The last few weeks we've been consumed by the idea of creating a "must read" list of science fiction. Though we doubted it was even possible to capture all the must read titles in a short and tidy list (spoiler alert: it's not) we gave it a shot and thousands of you in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group lent a helping hand by way of both votes in our poll and—just as importantly— suggestions in the comments.

In this way, the resulting list became something of a co-creation: an amalgamation of a number of the top choices in the poll, as well as some of the titles mentioned in the comments as being glaring omissions. There are also a couple of instances where we swapped the title by an author presented in the poll for a different one even though the original suggestion received a high percentage of votes. This choice was also based on feedback from you, dear readers.

Is the list we present to you today a definitive one? Definitely not. Is it chockfull to bursting with must reads? Hell yeah! So without further ado, ready your pen and paper to note those you want to add to your TBR and scroll down read on! 

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Filby became pensive. "Clearly," the Time Traveller proceeded, "any real body must have extension in four directions: it must have Length, Breadth, Thickness, and—Duration. But through a natural infirmity of the flesh, which I will explain to you in a moment, we incline to overlook this fact. There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time. There is, however, a tendency to draw an unreal distinction between the former three dimensions and the latter, because it happens that our consciousness moves intermittently in one direction along the latter from the beginning to the end of our lives."

Read The Time Machine here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story’s protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962). In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Read Brave New World  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

1984 by George Orwell 

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece, “1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

Get your copy of 1984 here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Foundation by Issac Asimov

Read Foundation here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 by L. Ron Hubbard

Sadistic Aliens...

...Man is an endangered species.

Is it the end of the world or the rebirth of a new one?

Fast-forward a thousand years. Question answered … by the Psychlos, an alien race who’ve proven just how terrifying intelligent life can be. Tracing Voyager 1 back to its origins, the Psychlos have scorched the Earth, all but wiped out the human race and stripped the planet of its natural resources.

Now, in the year 3000, humankind faces total extinction. But in this post-apocalyptic world, as a new millennium arises, so too has the courageous Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. A natural-born leader, Jonnie manages to raise an army out of the remnants of humanity, knowing that against the seemingly invincible aliens, the uprising will require a daring strike on an epic scale.

Is it the end of our world … or the dawn of a new one? Will the human race be an instrument of the planet’s destruction … or the seed of its rebirth?

 Grab Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams and metaphor-of crystal pillars and fossil seas-where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn -first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars ... and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a classic work of twentieth-century literature whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time's passage. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster once again enthralls, delights and challenges us with his vision and his heart-starkly and stunningly exposing in brilliant spacelight our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.

 Grab The Martian Chronicles here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. 

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future.

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.

Get your copy of A Canticle for Leibowitz in paperback here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

Dive into Dune here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man ventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.

This allegory about humanity’s exploration of the universe—and the universe’s reaction to humanity—is a hallmark achievement in storytelling that follows the crew of the spacecraft Discovery as they embark on a mission to Saturn. Their vessel is controlled by HAL 9000, an artificially intelligent supercomputer capable of the highest level of cognitive functioning that rivals—and perhaps threatens—the human mind.

Dive into 2001: A Space Odyssey here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Widely acknowledged as one of Robert A. Heinlein's greatest works, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress rose from the golden age of science fiction to become an undisputed classic—and a touchstone for the philosophy of personal responsibility and political freedom. A revolution on a lunar penal colony—aided by a self-aware supercomputer—provides the framework for a story of a diverse group of men and women grappling with the ever-changing definitions of humanity, technology, and free will—themes that resonate just as strongly today as they did when the novel was first published.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress gives readers an extraordinary, thought-provoking glimpse into the mind of Robert A. Heinlein, who, even now, “shows us where the future is” (Tom Clancy).

Get your copy of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed not to be a god.

A holy war rages across the heavens and mankind’s fate hangs in the balance.

Start reading Lord of Light here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Like what you're reading?

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep 

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

Grab Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants’ gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Grab The Left Hand of Darkness here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Louis Wu, accompanied by a young woman with genes for luck, and a captured kzin – a warlike species resembling 8-foot-tall cats -- are taken on a space ship run by a brilliant 2-headed alien called Nessus. Their destination is the Ringworld, an artificially constructed ring with high walls that hold 3 million times the area of Earth. Its origins are shrouded in mystery.

The adventures of Louis and his companions on the Ringworld are unforgettable . . .

Grab Ringworld here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Conscripted into service for the United Nations Exploratory Force, a highly trained unit built for revenge, physics student William Mandella fights for his planet light years away against the alien force known as the Taurans. “Mandella’s attempt to survive and remain human in the face of an absurd, almost endless war is harrowing, hilarious, heartbreaking, and true,” says Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Junot Díaz—and because of the relative passage of time when one travels at incredibly high speed, the Earth Mandella returns to after his two-year experience has progressed decades and is foreign to him in disturbing ways.

