Highly Anticipated 2023 Sci-Fi Releases!

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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


Release Date: January 31, 2023

Centuries after a war with the Mutes, the first aliens to be encountered by humankind, a startling new discovery in the far reaches of the Orion Nebula appears. On a planet with conditions favorable to life, explorer vessel The Columbia comes across a small town seemingly inhabited by an intelligent species not yet discovered.

But when a highly publicized follow-up mission is sent to make contact mere months later, the entire town has vanished, leaving no trace—or such is presumed to be the case until Alex Benedict and his archaeological crew show up to investigate. Officially, their mission is to find concealed artifacts that may have been left behind, but the team’s real goal is to solve the mystery of how these aliens disappeared so rapidly—and why. In turns terrifying and miraculous, the answers raise the stakes for every member on board as they look to make their mark on history.

Nebula Award–winning author Jack McDevitt, whom Stephen King has called “the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke,” brings back Alex, Chase, and Gabe for another brilliantly crafted science fiction mystery.

Read Village in the Sky here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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.

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of highly anticipated 2023 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.

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.

Fall 2022 Upcoming Releases We’re Stoked About!

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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


Release Date: October 11, 2022

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.

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.

Behind the Scenes of Nathan Hystad’s latest R. C. Bray Narrated Audiobook

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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!

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10 Sci-Fi Books Featuring Kick-Ass Female Characters!

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“It was rumored she held grudges till they died of old age, then had them stuffed and mounted.”
― David Weber, Field of Dishonor
It hasn't always been easy to find sci-fi that featured kick-ass female characters, but times have changed and we are here for it! This is by no means an exhaustive list, but if you are looking for some really excellent reading featuring some incredible female characters, this list of sci-fi favorites should get you started!   

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
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous . . . you’ll recognize it immediately.

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.

Tales of First Contact

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“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


A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.

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

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.

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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

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

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.

Ten Weird Dinosaurs

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Dinosaurs. They may be prehistoric. But they’re a big part of science fiction too. In 1993, Jurassic Park made dinosaurs sci-fi stars. But Crichton & Spielberg weren’t the first to place dinosaurs into science fiction stories. As far back as 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle published his science fiction novel The Lost World, starring dinosaurs. These giant animals have battled King Kong, rampaged across Tokyo, and left deep footprints across the genre.

Everyone knows the famous dinosaurs. T-Rex. Triceratops. Brontosaurus. Show pictures of them to a kindergartener, and odds are he or she can name them. But what about the lesser-known dinosaurs? The obscure ones? The weirdos?

Here are the ten dinosaurs we believe deserve more love. They’re not as famous as the big names. But they’re just as fascinating. Take a trip with us back in time…

Achillobator

Could these be the most underrated predators in prehistory? Achillobator (meaning "Achilles hero") lived in the Late Cretaceous period 96 million to 89 million years ago. It was a feathered, bipedal carnivore, roughly the size of a horse. Think the raptors from Jurassic Park but bulkier, heavier, and covered with feathers. Like the raptors, Achillobator was armed with a powerful sickle claw on each second toe.

Chasmosaurus

Imagine a Triceratops. Punch two huge holes into its bony frill. And you have a Chasmosaurus. Its name means "opening lizard" due to these two openings in the frill. Skin likely covered these holes, perhaps brightly colored. Some scientists believed Chasmosaurus used its enormous frill to attract mates.

Magyarosaurus

A dwarf sauropod? Could it be true? Was Dino from the Flintstones real? Normally, we think of sauropods – thundering herbivores with long necks – as enormous dinosaurs. And most of them were truly colossal, rivaling whales in size. But not Magyarosaurus. This dwarf sauropod was only about the size of a horse. Tiny. They also sported armored plates on their backs. Scientist believe the Magys were so small because they evolved on an island, isolated from larger dinosaurs – an example of insular dwarfism.

Megaraptor

Imagine the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Now imagine them bigger. Much bigger. Twice the size of a polar bear, today’s largest land predator. And you got the Megaraptor. Their claws were a foot long, curved, and sharp, perfect for slashing into the flesh of their prey. They lived in Argentina during the Late Cretaceous.

Quetzalcoatlus

Meet the tyrant of prehistoric flyers. If T-Rex ruled the land, and the mighty Mosasaur ruled the sea, surely Quetzalcoatlus ruled the sky. This was an enormous animal (technically a pterosaur, not a dinosaur, but we love it so much we’ll still include it here). On land, it stood as tall as a giraffe, impressive enough. But when it unfurled its wings, Quetzalcoatlus revealed its true size. Its wingspan was nearly forty feet wide. This flying reptile was the size of a small airplane.

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Sinraptor

Few dinosaurs of the Jurassic era inspired as much terror as the Sinraptor. Ten feet tall. Thirty feet long. Curved teeth designed to inflict maximum damage. Think a T-Rex, just a tad smaller and from China. The Sinraptors must have terrorized their environment, feeding on herbivores like Stegosaurus.

Supersaurus

Behold the Supersaurus! The largest dinosaur to ever roam the world! Well, maybe. There is an ongoing debate about who the biggest dino was. Do we measure by height? Length? Weight? What about dinos with incomplete skeletons, whose size we can only estimate? Well, one thing is certain. Supersaurus was a true behemoth, worthy of its name. It was a type of sauropod (long-necked dino) who lived in North America. It reached over a hundred feet in length—that’s longer than a blue whale. And it weighed as much as ten to twenty elephants. That’s big. So big it could stomp on a T-Rex without breaking a sweat. In fact, Supersaurus was so enormous it was probably predator-proof. To grow so big, it ate a lot. To conserve energy, Supersaurus might have planted its feet firmly on the ground, then moved its neck from side to side like a vacuum cleaner, hoovering up vegetation.

