Welcome to the first Track of Words guest post of 2022 – today I’m joined by science fiction author Michael Mammay, who’s here to talk about debut SF novels coming out this year. If you’re on the lookout for some great new reads, this is the article for you! Michael’s Planetside series comes highly recommended, and his latest novel The Misfit Soldier is due out from Harper Voyager in February 2022! If you’re on Twitter and you don’t already follow Michael, I would strongly recommend you do – he’s a really positive presence, and a great advocate for SF, so enjoy reading his guest post and then check him out on Twitter!
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Michael Mammay: I like to find new authors. Every year, I try to make a point to read a lot (or all) of the debut science fiction that major publishers put out. Why debut? A few reasons, I guess. First off, there really aren’t that many debuts in science fiction each year, so it’s not an impossible task. Second, I like to discover new things and tell people about them. And third, it’s really hard to be a debut author in the SF genre, and I figure they can use all the help they can get.
This year, I figured I’d share some of the debut books I’m looking forward to reading. My methodology was simple: If I know about it, I’m putting it on the list. I reached out to a few editors and agents who tend to produce these things and asked them what they had coming. Plus, people tend to tell me about these things. Not everybody. But enough where I usually have a good feel for what’s happening. With that said, it’s not a comprehensive list.
Major publishers tend to make things known well in advance, but it can be a lot harder to keep track of all the small presses putting out books (and there are a lot of them putting out great SF.) So if you’ve got a debut coming, feel free to drop it in the comments or let me know on Twitter.
I’m going to try to do this by month of release. Note that these are projected dates, and the later they are in the year, the more likely they are to change. Supply chain blah blah blah. It happens.
January
Deep Dive by Ron Walters (Angry Robot)
From the publisher: Still reeling from the failure of his last project, videogame developer Peter Banuk is working hard to ensure his next game doesn’t meet the same fate. He desperately needs a win, not only to save his struggling company, but to justify the time he’s spent away from his wife and daughters.
So when Peter’s tech-genius partner offers him the chance to beta-test a new state-of-the-art virtual reality headset, he jumps at it. But something goes wrong during the trial, and Peter wakes to find himself trapped in an eerily familiar world where his children no longer exist.
As the lines between the real and virtual worlds begin to blur, Peter is forced to reckon with what truly matters to him. But can he escape his virtual prison before he loses his family forever?
My thoughts: I’ve already read this one, thanks to an advance copy from Angry Robot, and it’s great. (One of the best perks of being a published writer is that people send you free books.) It’s a near-future SF where a video game developer gets caught in a VR world, and he can’t really tell one world from the other. The tension is great throughout, and the book takes off right from the start. There’s a scene in the third chapter that literally gave me chills. This is a fast, exciting read.
Order* Deep Dive – also available as an audiobook
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (William Morrow)
From the publisher: In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.
Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resilience of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.
My thoughts: This is the rarest of all, the hard-cover SF debut. On top of that, it’s also from William Morrow books, who don’t dip their feet into SF all that often. I expect this will be on the more literary side of the genre and will be something that we’re talking about come awards season.
With that said, I’m personally probably not going to read it right away. I’m just not in the mood to read about viruses in early 2022. It’s the same reason I can’t make myself watch Station Eleven right now even though I enjoyed the book. But I will almost certainly pick it up later in the year, possibly on audio, where the book has a large narrating cast, including the great MacLeod Andrews.
Order* How High We Go in the Dark – also available as an audiobook
February
Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot (Angry Robot)
From the publisher: Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, a gunslinging, thieving, rebel with a cause, doesn’t give a damn about them and she hasn’t looked back since abandoning her faction three years ago.
That is, until her former faction sends her a message: return what she stole from them, or they’ll kill her twin sister.
Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister – but for once she’s not alone. She has help from her network of resistance contacts, her taser-wielding librarian girlfriend, and a mysterious bounty hunter.
If Rig fails and her former faction finds what she stole from them, trillions of lives will be lost–including her sister’s. But if she succeeds, she might just pull the whole damn faction system down around their ears. Either way, she’s going to do it with panache and pizzazz.
My thoughts: The tag line for this book is ‘Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space.’ Add to that the fact that it has a blurb from K. Eason, who is a friend and one of my favorite writers, and honestly, I couldn’t be anymore here for this. I’m all in. This is a must read for me.
March
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong (Angry Robot)
From the publisher: Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job, and when the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.
My thoughts: This is another Angry Robot debut, which is sort of becoming a theme, and makes me think that I should have reached out to their publicist and this post would have been a lot easier. As far as the book goes, you had me at crime boss and resort-casino. I love that kind of thing, and setting it in space is even better. This is 100% on my list to read.
