In the meantime, Shannon Chakraborty is back with a new trilogy starter that can’t help but grab my attention. A legendary pirate is tempted out of retirement by one last job – do I need to continue? No, I didn’t think so. Expect more vibrant world-building and supernatural hijinks in a Middle Eastern setting with an older female protagonist. from Orbit Books.

Sticking with older female protagonists, Jane Hennigan’s post-pandemic dystopian thriller Moths get a new (‘remastered’) edition from Angry Robot on March 14th. 40 years after men had to be locked away to keep everyone safe from a deadly infection, a carer in her 70s confronts what her gynocratic society has become. This grabbed me with 70-year-old MC (I remain ultra cautious of dystopias at the moment).

Caution is for cowards, of course – unconquerable Sun is back on March 2nd (Head of Zeus) on the hunt for glory. Furious Heaven promises more politics and space battles as Princess Sun and the Empress Eirene fight to keep the Phene Empire at bay. But this is a re-imagination of the history of Alexander the Great – and it’s time for Sun to shine…

I’ve been meaning to investigate Victor LaValle for a while, and Lone Women will be my point of entry. In early twentieth century Montana, the government is offering land – even to women such as Adelaide Henry, with guilty secrets and horror in tow. I wouldn’t usually read homesteading tales of the American West, but in the hands of LaValle this promises to be a rather different sort of history. Out from One World Books on March 28th.

I have been coveting the gorgeous cover of Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s The Ten Percent Thief ever since I first saw it – the new Solaris Books edition finally hits the shelves on March 28th. Welcome to rigidly stratified Apex City, where the Virtual elite and barely human Analogs occupy opposite ends of the social scale – until a stolen Virtual jacaranda seed is planted in Analog soil. Dystopian cyberpunk (she says, like there’s any other cyberpunk) and social upheaval in an Indian setting? Yes please.

Last in today’s list but first in my heart is The Faithless, CL Clark’s follow-up to their devastating debut The Unbroken (out on March 9th from Orbit Books). Once again, just look at that cover and weep. As Balladaire withdraws from Qazal, Touraine will learn that ruling is harder than revolution (like that wasn’t hard enough) – and Luca will find herself in need of a champion if she is to claim her throne (and I wonder who that will be?) I have no doubt that Clark is coming for my heart and soul and frankly? I can‘t wait.