All the SF/F books you should check out this February
21 new science fiction and fantasy books to add to your TBR
Winter has fully descended upon the hills here in Vermont. It's felt as though we've been having mild winters in the last couple of years, but last weekend brought a nice blanket of snow that covered everything and made driving difficult for a couple of days.
I always like this time of year. It's a perfect time to bundle up in a heavy jacket and head out on a walk, watching my breathe in the cold air as I listen to an audiobook, or wrap up in a blanket on the couch while I watch the snow fall out the window. The snow brings a bit of tranquility and quiet to the world that I find myself really needing, and it's often the right mindset to delve into a story that I've been enjoying.
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Here are the 21 new SF/F books that you should check out this month: You can also check out past installments of this series by hitting up the Book List tag.
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton (February 25th)
I was a big fan of Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7 (here's my review), which is soon being made into a film, Mickey17. While we wait for that, Ashton has a new standalone science fiction novel to delve into: The Fourth Consort.
It follows Dalton Greaves, a human representative to an alien confederation known as Unity, which has a goal of bringing all sentient life into its ranks. Dalton has only met one representative of the group, Boreau, who doesn't seem all that interested in the harmony that Unity promises. There's another interstellar organization out there known as the Assembly, which opposes Unity and doesn't seem to like humanity all that much.
When Boreau and an Assembly cruiser duke it out over a newly-discovered world, Dalton is marooned on a hostile planet and it's up to him to try and figure out the complicated politics between the groups before he's killed.
Publishers Weekly says "Ashton strikes an impressive balance of humor, action, and thought-provoking sci-fi concepts. Itâs a lot of fun watching his eccentric characters navigate sticky situations."
The Miranda Conspiracy by James Cambias (February 4th)
In the distant future, Zee and his AI assistant Daslakh visit the ice moon Miranda, where they're hoping to make a good impression on his girlfriend's Adya's affluent parents. While they're there, they find that said parents have been targeted in a political conspiracy, and Adya works to find why they're being forced out of the moon's ruling class. Zee and Daslakh head off on a treasure hunt in deep space, and both find that they're running into interference from political operatives, mercenaries, gangsters and others.
The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories edited by André M. Carrington (February 4th)
I was excited to see news about this book when it dropped last year, a new anthology of Afrofuturist stories, edited by André M. Carrington, from the Library of America. It's a prestigious, nonprofit publisher that's steadily tackled the canon of American literature since the 1970s, and it's steadily been exploring speculative fiction as a topic in recent years.
This volume looks neat: Carrington is an Associate Professor of English at UC Riverside and is the author of Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction. This book will come packed with an outstanding Table of Contents, including stories from from authors such as Nalo Hopkinson, P. Djéli Clark, N. K. Jemisin, Justina Ireland, Tochi Onyebuchi, Victor LaValle, Sofia Samatar, and many others.
Andrew Liptak
Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf by C.L. Clark (February 18th)
C.L. Clark's next novel is a tie-in to the League of Legends: Arcane world, following Ambessa Medarda, a general and mother. She has a storied life as a monster hunter and led armies for the Noxian empire, and for her efforts, was granted a vision: one where she sees herself atop the Noxian throne.
But before she gets there, she has to take over her own clan, and will have to go up against family to claim it.
Casual by Koji A. Dae (February 11th)
After Valya got a neural implant installed in her brain, she's amazed at how it and its app, CASUAL has helped her manage her anxiety and depression: it also helped her get pregnant despite an infertility diagnosis. It's been a huge help, but a new law forbids its use while she's the only caregiver for her newborn.
Her doctor tells her that she needs to wean herself off the app before her baby is born. When she does so, it kicks her anxiety into overdrive. Her doctor recommends enrolling in a controversial trial, one that would install an implant in her baby to keep hers active, but it raises some serious concerns about the technology and its impact on the two of them.
Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow (February 18th)
Cory Doctorow continues his Martin Hench series (preceded by Red Team Blues and The Bezzle), following his titular hero, a skilled forensics accountant. In 1986, Martin was in San Francisco where he invented the role, finding himself hired by a PC startup called Fidelity Computing. They'd like him to look into the activities of some disgruntled ex-employees who're starting their own rival company, only to realize that he's helping the wrong people.
The folks he was targeting hated their former employer's business practices and decided to set off on their own to build better computers to beat them at their own game. In doing so, they didn't realize who they were dealing with and what lengths they'll go to shut out the competition.
