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Science Fiction for June 2026

by Henry L Lazarus

Every year the World Science Fiction Convention votes on the best Fantasy and Science Fiction of the year and gives Hugo awards in various categories. Its unofficial beginning was in 1936 in Philadelphia when a group of New York fans decided to visit Philadelphia. Nine people attended. 

Adrian Tchaikovsky keeps getting nominated for the Hugo award. His latest tale of Green City Wars (hard from Tor) is truly amazing. The city of Neuwein-Grunstadt wanted a very low ecological footprint. Instead of machinery to handle the dirty jobs of keeping the city healthy, they chose genetically-modified intelligent animals. Who immediately created gangs and fought each other undetectable to the humans. Some intelligent pets like the pigeon  Lulu who wants stories for her master, and a pet cat Tybelle who kills for some of the factions. The PI racoon Skotch is hired to find Dr. Meece, a super intelligent mouse from the Farm Projects whose latest project might reshape the lives of the many animals. Everything goes wrong as the various factions like the squirrel armies Graycoats and Redcoates literally at each-others throats. Skotch finds himself in the middle of confused chaos as he tries to save the mouse. I’ll be shocked if this doesn’t win a Hugo.
 The city of Serenissima magically exists as a copy of Venice, canals and all, but without a Doge. It is connected to other worlds and inhabited by alien bipeds who have found their way to this world, all with different customs and sexual mores. Jo Walton’s Everybody's Perfect (hard from Tor) is a series of accounts from seven beings who helped the city get a Doge, starting with a day laborer, Tiry, who dreams of a new Doge marrying the sea.  One by one, through each statement, the city comes alive in a wondrous fashion. I suspect this tale of a strange and magical city will be on a major award list. 

Scott Treder is a happily married man with a seven-year-old son when, suddenly while driving to work, jumps a day forward, unfortunately without his car. The next day, early at work, he jumps two days. Each day the jump doubles. He becomes known as The Traveler (hard from Tor) as the jumps grow longer and longer. His son becomes a famous physicist trying to stop the jumps. Joseph Eckert tells a fascinating tale as Scott one day might find himself in a utopia, and another in a war zone. I found the tale impossible to put down. 

Tessa Yang tells a tale of a biologist, Dr. Jo Ness, a specialist in jellyfish, who has The Jellyfish Problem (hard from Berkley) caused by a huge red-glowing jellyfish on the island of Shattering Point off the coast of Maine. Clementine, the name the locals gave the jellyfish, is somehow blocking people who saw it from leaving the island. Not only that, but Jo is still mourning the death of a co-researcher and now she is seeing his ghost. This is a fun tale as much about the Islanders as it is about Jo. I really enjoyed it. 

Qays Mendoza comes to the prison planet of Fresh Start(hard from Flame Tree Press) in a stolen starship and wearing a monk’s robe after spending a year in a monastery without taking vows. Johnny Worthen tells how the one-time marine comes to the planet looking for the starship captain whose action set him adrift. The problem is that the empire is receding and has pulled completely out of the system, leaving the former prisoners on their own. He is helped by Patience, an orphan. Civilization is slowly breaking down, and a man called Butcher of Raznak has mobilized the worst people and is attacking the town of Last Fall, and they need him to possibly survive. Up to now, he had only minded his own business.  I had fun with this adventure and wouldn’t mind a sequel. 

Jaleigh Johnson has a nice warm tale of a rare sentient house in trouble after its caretaker died, and the witch who helped in the The Reimagining of Thornwood House (hard from Ace) The house doesn’t talk, but it has its own way of chasing off potential caretakers and has run off into the local forest several times. Land witch Evelyn Sharpe is tired of working for the Environmental Crisis Response Agency and wants to adopt her teenage ward Ruby. Becoming caretaker in the small town of Dorna City is a chance for a new beginning for the two of them. This is a warm tale where the villain is not that villainous and the villagers come alive into interesting individuals. I had a grin after reading.  

