There are those who believe that the finest adventures lie behind us, in dusty volumes and half-remembered tales. They are, we are delighted to report, entirely mistaken. The year 2026 stretches before us like a star-map of wonders yet uncharted, and the science fiction novels arriving upon our shelves promise journeys so extraordinary that even a sentient ship could scarcely guide you to more marvellous destinations.
Come, then, let us explore together the books that make this year shimmer with possibility.
Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds (January 2026)
Aboard the starship Halcyon, where thousands of souls hurtle through the cosmos whilst thousands more slumber in dreams of distant shores, there dwells a private investigator with a most unusual name: Yuri Gagarin. His ordinary cases of wayward spouses and petty swindlers take a decidedly sinister turn when a mysterious woman called Ruby Red engages him to investigate a death among the ship’s most illustrious families.
Then comes Ruby Blue, warning him away from the very same matter. Caught between these enigmatic figures, our detective finds himself entangled in a conspiracy spanning generations—a noir mystery dressed in the glittering garments of space opera.
Detour by Jeff Rake & Rob Hart (January 2026)
From the imagination that brought us Manifest comes a tale of astronauts who venture forth to Saturn’s moon Titan, only to discover upon their return that home is not quite what they left behind. Ryan Crane, a devoted family man who saved a billionaire’s life and earned himself a seat among the stars, must now navigate a world transformed in his absence.
What awaits our heroes is something altogether stranger than the cold vacuum of space. This collaboration between the creator of beloved television mysteries and the author of The Warehouse weaves a thriller that asks: what happens when everything you knew becomes suddenly, terrifyingly unfamiliar?
Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (March 2026)
In this gloriously reimagined Moby Dick, Earth lies in ruins and humanity scavenges amongst the stars. Life now depends upon spermaceti—a hallucinogenic substance harvested from the minds of vast Leviathans swimming through Jupiter’s atmospheric currents.
Our narrator, finding herself without funds or occupation, takes commission aboard the hunter-barque Pequod. With women cast in the roles of Ishmael, Ahab, and Queequeg, this neon-drenched space opera promises obsession, wonder, and adventure rendered in colours more vivid than any painted sunset over Neverland itself.
Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (March 2026)
The Children of Time series—winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series—continues with this fourth installment of evolutionary wonder. Centuries ago, a terraforming team, driven by vanity and spite, unleashed something terrible upon a distant world. Now, a research vessel crewed by humans, uplifted spiders, and a magnificently punchy mantis-shrimp captain rediscovers this lost outpost.
When scientist Alis wakes from nightmares to find her crewmates vanished, she must venture into planetary darkness alongside only Cato, her crustacean captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI. What did those ancient terraformers create, and does it still wait below?
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu (April 2026)
Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author John Chu makes his debut as a novelist with this extraordinary tale of quantum physics, generational wounds, and remarkably comforting dim sum. Ellie’s universe is unravelling: her mother lies comatose, her sister accuses her of insufficient heritage between assassination attempts, and a shadowy cabal threatens the very machinery that keeps physics functioning properly.
Named Best New Science Fiction of 2026 by New Scientist, this novel finds the precise intersection between multiverse mechanics and family dysfunction—which, when you think upon it, may not be so different after all.
The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang (April 2026)
In his training as a spy, Ro learned one essential truth: he would always be living a lie. To inhabit a Star Eater’s mind requires perfect psychic connection with the only species capable of mining the element needed for interstellar travel. When everything Ro believed about these magnificent beings proves devastatingly wrong, the consequences ripple across civilizations.
This novella—praised as “Pitch-perfect science fiction about linguistics and consequences”—explores what happens when we discover that the stories we tell ourselves about others are merely comfortable fictions.
Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer (April 2026)
Forty years after the world nearly ended, a worn-out robot named Be has found peaceful isolation in the abandoned New York Botanical Gardens. When attackers vandalize their person and steal one of their legs, Be must venture forth—accompanied by a cyborg dog and a human mechanic—to recover what was taken and confront evils both old and stirring.
For those who cherished Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot tales, here is another meditation on purpose, connection, and the stubborn hope that persists even in broken things.
We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune (April 2026)
A wandering black hole approaches Earth. In one month, everything ends. For husbands Don and Rodney, who have loved each other for forty years through highest heights and lowest depths, time has suddenly become impossibly precious.
Their final journey carries them from Maine to Washington State, through impromptu weddings and bright-burning bonfires, through those who refuse to believe and those who rush to meet their fate. Beneath ball lightning and a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, they shall look back upon their lives and wonder: was our best good enough?
