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Science Fiction for May 2026

by Henry L Lazarus

May’s special book  in Fantasy and Science Fiction is Velveteen.

Seanan McGuire has been writing about the superhero Velveteen who can animate toys since 2008, Last year Subterranean Press published the early stories in Velveteen vs. The Early Adventures (hard). This year Velveteen vs. The Consequences of Her Actions (hard) has the remaining tales, including many that had never been together before. I’ve been in love with this weird series that can send our heroine into the seasonal lands that are permanently one season and into multidimensions that can change her and the rest of humanity into dinosaurs. Getting the full story with a “happy ending” was worth the wait. Enjoy.

Mike Kupari's tale of an expedition to a planet orbiting a Twin Star(hard from Baen) reminded me a bit of Forbidden Planet. The adventure starts on a settled world, Albion Prime,with a Victorian ethos. Twins Eddie(rich with no job) and Effie( an astrobiology graduate student)  are asked by their uncle to join the expedition. An ancient survey of the planet showed intelligent life and a recent survey never returned. The Armed Expeditionary Cutter Vagabond is hired for the trip. The start of the trip is rushed because the information about the planet is leaked, but the several stops along the way are pleasant with a dash of romance. I hope this is the first book of a series because I loved the characters and the universe. 

Cameron Johnston has a wonderful tale of a group of mage engineers working to put the First Mage on the Moon (paper from Angry Robot) in the middle of an endless war between various empires. They’re supposed to create rockets to land golems to fight behind the lines. Instead they slowly, through trial and effort, create a rocket able to land on the Moon and return. Using both magic runes, steel heated by dragon flames, and air elementals, they learn from their mistakes, somehow accomplishing the impossible. Wow!

Sunyi Dean sets her vision of Hong Kong in 1975 filled with ghosts solid enough to hurt people. Mercy Chan washed up during the Japanese invasion with no memory of her past. She works in the ancient walled city of Kowloon(now a park) for one of the triads that rule the city as a ghost talker. Then a ghost who fought against the Japanese, and was locked in a gourd when they lost, reappears and wants vengeance on Mercy. The Girl with a Thousand Faces (hard from Tor) can inhabit dead bodies making them seem still alive, and she doesn’t mind murdering Mercy’s friends in her quest. Very intense and worth some awards. 

Elbay City is a city-state ruled by a non-human in a place where spirits are used to create moving machines and the guild of Mortedants read the final thoughts of the dead, for money of course. Irody Hasp, perpetually poor unlike most members of his guild, makes the mistake of reading the corpse of a low level bureaucrat. His home is attacked and his apprentice murdered. He faces the Mortedant's Peril (hard from Tor) of being executed for murder unless he can find the real murderer. He is assisted by a non-human  member of the Sea Peoples, an Oaster called Whisper and the sister of his murdered apprentice. The corrupt, evil plan that is the basis of what is happening, is slowly exposed as are the many secrets of the city. I loved this tale, hope it finds some awards, and hope Irody has more adventures. 

On an icy planet of Aquilo, a colony cut off from Earth for five centuries, people retire by walking out the airlock, Specialized knife wielding Atiers work for department heads, with a contract to insure their principle will win. The Last Contract of Isako (hard from Orbit) has her contracted to stop a rising executive from ascending to the directorship of the company controlling the colony. Along the way she finds that an Atier she had mentored had died and his death hidden, a violation of code. But the secrets are deeper and the scandals worse than she thought. Fonda Lee has created an intense Science Fiction Mystery that should be nominated for an award. 

Ann Leckie won a Hugo Award for her series relating to the fall of the Radch Empire. For the people who worship the Radiant Star (hard from Orbit) living on Ooioiaa, a frozen planet drifting between solar systems, the cut off of trade had horrific effects. This is a tale of a city surviving when trade is cut off. Politics both help and hinder the efforts. This is an interesting tale.