Tales of real artificial intelligence are common, but they quickly become out-dated as the world’s computer technology. Anthony Tardiff has an exciting tale of what the world’s richest man calls The Final System (paper from 47North). When congresswoman Chloe Dunne-Carr is appointed to a secret committee to discuss releasing this pure AI to the world, she finds herself caught up in various plots that involve kidnapping her daughter. Hacker Jason Cromartie is working with other hackers to locate and destroy the system. Unfortunately there are a lot of plots, counter plots, and twists to leave any reader on the edge of their seat wondering if the system is manipulating Chloe and Jason to free itself. Very exciting and hard-to-put-down. 

In 2017, Ash, a former actress, is hired by the Retro (hard from Ballantine Books) corporation to be tour guide to the past for the rich clientele. She chaperones bridal parties to the wild west. Bachelor parties to Woodstock, and other varied times. She finds a PI boyfriend from the late thirties and for a year things are great. Time may be resilient as the inventor of time travel, Ro Temple always says, but not necessarily for those who travel frequently. Then he picks Ash for a special project, leaving her in too much trouble, Unfortunately Jessica M. Goldstein's tale ends in a cliff hanger.  I hope there is a second half coming to resolve the tale. 

Olga Fink writes of two star empires once at war. One uses technology with fighting cyborgs and an electronic web connecting them. The other has a telepathic symbiote connecting the whole population. Dianna’s mother, who had ruled as the Seer of one empire, had found a way to a transient peace. Dianna is a cyborg and also infected by the symbiote. Known as The Princess of War ( paper from Glass Spider Publishing). Then she learns of a memory bank left in her father’s body where he fell in the last battle of the war. To cross into enemy territory she has to work with Marcus, an enemy commander who had been her target. There’s also the problem of her dead brother’s voice in her head and the rulers of the symbiotic empire who also want the memory bank. It took me two tries to read this, but the second time it clicked and I enjoyed it. I’m waiting for the sequel. 

Alyiakal is now a Subcommander assigned to writing about tactics from the previous tales in this tale of Cyador in the early years of human settlement on Recluce and its first small empire. L. E. Modesitt Jr., one of my favorite authors, has been trying to avoid action and Last of the First (hard from Tor) is no exception. The action scenes, when they come, are well worth the wait, and the ending is solid for this fun return to a world where Chaos and Order manipulation provides the magic. 

In the roaring twenties, New York was the The Gilded City of Dreams (paper from 47North). Luanne G. Smith continues the tale of fairy godmothers Celeste and Anaïs as they travel from Los Angeles to Paris to bring a magical staff to its new owner. Unfortunately it is stolen and Anaïs kidnapped. The problem is a carnival magician/hypnotist who has gotten a hold of a magical mask that magnifies his abilities. There’s another carnival magician to help Celeste and some twists. I didn’t read the first of these tales, but I’ve always enjoyed Luanne G. Smith’s tales and she provided all the background I needed. Recommended. 

J.A. Sutherland has a new series set in the same future as his Alexis Carew series. Declan Ortega McManus is an ex-marine wealthy enough to look for adventure as he might as well Have Blaster, Will Travel (ebook from Darkspace Press). On a poor planet called Miller’s Folly from the man who settled it because of bad information, he notices a young woman, who was obviously from a core world and very out-of-place. He finds out he was right when the only railroad on the planet is waylaid as to capture the woman. Most of the tale would fit any western, with only hints of higher technology. I enjoyed it and would buy any sequel. 

Tor is reprinting one of my favorite tales, Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel's Dart about Phédre nó Delaunay who gets pleasure from pain and uses that ability to shape her world. I’ve reread it a number of times. 

Baen books this month include Lois McMaster Bujold latest tales of Penric's Intrigues (hard) which includes tales from another publisher which I’ve already mentioned. The three previous collections are well worth buying. A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume VI (trade) has more tales from Sharon Lee and the late Steve Miller. There’s a reprint of John Ringo’s superhuman tale Not that Kind of Good Guy (paper) which I hope will have a sequel soon.

The Hugo Award nominations for best novel include: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape); Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz); Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US); The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK); The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK); and The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape). 

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

Henry Lazarus is a retired Dentist and author of several books.