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Spring is in the air and new books are hitting the shelves! It’s time for another monthly round-up of science fiction and fantasy books coming out in the immediate future.
While 2023 has already been a very solid year for genre books, April might be one of the most exciting months yet. It is absolutely packed with new fantasy and sci-fi books, including some huge releases, sequels years in the making, and exciting debuts. It will also see the release of Brandon Sanderson’s second Secret Project novel, and as such we must give an obligatory spoiler warning in case you’re one of those people who is trying to go into the Secret Projects totally blind.
Here are 10 books we’re excited to inhale this month. Hear that sound? It’s your TBR trembling in terror because of how much heavier it’s about to get. Let’s get reading!
PARADISE-1 by David Wellington (Red Space #1) — April 4
We begin in the depths of space with Paradise-1, a sci-fi horror novel from author David Wellington. It’s the first of a new trilogy called Red Space, which sounds like a perfect fit for fans of deep space horror like Alien or Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time series. Here’s the back of book description:
Paradise-1. Earth’s first deep space colony. For thousands of people, it was an opportunity for a new life. Until it went dark.
No communication has been received from the colony for months. And it falls to Firewatch inspector Alexandra Petrova and the crew of the Artemis to investigate.
What they find is more horrifying than anything they could have imagined.
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ENGINES OF CHAOS by R.S. Ford (The Age of Uprising #2) — April 4
From the terrifying depths of space, we head next to a fantasy world embroiled in a bloody revolution. R.S. Ford’s novel Engines of Empire kicked off his new trilogy The Age of Uprising last year, introducing readers to the fantasy nation of Torwyn and the Hawkspur Guild family that struggles to keep it from collapsing in on itself. Industry rules in Torwyn, yet it is the Guilds that keep everything running.
Or at least, they used to. In Engines of Empire, matriarch Rosomun Hawkspur sends her children out across the land, each with different tasks deemed essential to maintaining the stability of Torwyn and their own illustrious house.
With Engines of Chaos, Ford continues his epic fantasy tale. Conall Hawkspur is trapped behind enemy lines in a dangerous land, unable to return to help his family. His sister Tyreta must set out with newly acquired magical abilities on a vital quest. And all the while, nefarious forces tighten their hold on the Hawkspur’s homeland.
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ONE FOR MY ENEMY by Olivie Blake — April 4
Author Olivie Blake is best known for her dark academia series The Atlas Six, which made headlines last year when it was announced that it had received a straight-to-series order at Amazon Prime Video. But even with the success of The Atlas Six and its sequel The Atlas Paradox, Blake is still churning out new works. This month she’ll be releasing One For My Enemy, an urban fantasy story about criminal witch families battling for control of New York City:
In modern-day Manhattan where we lay our scene, two rival witch families fight to maintain control of their respective criminal empires.
On one side of the conflict are the Antonova sisters — each one beautiful, cunning, and ruthless — and their mother, the elusive supplier of premium intoxicants, known only as Baba Yaga. On the other side, the influential Fedorov brothers serve their father, the crime boss known as Koschei the Deathless, whose community extortion ventures dominate the shadows of magical Manhattan.
After twelve years of tenuous co-existence, a change in one family’s interests causes a rift in the existing stalemate. When bad blood brings both families to the precipice of disaster, fate intervenes with a chance encounter, and in the aftershocks of a resurrected conflict, everyone must choose a side. As each of the siblings struggles to stake their claim, fraying loyalties threaten to rot each side from the inside out.
If, that is, the enmity between empires doesn’t destroy them first.
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UNTETHERED SKY by Fonda Lee — April 11
Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga is one of the masterpieces of modern fantasy, but this year she’s taking us far from Janloon and into a totally new fantasy world for her novella Untethered Sky. Lee excels at crafting intricate stories with highly believable characters, as well as torturing readers (in the best way) with emotional gut punches.
We’re expecting Untethered Sky to check all those boxes and more. And since it’s a novella, it’s a quicker read, although it still tells a complete story.