Therizinosaurus

The Edward Scissorhands of dinosaurs?  Therizinosaurus sported the longest claws nature ever produced. They grew 3-4 feet long, a world record. Truly the fingernails from hell. But despite essentially growing swords from its hands, Therizinosaurus was not a predator. Paleontologists believe it used its claws for grabbing vegetation. Possibly, the claws were also used for self-defence against predators.

Titanoboa

While technically not a dinosaur, the Titanoboa was a true terror of prehistory. These enormous snakes lived in South America, dwarfing even the mightiest python alive today. A Titanoboa was so large it could swallow alligators for breakfast. A human would be just a snack. The Titanoboa was so enormous it could possibly defeat even a T-Rex (we’ll never know, since these two giants lived during different eras).

Tupandactylus imperator

The imperator was arguably the showiest animal until the peacock. A type of pterosaur, the imperator sported an enormous crest. It looked like a sail on its head. These gaudy crests were likely colorful, used to attract mates and signal to other imperators. With a wingspan of thirteen feet, Tupandactylus imperator was a big flyer, able to glide for enormous distances, even crossing oceans.


We hope you enjoyed meeting these dinos. Know any other weird or obscure dinos? Post about them in the comments!

Backyard Starship – The Official Video Trailer

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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!

LISTEN NOW

Summer 2022 Upcoming Releases!

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

Aeon Rising by Matthew Mather

Release Date: June 4, 2022

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

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

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

The City Inside by Samit Basu

Release Date: June 7, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking Bones (Dandelion Dynasty Book 4) by Ken Liu

Release Date: June 21, 2022

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

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

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

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


Release Date: June 21, 2022

The battle for Panama is over, and King Xavier Rodriguez secretly deploys the airship Vanguard to Queensland. The hunt for the Coral Castle is on. The rest of the fleet returns to the Vanguard Islands with new ships and supplies, but tensions rise with rumors of a hidden food cache.When two sky people are murdered, Chief Michael Everhart knows the stage is set for mutiny. And with King Xavier off in search of the Coral Castle, he feels the target on his back. At Panama, a new leader emerges as an ancient evil threatens Outpost Gateway. The only hope of defeating it is a youth who has learned to survive in the deadly ruins.On Australia’s Sunshine Coast, King Xavier leads the search for the Coral Castle while Captain Rolo deploys the Hell Divers to hunt for a new source of seeds. As losses from both missions mount, the king wonders if finding this place is worth the cost. But turning back to the Vanguard Islands without a new food source could doom all humanity to starvation. Or to all-out war.

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

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Release Date: June 28, 2022

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

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

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

Vindicta (Black Flagged Book 6) by Steven Konkoly

Release Date: June 30, 2022

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

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

Get your copy of Vindicta here on Amazon. 

From Beyond by Jasper T. Scott and Nathan Hystad

Release Date: July 5, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

Are we alone?

No, and they’ve been here before...

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

A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

Release Date: July 12, 2022

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

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

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

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

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Release Date: July 12, 2022

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of upcoming summer 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.

The Guns of Freedom (Starship Freedom 7)

Release Date: August 5, 2022

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

Grab The Guns of Freedom here on Amazon. 

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Release Date: August 9, 2022

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

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

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


Which of these smokin' 2022 summer releases will make their way into your (e)bookshelf or into your ears? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

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

10 Tales of Artificial Intelligence!

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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


Ancillary Justice is Ann Leckie's stunning debut -- the only novel to ever win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke awards -- about a ship's AI who becomes trapped in a human body and her quest for revenge. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey.

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren -- a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

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.

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of tales of artificial intelligence, 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.

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

The AI was supposed to be humanity's salvation. It had other plans.

Now the world is dying beneath squalls of acid rain. The earth is being strip-mined for minerals to support the AI’s vast factories. Fields no longer grow green. Trees no longer sprout leaves. The only choice people have, if they want to live, is to pledge their souls to the AI, and serve its perverse ambitions.

Tim, Logan, and Aella don’t like living in a world where they have to scratch for crumbs. They intend to change it. They’re going to kill the AI with a virus that’ll worm its way through the planet’s networks, destroying everything coded in bits and bytes, every piece of software that controls a machine, makes a decision, or thinks it’s alive—especially if it thinks it’s alive.

They just need to find a way to upload the virus to the system without it killing them first.

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.

10 Sci-Fi Books for Gamers!

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

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

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

Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn

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

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

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

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

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

Gears of War Aspho Fields by Karen Traviss

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

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

Read Gears of War Aspho Fields here on Amazon. 

BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley

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

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

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

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

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky


Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel’s publication in Russia.

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

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like what you're reading?

If you're enjoying this list of sci-fi books for gamers, 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.

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream

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

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

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

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

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

Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena


When Dr. Nagashima loses his wife in a mysterious car crash, he is overwhelmed with grief but also an eerie sense of purpose; he becomes obsessed wiht reincarnating his dead wife. Her donated kidney is transplanted into a young girl wiht a debilitating disorder, bu the doctor also feels compelled to keep a small sample of her liver in his laboratory. When these cells start mutating rapidly, a consciousness bent on determining its own fate awakens, bent on becoming the new dominant species on earth.

Parasite Eve was the basis of the hugely popular videogame of the same name in the U.S. and has been cinematized in Japan.

Dive into Parasite Eve here on Amazon.

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett

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

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

Get your copy of Eisenhorn here on Amazon.

Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks

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

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

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

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

Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund

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

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

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

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

Have you already read any of these? Which will you pick up next? What sci-fi titles would you recommend for gamers? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group! 

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