Based in part on the author’s experiences in Vietnam, The Forever War is regarded as one of the greatest military science fiction novels ever written, capturing the alienation that servicemen and women experience even now upon returning home from battle. It shines a light not only on the culture of the 1970s in which it was written, but also on our potential future. “To say that The Forever War is the best science fiction war novel ever written is to damn it with faint praise. It is . . . as fine and woundingly genuine a war story as any I’ve read” (William Gibson).

Grab The Forever War here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The united 'Second Empire of Man' spans vast distances, due to the Alderson Drive which has enabled humans to travel easily between the stars. After an alien probe is discovered, the Navy dispatches two ships to determine whether the aliens pose a threat… Called by Robert A. Heinlein: "Possibly the greatest science fiction novel ever written," this magnificent exploration of first contact and a truly alien society is a "must read" for science fiction fans.

Grab The Mote in God's Eye here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Startide Rising by David Brin

New York Times best-selling author David Brin's novels stretch the imagination while providing action and thrills galore. Packed with exotic aliens and ancient mysteries, Startide Rising delivers breath-taking adventure in the grandest tradition of space opera.

Grab Startide Rising here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Grab Ender's Game here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton

The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars, contains more than six hundred worlds interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, the Second Chance, a faster-than-light starship commanded by Wilson Kime, a five-times-rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat.

Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, led by Bradley Johansson. Shortly after the journey begins, Kime wonders if the crew of the Second Chance has been infiltrated. But soon enough he will have other worries. Halfway across the galaxy, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself.

Grab Pandora's Star here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

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.

Grab The Three Body Problem here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

Grab Leviathan Wakes 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.

How many of these must read sci-fi books have you already read? Which ones will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Have a personal favorite that didn't appear on our list? Give it a shout out in the comments here, 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 sun is out. Pool chairs and hammocks everywhere are calling your name. All you need for the perfect afternoon is an icy beverage (some sunscreen) and a fresh new read. Fear not if you're not sure what books to add to your stack this summer, because we've got you covered.

Scroll on to get a glimpse of some of our top picks releasing June through September, and be sure leave your own picks in the comments!.

Chronicle Worlds: Half Way Home by Samuel Peralta et al

Release Date: June 19, 2023

In the distant future, alien planets are settled by A.I.-piloted starships. The journeys from Earth to these worlds could take hundreds of years - so the ships contain human embryos, preserved until the ship is in orbit, then thawed, raised to fully-grown, and trained by the A.I. with the skills needed to colonize their new world.

This is the seed for the universe in the bestselling novel Half Way Home, which followed one colonial foray on a new world. But this was only one world of a thousand worlds targeted by Earth's ships. That adventure, one of a thousand...

From acclaimed anthologist Samuel Peralta, Chronicle Worlds: Half Way Home brings together fifteen of the most exciting new voices in speculative fiction to explore the universe created by NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Hugh Howey, to chronicle the astounding unexplored worlds of Half Way Home.

Read Chronicle Worlds: Half Way Home here on Amazon. 

The Infinite Miles by Hannah Fergesen

Release Date: June 20, 2023

Fans of Claudia Gray and Kelly Link will love Hannah Fergesen’s wild and poignant debut—a wacky time-traveling sci-fi odyssey wrapped in an elegiac ode to lost friendship and a clever homage to Doctor Who.

To save the future, she must return to the beginning.

Three years after her best friend Peggy went missing, Harper Starling is lost. Lost in her dead-end job, lost in her grief. All she has are regrets and reruns of her favorite science fiction show, Infinite Odyssey.

Then Peggy returns and demands to be taken to the Argonaut, the fictional main character of Infinite Odyssey. But the Argonaut is just that … fictional. Until the TV hero himself appears and spirits Harper away from her former best friend. Traveling through time, he explains that Peggy used to travel with him but is now under the thrall of an alien enemy known as the Incarnate—one that has destroyed countless solar systems.

Then he leaves Harper in 1971.

Stranded in the past, Harper must find a way to end the Incarnate’s thrall … without the help of the Argonaut. But the cosmos are nothing like the technicolor stars of the TV show she loves, and if Harper can’t find it in herself to believe—in the Argonaut, in Peggy, and most of all, in herself—she’ll be the Incarnate’s next casualty, along with the rest of the universe.

Read The Infinite Miles here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Road To Roswell by Connie Willis

Release Date: June 27, 2023

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?

Get your copy of The Road To Roswell here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Counterweight by Djuna, translated by Anton Hur

Release Date: July 11, 2023

For fans of the worlds of Philip K. Dick, Squid Game, and Severance: An absorbing tale of corporate intrigue, political unrest, unsolved mysteries, and the havoc wreaked by one company’s monomaniacal endeavor to build the world’s first space elevator—from one of South Korea's most revered science fiction writers, whose identity remains unknown.