Brother Brontë by Fernando A. Flores (February 11th)
Just over a decade from now, the town of Three Rivers, Texas was once prosperous, but now it's a wasteland. It's ruled by an authoritarian mayor who's outlawed reading and forced mothers to work in a cannery that's polluting the air. Two friends, Prosperina and NeftalĂ, have been hiding away books, particularly those of a mysterious author named Jazzmin Monelle Rivas. The well-read NeftalĂ has finally tracked down a copy of the author's last novel, Brother BrontĂ«.
After the town's authorities grow more violent towards its citizens, and the pair join forces with an eclectic group of citizens and rebels to rise up and retake the city, all the while figuring out what connection Rivas had to their their home.
Kirkus Reviews awarded the book a starred review, saying "This is a wild ride of a novel, and a fascinating look at a future that, sadly, seems frighteningly plausible."
Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed (February 25th)
Another entry from my "most anticipated" list from earlier this year: regular readers know that I've been a huge fan of Star Wars: Andor, and I've sort of been waiting for the books to start exploring this same period around the series.
Mask of Fear is the first entry in a new trilogy set during the early years of the Galactic Empire, this installment follows Mon Mothma as she navigates the halls of power in this oppressive new regime. She finds allies in the form of revolutionary Saw Gerrera and Senator Bail Organa, working out how to move forward to build a movement that could one day topple Emperor Palpatine and his forces.
Andrew Liptak
Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers edited by Jendia Gammon and Gareth L. Powell (February 11th)
Authors Jendia Gammon and Gareth L. Powell have launched a new indie publishing outfit, Stars and Sabers Publishing, and their first book out of the gate is Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers, an wide-ranging anthology with an impressive list of names in its table of contents. Authors include Gemma Amor, Paul Cornell, Stark Holborn, T.L. Huchu, Ai Jiang, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Greg van Eekhout, John Wiswell, and many more.
The Black Orb by Ewhan Kim (February 4th)
A man encounters a strange spherical orb in downtown Seoul when it appears and sucks his neighbor up. Jeong-su flees, but it's unclear if he'll be able to escape the sphere: it sucks up everyone in its path, can move through walls, and all attempts to stop it fail. As it soon begins to split and multiply, terrifying the world, Jeong-su has to escape and track down his elderly parents to try and save them.
Kirkus Reviews says that it's "a bleak read that unerringly examines toxic self-isolation, both chosen and forced.
The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune (February 4th)
In 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything in his life: his parents, family, and his job. He decides that with nothing else to do, he sets off from Washington DC to his family's cabin in Roseland, Oregon. There, he finds a man named Alex and his companion, a 10-year-old girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader, and she isn't what she appears to be.
Faced with these new people, Nate has to figure out what do to next: wallow in his grief, or figure out how to protect the young girl from the forces that are after her.
Histories Within Us by Matthew Kressel (February 11th)
Matthew Kressel has earned quite a bit of acclaim for his short fiction over the years, and this debut collection brings together 18 of those stories. They include ones that follow people leaving their homes on Earth to reincarnation, escaping from a collapsing galaxy and unlikely heroes saving the world.
The Desert Talon by Karin Lowachee (February 11th)
Karin Lowachee continues her Crowns of Ishia trilogy (which she kicked off last year with The Mountain Crown) with The Desert Talon. In this alternate world, the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor have been at war for decades, and one woman, MĂ©ka, returns to her homeland after being driven out by the Kattakans to embark on a traditional rite: capture a king dragon of the Crown Mountains.
In this sequel, Sephihalé ele Janan has been imprisoned in Mazemoror. He was a fighter for the Kattakans, and he's sponsored by a family member and fellow refugee, and works to rebuild his life amongst the dragons that his people worship. That peace that he's hoping to find is shattered when a dragon baron who wants to use Janan for his own purposes, threatening to bring violence to his new home.
I really enjoyed The Mountain Crown, and I'm eager to dig into this one. The final installment of the trilogy is A Covenant of Ice, and it's due out in July.
Andrew Liptak
The Book of Atrix Wolfe: 30th Anniversary Special Edition by Patricia A. McKillip (February 25th)
Patricia A. McKillip is one of the fantasy genre's most acclaimed authors, and 30 years ago, she published The Book of Atrix Wolfe. It follows a mage named Atrix Wolfe, who used his magical abilities to end a war, but who ended up walking away from his practice to live amongst the wolves in the mountains.
Two decades later, the orphaned Prince Talis is supposed to be the savior of his realm, but he's not interested in that: he's obsessed with a powerful book of spells and the magic it contains. Talis is captured by the Queen of the Wood, who tells him that she'll return him to the human world if he can entice Atrix back in order to find her missing daughter.
