Our Most Anticipated Releases of the Month
#1 The Hexologists: A Tangle of Time by Josiah Bancroft
The Hexologists #2 | September 9 | Orbit
The first entry in the series, The Hexologists, was one of our favorite reads of 2024. We're extremely excited to read the next adventure of Iz and Warren Wilby. From the cover blurb:
From one of the most exciting and original voices in fantasy comes the second book following the adventures of the Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, as they tackle a case that could redefine the nature of magic itself.
As the nation's foremost investigators of the paranormal, Isolde and Warren Wilby are accustomed to bumping up against things that go bump in the night. They have made quite a name for themselves as the Hexologists: detectives of the uncanny, the monstrous, the strange. After a decade of wedded bliss and dozens of fantastical adventures, there is little in the world that can still surprise them.
But when a famous artist dies under suspicious circumstances, Isolde finds herself investigating a murder that may not have happened, and a crime scene that seems to shift beneath her feet. Not one to be easily thwarted, Isolde is compelled to take greater and greater risks in pursuit of her elusive answers. Meanwhile, the laws that govern magic appear to be breaking, and those cracks are spreading to the everyday world.
The mystery will carry the devoted duo to seedy underworlds, enchanted gardens, and subterranean military zoos. Old friends will come to the Wilbies' aid as they infiltrate secret societies, battle vicious imps, and flee from a pack of venomous wolves. Equipped with Isolde's hexes, Warren's muscle, and an enchanted bag full of magical relics, the Hexologists will have to risk life and limb to unravel the riddle at the heart of A Tangle of Time.
#2 A Sword of Gold and Ruin by Anna Smith Spark
September 23 | Flame Tree Press
Readers of Shauna Lawless and Thilde Kold Holdt will love this Celtic-inflected adventure by critically acclaimed, grimdark epic fantasy novelist, Anna Smith Spark.
The sequel to the masterpiece folk horror high fantasy A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, a lyrical blend of epic myth and daily life.
Kanda and her family are on a quest to rebuild the glory that was Roven. Mother and daughters stand together as a light against the darkness. But mother and daughters both have hands that are stained red with blood. They walk a path that is stranger and more beautiful than even Kanda dared imagine, bright with joy, bitter with grief. Ghosts and monsters dog their footsteps - but the greatest monsters lie in their hearts.
#3 This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman
Carl and Princess Donut are ready to battle it out in the epic seventh book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
The ninth floor. Faction Wars. Nine armies enter, led by rich and powerful aliens from across the galaxy. The winning team must capture and hold the castle at the very center of the battlefield. Strategy, alliances, pitched battles, betrayal . . . It all makes for great fun and even greater television.
But thanks to Carl, Donut, and Katia, this season is different.
For the first time ever, the crawlers have their own army. The NPCs, who are normally used as nothing but cannon fodder, have become fully self-aware and have formed an unprecedented team of their own. And it's not just the crawlers who are at risk this Faction Wars. Any combatant who dies on the battlefield stays in the ground.
For Donut and Katia, the stakes are even higher. No matter who wins the war, only one of them will be allowed to leave this level. If they all want to survive, they're going to need a little help from a veteran or two.
This is it. This is what they've been fighting toward. This is war.
#4 The Summer War by Naomi Novik
September 16 | Del Rey
In this poignant, heartfelt novella from the New York Times bestselling author of Spinning Silver and the Scholomance trilogy, a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.
Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her in a war-torn land, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love.
While Argent wanders the world, forced to seek only fame and glory instead of the love and belonging he truly desires, Celia attempts to undo the curse she placed on him. Yet even as she grows from a girl to a woman, she cannot find the solution--until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors.
Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother's curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War.
#5 The Heist of Hollow London by Eddie Robson
September 30 | Tor
In games of betrayal everyone loses.
Arlo and Drienne are 'mades'--clones of company executives, deemed important enough to be saved should their health fail. Mades work around the clock to pay off the debt incurred by their creation, though most are Reaped--killed and harvested for organs when their corporate counterparts are in medical need.
But when the impossible happens and the too-big-to-fail company that owns them collapses, Arlo and Drienne find themselves purchased by a scientist who has a job for them.
The reward: Debt paid off, freedom from servitude, and enough cash to last a lifetime.
The job: Infiltrate a highly secure corporate reclamation facility in the heart of dead London and steal a data drive.
They're going to need a team.
Other Notable New Releases
You Weren't Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
September 9 | Saga Press
Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia.
Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It's an offer that none refuse.
Crane is grateful. Among his hive's followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won't destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant--and the hive demands the child's birth, no matter the cost--Crane's desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.
Gnomes of Lychford by Paul Cornell
Witches of Lychford #6 | September 9 | Tordotcom
Gnomes, witches, and podcasters clash for the future of the village of Lychford in this delightful conclusion to the Witches of Lychford series.
An unlikely group of supernatural creatures terrorizes the sleepy village of Lychford.
Ok, they're gnomes. That's not a spoiler: you worked it out from the title.
When an ancient prophecy clashes with an unfortunate modern design aesthetic, the people of Lychford must band together to put out fires (both literal and metaphorical) to save their town before the king of the Gnomes (King Greg, and it's dangerous to laugh at a gnome) calls in the terms of an old promise.
Trouble is: no one knows what the promise is, nor how to fulfil it.
It's going to be a long night.
Sunward by William Alexander
September 16 | Saga Press
A cozy debut science fiction novel by National Book Award-winning writer William Alexander, this story of found family follows a planetary courier training adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth's moon.
Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her family's illustrious business in politics. Set in humanity's far future, hiring a planetary courier is essential for delivering private messages across the stars.
