Most Anticipated Science Fiction Books

Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian

There are a lot of great science fiction novels and anthologies coming out the first half of 2022. Check out some of the ones I’m most looking forward to, and place your holds now!

“It has always been Marca Nbaro’s dream to achieve the near-impossible: escape her upbringing and venture into space. All it took, to make her way onto the crew of the Greatship Athens was thousands of hours in simulators, dedication, and pawning or selling every scrap of her old life in order to forge a new one. She may have just combined all the dangers of her former life, with all the perils of the new…” This book got a lot of good reviews when it was published in Canada last year, and I’m looking forward to it coming out in the US this spring. 

“A circus takes down a crime boss on the galaxy’s infamous pleasure moon.” Ok, now *that’s* a story setup I haven’t heard before! This space opera debut looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

“A woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn’t yet ended.” Described as “Titanic” meets “The Shining,” this SF horror novel sounds like a very promising adult debut.

“After those with the means to do so leave Earth in a mass exodus to the space colonies in the 2050s, those left behind salvage what they can from the collapsing infrastructure and try to find purpose.” Onyebuchi’s book “Riot Baby” was one of the best novellas of 2021, and I’m excited to see what the author does with this adult debut full-length novel.

“Follows a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague.” This debut novel has gotten a lot of great reviews, and this is a type of story that I usually really enjoy.

“When their brother who has been missing for years suddenly returns, changed, Evie and Kass Shao must cast aside their differences to hide him from the FBI and an entire alien army who are in fast pursuit.” I’ve seen some very good pre-publication reviews for this novel, particularly noting Chen’s skill in writing characters you care about.

“A disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickey7, must keep his newly arrived clone a secret from the rest of the colony as the survival of all lifeforms comes down to him.” Described as “The Martian” meets “Dark Matter,” this one sounds like a lot of fun.

“A novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.” After “Station Eleven,” Mandel is on my must-read list.

“The Muungano empire strived and struggled to form a utopia when they split away from old earth. Freeing themselves from the endless wars and oppression of their home planet in order to shape their own futures and create a far-reaching coalition of city-states that stretched from Earth and Mars to Titan. But the old powers could not allow them to thrive and have now set in motion new plots to destroy all that they’ve built.” The first book in a trilogy by the noted Afrofuturist author. Everything I’ve read of  Broaddus’ has been excellent.

“What if there were a war after Armageddon? How would the survivors emerging from World War III’s radioactive slag heaps fight in this conflict? Would they wage it with sticks and stones . . . and sorcery?” I enjoyed the previous anthology “Weird World War III,” and there are some great authors in the table of contents.