September 2026 brings a a flood of new sci-fi and fantasy books

More books than you can shake a stick at

Image: Andrew Liptak

I'm back from LACon, and had a good time: it was great to catch up with a bunch of folks that I haven't seen in years, and to remind myself that the literary world isn't just words on a page: it's a huge community of people tapping out words to connect and inspire one another. I came away from the convention a bit more refreshed, even if I barely managed to cut down on my to-read list while traveling back and forth to California from Vermont.

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Okay, here are 17 new science fiction and fantasy books to check out in the first half of the month. I'll have two additional roundups for you in the weeks ahead. As always, you can see prior installments of this monthly book roundup here.

Crimson in Quietus: A Sauútiverse Novel by Eugen Bacon (September 1st)

Eugen Bacon adds a new installment to the Sauútiverse collective world, Crimson in Quietus. The world is a shared universe that is designed to "create a space for African and African diaspora writers and creators to collaborate and share fantastical ideas," and it has a growing number of shorter stories and other works, including Bacon's novella The Nga'phandileh Whisperer and a pair of anthologies, Mothersound, edited by Wole Talabi and Sauúti Terrors: Short Stories, edited by Bacon, Stephen Embleton, and Cheryl S. Ntumy.

In this new adventure, Muso'mi is a maadiregi: someone who can consume sound and rework its powers. She enters a school called Mahadum, where she works to master her gifts. When her friend discovers a secret and goes missing, she has to go after them, discovering a string of violence and harvested silence, the work of a serial killer who has also mastered the power of sound.

Survivor by Octavia Butler (September 1st)

Octavia Butler's long-out-of-print novel Survivor is back on bookshelves. It's one installment of her five-book Patternist series, which in 1976 with Patternmaster. That novel was set in the distant future, about telepath who's fighting for a position of power in his society.

Originally published in 1978, Survivor is set centuries before Patternmaster (and after Wild Seed, Clay's Ark, and Mind of My Mind), following a woman named Alanna, a colonist who leaves a damaged Earth and arrives on a planet inhabited by the Kohn, where she finds herself swept up in their internal conflicts.

Butler famously refused to let this book back into print throughout her lifetime, noting that it was her "Star Trek" novel and wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. Copies have thus been extremely hard to come by, and readers will have to balance Butler's wishes that it would just go away, and being a completionist. It'll be interesting to see what reactions will be.

Zero Lives Remaining by Adam Cesare (September 1st)

Union Square & Co. has launched a novella line, and the first book out of the gate is Adam Cesare's Zero Lives Remaining. It kicks off in 1989 when FunCave Arcade employee Robby Asario is killed in a pizza machine, and who ends up inhabiting the arcade as a friendly ghost.

Decades later, the arcade is still going strong amidst a craze for retro games, with Robby still watching over the place. He cares about the regulars, and when a favorite patron of his, Tiffany Park, is being bullied, he steps in and kills them, absorbing his victim's hate and rage. Now, he's going on a killing spree, with the rest of the patrons trapped inside.

Driven by Mason Coile (September 8th)

After his wife and child have left, Jamie Newcross wants nothing more than to vanish and escape from everything. He thinks that he's being haunted: every house and apartment he moves to seems to be inhabited by ghosts, and he's running on little sleep and sanity. He starts to make a plan: he finds someone getting rid of their Lion, an advanced self-driving car, which he thinks will give him some reprieve from his demons.

But when he wakes up in the car to find it driving down a dark road and with a dent in its hood, he finds that it's not responding to him, and it won't let him out. As he finds himself along for this grim ride, he's forced to reckon with his past and figure out how to survive.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, saying "Coile makes a meal of this hair-raising premise while crafting a nuanced portrait of his flawed and deeply human lead."

I Am the Night: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series by Daniel Dockery (September 1st)

I love a good genre history, and this one looks like a fascinating entry: a history of Batman: The Animated Series. The series began in 1992 and ran for only two seasons (85 episodes in all), but it's had an outsized impact on not only animation, but on the Batman universe as well.

Dockery looks at the folks behind the show and how they worked to craft the series at a time when the animation field wasn't the best fit, and how they'd depict the character in the series. This promises to be a deep dive with a whole bunch of new revelations about the series and how it came about.

As an aside, it's a good opportunity to plug this video by YouTuber KaptainKristian about the series.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (September 1st)

One of Harlan Ellison's best-known shorter stories is "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," about a group of people trapped inside a simulation by a malevolent AI that's bent on torturing them. It's been an incredibly influential story, and it's now being published as a standalone novella, with some intriguing – and controversial extras: a new foreword, some photographs and essays by Ellison, and another piece that his estate's executor, J. Michael Stracynzki used AI for – a response to the story.

Blacktail by Scott Hawkins (September 1st)

A wolf named Blacktail finds that his forest and territory is being overrun by men. While he has faith in the Forest God, that doesn't seem to be enough, and when his mate, a domesticated dog, is killed, he goes after her owners to exact revenge. His anger attracts the attention of a witch, who presents him with an offer: he could help end humanity and their destruction by waking the Forest God, and sets off on a quest to do so.

Kirkus Reviews awarded the book a starred review, saying "Though the narrative falls into a predictable pattern of travel interludes with other woodland and household animals, Hawkins cleverly distinguishes each fox or bear or even two-legger that Blacktail encounters. Despite the apocalyptic stakes, he grounds the animal protagonists in familiar rituals—they hunger, they love, they protect—and even a relatable sense of humor and honor."