Ester’s family was torn apart when a manticore killed her mother and baby brother, leaving her with nothing but her father’s painful silence and a single, overwhelming need to kill the monsters that took her family.
Ester’s path leads her to the King’s Royal Mews, where the giant rocs of legend are flown to hunt manticores by their brave and dedicated ruhkers. Paired with a fledgling roc named Zahra, Ester finds purpose and acclaim by devoting herself to a calling that demands absolute sacrifice and a creature that will never return her love. The terrifying partnership between woman and roc leads Ester not only on the empire’s most dangerous manticore hunt, but on a journey of perseverance and acceptance.
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THE FRUGAL WIZARD’S HANDBOOK TO SURVIVING MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Brandon Sanderson — April 11
What’s that? You thought a month would pass without some kind of new Brandon Sanderson book? Not this year, my friend!
In April, readers will be treated to the second of Sanderon’s “Secret Project” novels, which he revealed in his record-shattering Kickstarter last year. This one is titled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook to Surviving Medieval England, and unlike Sanderson’s last Secret Project book, Tress of the Emerald Sea, this one is not part of of the Cosmere, Sanderson’s interconnected fantasy universe.
Instead, The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook is a standalone tale that trades in the sort of absurdity familiar to readers of of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Except instead of a galaxy-spanning quest, we have a time traveler who finds themselves stuck in medieval England with amnesia and an incomplete set of instructions for survival.
A man awakes in a clearing in what appears to be medieval England with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he is there. Chased by a group from his own time, his sole hope for survival lies in regaining his missing memories, making allies among the locals, and perhaps even trusting in their superstitious boasts. His only help from the “real world” should have been a guidebook entitled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England, except his copy exploded during transit. The few fragments he managed to save provide clues to his situation, but can he figure them out in time to survive?
Since this is one of Sanderson’s Secret Projects, the rollout is a little unusual. The novel will release in ebook on April 11, as well as in audiobook form through Spotify and Speechify. A physical release will follow in the summer of 2023, to allow time for all of Sanderson’s Kickstarter backers to receive their copies before the book hits shelves.
Sanderson’s first Secret Project novel, Tress of the Emerald Sea, will also be releasing as a physical book this month. The hardcover version of Tress will be available online and at bookstores on April 4.
THE BONE SHARD WAR by Andrea Stewart (The Drowning Empire #3) — April 18
April also heralds the end of The Drowning Empire trilogy by Andrea Stewart. This is one we’ve been waiting for. The Bone Shard War continues the saga of Empress Lin Sukai, the charming rogue Jovis, and the fight for the future of the Sukai Dynasty that began in The Bone Shard Daughter. If you’re a fan of big, sprawling epic fantasy series with inventive magic, deep worldbuilding and a surprisingly dark horror streak, The Drowning Empire is a solid choice.
Book 2, The Bone Shard Emperor, left off with a few enormous cliffhangers. Magic was returning to the islands of the Sukai Dynasty and Lin and Jovis had just fought off a bitter enemy. Most importantly, the book left us with some questions about what would happen next to Mephi, one of the most irascible animal companions to appear in any recent fantasy tale.
With The Bone Shard War, we’ll finally see how the tale ends. It’s bittersweet to say goodbye to a series like this one, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t dying to get our hands on it.
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THE BLOOD GIFT by N.E. Davenport (The Blood Gift Duology #2) — April 18
Another series coming to its epic conclusion this month is N.E. Davenport’s The Blood Gift Duology. Davenport’s 2021 debut, The Blood Trials, combined science fiction and fantasy in a unique way while telling a story about corruption, survival, and the lengths a person will go for vengeance. The story follows Ikenna, a young woman with a blood gift that gives her powerful abilities which are forbidden by the oppressive Republic of Mareen. The follow-up, The Blood Gift, will force Ikenna to embrace her powers for good or ill:
After discovering the depth of betrayal, treachery, and violence perpetrated against her by Mareen’s Tribunal Council and exposing her illegal blood-gift to save her Praetorian squad, Ikenna becomes a fugitive with a colossal bounty on her head.
Yet, somehow, that’s the least of her worries.
