15 new Fantasy and Science Fiction books to read in 2021

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (April 27)

Yes, it is a year of more Murderbot! Everyone’s favorite security droid is back in another novella from Martha Wells. Fugitive Telemetry is the sixth entry in The Murderbot Diaries, but don’t let that intimidate you: getting caught up with these relatively short books is a breeze, thanks in no small part to Wells’ hilarious and fun depiction of Murderbot as a robot at odds with their own feelings (though they would tell you they have none). That sense of humor even bleeds through on the back-of-book cover:

"Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it’s “one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I’ve ever read”) Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today. No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall. When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?) Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans! Again!"

Fugitive Telemetry lands on April 27 from Tor.com publishing.