On the fictional island of Patusan—and much to the ire of the Patusan natives—the Korean conglomerate LK is constructing an elevator into Earth’s orbit, gradually turning this one-time tropical resort town into a teeming travel hub: a gateway to and from our planet. Up in space, holding the elevator’s “spider cable” taut, is a mass of space junk known as the counterweight. And stashed within that junk is a trove of crucial data: a memory fragment left by LK’s former CEO, the control of which will determine the company’s—and humanity’s—future.

Racing up the elevator to retrieve the data is a host of rival forces: Mac, the novel’s narrator and LK’s Chief of External Affairs, increasingly disillusioned with his employer; the everyman Choi Gangwu, unwittingly at the center of Mac’s investigations; the former CEO’s brilliant niece and power-hungry son; and Rex Tamaki, a violent officer in LK’s Security Division. They’re all caught in a labyrinth of fake identities, neuro-implant “Worms,” and old political grievances held by the Patusan Liberation Front, the army of island natives determined to protect Patusan’s sovereignty.

Conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film, with literary references as wide-ranging as Joseph Conrad and the Marquis de Sade, Counterweight is part cyberpunk, part hardboiled detective fiction, and part parable of South Korea’s neocolonial ambition and its rippling effects.

Read Counterweight here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Below Us (The Abyss Book One) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: July 11th, 2023

While everyone watches the stars, looking to the future, something is looming Below Us.

After a rough break up, Wyatt moves to New York City, eager to prove himself while working on Wall Street. When he’s asked to visit the father of his ex-girlfriend, a billionaire tycoon, his fate is sealed.

The revolutionary company, Nu-En, launches a radical innovation, an energy that will allow every person on the planet access to power. Only it doesn’t perform as anticipated.

Harnessing the ocean has consequences, and highly dangerous creatures emerge from the depths. Soon, the Earth is fracturing, and the world will never be the same.

Wyatt teams with Luna, a clever journalist, to escape the treacherous city with the ultimate prize: a robot capable of saving the world.

Their journey won’t be easy, but they meet others along the way that share the same determination.

Time is running out, and nothing can prepare them for what’s coming…

Below Us is the first novel in the epic series, The Abyss, written by Nathan Hystad, the Best-Selling author of The Other Place, First Life, and The Event.

Get your copy of Below Us here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Chrysalis by Lincoln Child

Release Date: July 12, 2023

A blockbuster new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lincoln Child, centered on a dominant tech company—Chrysalis—whose groundbreaking virtual reality technology is redefining the way we live...and possibly introducing a catastrophic danger to the world.

Like millions of people around the world, Jeremy Logan (famed enigmalogist, or investigator of unexplained things) has grown to rely on his incredible new tech device. Made by Chrysalis, the global multibillion dollar tech company, the small optical device connects people in a stunning new way, tapping into virtual reality for the first time on a wide scale.

And yet, when Logan is summoned by Chrysalis to investigate a disturbing anomaly in the massive new product rollout, Logan is shocked to see the true scope of the massive company. He also quickly realizes that something in Chrysalis’s technology is very wrong, and could be potentially devastating. The question is what, and where, is the danger coming from? In Lincoln Child’s wildly inventive new novel, high tech comes to life alongside the myriad dangers it poses, making for one of Child’s most infectious, entertaining thrillers to date.

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

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.

They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first.

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.

As the mystery unfolds on the ship, poignant flashbacks reveal how Asuka came to be picked for the mission. Despite struggling through training back on Earth, 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.

Dive into The Deep Sky here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Nightstalkers by Jasper T. Scott

Release Date: July 18, 2023

Everything changed the day that they arrived…

Adam and Kimberly Hall are enjoying a quiet suburban life with their daughter, Crystal, and their dog, Bowser, when an emergency message flashes up on their phones—meteor impact imminent, seek immediate shelter.

Minutes later, the shock wave rages through South Austin like a hurricane, and they’re left to pick up the pieces. But as dusk begins to fall and horrific creatures come crawling out of the impact craters, they realize that they’re under attack, and the attackers are not from Earth.

After the initial encounters turn deadly for his neighbors, Adam realizes that they can’t stay in the city. He has an old Army buddy with a ranch in Texas Hill Country. They have to get there before it’s too late.

Nightstalkers is a post-apocalyptic invasion story for fans of The Last of Us and A Silent Place.

Dive into Nightstalkers here on Amazon.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

Release Date: August 8th, 2023

In this reality-bending thriller from the author of The Shining Girls, a grieving daughter’s search for her mother becomes a journey across alternate realities.

Start reading Bridge here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

More Perfect by Temi Oh

Release Date: August 15th, 2023

A reimagining of the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus, for fans of Becky Chambers and William Gibson by Alex Award–winning author Temi Oh.

