April Is Full of New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Add to Your Autumn Reading List

3 years ago

April 1, 2021 at 8:35 am

April Is Full of New Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Add to Your Autumn Reading List

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

This month we’ve got teenage telekinetics, magical twins, shapeshifters, supernatural detectives, space adventures, palace intrigue, fantasy epics, monsters, and more — plus the first-ever YA fantasy novel by Gizmodo co-founder Charlie Jane Anders. Read on!

Local Star by Aimee Ogden

This “polyamorous space opera” encompasses adventure and romance, as main character Triz fights off an invasion while reconnecting with an old flame. (April 5)

Blessed Monsters by Emily A. Duncan

The Something Dark and Holy trilogy concludes as the girl, the monster, the prince, and the queen must reunite to fight against the darkness they unwittingly unleashed. (April 6)

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

This standalone adventure follows Lark — follower of a cult that teaches magic is suffering, and that the world is full of fearful monsters — and his quest to overcome his deep-seated trauma when the cult’s leader is arrested and he begins to question all his beliefs. (April 6)

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

The latest speculative thriller from the author of Annihilation follows a security consultant whose strange encounter with a taxidermied bird — left behind by an alleged ecoterrorist — leads her into a conspiracy that quickly turns dangerous. (April 6)

I’m Waiting For You: And Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young

The acclaimed South Korean author presents two pairs of thematically interconnected speculative fiction stories, available here translated into English for the first time. (April 6)

The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Described as “Westworld meets Warcross,” this sci-fi tale is set in an afterworld where a teen must protect humanity from a malevolent AI after her life is suddenly cut short. (April 6)

Lord of Order: A Novel by Brett Riley

In a dystopian New Orleans ruled by fundamentalist Christians, the head of security must question what he stands for when a state-sanctioned mass murder and a devastating flood threaten the city he’s devoted himself to protecting. (April 6)

Mirror’s Edge by Scott Westerfeld

The Imposters series continues as twins Frey and Rafi negotiate life in Shreve, where power struggles, clashing agendas, and shifting loyalties mean the sisters can’t trust even each other. (April 6)

The Paradox Twins by Joshua Chaplinsky

In this experimental, epistolary work created from “excerpts from various memoirs, novels, screenplay adaptations, and documents of public records,” estranged twins reunite after their father’s death, only to realise their family has been hiding some ghostly secrets. (April 6)

The Revelations by Erik Hoel

This debut takes on “neuroscience, death, and the search for the theory of human consciousness,” as a disgraced scientist’s attempt at a comeback is derailed when he becomes fixated on his colleague’s suspicious demise. (April 6)

Rich Man’s Sky by Wil McCarthy

Earth’s richest men — a quartet of trillionaires — have taken over space as their own elite, lawless playground. When an all-female military team poses as space colonists to infiltrate their operation, they realise restoring the balance of power is going to be tougher than they thought. (April 6)

The Science of Middle-earth: A New Understanding of Tolkien and His World edited by Roland Lehoucq, Loïc Mangin, and Jean-Sébastien Steyer

This nonfiction book, written by a range of scientists (astrophysicists, botanists, physicians, volcanologists, and others) and fully illustrated, explores how J.R.R. Tolkien’s interest in science helped shaped his worldbuilding in Middle-earth. (April 6)

Titan Song by Dan Stout

The Carter Archives noir fantasy series continues as Carter takes on a new case. This time, it involves a murdered musician whose death turns out to be connected to other crimes — and whose secrets begin to ensnare the detective himself. (April 6)

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman

This horror novel draws inspiration from the “Satanic Panic” hysteria of the 1980s; it’s about an art teacher who’s still reeling from being accused of a terrible crime 30 years prior, and the fate of his now-grown accuser. (April 6)

Breath by Breath by Morgan Llywelyn

The Step by Step sci-fi trilogy concludes after a nuclear war, as a group of survivors still living in their small town struggle to rebuild despite all they’ve lost. (April 13)

Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker

A young married couple must learn to survive in a strange new reality as the world slowly starts ending around them. (April 13)

Gifting Fire by Alina Boyden

After her father calls in a favour, a princess attempts a political negotiation with a neighbouring kingdom — only to find herself kidnapped by a rival who wants both her and her kingdom. It’ll take all her skills as a thief, a royal, and a courtesan to free herself and her people. (April 13)

