Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles SoulePublisher: Del ReyOut now Two centuries before The Phantom Menace, The High Republic is Star Wars’ latest canon expansion, exploring a pre-Empire golden age. Comics writer Soule’s inaugural installment follows Jedi Avar Kriss and comrades as a hyperspace disaster illuminates a new threat. Follow-up novels and comics come from Daniel José Older, Justina Ireland, Cavan Scott, and Claudia Gray (Into the Dark is also out now). True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham RiesmanPublisher: CrownOut now A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady MartinePublisher: Tor BooksMarch 2 The sequel to Martine’s Hugo-winning astropolitical space opera A Memory Called Empire expands its scope to a reckoning between empires, as the conquering Teixcalaanli negotiate with an encroaching inhuman threat. Between the two interstellar powers are independent ambassador Mahit Dzmare and Teixcalaan cultural liaison Three Seagrass—along with plenty of new characters—who will need more than poetry to save Teixcalaan’s legacy. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo IshiguroPublisher: KnopfMarch 2 Ishiguro’s first novel since his Nobel Prize returns to a dystopian near-future reminiscent of Never Let Me Go. But instead of clones, it’s a solar-powered Artificial Friend who longs for the joy of a human owner, only to be transplanted into a grieving family. As Klara realizes her intended purpose, she proves her heart is far stronger than any human’s. Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology by Jess ZimmermanPublisher: Beacon PressMarch 9 Peaces by Helen OyeyemiPublisher: Riverhead BooksApril 6 All aboard for a fabulistic journey from the author of Gingerbread: When newlyweds Otto and Xavier (and pet mongoose) are gifted a non-honeymoon on former tea-smuggling train The Lucky Day, they embark on an extraordinary journey. From impossible compartments containing art galleries and bazaars, to a many-named stranger who knows every passenger, this is a ride like no other. Folklorn by Angela Mi Young HurPublisher: Erewhon BooksApril 27 Elsa Park is an experimental physicist stationed at the South Pole to study “ghost particles,” yet also to outrun her immigrant family’s generational trauma. But when her childhood imaginary friend appears at the end of the world, Elsa must confront the specter of mental illness, as inevitable and unalterable as the Korean folklore her now-catatonic mother used to tell her. Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies OkungbowaPublisher: Orbit BooksMay 11 What spring reads are on your list? Let us know in the comments below.