Encouraged by friends, Tova begins mentoring baby bots, juvenile AI who are developmentally in their teens, and trains them how to interact within society essentially becoming their foster mom. Her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, named herself on their first run from Luna to Phoebe station. But on their return, they encounter a derelict spaceship and a lurking assassin, igniting a thrilling chase across the solar system.
Tova and Agatha's daring actions leave Agatha's mind vulnerable, relying on Tova's former AI pupils for help. As Tova starts gathering her scattered family around her, she is chased through the solar system by forces who want her captured and her family erased. This debut science fiction novel by National Book Award-winning author William Alexander is a must-read for fans of Becky Chambers and Ursula K. Le Guin. Lovers of poignant science fiction, where the bonds of found family, the evolution of AI, and the building distrust of centuries of bias, come together in this visionary look at humanity's future.
The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey
Miss Cassidy #1 | September 16 | Harper Perennial
A Scottish governess arrives in Singapore to take up her new post, only to find a host of problems await that require her very unique skills in this award-winning and incredibly entertaining historical fantasy novel.
There has never yet been a crisis that Miss Leda Cassidy hasn't been able to fix, be it a lovelorn young charge, perpetually distracted students, or an unruly and malevolent ghost. When she arrives at her new employer's home and discovers the family is being terrorized by a vampiric spirit, she sets about righting the situation without delay.
But it seems that as soon as she puts one supernatural creature to rest, another appears to take its place. A woman's work is truly never done, is it?
When she meets Mr. Kay, a widower whose greatest worry appears to be making matches for his twin daughters, she is happy to take a post that might provide her a bit of respite from her more "spirited" friends. But she soon realizes that the Kays are in far more trouble than she realized--and that her presence in their home might have put the family she's grown to cherish in even more jeopardy. Will she be able to save them all before it's too late, or has she finally stumbled upon the one problem she isn't able to solve?
Alchemised by SenLinYu
September 23 | Del Rey
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy--and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.
"What is it you think you're protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There's no one left for you to save."
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner--of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.
In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia's new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.
According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance's final gambit?
To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena's fight--to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self--is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.
Observer by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress
September 23 | Tor
Observer is a slick, modern, hard science fiction standalone medical thriller, combining classic Robin Cook with the hard edge of Black Mirror and Altered Carbon.
After neurosurgeon Caro Soames-Watkins's career has gone down in flames, she receives a strange job offer from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, a great uncle she barely knows, and desperation overcomes any suspicions.
Watkins's mysterious medical facility conducts research into the nature of consciousness, reality, and life after death. Two obstacles stand in his way: an intel leak and his failing body may not last long enough for the tech to be ready.
As danger mounts, Caro finds more than she bargained for: murder, love, and a deep disturbing look into the nature of reality.
The Sovereign by C. L. Clark
Magic of the Lost #3 | September 30 | Orbit
The Sovereign brings princess Luca and soldier Touraine together one last time in the thrilling conclusion to C. L. Clark's beloved queer political fantasy trilogy.
Luca is the new queen of Balladaire. Her empire is already splintering in her hands. Her uncle wasn't the only traitor in the court, and the Withering plague will decimate her people if she can't unearth Balladaire's magic. The only person who can help her wants the only thing Luca won't give--the end of the monarchy.
Touraine is Luca's general. She has everything she ever wanted. While Luca looks within Balladaire's borders, Touraine looks outward--the alliance with Qazal is brittle and Balladaire's neighbors are ready to pounce on its new weakness. When the army comes, led by none other than Touraine's old lover, Touraine must face the truth about herself--and the empire she once called home.
A storm is coming. Touraine and Luca will stand against it together, or it will tear them apart once and for all.
Crossroads of Ravens by Andrzej Sapkowski
Witcher #9 | September 30 | Orbit
Witchers are not born. They are made.
Before he was the White Wolf or the Butcher of Blaviken, Geralt of Rivia was simply a fresh graduate of Kaer Morhen, stepping into a world that neither understands nor welcomes his kind.
And when an act of naïve heroism goes gravely wrong, Geralt is only saved from the noose by Preston Holt, a grizzled witcher with a buried past and an agenda of his own.
Under Holt's guiding hand, Geralt begins to learn what it truly means to walk the Path - to protect a world that fears him, and to survive in it on his own terms. But as the line between right and wrong begins to blur, Geralt must decide to become the monster everyone expects, or something else entirely.
This is the story of how legends are made - and what they cost.
Falling in a Sea of Stars by Kristen Britain
Green Rider #8 | September 30 | DAW Books
After Sacoridia's victory over Second Empire, Karigan G'ladheon's life as a Green Rider should have settled into an ordinary routine. But her father's abrupt departure to rescue Laren Mapstone, leader of the Green Riders and the woman he loves, from the far distant land of Varos, has left Clan G'ladheon's business in disarray and Karigan's hands full.
Even as Karigan tries to sort out the clan's mess, a darker, more perilous crisis casts its shadows over her: Mornhavon the Black has reawakened. Moreover, he has freed two undead wraiths from their imprisoning tombs to hunt Karigan down and bring her to him in Blackveil Forest.
In a deadly confrontation with one of the wraiths amid the frivolity of the Harvest Ball, Karigan is left vulnerable to the intrigues of another old adversary she thought destroyed long ago. Haunted by the unceasing rhythm of the dance, she falls endlessly through the frigid dark of the heavens, and even Westrion, god of death, cannot save her.
King Zachary, bereft and hopeless, keeps vigil for her safe return. If they are not reunited, her loss may destroy him--and any chance Sacoridia has of overcoming Mornhavon's dark designs.
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