Grab your pens and get ready to mark your calendars, folks! There is a slew of new titles coming in 2022 and we have compiled a list of those that are among the most hotly anticipated! You'll find first contact stories, hopepunk, afrofuturism, military sci-fi and more here, so whatever sci-fi subgenre is your jam, know we have you covered. 

Ascension Wars: The Complete Series (Books 1-4) by Jasper T. Scott

Release Date: February 13, 2022

The United Nations of Earth sent out the Forerunners to explore and colonize the most promising star systems within 50 light-years of Earth.

Forerunner One left Earth under the command of Captain Clayton Cross, heading for Trappist-1. After a ninety year journey, the crew encountered not only a habitable world, but alien life already inhabiting it, and dark secrets lurking beneath the surface.

The revelation of who these aliens are and what they want proves more terrifying than anyone could have imagined, and Captain Cross is forced to make tough decisions that will affect not only his crew, but the fate of the entire human race.

Read Ascension Wars here on Amazon.

Let Freedom Ring (Starship Freedom V) by Daniel Arenson 

Release Date: March 1, 2022

The starship Freedom is marooned in deep space. Far from home. Crippled. Barely flying.

But she is not alone.

In the shadows, evil stirs. A race woven from arachnid and human DNA. They hunt like spiders. They think like men. They are the perfect killers.

Like a virus, they invade the Freedom.

James “Bulldog” King, commander of the Freedom, has fought alien fleets. This is different. This is worse. The infestation swarms through Freedom’s labyrinthine halls. Destroying. Eating up the Freedom from the inside.

King must muster all his courage. All his strength. He must reclaim his ship. He must find his way home. Or not only Freedom will fall—but Earth itself.

Read Let Freedom Ring  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Aliens vs. Predators - Ultimate Prey by Louis Ozawa et al. 

Release Date: March 1, 2022

Fifteen new and original stories for a first-of-its-kind anthology, set in the expanded Aliens vs. Predators Universe.

Here the ultimate hunters, the Predators, pitted against their ultimate prey, the Xenomorphs from Alien, with humans caught in the middle! Taking place on Earth and in distant space, these tales have been crafted by a who's who of today's most talented authors of the fantastic:

David Barnett - Roshni "Rush" Bhatia - Curtist C. Chen - Delilah S. Dawson - Mira Grant - Susanne L. Lambdin - Jess Landry - Yvonne Navarro - E.C. Myers - Scott Sigler - Maurice Broaddus - Chris Ryall - Bryan Thomas Schmidt - Steven L. Sears - Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa.

Inspired by the events of the original Aliens vs. Predators movies, graphic novels, and novels, these are the ultimate life-and-death struggles. Including a new story written by Jonathan Maberry and Louis Ozawa ("Hanzo" from the movie Predators) as Hanzo's brother faces the eternal threats of both the Yautja and the Xenomorphs.

Get your copy of Aliens vs. Predators - Ultimate Prey here on Amazon. Also available on paperback.

Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell

Read Stars and Bones here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

The Sins of Our Fathers: An Expanse Novella by James S. A. Corey

Release Date: March 15, 2022

The Sins of Our Fathers is a new novella set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. 

 Grab The Sins of Our Fathers here on Amazon.

Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection by James S. A. Corey

Release Date: March 15, 2022

On Mars, a scientist experiments with a new engine that will one day become the drive that fuels humanity's journey into the stars.

On an asteroid station, a group of prisoners are oblivious to the catastrophe that awaits them.

On a future Earth beset by overpopulation, pollution, and poverty, a crime boss desperately seeks to find a way off planet.

On an alien world, a human family struggles to establish a colony and make a new home.

All these stories and more are featured in this unmissable collection set in the hardscrabble world of The Expanse.

Get your copy of Memory's Legion here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Release Date: March 15, 2022

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

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

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

Dive into Kaiju Preservation Society here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Second Chance (The River Saga Book 2) by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: March 29, 2022

Colton Beck has a new lease on life. Their alliance is confident they can find their enemy in the Alruna system, and it’s all hands on deck. After the revelation of his origins from the mysterious woman on Dicore, Colton is at odds with where his loyalties stand.

The truth behind Indie Hart’s dedication to the Angor is revealed, making Colton doubt her motives as well as the Angor’s.

When Earth is threatened, it’ll take a lot more than one man to save the planet.

With the help of Colton’s allies, they find the source of the River, and discover its connection to the Rusa.

All pieces come together for a cataclysmic resolution, but who can Colton truly trust?

Second Chance is science fiction with a hard twist from the Best-Selling author of First Life, The Event, and Lost Contact.

Get your copy of Second Chance here on Amazon.

E-Day III Dark Moon by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Release Date: March 29, 2022

The third and final book in the explosive new sci-fi adventure by NYT bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith.

Start reading Dark Moon here on Amazon. 

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Sea of Tranquility b y Emily St. John Mandel

Release Date: April 5, 2022

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

Grab Sea of Tranquility here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe

Release Date: April 19, 2022

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.

That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.

Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.

Grab The Memory Librarian here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Release Date: May 3, 2022

After eighty years of fragile peace, the Architects are back, wreaking havoc as they consume entire planets. In the past, Originator artefacts – vestiges of a long-vanished civilization – could save a world from annihilation. This time, the Architects have discovered a way to circumvent these protective relics. Suddenly, no planet is safe.

Facing impending extinction, the Human Colonies are in turmoil. While some believe a unified front is the only way to stop the Architects, others insist humanity should fight alone. And there are those who would seek to benefit from the fractured politics of war – even as the Architects loom ever closer.

Idris, who has spent decades running from the horrors of his past, finds himself thrust back onto the battlefront. As an Intermediary, he could be one of the few to turn the tide of war. With a handful of allies, he searches for a weapon that could push back the Architects and save the galaxy. But to do so, he must return to the nightmarish unspace, where his mind was broken and remade.

What Idris discovers there will change everything.

Grab Eyes of the Void here on Amazon. Also available in hardcover.

The Portals by Nathan Hystad

Release Date: May 24, 2022

Dean Parker is no longer the Recaster or in charge of the Alliance. As a result, he dives headfirst into the fray.

Since the discovery of countless new portals, the Gatekeepers must ramp up their exploration efforts. With Sarlun gone, and Shimmal’s withdrawal from the Alliance, unity at the Academy is more imperative than ever.

Jules and Dean may have recovered from their breakup, but when they travel to a distant world to assist an ailing race, they’ll need to decide what is most important to them.

The Portals is a fast-paced, riveting adventure, unlike any before it.

Grab The Portals here on Amazon.

The City Inside by Samit Basu

Release Date: June27, 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 who fled to an impoverished immigrant neighborhood where he loses himself in video games and his neighbors’ lives. 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 no good deed goes unpunished. 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 around them, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a shadowy 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.

Grab The City Inside here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Speaking Bones (The 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.

Award-winning author Ken Liu fulfills the covenants first laid out a decade ago in a series delving deep into the connection between national myths and national constitutions in this ambitious, “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR).

Grab Speaking Bones here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk & Robot Book 2) by Becky Chambers

Release Date: July 12, 2022

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy is a story of kindness and love from one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful SF.

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?

Grab A Prayer for the Crown Shy here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

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.

Grab Upgrade here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook and in hardcover.

Which of these hotly anticipated 2022 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.