As readers are aware, we here at Discover Sci-Fi have begun our look back at 2022 and at the best sci-fi books released through the year. You are, dear reader, an important part of that review, so if you haven't gotten your nominations in, make sure you do that before you read on!

Got your nominations in? Good! Now get your calendars out and grab a pen because our other favorite thing to do this time of year is to take a look at what books are on the horizon for the coming year. And let us be the first to tell you, there are a lot to look forward to in 2023!

Wild Warriors (New Frontier Book 3) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Anthony Melchiorri

Release Date: January 10, 2023

The thrilling New Frontier trilogy comes to an end in 2023. Reserve your copy today!

Read Wild Warriors here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

A World of Dinosaurs (Mintari Book 1) by Daniel Arenson

Release Date: January 17, 2023

A dinosaur adventure for fans of Jurassic Park! From the USA Today bestselling author of Earthrise.

Dinosaurs. Majestic giants. They’ve captured our imagination for generations. On planet Mintari, they live again.

Read A World of Dinosaurs here on Amazon.

The Secret Base (the Glass Book Three) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: January 24, 2023

The Glass changed the world forever.

Ransom and Britt attempt to settle into a new life, but a dreadful threat is constantly hanging over their heads.

The settlers in Tucson know their time is limited. An invasion is underway.

Peggy is adamant they can destroy the Glass, but it will take a trip to another time and place to ensure it remains off.

Cedric, under a cloud of doubt, must decide where his true allegiance leans.

There is hope. A military base with something that could change the tides of their future.

No one seems to have remembered the base exists, but they search for their salvation. Joel is determined to finish the battle before it begins, but his chances of survival are bleak.

The Secret Base concludes this chapter of The Glass, from Nathan Hystad, the author of Lost Contact, The Event, and The Other Place.

Get your copy of The Secret Base here on Amazon. 

Village in the Sky by Jack McDevitt

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

Release Date: January 31, 2023

Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.

But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.

As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.

A science fiction epic for our times and a love letter to our future, The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.

Read The Terraformers here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Arch Conspirator by Veronica Roth

Release Date: Feb 21, 2023

In this gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Antigone, #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth reaches back to the root of legend and delivers a world of tomorrow both timeless and unexpected.

“I’m cursed, haven’t you heard?”

Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end.

Antigone’s parents – Oedipus and Jocasta – are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, all Antigone feels is rage.

When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest.

But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.

Get your copy of Arch Conspirator here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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And Put Away Childish Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky 

Release Date: March 28, 2023

Harry Bodie’s been called into the delightful fantasy world of his grandmother’s beloved children’s books. It’s not delightful here at all.

All roads lead to Underhill, where it’s always winter, and never nice.

Harry Bodie has a famous grandmother, who wrote beloved children’s books set in the delightful world of Underhill. Harry himself is a failing kids’ TV presenter whose every attempt to advance his career ends in self-sabotage. His family history seems to be nothing but an impediment.

An impediment... or worse. What if Underhill is real? What if it has been waiting decades for a promised child to visit? What if it isn’t delightful at all? And what if its denizens have run out of patience and are taking matters into their own hands?

Dive into And Put Away Childish Things here on Amazon. 

The Thick and the Lean by Chana Porter

Release Date: April 18, 2023

In Lambda Award finalist Chana Porter’s highly anticipated new novel, an aspiring chef, a cyberthief, and a kitchen maid each break free of a society that wants to constrain them.

In the quaint religious town of Seagate, abstaining from food brings one closer to God.

But Beatrice Bolano is hungry. She craves the forbidden: butter, flambé, marzipan. As Seagate takes increasingly extreme measures to regulate every calorie its citizens consume, Beatrice must make a choice: give up her secret passion for cooking or leave the only community she has known.

Elsewhere, Reiko Rimando has left her modest roots for a college tech scholarship in the big city. A flawless student, she is set up for success...until her school pulls her funding, leaving her to face either a mountain of debt or a humiliating return home. But Reiko is done being at the mercy of the system. She forges a third path—outside of the law.