Using the myth of Eurydice as a structure, this riveting science fiction novel is set in a near-future London where it has become popular for folks to have a small implant that allows one access to a more robust social media experience directly as an augmented reality. However, the British government has taken oversight of this access to an extreme, slowly tilting towards a dystopian overreach, all in the name of safety.

Start reading More Perfect here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Here, O Earth! by Daniel Arenson

Release Date: September 5, 2023

They came from beyond.

From beyond the galaxy. From beyond human understanding. They came with one mission.

To kill us all.

Some call them aliens. Others call them gods. Their tentacles grip worlds. Their malice destroys civilizations. They've crushed a million planets.

And now they crave Earth.

Marco and Addy, veterans of the Alien Wars, are retired. They fought for many years. They saved Earth many times. Now they're raising their children in a peaceful forest. They've earned this peace.

But Earth needs them. More than ever.

Because a war is coming. A war unlike any before. A war that can devour our very galaxy.

The enemy is almost here.

From the shadows of despair, heroes will rise. Heroes will sound the cry of our world, the prayer of our people. "Hear, O Earth! We will live!"

Grab Here, O Earth
! here on Amazon.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Release Date: September 9, 2023

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

Grab Starter Villain here on amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Sons of War 4: Soldiers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith and Tom Abrahams 

Release Date: September 12, 2023

In the conclusion to the sweeping saga of postapocalyptic Los Angeles, Dominic Salvatore leads the Saints, a secret team of elite operatives, in a final push to purge the city of its demons. After sending their families into hiding, the Saints know that the stakes have never been higher—they will succeed decisively or perish.

Broken by the death of his wife, Don Antonio Moretti seeks revenge against her killers. He embarks on a body-strewn campaign to crush his last rivals and secure the crown of Los Angeles. Nephew Vinny Moretti tires of the killings and wonders whether his uncle is going too far.

Every eye is on the prize. And anyone trying to walk the fence between good and evil will have to pick a side. With either choice, hell awaits.

Grab Sons of War: Soldiers
here on amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Which of these Summer 2023 releases will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Which ones are you most excited for? Any you're stoked about that we missed? 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.

Hands up if you're ready for warmer temps and a slate of fresh new sci-fi reads! We sure are! Some of these spring titles will be familiar to you from our post a few months back on Highly Anticipated 2023 Sci-Fi, but as we get further into the year, we discover more (and more) new reads to get hyped about, so even if you're a regular blog reader, there will likely be some new-to-you books here to add to your list. Can your TBRs bear the weight of all this goodness? 

Scroll on to get a glimpse of some of our top picks for spring and be sure leave your own in the comments! 

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

Release Date: March 21, 2023

Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family.

So begins Jinwoo Chong’s dazzling, time-bending debut that blends elements of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Intertwined with them is the saga of an iconic ’80s detective show, Raider, whose star actor has imploded spectacularly after revelations of long-term, concealed abuse.

Flux is a haunting and sometimes shocking exploration of the cyclical nature of grief, of moving past trauma, and of the pervasive nature of whiteness within the development of Asian identity in America.

Read Flux here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Loki's Ring by Stina Leicht

Release Date: March 28, 2023

Gita Chithra embarks on a mission through space to save the robot she loves as a daughter—or risk losing her in the depths of Loki’s Ring—in this intergalactic space adventure from beloved author Stina Leicht.

Gita Chithra, the captain of the intergalactic ship The Tempest, is used to leading her crew on simple retrieval and assistance missions. But when she receives a frantic distress call from Ri, the AI she trained from inception—making her like a daughter to Gita—she knows she’s in for something much more dangerous.

Ri is trapped in the depths of Loki’s Ring, an artificial alien-made solar system, and says everyone in the vicinity has been infected and killed by a mysterious contagion. Gita and her team investigate, only to discover horrors at every turn, and are soon stranded themselves, leaving them vulnerable to infection and attack.

Forced to call on an old friend to help them out of this mess, Gita must succeed or risk losing everyone she’s ever loved.

Read Loki's Ring here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Where Dinosaurs Roam (Mintari II) by Daniel Arenson

Release Date: April 4, 2023

Mintari. A world of dinosaurs. A planet beyond time.

On Mintari, dinosaurs live again. Brontosaurs roam the forests. Mosasaurs haunt the deep blue seas. Tyrannosaurs prowl the plains. Life thrives.

Yet life is also fragile. Amissa Triplehorn, a deadly huntress, leads an army of poachers. They sweep across Mintari, armed with modern weapons. Burning. Killing. Mintari bleeds.

Only one man can stop Amissa. Her brother.Joe Triplehorn is a Mintari Ranger. He vowed to defend the dinosaurs. To kill poachers. But could he truly kill his own sister?

