’s, The Power, this new heart-breaking and confrontational new novel from Jane hennigan is thoughtful self-assessment of humanity’s perception of gender norms, it’s relationship with violence, redemption and it’s desire for reciprocity.

Michael Grothaus

16 March – Orenda Books

Decades into our future, humanity has harnesssed the power of quantum computing, with AI’s and and robots an everyday part of everyone’s life. Against a backdrop of a digital cold war, fought with deep fakes and cyber attacks, knowing the the truth and finding anything real is a rarity and genius teenage programmer John is on his way to Tokyo to make his fortune, selling his code to a global tech giant.

Alone in a new city, he seeks solace in a strange cafe run by a surly ex-sumo wrestler and soon becomes enamoured with the alluring waitress Neotnia. Between the flurries of their blossoming romance it’s soon clear that Neotnia is hiding a secret and John is soon embroiled in a desperate search for the truth that lead him to question his own relaity and takes him the heart of what it is to be human in a world ruled by technology. Set against a tech heavy backdrop Beautiful Shining People blooms into an emotional and soulful tale that reckons with the isolation we can all feel as outsiders and how a little bit of self love, along with love for another can change your world view.

Stark Holborn

21 March – Titan Books

The follow up to last year’s Ten Low (read our review here), Hel’s Eight is a new chapter in Stark Holborn’s world of wild west interplanetary gun slinging. Ten “Doc” Low roams the wastelands of the desert moon Factus, a penitent medic with a dark past she is cursed by forces beyond death to remain a loner in order keep both herself safe, and others safe from her. But in the shadow of a rising rebellion Doc finds herself haunted by terrying visioins of the past and future deaths of long lost friends. She is soon embroiled in a desperate quest to right the wrongs of her history, searching for allies in a hostile world where a quick hand and keen eye might just save the future.

Vivid world building, pulse pounding shoot outs and etherial terrors, Hel’s Eight is perfect blend of action and story. Packed with more of the addictive and engrossing ideas that were first explored in Ten Low, Holborn’s second chapter in the world of Factus is the perfect literary fix for space western fans who can’t wait til next week’s episode of The Mandalorian.

Garth Nix

23 March – Gollancz

Bookselling can be deadly, as anyone who read The Left-Handed Booksellers of London can attest to. The Sinister Booksellers of Bath is Garth Nix’s return to a fantastical alternate 1980s England where books are magic (or at least the sellers of those books are). This time, Left-handed bookseller Merlin is in grave danger and his right-handed bookselling sister, Vivien must launch a rescue attempt to save the the Old World from the sorcerous magic eminating from an ancient hot spring. Together with art student Susan, the trio fall down a rabit hole of ancient and deadly magic, living statues and murderous secrets that lead them on the trail of a serial killer with awesome powers.

Garth Nix builds on the sumptuous landscape of The Old World with a thrilling new adventure that tumbles through an alternate history of England. Fans of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London will once again relish being transported back into a whistelestop mystery filled with wit, imagination and intrigue.

Still not sure? Why not read our interview with Garth Nix here to find out more about the one of the masters of fantasy world building.

Laure Eve

30 March – Jo Fletcher Books

We’re loving alternate history/fantasy this month and thankfully Laure Eve is here to take us back to a her brilliant cyber-punk world of Arthurian legend. Blackheart Ghosts is a neo-noir thriller packed with betrayal, sorcery and conspiracy where a disgraced ex-knight must battle a magical uprising to save a Bladrunner-esque vision of Camelot. Following in the footsteps of last year’s Blackheart Knights, Blackheart Ghosts is an urban fantasy that blends genre with bloody tragedy and noble aspiration, delving deeper into world that is loud, violent and a lot of fun.

Want to know more, read our interview with Laure Eve when we chatted about Blackheart Knights.

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