With the guidance of a mysterious cookbook written by a kitchen maid centuries ago, Beatrice and Reiko each grasp for a life of freedom—something more easily imagined than achieved in a world dominated by catastrophic corporate greed.

A startling fable of the entwined perils of capitalism, body politics, and the stigmas women face for appetites of every kind, Chana Porter’s profound new novel explores the reclamation of pleasure as a revolutionary act.

Dive into The Thick and the Lean here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

For the First Time, Again (Take Them to the Stars Book 3) by Sylvain Neuvel

Release Date: April 18, 2023

When you don’t know The Rules it’s hard to stay safe.

After a traumatic incident, Aster finds that her blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she’s the last of an alien race called the Kibsu, though she doesn’t know it.

She becomes the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. But help has come from a most unexpected quarter.

Whoever finds her first, it won’t be good news for Aster.

Or for the world!

Get your copy of For the First Time, Again here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

Release Date: April 25, 2023

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.

The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.

When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.

Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?

Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.

Start reading In the Lives of Puppets here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Translation State by Ann Leckie 

Release Date: June 6, 2023

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across galaxies in this powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction. Translation State is at once a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of how in order to belong, we must first become.

When Enae's grandmaman passes away, Enae inherits something entirely unexpected: a diplomatic assignment to track down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. No one actually expects Enae to succeed; it's an empty assignment meant to keep hir occupied. But Enae has never had a true purpose—no one ever expected hir to do more than care for grandmaman—so sie is determined to accomplish this task to the best of her ability.

Reet knows nothing about his biological family. He loves his adoptive parents, but has always secretly yearned to understand his identity, the roots that would explain why he seems to operate just a bit differently. After all, no one else hungers to study the world by ripping it apart, by slicing into those around them in order to make sense of things. So when a political group approaches him with the claim that he has ties to a genetically mysterious, long-deceased family, Reet is only too eager to believe them.

Qven was created to be a Presgr translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presgr and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something different isn't "optimal behavior". It's the type of behavior that will have you eliminated. But Qven rebels anyway, determined to find a way to belong on their own terms.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presgr is on the line—the paths of all three will collide in a chain of events that will have ripple effects across galaxies.

Grab Translation State here on Amazon. Also available on audiobok.

The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew.

To save humanity, they left everything behind—except their differences.

It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect.

Asuka already felt like an impostor before the explosion. She was the last picked for the mission, she struggled during training back on Earth, and she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left.

With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission—or worse, the bomber strikes again. Now, in order to survive, she must burn brighter than the stars that surround her.

Grab The Deep Sky here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Which of these upcoming 2023 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.

If you’ve been a sci-fi fan for a while, we have no doubt that the names Nathan Hystad and R. C. Bray will be familiar to you.

Bray, for his award winning, knock-out performances of some of the most popular sci-fi audiobooks produced in the last decade; and Hystad for his cinematic style sci-fi thrillers, which are characterized by their tight, well paced narratives, immersive settings, and rich characters.

Can you imagine what kind of magic these two could work together? Well, we have some news…

The Other Place—the first book in Nathan Hystad’s new series, The Glass—was released just this month and is narrated by R. C. Bray. It’s everything we want in a book and we are excited to share more about it with the Discover Sci-Fi community!

To do that, we recently sat down with Nathan Hystad to hear more about the book, about the series, and about working with Bray as a narrator.

DSF: Stories of first contact and interactions with aliens are a large part of your catalogue. What makes The Other Place unique?

NH: There’s something special about the concept of making contact with aliens. It’s a genre I keep going back to because there are countless ways to tell it. The Other Place is probably my most refreshing take on it yet. Mysterious invisible sheets appear across the globe, which leaves a whole lot of unanswered questions. Throw in a varied cast as they try to survive what’s coming, and figure out the puzzle they’re faced with, and we have a new take on a classic trope. It’s really more of a post-apocalyptic adventure than a space opera, and I think that specific genre leans well toward aliens and what would happen should they arrive in the midst of such chaos.

DSF: How many books will be in The Glass series?

NH: There will be three books in total. The Other Place, The Hidden Space, and The Secret Base.

DSF: Did you write this series specifically with Bray’s narration in mind, or did his coming onto the project happen after the writing was complete?