Meanwhile, young Figaro is torn between two worlds. Dinosaurs raised her. Yet she is human. As Mintari blazes in war, Figaro must choose her loyalties. Will she live as a human? Or a dinosaur?

Sweeping from dark ocean depths to snowy mountaintops, from sprawling grasslands to misty forests, Where Dinosaurs Roam returns to Mintari with another majestic adventure.

Get your copy of Where Dinosaurs Roam here on Amazon. 

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

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

Release Date: April 18, 2023

Against the backdrop of authentic historical events, Sylvain Neuvel concludes his acclaimed Take Them to the Stars series with a biting satire on the role of authority in all its guises, bringing us a truly breathtaking science fiction trilogy that spans the ages.

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

After a traumatic incident, Aster's 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!

Read For the First Time, Again here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Ascension by Nicholas Binge

Release Date: April 25, 2023

A mind-bending speculative thriller in which the sudden appearance of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leads a group of scientists to a series of jaw-dropping revelations that challenge the notion of what it means to be human

An enormous snow-covered mountain has appeared in the Pacific Ocean. No one knows when exactly it showed up, precisely how big it might be, or how to explain its existence. When Harold Tunmore is contacted by a shadowy organization to help investigate, he has no idea what he is getting into as he and his team set out for the mountain.

The higher Harold’s team ascends, the less things make sense. Time moves differently, turning minutes into hours, and hours into days. Amid the whipping cold of higher elevation, the climbers’ limbs numb and memories of their lives before the mountain begin to fade. Paranoia quickly turns to violence among the crew, and slithering, ancient creatures pursue them in the snow. Still, as the dangers increase, the mystery of the mountain compels them to its peak, where they are certain they will find their answers. Have they stumbled upon the greatest scientific discovery known to man or the seeds of their own demise?

Framed by the discovery of Harold Tunmore’s unsent letters to his family and the chilling and provocative story they tell, Ascension considers the limitations of science and faith and examines both the beautiful and the unsettling sides of human nature.

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

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of highly anticipated 2023 spring releases, why not join the DSF community for more awesome content? You'll get to be notified whenever a top 10 list or any other articles of interest go up on our site. It's free to sign up and you'll also get recommendations for new releases and discounted ebooks from our expert editorial team, from bestsellers to hidden gems.

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?

Dive into In the Lives of Puppets here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Release Date: May 2, 2023

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).

Dive into Chain-Gang All-Stars here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Forgotten Empire (Space Raiders Book 2) by Ken Lozito 

Release Date: May 4th, 2023

Nathan Briggs left his old life behind, but his thirst for adventure remains the same…

And this galaxy has many secrets.

A chance encounter with a strange creature puts Nathan on the trail of a lost civilization that predates everything else in the galaxy.

For thousands of years, many have abandoned the deadly search, but there are powerful forces that will do anything to possess the promised technological marvels that will change everything.

Determined to uncover the truth, Nathan joins the hunt, but when the race for the ultimate prize turns deadly, it will test the loyalty of his crew. To the victor goes the spoils, while the others become yet another tragic end, lost while pursuing the forgotten empire.

Get your copy of Forgotten Empire here on Amazon.

Dark World (The Travelers Book 3) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: May 16th, 2023

Another year passes, and the Spheres are restless. The Travelers have invaded.

It’s become impossible for the powers that be to ignore the fact that aliens are real, and Earth is under an imminent threat.

Buzz is ordered to create a team to save the world. For some reason, he elects Elliot and his friends to accompany him.

After the shocking revelation that someone close to Elliot has betrayed them, his loyalties are tested in the epic conclusion to The Travelers.

Start reading In the Dark World here on Amazon. 

Savage Skies by Nicholas Sansbury Smith 

Release Date: June 6, 2023

A hostile world that will doom the human race … or save it, if a few survivors can unlock its secrets …

After waking up with no memories in an underground facility, a squad of elite soldiers and scientists must try to recall what their mission is. But first, it’s a race against the clock to escape their collapsing bunker before it becomes a tomb. Topside, an even more dangerous world of fiery skies and desolate terrain awaits.

As they venture out to explore their strange new surroundings, bits of memory begin to return, though nothing can prepare them for the strange forces protecting this bleak landscape. Worse, it seems that not everyone on the team wants the mission—whatever it is—to succeed. One thing is certain: the world they remember is gone, destroyed by war or natural disaster. Soon, they will learn that they must unlock the past if they are to have any hope of ever seeing the future.

Grab Savage Skies here on Amazon. Also available on audiobok.

Translation State by Ann Leckie

Release Date: June 6, 2023

Qven was created to be a Presger 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 Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe.

