Adrian Tchaikovsky’s latest is among the best new science fiction books of March 2026

Mars is in line to be packed with treats for science fiction fans. To begin with, we get to return to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s universe Children of the times series, this time in the company of an enormous mantis shrimp. We are also offered an input Moby-Dickset in space, and what sounds like a must-read: a forgotten speculative novel from 1936, which imagines the last woman left alive in Britain after a pandemic. If you’re instead looking for a cozy sci-fi mystery, a piece of horror or a mission to Europe, then you’re in luck, because all of these are also on offer.

The latest in Tchaikovsky’s excellent Children of the times The series is set to hit our shelves this month, and according to our sci-fi reviewer Emily H. Wilson, it’s brilliant. The premise is that centuries ago a terraforming team ended up creating something terrible on a distant planet. Now the scientist Alis and the mantis shrimp Cato must set out on the planet to find out what has happened to their missing crew members.

What an endeavor – this is a speculative retelling of none other than Herman Melville’s The Doorstop, Moby-Dick. In this version of the white whale story, Earth is dead and humanity lives on mortal planets under domes that need to be powered by (wait for it) “cerebrospinal fluid, harvested at great risk from giant space monsters”. Our protagonist is, of course, hunting “the greatest leviathan of all”.

First published in 1936, this speculative novel imagines Britain in 1985, when only one woman is left alive after a pandemic caused by a poisonous gas. Introduced by TV presenter Graham Norton, it sounds like a fascinating addition to the 20th century science fiction classics.

Ober is one of the writers of the Netflix series OA. Here he tells the story of The Sinker, whose home was destroyed by a floating machine known as The Construct when she was a child. She survived by fleeing into the seemingly endless nothingness of the Void – but half a lifetime later, she learns that The Construct is closing in on her again, aiming to end its tyranny. Ober’s vision of the void sounds pretty convincing: it’s filled with floating, vertically stacked rocks, some of which are magnets, some of which “burn with eternal flame,” and some of which “defy the laws of physics.”

The director of Interview with the vampire and The Company of Wolves turns to science fiction with this story set in 2084, where librarian Christian Cartwright spends his days archiving the world’s most painful memories. But when his lover Isolde dies in a car accident, he resurrects her, secretly, as a digital consciousness – and discovers a conspiracy with a long history.

The publisher says this is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, an excellent book, so I have high hopes for what sounds like a mixture of horror and sci-fi. It takes place in 1899, when scientific illustrator Sonia Wilson is offered a job illustrating the vast collection of insects owned by the reclusive Dr. Halder. In the North Carolina woods, however, she discovers that Halder has begun some monstrous entomological studies of parasitic maggots that burrow into human flesh…

I loved Cecile Pin’s first novel, Wandering soulswhich was longlisted for the women’s prize for fiction. Her second foray into science fiction also sounds good: it tells the story of Ollie, born when the space shuttle Challenger falls from the sky in 1986, who grows up to become a famous astronaut and embarks on a 10-year mission to Europa. But what awaits him when he returns?

Ava by Victoria Dillon

This “mix of speculative fiction and social commentary” is set in a world where a breakthrough technology has made it possible to replace pregnancy with incubation, giving women “true control over their reproduction”. Larkin has his second daughter this way, but as Ava grows up, she begins to question the choice that created her.

This is the second in what is being described as a cozy sci-fi mystery series, a concept I love the sound of. Set on the interstellar cruise liner HMS Fairweather, it sees the ship’s detective Dorothy Gentleman investigate when a baby is mysteriously left on her nephew’s doorstep. It’s surprising enough – but fertility is supposed to be on hiatus while the ship cruises through the stars.

And finally, because it’s not science fiction, but might be of interest to us sci-fi fans: this sees Walton and Palmer examine modern science fiction and fantasy writing – the nature of the genre, how it’s written and how it’s read… great!