Sci-Fi Series That Finished in 2021

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While they may provoke a sense of loss, there is nothing like a powerful close to a series; and, while these finales are sure to find you thrilled to the last, this list was largely inspired by the readers out there who, perhaps burned one too many times, won't start a series unless it is finished. We get not wanting to be left hanging. With series spanning two books to a whopping eighteen, there is something on this list for everyone. And so, without further ado, we present our list of seven superb sci-fi series that concluded in 2021.  

Sons of War 3: Sinners by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Release Date: February 16th, 2021

To fight evil, you must embrace evil.

The motto of Marine Sergeant Ronaldo Salvatore lives on in his son, Dominic, and his undercover team known as the Saints. With the support of LAPD Captain Zed Marks, the Saints embark on a mission to destroy the criminal organizations that have a stranglehold on Los Angeles.

Through brains, cunning, and sheer ruthlessness, the most powerful leader, Don Antonio Moretti, has risen from underdog to contender for the throne. He believes that only the Vega family of narcos stands in his way, but he has underestimated another underdog.

As the Morettis and Vegas slug it out, the Saints go outside the law to deliver the City of Angels from evil. In this three-way death match, the streets will run with blood before a victor ever emerges.

Read Sons of War 3: Sinners here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan Book 2) by Arkady Martine

Release Date: March 2nd, 2021

A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine's genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire.

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction—and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.

Or it might create something far stranger . . .

Read A Desolation Called Peace here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Galaxy, and the Ground Within: Wayfarers 4 by Becky Chambers

Release Date: April 20th, 2021

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.

At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.

Get your copy of Galaxy, and the Ground Within here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Infinite Crown (The Messenger Book 15) by J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert


Release Date: July 31st, 2021

In the deepest black between galaxies, another enemy waits, and it is the only thing that can cause The Corruptor fear. As the Realm grows around a Kingsport that is now more massive than any human creation, Dash will find common cause with a race who lurk in the shadows, well beyond the edge of known human space.

With ships of a new design, the Realm will turn outward, striking into territory long held by the Deepers and their unholy creatures, wrapped in technology as old as the stars themselves.
But the universe is shrinking, thanks to Realm scientists and the efforts of Kai and his brethren, who find that secrets still remain in the hidden places where humans store memory, and history—and weapons.

Pursuing Pavel Hu into the darkness, Dash finds the truth about human history, and just what it means to end a war that has raged since before Earth was civilized, and when the sun itself was young.

The Deepers have nowhere to go but ahead, and in their way is the most powerful fleet ever assembled—

But in the final battle for galaxies far and wide, will Dash and his mechs be enough?

Read Infinite Crown here on Amazon. 

Out of Time (The Delta Devlin Novels Book 3) by Matthew Mather

Release Date: October 19th, 2021

Newly promoted Marshal Devlin must stop a ruthless conspiracy that stretches across the globe—and even across the decades into the future.

Critical components of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful supercollider and largest machine ever built, have been stolen, and Delta Devlin is brought in by Interpol to investigate.

At the same time, a dead body appears washed up on the shores of the East River in Delta’s hometown of New York City—one with very similar injuries to those left by the serial killer she caught to start her career.

As events in the present collide in a tangle of secrets and lies, Delta cannot trust anyone—even her family and loved ones—as her own future and past weave together in a mind-bending web that only she can unravel to stop an apocalyptic disaster from unfolding.

Grab Out of Time here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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Leviathan Falls (The Expanse Book 9) by James S.A. Corey

Release Date: November 30th, 2021

The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.
 
In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.
 
As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win.
 
But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat.

Get your copy of Leviathan Falls here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Empire Reborn: Blood on the Stars 18 by Jay Allan

Expected Release Date: November 2021

Jay Allan fans are soon to get the final book in what is Allan's most popular series: Blood on the Stars. It's been almost a year and a half since Descent Into Darkness and like you, we are dying to know what happens next. How will it all end?!

For those new to the series, the synopsis from book 1, Duel in the Dark:

A duel, in the deepest darks, a savage fight between two veteran warriors, two captains, two heroes.

