2022 Winter Releases We’re Looking Forward To!

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New year, new releases! Who's ready?!

For many of us the deep chill of winter is well upon us and we can't think of a better way to spend it than curled up with a hot new sci-fi release! A few of these fresh new titles are available now, and the rest will be coming out over the next few weeks. So, whether you're looking to get your hands on something new now, or need a little something fun to look forward to, we have you covered!  

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Release Date: January 18, 2022

In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.

Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. 

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

Read How High We Go in the Dark  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

Release Date: January 25, 2022

In the 2050s, Earth has begun to empty. Those with the means and the privilege have departed the great cities of the United States for the more comfortable confines of space colonies. Those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure. As they eke out an existence, their neighborhoods are being cannibalized. Brick by brick, their houses are sent to the colonies, what was once a home now a quaint reminder for the colonists of the world that they wrecked.

A primal biblical epic flung into the future, Goliath weaves together disparate narratives—a space-dweller looking at New Haven, Connecticut as a chance to reconnect with his spiraling lover; a group of laborers attempting to renew the promises of Earth’s crumbling cities; a journalist attempting to capture the violence of the streets; a marshal trying to solve a kidnapping—into a richly urgent mosaic about race, class, gentrification, and who is allowed to be the hero of any history.

Read Goliath here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

First Life by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: January 25, 2022

Colton Beck has six months to live. He works for the Angor near Los Angeles, aware that any day could be his last.

The Angor arrived twenty years ago, resolved to help mankind survive, but not everyone believes their motives are honorable.

When the Angor offer humanity a colony world, Colton is determined to see another planet before his final breath. He’s been diagnosed with Xeno, a rare disorder that surfaced with the Angor’s arrival, but he won’t let this stop him.

With the help of his old friend Indie Hart, now the single most powerful human on Earth, he joins the Expedition to Dicore.

They access the River, an alien technology that allows nearly instantaneous travel between worlds, and their universe is quickly expanded.

What they find on Dicore is far from idyllic, and Colton struggles to navigate their new existence while coping with his impending death.

First Life is a gripping science fiction adventure tale from the Best-Selling author of The Event, Lost Contact, and Final Days.

Get your copy of First Life here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Light Years From Home by Mike Chen


Release Date: January 25, 2022

Evie Shao and her sister, Kass, aren’t on speaking terms. Fifteen years ago on a family camping trip, their father and brother vanished. Their dad turned up days later, dehydrated and confused—and convinced he'd been abducted by aliens. Their brother, Jakob, remained missing. The women dealt with it very differently. Kass, suspecting her college-dropout twin simply ran off, became the rock of the family. Evie traded academics to pursue alien conspiracy theories, always looking for Jakob.

When Evie's UFO network uncovers a new event, she goes to investigate. And discovers Jakob is back. He's different—older, stranger, and talking of an intergalactic war—but the tensions between the siblings haven't changed at all. If the family is going to come together to help Jakob, then Kass and Evie are going to have to fix their issues, and fast. Because the FBI is after Jakob, and if their brother is telling the truth, possibly an entire space armada, too.

The perfect combination of action, imagination and heart, Light Years from Home is a touching drama about a challenge as difficult as saving the galaxy: making peace with your family…and yourself.

Read Light Years From Home here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

Release Date: February 1, 2022

Octavia Zarola would do anything to keep her tiny, close-knit bounty hunting crew together—even if it means accepting a job from Torran Fletcher, a ruthless former general and her sworn enemy. When Torran offers her enough credits to not only keep her crew afloat but also hire someone to fix her ship, Tavi knows that she can’t refuse—no matter how much she’d like to.

With so much money on the line, Torran and his crew insist on joining the hunt. Tavi reluctantly agrees because while the handsome, stoic leader pushes all of her buttons—for both anger and desire—she’s endured worse, and the massive bonus payment he’s promised for a completed job is reason enough to shut up and deal.

But when they uncover a deeper plot that threatens the delicate peace between humans and Valoffs, Tavi suspects that Torran has been using her as the impetus for a new war. With the fate of her crew balanced on a knife’s edge, Tavi must decide where her loyalties lie—with the quiet Valoff who’s been lying to her, or with the human leaders who left her squad to die on the battlefield. And this time, she’s put her heart on the line.

