Most Anticipated New Books- May 2021

The Kingdoms – Natasha Pulley

Release Date – May 25th

Natasha Pulley has become one of my favorite authors over the past several years. Her Watchmaker of Filigree Street has been some of the best historical magical realism around. The Kingdoms sounds like its very much in the same line as Pulley’s previous works. The plot seems to focus on an alternate reality where France rules England during the nineteenth century. Given Pulley’s previous success with the time period, I’m all the way in.

Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir

Release Date – May 4th

Andy Weir is back! Weir is most well known for writing The Martian. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, it was an incredibly successful book that spawned an incredibly successful movie. I found Weir’s follow-up, Artemis, to be a bit uneven. Weir’s new book, Project Hail Mary, sounds like it’s in a similar vein as his first two novels. An astronaut wakes up with amnesia with dead crewmates on a mission that must be completed to save the world. Lone astronaut deep in space certainly harkens back to The Martian. Weir’s science-based approach to science fiction is one that I like and I’m hoping Project Hail Mary is a return to what he achieved with The Martian.

Sorrowland – Rivers Solomon

Release Date – May 4th

Rivers Solomon has been a name to watch in literature over the past few years. On the heels of the success they found with An Unkindness of Ghosts and The Deep, Solomon is back with Sorrowland. The novel is billed as a “genre-bending work of Gothic fiction” and the summary makes the book sound focused on monsters big and small. Where Solomon is involved you can be sure an insightful commentary will be woven into the fiction.

Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment – Daniel Kahneman

Release Date – May 18th

I, admittedly, do not read much non-fiction these days. While it used to make up a large chunk of my TBR pile, I find I’ve soured a bit on spending so much of my headspace analyzing every intricacy of the human condition. That being said, Thinking, Fast and Slow is one of the finest in the field and Noise sounds like a similarly interesting premise. Kahneman is back to investigate how noise in decision making can have very far-reaching societal impacts.

Son of the Storm – Suyi Davies Okungbowa

Release Date – May 11th

We seem to be going through a veritable boom of mainstream, Afro-centric genre novels. Children of Blood and Bone, the works of N.K Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor, and The Gilded Ones are just a few of my favorite examples. Son of the Storm will be the first work I’ve read from Suyi Davies Okunbowa but if it lives up to the fun and fantasy the publisher summary promises I’m guessing it won’t be the last!

Ariadne – Jennifer Saint

Release Date – May 4th

I openly admit the reason this caught my eye is the number of similarities it draws to Circe by Madeline Miller. Circe is one of my favorite books and from plot to cover art, Ariadne seems to be leaning in to that comparison. Jennifer Saint will set out to re-tell the tale of Ariadne, Princess of Crete, in a novel adaptation. These novels that re-work Greek mythology have been an absolute hit for me, so I’m hoping that Ariadne is more of the same.