Here's the first batch of SF/F books to check out in October 2026
Another packed month for readers
Here's a quick announcement for those of you in the Vermont area: I'll be interviewing Annalee Newitz at Phoenix Books in Burlington when they stop by on their book tour for their new book A Wall is Also A Road (more on that below) on October 15th. I'd love to see you if you're able to make it, and you can find the details about that here.
I'll also note: I use affiliate links through Bookshop.org, and apparently they're running a site-wide promotion: through midnight on October 7th, you can get free shipping on your order.
Okay: as always, you can also check out past installments of this book list series by hitting up the Book List tag. Here are 24 new books that you should check out this month:
Atomic Coffin by Benedict Anning (October 6th)
At the tail end of the Cold War, a British spy named Heidi Sperling escaped from East Berlin with an intriguing piece of information: a critical piece of intelligence about a previously-unknown Soviet submarine, known as TK-15. It seems that for the past three years, it's been sitting on the ocean floor between Scotland and Iceland, but it's just sent a message.
Heidi is thrust into a new covert mission: find the submarine and neutralize it. She's picked up by a British sub, the HMS Viking and is brought to TK-15, where she finds that it's inhabited by something otherworldly, and that the Soviets were trying to figure out some way to get an edge in the ongoing nuclear conflict. However, whatever's onboard threatens far more than the crew of the Viking.
Publishers Weekly says "Anning infuses the narrative with 1980s nostalgia, from cassette tapes played on a Walkman to nuclear war jitters, but keeps the focus on more timeless fears of loss of memory and dissociation from reality."
Tales from the Territory by Travis Baldree (October)
Fans of Travis Baldree's cozy Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust, and Brigands & Breadknives should be interested in this new collection: Tales from the Territory, which brings together five shorter stories set in the same world (three of which are original to this book): "Goblins & Greatcoats", "Just a Thimbleful", "Pages to Fill", "Mirograph", and "Cavaliers & Coffees".
It also comes with illustrations from Leesha Hannigan and is printed in two colors. Tales will be printed in two colors throughout, with a full-page illustration for each story. This is being published by Subterranean Press, so it's signed but also limited to 1500 copies.
Publishers Weekly says "Baldree’s stories, tinged with humor, heart, and subtle social commentary, remain as comforting and refreshing as ever."
Andrew Liptak
But wait, there's more: Baldree is also releasing a graphic novel edition of Legends & Lattes, which has been adapted by Samuel Sattin and illustrated by Shanti Rittgers and Sarah Webb.
American Crow by Ryan Burruss (October 6th)
Set in a post-World War II suburb in Maryland, a veteran has settled with his family, hoping to find some peace after the traumatic experience he and his neighbors went through. There's a dark force that's settled along with them, feeding off of their anger and trauma. Things begin to come undone when a stranger arrives: a bookbinder who's been leaving behind small handmade books around. He's formed a bond with a girl in the town, and they find that his past is tied up with the dangers lurking in their quiet backyards.
This sounds like a really intriguing and grim story: I love these sorts of "darkness hidden away in a quiet community" type of stories.
The House Built on Alligator Bones by Sophia Huneycutt (October 6th)
When Dartrine Beaumont's mother dies, some long-lost relatives in Florida reach out. At first, she's warmed by the prospect: they're wealthy and she feels a little less alone in the world. When she heads down for a visit, she finds what the family business really is: alligator farming.
These distant relatives also aren't what she expected: she finds herself in competition with her arrogant family members, and is disturbed by her grandmother's belief that the family is cursed – that one particular alligator has hunted her family for generations. She has to work to find out the truth behind the family's legacy, and then figure out if she should stay or find a new direction for her life.
Free to Play: A Video Games Anthology edited by Adan Jimenez, Daryl Lim, Joses Ho, and Natalie Wang (October 6th)
This is a pretty cool-looking project, one that examines games as a form of literature. It examines games such as Animal Crossing, Fortnite, God of War, Pokémon, Skyrim, Super Mario Bros, Venba, and World of Warcraft, through essays, comics, poetry and more, from authors such as , Erica Eng, Wen-yi Lim, Ken Liu, Alvin Pang, Meihan Boey, Gabriela Lee, and Myle Yan Tay.
Star Wars: Star Pilots by Chris Kempshall (October 6th)
Has there ever been a book that's perfectly tailored for me? Chris Kempshall follows up 2024's Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire with another in-universe history, one that examines the role that X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles played in the Galactic Civil War in a sort of oral history that explores the battles and tactics that the Rebels used against the Empire, but also the quiet moments in between, looking at the bonds that he formed with his fellow pilots, and the despair that he felt at their losses.
I'm really excited to dig into this: not only because I've got a background in military history (and might as well in Star Wars) but some of my favorite stories from the entire franchise revolve around the pilots and how they won the war.
Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub (October 6th)
Stephen King and Peter Straub teamed up way back in 1984 and again in 2001 for a pair of epic horror novels: The Talisman and Black House. Straub died in 2022, leaving the story that they'd started unfinished. King has finally completed the novel, continuing the story of Jack Sawyer, who discovered the Territories (a series of alternate worlds) as a child and who eventually worked to forget his experiences and went on to become an officer in the LAPD, only to be drawn back by a serial killer.
