Zombies, Zmora, and Zo Much More: May’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

With a holiday weekend at the end of the month and several novellas on May’s SFF list, it feels like we’re performing some feat of folding time to give you even more hours in which to read even more books. Spring has sprung with a wonderfully eclectic mix of stories, from a queer couple contemplating the multiverse of their fledgling relationship, to tortured demon and dragon hunters, to our climate-transformed near-future rendered through three very different yet thematically-related locations: a partially submerged luxury building-turned-ark, an ironically un-drowned Venice re-established at the top of a mountain, and a ghostly carnival to stave off the Darknet.

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Lindsay King-Miller, The Z Word
(Quirk Books, May 7)

It’s thrilling to see the zombie subgenre reanimated with a fresh new premise: set during Pride, in which a queer found family must face off with the undead. Except that this family starts out pretty fraught, made up as it is of chaotic bisexual Wendy and her ex Leah, trying to stay friends post-breakup despite Leah hooking up with others in their friend group. But there’s nothing like a sudden zombie uprising to make you bury the hatchet (into a shambler’s head) to ensure that Z doesn’t permanently find its way into the LGBTQ+ acronym.

Andrea Hairston, Archangels of Funk
(Tordotcom Publishing, May 7)

I appreciate that Andrea Hairston’s fiercely hopeful novel very much roots its message (of music and community care to overcome adversity) in our world as opposed to a new planet for humanity—even if that world is physically and metaphorically flooded with climate change, Darknet Lords, and Nostalgia Militia. Worn down by the effort of staying alive in such devastating land and cultural transformation, Cinnamon Jones is tempted to cancel the Next World Festival despite the sci-fi carnival bringing her community together. It’s fitting, then, that Cinnamon’s elders and one dearly departed pet haunt her, making her realize that even though they’re gone, there are people still on this earth who need the festival’s gift to keep moving through the next days and weeks and years.

Myriam Lacroix, How It Works Out
(Abrams Books/The Overlook Press, May 7)

 I love the idea of Emet North’s In Universes ( ) in conversation with another mind-bending tale of queer relationship permutations—here, in Myriam Lacroix’s debut. As musician Allison and artist Myriam fall in love, they engage in that familiar game of what-ifs… except that readers get to live out each parallel universe alteration to their dynamic. So whether it’s exploring a sexy power fantasy, recontextualizing their artistic success as B-list celebrities, or debating whether one of them would give birth to their son or if they’d adopt an abandoned baby, these lovebirds figure out where in the negative space between realities they might actually have a chance. And I haven’t even gotten to the light cannibalism and body horror that’s all-too-descriptive of that early honeymoon period where all you want is to consume the other person.

Veronica Roth, When Among Crows
(Tor Books, May 14)

While Veronica Roth is best known for the dystopian YA series Divergent, in recent years she has branched out into SFF for adults, including last year’s speculative Antigone retelling Arch-Conspirator. She describes her latest novella as “the first purely fantasy work I’ve ever tackled”—an urban fantasy inspired by Polish folklore, set in Chicago. Monster hunter Dymitr seeks the witch Baba Jaga, but not to slay with his sword; he hopes she can free him from his nightmare work with the Holy Order. Fear-eating zmora Ala can lead Dymitr to Baba Jaga… but only if he helps her break her own painful curse. The fact that they have only 36 hours to complete their quest keeps the action taut and suspenseful.

Peter S. Beagle, I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons
(Saga Press, May 14)

The latest fantasy adventure from The Last Unicorn author Peter S. Beagle has been a long time coming, having been initially announced in 2007. The vibes feel very much of that time (in an exciting way!), bringing to mind both Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, as a reluctant dragon hunter escorts a prince on a dragon-slaying hunt through the kingdom of Bellemontagne as the prelude to a betrothal between kingdoms. But Robert (short for Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax) wants a career change, and while Bellemontagne’s eligible bachelorette Princess Cerise is interested in foreign Corvinian Prince Reginald, the latter cares more about his father’s approval than a royal proposal.

Alexandra Grunberg, Merchant
(MIT Press/Goldsmiths Press, May 21)

Between the renewed identification with Decameron-inspired stories during the early pandemic and the enduring relevance of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, fiction brings us so many ways to envision how retelling familiar stories will carry us into even the most terrifyingly transformative futures. Alexandra Grunberg’s debut (part of the Gold SF collection) recontextualizes William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in a flooded world, reexamining debt through the threat of mass starvation. Three figures’ paths converge: Jessica, a patrilineal Jew from a new Venice located on a mountaintop, begging the Japanese empress’ advisor Shinobu for more food; and Cem, long cast out of Venice.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Lost Ark Dreaming
(Tordotcom Publishing, May 21)

Suyi Davies Okungbowa has described this post-flood Africanfuturist novella as a vertical Snowpiercer, no doubt due to the evocative image of the Pinnacle, a former high-rise now partially submerged by the waters that radically transformed Lagos. Within this newly stratified tower, social class comes with your proximity to—or distance from—sea level; and it’s one of five buildings, formerly known as the Fingers, whose inhabitants compete for survival. When structural damage threatens to topple the Pinnacle, it brings together one resident from each tier: Upper bureaucrat Ngozi, deigning to investigate what lurks at the Pinnacle’s foundation; Midder analyst Yekini, whose career hinges on the answer; and Lower mechanic Tuoyo, who may be the only person who can ensure the building’s future, if she so chooses.

Charlotte Bond, The Fireborne Blade
(Tordotcom Publishing, May 28)

I’m a sucker for lady knights, and I’ve been excited for this epic fantasy novella since I first saw the cover: depicting warrior Maddileh tasked with retrieving the eponymous Fireborne Blade from the fearsome White Lady, a dragon who eats knights like Maddileh for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Accustomed to contempt from her male peers, Maddileh is ready to venture into the dragon’s den with her trusty squire Petros, though the timeline-hopping implies that both of them may have ulterior motives for this potential suicide mission. This slim first volume is packed with engaging worldbuilding that makes it no surprise that there’s already a sequel set for later this year: The Bloodless Princes, out October 29.