An epic battle that only one can survive. A fight to determine if there is peace, or a bloody war where billions will die.

The Confederation battleship Dauntless has spent ten months patrolling the border, alone, watching for an attack from the enemy Union. The crew is exhausted, and the aging vessel needs repairs.

The fleet is mobilized, ready for the war it knows is coming. The forward bases are overloaded beyond capacity, and Dauntless is sent clear across the Confederation, to a base along the peaceful and sleepy sector known as the Far Rim.

But the quiet frontier isn’t quite what it seems, and a distress call from a mining colony at the edge of Confederation space, sends Captain Tyler Barron and his ship forward into the unknown.

Barron and his crew have their ship—and each other—but they can expect no reinforcements. His superiors believe that Union deceit is at play, that the attack is merely a diversion, intended to draw Confederation forces from the disputed border. Their orders are clear: no ships will be transferred from the main front. Stopping whatever is happening on the Far Rim is Barron’s responsibility, and his alone.

Barron is the grandson of the Confederation’s greatest hero, and his name has always carried great privilege, along with crushing responsibility. Now he must prove that he has inherited more than just a name from his famous ancestor.

He must face the enemy, and win the victory.

Before the Confederation is caught between two enemies and destroyed.

Dive into Blood on the Stars  here on Amazon. 


Have you been keeping up with these series? Which finale are you most excited for? Which series are you most sad about saying goodbye to? Any that you missed that you're going to check out? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.

10 Debut Releases We’re Loving This Year!

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We love the feeling of discovering a fresh new literary voice! How about you? 2021 has seen the release of some great debuts and they are too good not to share. And so it is in that spirit with which we present our list of 10 sci-fi books by emerging authors that you don't want to miss! 

The Effort by Claire Holroyde

Release Date: January 12, 2021

When dark comet UD3 was spotted near Jupiter's orbit, its existence was largely ignored. But to individuals who knew better -- scientists like Benjamin Schwartz, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies -- the threat this eight-kilometer comet posed to the survival of the human race was unthinkable. The 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs ended when an asteroid impact generated more than a billiontimes the energy of an atomic bomb.

What would happen to Earth's seven billion inhabitants if a similar event were allowed to occur?

Ben and his indomitable girlfriend Amy Kowalski fly to South America to assemble an international counteraction team, whose notable recruits include Love Mwangi, a UN interpreter and nomad scholar, and Zhen Liu, an extraordinary engineer from China's national space agency. At the same time, on board a polar icebreaker life continues under the looming shadow of comet UD3. Jack Campbell, a photographer for National Geographic, works to capture the beauty of the Arctic before it is gone forever. Gustavo Wayãpi, a Nobel Laureate poet from Brazil, struggles to accept the recent murder of his beloved twin brother. And Maya Gutiérrez, an impassioned marine biologist is -- quite unexpectedly -- falling in love for the first time.

Together, these men and women must fight to survive in an unknown future with no rules and nothing to be taken for granted. They have two choices: neutralize the greatest threat the world has ever seen (preferably before mass hysteria hits or world leaders declare World War III) or come to terms with the annihilation of humanity itself.

Their mission is codenamed The Effort.

Read The Effort here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Release Date: February 2, 2021

Prince Kiem, a famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, has been called upon to be useful for once. He's commanded to fulfill an obligation of marriage to the representative of the Empire's newest and most rebellious vassal planet. His future husband, Count Jainan, is a widower and murder suspect.

Neither wants to be wed, but with a conspiracy unfolding around them and the fate of the empire at stake they will have to navigate the thorns and barbs of court intrigue, the machinations of war, and the long shadows of Jainan's past, and they'll have to do it together.

So begins a legendary love story amid the stars.

Read Winter's Orbit here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

One Day as a Lion by Jonathan E. Hernandez

Release Date: March 2, 2021

Two civilizations clash. A rebellion grows. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.

