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Humans

Our pick of the best sci-fi and speculative fiction books for 2022

By Sally Adee

29 December 2021

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

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Benjamin Percy

Hodder & Stoughton

Not one but two sequels to The Ninth Metal come out this year. A comet peppers Earth with a new metallic super-ore whose discovery changes everything. Out in January and August, respectively.

 

Tochi Onyebuchi

Tordotcom

In the 2050s, space colonies offer refuge from a collapsing climate, but only for the rich. The rest have to figure out how to live in it. Out in January.

 

Edward Ashton

St Martin’s Press

Mickey7 is a disposable human who is sent to colonise dangerous new worlds, a job he is suited for because he can regenerate. After being lost, presumed dead, he meets his successor and they must team up to survive. Out in February.

 

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Adam Roberts

Gollancz

In the dystopian near future, smartphones have become sex toys and the hottest new social media platform grows directly into your brain. What could possibly go wrong? Out in February.

 

Peng Shepherd

William Morrow

In this dark fable, a young woman finds a strange map among her estranged father’s things after his untimely death. Deadly secrets and gothic-inflected speculative fiction ensue. Out in March.

 

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Lucy Kissick

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Lucy Kissick is a nuclear scientist with a PhD in planetary geochemistry. Her book about terraforming Pluto – even as native alien species are discovered – may put you in mind of Kim Stanley Robinson. Out in April.

 

Charlie Jane Anders (Titan)

Teenage geniuses in space. Book two of a fun, rompy, LGBTQ+ space opera series that blurs the line between young adult and science fiction. Out in April.

 

Alastair Reynolds

Gollancz

Airships, steampunk, a mysterious artefact and expeditions that keep going wrong. It’s up to Dr Silas Coade to figure out why. Out in May.

 

Oliver Langmead

Titan

An influencer comedy of horrors billed as A Clockwork Orange meets RuPaul’s Drag Race. The fun kicks off when nosebleeds become a fashion trend – and it sparks a vicious fight for credit. Out in May.

 

Article amended on 10 January 2022

We've corrected the publisher of The Cartographers

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