NH: I had the idea already, but not the characters and the voice of the series until I signed with Podium Audio. I was thrilled to have R. C. Bray narrate the series, and couldn’t be more pleased with how The Other Place turned out. He is such a professional, and I definitely did think of his voice as I wrote the series.

DSF: How do you come up with character names having so many books and characters in your stories at this point? Do you ever re-use names, or always come up with new ones?

NH: Names are one of my favorite parts of the pre-writing process. I enjoy the process of deciding the names of the people you’re going to be writing for the next few months, and the moment they are chosen, the character takes shape in my mind. For me, I love giving my hero’s unique names, like Atlas, Ransom, Colton, Arlo, and Rexford. If I do reuse a side character name, it’s generally not on purpose, but I’m certain I have a few Mark’s or Lisa’s throughout my books.

DSF: The Other Place is the 9th book you’ve published in 2022, with at least 4 more this year on pre-order. How do you keep up such an incredible pace with your writing? And, will 2023 look the same?

NH: I rarely have a day where I do zero writing, and that helps with the number of releases I have. This year had more than last, and that’s partly to do with saving them up for audio release. For example, The Other Place was finished and edited about 6 months ago. Next year might see fewer, but I’m already working on a book set to be released in February. It's going to be a lot of fun.

DSF: What’s the best way for a reader to support an author’s writing?

NH: There are so many ways ranging from buying a book, borrowing it, listening to it, and leaving ratings and reviews. I love it when readers join my Newsletter and follow me on Amazon or Audible so they know when my books are out. But it can be as simple as telling someone they know about a particular read they really enjoyed. Any support is appreciated.

DSF: Do you think you’ll experience real first contact in your lifetime?

NH: Who says I haven’t already? Thanks for the interview, and I hope everyone enjoys The Other Place!

“How do you say 'We come in peace' when the very words are an act of war?”
― Peter Watts, Blindsight

If you're anything like us, you have spent some time imagining what contact with alien civilizations might look like. While it's likely that any encounter will look different than what any of us might imagine, we sure do love reading tales of first contact as they are dreamed up by our favorite sci-fi authors. 

Last year we conducted a poll on this topic, and the books that made the top 10 list at that time are must reads for any sci-fi fan. If you've been working your way through unread books on that list and are ready for more, this post is for you! Here are ten more of our favorite tales of first contact. 

Dawn (The Xenogenesis Trilogy Book 1) by Octavia E. Butler

An alien race calls on one woman to revive mankind after Earth’s apocalypse in this science fiction classic from the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower.

Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before. The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.

Featuring strong and compelling characters and exploring complex themes of gender and species, Octavia E. Butler presents a powerful, postapocalyptic interplanetary epic, as well as a ray of hope for humanity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate. 

Read Dawn here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.

The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed. As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine -- and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away.

The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny -- for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.

Read Pushing Ice here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Two months since the stars fell...

Two months of silence, while a world held its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there.

Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find.

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

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

From New York Times bestseller and Hugo Award-winner, John Scalzi, a gleeful mash-up of science fiction and Hollywood satire.

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish.

So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal.

Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents. But although Stein may have just concluded the biggest deal of his career, it's quite another thing to negotiate for an entire alien race. To earn his percentage this time, he's going to need all the smarts, skills, and wits he can muster.

Grab Agent to the Stars here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

Get your copy of The Three-Body Problem here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

Dive into Axiom's End here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she's awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope . . .

Get your copy of To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Wherever Seeds May Fall by Peter Cawdron

FIRST CONTACT is a series of stand-alone novels that explore humanity's first interaction with extraterrestrial life.

The Prince of Darkness is coming. Comet Anduru skimmed the clouds of Saturn. Rather than being drawn into the gas giant, it skipped back out into space. With the comet heading for Jupiter, speculation is mounting it’s an alien spacecraft making its way to Earth. Lieutenant Colonel Nolan Landis and Dr. Kath McKenzie are caught between an angry public and an anxious President as they grapple with the scientific, social, and political implications of First Contact.

