Here are 16 new sci-fi & fantasy books to check out this August

Somehow, August is upon us, and weirdly, August has become a month that I find myself reading about one particular topic: nuclear weapons and the end of the world. 2025 marks marks the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I've been reading a pair of books that explore the story behind those horrific events: The Devil Reached Toward the Sky by Garrett M. Graff and Destroyer of Worlds by Frank Close.

It's a topic that I've focused on quite a bit over the years; I studied the story of the ICBM and civilian space race for my Masters degree, and I've found this subject crop up in a handful of ways, either through books that I've picked up over the summer in recent years, such as Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham, and Annie Jacobsen's Nuclear War: A Scenario (My review), the movie Oppenheimer, or even in my own writing and studies.

What I find fascinating about the prospect of nuclear annihilation isn't the doom and gloom, but that it represents such a stark example of decisions that we've made that brings us close to our own end. It's something that I think any rational actor can agree isn't a good idea, yet we still inch toward that possibility little by little, the product of thousands little decisions that take place out of sight that could bring about an end.

I hope that it doesn't happen, and I think in some small way, my work to understand this field is to try and prevent it, even if it means trying to instill or convey the importance of some rational thought in the people I come into contact with. (Don't push the button, plz.)

With that happy thought, here are 16 new SF/F books to check out this month. As always, you can see prior lists via the Book List tag. I'll have another list headed your way for the rest of August in a couple of weeks: stay tuned.

The Society of Unknowable Objects by Gareth Brown (August 12th)

Gareth Brown earned a considerable amount of acclaim for last year's The Book of Doors, and this one looks line another mind-bender.

The world is full of magical items that quietly possess powers – unknowable objects. They've watched by a secret magical society that meets twice a year in London, and have sworn to protect the objects from the outside world. When word of a new object arrives, two of their members: veteran Frank Simpson and newcomer Magda Sparks head off to Hong Kong to investigate.

When they arrive, they face danger: they're confronted by a hitman who had an object stolen decades ago, and Magda is forced to flee home. When she arrives back in London, she finds that the society has been keeping secrets of their own, and that discovery prompts her on a journey to find answers that could change everything.

Publishers Weekly says that "seasoned fantasy and mystery readers may guess some of the twists ahead of time, but, after an exposition-heavy start, Brown’s propulsive plot and plucky heroine keep the pages turning."

Salvagia by Tim Chawaga (August 12th)

A woman named Triss Mackey has been able to evade the government by exploiting a loophole as she lives aboard a rented smart CabanaBoat, on which she spends her time diving for valuables in the now-flooded coastal cities. When the Feds begin pulling back from Florida altogether, she's forced to either buy her boat or lose the loophole. The pullback leaves a power vacuum that gang leaders are all too happy to take advantage of.

To keep everyone off her back, Triss needs to find a big score, which she things she discovers when she comes across the corpse of a local gang leader, and ends up in more hot water than she anticipated. But if she can solve the mystery of his death, she might have her ticket to freedom.

The Midnight Shift by Seon-Ran Cheon and translated by Gene Png (August 12th)

In this Korean novel, we follow a cop named Su-Yeon who’s investigating some mysterious deaths at a hospital: four people jumped to their deaths abruptly. Nobody seems to care until she encounters a woman who claims to be a vampire hunter, and that the deaths are because one's behind the deaths.

Publishers Weekly says that "the darkly romantic flashbacks to 1980s France—highlighting Violette’s formative experiences with Lily, a charismatic vampire—are particularly mesmerizing, echoing classic gothic tales with a fresh, queer twist."

When Mothers Dream: Stories by Brenda Cooper (August 12th)

Brenda Cooper brings together some of her previously published fiction – as well as some new stories. This collection features science fiction, fantasy, and poetry that follows environmentalists, grandmothers worried about their grandchildren being raised by AI, bioengineering, and more, all centered on the strength of women.

Star Wars: Sanctuary by Lamar Giles (August 5th)

The Bad Batch might be over as an animated series, but the story of the crew of rogue clones lives on in a new book: Sanctuary.

This story is set during the events of season 2, and it follows the team as they find a new, potentially safe home, Pabu. Their new home is short on the supplies after a devastating natural disaster and the team turns Phee Goena for help lining up some jobs for them.

Things go quickly wrong when their cover is blown during an auction, and they barely escape with their lives. Hunter begins to worry that they’re exposing themselves to the Empire too much and has to balance their missions against their desire to stay hidden from sight.

I really enjoyed the show and I’m looking forward to reading this one.

The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graff (August 5th)

2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the culmination of the Manhattan Project: the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US forces. The attacks ultimately ended the Second World War, and it launched humanity into a dangerous new era.

