John Scalzi's next book is Monsters of Ohio
Coming November 3rd, 2026
Last fall, John Scalzi was our headlining guest at the Green Mountain Book Festival, where we talked about humor, worldbuilding, and writing science fiction and genre literature.
Over the course of the day, Scalzi told us about what his next book would be about: people in a rural farming community have been feeling all sorts of pressures because of politics and culture, and they begin to explode and turn into monsters. Fittingly, it's called Monsters of Ohio, and he and his publisher announced that it'll be out in November this year.
Here's the plot description:
In many ways Richland, Ohio is the same tiny, sleepy rural village it has been for the last 150 years: The same families, the same farms, the same heartland beliefs and traditions that have sustained it for generations. But right now times are especially hard, as social and economic forces inside and outside the community roil the surface of the once-placid town.
Richland, in other words, is primed to explode... just not the way that anyone anywhere could ever have expected. And when things do explode, well, that’s when things start getting really weird.
Daniel Garvey left Richland decades back, to find his own way in the world. But when he is called back to his hometown to tie up some loose ends, he finds more going on than he bargained for, and is caught up in a sequence of events that will bring this tiny farm village to the attention of the entire world... and, perhaps, spell its doom.
It sounds very much in line with the type of books that he's written over the years, from aliens coming to Earth and acquiring Hollywood representation to better appeal to humans (Agent to the Stars) to cats running the world (Starter Villain) to the Moon turning to cheese (When the Moon Hits Your Eye). Over on his blog, Scalzi says that you can consider it to be "Cozy Cronenberg."
Andrew Liptak
Something that I've appreciated with Scalzi's books is that he's willing to do these sorts of zany adventures, and while a bunch of those books are pretty light fare, he's usually able to squeeze in some serious or thoughtful musing that really elevates the book by the time you reach the end. When the Moon Hits Your Eye felt like a pointed meditation on our collective memory and the COVID-19 pandemic, while Redshirts' three codas turned a funny gag (what happens if the expendable characters from a Star Trek-like show realized they were in a TV show?) into an emotional read.
Scalzi's an astute observer, and from eyeballing the description and what little he explained about it last year, I think it's reasonable to imagine that this is a story that'll be drawing some cues from the state of rural America and how we've weathered the last couple of decades as a country. I'm eager to see what this ends up looking like, and we'll find out toward the end of the year.
(Also, can we applaud the cover, illustrated by Michael Koelsch? It's so great to see a book with a fully illustrated cover, rather than just the usual typography or abstract covers that are the style these days.)