In this third and final installment (which is being billed as working as a standalone), Sawyer has to stop a gang of infected teenagers and a threat from Mid-World that could destroy the entire multiverse.
Anthony Breznican says in his review over on Esquire that "the new novel itself isn’t melancholy or ponderous. It’s a roller-coaster ride, but among its stomach-dropping powers is the ability to make the world of the past reach out its hand to the present."
Find Me Where It Ends by Cassandra Khaw (October 6th)
A woman named Antigone has long known about death: it's arrived in the shape of a black dog for the various women in her life, and now it's arrived for her. She isn't afraid of it, and as she lives with it, she reflects on the life that she's lived. She finally has permission to rest, but death still comes at a price.
Writing for the Skiffy and Fanty show, Trish Matson says that "part of the depression in Find Me Where It Ends is about harsh self-criticism, and brutal verbal exchanges, and lacking empathy for each other’s struggles; part is about the weight of unrelenting exhaustion; and part is about withdrawing from life, and the self-acceleration toward destruction that doing so can encourage."
The Angel at the Gates by Karen Lord (October 6th)
A man named Malachi works to bring a family heirloom back to his ancestral homeland, hoping to come to terms with the trauma that haunted his grandfather. When he arrives, he finds the priory, only to find that it's reluctant to let him go. The priory, its people, and the Angel that resides there have played their own roles in the conflicts that have plagued the region, and Malachi has to try and find a way to escape before he's overcome.
At the Mountains of Madness: And Other Tales of Weird Science by H.P. Lovecraft, edited by Leslie S. Klinger (October 6th)
There's no shortage of collections of H.P. Lovecraft's works, but every now and again, there's a new edition that's worth checking out. That's the case with this one, which features an introduction by Gideon the Ninth author Tamsyn Muir and accompanied by a foreword and notes by noted genre scholar Leslie S. Klinger.
This collection features nine of Lovecraft's stories: “Polaris,” “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” “The Temple,” “From Beyond,” “Herbert West: Reanimator,” “The Shunned House,” “Cool Air,” “The Whisperer in Darkness,” and At the Mountains of Madness. They're accompanied by 19 illustrations and Klinger's annotations and notes for each story. This volume also follows four prior anthologies edited by Klinger: The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories, The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, and The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art just opened in Los Angeles, and in the grand tradition of most museums, it's published a spectacular-looking museum catalog with TASCHEN. The museum draws from George Lucas's personal archive of artwork, and has a particular focus on popular artwork, the types of stuff you see in comics, films, television shows, photography and quite a bit more.
I'm dying to visit this museum, but this might be the next best thing if I can't make it for a while.
A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School by Kuzhali Manickavel (October 6th)
In a small Tamil Nadu town, a local school is packed with supernatural entities, including Thamarai, who's an outsider amongst her peers. She hates her English teacher and how he treats the other girls in her grade, and when she discovers a notebook that identifies the entities inhabiting the school, she thinks she might have a way to escape.
The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society by James Marriott (October 6th)
This looks like a .... not entirely fun read, but it's a topic that I try and keep an eye on: the state of reading in America. In it, Marriott takes a look at how reading established itself as a widespread and important past time, and looking at its impact on the world at large, before looking at why literacy is declining around the world.
Michael O’Donnell writes in the LA Review of Books that "the key contribution of The New Dark Ages is to tie literacy to the Enlightenment. Marriott asserts that the written word’s receding influence has something to do with the steady disappearance of values like reason, scientific inquiry, political liberalism, and religious skepticism."
A Wall Is Also a Road by Annalee Newitz (October 6th)
This is one of my most anticipated books of the year: Annalee Newitz is one of those authors that I'll pick up everything with their name on it. Their new novel follows a sentient slime mold named Gardenpath who's working on a graduate degree and ends up in Pompei. There, it meets a brothel worker named Murtis, who takes Gardenpath under her wing and introduces it to their wonderful and vibrant city. It's a friendship that puts Gardenpath on a very different track for their life, and they begin to wonder if there's more to life than academic achievement.
I've started reading it and it's a fascinating story so far. I can't wait to finish it.
Andrew Liptak
China + 100 edited by Xueting C. Ni (October 8th)
Comma Press continues their series that examines the near future of various nations around the world (prior installments include Iraq + 100, Iran+100, Egypt + 100, Kurdistan +100, and Palestine +100) with a new nation: China.
Edited by Xueting C. Ni, it brings together 10 Chinese writers who were tasked with imagining what their home might look like in the year 2119, a century after the initial outbreak of COVID-19. Authors include Lu Hang, Zhou Dedong, Ling Chen , Dan Shi , He Zun, He Xi, Anna Wu, Tang Fei, Zhao Haihong , Yimei Tangguo, and Chen Qiufan, who focus on stories about superfungi, outbreaks in deep space, social issues, viruses, and quite a bit more.
Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger (October 6th)
Audrey Niffenegger is best known for her novel The Time Traveler's Wife, and she's back with a new novel set in the same world: Henry DeTramble's daughter Alba has the same condition as he does: Chrono-Displacement Disorder, and she finds that she too has been falling back in time unexpectedly. She's been trying to maintain a safe connection with Zach, and has made friends who've formed a tight-knit community to form some level of safety in a chaotic world.
Charlie Jane Anders just reviewed it on her newsletter, saying "The word that kept coming to mind as I read Life Out of Order is "humanist," or perhaps "humane." This is a book that treats its characters with immense tenderness and care, while still showing how they deal with all the disasters and problems that arise through their lives."
The Sixth Faction by Veronica Roth (October 6th)
Veronica Roth returns to the world of her Divergent series (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four.) with an interesting new entry – it's not a sequel or prequel, but a sort of alternate story. It follows Beatrice Prior and in much the same way as Divergent began but when she heads to the Choosing Ceremony, she's diverted off into an alternate reality where she finds herself in the aim of a revolution and where she encounters a boy with his own secrets, and who might be the only person she can trust to survive.
Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying that "r eturning fans and those new to this world will appreciate the witty banter, slow-burn romance, and heartache stemming from betrayal and complicated familial love."
Victorious by V.E. Schwab (October 6th)
Victoria Schwab finishes out her Villains series (which started with Vicious and Vengeful) with Victorious. In the first, we were introduced to Victor and Eli, who found they could develop certain special abilities, only for things to go terribly wrong.
The pair have long been opposites and mortal enemies, and they're now set up against one another one last time, pawns in a greater game that will see only one victor.
Fitcher's Bird by A.G. Slatter (October 6th)
Years ago, three sisters – Chloe, Dido, and Zoe – were sent off to live with their doctor's family when their father died and their mother couldn't take care of them anymore. Tragedy struck again when their new home burned down, leaving them as the only survivors.
As they grew older, they learned to deal with this traumatic past, but when Chloe and Zoe disappear, Dido has to figure out what happened in their past in order to find out what happened to them all those years ago.
The Book of the Dead: An Anthology by Jonathan Strahan (October 6th)
Jonathan Strahan brings together a new anthology just in time for spooky season: it's full of stories about death: how, what happens, what do we find, and what do we leave behind? It features a powerhouse table of contents with stories from the likes of Paolo Bacigalupi, Elizabeth Bear, Andy Duncan, Daryl Gregory, Jeffrey Ford, Stephen Graham Jones, Cassandra Khaw, Isabel J Kim, Samantha Mills, Premee Mohamed, Kelly Robson, Wole Talabi, Cadwell Turnbull, Paul Tremblay, and many others.
The Forest Year: Finding Hope in a World Worth Saving by Ethan Tapper (October 6th)
Ethan Tapper was the headliner at this year's Green Mountain Book Festival, and he provided some amazing insights into his work as a forester and how he sees the field and the health of our forests. We had him in just ahead of the release of his next book (following the excellent How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World), The Forest Year.
Andrew Liptak
In this book, Tapper continues to explore our relationship with our forests and ecosystems as he spends a year on his property in Vermont, Bear Island. As he spends that time in one place, he looks at the interconnected nature of the animals and plants that he's coexisting with, and reflects on our responsibilities we have to nature.
Publishers Weekly says "his lyrical, empathetic explanations result in a moving testament to how ecosystems can be restored to 'their true capacity for life.'”
The Hobbit: Illustrated by Tove Jansson by J.R.R. Tolkien (October 6th)
This looks like a fun addition to one's Tolkien shelf. (What, you don't have a shelf of Tolkien books?) This edition comes with illustrations from Swedish illustrator Tove Jansson, which had been published in Sweden in 1962, and which hasn't really been reprinted often since. They look beautiful, and something a little different from some of the other editions that are out there.
Night of the Mallrats by Nicolina Torres (October 6th)
Colleen's never quite been able to move on from her life in the 1990s, and when her high school friends come back, they decide to go out and relive those fond memories by revisiting the abandon Beechnut Mall where they all used to hang out. What they don't know is that something is hiding in the mall, and the group finds themselves pulled back in time to 1994 when one of their classmates went missing. It's up to them to figure out what has been lurking in the place and solving this mystery might allow them to move on with their lives.
Publishers Weekly says "the exciting mystery and impressive scene-setting are sure to suck readers in."
The Scarlet Ball by Nghi Vo (October 6th)
It's about Judith Ban, who's lived in a convent, as a courtesan, and a thief, and she's looking for her next identity. She's arrived in New York, and she's a little overwhelmed by the place: it's secrets, and the women who've built up power through a series of ritualistic marriages.
She strikes up a deal that will get her enough money to forget her past. She'll pretend to be a missing granddaughter from a powerful family, and takes on her face and role in society. If she can succeed, she'll be well off, just she has to first survive the Scarlet Ball, where women are wedded off to demons.
As always, thanks for reading. Let me know what catches your eye on this list, and what you might have on your TBR at the moment.