Last month, I picked up The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies, a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz. Fritz looks closely at the rise of prestige TV shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, as well as mega-franchises like Disney’s Star Wars and Marvel properties, and what their existence means for the future of Hollywood. He also traces the downfall of former Sony chairperson Amy Pascal following a massive email leak from the studio, and provides a good look at her approach to acquiring and developing films, as the entire film industry grapples with the growth of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

The Big Picture is equal parts fascinating and horrifying — it suggests that even types of films that won awards a couple of years ago might be incredibly hard to make in the near future. But there are a lot more books coming up on the science fiction and fantasy (and related nonfiction!) horizon. Here are 16 books coming out in April that caught our eyes:

April 3rd

School of Psychics by K.C. Archer

In this start to a new series, Teddy Cannon has always had the ability to read people, and eventually she discovers that there’s a good reason for that: she’s a psychic. After a run-in with the police, she’s saved by a stranger, who invites her to the School for Psychics, a hidden facility that trains people with abilities like hers in everything from investigations to SWAT team tactics. At the school, she meets a pyromaniac named Lucas; a hacker named Molly; and a woman named Jillian, who can talk to animals. But as she settles in, students go missing, and strange things begin to occur at the school. When she accepts a mission, it’ll cause her to question everything about her surroundings — and herself.

Kirkus Reviews says School for Psychics feels like it’s a book about teens, written for teens. That could make it perfect material for the CW, which is developing it as a potential series.

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson

Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey often tops lists of the best science fiction movies of all time, and in 2018, it crosses the half-century mark. Author and filmmaker Michael Benson has compiled a definitive book about Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke, covering how they made the film and its ensuing legacy. Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying that it’s an essential read for Kubrick fans and film students.

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

In this alternate history set during the American Civil War, the dead have begun to rise from the battlefields after Gettysburg, utterly changing the course of war, and the broken nation. The country reunifies to face off against this threat, and passes the Negro and Native Reeducation Act, which requires children of color to train for war. Jane McKeene grows up in this world and is enrolled in Miss Preston’s School of Combat for Negro Girls, but she’d rather be an Attendant, protecting society’s wealthiest citizens. But when she, her ex and a rival stumble upon a plot in Baltimore, she finds herself in a fight against those that she would protect.

Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a starred review and says that it has a “pulse-pounding pace, hurtling readers toward a nail-biting conclusion that inspires and will leave them apprehensive about what’s to come.”

The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy

Killjoy released their first novella back in August. It was called The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion and was about a woman named Danielle Cain who fled to a utopian community after her friend’s suicide, only to discover a protector spirit. In Killjoy’s followup novella, Danielle is part of a demon-hunting crew that discovers a secret occult library in a small town where the residents claim to have come back from the dead. When they begin to investigate, they find themselves targets of a necromancer.

Publisher’s Weekly says that “Killjoy creates a multifaceted magic without burdening the text with needless exposition, intertwining the human and magical elements in a tale that captures the depth of humankind’s endless grappling with the everpresent specter of death.”

The Oracle Year by Charles Soule

Comic book writer Charles Soule makes his debut as a novelist with The Oracle Year, in which a New York bass player named Will Dando wakes up from a dream with 108 predictions — and creates a website where he begins doling them out, anonymously. His site attracts attention from all over the world, which leads to a cottage industry of people trying to uncover his identity, as he earns the ire of warlords, religious leaders, and the president of the United States. Kirkus Reviews says that the book is a “thrilling, noodle-bending adventure that keeps readers guessing until the very end.”

April 10th

Serpent in the Heather by Kay Kenyon

In last year’s At the Table of Wolves, Kay Kenyon introduced an alternate Second World War in which England has recruited people with special abilities to help win the war. After thwarting an infiltrator and preventing a plan to invade England, Secret Intelligence Service agent Kim Tavistock is tasked with catching a killer who is murdering young people with Talents in northern England. After posing as a journalist to infiltrate a cult, she discovers that the serial killer is part of a Nazi plot. Kirkus Reviews says that the book is “a unique concept that is superbly executed.”

Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe is the daughter of the Titan Helios, the god of the sun, but as she grows up, she finds that she’s not like her parents. She makes friends with the mortals of the world and discovers that she can transform people into monsters. She’s banished by Zeus to a deserted island, and eventually meets some of mythology’s most iconic figures: the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, Medea, and Odysseus. As she invites the wrath of the gods, she is forced to choose between the gods of her heritage and the mortals she’s come to care for. Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying that Miller “paints an uncompromising portrait of a superheroine who learns to wield divine power while coming to understand what it means to be mortal.”