The Girl and the Mountain by Mark Lawrence

The second entry in the Book of the Ice series follows an ice triber who dares to challenge the ruling priests in her frozen land; after she’s exiled, she heads off on an epic journey searching for a new home. (April 13)

The Helm of Midnight by Marina Lostetter

Described as “Hannibal meets Mistborn,” this first entry in a new trilogy begins with the theft of a death mask that’s imbued with a serial killer’s malevolent spirit — enabling him to pick up right where he left off. (April 13)

The House of Styx by Derek Künsken

Set 250 years before the author’s Quantum Magician, this first book in a new series digs into the beginnings of the Quantum Evolution, charting danger and intrigue among the colonists living in giant ships within the clouds of Venus. (April 13)

The Light of the Midnight Stars by Rena Rossner

This fantasy novel inspired by Jewish folklore and fairytales follows three Hungarian sisters, all skilled in the practice of King Solomon’s sacred magic, who must negotiate the future as Jewish people across Europe become imperiled. (April 13)

Malice by Heather Walter

This retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story imagines that the dark sorceress and the cursed princess fall for each other, against all the odds. (April 13)

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

A woman living on an isolated mountain with a man hiding a monstrous secret must do damage control when strangers appear, looking for the mysterious creature said to be roaming the surrounding forest. (April 13)

Star Trek: TNG: Shadows Have Offended by Cassandra Rose Clarke

This original novel based on The Next Generation picks up with the crew of the Enterprise as they’re escorting guests to Betazed for a cultural event — but then encounter trouble when they must make an unplanned stop at a Federation science station in crisis. (April 13)

Stormland by John Shirley

Climate change means Charleston, South Carolina is besieged by hurricane-level storms every day of the year. Despite that, people still live there, often for nefarious reasons — and it’s up to an ex-killer and an ex-U.S. Marshall to try and bring order to the region. (April 13)

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

The first YA novel from the Gizmodo co-founder and acclaimed author of All the Birds in the Sky is a space adventure about a teen girl who realises her destiny — and how it’s linked to an intergalactic war — is not what she expected it to be. (April 13)

Atlantis: The Accidental Invasion by Gregory Mone

A girl raised in high-tech, undersea Atlantis dreams of exploring the fabled world above the surface — while a boy who’s part of the “Sun People” stows away on his father’s climate-change research trip. Both end up discovering far more adventure than they ever imagined. (April 20)

A Dark Queen Rises by Ashok Banker

The second Burnt Empire book follows a mother-daughter team who flee the family’s controlling patriarch and head across the desert — but freedom is not guaranteed, especially with the young girl’s magical talents in high demand by both mortals and demigods. (April 20)

Fortress of Magi by Mirah Bolender

The Chronicles of Amicae fantasy trilogy — about a bomb squad tasked with defusing magical weapons — concludes as the city of Amicae faces an alarmingly uncertain fate. (April 20)

The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes

Billed as “The Expanse meets Game of Thrones,” this novel kicks off the Divide series and introduces the misfit and outcast Sentinels tasked with preventing the edge of the universe from collapsing. (April 20)

The Queen of Izmoroz by Jon Skovron

The Goddess War series continues as the victorious ruler Sonya must now negotiate with her allies — while her brother, the wizard Sebastian, is left to stew in his defeat and plot revenge. (April 20)

Spectrum by Julie E. Czerneda

The Web Shifter’s Library series continues with shapeshifting alien Esen’s travels through the universe, as she tracks a sinister entity that’s targeting the home planet of the All Species’ Library of Linguistics and Culture. (April 20)

Voyagers by Robert Silverberg

This collection gathers 12 short stories and novellas from the Hugo-winning author’s 60-plus year career. (April 20)

The Alien Stars and Other Novellas by Tim Pratt

This collection of previously unpublished novellas is set in the same universe as the Hugo-winning author’s Axiom trilogy. (April 27)

Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A woman who longs to advance her social class finds that her uncontrollable telekinetic powers are holding her back — but her outlook brightens considerably when she meets a fellow telekinetic who helps her develop her talents. Unfortunately, he’s got a secret that could ruin their romance, and more. (April 27)

Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

The sequel to Catfishing on CatNet finds Steph, Nell, and the AI CheshireCat tracking down an entity that’s causing trouble in the real world by exerting its violent influence online. (April 27)

The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

In 2025 Scotland, men start dying off from a mysterious virus; this book details various first-person perspectives of the women left behind, including the doctor who first identified the outbreak, a social historian, a scientist searching for a vaccine, and others. (April 27)