Even more sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this May

Over the weekend, I headed over to Bookstock in Woodstock, Vermont, where I interviewed fellow Vermont author Katherine Arden about her work and her upcoming novel The Unicorn Hunters! It was a really good event: I hadn't attended it before and I'd sort of gotten the vibe that it was a more highbrow, literary affair, and wasn't sure what the reception for folks well-versed in SF/F literature would be. As it turns out, it was a good crowd with some great questions!

It should be a good time: Katherine actually interviewed me when I launched my own book back in 2022, and we had a good conversation about writing, genre, history, and quite a bit more. And: we'll be doing it again on June 1st, when she launches the book at Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vermont. You should come!

Okay: onto the rest of this month's books: the flood continues with another 19 new SF/F books that caught my eye. If missed the first list for May, you can read that here. As always, you can find past installments here.

Disneyland and the Rise of Automation: How Technology Created the Happiest Place on Earth by Roland Betancourt (April 28th)

I missed this when it came out back in April, but it looks like a fascinating story: a look at the engineering that underpins Disneyland's attractions, and how the company has put teams of designers to work making the park's attractions. They repurposed industrial and military technologies, utilized computers and implemented artificial intelligence over the years, finding new ways to make entertainment even more immersive for the park's millions of guests.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Betancourt’s text, supplemented by a plethora of archival photographs, charts, and other images, is sure to be an important contribution to future discussions of humans versus machines."

All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan (May 12th)

Back in 2024, Sarah Rees Brennan released her debut adult novel, Long Live Evil, about a woman named Rae who was experiencing some significant troubles in her life, and when she lies dying, she jumps at the opportunity for a second chance via a magical bargain: she's given the chance to live in her favorite fantasy world, and finds herself waking up in a castle and a kingdom on the brink of war, and has to figure out where she stands.

She's turned to playing the role of the villainess, thinking that she might be able to change the plot of the story she's stuck in, only to find that things are far more dire than she expected. Her friends have fled, there's a revolution brewing, and threats from all corners. And, her favorite character – the story's all-powerful emperor, wants to wed her.

Space Journal: Art, Science, and Cosmic Exploration by Dallas Campbell (May 12th)

I'm a sucker for space art, and this new book collects centuries of artistic works that explore just how we've imagined space travel throughout history, going all the way back to Galileo to President John F. Kennedy's speeches, to the science fiction films that imagined what we'd find out there.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, calling it "a treasure trove of space travel ephemera that illustrates the glorious feedback loop between story and science."

Squad Kill by Jack Campbell (May 5th)

I love a good military science fiction romp, and it seems that Jack Campbell has taken a break from his various series for a new adventure, Squad Kill. It follows Navy officer Osiris "Oz" Aquino, who's tasked with commanding a squad of Marines dispatched to an alien planet. The group is a mismatch of troublemakers, the scientists and crew don't want to be around them, and they've been issued old and outdated gear.

When they reach their destination, they find that there was some sort of inhabited life, with lots of ruined cities and skeletons. The only lifeforms are these cute aliens that the crew names Squonks. It seems like everything might go smoothly ... until it doesn't.

The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty (May 19th)

Shannon Chakraborty follows up 2023's The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi with a sequel, The Tapestry of Fate. In that first book, we're introduced to Amina Al-Sirafi, a retired pirate who had an exciting career. When a relative of a former crewmate comes seeking help, she's dragged back into that world to find her missing friend, only to discover that there's more to her disappearance than meets the eye.

In this new adventure, Amina thinks that she's found a legendary treasure: she had been hunting down rare and arcane artifacts for the Council of Immortal Peris, taking in the occasional adventure whilst squeezing in some family time with her daughter. When Raksh, a spirit that she's wedded to bothers the council, she's given a nearly impossible task: steal a spindle that can rewrite fate from a sorceress on a remote and dangerous island.

She sets off and immediately faces ill weather and enemies new and old, and finds that her mission is not what it seems. Writing for Winter is Coming, Ash Anjum
says "The Tapestry of Fate is a genuinely excellent sequel. The world is richer. The characters have grown in ways that feel true to who they are. The plot goes somewhere unexpected and leaves you desperate for the next book."

The Dorians by Nick Cutter (May 19th)

This latest horror novel from Nick Cutter is set on a remote island in Canada, where five senior volunteers are given a unique opportunity. They can have their age slowed or even reversed, utilizing an ancient biological agent harnessed by a new form of technology. The problem is that this entity has its own sociopathic tendencies that has helped it survive for eons.

Writing for Grimdark Magazine, Robert Mammone says "we live in an age of technological and scientific achievement. The boosters of these innovations tell you all about how wonderful their inventions will make your lives, while playing down the negative impact on you (cough AI cough) and your lifestyle. The Dorians, like its antecedents, is a striking reminder that the pursuit of science must be tempered by ethics and morality."