To celebrate the anniversary, Tachyon is publishing a new edition, which includes a new introduction to the book.
Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin (February 4th)
The Folio Society has run out of the Song of Ice and Fire novels to produce (they're all very nice copies, too), so they've moved on to another book from the same world: Fire and Blood, the in-universe history of House Targaryen, set years before the events of A Game of Thrones. Like all of Folio Society's books, this one comes with original art (the illustrator this time is Audrey Benjaminsen) and comes in a nice slipcase.
One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed (February 11th)
Premee Mohamed's star has been rising, with books like A Broken Darkness and The Annual Migration of Clouds. Her latest is a collection of three shorter stories.
In "The General's Turn," an officer leads his men through the post-armistice world of East Seudast where they're supposed to collect bones and souls of their enemies to repatriate them â only to find that those soldiers aren't quite done with their fight. In "The Weight of What is Hollow," Taya is tasked with building bone-gallows for prisoners of war, which sets her up on a fight between her family and her oppressors.
The final story, "Forsaking All Others," follows an deserter named Rostyn, who has to escape form his pursuers by traveling through the little-known ways by night. When he's joined by another deserter in his grandmother's village, finding that some myths might be more true than he thought.
Dance of Shadows by Gourav Mohanty (February 25th)
In Gourav Mohanty's Sons of Darkness, we followed the devastating war between the Magadhan Empire and the Mathuran Republic. Senator Krishna and his wife Satyabhama to try and protect their home from annihilation, only to discover that their plans are being thwarted.
Now, an weak armistice has been established, but everyone knows that it could come to an end quickly. A Conclave of Peace has been established in the Tree Cities of the East to try and find a way to end the way, but everyone who's arrived â swordswomen, snakelings, princes, assassins, and apprentices â has come with their own agendas.
Writing in Grimdark Magazine, Will McClelland says "a great joy in Sons of Darkness is that Mohanty has taken the grimdark genre he loves and reoriented its eurocentric origins to center the Indian stories, characters, aesthetics and magic systems that lay at the heart of the plot and his world building. "
Halo: Empty Throne by Jeremy Patenaude (February 18th)
In this new tie-in to the Halo franchise, Jeremy Patenaude takes us to 2559 (after the events of Halo 5). The artificial intelligence known as Cortana has gone rogue and has taken control of The Domain, a construct in another dimension housing an information network. She has plenty of new Forerunner weapons in her arsenal, and is bent on imposing pace on the galaxy.
The UNSC has dispatched its flagship Infinity to launch a strike against her at Zeta Halo, while another mission is dispatched to a small human colony where they might be able to access the Domain. All the while, a new leader has stepped up to take control of the Banished, a coalition of alien species, providing a new threat to the UNSC and their plans.
Future's Edge by Gareth L. Powell (February 25th)
An archeologist named Ursula Morrow was accidentally infected with an alien parasite, and she worries that her career might be over. Her career does come to an end, but in a different way when the Earth is destroyed. She's one of the survivors, and two years later, her boyfriend Jack finds her in a refugee camp on a distant world. He's now the captain of a warship, and is on a mission: find the alien artifact that infected her. It might very well be a critical tool in the fight against the aliens that destroyed Earth.
Publishers Weekly says "the result is a page-turning adventure for sci-fi fans who donât mind tangled relationships and gruesome fights."
The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (February 25th)
This year marks the 20th anniversary of John Scalzi's novel Old Man's War. For that anniversary, Tor has been re-issuing the novels in trade paperback format, with all new covers. The first two books were released last year, and the next two in the series, The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale, are up next. The latter follows John Perry who's retired to a colony on the planet Huckleberry with his wife, Jane Sagen, only to have their pasts catch up with them, while the former retells the story from their daughter's perspective.
The next books in the series, The Human Division and The End of All Things will get their updated covers in August, ahead of the release of the next installment of the series, The Shattering Peace, which is out in September.
Andrew Liptak
Star Wars Legends: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn (February 4th)
Random House Worlds continues to re-release their back-catalog of Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. Timothy Zahn's Scoundrels was a fun adventure following Han Solo in the aftermath of A New Hope. In it, Han is still dodging a bounty placed on his head by Jabba the Hutt, and he has to assemble a team to perform a heist against the Black Sun crime syndicate. If they can succeed, the payoff will be enough to pay off the bounty.
Another pair of Legends books that were rereleased include Star Wars Legends: The Force Unleashed II by Sean Williams and Star Wars Legends: Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader