Looking for a way to make it through March Madness? Well forturnately we’ve pulled together our top SFF Books for the month to help put a spring in your step and some Sci Fi into you veins!
From dystopian lanscapes and andoid futures to the intersteallar wild west and medieval magic, these books will take you on an adventure to new worlds so fun you’ll not want to return! (Unless you need another cup of tea that is…)
The Ten Percent Thief
Lavanya Lakshminarayan
28 March – Solaris
A story of uprising and quiet rebellion in the dystopian future of Bangalore (now Apex City), where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. If you have the right image, values and opinions you can rise above your station to the walk among the top twenty percent. A virtual elite, wanting for nothing, ruling everything. But one slip can have you tumbling to bottom, forced to live out your time as an Analog in a digital world, scraping by, forgotten and ostricised among the lowest ten percent. The system is perfect, until The Ten Percent Thief steals the fruits of the city and plants a seed of hope and revolution in the hearts of the oppressed.
An outstanding debut with a unique voice, drawing parallels with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, The Ten Percent Thief crafts an indelible image of a world that has lost it’s humanity, trapped by it’s reliance on statistics and devotion to technology and productivity. Told through a complex mosaic of interwoven stories The Ten Percent Thief is a new masterpiece of science fiction wiriting. This really is dystopian future at its best, a heartfelt admonition of covetous behavour that is inspiring, and hopeful.
Moths
Jane Hennigan
14 March – Angry Robot
A retrospective look back on a world that sucucmbed to a toxic plague, carried by the titular Moths, infecting every man and boy and either killing them or transforming them into maniacal killers. As humanty adapts into a matriachal society, the surviving men are kept isolated, and imprisoned for everyone’s protection and the world begins to move on. But there are those who still remember the old world and wrestle with the dichotomy between the rose-tinted memory of a bygone age and a new feminist utiopia.
Recommended for fans of Naomi Alderman’s, The Power, this new heart-breaking and confrontational new novel from Jane hennigan is thoughtful self-assessment of humanity’s perception of gender norms, it’s relationship with violence, redemption and it’s desire for reciprocity.
Beautiful Shining People
Michael Grothaus
16 March – Orenda Books
Decades into our future, humanity has harnesssed the power of quantum computing, with AI’s and and robots an everyday part of everyone’s life. Against a backdrop of a digital cold war, fought with deep fakes and cyber attacks, knowing the the truth and finding anything real is a rarity and genius teenage programmer John is on his way to Tokyo to make his fortune, selling his code to a global tech giant.
Alone in a new city, he seeks solace in a strange cafe run by a surly ex-sumo wrestler and soon becomes enamoured with the alluring waitress Neotnia. Between the flurries of their blossoming romance it’s soon clear that Neotnia is hiding a secret and John is soon embroiled in a desperate search for the truth that lead him to question his own relaity and takes him the heart of what it is to be human in a world ruled by technology. Set against a tech heavy backdrop Beautiful Shining People blooms into an emotional and soulful tale that reckons with the isolation we can all feel as outsiders and how a little bit of self love, along with love for another can change your world view.
Hel’s Eight
Stark Holborn
21 March – Titan Books
The follow up to last year’s Ten Low (read our review here), Hel’s Eight is a new chapter in Stark Holborn’s world of wild west interplanetary gun slinging. Ten “Doc” Low roams the wastelands of the desert moon Factus, a penitent medic with a dark past she is cursed by forces beyond death to remain a loner in order keep both herself safe, and others safe from her. But in the shadow of a rising rebellion Doc finds herself haunted by terrying visioins of the past and future deaths of long lost friends. She is soon embroiled in a desperate quest to right the wrongs of her history, searching for allies in a hostile world where a quick hand and keen eye might just save the future.
Vivid world building, pulse pounding shoot outs and etherial terrors, Hel’s Eight is perfect blend of action and story. Packed with more of the addictive and engrossing ideas that were first explored in Ten Low, Holborn’s second chapter in the world of Factus is the perfect literary fix for space western fans who can’t wait til next week’s episode of The Mandalorian.
The Sinister Booksellers of Bath
Garth Nix
23 March – Gollancz
Bookselling can be deadly, as anyone who read The Left-Handed Booksellers of London can attest to. The Sinister Booksellers of Bath is Garth Nix’s return to a fantastical alternate 1980s England where books are magic (or at least the sellers of those books are). This time, Left-handed bookseller Merlin is in grave danger and his right-handed bookselling sister, Vivien must launch a rescue attempt to save the the Old World from the sorcerous magic eminating from an ancient hot spring. Together with art student Susan, the trio fall down a rabit hole of ancient and deadly magic, living statues and murderous secrets that lead them on the trail of a serial killer with awesome powers.
Garth Nix builds on the sumptuous landscape of The Old World with a thrilling new adventure that tumbles through an alternate history of England. Fans of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London will once again relish being transported back into a whistelestop mystery filled with wit, imagination and intrigue.
Still not sure? Why not read our interview with Garth Nix here to find out more about the one of the masters of fantasy world building.
Blackheart Ghosts
Laure Eve
30 March – Jo Fletcher Books
We’re loving alternate history/fantasy this month and thankfully Laure Eve is here to take us back to a her brilliant cyber-punk world of Arthurian legend. Blackheart Ghosts is a neo-noir thriller packed with betrayal, sorcery and conspiracy where a disgraced ex-knight must battle a magical uprising to save a Bladrunner-esque vision of Camelot. Following in the footsteps of last year’s Blackheart Knights, Blackheart Ghosts is an urban fantasy that blends genre with bloody tragedy and noble aspiration, delving deeper into world that is loud, violent and a lot of fun.
Want to know more, read our interview with Laure Eve when we chatted about Blackheart Knights.
