7 New Speculative Novels I Can’t Wait to Read This Spring

I’m a sucker for weird Westerns. There, I said it. And who better to write one than the queen of Southern Gothic fantasy? A crossover alternate-history thriller, THE RUSSIAN CAGE is the next story in Harris’s Gunnie Rose series, and it gives readers of the previous novels more of what they loved: a little supernatural, a little romance, and a protagonist who embodies the term “badass heroine.” New readers won’t have any problem entering this fantastical world, though, as this is a stand-alone novel. Highly recommended for fans of V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic books

It’s so rare to find a novel that hits every single theme I love in speculative fiction, but this one manages it. I also love it when I find an author whose IRL accomplishments perfectly accompany their writing, and that’s S. B. Divya (an algorithm and data-science engineer). But back to the book: my gateway into spec fic was cyberpunk-y technothrillers like NEUROMANCER and DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, and MACHINEHOOD fits right in with those classics. It’s a story about a society very much like our own, in which a labor conflict is brewing between humans and AI. There are prescient critiques of the corruption of capitalism and Big Pharma and a debate about humanity and what rights we should afford to those who aren’t human. In the author’s own words, MACHINEHOOD “begins with a small act of terrorism that grows into a period of global upheaval, [creating] a new way of framing the conflict between human beings and intelligent machines.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve recommended A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE, the first book in Arkady Martine’s outstanding space opera series, to casual or new speculative fiction readers. It’s a prime example of what hard(ish) sci-fi is capable of: the creation of a perfectly believable world in another solar system, a deep exploration of what I call “gray” characters—those neither good nor evil but somewhere in between—and a riveting look at one potential future for the biotech in our own reality. Martine somehow manages to plumb the depths of the personal, such as the definition of self and the flaws of memory, while nearly perfectly juxtaposing those issues with their societal counterparts, like city planning, fashion, and what a revolution really looks like. I cannot recommend this book enough, not just for sci-fi readers but for anyone who loves character-driven dramas.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I have an obsession (an unhealthy one, maybe) with horror and the bizarre, fun, and sometimes disturbing world of dating culture. So when I read the description of A HOUSE AT THE BOTTOM OF A LAKE, the next book from epic horror writer Josh Malerman (the author of BIRD BOX, the film of which became an instant cult classic), and it said “the date of a lifetime becomes a maddening exploration of the depths of the heart,” I knew it would land at the top of my list.

I have never related more strongly to a robot than I did to Murderbot, the socially awkward AI at the heart of Wells’s Murderbot Diaries novels. Murderbot is endearingly awkward and loyal, with a sense of humor that’s as dry as a bone and a totally relatable obsession with trash TV (yes, they still have trash TV in the far future). It kind of reminds me of Abed from Community, to give some perspective. The series is a deep-space drama with fast-paced action that’ll keep you engaged and, again, the most delightful AI to keep you laughing. FUGITIVE TELEMETRY is the next installment, but it stands alone, so new readers can easily enter Murderbot’s world.

Lovers of epic fantasy have long searched for their next breakout series now that the TV version of Game of Thrones has finished and the book series is on indefinite hiatus—so when the godfather of the genre, Brandon Sanderson, tells you that a new book is an “excellent fantasy debut,” you read it. That’s exactly what happened with THE KINGDOM OF LIARS, the first installment in Nick Martell’s Legend of the Mercenary King series. The second book is nothing short of a master class in immersive worldbuilding and multiperspective storytelling (à la A Song of Ice and Fire). Epic fantasy fans need to grab it ASAP.

Kazuo Ishiguro is a pioneer in genre-bending. From THE REMAINS OF THE DAY to NEVER LET ME GO, his complex and often melancholic characters drive his exceptional stories, regardless of setting and time. It’s been a while since he’s graced us with a new book, so KLARA AND THE SUN is at the top of my TBR list. From the book’s description, I have to wonder how much Ishiguro loves Toy Story. The narrator is an “Artificial Friend” who watches passersby and customers from her place in a toy store. In addition to what I suspect will be an incredible protagonist, the plot itself sounds like a deep and poignant exploration of being chosen, of finding love. Will I cry as much as I did during Wall-E? We’ll see.