The best science fiction this year is not about spaceships. It is about cameras, contracts and what we do to each other when the technology permits it. From a resurrected Neanderthal reality show to a mostly-dead body piloted across America as a tech demo, these 6 books are the genre at its sharpest. Trailers included with every preview.
Quick picks:
- The Shadows Tomorrow by Noëlle Michel: our preview + trailer
- Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky: our preview + trailer
- Them by W.H. Chizmar: our preview + trailer
How we picked
Every book here lives on the Curatsy Bookshelf, our library of the 120 most talked-about new books, each with a full preview and an original thirty-second cinematic trailer. For this list we weighed reader buzz, author track record and how hard the premise refuses to leave your head. We only feature books we would hand to a friend.
1. The Shadows Tomorrow by Noëlle Michel
The cameras were never pointed at the real experiment.
Neanderthals brought back to life and turned into a hit reality show. The cameras were never pointed at the real experiment.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on Amazon2. Green City Wars by Adrian Tchaikovsky
And the best detective in town is a raccoon.
Bioengineered animals run a future city's underworld and the best detective in town is a raccoon. Biopunk noir with teeth.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on Amazon3. Them by W.H. Chizmar
Before the fall, nobody listened. After it, nobody is left to.
Dual timelines bracket an alien apocalypse: the hubris before the fall and one survivor a decade after.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on Amazon4. The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus
The further she travels, the darker the truth waiting at the end.
Space horror built around a young girl's epic quest toward a dark truth.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on Amazon5. Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
Her new job: piloting a mostly-dead body across America.
A streamer pilots a mostly-dead body coast to coast as a tech demo. It goes exactly as well as that sounds.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on Amazon6. The Compound by Aisling Rawle
The cameras never blink. And nobody remembers where the door was.
Twenty strangers, a desert mansion, tasks and rewards and exits that quietly disappear. Reality TV as dystopia.
Read our full preview and watch the trailer →
→ Get it on AmazonKeep browsing
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