The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays by Andrea Hairston (May 26th)

Oona the St. Berdoodle and Zsuzsu, her owner, take a weekly walk through a local state park and head to a building called the Redemption Center – a place often mistaken for a haunted mansion. Oona isn't just a dog – she's a multiverse traveler, and when a when a local celebrity turns up murdered, she knows the identity of the killer. Teaming up with a local group of misfits, they have to figure out the mystery and avoid the killer from getting to them first.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, and said "Hairston balances a phantasmagoria of mystical and interdimensional elements with a cast of sharply drawn characters, creating very real-feeling people moving through a delightfully irreal world. The result is a lively and lovely tale of community triumphing over evil."

Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffman (May 12th)

A woman named Kelly loves to create stories and works for a an AI company based on Callisto called Inspiration, translating, artificial intelligence outputs into scripts to be produced. She based her most popular character on her ex-boyfriend Rowan, who is now smuggling inappropriate stories to their home Callisto.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "It’s an exceptional balancing of action, interior turmoil, and chilling dystopia. Readers worried about the future of storytelling in the age of AI will gobble this up."

The Rainshadow Orphans by Naomi Ishiguro (May 26th)

In this first installment of a new fantasy trilogy inspired by Japanese folklore, the inhabitants of Rainshadow City have been terrorized by a gang called the Lucky Crows. Three of them, Toshiko, Jun and Mei Kawakami have been living as a family outside of the law and are working to exact revenge upon the Crows after their "aunt" Reiko was murdered by them.

Meanwhile, Haru is the Emperor's son and will one day take over the Archipelago, but he'd rather be making friends with its magical spirits, and Theo has been conscripted into the ranks of the Lucky Crows. When Toshiko steals a precious item from the Crows, a dragon pearl, it sets into motion a chain of events that will bring each of them together, and will determine the future of Rainshadow City.

Writing in The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle said: "various plot strands see characters discovering magical powers, a mother dragon desperate to save her baby’s life, and a strangely helpful cat. Trope-heavy, entertaining fun, with a cartoonish vibe."

Trudeau & Doonesbury: A Biography: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News into Art by Joshua Kendall (May 26th)

When I think of my favorite comic strips, my immediate answer is Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County, but I've recently been gaining an appreciation for Garry Trudeau's long-running strip Doonesbury, and it's one that I'd like to start reading more of.

There's a new biography of Trudeau that might prove to be a great motivator for that: it's an exhaustive exploration into Trudeau's life and his comic strip, with his biographer Joshua Kendall interviewing him, his colleagues, friends, journalists, friends, and politicians about its impact and politics.

The Curve of the World by Vonda N. McIntyre (May 15th)

Just before Vonda N. McIntyre passed away in 2019, she left behind a novel that she had completed, The Curve of the World. It's an alternate history about the Minoans, who constructed a vast trading network and follows a woman named Iakinthu, a former bull dancer who's found work as the nation's lead diplomat and trader, who brings her adopted son on a traditional journey to visit his mother in a distant land.

Writing in Strange Horizons, Kate Macdonald called it a "magnificent achievement," and "The Curve of the World begins as an intriguing and dramatic adventure and ends as a rather over-egged travelogue of wonders. It’s so sad that we won’t know any more about the Idaeans, or their extraordinary alternate world of cognate nations and civilisations."

I Hear A New World by Alan Moore (May 26th)

Alan Moore adds a new installment to his Long London series (after The Great When). He started off in that book in London in 1949 when an 18 year old named Dennis Knuckleyard stumbles into a used bookstore and discovers a book that shouldn't exist. It's an artifact from the Great When, a magical version of London where stories have come together in a reality-blurring world. He realized that this world needs to be protected and he has to find a way to return it without exposing it to his world.

In this book, the action jumps to 1958. Dennis Knuckleyard has put his adventures in the Great When behind him, and he's spent the years since trying to forget about that world. When he discovers a key that he brought with him, he's reminded of his adventures and when he gives the key to a friend, it reawakens and brings some of the creatures from that world into his own, causing chaos in Notting Hill. A crush of his, Grace Shilling, is pulled into the Great When to investigate both cities, and Dennis follows her into Long London, where the two have to figure out how to make things right once again in both worlds.

Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler (May 19th)

I'm a huge fan of Ray Nayler's debut novel The Mountain in the Sea (Review), Tusks of Extinction (review), and last year's Where the Axe is Buried (one of my favorites of 2025!) and his next looks just as fascinating. It's about a young woman named Nerya who loves biology and befriends a flock of crows near her home, a Polish soldier named Czeslaw who deserts his post, a mute and abandoned boy named Innokentiy, and a Roma horse trader named Kezia, all of whom are facing the German invasion of Europe in June 1941.

They're each forced to flee into the forests and come together to form a deep bond, helped by Nerya's crows – who warn them of danger and threats in the dangerous wilderness.

This looks like a fascinating read. Nayler's written some of the best science fiction in recent years, with a deep understanding of European politics and history, and I think this'll be an engrossing and thoughtful read.

