Sci fi is a type of speculative fiction that looks ahead and asks “what’s next?” You can also check out these subcategories (h-r):
hard sci fi | hollow earth | hopepunk | human evolution | immortality | latinpunk | litrpg | lost worlds | military | mind uploads | multiverse | mutants | mythpunk | nanopunk | near future | nowpunk | piratepunk | pulp | robots/androids |romance
Note: these books are currently sorted by release date, with newest first.
Word Count: 45000
Summary: These three tales tell the story of Tharassas before the Tharassas Cycle, including the origin of the hencha queens, the ce’faine, and the colonization of the Highlands, essential companions for the four novels that make up the cycle: The Fallen Angel Charlie Fah, Cha’Fah to most of the world, has never fit in with the other citizens of Gully Town, thanks to his darker skin that sets him apart. But one day, an Angel arrives on a supply run from Earth, and what happens next sets Charlie on a new path that will turn his life upside down. The Last Run Sera is the last runner from Earth, bringing badly needed supplies to the Tharassas Colony across a twenty-five year gulf between the planets. Jas works on a hencha farm to make ends meet, harvesting berries from the semi-sentient plants. Neither one that knows their lives—and worlds—are about to change forever. The Emp Test Jey awakens to find himself in the care of a handsome stranger—a cheff from one of the mountain tribes. Afraid for his life, Jey has no choice but to let the man take care of him and his broken leg. Avain is on his Aud'ling—the coming-of-age test that requires him to spend a couple months away from his own people. The two of them will have to come to an understanding if they're going to help one another. The Last Run and The Emp Test have been published before in previous stand-alone editions, but The Fallen Angel is a new story written exclusively for this collection.
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Summary: There’s a kettle of rotten fish on the fire … and the stink’s about to get worse. – Jeskan proverb Once in a generation, the matriarchs of Jeska choose a new king to manage the government and command the Guard — protecting Jeskans from crime, invaders, and insurgency. Corren's been training for that job since he was six, but this is an unsettled time: rumors of strange incursions, grumbling discontent, and increasing brigandry. Corren’s own problems are multiplying. His father, a skeptical shaman, has gone missing, His polyamorous foster-brother keeps interfering with his personal and professional business. And the king needs him to track down the conspirators behind a simmering insurrection. When a strange woman turns up wearing a shaman’s cape, speaking a weird language, and hiding knowledge that doesn’t belong in this world, all his plans will have to change.
Word Count: 12,000
Summary: On the 3rd Orbital Anniversary, a mining ship vanished, never to be heard from again. Twelve years later, Special Agent Evelyn Carlisle finds herself on the cusp of discovering what happened to it – if she can get the crew of the Galilean Moons Forensic Cleaning Company to talk. A tale from the Jovian Empire.
Word Count: 93700
Summary: Raven's a thief who just swallowed a dragon. A small one, sure, but now his arms are growing scales, the local wildlife is acting up, and his snarky AI familiar is no help whatsoever. Raven's best friend Aik is a guardsman carrying a torch for the thief. A pickpocket and a guard? Never going to happen. And Aik’s ex-fiancé Silya, an initiate priestess in a magical crisis, hates Raven with the heat of a thousand suns. This unlikely team must work together to face strange beasts, alien artifacts, and a world-altering threat. If they don’t figure out what to do soon, it might just be the end of everything. Things are about to get messy.
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Summary: In this stunning work of speculative urban fiction, Redfern Jon Barrett breaks down the binary between utopia and dystopia—presenting an ambitopian vision of the world’s first gay state. A glittering gay metropolis of 24 million people, Berlin is a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenagers William and Gareth, who flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in the deeply divided city? Meanwhile, young mother Cissie loves Berlin’s towering high rises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district—not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents. Challenging assumptions of sex and gender, Proud Pink Sky questions how much of ourselves we need to sacrifice in order to find identity and community.
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Summary: Octavia E. Butler said, “There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are new suns.” New Suns 2 brings you fresh visions of the strange, the unexpected, the shocking—breakthrough stories, stories shining with emerging truths, stories that pierce stale preconceptions with their beauty and bravery. Like the first New Suns anthology (winner of the World Fantasy, Locus, IGNYTE, and British Fantasy awards), this book liberates writers of many races to tell us tales no one has ever told. Many things come in twos: dualities, binaries, halves, and alternates. Twos are found throughout New Suns 2, in eighteen science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories revealing daring futures, hidden pasts, and present-day worlds filled with unmapped wonders. Including stories by Daniel H. Wilson, K. Tempest Bradford, Darcie Little Badger, Geetanjali Vandemark, John Chu, Nghi Vo, Tananarive Due, Alex Jennings, Karin Lowachee, Saad Hossain, Hiromi Goto, Minsoo Kang, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Malka Older, Kathleen Alcalá, Christopher Caldwell and Jaymee Goh with a foreword by Walter Mosley and an afterword by Dr. Grace Dillon.