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

Flight & Anchor by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Release Date: June 13, 2023

Stellaxis operatives 06 and 22 have escaped. Years ago, they survived a corporate civil war; Stellaxis kidnapped and modified them into celebrity supersoldiers. But 06 and 22 have finally broken free from their barracks. They flee into a strange city they barely remember, trying to remain anonymous while their faces appear on billboards.

It will be an expensive disaster for the director of the supersoldier program if word gets out about the escaped operatives. But she has paired them for a reason: 06 to aggressively engage, 22 to keep her in check. One flight, one anchor: a perfect team if they would just return to their rightful place with her. If not, all operatives' days are numbered.

Grab Flight & Anchor here on Amazon. 

Which of these spring 2023 releases will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Which ones are you most excited for? Any you're stoked about that we missed? 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.

In many places the world over, the air has turned crisp and the first leaves have started to fall. And while it's with some reluctance that we kiss our poolside reading goodbye, we'd be lying if we said we didn't delight in the chance to throw on some cozy layers and take our reading fireside, trading in our iced tea for hot tea or toddies... Make no mistake, we are huge fans of fall reading and especially the bounty of releases readers are treated to this season each year.

Want to know what we'll be diving into the next few months? Here are some of the titles we're stoked about this fall! Read on to check 'em out! 

Across the Sand by Hugh Howey

Release Date: October 4, 2022

The old world is buried. A new one has been forged atop the shifting dunes, a land of howling wind and infernal sand.

In this barren home, siblings Conner, Rob, Palmer and Violet daily carve out a future. They live in the shadow of their father and oldest sister, Vic, two of the greatest sand divers ever to comb the desert’s depths. But these branches of their family tree are long gone, disappeared into the wastes beyond, leaving the younger siblings scratching in the dust, hopeful for a better life. 

On the other side of No Man’s Land, Anya was born beside the abundant mines knowing her prospects would be to marry, have a family, and work in ore, in service to the Empire of the East. But when an atomic bomb delivered by a stranger destroys most of her town—murdering all her friends and community—she follows her father to a strange land of dunes to bring vengeance to their enemies.

Read Across the Sand here on Amazon. Also available in hardcover and on audiobook

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

Release Date: October 4, 2022

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses’ advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.

Read The Mountain in the Sea here on Amazon. Also available in hardcover and on audiobook

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Release Date: October 4, 2022

From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide.

But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board….

Get your copy of Station Eternity here on Amazon. Also available in paperback and on audiobook.

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Read The Spare Man here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook, in hardcover and in paperback.

Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

Release Date: October 18, 2022

Sonya Kantor knows this slogan—she lived by it for most of her life. For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under it, as well as constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation.

Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight’s monitoring, went on with their lives.

Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for ten years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime, and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, crooked post-Delegation world where she finds herself digging deeper into the past—and her family’s dark secrets—than she ever wanted to.

With razor sharp prose, Poster Girl is a haunting dystopian mystery that explores the expanding role of surveillance on society—an inescapable reality that we welcome all too easily.

 Grab Poster Girl here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook, in hardcover and in paperback.

Apokalypsis by Jasper T. Scott

Release Date: October 21, 2022

With the discovery of the so-called ‘living water’ on Novus, Earth is determined to control the supply. Three different superpowers are fighting over the one small valley where the miracle elixir can be found. From the United States, Major Ethan White is heading up a company of elite Army Rangers charged with organizing the Novians and claiming the valley for America, but internal conflicts among the colonists are threatening to tear the fledgling colony apart.

Layla Bester just wants to keep her baby girl safe, and Tom Zimmers is determined to help her. Having learned who the girl’s father really is, Layla is on the run, but it’s not easy to find refuge in a world that is teeming with deadly creatures. When she accidentally encounters the vitrified remains of Jessica Brady and Neil Forrester, she fears that Novus’s deadliest secret has yet to be revealed.

Meanwhile, something strange is happening in the skies above and deep within the bowels of Novus. Reverend Mark Cole says it’s a portent of a coming judgement for the invaders, and the mayor of Elysia, Preston Baylor, fears that the truth isn’t any less sinister: the architects are about to be revealed.

Apokalypsis is the shocking conclusion to the bestselling series, Architects of the Apocalypse, by Jasper T. Scott. If you liked Under the Dome by Stephen King, or the Maze Runner by James Dashner, then this book is for you.

Get your copy of Apokalypsis here on Amazon. 

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of upcoming fall releases, why not join the DSF community for more awesome content? You'll get to be notified whenever a top 10 list or any other articles of interest go up on our site. It's free to sign up and you'll also get recommendations for new releases and discounted ebooks from our expert editorial team, from bestsellers to hidden gems.

A Time For Freedom (Starship Freedom Book 8)

Release Date: October 25, 2022

The final flight of the Freedom...

The Starship Freedom series concludes with book 8: A Time for Freedom

Coming this fall. Pre-order your copy today.

