Here are 12 more SF/F books to check out this April

We've hit the part of the year where I'm juggling a huge pile of books: ones that I've started reading or listening to (Ray Nayler's Where the Axe is Buried, Alexander Freed's Reign of Empire: Mask of Fear, and Samantha Harvey's Orbital), a couple that I've been re-reading (it's so much fun to sink back into the Murderbot novellas), and others that I've been wanting to read that are staring at me from their perches on my to-read list, ranging from Mary Robinette Kowal's The Martian Contingency to Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed.)

It's a good problem to have, but sometimes, I'm dealing with a big case of decision paralysis. Do I pick up this one or that one? What mood am I in? Do I have an audiobook edition that I can listen to alongside it? Am I going to get stuck in the middle of this? It doesn't help that there's been a lot going on between work and life, and sometimes, I just end up doom scrolling through my phone until the late hours.

I'm making a concerted effort to toss it aside during the day and evening. I'm not always successful, but the more I can get a chapter finished here, or another there, it feels more rewarding and frankly, healthier for my brain. Even if it's just a handful of chapters that I can listen to while driving to work, I call that a win.

In case you missed it, here's the first list for April. As always, you can see prior lists via the Book List tag.

Okay, here are 12 new SF/F books to check out for the rest of April:

Parable of the Talents : A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy, John Jennings, David Brame (April 22nd)

A couple of years ago, Damian Duffy and John Jennings adapted Octavia Butler's classic novel Parable of the Sower as a graphic novel. The book has taken on incredible relevance in the last decade, in which she depicts a future where the country has descended into fascism (led by a president who used the slogan "Make America Great Again"), California is stricken with devastating wildfires, and chaos has infected the streets. We experience that world through the eyes of Lauren Olamina, who has some special empathetic abilities.

Butler followed Sower with a sequel: Parable of the Talents, which now gets its own graphic novel edition. This volume is set in in 2032, five years after the first book, and follows Lauren as she has to navigate through a country that has fallen further into Christian fundamentalism and white supremacy, and the community that she's set up, Acorn, has been invaded and its residents are captured and brought to reeducation camps.

Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold by P. Djèlí Clark (April 29th)

I've really enjoyed the books that I've read from P. Djèlí Clark: Ring Shout was spectacular, and I loved the alternate history he depicted in The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and A Master of Djinn. Last year, he wrote a YA novel, Abeni's Song, about a young girl named Abeni who was picked up by an old woman who trained her in the magical ways after arriving in her village with a warning that "they are coming," and sets off to not only learn, but save her friends and family who were taken.

In this sequel, Abeni saved them from the Witch Priest's army of monsters, but refuses to go home and help them rebuild their village: there's still work to be done. She's soon captured and imprisoned by the Kingdom of Gold Weavers, and has to win her freedom by retrieving an artifact, the mystical Golden Throne, or she'll be turned into a living statue of gold.

Kirkus Reviews says "Clark’s worldbuilding connects readers even more deeply to this mythical African-inspired world. The strong character development combined with the humorous elements will resonate with a broad range of readers."

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman (April 15th)

Griffon Keming was saved from an abusive family when he was adopted. They taught him how to live as a trans person, paying for his transition and loving him for who he is. But they have their own pasts, and faced troubles in their homeland before being driven out.

After their deaths, Griffon is moved to learn more about them and their pasts. He discovers his father's journal, written while he was imprisoned, and as he reads, learns far more about their lives, and understand their journey and what it cost them.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Most notably, though, Fellman paints a tender portrait of Griffon and his journey to coming out as trans, which he handles with real compassion and insight. This beautifully written, self-assured novel is a major accomplishment."

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (April 15th)

For decades, the Empire of Orrun under the rule of Bersun the Brusque has been one of peace and stability. But when that administration comes to an end, a race for throne's successor begins. Seven people – soldiers, leaders, strategists, and thinkers – have come together to compete to become the emperor, and when one of them is murdered, it's up to Neema Kraa, the emperor's High Scholar, to track down the killer.

Writing in Lightspeed Magazine, Chris Kluwe says that it's a "a fascinating book on multiple levels, the first of which was Hodgson’s command of description and tone...[and is] an absolute delight to read."

City of All Seasons by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley (April 29th)

Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley team up for City of All Seasons, a science fantasy novel about a city called Fairharbour, which has been stuck in a never-ending winter and another city called Fairharbour, which is stuck in a never-ending summer.

The two cities are in different worlds and are mirrors of one another. Jamie Pike lives in the winter version, and Esther Pike lives in the summer version, and both have to contend with their homes being taken over by authoritarian powers after the environmental catastrophe. They were once one city, and sometimes, their inhabitants can catch sight of their counterparts. Both Jamie and Esther have figured out how to talk to one another, and together, set about figuring out how to solve the mystery of what happened and then figure out how to repair their world.

In The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle says that it's a "a surreal and engaging magical fantasy from two talented writers."

The Saucerian: UFOs, Men in Black, and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker by Gabriel McKee (April 22nd)

Something that I've always wanted to write about is the weird relationship that traditional SF fandom has (or doesn't have) with other communities that are immersed in some of the same stuff, like extraterrestrial life. This new book takes a look at the life of one of the UFO movement's more prominent members: Gray Barker, who wrote extensively about UFOs over the course of his life.

