The best new science fiction books for April 2026

I am currently reading an old science fiction book Mars is red by Kim Stanley Robinson and the New Scientist Book Club (it’s our April read). It’s fun, so any trips to the Red Planet are very welcome from my perspective, and I look forward to Charlotte Robinson’s fun. Mars One. In other science fiction this month, there’s terror in space from SA Barnes, some resurrected Neanderthals from Douglas Preston and his daughter Aletheia Preston, and ghosts in AI-generated videos from Max Lury. Something for all tastes, I’d say.

Mars One by Charlotte Robinson

This near-future thriller follows a one-way mission to Mars, as well as the disappearance of a Hong Kong programmer, who leaves nothing but a stark warning. As the Argo spacecraft heads for Mars, the crew realizes they have been destroyed. How are the two stories connected? Of Mars One the publisher compares this to two of my favorite books: Andy Weir’s The Martian and Terry Hayes’ spy thriller I’m a Pilgrim. I hope it lives up to the hype, as a combination of these two books would be a great read.

Claire and her lighting crew pick up on a strange sign and decide to investigate. They discover a luxurious spaceship that disappeared on its first orbit, 20 years ago – and discover again that something is not right inside the Aurora, with whispers in the dark and words splattered in blood on the walls. Fear in space? That’s my cup of tea.

This imaginative short story collection ranges from sci-fi to fantasy to fantasy, including first-person stories, a long-distance fisherman, and a new mind to see the wonders of the universe. It also contains the story of Mills The Rabbit Experimentwinner of the Nebula, Locus and Sturgeon awards.

This is a collection of stories posted on Game of Thrones of the author Wild cards universe, where the world has been destroyed by an alien virus with random effects: he dies, receives superpowers or changes in a mysterious way. With writers including Cherie Priest and Walter Jon Williams, the stories follow Croyd Crenson as he finds himself separated into six different parts.

It’s amazing by Douglas Preston and Aletheia Preston

It was pretty silly, but I have to admit I enjoyed Preston’s previous book Endinga Jurassic Park-ish thriller in which various long-extinct creatures are brought back to life to play in a zoo. In this sequel, written with his daughter, there are other things going on: an alien figure that “UFO researchers believe will change the world”, a zealous secret society, and some of the Neanderthals resurrected in the last book are not so enthusiastic. A wise man… I look forward to reading it.

This is the second one The Battle of the Hostages series from the author of Thim Expansion. It is a space opera, in which people fight to survive against the powerful Carryx empire. We follow the story of Dafyd Alkhor who was captured, and that of Swarm, an agent of Carryx’s enemy who intends to overthrow the government.

I am impressed by the tone of this novel, in which the conceit of science is used to explain the story of loneliness. Ada alone lives in London. When she meets Atticus, she feels a connection between them – but her separation from the world begins to grow, and eventually her relationship with the world and her body fails completely, and Ada finds herself in a new artificial environment, The Facility. Was it really created and made just for him?

Forever by Sophie Mackintosh

I really liked Mackintosh’s previous book Water Treatmenta bad myth created on an island surrounded by water that may or may not have been poisonous. It was based on sci-fi, although it didn’t quite get there, and to me it felt that way Forever it can do that. This new story follows Clara and Francis, who have been secretly in love in hotel rooms – until they wake up in an unfamiliar room. They discover that they are in a town where the only inhabitants are their fellow prostitutes, where they can live openly as a couple – but contact with the real world is impossible.

Event Horizon by Balsame Karam, translated by Saskia Vogel

Published by Fitzcarraldo Independent Press, which has a few Nobel laureates, this is the story of 17-year-old Milde, who rebels against the injustice of the government that expels mothers and daughters from society. After being imprisoned and tortured, he is given the choice of being publicly executed, or joining an experimental mission that will take him into space, and into the black hole known as the Mass.

This is a standalone story set in Stroud’s universe The Fractal series, opened in 2121 AD, three years after the first war on Mars. As the colony struggles to recover, vigilante-turned-rebel Magnus Sirocco is given a reason, Peter Iskander leads a religious mission and Commodore Ellisa Shann is drawn into a deadly game when a ship is stolen.

I loved the tone of this book, where Harlow, searching for her missing friend Annie, discovers pieces of the dead in AI-generated videos, while Kieran, also on Annie’s trail, discovers a community looking for lost ghosts. Its publisher promises to explore what new forms it can take, when new technology emerges. It may not be outright sci-fi, but it sounds interesting.

Metro of 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

This is the last novel to Metro trilogy, which inspired the Metro computer games. It takes place 20 years after the third world war wiped out most of the people, and only the survivors entered the Moscow subway system. Artyom is desperately trying to bring his people back to the light and is looking for signs of life above.

There are many by Sylvain Neuvel

This first-person novel sees five people in the small town of Marquette, Michigan, discover that their minds meet, when “something bigger and stranger than they could have imagined” begins.

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