Platform Decay by Martha Wells (May 2026)
Everyone’s favourite socially reluctant security unit returns. Having volunteered for a rescue mission—why, Murderbot cannot quite explain—our hero realizes this endeavour requires extended interaction with unfamiliar humans. Including children. This may necessitate the dreaded eye contact.
The mission leads to an unusual torus-shaped station circling a dead planet, where old enemies lurk and hazardous environments multiply. The Murderbot Diaries, winner of Hugo Awards too numerous to count, continues with all the sardonic brilliance that has made this series beloved across the galaxy.
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee (May 2026)
Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must conclude. When her long-time client retires, she plans to walk into the frozen wasteland with dignity, enriching her family through her honourable death. Then comes one final mission—and at its centre stands Martim, her last and worst apprentice, who has somehow risen to power.
The award-winning author of the Green Bone Saga delivers what she describes as cyberpunk samurai space opera: Akira Kurosawa meets Dune, starring a fifty-something swordswoman who has simply run out of patience.
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie (May 2026)
The Imperial Radch universe expands once more with this standalone tale set in the Temporal Location of the Radiant Star—a site of conflict and hope, faith and transformation. Amidst worsening food shortages, riots, and communications blackout, one man prepares to join the mummified saints, whilst a socialite discovers her comfortable existence upended and a young servant finds unlikely escape.
Ann Leckie, whose Ancillary Justice swept the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke Awards, returns to her most celebrated creation with a story of faith, politics, and the power of sacred places.
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim (June 2026)
When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind. One person enters their new country; the other remains forever trapped at home. Some instances keep in daily contact, hoping to someday reintegrate. Soyoung Rose Kang has not spoken to her other self since leaving Korea at age ten.
When her grandfather dies, Rose returns for the funeral—not knowing that Soyoung plans to steal her body, her life, everything. This debut novel, already acquired for television adaptation, has been called “one of the best debuts of the year” by John Scalzi. The immigrant story, as Junot Díaz promises, will never be the same.
Red God by Pierce Brown (Summer 2026)
The Red Rising Saga reaches its thunderous conclusion. After a decade of revolution, betrayal, and war across the solar system, Darrow’s story finally ends. Pierce Brown has promised this will be the longest book in the series—possibly requiring division into two volumes—and fans approach with equal measures of anticipation and dread.
For those who have followed this journey from the mines of Mars to the halls of power among the Golds, this is the finale we have long awaited. And feared.
A Plagued Sea by Kim Bo-young (August 2026)
Praised by directors Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, Kim Bo-young brings us a Lovecraftian nightmare from the Korean coast. A devastating earthquake unleashes an ancient plague upon Haewon Village, transforming victims into fishlike monstrosities whilst government lockdowns trap survivors with their horrors.
Bodyguard Mu-young arrived seeking refuge from one kind of danger; she found something far worse waiting. This tale of infection, transformation, and survival has been compared to Junji Ito’s most unsettling works—cosmic horror rendered with devastating precision.
The Infinite State by Richard Swan (August 2026)
In the galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire, life is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled—each day endured rather than lived. When Katherine Fuller inherits her late husband’s immeasurable wealth, she glimpses a dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world and build something better.
The first book in The Decurion Saga has been described as “1984 meets The Man in the High Castle”—a blistering examination of totalitarianism featuring, as one reviewer noted with particular enthusiasm, sentient murder gorillas.
And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer (2026)
For three hundred years, humanity’s greatest artworks have resided in the Greenwood Museum. When the alien curators decline to return them, Earth’s government refuses to press the matter. What remains? Guile, hubris, and a crew of magnificently underqualified misfits assembled for an intergalactic art heist.
There is Tarquin the leader, Tchik-tchik the insectoid pilot, Misora with her illegal biotech modifications, Jack the sentient synthetic, and our narrator Fennel Tycho—present not for expertise but for love. In a future of clones, androids, and sentient fungi, this heist asks: who is real, and what is merely copy?
Your Year of Wonders Awaits
And so we find ourselves at journey’s end—or rather, at journey’s beginning. Sixteen vessels wait to carry you to worlds where robots ponder purpose, where spies question everything they thought true, where lovers face the end of all things with grace, and where swordswomen discover their final contracts hold more complications than expected.
The year 2026 stretches before us, glittering with stories yet untold. All that remains is for you to choose your first adventure and set sail for stars unknown.