Scion by James Islington (September 1st)

In this cyberpunk adventure, an assassin is tasked with going after "lifers", members of the ultra wealthy class who can afford to life forever. It's not an easy job, but he's exceptionally good at it, and his latest mission turns out to be something a little different: he has to protect an asset and finds himself in the midst of a larger conspiracy.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "mayhem and skullduggery ensue, with myriad red herrings and shocking twists all bolstered by the tense and often humorous working relationship between Jasa and Azure. The result is explosive and delightfully cinematic, perfect for sci-fi fans who love a wisecracking, morally ambiguous protagonist."

As the Snow Gathers by Mere Joyce (September 1st)

The town of Aplin Shade is located deep in the Canadian wilderness, on the site of what had once been another settlement that vanished long ago. It's Dominic's home, and when his father is killed in a carriage accident, he's expected to step up and lead the family.

Dominic would rather leave, and he and his friend Lex hatch a plan to escape the brutal township. They face some serious challenges: the woods are home to the Fanteur, shadowy creatures who arrive in the night to suck the blood from the town's dead. They've never harmed the living until now, and as the cold winter approaches, Dominic and Lex have to fight their way out.

We Turn Gruesome At Night by Eric LaRocca (September 8th)

Eric LaRocca follows up last year's We Are Always Tender with Our Dead with We Turn Gruesome at Night. In the former, a gruesome crime took place on Christmas morning in the town of Burnt Sparrow, New Hampshire, and a decade later, the town is still trying to come to grips with what they experienced. Rupert Cromwell and Gladys Esherwood have been experiencing a monotonous existence in East House, and when a courier arrives with a message about a secret organization called The Perdido Society, they undercover a horrifying secret that affects their lives and home.

The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories by Ken Liu (September 8th)

One of my favorite authors is Ken Liu, who's written phenomenal novels like The Grace of Kings and last year's All That We See or Seem, and shorter stories, which he's collected in volumes like The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories.

He's now releasing another collection of his short fiction, The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories. In his newsletter, Ken noted that "If the theme of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is “what does it mean to live in time?” and the theme of The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is “what does it mean to be human?” then the theme of this newest collection is “what does it mean to talk and listen?” Its title story was originally published in Reactor in 2023, and it's accompanied by 12 additional stories.

Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, saying "taken as a whole, it’s a stirring paean to human connection and an impressive showcase for a writer at the top of his game."

Wickhills by Premee Mohamed (September 8th)

An intelligence agent named Vycol Ferec has been tasked with tracking down a scientist who defected. It should have been an easy job, but he's now on the run from his rogue handler.

The scientist he's after might be carrying a magical doomsday weapon, and to survive, Ferec and his team have to go underground, where they'll have to play by a whole new set of rules.

Booklist says that "fans of China Miéville’s novels, particularly King Rat (1999) and Perdido Street Station (2001), as well as Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach series will enjoy."

Massif by Garth Nix (September 8th)

Garth Nix is known for his books aimed at younger readers, but I was surprised to learn that his next is his adult debut: Massif. Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the Sassafras have been heading to a new system, where they'll engage and fight an enemy, then move onto the next system, hitching rides on the massive, star-faring creatures known as Massifs.

Humanity has plenty of questions about this arrangement: why do the Massifs help humanity carry their wars into the depths of space, but they're not supposed to think about or ask those questions, or even talk to the avatars that the Massifs have for them. But Parnell and his crew have to break that taboo and begin asking, so that they can save themselves and all of humanity.

Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, saying that "Nix grounds these epic stakes in human terms," and that "the result is a staggering adventure that should win Nix a whole new set of fans."

Engines of of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (September 1st)

A couple of years ago, I picked up and blew through Adrian Tchaikovsky's novel Elder Race, finding it to be a fascinating exploration of the disparities between enormously advanced cultures and those who haven't – as Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Tchaikovsky is back with a sequel, in which we catch up with Nyr and his companions 15 years later, as they confront some lingering issues that continue to plague their home. I'm really looking forward to returning to this world.

Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson (September 1st)

This novel follows a wealthy family that's been trying to find ways to overcome death. Geoff Blake just died for a second time, but it's something that the family has prepared for: they've got a stockpile of thousands of clones of their children, many of whom have been sent to live with families. There's a catch: should one of the Blakes need them for parts, they're to be brought back.

When Geoff dies, his memories are uploaded into one clone named Nathan, who's trying desperately to stay with his host family. Meanwhile, their youngest daughter Di is terrified of the procedures, realizing that the memory transfers don't always work.

Publishers Weekly says "Thompson uses minimal sci-fi worldbuilding to create this dark and occasionally comedic tale, focusing instead on the legal framework for these high-tech kidnappings and how their young victims fight for and against each other. It’s a thrilling and suspenseful ride."

All the Hidden Places by Cadwell Turnbull (September 1st)

Another author I'm a big fan of is Cadwell Turnbull, whose novels like The Lesson and No Gods, No Monsters provide some outstanding, socially-conscious reads about the world we live in. He's also written some outstanding short stories, and he's brought them together into his first collection, All the Hidden Places. One of the stories included is "Monsters Come Howling in Their Season," which I edited and included in a short fiction anthology I published at The Verge years ago. I'm eager to see what other adventures he has in store.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Whether on a distant planet or high mountain peak, or in a crowded urban setting or abandoned rural home, people struggle to cling to something larger than themselves. But, Turnbull suggests, perhaps what they really need sometimes is to narrow their focus rather than broaden it, to love someone, talk honestly with them, and be understood."

The Tower of Beggars by Torsten Weitze (September 1st)

A girl named Niri loses her entire family in a tragic accident, and now has to figure out how to survive in a hostile city that would rather turn her out. Her only possession is a copper coin that will grant her entry into the magical Stormfell Academy. That's only the first step: she has to figure out how to survive within the school and alongside its inhabitants.

The book has been super popular in Europe and is coming to the US and UK for the first time. In its review, IGN says that "the delicate balance between surviving and actually finding time to learn is where this story really shines."