Pre-order The Circus Infinite*
Space Corps: A Military SF Series by Ian Schwartz (Aethon Books)
From the publisher: At first, it’s a dream come true. Jonathan Blake, a young revolutionary hero, is assigned command of humanity’s first FTL-capable scout ship. But when the Space Corps mysteriously loses contact with an outpost beyond the Solar System, the dream becomes a nightmare.
The love of Blake’s life lives on the outpost with their child…
Racing to rescue his family, Blake and his comrades are captured by the Octos, interstellar slave drivers who force them to fight other sentients in shapeshifting, memory-erasing arenas. To survive these terrors, Blake must learn to work with his crew, as well as alien gladiators from across the galaxy. If he refuses to fight, Blake’s family—held hostage—will be slaughtered.
But as Blake discovers his talent for survival, he likewise uncovers his worst fears: the Octos are launching an armada to enslave Earth. Blake must therefore choose. Will he rescue his family, or abandon them to warn Earth’s new revolutionary government about annihilation?
My thoughts: This is one of the only indie books I’ve got listed, even though indies will likely make up the majority of debuts for the year. Thanks to publisher Rhett Bruno of Aethon Books for getting me the information. One of the great things about indies is that you can often pick the first book up at a discount, and this one is no exception. You can pre-order it on kindle for 99 cents, and knowing Aethon, you’ll likely be able to add audio to that at a discount as well. So it’s low risk, high reward. You check it out for a dollar and if you like it, you’ve got two more books coming behind it. I will personally be checking out several indie SF books during the year, and this is likely to be one of them.
April
Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji (DAW Books)
From the publisher: It’s been over a century since three generation ships escaped an Earth dominated by artificial intelligence in pursuit of a life on a distant planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Now, it’s nearly Braking Day, when the ships will begin their long-awaited descent to their new home.
Born on the lower decks of the Archimedes, Ravi Macleod is an engineer-in-training, set to be the first of his family to become an officer in the stratified hierarchy aboard the ship. While on a routine inspection, Ravi sees the impossible: a young woman floating, helmetless, out in space. And he’s the only one who can see her.
As his visions of the girl grow more frequent, Ravi is faced with a choice: secure his family’s place among the elite members of Archimedes’ crew or risk it all by pursuing the mystery of the floating girl. With the help of his cousin, Boz, and her illegally constructed AI, Ravi must investigate the source of these strange visions and uncovers the truth of the Archimedes’ departure from Earth before Braking Day arrives and changes everything about life as they know it.
My thoughts: I love me a generation ship book, and I’m excited for this one. I have it loaded up on my kindle and have already started it (I got a free copy from the author’s agent.) The book already has blurbs from Jack Campbell and Dan Moren, and I love books by both of them, so I’m feeling really positive about it.
The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport (Harper Voyager)
From the publisher: The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.
The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered.
For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her.
Who trained her to keep that a secret.
But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.
Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials—a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that—if found out—would subject her to execution…or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather…and then she needs to kill them.
Mareen has been at peace for a long time…
Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.
Magic and technology converge in the first part of this stunning debut duology, where loyalty to oneself—and one’s blood—is more important than anything.
My thoughts: I’ve known about this book for a long time, because I know the author (she is on a panel with me at TBRCon in a few weeks) and it’s edited by David Pomerico, at Harper Voyager, who edited my Planetside series and The Misfit Soldier. But for whatever reason, I thought it was fantasy. I think because of the primacy of the character on the cover holding a knife. I was still going to read it. But now I see that it’s a fantasy-SF blend, and now I’m bumping it up on my list to the point where I might secure myself an early copy…turns out, I know some people who could probably make that happen. I love fantasy SF blends like The Fifth Season and Gideon the Ninth. Plus, it’s a duology, which is my favorite form of series. I have commitment issues, so trilogies can be hard. Two books is the perfect number.
The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe (Harper Voyager)
From the publisher: Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.
That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.
Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in the first place—The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.
My thoughts: This is a bit different from the rest in that it is a collection of short stories and not a novel, but given that it’s from a major publisher and that the author is a bonafide celebrity making her first foray into the literary world, it seems prudent to include it here. I can’t wait to check it out.
Pre-order* The Memory Librarian – also available as an audiobook
May
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings (Solaris)
From the publisher: Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down in a strange rift in deep space, with little chance of rescue—until they encounter the research vessel Gallion, which claims to be from 152 years in the future.
The Gallion’s chief engineer Uma Ozakka has always been fascinated with the past, especially the tale of the Fortunate Five, who ended the war with the Felen. When the Gallion rescues a run-down junk freighter, Ozakka is shocked to recognize the Five’s legendary ship—and the Five’s famed leader, Eldric Leesongronski, among the crew.