FIRST CONTACT is similar to BLACK MIRROR or THE TWILIGHT ZONE in that the series is based on a common theme rather than common characters. This allows these books to be read in any order. Technically, they're all first as they all deal with how we might initially respond to contact with aliens, exploring the social, political, religious, and scientific aspects of First Contact.

Start reading Wherever Seeds May Fall here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, 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.

Arrival (The Kyron Invasion Book 1) by Jasper T. Scott

THEY HAVE ARRIVED.
2150 AD:Chris Randall just lost his job as a bodyguard. That night, after picking up his wife, Bree, from her shift at a local casino, he breaks the bad news.

Moments later, thunder cracks the sky, but there’s no lightning. Flaming debris rain across the valley, and a dark mass goes sailing out of the clouds, headed straight for LA.

It’s not one of the Union’s starships, because they can’t defy gravity like that. But then what is it?

The answer chills both Chris and Bree to their cores: it’s an invasion.

They have to pick up their kids and get away from the city. But the Randalls soon discover that nowhere is far enough away to keep them safe.

Grab Arrival
here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

First Life (The River Saga Book One) by Nathan Hystad

A dangerous expedition. Extraterrestrial alliances. Unpredictable enemies.

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.

Grab First Life
here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Starship Freedom by Daniel Arenson 

The Starship Freedom super box set! Four complete novels of military science fiction and space opera. From the USA Today bestselling author of Earthrise. For fans of Battlestar Galactica and Starship Troopers.

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!

Grab Starship Freedom here on Amazon. 

Have you already read any of these? Which will you pick up next? Which tales of first contact are among your personal favorites? 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.

Get ready to fill the cooler and your book bag! These soon-to-release sci-fi titles will be the ones you want to take with you on all your summer adventures. Check 'em out! 

Aeon Rising by Matthew Mather

Release Date: June 4, 2022

Max Carver, a down-on-his-luck truck driver and Army vet, joins a rescue mission into Brazil. The target is a utopian tech village, the Colony, hidden in the rainforest and run by a charismatic genius. Max’s pregnant wife, Talisha Carver, is the NSA analyst who intercepted encrypted Colony messages signaling a mysterious impending event.

Dr. Xin Rou is a Chinese researcher working at the IceCube neutrino experiment at the South Pole. On lucky days a single flash might signal the passage of a ghostly interstellar particle. Suddenly, IceCube’s entire array lights up. A million detectors at once. Which is impossible. The Antarctic sky is clear and calm—but she is already running for the door.

Read Aeon Rising here on Amazon. Also available in hardcover and on audiobook

The City Inside by Samit Basu

Release Date: June 7, 2022

“They'd known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”

Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable culture power, but she’s too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.

Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death pulls him back into his family’s orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.

But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control—complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not—cannot—take the same shape for these two very different people.

Read The City Inside here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Speaking Bones (Dandelion Dynasty Book 4) by Ken Liu

Release Date: June 21, 2022

The concluding book of The Dandelion Dynasty begins immediately after the events of The Veiled Throne, in the middle of two wars on two lands among three people separated by an ocean yet held together by the invisible strands of love.

Harried by Lyucu pursuers, Princess Théra and Pékyu Takval try to reestablish an ancestral dream even as their hearts grow in doubt. The people of Dara continue to struggle against the genocidal Lyucu as both nations vacillate between starkly contrasting visions for their futures. Even the gods cannot see through the Wall of Storms, for only mortal hearts can decide mortal fates.

Get your copy of Speaking Bones here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Hell Divers IX: Radioactive (Hell Divers Book 9) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Read Hell Divers IX: Radioactive here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Release Date: June 28, 2022

Lydia works as translator for the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. They work well together, even if the act of translating his thoughts into English makes her somewhat wobbly on her feet. She’s not the agency’s best translator, but what else is she going to do? She has no qualifications, and no discernible talent in any other field.

So when tragedy strikes, and Lydia finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident, her future employment prospects look dire—that is, if she can keep herself out of jail!