Technical Chief "Pappy" Gunther is a grizzled, burning out commando in the United Earth Armed Forces. He ponders a return to civilian life, yet feels a strong sense of belonging to his elite team. When colonists on a far-flung world request aid, a task force from several allied systems is assembled. Pappy and his crack unit are sent to investigate, and to engage a mysterious alien force from beyond.

Talks-To-His-Spear is the warrior-caste champion of a matriarchal space empire called the Regime. Leading an army of fanatical, genetically-enhanced super soldiers, he dreams of dying in battle for the glory of his Queen. However, he’s beginning to question the motives of this new campaign, and fears that he may have to compromise his own deep sense of honor in order to fulfill his tasks.

Nobody expected the two alien cultures to have so much in common, and for friendships and alliances to form alongside rivalries. However, when Pappy discovers a rebellion spanning worlds, everything changes. The growing insurrection threatens to tear the Regime—and the galaxy—apart.

Get your copy of One Day as a Lion here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Unity by Elly Bangs


Release Date: April 13, 2021

Danae is not only herself. She is concealing a connection to a grieving collective inside of her body. But while she labors as a tech servant in the dangerous underwater enclave of Bloom City, her fractured self cannot mend. In a desperate escape, Danae and her lover Naoto hire the enigmatic ex-mercenary Alexei to guide them out of the imploding city.

But for Danae to reunify, the three new fugitives will have to flee across the otherworldly beauty of the postapocalyptic Southwest. Meanwhile, Danae's warlord enemy, the Duke, and a strange new foe, the Borrower, already seek them at any price.

Evoking the gritty cyberpunk of Mad Max and the fluid idealism of Sense8, Unity is a spectacular new re-envisioning of humanity. Breakout author Elly Bangs has created an expressive, philosophical, science-fiction thriller that expands upon consciousness itself.

Read Unity here on Amazon. 

We Are Watching Eliza Bright by A.E. Osworth

Release Date: April 13, 2021

Eliza Bright is living the dream as an elite video game coder at Fancy Dog Games, the first woman to ascend that high in the ranks—and some people want to make sure she’s the last. To her friends, Eliza Bright is a brilliant, self-taught coder bravely calling out the misogyny that pervades her workplace and industry. To the men who see her very presence as a threat, Eliza Bright is a woman who needs to be destroyed to protect the game they love.

When Eliza’s report of workplace harassment is quickly dismissed, she's forced to take her frustrations to a journalist who blasts her story across the internet. She's fired and doxxed, and becomes a rallying figure for women everywhere. But she's also enraged the beast comprised of online male gamers—their unreliable chorus narrates our story. Soon, Eliza is in the cross-hairs of the gaming community, threatened and stalked as they monitor her every move online and across New York City.

As the violent power of the angry male collective descends upon everyone in Eliza's life, it becomes increasingly difficult to know who to trust, even when she's eventually taken in and protected by an under-the-radar Collective known as the Sixsterhood. The violence moves from cyberspace to the real world, thanks to a vicious male super-fan known only as The Inspectre, determined to exact his revenge on behalf of men everywhere. We watch alongside the Sixsterhood and subreddit keyboard warriors as this dramatic cat-and-mouse game plays out to its violent and inevitable conclusion in this thrilling story of resilience and survival. 

Grab We Are Watching Eliza Bright here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

Release Date: April 27, 2021

Only men carry the virus. Only women can save us all.

The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland--a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic--and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien--a women's world.

What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus's consequences, told through first-person narratives. Dr. MacLean; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the "male plague"; intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping the government forge a new society; and Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways the absence of men has changed society, from the personal--the loss of husbands and sons--to the political--the changes in the workforce, fertility, and the meaning of family.

Get your copy of The End of Men here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

How to Mars by David Ebenbach

Release Date: May 25, 2021

For the six lucky scientists selected by the Destination Mars! corporation, a one-way ticket to Mars—in exchange for a lifetime of research—was an absolute no-brainer. The incredible opportunity was clearly worth even the most absurdly tedious screening process. Perhaps worth following the strange protocols in a nonsensical handbook written by an eccentric billionaire. Possibly even worth their constant surveillance, the video of which is carefully edited into a ratings-bonanza back on Earth.

