7 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Sequels to Catch Up with This Winter

Mentats of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Early February brought us a new installment in the extended, modern Dune series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Mentats of Dune takes place long before the events of Dune and tells the story of the origins of the Mentat School. Here, acolytes enter to learn the techniques of training the human brain to sort, organize, and behave like a machine. Founder Gilbertus Albans believes in these abilities, but the compromises he has to make in order to survive the wrath of the anti-machine fanatics cause him to falter. Meanwhile, the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood is being rebuilt, and the Harkonnen-Atreides feud heats up as members of the families bring their grievances to arms. The future of humanity lies in the balance, and only by embracing what makes us human can we hope to survive the harsh future.

Firefight, by Brandon Sanderson
A direct sequel to Steelheart, Firefight picks up the justice-fueled superhuman tale right where the first ended. Steelheart’s power was so epic that nobody bothered to fight back when he turned sinister. Nobody except the Reckoners, ordinary humans who study Epics to find their weaknesses. David has set his mind to defeating the invincible Steelheart, and wouldn’t you know it, he does! Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make his life easier, but of course, it didn’t. Now David’s mind is filled with questions. Big ones, too, big enough to make him flee to Babylon Restored, a city formerly known as Manhattan. Ruled by an Epic named Regalia, Babylon Restored is a miserable place to live. But it’s here that David knows he’ll find his answers. Answers that happen to come in the form of another Epic, the beautiful and mysterious Firefight.

Golden Son, by Pierce Brown
The first book in the Red Rising series introduced Darrow, a member of the lowest caste known as the Reds. He believes if he works all day, every day, he and his fellow Reds can make the surface of Mars habitable for future generations. Not a bad philosophy, right? Life is pretty simple for these low class workers, until the day Darrow discovers mankind is already living on Mars. Not only living, but thriving. None of the Reds are happy about their pointless labor, and a society-wide power struggle ensues. In Golden Son, Darrow becomes a higher cast member, a Gold, and infiltrates their lavish society to destroy it from within. He discovers friendship and respect among these people, but he also tastes the cruelty of power struggles. To win this war, Darrow must put his own feelings aside and endure hardship after hardship in the name of the greater good.

Macaque Attack!, by Gareth Powell
With a name like Macaque Attack!, you hardly need to look beyond the title to know you wanna read it. The third book in Gareth Powell’s Ack-Ack Macaque series closes out the steampunk sci-fi trilogy with some serious primate drama. Genetically engineered monkey soldier Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself in charge of an army of angry monkeys that can hop through dimensions like toads can hop through… well, lots of things, since that’s what toads do. There’s a horde of killer androids on the loose, you see, and only the monkeys can stop them from their invade/conquer plans. On top of all that, Ack-Ack is preparing to deal with the biggest non-android challenge of his life: fatherhood. Nothing says great literature like Old World Monkeys raising offspring!

The Mime Order, by Samantha Shannon
This is the second book in the much-buzzed-about Bone Season sci-fi dystopian series. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, a near future version of London that’s essentially a giant prison governed by a draconian security force. Her job is to scout information by stealing it from people’s minds, because asking politely just doesn’t cut it anymore. In The Bone Season, Paige commits treason simply by breathing, and in The Mime Order, the story continues without skipping a beat. Paige escapes from the penal colony only to discover she’s the most wanted person in London. Everyone’s out to get her, including the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city’s ruthless gangs. She doesn’t know who she can trust or where she can run, only that she has to stay on the move if she wants to survive. I’d put a joke in here about Paige being trapped in an imaginary box, but I don’t want the mime-lords to come after me, too.

Voyage of the Basilisk: A Memoir by Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan
Did somebody say dragons? Marie Brennan did, and she wrote a whole book about them, too. A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent is an alternate history Victorian age tale that rounds out a trilogy of the scientist’s journals as she treks across the world in search of mythical beasts. Serpents and basilisks were the subject of her first few outings, but now the stakes are much higher. Literally, since dragons fly, but also metaphorically! Lady Trent strikes out on a two year journey to study dragons in their natural habitat, everywhere from ruined cities to the steamy tropical seas. Her son Jake is along for the ride, but so is a chivalrous archaeologist who might be interested in something other than dragons. If you know what I mean, wink wink.
What SFF sequels are you looking forward to this year?