Barker set up a publisher called Saucerian Books, which produced a number of books about UFOs, and in this biography, Gabriel KcKee takes a look at how he impacted the movement and subculture. It looks like a fascinating read.

One Way Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (April 29th)

This is the followup to Okorafor's Africanfuturist novel She Who Knows, and which is part of a series that sets up her landmark novel Who Fears Death.

The first book followed Najeeba, a girl who had The Call and sets off on a journey and becomes the kponyungo, the beast of wind, fire and dust. It's taken a lot from her, but she was able to make something of a normal life for herself afterwards. Decades later, she's lost both her second husband and daughter, Onyesonwu, who saved the world.

Only she and her daughter's teacher Aro know of her daughter's sacrifice, and Najeeba seeks him out to try and learn about the Mystic Points, the only way to get something that she really wants. He agrees to help, but to get where she's going, she has to confront her past.

Library Journal says that it's "a coming-into-power story that will be highly appreciated by She Who Knows readers or anyone looking for more set in the world of Who Fears Death."

Marvel: Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (April 29th)

Suyi Davies Okungbowa pens an adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates's acclaimed run of Black Panther comics from between 2018 and 2021. In it, the African nation of Wakanda is a free and prosperous land, but across the universe, there's another Wakanda: one that leads an empire that rules over five galaxies and oppresses its subjects.

A man ends up there and finds himself a subjecet of Emperor N’Jadaka. He's forgotten his name and how he got there, but knows that he has to fight for the liberation of the empire's subjects, and ends up falling in with a rebel group that calls themselves the Maroons. As the movement grows, people begin to wonder if he was the legendary T'Challa of the Avengers.

Fantasy: A Short History by Adam Roberts (April 24th)

For years, I wrote a column on science fiction's history for Kirkus Reviews, and one of the first places that I'd turn to was often Adam Robert's The History of Science Fiction. It remains an excellent source that takes a wide look at the history of the genre, and now, he's got a new book coming out about the history of Fantasy literature.

In it, Roberts traces the history of fantasy literature back to three big things: Arthurian legends of the 19th century, Christian allegory, and the rise of Norse/Germanic/Old English mythology, and then looks at how those influences brought about the modern genre that we know today, examining the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the explosion in fantasy that occurred post–Lord of the Rings, up through the modern day, all while looking at how the genre has evolved and transformed across literature, television, games, and film.

I've been reading this over the last couple of days, and I'm really enjoying learning from it. I'm looking forward to the rest of what Roberts has to say.

The Lie That Binds Them by Matthew Ward (April 15th)

Matthew Ward continues his Soulfire Saga with a third installment (preceded by The Darkness Before Them and The Fire Within Them), in which he introduced us to the Kingdom of Khalad, where a magical mist called the Veil has been consuming the land, all while the kingdom is dealing with a brutal power struggle. Kat is a thief who's been after one last heist that will settle her debts, and who found herself sucked into the war for Khalad.

In this new installment, the kingdom has come under control by a new authoritarian leader, and those who've been rebelling have been scattered. A folk hero known as Vallant has gone missing, and Kat now finds herself leading what remains of the resistance.

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig (April 29th)

I've really appreciated Chuck Wendig's horror novels like The Book of Accidents and Black River Orchard (both of which I've started but just haven't gotten to finish yet. Soon!) His latest looks like it'll be a lot of fun: five close high school friends are out on a camping trip in the middle of the woods in 1998 when a staircase appears before them. One of their number climbs up it, and before long, the staircase vanishes.

Two decades later, the staircase reappears, and the group decides to follow in their lost friend's footsteps to figure out what happened to them, and what that staircase leads to. Kirkus Reviews says "the book isn’t as overtly gothic as Black River Orchard (2023) or as propulsive as his techno-thrillers, but Wendig has interesting things to say about friendship and childhood trauma and its reverberations."

The Icarus Coda by Timothy Zahn (April 1st)

Timothy Zahn wrote one of my favorite SF novels nearly a quarter of a century ago: The Icarus Hunt, about a plot to transport a starship to another system, while evading an alien civilization known as the Patth, who had a stranglehold on interstellar travel.

A couple of years ago, he followed it up with a series of sequels: The Icarus Plot, The Icarus Twin, The Icarus Job, The Icarus Changeling, and The Icarus Needle, about Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene, who've joined a mysterious government organization known as the Icarus Group, and have been trying to track down an ancient technology. They're now on the run from the Commonwealth, the Patth, and the Ammei who controlled the portals.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments what catches your eye and what you've got on your TBR.

For subscribers: I'm going to be changing up how I do roundup posts for this newsletter. For a long time, I'd used this format to roundup recent posts and news about the SF/F world, usually pegged to a longer essay at the top. I've fallen out of the habit of writing those, but I'm going to start again, with some changes:

• Starting tomorrow, I'll start resending them, sometime on Friday. I'll be omitting the header essay – I don't want to get into the habit of having to come up with a take for the sake of it, but I'll include what I've been reading, recent posts, and a handful of links from the last week, with the idea being that it'll catch you up on the week's news.
• These are only going to go out via email. They won't hit the main page. I sort of want to get back to the practice of writing up a newsletter rather than a blog that gets emailed to you.
• I'm treating this like a trial or pilot. Let me know what you think of it!