Starting to build your summer reading list? Here’s 10 good bets in scifi and fantasy to start that pile. This month’s releases include an uploaded AI, a new one from Stephen King, and a new tale of Thor’s mischievous brother, Loki.



Bandwidth by Eliot Peper – May 1

In this near-future thriller, activists are hijacking the digital feed we all rely on daily in an attempt to influence both the financial markets and the governments of the world. Dag Calhoun, an up and coming political lobbyist to the world’s most powerful technology and energy executives, finds himself at the center of the coming shadow war, and the stakes are global.

Bandwidth is available on Amazon Now



Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport – May 1

Oichi Angelis is an inconsequential worker on a generation starship, only she isn’t so inconsequential. She has worked hard to bond with all of the AIs on the Olympia, the ship she lives on. When she is tossed out of an airlock, and lives, she returns to the ship bent on revenge, with the help of her digital friends. Read an excerpt on the Tor Books website.

Order Medusa Uploaded from Amazon now



Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel – May 1

This series caught my eye last year, as I listed book two in this trilogy, Waking Gods, in my Short List for April 2017. Hopefully, I’ll be diving into the trilogy over the summer, with book one, when the lead character, Rose Franklin, is just a kid and discovers a huge metal hand buried in the sand. In Only Human, Rose returns home after ten years on an alien world to find a devastating war between America and Russia, using alien doomsday machines left behind after the last war. Rose must again come up with a solution to save the world.

Get your copy of Only Human today



Song of Blood & Stone by L. Penelope – May 1

During a time of war, Jasminda, an outcast with the gift of the magic Earthsong, uses her magic to save the life of an enemy spy. They must join together, despite being on different sides of the war, to save both of their respective nations as an evil that is ancient and powerful begins to grow and ultimately threaten both. Jasminda’s Earthsong is key to unlocking the secrets of The Queen Who Sleeps. Song of Blood & Stone is the beginning of The Earthsinger Chronciles.

Get Song of Blood & Stone from Amazon Today



Spider-Gwen Vol. 5: Gwenom by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez – May 1

This month’s graphic novel entry belongs to Marvel. What happens when Spider-Gwen merges with her universe’s version of Venom? This is it.

Order Spider-Gwen today.



Buying Time by E. M. Brown – May 15

What would happen if you woke one morning in 2017 and found yourself back in time nine months, with all of your memories from the future still intact? And then it happens again, only this time three years into the past. This is happening to Ed Richie. Add in a journalist in 2030 who is investigating the same phenomenon from her time. What an intriguing concept, this involuntary time-travel novel. It sounds a bit like The Time Machine meets Quantum Leap.

Pre-order Buying Time on Amazon until May 15

This is The Grumpy Geek’s Best Bet for this month.



The Outsider by Stephen King – May 22

The master just keeps turning out great books. When an 11 year old is brutally murdered, one of the town’s most liked citizens is implicated by both eyewitnesses and fingerprints. The trouble is, the suspect has a completely ironclad alibi. As the investigation continues, the police add DNA to the list of damning evidence. The only way for him to have committed the murder was for him to be in two places at the same time, and that’s not possible…right? It is Stephen King.

Pre-order The Outsider from Amazon now



The Testament of Loki by Joanne M. Harris – May 22

Even in this version of stories from Asgard, Loki is full of trouble. This story takes place after Ragnarok (the event, not the movie) and finds Loki trapped in an endless “purgatory,” until he finds a way back to Earth by jumping his consciousness into the mind of a teenage girl. She isn’t happy, and she’s less happy when she finds her friends being taken over by other Asgardians. While this story has no relation to the Marvel universe, that doesn’t make the character of Loki any less fun, and I’m not gonna lie, I’ll be picturing Tom Hiddleston when I read it.

Pre-order The Testament of Loki now



Twelve Tomorrows edited by Wade Roush – May 25

This month’s collection (one of the most interesting sounding collections that I’ve ever posted) comes from the MIT Technology Review. Originally launched in 2011, this annual publication explores the impact of emerging technologies in the future by using fiction. There are 12 stories, hence the name. In this edition we have a kidnapping smart home, a 28,000 year old meditating AI, and an empathy stealing virtual currency. The contributors include Elizabeth Bear, SL Huang, Clifford V. Johnson, J. M. Ledgard, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Paul McAuley, Nnedi Okorafor, Malka Older, Sarah Pinsker, and Alastair Reynolds.

Pre-order your copy of Twelve Tomorrows until May 25



Lifelike by Jay Kristoff – May 29

There is so much going on in this book, it will be hard to describe. Click the link and read the Amazon description, it’ll be better than mine. 17 year-old Eve can build robots. She can also destroy them with the power of her mind. That has the local gangsters a little miffed. Well, worse than miffed. More like homicidal, with Eve in their sights. To complicate things she meets a “lifelike,” a human looking android, and that is just the tip of the iceberg here.

Pre-order Lifelike from Amazon now

If these aren’t enough for you, here’s the entire list of scifi and fantasy new releases. This list is huge and it is updated hourly. Check it out.

Check out these recent book articles on The Geekiverse

The Grumpy Geek, Pete Herr is the author of “10 Things We Should Teach You In High School and Usually Don’t”. He is the oldest geek in the Geekiverse by a factor of two. Follow Pete Herr on Facebook, Twitter,and Instagram . If you don’t he gets Grumpy. You don’t want to see him Grumpy.

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