Dive into A Time for Freedom here on Amazon. 

Coming Dawn by Steven Konkoly

Release Date: October 25, 2022

When CIA officer Helen Gray died, her son, Devin, a countersurveillance expert, inherited her paranoia—and the explosive evidence that gave it weight: a vast, previously undetected Russian sleeper network has operated in the United States since the Cold War.

The cells aren’t just embedded in every level of state and federal government. They’ve penetrated corporations that supply crucial technology to the Department of Defense and various intelligence agencies. With the network’s true scope still unknown, the only way to drive a stake through the heart of the conspiracy is to dispatch a covert crew to Moscow and eliminate the oligarch bankrolling it.

Russia’s endgame: inconceivable. Devin’s challenge: stop the greatest threat to national security and world peace in history. The margin for error: nonexistent.

Dive into Coming Dawn here on Amazon. 

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

Release Date: November 1, 2022

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,” is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, but they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe.

Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,” he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.

Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they lie: They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal's escape.

Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space—to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit's traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.

Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they've been faking.

Can two unwilling weapons of war bring about peace?

Get your copy of Ocean's Echo here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

The Stars Undying by Emery Robin

Release Date: November 8, 2022

Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet’s god.

So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. To regain her planet, Gracia places herself in the hands of the empire and its dangerous commander, Matheus Ceirran.

But winning over Matheus, to say nothing of his mercurial and compelling captain Anita, is no easy feat. And in trying to secure her planet’s sovereignty and future, Gracia will find herself torn between Matheus’s ambitions, Anita’s unpredictable desires, and the demands of the Pearl that whispers in her ear.

For Szayet’s sake and her own, she will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before.

Start reading The Stars Undying here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Sheree Renée Thomas et al

Release Date: November 15, 2022

From award-winning editorial team Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance—and perhaps the world.

Created in the legacy of the seminal, award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here.

Grab Africa Risen here on Amazon. Also available in hardcover.

The Hidden Space (The Glass Book Two) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: November 22, 2022

The Visitors have departed, but why did the Glass appear in the first place

There’s a sense of normalcy for the community in Monterey, California, but their peace doesn’t last long. When they’re pushed to leave, they encounter something they never expected to find.

The Glass remain, but they’ve shifted positions.

Peggy reveals she used to have dreams, but prescription medication kept them at bay. Now she’s off the pills and is determined to visit Spokane with Will.

Alternate Earths, alien ships, and time travel revelations.

Ransom doesn’t know why he ever listened to Cedric. His journey with Joel to the Other Place offers a new perspective on their situation.

Maybe there can be peace in the aftermath…

Drake finds a group in Tucson, and all paths collide as they uncover the truth.

The Hidden Space is the continuation of the epic series, The Glass from Nathan Hystad, the author of Lost Contact, The Event, and Final Days.

Grab The Hidden Space here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Which of these 2022 fall 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.

“It was rumored she held grudges till they died of old age, then had them stuffed and mounted.”
― David Weber, Field of Dishonor

Alien: The Official Movie Novelization by Alan Dean Foster

"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." —Ellen Ripley, Aliens

Alan Dean Foster is the acclaimed author of movie tie-ins for Star Wars, Alien, Transformers. He was awarded the IAMTW Grand Master Scribe Award in 2008. A best-selling science-fiction and fantasy author in his own right; the popular Pip and Flinx novels and the Founding of the Commonwealth series.

Read Alien here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. —Cordelia Naismith, Shards of Honor

When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge. A science fiction romance by a Hugo and Nebula Award winning master. Bujold's SHARDS OF HONOR is the first book in her SF universe to feature the Vorkosigan clan, followed by the Hugo award-winning BARRAYAR. The Nebula award-winning FALLING FREE precedes it by internal chronology in the same future history.

Read Shards of Honor here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff

"She'd been thinking that she needed to forget the carnage, forget those they lost limping back to the station on a ship that had won it's battle but nearly lost its own little slice of the war, forget the messages she sent to family and friends, and forget that new faces, always new faces, would soon be arriving to replace those they'd lost. 

She'd been able to forget. For a while.  —Tanya Huff, Valor's Choice

Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr was a battle-hardened professional. So when she and her platoon were yanked from a well-deserved leave for what was supposed to be "easy" duty as the honor guard for a diplomatic mission to the non-Confederation world of the Silsviss, she was ready for anything. Sure, there’d been rumors of the Others—the sworn enemies of the Confederation—being spotted in this sector of space. But there were always rumors. The key thing was to recruit the Silsviss into the Confederation before the Others attacked or claimed these lizardlike warriors for their side. And everything seemed to be going perfectly. Maybe too perfectly....

