We’re relaunching in 2021 with a new monthly fiction release feature! Each month, we’ll recommend five upcoming releases across speculative fiction to add to your TBR pile, with a mix of adult and YA books you should have on your radar. For March 2021, Girls in Capes Recommends ranges from a collection of fantasy fiction to the next installment of a space opera trilogy.
This month’s featured indie bookstore is Main Point Books, our partner for the Girls in Capes monthly book club. Main Point books is an independent bookstore in Wayne, Pennsylvania, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Burning Girls and Other Stories
Veronica Schanoes, March 2
In this collection, Veronica Schanoes brings together a selection of fantasy inspired by fairy tales, history, and now.
The eponymous story, “Burning Girls,” was published by Tor.com in 2013 and was a 2014 Nebula Award nominee.
A Desolation Called Peace
Arkady Martine, March 2
In the sequel to Martine’s Hugo Award-winning space opera debut A Memory Called Empire, the diplomat Mahit Dzmare is sent as an envoy to an invading alien fleet hovering on the edge of Teixcalaani space in an attempt to communicate with the silent and potentially hostile ships.
Readers who loved Ancillary Justice or The Three-Body Problem would be especially interested in the Teixcalaan novels, which wrestle with questions of colonialism, assimilation, and threats from without as well as within.
Machinehood
S.B. Divya, March 2
In 2095, humans are entirely dependent on pills that keep them alive and competitive in a spiraling gig economy—but a new terrorist organization called The Machinehood emerges with a demand for humanity to stop all pill production within a week. But is The Machinehood truly a new threat, or a new face on one that never truly disappeared?
Machinehood is the debut novel of S.B. Divya, whose previous publications include the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated cyberpunk novella Runtime from Tor Dot Com Publishing and the collection Contingency Plans For the Apocalypse and Other Situations from Hachette India.
Skyward Inn
Aliya Whiteley, March 16
After the war, Jem and Isley became innkeepers within the walls of the Western Protectorate—but in this surreal post-apocalyptic sci-fi, they’re soon put to the question of whether what they know of the war is real at all.
Described as “Jamaica Inn by way of Jeff Vandermeer, Ursula Le Guin, Angela Carter and Michel Faber,” Skyward Inn is a philosophical standalone sci-fi to add to your list.
The Unbroken
C.L. Clark, March 23
As a child, Touraine was taken from her homeland and raised to serve the empire without question—but when her company is sent there to stop a rebellion, her unquestioning loyalty is tested.
The Unbroken is the debut novel of C.L. Clark, whose speculative short fiction has appeared previously in FIYAH, Uncanny Magazine, and other publications.
Content warnings for The Unbroken are available on C.L. Clark’s website.
What March 2021 release are you most excited to see? Let us know on Twitter by tagging us @GirlsInCapes!
