The best new sci-fi novels this month featuring Cory Doctorow and Nnedi Okarofor

If you are emerging from post-holiday stupors in desperate need of fresh horizons and new worlds to explore, then I have some great new science fiction for your bedside table. We have some big names in the mix – Nnedi Okorafor and Cory Doctorow – and a real mix of genres, from literary adventures with Eiren Caffall and Erika Swyler, to good old space opera and even some romance.

And if you don’t have time to fit a whole novel into your hectic January schedule, why not dip into our selection of the best ever science fiction short stories, chosen for you by New Scientist staff.

Tipped by our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson as one to watch out for, this new novel is from the author of our brilliant Christmas short story, Abracadabra. It follows sci-fi author Zelu as she decides to pen a novel about androids and AI after the extinction of humanity. But as she writes, the lines between the story she is creating and reality begin to blur…

Emily also alerted us to look out for this in 2025 and it does, indeed, sound wonderful. It is set in a world where the glaciers have melted and the story’s protagonists have remained behind in a flooded New York City, living on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. Their task? To preserve the exhibits and artefacts. Caffall was inspired to write her story by curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect collections from war.

Another tip from Emily, this follows a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI in a city where, over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who sacrificed the most to found humanity’s last stronghold. The city is run by an artificial intelligence that rewards sacrifice, but when a brutal murder takes place, the AI erases the event from its data.

This eco-thriller features two parallel versions of its world. In one, Robyn’s father has died suddenly and a freak forest fire is threatening the Californian town of Destino. In the other, Robyn wakes to find her father is still alive and there is no sign of the fire. But she knows that in the first world, her own, it is still spreading fast and she needs to find answers…

This is the latest in Doctorow’s Martin Hench series, about the adventures of the forensic accountant. Here, it is 1986, and Hench is hired by a Silicon Valley start-up, Fidelity Computing, to investigate former employees – all brilliant young women – who have launched a competitor. He quickly switches sides after becoming more sympathetic towards the group he is investigating. But do they realise the depth of the evil they are up against?

Aerth by Deborah Tomkins

This sci-fi novella follows Magnus, who decides to leave his planet, Aerth, as it is moving into an ice age and with a strange virus infecting the population. He becomes an astronaut and travels to the newly-discovered planet Urth, but it is hot and crowded – and there seems to be no way home again.

Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente

This sequel to the Hugo-nominated Space Opera sees the return of the Metagalactic Grand Prix, a mix of gladiatorial tournament, beauty pageant, concert extravaganza and continuation of the wars of the past. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes finished 10th in the last contest and are preparing for the new one – the fate of the Earth is set to be threatened once again.

This sounds great – set on a far-future, climate-changed Earth, the novel follows three intertwined stories. There is a young boy and his sisters, who wake to find themselves alone in an abandoned fishing village and set out across the wilderness to find their people. There is also their mother, who has been captured by raiders and, separately, a young scholar at the centre of power who must decide who to support.

I have yet to read this so can’t vouch for how much science fiction lies within, but it is pitched as “a horror story and a meditation on love at the end of the world”, so I’m hoping it shades into the post-apocalyptic as it sounds great. It is set in “a place and time unknown”, where two elderly sisters live a secluded life in a walled garden – until a nameless boy is found hiding in their retreat and the outside world begins to intrude.

In this slice of space opera from filmmaker Josh Mendoza, a has-been detective is framed for murder. As he tries to clear his name, he finds he is being hunted by “a cabal of interdimensional invaders”.

A slice of sci-fi romance to round out January? Don’t mind if I do. This follows romance author Jenni, who returns to the childhood beach home where she used to spend her summers, and where her best friend Timmy disappeared. Today, 30 years on, a boy emerges from the sea. His name is Timmy, he says; he is out to save the world. And there are terrors in the deep…