The best new science-fiction books of April 2026

Thriller Mars One by Charlotte Robinson is out this month Getty Images/iStockphoto I am currently reading the science-fiction classic Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson with the New Scientist Book Club (it’s our April read). It’s fantastic, so any other trips to the Red Planet are very welcome from my perspective, and I’m looking forward to Charlotte Robinson’s thriller Mars One . Elsewhere in this month’s science fiction, there’s horror in space from S. A. Barnes, some resurrected Neanderthals from Douglas Preston and his daughter Aletheia Preston, and ghosts in AI-generated videos from Max Lury. Something for all tastes, I’d say. Mars One by Charlotte Robinson This near-future space-thriller follows a one-way mission to Mars, as well as the disappearance of a programmer in Hong Kong, who leaves nothing behind but a cryptic warning. As the Argo spaceship heads towards Mars, the crew realise they are being sabotaged. How are the two storylines linked? Mars One’s publisher is comparing this to two of my favourite books: Andy Weir’s The Martian and Terry Hayes’s spy thriller I Am Pilgrim . I’m hoping it lives up to the hype, as a combination of those two novels would be a truly excellent read. The best new science fiction books of 2026 On the horizon for this year are Ann Leckie's latest, Neil Jordan's debut and more from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Exciting times, says our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson Advertisement Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes Claire and her beacon-repair crew pick up a strange distress signal and decide to investigate. They discover a luxury space-liner that vanished on its first tour of the solar system, 20 years ago – and they also discover that something isn’t right on board the Aurora, with whispers in the dark and words scrawled in blood on the walls. Horror in space? That’s my cup of tea. Rabbit Test and Other Stories by Samantha Mills This speculative short-story collection moves from sci-fi to fantasy to literary fiction, including tales of first contact, a time-travelling fisherwoman, and a new consciousness out to see the wonders of the universe. It also features Mills’s story Rabbit Test , which won the Nebula, Locus and Sturgeon awards. A new title in George R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards series is out in April Album / Alamy Stock Photo Free newsletter Sign up to Book Club Join our friendly crowd of fellow book club members in reading and discussing the latest in science and science fiction. Sign up to newsletter Sleeper Straddle edited by George R. R. Martin This is a collection of stories set in the Game of Thrones author’s Wild Cards universe, in which the world has been ravaged by an alien virus with random effects: you die, you receive superpowers or you become strangely mutated. With writers including Cherie Priest and Walter Jon Williams, these particular tales follow Croyd Crenson as he finds himself split into six different incarnations. Paradox by Douglas Preston and Aletheia Preston It was very silly, but I must admit