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The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard

Adult science fiction novella

Imagine Sherlock and Watson if Watson was a sentient, traumatized spaceship and Sherlock was a human detective investigating a murder

Faster-than-light travel, deep space unreality, mind-altering herbal teas

Spaceship POV

The spaceship really enjoys reading/watching period dramas 

Vietnamese-inspired sci fi setting

No romance

One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adult science fiction novella

The grumpy last survivor of a catastrophic time war lives a solitary life…until other time travellers try to disrupt his carefully curated retirement

The main character has a pet dinosaur

Darkly funny, misanthropic narrator

If you liked Murderbot’s first-person POV in the books, you’ll probably enjoy the narrative voice of this novella

The Butterfly Assassin by Finn Longman

Young adult dystopian thriller set in a walled city ruled by assassin guilds

Isabel Ryans is a former child assassin and the daughter of a notorious scientist

Wanting nothing more than to live a normal life, she escapes and assumes a civilian identity…but finds her past and her assassin training harder to leave behind than she’d hoped

“Raised as weapon” character grappling with violence, morality, and friendship

Aromantic asexual main character with PTSD and severe hand scarring

No romance

The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmooor

Adult dark fantasy novella

Scythulf, a wolf shapeshifter, was raised to be nothing more than a pit fighter until he’s rescued by Brennus, a knight who offers him a new life

When Scythulf accidentally kills a corrupted nun, his only chance at redemption is to run with the Wild Hunt, a trial of blood and courage

“Raised to be a weapon” protagonist; aspec rep; strong platonic bonds

Aroace protagonist; aroace nonbinary queerplatonic partner, queernorm fantasy world

No romance

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Adult science fiction novel

A motley spaceship crew finds adventure and friendship on their voyages through the universe

Episodic storytelling and found family dynamics

Interesting alien characters and cultures

Queer characters + F/F relationship

Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura

Adult fantasy novel

Adrien Desfourneax, a disgraced physician turned professor of magic, finds himself investigating a dangerous curse while grappling with his own mental health and a dangerous ally

Complex characters! Emotional devastation! Lightning magic! Gaslamp fantasy!

Gay main character with bipolar disorder; autistic-coded side character

If you love rotating TV!Gurathin in your mind, you will probably find Adrien a very interesting character

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace

Young adult fantasy/dystopia

A young ghost hunter joins forces with the ghost of a supersoldier to traverse the underworld in search of the lost ghost of his partner and answers about their post-apocalyptic world

Characters shaped by ruthless dystopian worlds learning to claim their autonomy and identity

Strong M/F friendships that don’t turn into romance

Aroace-coded main character + no romance

Hullmetal Girls by Emily Skrutskie

YA science fiction novel

Hundreds of years in the future, the last survivors of the human race travel through space in a fleet of ships, searching for a new habitable planet to settle

When two girls join the order of cyborg soldiers who keep order in the fleet, they find themselves questioning their loyalties as violence brews

Explores bodily autonomy and privacy through sci fi elements

Main characters of color + ace main character

No romance

The Outside by Ada Hoffman

Adult science fiction novel

Cosmic horror x space opera

In a galaxy ruled by AI gods and their ruthless cyborg-angels, young prodigy scientist  Yasira develops new technology that could change the trajectory of humanity–until her work backfires and is declared heretical

Offered her life in exchange for hunting down her vanished heretical mentor, Yasira must decide who to trust as her world’s fate hangs in the balance

Autistic lesbian main character of color

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Adult satirical science fiction novel

Ensign Andrew Dahl is excited for his new position on board the the starship Intrepid…until he begins to realize there’s a mysterious pattern of low-level ensigns like himself dramatically dying on missions…and the reason why might reshape his very understanding of reality

For the enjoyers of the TV’s take on Sanctuary Moon being a Star Trek parody

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

Adult science fiction novel

Anti-colonial space heist

Maya Hoshimoto, an art thief turned grad student, finds herself pulled into one last job to retrieve an artifact that could save an alien species–and possibly doom humanity

Alien-human friendships, explorations of sentience and consciousness

Japanese diaspora main character with chronic migraines

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Adult science fiction inspired by classic horror stories 

Demeter is a spaceship that transports humans across galaxies–except her passengers keep dying in mysterious paranormal murders

To prevent herself from being decommissioned, Demeter must track down the ultimate evil behind her passengers’ deaths: Dracula

Snarky spaceship POV, AI and drone characters

Nonbinary representation; amputee representation; F/F romance

World Running Down by Al Hess

Adult science fiction novel

In a near-future dystopian America, salvager Valentine runs odd jobs in the wastelands of Utah in hopes of earning enough for the gender-affirming care he desperately needs

When he encounters Osric, an AI forced into an android body, he’s offered a job that could pay him everything he needs–but at the cost of his own morals

Explores sentience and autonomy through a science fiction lense

Android/human romance

Gay, trans man main character with ADHD; gay main character

Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot

Adult science fiction novel

In a galaxy ruled by three warring rival factions, gunslinging inventor-turned-thief Rig has abandoned her former faction and is happy as a rebel–until her former faction ransoms her twin sister for what she stole from them

Alongside her librarian girlfriend, a mysterious bounty hunter, and a network of resistance contacts, Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister–and maybe tear down the factions for good

Rip-roaring romp of a sci fi story full of action 

Alien protagonists

Lesbian main character; amputee representation

Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden

Adult science fiction novella

Scorn is a state-of-the-art AI investigator who becomes entangled in brewing corporate warfare

When Scorn wakes up one day day on the moon with no memory of zir past ten days, ze begins a hunt into zir own past that leads them to uncover far more explosive truths than ze could have expected

Dystopian future & snarky AI protagonist