Goodreads’ Greatest Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books for May 2023

Goodreads has revealed the list of fantasy and sci-fi novels releasing in May which are the most anticipated according to their members. There are a fair number of books relating to Greece that have surprised me a bit. Which book are you most excited to read in the month of May?

The Ferryman

• Author: Justin Cronin

• Released May 2

Founded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. On this island paradise, the lucky citizens of Prospera enjoy long and fulfilling lives until the monitors built into their forearms, intended to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, dip below 10%. They then retreat, taking a ferry journey to the island known as Nursery, where their weakened bodies are renewed, their memories erased, and they are ready to start life anew.

Proctor Bennett, of the Department of Social Contracts, has a successful career as a ferryman, gently guiding people through the retirement process and, when necessary, enforcing it. But all is not well with Proctor. First, he dreamed, which should be impossible for Prospera. On the other hand, his tracking rate has started to drop alarmingly. And then the day comes when he is called to collect his father, who delivers a disturbing and cryptic message before being dragged onto the ferry.

Meanwhile, something is moving. The support staff, ordinary men and women who provide the manpower to keep Prospera running, have begun to question their place in the social order. The unrest is growing and rumors are spreading about a resistance group, known as the “arrivalists”, who may be fomenting revolution.

Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he believed in, embroiled in a cause far greater than he ever thought possible, and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.

Atalanta

• Author: Jennifer Santo

• Released May 9th

Princess, Warrior, Lover, Hero

When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents had hoped for, she is left to die on a mountain. But even then, she’s a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows wild and free, with only one condition: if she marries, she warns Artemis, she will be her ruin.

Though she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta longs for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight on her behalf alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta takes it. The quest for the Golden Fleece of the Argonauts is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves she is no match for the men she battles. As she is drawn into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis’ warning, she begins to question the goddess’s true intentions. Will Atalanta be able to carve out a legendary place in a world of men, while remaining faithful to her heart?

Filled with joy, passion and adventure, Atalanta is the story of a woman who refuses to be contained. Jennifer Saint places Atalanta in the pantheon of Greek mythology’s greatest heroes, to which she belongs.

Witch King

• Author: Martha Wells

• Released May 30th

“I didn’t know you were a… demon.”

“Idiot. I am the demon.”

Kai is having a long day in Martha Wells’ Witch King….

After being murdered, his conscience dormant and unaware of the passage of time while confined to an elaborate water trap, Kai awakens to find a lesser wizard attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. It was never going to go right.

But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition seem to be growing in influence?

Kai will have to bring his allies closer together and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the slightest of these questions.

They won’t like the answers.

Clytemnestra

• Author: Costanza Casati

• Released May 2

As for the queens, they are either hated or forgotten. You already know which option suits you best…

You were born to a king, but married a tyrant. You stand helpless as he sacrifices your son to appease the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign coast and you console yourself with your violent thoughts. Because this wasn’t the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And that won’t be your downfall. Slowly you conspire.

But when your husband returns triumphant, you become a woman with a choice.

Acceptance or revenge, infamy follows both. So, bid your time and force the hands of the gods in the game of punishment. Because you understood something a long time ago that others never understood.

If power is not given to you, you must take it for yourself.

Chain Gang All Stars

• Author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Released May 2

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker star in Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a wildly popular and controversial profit-raising program in the increasingly dominant American private prison industry . It is the return of the gladiators and the prisoners compete for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Link in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches for crowded arenas with righteous protesters at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are fan favorites. And hopefully, Thurwar will be free in a few games, a fact he carries as heavily as the lethal hammer of hers. As he prepares to leave his fellow Links, he considers how it might help preserve their humanity, despite these so-called games, but the corporate owners of CAPE will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they pose. on Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences.

The book that doesn’t burn

• Author: Marco Lorenzo

• Released May 9th

A boy has lived all his life trapped in a vast library, older than empires and bigger than cities.

A girl spent her time in a tiny settlement on the Dust where nightmares chase and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. This is about to change.

Their stories weave around each other, across worlds and across time. This is a story of truths and lies and hearts, and the blurring into each other. A journey where knowledge erodes certainty and where, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be shed and cities burned.

Deep as the sky, red as the sea

• Author: Rita Chang-Eppig

• Released May 30th

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor kill her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act fast or die. Instead of crying, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: She immediately marries her husband’s second-in-command and agrees to bear him a son and heir, in order to keep power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control of the military, she knows she was born to lead, greater threats loom. The Chinese emperor has tasked a brutal and cunning nobleman with clearing the South China seas of pirates, and the Europeans, tired of losing ships, men and money to Shek Yeung’s alliance, have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung’s ruthless punishments make trouble for all of them. As Shek Yeung deals with new motherhood and leadership crises, she must decide how long she’s willing to fight for and at what cost or else she risks losing her fleet, her new family and even her own life.

Fractal noise

• Author: Cristoforo Paolini

• Released May 16th

July 25, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the Anomaly.

On the apparently uninhabited planet Talos VII – a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide.

Its curve is not by nature, but by design.

Now, a small team must land and travel across the surface on foot to find out who built the hole and why.

But all carry the burden of lives carved out of disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space.

For some, mission is a lifelong dream, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an indifferent universe.

Each step they take towards the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last.

And they follow the ghosts of their past.

The enchanted hacienda

• Author: JC Cervantes, Jennifer Cervantes

• Released May 16th

When Harlow Estrada is abruptly fired from her dream job and her boyfriend turns out to be a jerk, her world is turned upside down. She escapes New York City to the only place she can ever call home: the enchanted Hacienda Estrada.

The Estrada family farm in Mexico is home to an abundance of enchanted flowers grown by Harlow’s mother, sisters, aunt, and cousins. Using the magic of these flowers, they can heal hearts, erase memories, interpret dreams, but not Harlow. So when her mother and her aunt give her a special assignment involving household magic, she panics. How can she rise to the occasion when she’s out of magic? But maybe it’s not the magic she lacks, but self-confidence. When she finally embraces her unique gifts and opens her heart to a handsome stranger, she discovers she is far more powerful than she ever imagined.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe

• Author: Emma Torzs

• Released May 30th

For generations the Kalotay family has kept a collection of old and rare books. Books that allow a person to walk through walls or manipulate the elements: books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther were raised to revere and protect.

All magic comes at a price, though, and the sisters have been separated for years. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her mother, and Joanna has secluded herself in their family home in Vermont, dedicating her life to the study of these beloved volumes. But after their father’s sudden death while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve the family legacy. In the process, they will discover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets spanning centuries, continents and even other libraries…