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Summary: The planet wakes. Atalant is torn between two worlds. In uncharted space—head of a sentient planet—the new Eld of Ardulum now leads the religion she once rejected. Emn is by her side but the Mmnnuggl war brewing in the Charted Systems—threatening her homeworld of Neek—cannot be ignored. Atalant must return to the planet that exiled her in order to lead the resistance. She must return home a god, a hypocrite, a liar in gold robes, and decide whether to thrust her unwilling people into the truth of Ardulum, or play the role she has been handed and never see her family, or her world, again.
Word Count: 130000
Summary: Over a million years in the future, a desperate stowaway lies concealed in a space freighter’s cargo hold. Tam Amergan is bound for the prison world Corustloth, where his partner Brogan has been abducted. Ever since the Senate took over the planetary system decades earlier, gay men like Tam and Brogan—degens, as they are labeled under Senate rule—have been forced to live in secrecy. But Brogan is Tam’s life-line, bound to his soul in a ritual performed by a secret sisterhood of women with ancient, unknown designs. Tam has no choice but to follow Brogan wherever he goes. What Brogan sees, Tam sees; what Tam feels, Brogan feels. Neither can live without the other. Thousands of lightyears away, an ancient brotherhood of mentalists works at uncovering the mystery of humanity’s long-forgotten origins. Their leader, Father, enlists the help of Bennett, who is able to connect with the mind of a space freighter stowaway on the other side of the galaxy. Is Bennett the key to humanity’s origins? Could Tam’s quest to find Brogan have a wider purpose? Both a soaring love story and sweeping sci-fi epic, Life-Line: Origins is a thrilling gay romance and science fiction novel. Ambitious, gripping, and full of heart, it is a must-read for anyone hungry for adventure and intrigue.
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Summary: A young woman in 1884 doesn’t have many options … But Susannah did not expect to be tutoring an alien snail child while aboard a ship sailing in space … Who will get the real education? Orphaned and penniless in Hong Kong in 1884 — what’s a young gentlewoman to do? Impulsive, adventurous, and self-confident, Susannah accepts an offer to become the governess to a young foreigner on a ship. She does not expect the ship to be in space, or the foreign child to be an alien who looks like a giant snail. Nevertheless, she throws herself into the job of bringing Victorian decorum to the natives. But when she is accused of spying and put on trial in an alien court, Susannah has to challenge the law of the aliens to save herself — and her young and slimy student.
Word Count: 63000
Summary: Paris 1880, the City of Electric Light Clockwork nobles of the Court promenade through the halls of Versailles, while Watcher spheres and cyborg police menace citizens of France in the streets. The Royal Scientist Doctor works frantically on an automaton designed to replace the failing sovereigns, but will it be ready in time to save the monarchy? In the cafes of Montmartre, Henri paints the common people chafing under the reign of the Augmented monarchs and dreams of a France free of machines. John yearns to capture the essence of beauty in his paintings with the luminous Marie-Ange his muse-and handmaid to the ancient Queen of France. With his brother Henri entangled in revolution, he must choose between the artificial beauty of Court and the movement to restore France. How much humanity can be lost before you are no longer human?
Word Count: 54000
Summary: Alan Beringer’s day takes an unexpected turn when he’s kidnapped by alien space pirates. In all fairness, pyrean space pirates claiming they're "privateers” has become the norm since humans became an interstellar species. Pirates aren’t the problem. The problem is Alan's job is to curtail space piracy. The problem is Alan may be more pyrean than he lets on. The problem is the alien space pirate captain, Sven Jiordson, has a growing infatuation with Alan. The problem is Alan kind of enjoys being kidnapped. But who has time for romance when there's a new, unknown threat to interstellar space travel? Kidnapping aside, Alan needs to do what he does best: use his brilliant detective skills to notice everything…except Sven flirting with him. As the pyreans say — romance is more fun when somebody’s alive to enjoy it! Threads of Fate is the first book in the Triple Strike series, and it includes seven illustrations plus additional bonus content and comics.
Word Count: 85000
Summary: Jameson Havercamp, a psych from a conservative religious colony, has come to Oberon—unique among the Common Worlds—in search of a rare substance called pith. He’s guided through the wilds on his quest by Xander Kinnison, a handsome, cocky wing man with a troubled past. Neither knows that Oberon is facing imminent destruction. Even as the world starts to fall apart around them, they have no idea what’s coming—or the bond that will develop between them as they race to avert a cataclysm. Together, they will journey to uncover the secrets of this strange and singular world, even as it takes them beyond the bounds of reality itself to discover what truly binds them together.
Word Count: 125000
Summary: Is Leif really lucky? Stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship almost out of fuel and food, he doesn’t feel that way. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. As the starship Dauntless returns from a successful mission to the planet called Heaven, Earth holds no attractions for Exoplanetary Scout Leif Grettison. He wants only to complete the mission and leave for another star, along with ace pilot Yang Yong. In fact, he would be happy spending the rest of his life flying the starways with her. But they and the rest of the ship’s skeleton crew awaken from hibernation to find Earth’s solar system dark and silent—no signals, no responses to their transmissions. When they make orbit, the magnitude of the disaster becomes clear: An apocalyptic war has killed billions and destroyed every last source of power and tech that 22nd-Century humans relied on to survive. Getting down to Earth is only the beginning of Leif’s problems. Those few who survived the apocalypse are still divided, fighting over what’s left. The disastrous re-entry to Earth leaves him with no resources or allies. He lands in the middle of a makeshift family that needs him more than he’s comfortable with and hears stories—even nursery rhymes—that speak of a lucky starman. For once, he’s the only person with tech—but if he’s caught using it, they might kill him. Can a man back from the stars end the warfare on Earth, or will he make it worse? Can he save a family that might become his? Is he everyone’s lucky starman?