Her grandfather’s longtime allies refuse to offer help, and the Blood Emperor’s Warlord is tracking her. She’s also struggling to control the enormous power she was granted by the Goddess of Blood Rites…and come to terms with the promises she made to get such power.
Amidst all of this, the Blood Emperor wages a full-scale invasion against Mareen and leaves a trail of decimated cities, war crimes, and untold death in his wake. As the horrors increase, Ikenna and her team realize they must assassinate the Blood Emperor and quickly end the war. But the price to do so is steep and has planet-shattering consequences.
The price to do nothing, though, is annihilation.
War has erupted. Alliances are fracturing. And Ikenna is torn between her loyalties, her desires for revenge, and the power threatening to consume her. With the world aflame, only one thing is certain: blood will be spilled.
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FURIOUS HEAVEN by Kate Elliot (The Sun Chronicles #2) – April 18
Kate Elliot is a veteran sci-fi and fantasy author with more than 25 books to her name, and another one is about to be added to the list. Furious Heaven is the sequel to Elliot’s 2020 novel Unconquerable Sun, a gender-bent reimagining of the story of Alexander the Great set among the stars. The stakes are even higher in Furious Heaven, as Princess Sun is forced to assume the mantle of command while enemies close in around her:
The Republic of Chaonia fleets, under the joint command of Princess Sun and her formidable mother, Queen-Marshal Eirene, have defeated and driven out an invading fleet of the Phene Empire, though not without heavy losses. But the Empire remains undeterred. While Chaonia scrambles to rebuild its military, the Empire’s rulers are determined to squash Chaonia once and for all. They believe their military might is strong enough to defeat the enemy, but they also secure a secret alliance with a deadly religious sect skilled in the use of assassination and covert ops, to destabilize the republic.
On the eve of Eirene’s bold attack on the rich and populous Karnos System, an unexpected tragedy strikes the republic. Sun must take charge or lose the throne. Will Sun be content with the pragmatic path laid out by her mother for Chaonia’s future? Or will she choose to forge her own legend? Can she succeed despite all the forces arrayed against her?
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IN THE LIVES OF PUPPETS by TJ Klune — April 25
As cool as series are, sometimes you just want a juicy standalone novel to lose yourself in. TJ Klune’s latest book, In the Lives of Puppets, sounds like an incredibly inventive sci-fi story that could fit the bill if you’re into androids, found family, and reimagined fairy tales. Think Pinocchio, but science fiction:
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled “HAP,” he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio–a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: Can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful stand-alone fantasy adventure from the beloved author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.
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NIGHT ANGEL NEMESIS by Brent Weeks (The Kylar Chronicles #1) – April 25
We end our list with a big one. Brent Weeks made his name as a fantasy author with his bestselling Night Angel trilogy about the rise of assassin Kylar Stern. Those books wrapped in 2008 with Beyond the Shadows. Since then, Weeks went on to complete his acclaimed six-book Lightbringer series, which is set in a totally different fantasy world. But with the release of Night Angel Nemesis, the author returns to Kylar and his companion Logan Gyre after more than a decade to give fans the next chapter they’ve been waiting for:
After the war that cost him so much, Kylar Stern is broken and alone. He’s determined not to kill again, but an impending amnesty will pardon the one murderer he can’t let walk free. He promises himself this is the last time. One last hit to tie up the loose ends of his old, lost life.
But Kylar’s best–and maybe only–friend, the High King Logan Gyre, needs him. To protect a fragile peace, Logan’s new kingdom, and the king’s twin sons, he needs Kylar to secure a powerful magical artifact that was unearthed during the war.
With rumors that a ka’kari may be found, adversaries both old and new are on the hunt. And if Kylar has learned anything, it’s that ancient magics are better left in the hands of those he can trust.
If he does the job right, he won’t need to kill at all. This isn’t an assassination—it’s a heist.
But some jobs are too hard for an easy conscience, and some enemies are so powerful the only answer lies in the shadows.
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And so concludes this month’s round-up of new fantasy and science fiction book releases! Which ones will you be reading?
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