 Grab Drunk on All Your Strange New Words here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Vindicta (Black Flagged Book 6) by Steven Konkoly

Release Date: June 30, 2022

VINDICTA picks up where OMEGA ended, pitting General Sanderson's surviving Black Flagged operatives and their motley collection of allies against a monstrous plot to reshape America, in the warped image of a recently elected national populist administration—TRUE AMERICA

With one shot at stopping conspirators within the administration from permanently altering the future trajectory of the United States, for the worse, the Black Flagged crew triggers VINDICTA, a daring, multi-pronged operation to put an end to the madness and rot within TRUE AMERICA—once and for all.

Get your copy of Vindicta here on Amazon. 

From Beyond by Jasper T. Scott and Nathan Hystad

Release Date: July 5, 2022

Are we alone? It was only a matter of time before the truth was revealed....

Commander David Bryce is scheduled to lead a routine re-supply run for the Orbital Development Group (ORB) to the fledgling colony on Mars. Without warning, he’s taken away by government agents and told the mission parameters have changed.

They’ve discovered something. And it’s drifting closer to Earth.

Atlas Donovan tirelessly hunts for an artifact, and tracks it to Lake Como, Italy. After the recent news from ORB, Atlas is more drawn to the trail than ever. He continues his search, determined to uncover the significance of the strange markings, and more importantly, where the artifacts really came from.

As both Atlas and David draw near to their objectives, they realize a secret organization is working against them; a clandestine force with so much influence, they seem impossible to oppose.

Are we alone?

No, and they’ve been here before...

Dive into From Beyond here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

Release Date: July 12, 2022

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) and Mosscap (a robot sent on a quest to determine what humanity really needs) turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

Get your copy of A Prayer for the Crown Shy
here on Amazon.

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Release Date: July 12, 2022

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

Start reading Upgrade here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

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The Guns of Freedom (Starship Freedom 7)

Release Date: August 5, 2022

"The starship Freedom was only a museum ship. Until the aliens attacked..."

Grab The Guns of Freedom here on Amazon. 

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Release Date: August 9, 2022

Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother's disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behavior raises suspicions and a woman—especially a Black woman—can find herself on trial for witchcraft.  

But fourteen years have passed since her mother’s disappearance, and now Jo is finally ready to let go of the past. Yet her future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30—or enroll in a registry that allows them to be monitored, effectively forfeiting their autonomy. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage. With her ability to control her life on the line, she feels as if she has her never understood her mother more. When she’s offered the opportunity to honor one last request from her mother's will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time.

Grab The Women Could Fly here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Which of these smokin' 2022 summer 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.

We talk a fair bit about books that have been adapted to TV or movie, but what about those adapted to video game?

There are dozens of great games based on sci-fi novels, and as inspiration works both ways, you can find many excellent sci-fi reads that were inspired by video games as well.

While the books here will appeal to a sci-fi fans who aren't gamers, if you are a sci-fi fan who is a gamer, we think you'll find this list especially interesting as all the books featured here either inspired or were inspired by a video game. Check it out! 

Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn

The thrilling prequel to the award-winning video game from BioWare.

Every advanced society in the galaxy relies on the technology of the Protheans, an ancient species that vanished fifty thousand years ago. After discovering a cache of Prothean technology on Mars in 2148, humanity is spreading to the stars; the newest interstellar species, struggling to carve out its place in the greater galactic community.

On the edge of colonized space, ship commander and Alliance war hero David Anderson investigates the remains of a top secret military research station; smoking ruins littered with bodies and unanswered questions. Who attacked this post and for what purpose? And where is Kahlee Sanders, the young scientist who mysteriously vanished from the base–hours before her colleagues were slaughtered?

Sanders is now the prime suspect, but finding her creates more problems for Anderson than it solves. Partnered with a rogue alien agent he can’t trust and pursued by an assassin he can’t escape, Anderson battles impossible odds on uncharted worlds to uncover a sinister conspiracy . . . one he won’t live to tell about. Or so the enemy thinks.

Read Mass Effect: Revelation here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Gears of War Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss

As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they were torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom’s elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There’ s a new war to fight now, a war for mankind’s very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus–decorated war hero, convicted traitor–the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep.

As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be re-lived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them–but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?

