10 new SFF books that belong on your bookshelves this May

Finale – Stephanie Garber

The highly anticipated conclusion to author Stephanie Garber’s bestselling Caraval trilogy, Finale aims to wrap up the story first set forth in Caraval and Legendary.

Originally focused on the story of a dazzling, invitation-only circus, its maybe-sinister mastermind and a girl who longs to see the spectacle before being forced into an arranged marriage, the Caraval series has expanded into something much more. Now, in Finale, the circus is over, a new king is about to be crowned, and a competition for the heart of a young woman is about to begin.

The official synopsis has a few more details:

"Welcome, welcome to Caraval…all games must come to an end. It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne. Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiance, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finally, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all."

Finale hits shelves on May 7.

Middlegame – Seanan McGuire

Award-winning writer Seanan McGuire  – both as herself and as author Mira Grant – returns this May with a new novel with an exceptionally dark premise. Middlegame is a story of two sort-of twins who aren’t quite human, and aren’t quite gods. Separated at birth, they may be fated to become the most powerful beings in the universe. Or…something else entirely.

Middlegame is “a story of friendship, of friendship, of family, of designer gods, and of life versus death, good versus evil. You know – pretty major stuff.”

"Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own. Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained."

Middlegame hits shelves on May 7.