But it turns out that after a while even scientists can get bored of science. Tempers begin to fray; unsanctioned affairs blossom. When perfectly good equipment begins to fail, the Marsonauts are faced with a possibility that their training just cannot explain.

Irreverent, poignant, and perfectly weird, David Ebenbach’s exciting debut science-fiction outing, like a mission to Mars, is an incredible trip you will never forget.

Dive into How to Mars here on Amazon. 

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta

Release Date: June 29, 2021

We went past praying to deities and started to build them instead...

The shadow of Godolia's tyrannical rule is spreading, aided by their giant mechanized weapons known as Windups. War and oppression are everyday constants for the people of the Badlands, who live under the thumb of their cruel Godolia overlords.

Eris Shindanai is a Gearbreaker, a brash young rebel who specializes in taking down Windups from the inside. When one of her missions goes awry and she finds herself in a Godolia prison, Eris meets Sona Steelcrest, a cybernetically enhanced Windup pilot. At first Eris sees Sona as her mortal enemy, but Sona has a secret: She has intentionally infiltrated the Windup program to destroy Godolia from within.

As the clock ticks down to their deadliest mission yet, a direct attack to end Godolia's reign once and for all, Eris and Sona grow closer—as comrades, friends, and perhaps something more...

Get your copy of Gearbreaks here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw

Release Date: September 7, 2021

Maya has died and been resurrected into countless cyborg bodies through the years of a long, dangerous career with the infamous Dirty Dozen, the most storied crew of criminals in the galaxy, at least before their untimely and gruesome demise. Decades later, she and her diverse team of broken, diminished outlaws must get back together to solve the mystery of their last, disastrous mission and to rescue a missing and much-changed comrade . . . but they’re not the only ones in pursuit of the secret at the heart of the planet Dimmuborgir.

The highly evolved AI of the galaxy have their own agenda and will do whatever it takes to keep humanity from ever regaining control. As Maya and her comrades spiral closer to uncovering the AIs’ vast conspiracy, this band of violent women—half-clone and half-machine—must battle their own traumas and a universe of sapient ageships who want them dead, in order to settle their affairs once and for all.

Welcome to The All-Consuming World, the debut novel of acclaimed writer Cassandra Khaw. With this explosive and introspective exploration of humans and machines, life and death, Khaw takes their rightful place next to such science fiction luminaries as Ann Leckie, Ursula Le Guin, and Kameron Hurley.

Start reading The All-Consuming World here on Amazon. 

The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel

Release Date: September 21, 2021

In the future you can have any body you want—as long as you can afford it.

But in a New York ravaged by climate change and repeat pandemics, Kobo is barely scraping by. He scouts the latest in gene-edited talent for Big Pharma-owned baseball teams, but his own cybernetics are a decade out of date and twin sister loan sharks are banging down his door. Things couldn't get much worse.

Then his brother—Monsanto Mets slugger J.J. Zunz—is murdered at home plate.

Determined to find the killer, Kobo plunges into a world of genetically modified CEOs, philosophical Neanderthals, and back-alley body modification, only to quickly find he's in a game far bigger and more corrupt than he imagined. To keep himself together while the world is falling apart, he'll have to navigate a time where both body and soul are sold to the highest bidder. 

Grab The Body Scout here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.


Which of these debut novels will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.

The Best Sci-Fi Books of 2022: Voting Round!

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Thank you to everyone who nominated their favorite sci-fi books published this year for our year end readers' choice awards! There were dozens of titles nominated by readers across the globe, underscoring what a fantastic year 2021 was for sci-fi fans. We have taken that hulking list and narrowed it down to the books that received the most nominations and we're now ready to move on to the voting round! 

Scroll down to see the nineteen titles moving forward and select your favorite. Next week we'll publish a list of the top ten from this group. Want to discuss the titles nominated? Leave your thoughts in the comments here on wander over to the Discover Sci-Fi facebook group and chime in there!  


Voting now closed. See you for next year's awards!