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Summary: Teens and their giant robots search for a new home for mankind, but the planet they discover belongs to the dragons. Two hundred years after the Climate Wars left Earth uninhabitable, Johari and his giant robot companion lead a squad of scouts on a quest for a new Goldilocks planet to settle the remnants of the human race. When one of the scouts and his bot go down in a hostile wilderness, Johari's fight to save them reveals complex behavior in the dragon-like dominant species. The scout team fragments as Johari strives to rescue his friends and discover the truth about the aliens. If he's right, mankind will lose its best hope for a home — or sacrifice its own humanity.
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Summary: Ardulum. The planet of myth. The planet of unwanted destiny. The Charted Systems are in pieces. Mercy’s Pledge is destroyed, and her captain dead. With no homes to return to, the remaining crew sets off on a journey to find the mythical planet of Ardulum—a planet where Emn might find her people, and Neek the answers she’s long sought. Finding the planet, however, brings a host of uncomfortable truths about Ardulum’s vision for the galaxy and Neek’s role in a religion that refuses to release her. Neek must balance her planet’s past and the unchecked power of the Ardulans with a budding relationship and a surprising revelation about her own genealogy. Ardulum: Second Don blends space opera elements and hard science into a story about two women persistently bound to their past and a sentient planet determined to shape their future.
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Summary: It’s the end of the Age of Kali and our world is dying, its boundaries shrunken to encompass a single city. In the Earth's final days, lonely young Jay Grant finds his first love in the arms of his neighbor Michèle. Together with six other survivors, they break through the eggshell-thin walls of the world to find a mythical land where the ultimate power of creation resides. Washed ashore from an ocean of milk, they confront personages seemingly out of legend: Ananta Sesha, the lord of the Nagas; Varuna, whose eyes are the stars; Indra, king of the devas; and the tormented being who calls himself the Preserver. Jay and Michèle want nothing more than a life together, but the gods themselves stand in their way. Separated by divine malice and tormented by falsified memories, Jay and Michèle struggle to reunite, transforming themselves into beings beyond the merely human to confront the demiurge responsible for Earth's destruction.
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Summary: Ardulum. The planet that vanishes. The planet that sleeps. Neek makes a living piloting the dilapidated tramp transport, Mercy’s Pledge, and smuggling questionable goods across systems blessed with peace and prosperity. She gets by—but only just. In her dreams, she is still haunted by thoughts of Ardulum, the traveling planet that, long ago, visited her homeworld. The Ardulans brought with them agriculture, art, interstellar technology…then disappeared without a trace, leaving Neek’s people to worship them as gods. Neek does not believe—and has paid dearly for it with exile from her home for her heretical views. Yet, when the crew stumbles into an armed confrontation between the sheriffs of the Charted Systems and an unknown species, fate deals Neek an unexpected hand in the form of a slave girl—a child whose ability to telepathically manipulate cellulose is reminiscent of that of an Ardulan god. Forced to reconcile her beliefs, Neek chooses to protect her, but is the child the key to her salvation, or will she lead them all to their deaths?
Word Count: 84000
Summary: Stationmaster and exiled aristocrat Albert St. John Rembrandt—Bertie to his friends—is in love with a Tolari ruler he believes he can’t have. When he nearly dies finding out the hard way that some Tolari are as poisonous as their planet, it’s only the beginning of his troubles. A ship has gone missing. His station is in crisis. Bertie must somehow recover his health and manage the disaster while trying to decide whether to accept genetic modification in order to be with the man he loves. And no Rembrandt has ever taken a gen mod.
Word Count: 80000
Summary: The pandemic came and the world changed. Lives have changed; work has changed. The boundaries between reality and fantasy have become as blurred as those between life and work. Corporate Catharsis: The Work From Home Edition explores the impact of the COVID pandemic on everyone's personal and professional lives through speculative fiction. Featuring stories by Alicia Adams, Antaeus, Pauline Barmby, Steven D. Brewer, Dominick Cancilla, Adrienne Canino, Graham J. Darling, Derek Des Anges, Manny Frishberg, Alex Grehy, Jon Hansen, Alexa Kellow, Jack Nash, Helen Obermeier, Frank Sawielijew, William Shaw, Steve Soult, N.L. Sweeney, Kimberley Wall, and Richard Zaric.
Word Count: 3,000
Summary: Lem and her dog, Spock, have a late-night encounter with a stowaway. ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Teapot… Not a creature was stirring, not even a lonely robot; The stockings were hung in the mess hall with care In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