Get your copy of Valor's Choice here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

“Y.T. is maxing at a Mom's Truck Stop on 405, waiting for her ride. Not that she would ever be caught dead at a Mom's Truck Stop. If, like, a semi ran her over with all eighteen of its wheels in front of a Mom's Truck Stop, she would drag herself down the shoulder of the highway using her eyelid muscles until she reached a Snooze 'n' Cruise full of horny derelicts rather than go into a Mom's Truck Stop.” —Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

Read Snow Crash here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

“That the Careers have been better fed growing up is actually to their disadvantage, because they don’t know how to be hungry. Not like Rue and I do.” —Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.

Grab The Hunger Games here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

“From the garden shed she'd brought a shovel and a crowbar, both of which could be lethal if used decisively. In her pocket was a bottle of AnooYoo Total Shine Hairspray, an effective weapon if aimed at the eyes. She'd learned a lot of things from Zeb in his Urban Bloodshed Limitation classes: in Zeb's view, the first bloodshed to be limited should be your own.” —Margaret Atwood, Year of the Flood

The long-feared waterless flood has occurred, altering Earth as we know it and obliterating most human life. Among the survivors are Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Amid shadowy, corrupt ruling powers and new, gene-spliced life forms, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away.

Get your copy of The Year of the Flood here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (Amaranthe 1) by G.S. Jennsen

“Her pulse raced, pounding in her ears above the howling wind. A wave of dizziness crashed over her with the rapid flood of adrenaline. She gasped in a breath. “Don’t let go.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

SPACE IS VAST AND UNTAMED, AND IT HOLDS MANY SECRETS.

Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.

The year is 2322. Humanity has expanded into the stars, inhabiting over 100 worlds across a third of the galaxy. Though thriving as never before, they have discovered neither alien life nor the key to utopia. Earth struggles to retain authority over far-flung planets and free-wheeling corporations while an uneasy armistice with a breakaway federation hangs by a thread as the former rebels rise in wealth and power.

Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero and her mother an influential military leader. But she seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune by reading the patterns in the chaos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars.

Nothing about her latest objective suggests the secret it conceals will turn her life— not to mention the entire galaxy—upside down. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy leads to a discovery which will thrust Alex into the middle of a galactic power struggle and a sinister conspiracy, whether she likes it or not.

Dive into Starshine here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

"The Board is smoking smash.’ He stabbed his finger towards the scrib again. ‘She’s got no long-haul experience. She’s never lived off Mars, as far as I can tell. She’s fresh out of university—’

Ashby started ticking things off on his fingers. Two could play at this game. ‘She’s certified to handle GC formwork. She’s worked an internship at a ground transport company, which required the same basic skills I need her to have. She’s fluent in Hanto, gestures and all, which could really open some doors for us. She comes with a letter of recommendation from her interspecies relations professor. And most importantly, from the little I’ve spoken to her, she seems like someone I can work with.’

‘She’s never done this before. We’re out in the middle of the open, on our way to a blind punch, and you’re bringing a kid aboard.’

‘She’s not a kid, she’s just young. And everybody has a first job, Corbin. Even you must’ve started somewhere.’ —Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Get your copy of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Planetfall by Emma Newman

“If this were a game, like the countless stupid things I’ve played over the years, I’d be heading down there to pick off the guards one by one and free them. Then we’d take back the colony and put an end to this terror. But I don’t have the skills or the weapons that my character would have. There aren’t handy weapon caches stored in secret places that I can raid to arm myself and my fellows. None of the games I’ve ever played have built in total failure from the start. I wouldn’t have the first idea of how to tackle one of the guards and take their weapon. There’s no engine to interpret my clumsy actions and translate them into flawless silent assassinations. There is no heroism in me without the supporting game narrative.” —Emma Newman, Planetfall

Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything to follow Suh-Mi into the unknown.

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.

The truth Ren has concealed since planetfall can no longer be hidden. And its revelation might tear the colony apart...

Start reading Planetfall here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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The Dreaming Tree by Matthew Mather

“Officer Delta Devlin tried to control her rapid breathing. She checked and rechecked the straps on her ballistic vest.” —Matthew Mather, The Dreaming Tree

After a near-fatal car crash, Royce wakes up to find he’s one of the first patients to undergo a radical new procedure: a full-body transplant. Convalescing and suffering from waking nightmares, he answers the door at his Long Island home and meets Delta Devlin, a New York detective. She sees things nobody else can, visions created by a mutation to her eyes.

Royce becomes Devlin’s prime suspect in a string of grisly murders. Desperate for answers, he tracks down the grieving widow of the man whose body he now inhabits. Out of time, and perhaps his mind, he tumbles through a hallucinogenic underworld of black-market body parts and billionaires where nothing can stand in the way of living forever—not even death itself.

Grab The Dreaming Tree here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Are any of these titles existing favorites of yours? Any of them new to you and now topping your TBR? Which books do you think would have been a great addition to the list? 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.