Read Gears of War Aspho Fields here on Amazon. 

BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley

It's the end of World War II. FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing…and many are desperate to take that freedom back.

Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science—where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture—the shining city below the sea.

But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be…and how it all ended.

Get your copy of BioShock: Rapture here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Read Roadside Picnic here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

The novel that gave birth to the video games 'Metro 2033' and 'Metro: Last Light.'

The breathtaking original story that inspired both the METRO 2033 and METRO: LAST LIGHT video games! An international bestseller, translated into 35 languages.

Set in the shattered subway of a post apocalyptic Moscow, Metro 2033 is a story of intensive underground survival where the fate of mankind rests in your hands.

In 2013 the world was devastated by an apocalyptic event, annihilating almost all mankind and turning the earth’s surface into a poisonous wasteland. A handful of survivors took refuge in the depths of the Moscow underground, and human civilization entered a new Dark Age.

The year is 2033. An entire generation has been born and raised underground, and their besieged Metro Station-Cities struggle for survival, with each other, and the mutant horrors that await outside.

Artyom was born in the last days before the fire. Having never ventured beyond his Metro Station-City limits, one fateful event sparks a desperate mission to the heart of the Metro system, to warn the remnants of mankind of a terrible impending threat. His journey takes him from the forgotten catacombs beneath the subway to the desolate wastelands above, where his actions will determine the fate of mankind.

Grab Metro 2033 in paperback here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream

Seven stunning stories of speculative fiction by the author of A Boy and His Dog.

In a post-apocalyptic world, four men and one woman are all that remain of the human race, brought to near extinction by an artificial intelligence. Programmed to wage war on behalf of its creators, the AI became self-aware and turned against humanity. The five survivors are prisoners, kept alive and subjected to brutal torture by the hateful and sadistic machine in an endless cycle of violence.

This story and six more groundbreaking and inventive tales that probe the depths of mortal experience prove why Grand Master of Science Fiction Harlan Ellison has earned the many accolades to his credit and remains one of the most original voices in American literature.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream also includes “Big Sam Was My Friend,” “Eyes of Dust,” “World of the Myth,” “Lonelyache,” Hugo Award finalist “Delusion for a Dragon Slayer,” and Hugo and Nebula Award finalist “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes.”

Get your copy of I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream in paperback here on Amazon.

Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena

Dive into Parasite Eve here on Amazon.

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett

Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn is an Imperial inquisitor, one of the tirelss defenders of humanity. With his warband he scourges the galaxy, walking in the shadows of darkness in order to root out heresy. When that heresy is found to infiltrate the hierarchy of the Imperium and the Inquisition itself, Eisnehorn must rely on himself alone to deal with it – even if it means making deals with the enemy and compromising everything he ahs ever believed in.

Read it because
It's the whole classic trilogy that remains top of many Warhammer 40,000 fans' must-read lists, And in Pariah, there's a chance to catch up with Eisenhorn decades later, when he's a renegade from Imperial justice...

Get your copy of Eisenhorn
here on Amazon.

Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks

Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!

The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island . . .  like the horde of zombies that appears after nightfall. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.

In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.

Start reading Minecraft: The Island here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund

The New York Times bestselling origin story of the Master Chief—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!

The twenty-sixth century. Humanity has expanded beyond Earth’s system to hundreds of planets that colonists now call home. But the United Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command is struggling to control this vast empire. After exhausting all strategies to keep seething colonial insurrections from exploding into a full-blown interplanetary civil war, the UNSC has one last hope. At the Office of Naval Intelligence, Dr. Catherine Halsey has been hard at work on a top-secret program that could bring an end to the conflict…and it starts with seventy-five children, among them a six-year-old boy named John. And Halsey could never guess that this child will eventually become the final hope against an even greater peril engulfing the galaxy—the inexorable confrontation with a theocratic military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant.

This is the electrifying origin story of Spartan John-117—the Master Chief—and of his legendary, unstoppable heroism in leading the resistance against humanity’s possible extinction.

Grab Halo: The Fall of Reach
here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Have you already read any of these? Which will you pick up next? What sci-fi titles would you recommend for gamers? 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.