Learning the language

Ray Nayler on his fascinating career, communicating with intelligent life, reading and writing unconstrained, and our relationship with the natural world

Transfer OrbitAndrew Liptak

Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer (May 26th)

Decades ago, there was a catastrophic war that destroyed the world, in which a robot named Be has been trying to make its way. It's settled into what remains of the New York Botanical Gardens, trying to forget the role that it played in the conflict.

One day, it wakes up to find itself in a bathtub with its leg missing, and along with a vocal cybernetic dog and a traumatized human mechanic, it sets off to find its missing leg. They find that the world still has a long way to go before it recovers, and that someone has been trying to restart the fight.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "Palmer’s vision for how society might reshape itself after massive conflict is inventive, but where the tale truly shines is its captivating characters and the ways in which they’re willing to work together."

We Dance Upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel (May 12th)

A woman named Nisha is trying to navigate a convoluted existence: she's a reproductive healthcare worker in Chicago, and has been dealing with a flood of abortion bans and angry protesters, as well as her own depression.

To escape, she visits an Indian art exhibit, and finds herself suddenly bleeding and collapsed on the ground after she touched a statue. She soon finds that she has some strange powers, and those powers have begun attracting strange figures who want it for their own purposes. Now, she has to figure out how to exist in this new reality with ancient alliances and the nature of her powers.

And Side by Side They Wander by Molly Tanzer (May 19th)

It's been a hot minute since Molly Tanzer has released a new book, and I'm glad to see that 2026 brings a new one: And Side by Side They Wander. For centuries, the world's best artwork has been loaned to an alien museum, and when their loan comes to an end, the extraterrestrial curators aren't willing to return them to Earth.

Humanity isn't willing to force the issue: they're way outside of our league, so some enterprising folks decide to try and steal them. They're led by Tarquin, who assembles a crew including an art historian named Fennel Tycho, an insectoid pilot named Tchik-tchik, an enhanced fighter named Misora, and a sensynth hacker named Jack. Together, they have to figure out how to work together to pull off the greatest heist the world has ever seen.

This looks like a lot of fun, especially as someone who works at a museum with a lot of art.

House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase (May 26th)

A writer named Anaya Sebeya has gone missing after being invited to a writer's residency at the Günter Huis, an aging colonial mansion on the slopes of Devil's Peak in South Africa. She was a rising star in the literary world, and was on her way to completing the next great work from Africa, only to go missing.

In the aftermath, a serialized podcast about the Anaya debuts, purporting to tell the real story about what happened with her. Her sister Ranewa is angry about it, but as she listens, she begins to figure out an even more terrifying story of what happened at that house.

Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots (May 19th)

Back in 2021, Natalie Zina Walschots published Hench, a phenomenal read about a woman named Anna who was injured during a superhero fight and who ends up taking up work in the henchmen gig economy to exact her revenge, ultimately falling in with the world's worst villain, Leviathan.

Review: Natalie Zina Walschot’s excellent superhero novel Hench

Natalie Zina Walschot’s novel Hench is an exhilarating, funny, and pointed look at the cost of superheroes.

Transfer OrbitAndrew Liptak

Five years later, and Walschots is back with a sequel: Villain. Now known as the Auditor, Anna has risen through the ranks to help her employer out with a skillset that makes any superheroes think twice about crossing her. With her greatest enemy, Supercollider, now defeated, she's set her sights on a new target: The Draft, an organization that trains and oversees the world's superheroes. She recognizes the danger that they pose to the world.

But there are problems: Leviathan's frustrations that she dispatched Supercollider has caused a rift in their relationship, a friend and unexpected ally, Quantum Entanglement has reappeared and has prompted her to question their own relationship and betrayals. On top of that, they face a new challenger: The Draft's chief marketing officer.

Kirkus Reviews gave this one a starred review, saying "Walschots’ plotting dazzles and devastates, with rollicking, high-stakes action punctuating scenes of unflinching introspection and fraught interpersonal drama. Via Auditor’s snarky yet vulnerable first-person narration and keenly rendered characters, Walschots sensitively explores issues of agency, self-identity, morality, and grief while entertaining readers from the jump."

The Gatepost by Tim Weed (May 26th)

Twenty years ago, Esme Weatherhead's father vanished after publishing a book about how ancient Mesoamerican shaman used hallucinogens. She's convinced he's still alive, and when she comes across a cache of his notes that point to a hidden cave on their property in Vermont, she has a new direction in her search.

She hires a geologist named Lucas St. Pierre to help locate a cave, and when she finds it, the discovers an artifact left behind that leads them to a portal to hidden underworld that's accessed via the psilocybin mushrooms he was researching. When they follow, they find glimpses of this other world, and her father. But someone else is also looking for the portal with plans for harnessing its power, and they won't let anyone stand in their way.

Publishers Weekly says that "Weed does a nice job interposing the present mystery with Weatherhead’s research in both Vermont and Oaxaca, and balances esoteric mysticism with touching contemporary detail."

As always, thanks for reading. Let me know what's on your TBR, and what caught your eye this month!