But nothing else about Leesongronski and his crewmates seems to match up with the historical record. With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake…
My thoughts: I read this a couple months back (I got a free copy from the publisher) and really enjoyed it. It has accidental time travel, which makes the first couple chapters a bit confusing, but it’s worth it. The characters are just so good. When asked who my favorite character was, all I could say was “all of them”. I legitimately liked every point of view in the book.
Pre-order Under Fortunate Stars*
June
The Sleepless by Victor Manibo (Erewhon Books)
From the publisher: A mysterious pandemic causes a quarter of the world to permanently lose the ability to sleep—without any apparent health implications. The outbreak creates a new class of people who are both feared and ostracized, most of whom optimize their extra hours to earn more money.
Jamie Vega, a journalist at C+P Media, is one of the Sleepless. When his boss dies in a suicidal overdose, Jamie doesn’t buy this too-convenient explanation—especially given its suspicious timing during a controversial merger—and investigates. But everything goes awry when Jamie discovers that he was the last person who saw Simon alive, and realizes that he has no memory of that night. Not only do the police suspect him, Jamie can’t account for the lost time, and the memory loss may have to do with how he became Sleepless: not naturally, but by biohacking his body through a risky and illegal process.
As Jamie delves deeper into Simon’s final days, he tangles with extremist organizations and powerful corporate interests, and must confront past traumas and the unforeseen consequences of biohacking himself. But he soon faces the most dangerous decision of all, as he uncovers a terrifying truth about Sleeplessness that imperils him—and all of humanity.
My thoughts: I just learned about this one from the writer’s agent, so I haven’t seen much about it other than this description. But I love SF mystery, and this seems to be that. I’m in.
July
Wake of War by Zac Topping (Tor/Forge)
From the publisher: The United States of America is a crumbling republic. With the value of the dollar imploding, the government floundering, and national outrage and resentment growing by the hour, a rebellion has caught fire. The Revolutionary Front, led by Joseph Graham, has taken control of Salt Lake City.
In a nation where opportunity is sequestered behind the gilded doors of the rich and powerful, joining the Army seemed like James Trent’s best option. He just never thought he’d see combat. Now Trent finds himself on the front lines fighting for something he doesn’t even know if he believes in. Destroying innocent lives wasn’t what he signed on for, and he can feel himself slipping away with every casualty.
Sharpshooter Sam Cross was just fourteen when American soldiers gunned down her parents and forced her brother into conscription. Now, five years later, retribution feels like her only option to stitch the wound of her past. She has accepted Joseph Graham’s offer to be his secret weapon. His Reaper in the Valley. But retribution always comes at a cost.
When forces clash in Salt Lake City, alliances will be shattered, resolve will be tested, and when the dust clears nobody will be able to lie to themselves, or be lied to, again.
My thoughts: I don’t think there are review copies of this out yet, because if there were, I’m sure someone would have sent it to me by now. It’s not every day that Tor/Forge publishes a military science fiction book, let alone a debut. So I’ve got some pretty high expectations for this. Also, Zac Topping is a military veteran, and that’s something I appreciate in my military SF (though I might have a bias there). I’m sure I will read this before it’s publication date, so if you want to know what I think, follow me on Twitter, and I’m sure I’ll tell you.
October
Self-Portrait With Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka (Tordotcom Publishing)
From the publisher: Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.
That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgangers from parallel universes.
Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder:
Was there a parallel universe in which she was more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love?
A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?
A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?
My thoughts: I haven’t heard much about this, which makes sense since it isn’t out until October and doesn’t even have a cover yet. But from the description, it’s reminding me a little bit of The Space Between Worlds, which was one of my absolute favorite reads of the past year. We’ll see where I am with my TBR list this fall to see if I fit this in at the end of the year or wait until early 2023 to give it a read, but it’s definitely on my radar as something I want to read.
Pre-order Self-Portrait With Nothing*
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Michael Mammay is a science fiction writer. He is a retired army officer and a graduate of the United States Military Academy. He has a master’s degree in military history, and he is now a full-time writer. He is a veteran of Desert Storm, Somalia, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. His debut novel, Planetside came out in July, 2018, and was selected as a Library Journal best book of 2018. The audiobook, narrated by RC Bray, was nominated for an Audie award. The sequels, Spaceside and Colonyside are available now. His next novel, The Misfit Soldier, comes out on 2/22/22. Michael lives with his wife in Georgia.
You can follow Michael on Twitter, and check out his website.
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Thanks so much to Michael for contributing this fantastic post to Track of Words, and for putting in all the time and effort to research it so thoroughly! I don’t know about you, but I’m very keen to check out a lot of these SF debuts…my TBR list has suddenly grown quite considerably.
You can pre-order* Michael’s latest novel, The Misfit Soldier, right now – check out the links below!
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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