10 new SFF books that belong on your bookshelves this May

Snakeskins – Tim Major

Tim Major’s Snakeskins is the sort of science fiction that sounds designed to creep you out, exploring complex themes of cloning and identity. Obviously, it’s being touted as a work that’s perfect for fans of the TV series Humans, but I’d also throw Westworld and Altered Carbon in there, too. Or, you know, anything that makes the idea of what it means to be human kind of weird and uncomfortable.

Basically the gist of things is that a certain group of people known as Charmers have the ability to produce a clone of themselves every seven years. Yes, they do this by shedding their skins like a snake – which usually turn to dust. When one doesn’t do that, Caitlin must decide what happens to this copy of herself and whether the British government is plotting something nefarious. (Which, let’s be real, it probably is.)

Add in a couple additional POV characters, global corruption and an honestly creepy mystery, and the synopsis promises something rather extraordinary.

"Caitlin Hext’s first shedding ceremony is imminent, but she’s far from prepared to produce a Snakeskin clone. When her Skin fails to turn to dust as expected, she must decide whether she wishes the newcomer alive or dead. Worse still, it transpires that the Hext family may be of central importance to the survival of Charmers, a group of people with the inexplicable power to produce duplicates every seven years and, in the process, rejuvenate. In parallel with reporter Gerry Chafik and government aide Russell Handler, Caitlin must prevent the Great British Prosperity Party from establishing a corrupt new world order."

Snakeskins will be released on May 7.

The Rule of Many – Ashley and Leslie Saunders

This sequel to The Rule of One by Ashley and Leslie Saunders continues the ongoing story of a dark, dystopian future in which each family is restricted to having just one child and death awaits those who defy the law.

After being discovered by the son of colleague of their father, Ava and her (completely illegal and until very recently completely hidden) twin sister Mira have become the faces of rebellion against the oppressive state, and are the symbolic leaders at the head of a group trying to change the world.

Sure, this series seems a bit of a piece of the many other dystopian novels about bleak and terrifying futures that are so popular right now, but the complicated relationship between the story’s central twins make this one worth reading.

"As Ava and Mira relinquish the relative safety of their Canadian haven to stand against Roth, new allies arise: Owen, a gifted young programmer, impulsively abandons his comfortable life in a moment of compassion, while Zee, an abused labor camp escapee, finds new purpose in resistance. The four will converge on Dallas for a reckoning with Roth, with nothing less than their destinies—and the promise of a future free from oppression—on the line. Disobedience means death. But a life worth living demands rebellion."

The Rule of Many will be released on May 7.