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.

Destiny is calling and his grandfather's legacy awaits in Backyard Starship. Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with USA Today best-selling author J.N. Chaney alongside Terry Maggert, and brought to life on audiobook by Jeffery Kafer, in this galactic quest for glory.

Here's the exclusive video trailer to feast your eyes on and get STOKED about this series!

And here's the series synopsis:

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

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

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

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

Destiny is calling. His grandfather's legacy awaits."

Start the series today! Get Backyard Starship on audiobook.

Already a fan? Then pre-order Legacy of Stars (Backyard Starship, Book 4) now!

Humans have been writing about artificial intelligence for at least 150 years, one of the first known appearances being Sam Butler's 1872 novel, Erewhon. Since that book, artificial intelligence has gone from science fiction to science fact, and while the technology is still in its relative infancy and doesn't always look exactly as our favorite sci-fi authors imagined, it's nonetheless exciting to see something we could once only imagine become an almost mundane part of our everyday lives.

Sci-fi authors are still getting a lot of mileage out of the topic of artificial intelligence, and we continue to be enthralled by their stories. If you are, too, you're going to love the books on this list! Check it out! 

The Caves of Steel (Robot Series Book 1) by Isaac Asimov

A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.

Like most people left behind on an over-populated Earth, New York City police detective Elijah Baley had little love for either the arrogant Spacers or their robotic companions. But when a prominent Spacer is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Baley is ordered to the Outer Worlds to help track down the killer.

The relationship between Life and his Spacer superiors, who distrusted all Earthmen, was strained from the start. Then he learned that they had assigned him a partner: R. Daneel Olivaw.  Worst of all was that the “R” stood for robot—and his positronic partner was made in the image and likeness of the murder victim!

Read The Caves of Steel here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

The classic science fiction novel that captures and expands on the vision of Stanley Kubrick’s immortal film—and changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves.

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.

Grappling with space exploration, the perils of technology, and the limits of human power, 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to be an enduring classic of cinematic scope.

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

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer is a science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

Case was the sharpest data-thief in the matrix—until he crossed the wrong people and they crippled his nervous system, banishing him from cyberspace. Now a mysterious new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run at an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, a mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case is ready for the adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.

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

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Read Ancillary Justice here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Speak by Louisa Hall

A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence—illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding.

In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend’s mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.

Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps—to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human—shrinking rapidly with today’s technological advances—echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.

Grab Speak here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

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

From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement and The Children Act—”a sharply intelligent novel of ideas” (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.

Machines Like Me takes place in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first synthetic humans and—with Miranda's help—he designs Adam's personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong, and clever. It isn't long before a love triangle soon forms, and these three beings confront a profound moral dilemma.

Get your copy of Machines Like Me here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Novice Gods by Bobby Adair

Dive into Novice Gods here on Amazon.

The Mother Code by Carole Stivers

What it means to be human—and a mother—is put to the test in Carole Stivers’s debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever.

The year is 2049. When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots—to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order: an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right—the Mother Code.

Kai is born in America’s desert Southwest, his only companion his robotic Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too—in ways that were never predicted. And when government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai is faced with a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?

Set in a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human—and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

Get your copy of The Mother Code here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Machinehood by S.B. Divya

Zero Dark Thirty meets The Social Network in this “clever…gritty” (Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings) science fiction thriller about artificial intelligence, sentience, and labor rights in a near future dominated by the gig economy—from Hugo Award nominee S.B. Divya.

Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is about to retire early when her client is killed in front of her. It’s, 2095 and people don’t usually die from violence. Humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. Daily doses protect against designer diseases, flow enhances focus, zips and buffs enhance physical strength and speed, and juvers speed the healing process.

All that changes when Welga’s client is killed by The Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group that has simultaneously attacked several major pill funders. The Machinehood operatives seem to be part human, part machine, something the world has never seen. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week.

Global panic ensues as pill production slows and many become ill. Thousands destroy their bots in fear of a strong AI takeover. But the US government believes the Machinehood is a cover for an old enemy. One that Welga is uniquely qualified to fight.

Welga, determined to take down the Machinehood, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood, and what do they really want?

A “fantastic, big-idea thriller” (Malka Older, Hugo Award finalist for The Centenal Cycle series) that asks: if we won’t see machines as human, will we instead see humans as machines?

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

E-Day by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

The only hope to save humanity is no longer human...

Engines. Genetically modified warriors that keep the great Nova Alliance war machine churning against the enemy Coalition. Most days, Engines are all that stand between salvation and chaos. Led by legendary Engine, Captain Akira Hayashi, Shadow Squad has fought on the frontlines for a decade. They are on the brink of victory when the Coalition launches a series of desperate and devastating attacks that cripple the Nova Alliance restoration sites vital to save the dying planet.

As the sites burn and Earth’s hope of salvation fades, Shadow Squad is equipped with neural implants to connect them to Apeiron, the first hybrid-human-AI entity. She is coded for what Captain Hayashi believes is an impossible task—peace. But war isn’t the only threat to the Earth. Apeiron has uncovered a deadly secret with implications that could end all life. This rapidly approaching threat can be stopped only if humanity bands together on what will become known as E-Day, a pivotal moment that will determine the evolution—or the extinction—of the entire human race.

Grab E-day 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.