Raine Stone has been hiding the angry beast within her since she was infected on a camping trip. It feeds on violence so she works as an emergency room nurse using the anger found there to feed her beast and stop it from a killing spree. She also walks the dark streets looking for violent attacks. One day she saves an old man, and that brings her to the attention of Remington “Remy” Byrne, the Warden of the New York area who has been trying to kill the beast within Raine. A Curse of Beasts and Magic (hard from ‎ Bramble) is a romantic urban fantasy. The villain is the head of a clan of dragon shifters. Jeaniene Frost keeps the action pulse-pounding and the battle scenes intense. I had fun and am looking forward to the next adventure. 

Michael Duda has a modern cyberpunk tale in which the mercenary with a fighting suit also has drones, including a cute one he calls spark. After the war with the Celestrion Drift, their technology was prohibited. War Dogs: Pit Bull (ebook) is about Tiberius Novak who served in the war and now takes mercenary contracts. Tasked to  extract bioengineer  Dr. Zephyr Myrack,  he finds himself fighting to save his world because the bad guys are using that technology to create unstoppable fighting machines. I had a lot of fun with the tale.

Rix Banner was an airplane mechanic in World War II and his garage has a sign saying he fixes spaceships. He doesn’t know he will help an alien smuggler from the galactic empire fix her ship with Boltguns and Duct Tape (hard from‎ Fickle Dragon Publishing LLC). Fleeing corrupt alien police, he ends up leaving Earth for her space station. Jamie McFarlane has a fun tale of an Earth mechanic with a knack for repair, dealing with the corruption that could get deadly. I already ate up the sequel, and am waiting for the third. 

Strange meteors hit the Earth and at the same time, Jerald Dezr decides it is a good time to quit his call center job and go hiking in the mountains. There he enters the temple of a god and gets the ability to absorb powers like a rabbit’s jumping power. Unfortunately when he emerges, five months have passed and the meteors have brought both monsters and people with super powers. Jerald Delloro’s The 13th God: The Blank Zone (ebook) is a fun introduction to a dangerous superhero world. I enjoyed it. 

The Church of the Invincible Sun needs scribes who can forge hidden books. An atheist monk,  Sister Svangerd and the Devil You Know(paper from orbit) are sent after such a book, except it turns out not to be a book, and lots of players including The Loyal Opposition are constantly attacking our Monk and Sister Svangerd. This is the light-hearted adventure that  K. J. Parker (Tom Holt) provides, and I enjoyed this even without reading the first tale in this trilogy. 

Bellatrix Aelys didn’t bond with a warrior so she ran from the Magelight (paper), On the way home she accidentally bonds with a warrior, a forester, and a thief and by the end of the book, she had broken that bond because she hated compelling people. But Romik, Vil, and Daen decide to stay with her. After an attack by bandits, she and her friend decide to head for another city. Along the way she meets a friend from the Imperial Battlemage Corps and his bonded warrior, his brother. After a ship wreck and other adventure they end up in a city devoted to gladiatorial contests where, as might be expected, she finds Blood on the Sand (hard from Baen). Kacey Ezell has a fun series and I look forward to the next tale. 

Joanna Ruth Meyer finishes the tale of Brynja who had brought the death of King Kallias and somehow destroyed the yellow sun god. She returns to the magical kingdom of Iljaria, where she expects to be rewarded for her heroism, but is thrown into prison by the evil queen. When the Light Returns (paper from 47North) is not only about restoring the sun god, but also stopping someone from becoming a god themselves. This is a nice ending to a dark, tortuous  tale. 

The late Anne McCaffrey started a tale of crippled woman whose brain is voluntarily implanted in a starship to become a brain ship in the 60’s. Veronica Giguere and  Mercedes Lackey have a fun eighth book in the series that doesn’t require the previous tales. This time The Ship Who Dared (hard from Baen) is asked to a prototype singularity drive as Tia and Alex go about their courier runs. Unfortunately every so often it makes a random jump. On the plus side, Tia, who loves helping people, finds people to help. The authors introduce AI to this future and explain why brainships are far superior. I was really glad to see this series revived. 

Martha Wells has a new Murderbot adventure sending the Android on a rescue mission on a giant space platform in the form of a ring orbiting a planet. To let him survive this Platform Decay(hard from Tor) to save its charges he has to think out of the box and get some unexpected help.  Very exciting. The Apple TV series based on the books nicely characterize the series and are well worth a watch.

There are more reviews at http://www.henrylazarus.com/sf.htm