Sci-Fi

Excerpt: BOY, WITH ACCIDENTAL DINOSAUR by Ian McDonald (TorDotCom)

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Today, we have an excerpt from the recently-published new novella by Ian McDonald: Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur. The book has a pretty intriguing pitch, which, having read the book, is rather accurate: “How to Train Your Dragon meets Mad Max”. Huge thanks to the publisher for letting CR share this short excerpt from the start of the book. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

The story of an orphan in a fractured Southwest who just wants to ride a dinosaur under the lights.

Come one, come all to the dinosaur rodeo!

Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a dinosaur buckaroo. An orphan in search of a place to rest his head and a job to weigh down his pockets, Tif has bounced from circus to circus, yearning for a chance to ride a prehistoric beauty under the sparkling lights of a big-top.

To become a buckaroo, Tif needs to learn the tools of the trade, yet few dino maestros want to take a scrawny nobody from nowhere under their wing. But when Tif frees a dino from an abusive owner and braves the roving gangs of the formerly-American west to bring the dino to safety, he catches someone’s eye. And boy, how those eyes dazzle Tif from the back of a bucking carnotaur.

Fans of McDonald’s other novellas and novels will find plenty to like in this latest book. Recommended.

And now, on with the excerpt…

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Excerpt: WHAT WE ARE SEEKING by Cameron Reed (Tor Books)

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Today, we have a substantial, two-chapter excerpt from What We Are Seeking, the “soaring novel of queer hope and transformation” by Cameron Reed. Pitched as “perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Amal El-Mohtar”, I think a lot of people are going to like this. Here’s the synopsis:

On the planet Scythia, plants give birth to insects and trees can drag you to your death. Artificial monsters stalk the desert, and alien basket-men have wandered into town.

John Maraintha has been abandoned here, light-years from the peaceful forests that he loves.

The desert is harsh and the people in thrall to a barbaric custom called marriage.

He must find some way to make a life here.

But on Scythia, survival means transformation — and not everyone is willing to change.

And now, on with the excerpt…

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Excerpt: IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS by Ada Hoffmann (Tachyon)

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In May, Tachyon Publications will release the latest novel by Ada Hoffmann: Ignore All Previous Instructions. It’s already generating a bit of advance, online buzz, and so the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers! First, check out the synopsis:

A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing… and space pirates who smuggle inappropriate stories.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: she precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Re-enter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Am, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something… illegal. So now Kelli has to decide: will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about forbidden love, growing up, and fighting against censorship.

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Excerpt: RABBIT TEST AND OTHER STORIES by Samantha Mills (Tachyon)

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Today, we have an excerpt from the Rabbit Test and Other Stories, a highly-anticipated debut short story collection by Samantha Mills. Specifically, the (substantial) excerpt is from the story “Anchorage”.

The book is due to be published by Tachyon Publications in April. Here’s the synopsis:

A subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back).  These riveting stories range effortlessly from fantasy and science fiction to literary fiction, from the here and now all the way into the farthest reaches of space. The central tale of this collection is Mills’ pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon award-winning story “Rabbit Test,” which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights.

Introduction by Meg Elison

A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore, but at the wrong time. A pair of witches fight over the gate between life and death. A new consciousness, intent upon seeing all the wonders of the universe, visits a floating library. A rock-and-roll legend squares off against a town full of devils. Humanity makes first contact, but falters when put in charge of selecting the world’s representatives.

In her strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, Mills creates ample room for humor and hope amidst tragedy and struggle.

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Trailer: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (2026)

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The trailer for the new Masters of the Universe movie dropped today! I have very fond memories of the 1987 take on the characters, so I’m really looking forward to seeing this new updated version of He-Man et al. Hoping for some action-packed, at-least-slightly-campy action and adventure.

I haven’t watched it, probably, since I was 10 years old, so I’m not sure how well it might stand up today. Here’s the trailer for the original…

Review: ASHES OF THE IMPERIUM by Chris Wraight (Black Library)

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Horus is dead. It’s time to pick up the pieces…

As the Siege of Terra ends, there are many loose ends – Traitors trying desperately to escape, a monumental vacuum of power to fill, and a crumbling galactic government to see to. Those who hold on to power must decide how to wield it, and a new structure must be put in place, all while desires to exact vengeance run high.

Horus is dead. Terra lies in ruins. The Emperor is silent. Amid the rubble of the Palace, shell-shocked survivors emerge into the light of an uncertain dawn. New powers are present now, ones that have travelled the length of the galaxy to bring salvation to the Imperium, though they are as readily cast as usurpers as redeemers. The survivors of the Traitors’ Grand Armada, now scattered and desperate to escape vengeance, are riven with doubt and dissension, and their gods too are silent. Amid all the grief and confusion, some hopeful souls believe the war to be over and an era of renewal just ahead. But wiser heads know that this war can never end, and that the only question remaining is who shall rise to power within the perilous new age, and who shall fall.

