The thing about science fiction is that whether it’s hopeful or fearful, and even if it’s about time travel to ancient pasts—it looks forward. It predicts and it wonders and it aims for the stars (or the center of the earth, if you follow the thinking of Verne) and it asks, “But what if…?”
Lately, I’ve decided it’s time to learn something from this approach to life, and the first way I’m going about it is by keeping up with the times—in terms of my science fiction novel consumption. Sure, I love re-reading The Andromeda Strain (Crichton) and The Snow Queen (Vinge) as much as the next nerd. However, times are changing. Bright, talented new writers are taking up the torch, penning science fiction novels for the first time with the intent to shock, inspire, scare, and awe the genre’s limited number of loyal readers.
It’s time to delve into new perspectives, and to wander down old avenues with a fresh perspective. To consider questions I’ve never been asked before. To learn about something I’ve never studied.
I can’t be alone in this conviction, and that is why I present the following list: five science fiction novel debuts I can’t wait to get my hands on in 2017. I hope you’ll agree.
1. Terminal Regression, by Mallory Hill
Amongst all the novels on this list, this one may be the most human, and closest to home for millennials. In fact, its author currently studies anthropology at Indiana University. This is its brief summary:
It is the story of Laura Bailey, a woman who can’t find any meaning or passion in a future world where passion is literally everything. She decides things would be better if she left—if she bought a ticket to oblivion, more or less literally. What she finds isn’t death, however, but a community of like-minded people who slowly begin to fascinate her, igniting, at last, her sense of passion. When those lives are endangered, Laura discovers what it’s like to have purpose, even as her newly-discovered afterlife begins to crumble.
This novel promises existential questions, romance, and the story of a young woman’s search to find meaning in her life. I believe we can expect a story that will make many of us uncomfortable, one that will leave readers feeling Laura’s helplessness and loss.
Terminal Regression was actually already released on the 17th. It’s available in paperback, Nook and Kindle form.
2. The Ghost Line, by Andrew Neil Gray and J.S. Herbison
I’ve got to say, this might be the one I’m anticipating the most. Maybe after reading its summary (see the link to Terminal Regression's summary) you’ll understand why:
One of the great things about SFF is the way literally anything can be repurposed—something Gray and Herbison know full well, as they gleefully ransack the story of the Titanic and every ghost ship legend ever told to spin out a dark sci-fi tale. The Martian Queen is a luxury space cruise ship abandoned and set adrift between Mars and Earth—but preserved in case the company decides reclaiming her would be profitable. Saga and Michel take on a salvage contract: if they can hack into and steal the ship, the payday would be enough to set them up for life and save Saga’s sick mother’s life. What they discover on board, however, is far more than an empty, drifting hulk. An intelligence has taken up residence, and their tale becomes one of survival instead of triumph.
Tell me that doesn’t sound sick. I love nothing more than disturbing, mysterious space intelligence (Sphere, anyone?). I have every reason to believe The Ghost Line will deliver suspense, action, and mystery. Also, the cover is beautiful, which is always a plus.
Its release date is July 11th. Like the first listing, it will be available in Kindle, Nook, and paperback form.
3. The Return, by Joseph Helmreich
In tone, The Return seems as if it will be much like The Ghost Line: suspenseful, intriguing, and mysterious. I plan to carve out a weekend for this one, as I doubt I’ll be able to put it down:
Like a souped-up, extra-epic episode of The X-Files, Helmreich’s The Return dazzles with a deceptively simple premise that houses a complex, tricky suite of revelations. On live television, renowned astrophysicist Andrew Leland is abducted by a giant spacecraft for all to see. He’s missing for six years, then emerges from a South American desert, denying having been abducted at all. He goes into hiding, and a cult springs up around him. Physics student Shawn Ferris is obsessed with Leland, and tracks him down, discovering that the scientist has been on the run continuously, fleeing a shadowy organization determined to learn his secrets. Ferris joins Leland, and slowly learns the truth about what happened to Leland, why he’s hunted—and what’s about to happen. It’s all delivered in a razor-sharp, fast-paced thriller style you won’t be able to resist.
The summary, I think, speaks for itself.
The Return is set to be published on March 14th. It will be available on Kindle, Nook, and in paperback form.
4. All Our Wrong Todays, by Elan Mastai
Most time travel stories focus on someone from our own timeline visiting the past, future, or some alternative that is usually dystopian or otherwise undesirable. Mastai’s debut hinges on a single, brilliant twist to the formula: the dystopian timeline is ours—the 2016 we all lived in for a year. Tom Barren lives in a world that’s modeled on the 1950s utopian vision of the future—jetpacks, flying cars, endless clean energy. He uses a time travel machine to go back to the 1965 invention of that energy source—and his presence causes the experiment to fail instead of succeed. Leaping forward, Barren finds himself in our present, and is suitably horrified at our backwards ways and feeble technology. He sets about trying to prove his story to a woman he falls in love with, and then seeks to set things right by building his own time machine. All the while, Mastai maintains a wry, crackling humor and dialogue that cuts sharper than a knife.
All Our Wrong Todays seems, to me, like it will be similar to our first listing, Terminal Regression; It guarantees romance, and the captivating premise sets Mastai up to make an unsettling commentary on our society. If that doesn’t draw you in—well, firstly, you and I are very different people. Secondly, you may be interested in its nostalgic yet fresh exploration of alternate realities and time travel. I think this novel with probably fascinate more non-sf types than any other debut on this list.
This debut hits shelves on February 7th. You’ll be able to buy a Kindle, Nook, OR hardcover edition.
5. The Space Between the Stars, by Anne Corlett
The protagonist of this listing is a woman after my own heart:
Fleeing an overpopulated, suffocating Earth, Jamie heads into space. When she finds herself alone and shattered after a long relationship ends, she flees to the very edges of settled space to work in isolation. As a result, when a virus strikes and burns through humanity in a savage near-extinction event, Jamie at first believes she is the sole survivor in an empty, silent universe. Then a garbled transmission draws her back to Earth, and along the way she meets scattered survivors. As they make their way to their ancestral home planet, however, it becomes clear that more than just people have survived the epidemic—all the worst elements of humanity have escaped as well, making their journey home one that’s as much about survival as it is hope.
So, basically, this woman decides to live alone in the middle of space after a bad breakup.
Me.
I can’t decide what it is that makes me want to read this novel. It might be my desire to get to know this character, and share in her journey to seek that which she has always fled: a place amongst other people. Or, perhaps, it’s curiosity about what the dregs of humanity, scattered across an achingly lonely universe, look like in Corlett’s imagined future.
The Space Between the Stars will come out on June 13th. Its available editions will include Kindle, Nook, and hardcover.
If none of these interested you, or I didn’t list nearly enough, check this out. Happy reading!