Grab Hunt the Stars here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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Deep Sleep by Steven Konkoly

Release Date: February 1, 2022

Countersurveillance expert Devin Gray is unwittingly thrown headfirst into dangerous new territory after the death of his mother. Helen Gray, a paranoid and disgraced former CIA officer, believed she was on the verge of preventing a national catastrophe—a mission worth dying for. Others, including Devin, believe she was chasing delusions. Until he finds what she left behind.

With the help of longtime friend and former Marine helicopter pilot Marnie Young and a loyal team of covert operatives Helen summoned just before her death, Devin is propelled into a high-stakes chase across the country. What he uncovers, clue by clue, is a conspiracy more widespread and insidious than anyone could have imagined.

Now it’s Devin’s mission to destroy a covert network poised to deliver a fatal blow to the future of the United States. And also to vindicate his mother, by seeing the mission through to its treacherous end.

Get your copy of Deep Sleep here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Release Date: February 8, 2022

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

Dive into Dead Silence here on Amazon. Also available  on audiobook.

Wakers by Orson Scott Card

Release Date: February 22, 2022

Laz is a side-stepper: a teen with the incredible power to jump his consciousness to alternate versions of himself in parallel worlds. All his life, there was no mistake that a little side-stepping couldn’t fix.

Until Laz wakes up one day in a cloning facility on a seemingly abandoned Earth.

Laz finds himself surrounded by hundreds of other clones, all dead, and quickly realizes that he too must be a clone of his original self. Laz has no idea what happened to the world he remembers as vibrant and bustling only yesterday, and he struggles to survive in the barren wasteland he’s now trapped in. But the question that haunts him isn’t why was he created, but instead, who woke him up…and why?

There’s only a single bright spot in Laz’s new life: one other clone appears to still be alive, although she remains asleep. Deep down, Laz believes that this girl holds the key to the mysteries plaguing him, but if he wakes her up, she’ll be trapped in this hellscape with him.

This is one problem that Laz can’t just side-step his way out of.

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

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Release Date: March 15, 2022

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.

It's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society whose found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

Start reading The Kaiju Preservation Society here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel

Release Date: March 29, 2022

The First Rule is the most important: Always run, never fight.

For generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars.
The year is 1968 and she is on the cusp of destiny, poised to launch the first humans into space.

But she cannot take them to the stars, not quite yet. Her adversary is at her heels, the future of the planet at stake, and obeying the First Rule is no longer an option.

For the first time in one-hundred generations, Mia’s family will have to choose to stand their ground, risking not only their bloodline, but the future of the human race.

A darkly satirical thriller, as seen through the eyes of the women who sacrifice all to make progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them.

Always run, never fight.
Preserve the knowledge.
Survive at all cost.
Take them to the stars.

Grab Until the Last of Me here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.


Which of these winter releases 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 2021: We Have Our Winners!

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What a year for science fiction! There were dozens of notable titles nominated and voted on by YOU, our readers, for our 2021 Year End Readers' Choice Award.

With the exception of a tie for 10th place on our list, among those nominations, there were some clear favorites. Curious to see which titles were in the top ten according to Discover Sci-Fi readers across the globe? Read on! 

10.A. Starship Freedom by Daniel Arenson

The starship Freedom was once a mighty warship. Today she's a tourist attraction. The space wars ended long ago. The Freedom is now a flying museum. The tourists love it. The Changing of the Guard, the starfighter aerobatics, the starboard cannon salute . . . it's the best show in the galaxy.

James King commands the starship Freedom. He hates his job. He was a real soldier once. Back when the Freedom was a real warship. He never imagined himself running a tourist trap. Right after Christmas, he plans to retire.

Then, on Christmas day, the aliens attack. Horrifying aliens. Creatures of claws, fangs, and endless malice. Within hours, they devastate Earth's military. Millions die.

So much for retirement.

The aliens spare the starship Freedom. After all, she's only a tourist attraction. But not to Commander King. He will get his beloved starship battle-ready. He will enter the fight. The Freedom will fly to war again!

Read Starship Freedom  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

10b. Hell Divers VIII: King of the Wastes by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

A year has passed since the Hell Divers defeated the machines at Kilimanjaro. The freed captives have settled into their new home at the Vanguard Islands, joining survivors from around the world. But extreme weather and failed crops have raised the specter of famine. Ships must push deeper into dangerous red zones, only to come back with less loot—and fewer soldiers.

When the Hell Divers discover a scroll on a raid, King Xavier is faced with a long-buried truth that threatens the future of his people and all of humanity. The Vanguard Islands are not the salvation the sky people thought them to be. To survive, they must venture through the Panama Canal and into the wastes beyond.

With the future at stake, the Immortal once again dons his armor. But there is a reason the great Cazador armies never returned from the canal, and this time not even the King of the Wastes is prepared for what awaits them.

Read Hell Divers VIII  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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

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.

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

8. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Get your copy of Fugitive Telemetry here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

7. Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey


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.

6. Into the Chaos (Rise of the Republic Book 4) by James Rosone and TC Manning

Captain Brian Royce brings Hadad to his home planet, which shows obvious signs of battle. Did any of his family survive?

Where are all the children...did the Zodarks take them?

Admiral Miles Hunt finds himself appointed to a new position beyond his current skillset. He now has to become more than just a ship captain and fleet commander…

...He must become the Viceroy of the Milky Way Galaxy.

On Alpha Centauri, an archaeology team makes a discovery that sends shockwaves through the Republic—a discovery so profound it could cause a division and a potential split within the alliance.

The newly deployed 2nd Republic Army Group on the planet Intus finds itself the vanguard of the alliance’s efforts to liberate the remaining Primord planets. As the Zodark forces are continually pushed back, the alliance edges closer to bringing the war to the enemies’ core worlds.

Can Miles Hunt become the leader humanity needs him to become?

Will the 2nd Republic Army Group survive a gruesome battle on a frozen planet?

Join us as book four uncovers another piece to the puzzle that ties humanity to more than just Earth and the Milky Way Galaxy.

Grab Into the Chaos here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Like what you're reading?

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5. Jack the Ripper (Judge, Jury, Executioner Book 14) by Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle

A serial killer the likes of whom hasn’t been seen in centuries. A pretender who has outdone the master. Fifty planets. The dead are screaming for vengeance and only Rivka and her team can hear their cries. The Singularity. The Magistrate and her crew.

How many more must die before the killer can be brought to justice?

The battle of wits has begun, and only one can survive. Win or die trying.

Rivka has to dig deeper than ever before into her investigative skills to figure out who’s next and how to stop the one masquerading as…

Jack the Ripper. 

Get your copy of Jack the Ripper here on Amazon. 

4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian - while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Grab Project Hail Mary here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

3. The Dark by Jeremy Robinson

Miah Gray is a twenty-seven-year-old, former Army soldier living in rural New Hampshire with his sister, mother, and her boyfriend. He is plagued by PTSD, finding solace, but not redemption, with the aid of prescribed cannabis. All he wants to do is get high, relax with a good sandwich, and watch a meteor shower with his neighborhood crush--Jen.

But when the sun's light is blotted out the following morning, and the world is plunged into darkness, Miah finds himself locked down with his family, covering windows with trash bags, lighting candles, and following the arcane rules of an ancient prophecy. But there is no escaping what comes next.

A brilliant flash of light fills the sky, leaving Miah changed, and an Old Norse death rune etched onto his forehead. He fears he has been marked for death until the neighborhood's parents start disappearing, and he's left behind. Leading Jen and a ragtag group of parentless kids, Miah hunts for answers and for their parents, while trying to keep his sister safe. He charges headlong down a path that will take him to the gates of Hell--and then straight through.

Start reading The Dark here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

2. Backyard Starship by JN Chaney and Terry Maggert

When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm.

His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man's tales were more than fiction. They were real.

Hidden beneath the old barn, Van's legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world.

With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived.

Destiny is calling. His grandfather's legacy awaits.

Start reading Backyard Starship here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

1. Omega Force: To Hell and Back by Joshua Dalzelle

A new killer is cutting a bloody swath through the frontier worlds. Rumors of its exploits are spreading and, like a ghost, nobody even knows what it looks like.

Captain Jason Burke and his crew watch this growing menace with a mix of unease… and guilt. They know who this killer is. He used to be one of them.

Seven, as he now called himself, is their former crewmate. The powerful, sentient machine that had once gone by Lucky has suffered a psychotic break and is now a problem that Omega Force has to deal with. Jason wants to believe that he can still save Lucky, but the longer Seven remains, the more he has to admit that it might be better for everybody if he was just eliminated before he can hurt any more innocents. The real question is can they even do it? Many have gone up against Seven already. None were alive to talk about it. The Omega Force crew is in for the fight of their lives against someone who knows everything about them.

Every strength.
Every weakness.
Can Jason take down Seven without losing anyone else?

Dive into To Hell and Back here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.


How many of our top 10 list have you read? Which ones are you adding to your TBR for the coming year? Any stellar books you think didn't get their due? 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.