The Horus Heresy is over, but at terrible cost. The time period between the rebellion and the “present” day of Warhammer 40,000 has, thus far, not been much-covered in the fiction and lore sections of the various games WH40k-based books. I think the most I read about the period was included in the rulebook for Games Workshop’s short-lived, but very good, Inquisitor game (which introduced us to Eisenhorn). Even here, though, not much attention was paid to the aftermath of the Horus Heresy and Horus’s death. It was with great interest, therefore, that I started Chris Wraight’s latest Black Library novel. What I found was one of the best books BL has published in some time.
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Upcoming: EXIT PARTY by Emily St. John Mandel (Knopf/Picador)

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The covers for Exit Party, the highly-anticipated next novel by Emily St. John Mandel, were unveiled today by Knopf (North American publisher) and Picador (UK publisher). I spotted a listing for the book a few days ago in one of Knopf’s catalogues, and it immediately shot to the top of my Most Anticipated list (metaphorically — there isn’s an actual list). It’s not out until September, which feels very far away. Here’s the synopsis:

A novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman — a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State — searches for answers.

Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.

As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.

I’ve been a fan of the author’s ever since I read a (very) early ARC of Station Eleven, and have been an eager reader of every new novel that’s come out. The author’s previous novel, 2022’s Sea of Tranquility, was especially great so I’d recommend you give that a read as well, if you haven’t already.

Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party is due to be published by Knopf in North America (September 15th) and Picador in the UK (September 17th).

Also on CR: Reviews of Station Eleven, Last Night in Montreal, and Sea of Tranquility

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Excerpt: YOUR BEHAVIOR WILL BE MONITORED by Justin Feinstein (Tachyon)

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The first excerpt for 2026 is from Your Behavior Will be Monitored by Justin Feinstein, which is due out in April via Tachyon Publications. Already generating a bit of buzz online, the novel wrestles with questions about “sentience, purpose, life, death, and how to make a really good commercial.” Here’s the synopsis:

Told entirely through questionably obtained company emails, chat transcripts, TED Talks, training sessions, and more, this all-too-probable future pits emotionally intelligent AI against emotionally stunted humans.

Megacorporation UniView is poised to cement their reputation as “the most trusted name in AI.” After pioneering the world’s first widely adopted AI bots, they are barreling toward an audacious new launch. That is, if they can pull it off in time.

Enter Noah. A down-and-out copywriter reeling from a midlife crisis, he isn’t the typical hire for a groundbreaking tech company full of brilliant engineers and run by a cutthroat CEO. But Lex, UniView’s Head of HR and one of their greatest successes, makes no mistakes ― her algorithm ensures it.

UniView’s latest venture ― a bot named Quinn that creates revolutionary personalized advertising ― needs expert training. Noah needs to teach Quinn ― which is a much better student than he ever could have hoped for ― the finer points of consumer motivation and the art of writing a catchy tagline.

But when corporate competitors force UniView to accelerate its timeline to market, guardrails around the AI loosen just as Quinn seems to be learning a bit too much.

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Upcoming: PLATFORM DECAY by Martha Wells (TorDotCom)

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New Murderbot incoming! Platform Decay by Martha Wells, the eighth novel in the superb Murderbot Diaries series, is due to be published by TorDotCom in May 2026! Like many people, I have been a fan of the series since the first book — All Systems Red, first published in 2017 — and have eagerly looked forward to each new book (and short story) that Wells has written. Platform Decay is no different; I’m really looking forward to this. If you haven’t had the opportunity, yet, I would also highly recommend Apple TV’s adaptation of the books.

Here’s the synopsis:

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment of Martha Wells’ bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series.

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

Having volunteered to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realises that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn’t know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for… eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

Martha Wells’s Platform Decay is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on May 5th, 2026.

Also on CR: Reviews of All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, and Fugitive Telemetry

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Upcoming: CHILDREN OF STRIFE and GREEN CITY WARS by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Adrian Tchaikovsky has to be one of the hardest-working authors in SFF. Not only that, his novels are consistently excellent and varied — he writes across seemingly all speculative genres, offering up many twists and original takes on classic and new tropes. I wanted to quickly spotlight two of his novels coming out in 2026, highlighting just a bit of this breadth of interest and imagination.

CHILDREN OF STRIFE (Tor UK / Orbit)

The far-future. After Earth fell, ark ships had hunted for a new home. They sought lost worlds terraformed in Earth’s forgotten past. A ship crewed by maverick humans, spiders and a spectacularly punchy mantis shrimp captain is about to rediscover one such world, and an ark.

Then human crewmate Alis wakes to discover that she, her captain and the ship’s intelligence are the only ones left on their ship. But what happened to those who left to explore the ark . . . and the world below?

This is the fourth novel in the Children series, which started with the Clarke Award-winning Children of Time. I’ve read the first two books in the series, and loved both. Hopefully, I’ll manage to get around to reading Children of Memory before Strife is published. Really looking forward to this. Children of Strife is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK (March 12th) and Orbit in North America (March 17th)

Also on CR: Review of Children of Ruin

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GREEN CITY WARS (Tor Books)

Down these mean streets a beast must walk…

Meet Skotch. Racoon, P.I.―Yours for a few buttons as long as the job isn’t too illegal, whatever that means.

A mouse has gone missing. Normally this wouldn’t raise any hackles, nor any alarms, but this mouse has something that everyone seems to want, though nobody appears particularly eager to say what that something is.

The fee is good―perhaps too good. Certainly not something Skotch can easily turn down.

If only Skotch can work out where the mouse is hiding, what he’s hiding, and why his secrets are upsetting a lot of animals caught up in the Green City wars.

This upcoming noir novel has a fantastic pitch: “Philip Marlowe meets Redwall.” The cover for the North American edition, featured above, is pretty great, but it’s that pitch that cemented my interest in reading this. Really looking forward to this one. Green City Wars is due to be published by Tor Books in North America (June 23rd, 2026) and in the UK (June 25th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky