2016 Best Books in Science Fiction - March

Here's the best books released in March for science fiction titles.

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

This mesmerizing collection features  Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards)



Nameless by Grant Morrison

Nameless is an occult hustler who is recruited by a consortium of billionaire futurists as part of a desperate mission to save the world. A massive asteroid named Xibalba is on collision course with Earth and it has an enormous magical symbol carved into its side. Not only that, it is revealed to be a fragment of our solar system's lost fifth planet, Marduk, destroyed 65 million years ago at the end the war between the inhabitants of Marduk and immensely-powerful, life-hating, extra-dimensional "gods". One of those beings is imprisoned on Xibalba, dreaming of its ultimate revenge. When Nameless and his team inadvertently unleash it, the stage is set for a nightmarish, nihilistic journey to the outer reaches of human terror.

HALO - New Blood by Matt Forbeck

While Spartans get all the glory, no soldier―not even legendary Master Chief―wins a war on their own. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck and his team played a major role in saving the Earth at the end of the Covenant War. Now, after many Spartans have been killed and the Master Chief is MIA, the UNSC decides to create a new generation of Spartans to defend humanity from threats both outside and within. When they come to Buck with an proposition, he is forced to make a life-altering decision. With the Covenant War finally over, is it time for him to retire to the sidelines for a life he could only dream about…or is he prepared to step up and become part of the military’s new blood?

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol. 1 by Yoshiki Tanaka

“The Golden Brat” Reinhard von Lohengramm, a military prodigy and admiral of the Galactic Empire, has ambitions beyond protecting the borders or even defeating the Empire’s enemies. He seeks to overthrow the old order and become a truly absolute—yet benevolent—dictator. His rival, the humble Yang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance, wishes to preserve democracy even if he must sacrifice his political ideals to defeat the Empire.

Omega Force: The Human Factor

Captain Jason Burke is a man apart, and not just because he's the only of his kind for thousands of lightyears in any direction. The changes to his body and genetic code have made him faster, stronger, more able to survive ... but they've also ensured that he'll never truly fit in with others of his species. He always assumed he would live and die with his crew and never lay eyes on another human again, but he was wrong. Burke learns through back channel information that Earth may be in danger and, worse, that he may have been a contributing factor. He now has the choose to ignore the problem and allow his own species to fight their own battles, or return to help and risk making the situation worse.

The Scattered and the Dead by Tim McBain and LT Vargus

With 99.7% of the Earth's population dead and gone, the few who remain struggle to survive in an empty world. There's Mitch, a father infected with the zombie virus. With 24 hours until he turns, Mitch struggles to find redemption for his bad parenting skills. Travis is a wimp who ran after witnessing his parent's murders, chasing drugs to drown the images. Erin is 16, but care-taker to an 8 year old orphan and crushed by the sudden responsibility. And then there's Teddy, Baghead and Delfino, Rex and Ray and Lorraine. All of them utterly lost and looking for meaning in humanity's fading glow.

Starship Mine by Peter Cawdron

James Patterson is a gay accountant living in Keyes, Oklahoma—deep in the Bible Belt—the religious heartland of America. He’s also the first person to make contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence seeking to understand our world, and that makes him the most important person on the planet.

March 2016 Best Fantasy Books

Here's the best books released in March 2016 for fantasy.

Fire Touched: A Mercy Thompson Novel by Patricia Briggs

Tensions between the fae and humans are rising. When Mercy and Adam are called upon to stop a rampaging troll, they find themselves with something that could make the fae back down and forestall out-and-out war: a human child stolen long ago by the fae. Defying the most powerful werewolf in the country, the humans, and the fae, Mercy, Adam, and their pack decided to protect the boy at all costs. But who will protect them from a boy who is fire touched?

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

This story collection is based on keys - the key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret - that not only unlock elements of characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” a special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an key opens the heart of a puppeteering student. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a 'house of locks,' where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments.

Dark Promises: A Carpathian Novel by Christine Feehan

 Once, Gary was a gentle and very human researcher. Now he’s a fearless and lethal Carpathian warrior with the blood of an ancient lineage running through his veins—a man Gabrielle still needs and dreams of with every breath she takes. She has had enough of battles, of seeing Gary nearly lose his life. All she wants is a life far away from the Carpathian mountains, far from vampires and the shadows cast by the crumbling monastery that hides so many terrible secrets. But Gabrielle soon learns that promises made in the dark can pierce the heart like a dagger.

Marked in Flesh: A Novel of the Others by Anne Bishop

Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the delicate dynamic between humans and Others changed. Some, like the shifter Simon Wolfgard and blood prophet Meg Corbyn, see this as beneficial—both personally and practically.  But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans want to usurp land via a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don’t realize is that there are old and dangerous forces protecting Others land — forces willing to do whatever is necessary to protect what is theirs.

Avenging Heart: Ignited Book 4 by Desni Dantone

Kris Young wants nothing more than to be a normal. Thrust into a life she did not ask for, and faced with a future that she does not want, she sets off an adventure that she hopes will lead to freedom. With her best friend’s life, the future of the Kala-Skotadi war, and her own soul at stake, failure is not an option. Allies unite on a quest against the demigods and Kris’s half-sister, Circe. They fight to sever Kris and Alec from their evil ties once and for all, and rescue Callie from her own doomed fate. But Circe has other plans.

Forgotten Darkness: Shadow Demons Saga 8 by Sarra Cannon

The battle against the emerald priestess turned the peace at Brighton Manor into ashes. Lea and Aerden are prisoners in the King's City. Jackson is out of his mind with grief and anger. And Harper--the one who once united them all--is gone. Before they can regain their freedom and find their way back to one another, they will each have to face their past and fight to claim a better future. But for one of them, it may already be too late.

The Mortal Tally: Bring Down Heaven Series 2 by Sam Sykes

Cier'Djaal, once the crowning glory of the civilized world, in now a battlefield and graveyard. Armies clash on streets laden with the bodies of innocents caught in the crossfire. Cultists and thieves wage shadow wars, tribal armies foment outside the city's walls, and haughty aristocrats watch the world burn from on high. As his companions struggle to keep the city from destroying itself, Lenk travels in search of the demon who caused it all. But even as he pursues Khoth-Kapira, dark whispers plague his thoughts. Khoth-Kapira promises him a world free of war, where Lenk can put down his sword at last. It is hard not to listen. When gods are deaf, demons will speak.

February 2016 Best Fantasy Books

Here's the top fantasy books released in February 2016.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell's possession, since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast through the rift into Black London. In many ways, things have returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober and Kell is plagued by guilt. Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an international competition of magic-, but while caught up in the pageantry of the Games, another London is coming back to life. After all, a shadow that was gone in the night reappears in the morning, and so it seems Black London has risen again-and so to keep magic's balance, another London must fall.

The Pride by John Campea

Thousands of years ago a race of dragons awoke. Not knowing who they were, where they came from or how they fell asleep in the first place, the dragons began to make a place for themselves in the world. In a time of unprecedented peril for their kind, the dragons turned to Agathon to save their species. Today, life for Petros Renault couldn’t be more perfect. As he prepares to graduate from university and head off to an elite post-graduate program, he’s also preparing to ask the girl he loves to marry him. Everything was perfect until the headaches came. Struggling to understand the whats and whys of the pain which became his new reality, Petros discovers his connection to an ancient race thought only to be the stuff of legends and myth.

Bound by Secrets (Dark Secrets 7) by AM Hudson

The novel-length epilogue to AM Hudson's internationally bestselling Bound & Dark Secrets series. 

The last words came up on the page, but they weren't done telling their story. Join Ara and David for one final and epic tale of love, loss, tragedy, and the roller coaster of emotions you have come to expect from this author.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table and keep the roof over his father's head. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping. A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

Chicago, 1954. When his father Montrose goes missing, 22-year-old Army veteran Atticus Turner embarks on a road trip to New England to find him accompanied by his Uncle George and his childhood friend Letitia. On their journey to the manor of Mr. Braithwhite—heir to the estate that owned one of Atticus’s ancestors—they encounter both mundane terrors of white America and malevolent spirits straight out of the weird tales George devours. At the manor, Atticus discovers his father in chains, held prisoner by a secret cabal named the Order of the Ancient Dawn which has gathered to orchestrate a ritual that shockingly centers on Atticus. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his—and the whole Turner clan’s—destruction.

A Hold on Me (Dark Heart 1) by Pat Esden

Annie Freemont grew up on the road, cultivating an eye for artifacts and a spirit for bargaining. It's a freewheeling life she loves and plans to continue--until her dad is diagnosed with dementia. His illness forces them to return to Moonhill, their ancestral home on the coast of Maine--and to the family they left behind after Annie's mother died in a suspicious accident. Once at Moonhill, Annie is shocked when her aunt separates her from her father. The next time Annie sees him, he's a bizarre, violent shadow of his former self. Confused, she turns to an unlikely ally for support--Chase, the groundskeeper. With his dark good looks and powerful presence, Chase has an air Annie is irresistibly drawn to. But she also senses secrets she can't begin to imagine.

The Dragon in the Garden (Watcher Rising 1) by Erika Gardner

There is magic beneath the mundane and in The Dragon in the Garden, Siobhan Orsini witnesses it all. No lie can fool her, no glamour or illusion can cloud her Sight. She sees through them all and wishes she could close her eyes. It’s time to find out why she has this power. Siobhan seeks out the Oracle and learns that only her Sight can help mankind navigate the travails of an ancient war. Our world is the prize in a battle between the dragons, who would defend us, and Lucifer’s fallen angels, who seek to take the Earth for themselves. Using her gift, she will have to make a choice that will decide humanity’s future.