One Way by Simon Morden

Mars is ready to be colonized, but one major company has found that it can’t fulfill its contract and deliver on time. So it turns to robotics and a team of eight condemned prisoners who are given a chance to live out their lives on the red planet to build a settlement for the people who will follow. Frank Kittridge is one of the convicted murderers on the team, and as accidents begin to occur, it’s up to him to figure out what’s behind them before they’re all killed.

We’ve got an excerpt from the book here.

Fire Dance by Ilana C. Myers

Myers released her debut novel, Last Song Before Night in 2016, delivering a high-fantasy novel that followed Lin Amaristoth, the daughter of a cruel family who saved the world from a magical pandemic. Now, Amaristoth has been sent to one of her homeland’s allies to protect them against the Fire Dancers, a group that practices a deadly form of magic. She has to uncover the motivations behind their attacks to save everyone.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Space Opera was one of our picks for the books we were most looking forward to this year. Catherynne M. Valente takes the term literally, envisioning a universe that solves its problems with a galaxy-spanning musical contest called the Metagalactic Grand Prix. Think Eurovision in space. Earth is competing for the first time, and representing the planet is a group of musicians, dancers, and roadies with the fate of humanity in their hands. Publisher’s Weekly says that Valente’s “effervescent prose is wildly creative.”

April 17th

The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp

Following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans is still trying to recover. Street magician Jude Dubuisson has the ability to find lost things, and is the son of a demigod. After taking part in a card game featuring some of the city’s demigods, his fellow card players are murdered one by one, and he’s next. Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying that Camp’s “engaging style, facility with folklore, and, above all, impassioned love for the city its characters call home keeps you enraptured by the book’s most chilling and outrageous plot twists.”

The Long Sunset by Jack McDevitt

Space opera author Jack McDevitt is returning to his The Academy series with The Long Sunset, featuring his heroine Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins in a galaxy littered with ancient, alien artifacts. She’s become a famous pilot, and conducted numerous first contact meetings with alien civilizations. But Earth is growing wary of its interstellar neighbors, and as authorities become increasingly nervous about meeting an advanced, malevolent civilization, they threaten to shut her program down. When she discovers a transmission of a song from an unexplored part of the galaxy, she prepares to travel across the galaxy in Earth’s last interstellar ship to meet the message’s creators. Kirkus Reviews says that the book is a “solidly engrossing entry in this agreeable and reliable series.”

Before Mars by Emma Newman

Emma Newman has made a huge name for herself with her novels After Atlas and Planetfall. She’s returning to that universe with Before Mars, about a geologist and artist named Anna Kubrin, who arrives on Mars and discovers a note written in her own handwriting. Its warning? Don’t trust the colony’s psychiatrist. There’s one problem, however: she doesn’t remember writing it, and she’s soon not sure if she’s caught up in a colony-wide conspiracy, or if she’s losing her grip on reality.

Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel by Daniel José Older

Solo: A Star Wars Story is headed to theaters in May, and the first tie-in novel comes out this month. Last Shot about how is how a younger Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and their companions steal a device from a criminal named Fyzen Gor, who holds a significant grudge. In the years since the Battle of Endor, they might have forgotten the inventor, but Gor hasn’t forgotten them. With assassins at their heels, Han and Lando have to prevent Gor from using his device to kill everyone on Cloud City.

Head On by John Scalzi

The latest novel from John Scalzi is a sequel to his 2014 thriller Lock In. This series is set in a world recovering from a major medical crisis that left a small part of the population (known as Hadens) locked into their bodies, and are only able to interact with the outside world through the use of robot bodies. In this novel, FBI agent Chris Shane and partner Leslie Vann are brought in on a case involving a Haden athlete who has died on the field, leading to a deeper conspiracy. Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a starred review, calling it a “taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world.” We also spoke with audiobook narrators Wil Wheaton and Amber Benson about how they approached voicing the two editions of the audiobook.

April 24th

Time Was by Ian McDonald

I’ve really enjoyed Ian McDonald’s novels — last year’s Luna: Wolf Moon was on our end of the year best reads list. Sadly, the conclusion to that trilogy, Luna: Moon Rising, has been delayed until 2019, but we will at least get a short read from him in the meantime with Time Was. This novella from Tor.com follows Tom and Ben, a couple who are helping British warplanes evade German radar during World War II. There’s an accident, and both men vanish and are presumed to have been killed. But they’re still alive, separated by time, and they’re trying to make their way back across the years to one another. It looks like a heartbreaking read. (You can read an except here.)