Our Most Anticipated Releases of the Month
#1 The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
October 28 | Tor Books
From Alix E. Harrow, the New York Times bestselling author of Starling House, comes a moving and genre-defying quest about the lady-knight whose legend built a nation, and the cowardly historian sent back through time to make sure she plays her part-even if it breaks his heart.
Sir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters--but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten.
Centuries later, Owen Mallory--failed soldier, struggling scholar--falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives--and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs.
But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend--if they want to tell a different story--they'll have to rewrite history itself.
#2 All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu
Julia Z. #1 | October 14 | Saga Press
Award--winning author Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following former "orphan hacker" Julia Z as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her AI-whispering skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery, rescue a kidnapped dream artist, and confront the blurred lines between technology, selfhood, and the power of shared dreams.
Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the "orphan hacker," is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a quiet Boston suburb.
But when a lawyer named Piers--whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals--barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can't walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle. Elli is an oneirofex, a dream artist, who can weave the dreams of an audience together through a shared virtual landscape, live, in a concert-like experience by tapping into each attendee's memories and providing an emotionally resonant narrative experience. While these collective dreams are anonymous, Julia discovers that Elli was also dreaming one-on-one with the head of an international criminal enterprise, and he's demanding the return of his dreams in exchange for Elli.
Unraveling the real and unreal leads Julia on an adventure that takes her across the country and deep into the shadows of her psyche.
#3 The Door on the Sea by Russell Caskey
The Raven and Eagle #1 | October 7 | Solaris
An epic quest fantasy debut that is the Tlingit indigenous response to The Lord of the Rings
When Elān trapped a salmon-stealing raven in his cupboard, he never expected it would hold the key to saving his people from the shapeshifting Koosh invaders plaguing their shores. In exchange for its freedom, the raven offers a secret that can save Elān's home: the Koosh have lost one of their most powerful weapons, and only the raven knows where it is.
Elān is tasked with captaining a canoe crewed by an unlikely team including a human bear-cousin, a massive wolf, and the endlessly vulgar raven. To retrieve the weapon, they will face stormy seas, cannibal giants and a changing world. But Elān is a storyteller, not a warrior.
As their world continues to fall to the Koosh, and alliances are challenged and broken, Elān must choose his role in his own epic story.
#4 Queen Demon by Martha Wells
Rising World #2 | October 7 | Tor Books
From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel, Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.
Dahin, a beloved member of the Witch King's coterie, believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.
Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?
And can he trust his companions to do what's right?
#5 Tom's Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski
October 28 | Pantheon
From the bestselling author of House of Leaves comes a magisterial novel about two friends determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter.
"This is an amazing work of fiction. I absolutely loved it. At the heart you'll find a blood-drenched story of pursuit and two brave and resourceful children. But there's so much more. I immersed myself. Have never read anything like it." --Stephen King
Hard to figure how so much awful horror could've started out with just them two horses and not a one yet named...
While folks still like to focus on the crimes that shocked the small city of Orvop, Utah, back in the fall of 1982, not to mention the trials that followed, far more remember the adventure that took place beyond municipal lines.
For sure no one expected the dead to rise, but they did. No one expected the mountain to fall either, but it did. No one expected an act of courage so great, and likewise so appalling, that it still staggers the heart and mind of anyone who knows anything about the Katanogos massif, to say nothing of Pillars Meadow.
As one Orvop high school teacher described that extraordinary feat just days before she died, Fer sure no one expected Kalin March to look Old Porch in the eye and tell him: You get what you deserve when you ride with cowards.
Other Notable New Releases
A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo
Singing Hills #6 | October 7 | Tordotcom
Wandering Cleric Chih of Singing Hills and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant come to the river town of Baolin chasing stories of a legendary famine. Amid tales of dishes served to royalty and desserts made of dust, they discover the secrets of what happens when hunger stalks the land and what the powerful will do to hide their crimes.
Trapped in the mansion of a sinister magistrate, Chih and Almost Brilliant must learn what happened in Baolin when the famine came to call, and they must do so quickly...because the things in the shadows are only growing hungrier.
The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award.
Hole in the Sky by Daniel H. Wilson
October 7 | Doubleday Books
A Native American first contact story and gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse
"Thrilling and personal... an important addition to the landscape of science fiction."--Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Rising
"Hole in the Sky is mind-bending... indigenous knowledge collides with science fiction in a thrilling page-turner."--Sterlin Harjo, filmmaker and writer of Reservation Dogs
On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA's headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: "First contact imminent."
Daniel H. Wilson's Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson's unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans' understanding of reality.
Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tyrant Philosophers #2.5 | October 14 | Head of Zeus
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SERIES 2025
City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring 'Perfection' and 'Correctness' to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they despatch Outreach - the rain before the storm.
Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy - converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.
Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she'll learn that the price of her nation's success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 edited by Nnedi Okorafor
October 21 | Mariner Books
Of science fiction and fantasy, guest editor Nnedi Okorafor writes, "There are times when it feels like a box, but within it, technically, you can expect anything." The twenty stories in this collection simultaneously fulfill and defy expectations of genre, showcasing boundary-pushing authors at their best. In this year's Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, a robot will struggle to make friends, a team of auditors determines the financial value of a lifetime, an alien species will teach you how to read, and maybe, just maybe, someone will finally do something about the kid in Ursula K. Le Guin's Omelas hole. From the joyous to the terrifying, to the heart wrenching and the absurd, these stories encourage you to open your mind and, as Okorafor promises: "Watch your world expand."
The Rose Field by Philip Pullman
The Book of Dust #3 | October 23 | Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
The breathtaking conclusion to Philip Pullman's Book of Dust! This landmark trilogy, set in the world readers first glimpsed in The Golden Compass, continues the story of Lyra: "one of fantasy's most indelible heroines" (The New York Times Magazine).
"It's a stunning achievement, this universe Pullman has created and continues to build on." --The New York Times
Picking up right where The Secret Commonwealth left off, this story finds Lyra alone in a city haunted by daemons, searching for her beloved Pan. Malcolm Polstead isn't far behind, searching for Lyra. And they are both racing toward the desert of Karamakan, following the trail of roses said to hold the secret of Dust.
Their allies and enemies are converging on the mysterious red building at the heart of the desert: Marcel Delamare and the military might of the Magisterium; the radical Men from the Mountains; scientists, scholars and spies; troops of witches and other people of the air. And awaiting them all is a previously unseen and chilling new threat that will change everything.
The intertwining odysseys of Malcolm and Lyra, their journeys both internal and external, will test their limits and challenge even their most dearly held beliefs.
As ever, Philip Pullman is using the language of fantasy to illuminate our world and to explore the deepest questions of what it means to be alive and awake to all the splendors and horrors around us. The extraordinary novels of The Book of Dust speak powerfully to today's readers and will take their place alongside the forever-favorites of His Dark Materials.
No Life Forsaken by Steven Erikson
Tales of Witness #2 | October 28 | Tor Books
New York Times bestselling author Steven Erikson continues his beloved Malazan Book of the Fallen--the iconic epic fantasy series that has sold more than 1.5 million copies--with the second book in the thrilling Witness sequel series.
Return to the Malazan Empire!
A goddess awakens to a new world in the second thrilling book in the Witness series, continuing the iconic saga of the Malazan Book of the Fallen
Amidst the ashes of a failed rebellion in Seven Cities, new embers are flaring to life. There are furrowed brows at the beleaguered Malazan Legion headquarters in G'danisban, for it would appear that yet another bloody clash with the revived cult of the Apocalyptic is coming to a head.
Seeking to crush the uprising before it ignites the entire subcontinent, Fist Arenfall has only a few dozen squads of marines at his disposal, and many of those are already dispersed--endeavoring to stamp out multiple brush-fires of dissent. His soldiers are exhausted, worn down by the grind of a simmering insurrection. The last thing Arenfall needs is the arrival of the new Adjunct, fresh from the capital and the Emperor's side.
The man's mission may be to lend support to Arenfall's efforts . . . or stick a knife in his back. 'Twas ever thus, of course. That a popular commander should inevitably be seen as a threat to the Emperor--such is the fatal nature of imperial Malazan politics.
And what of the gods? Well, as recent history has proved, their solution to any mortal mess is to make it even messier. In other words, it's just another tumultuous day in the checkered history of the Malazan Empire.
Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone
Craft Wars #3 | Tor Books | October 28
From the co-author of the viral New York Times bestseller This Is How You Lose the Time War....
Great powers clash and epic action unfolds in book three of the Craft Wars series.
The time until the end-times is ticking away. If the world has any hope of surviving, it must come together now.
The foundations of the world are quaking. Markets crash and cities burn as a new god struggles to be born. Ancient hunters skitter across space, eager and hungry. Dark forces conspire to undermine anything or anyone who could stand in their way. Divided, the world of the craft is certain to fall.
In Alt Coulomb, the great powers of the world gather in conference. Empires, divinities, and corporate concerns take seats at the table. Untold wealth and inexhaustible might is on offer, but coalition will not come easily. Can these forces come together to save the world? And if they do, what parts of it will they choose to save, and for whom?
The Dagger in Vichy by Alastair Reynolds
October 31 | Subterranean Press
Alastair Reynolds is back with an eerie mix of fantasy and science fiction, in a riveting novella that combines golden age adventure with the sophisticated sensibilities of Station Eleven. In a deep medieval future, a band of players travels across France to perform the same old tales in the same old towns. When passing soldiers entrust them with a mysterious box that they say must be delivered to the Imperator, old playwright Master Guillaume and young escaped thief Rufus puzzle at what the box might contain. When Rufus overhears strange conversations between his Master Guillaume and the thing in the box, he must choose between his loyalty to the man who saved him from the noose and fear of the ancient intelligence working in their midst. Secrets spill out over the road to Avignon, and none in the troupe are safe. Not Blind Benedict, who once saw the faceless Empty Knight patrolling the deathless Wald that creeps ever closer to the cities, and not Master Bernard whose sensible plans are not equal to the eldritch thing the company now carries with them. All the world's a stage, and so was every world that came before.
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