The best new science fiction books this month from Brandon Sanderson to Iain M. Banks

Are things slowing down as we approach the end of the year? Not in terms of science fiction publishing – in November alone, we can look forward to a hugely exciting new novel from The Power author Naomi Alderman, which New Scientist’s sci-fi columnist, Sally Adee, informs me is incredible. We’ve got previously unpublished work from none other than the mighty Iain M. Banks; meanwhile, mega-names Cory Doctorow and Brandon Sanderson are also treating us to new novels, and I love the sound of space-set Orbital from Samantha Harvey. Throw in new Star Wars and Saga instalments and it’s going to be hard to keep up.

The Future by Naomi Alderman. Alderman is the Women’s Prize-winning author of The Power, in which the world is reset after teenage girls develop a deadly power. We are promised “private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons” in The Future, and a handful of friends planning a heist that could mean the end of civilisation. Sounds good!

The Culture: The Drawings by Iain M. Banks. I was blown away when I first read Banks’s The Wasp Factory and met his unreliable young narrator, Frank. When I discovered, in The Player of Games, that adding an M to his name brought you a universe run by benevolent AI minds (with brilliant names: I’m thinking of you, Mistake Not…), he shot to the top of my list of favourite writers. Banks died in 2013 – this is a collection of his drawings from when he was creating the Culture universe, reproduced from his 1970s and 1980s sketchbooks, which shows the “ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language” he dreamed up to tell his stories with. I mean, I’d rather have a new Culture novel – but this will do nicely instead.

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson. I mainly know Sanderson from his fantasy – but he has an excellent origin story. With 12 rejected novels before he finally landed a book deal in 2003, his cachet is such that his crowd-funding campaign last year for four “secret novels” became the most funded publishing project of all time, raising an eye-watering sum of around $41 million. Defiant is science fiction, however – the final novel in his Skyward series, it sees Spensa travelling beyond the stars to save the world she loves.

The Lost Cause by Cory Doctorow. The always-excellent Doctorow’s new novel is set a generation from now, when climate change is a fact of life and millions work in disaster relief. As ever, Doctorow takes an intriguing approach: he looks at older people in the US who still believe climate change is a scam and asks what we do about them. In this case, they’re also “armed to the teeth”.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey. This slim novel sounds like it will be very beautiful and very special. It follows the lives of six astronauts in the International Space Station as they conduct their experiments and watch their silent blue planet. “I don’t think I’ve read anything else with such love for its characters and such clarity about the state of the planet,” says Sarah Moss (who is herself an author not to be missed; Ghost Wall, in which a father’s wish to recreate an Iron Age life turns very dark for his poor daughter, is incredible).

Jungle House by Julianne Pachico. I’m not always a fan of the “X meets X” formula so often reached for by publishers – but when a book is described as “Never Let Me Go meets Lord of the Flies”, I find myself compelled to read it. This follows a young woman, Lena, who has been brought up in the jungle by an artificial intelligence known as Mother while, elsewhere, rebels fight to take over the country. But what has happened to Lena’s friend Isabella, who used to visit with her security drone, but hasn’t been seen in years?

Saga Volume 11 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. This is the 11th volume in the incredible Saga comic series, in which new parents Marko and Alana are trying to bring up their child during a galactic war. It’s science fiction, it’s space opera, it’s – as the publisher says – “Romeo and Juliet meets Star Wars”. If you’ve yet to try it, obviously start from volume one, but do give this multiple award-winning and critically acclaimed series a go.

Mothtown by Caroline Hardaker. David grew up in a world where bodies showed up with wings and people went missing, but no one would let him find out what was going on. Then his beloved grandpa, who had been working on a discovery for years, disappeared. David, now 26, receives a strange package instructing him not to leave Earth, and a new world unfolds before him.

Star Wars: The Eye of Darkness (The High Republic) by George Mann. This new Star Wars novel is set a year after the events of The Fallen Star. It sees the Jedi out to break the Nihil’s control over the galaxy and to fight the Nameless creatures that are preying on their connection to the Force.

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