To tie in with the milestone, author Garrett Graff has assembled a new oral history (he published Life Became Very Blurry through us at the Vermont Historical Society, as well as oral histories about 9/11 and D-Day) about the project, drawing on everything from the scientists who fled to America to escape the Nazi regime to the work to develop the bombs and the attacks that delivered them to their targets in August 1945.

I've been reading this for the last couple of weeks, and I'm learning a lot from it. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review: "The result is a stunning account that brings to the fore the nuclear saga’s surreal combination of ingenuity, fate, and terror."

Mindscape by Andrea Hairston (August 5th)

This was her debut novel and was originally published in 2006 (and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick the James Tiptree, Jr. Awards). It's now getting a re-release latest this year from Tor Books. For 115 years, the world has been divided by The Barrier by some extraterrestrial entity, dividing people against one another.

Politicians have worked to create a treaty to stop the fighting, and when its architect is killed, her successor, Ellini is tasked with taking up her work. It's up to Ellini and a small group of allies to try and repair the world before it's too late.

Starstrike by Yoon Ha Lee (August 12th)

Yoon Ha Lee follows up his YA novel Moonstorm, the first of a space opera trilogy. In it, Hwa Young was orphaned when the Empire destroyed her home, and is now an unwittingly citizen. She dreams of becoming a lancer pilot that fights aboard giant mechs, and when her boarding school is attacked and she's left stranded with her classmates, she's quick to volunteer to pilot one.

In Starstrike, Hwa and her companions are dealing with their decision to betray the Empire to save itself from its own destruction when they prevented Imperial forces from blowing up a singularity bomb. Hwa's friend Geum had been left behind and imprisoned, and she's desperate to save him, even as he's beginning to realize that her motivations aren't as clearcut as they seemed.

Death Valley Blooms by S.M. Mack (August 12th)

In this novella, Death Valley experiences a wild bloom of wildflowers once a decade – somehow powered by a woman named Mar Ramse. She lost her mother to the valley when she was a teenager and is desperate to break the curse that's settled on her family – to the point where neither she nor her brother will have children. But it might not be enough for the desert to release the curse.

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta (August 5th)

Two sisters, Myung and Laleh are the only people who live aboard the whale of babel: a creature with endless rooms and worlds, which the pair are exploring and documenting. Laleh is content with their work, Myung is not, and flees the whale, encountering a new universe filled with strange people, lands and ghosts. She's searching for their creator, the Great Wisa, and while she misses her sister, her journey will help her understand the origins of their world and purpose.

Niall Harrison writes in Locus Magazine that it's "a rich novel, and the stories it tells should be savoured while you’re reading them, not least because Mehta reminds us that stories always change over time, as they are retold or re-encountered."

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (August 5th)

I'm always excited for a new Annalee Newitz book: not only was I someone who worked with them at io9, but their fiction and nonfiction books alike are always interesting. Their latest looks particularly good: it's about a group of food service bots in a war-torn San Francisco that have taken over their own delivery app account and have begun selling their own, high-quality noodles to customers. Standing in their way? Someone who's been review bombing their restaurant, which threatens to destroy everything they've worked to build.

Kirkus Reviews awarded the book a starred review, saying "this richly flavored bowl of noodles offers additional toppings, such as edgy social commentary about climate change, PTSD, and the ways in which social media and apps like Yelp and DoorDash gatekeep restaurant publicity, ratings, and sales, creating a distorted depiction of a business with little resemblance to its physical reality."

Ghosts of Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino (August 5th)

Another book that ties in with the 80th anniversary of the bombings in Japan: Charles Pellegrino's Ghosts of Hiroshima. He explores the impact of the bombings and their aftermath, exploring the experiences of the survivors and the people who carried out the attack, and how it affected them for the rest of their lives.

This one has been in the news quite a bit recently: director James Cameron has picked up the rights to adapt the book, which he's recently said he'll pick up after the next Avatar film hits theaters in December.

The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar (August 5th)

A long time ago in France, Princess Tullia of the kingdom of Esquaveta is about to be married off to a foreign prince in an effort to forge a new alliance for the struggling country. Despite those plans, Tullia has fallen in love for an apprentice scribe, prompting the king to turn to his magician for help.

The magician, Anatole, was once a promising figure for the kingdom, but failure after failure has tarnished his reputation. When the king orders him to brew up a love potion to help get the princess onboard with his plans, he faces a difficult choice: restore his reputation and save the kingdom, or save the one person who believes in him: Tullia.

Kirkus Reviews awarded the book a starred review, saying "Sachar tells the comical story with the slight detachment of a fairy-tale narrator, focusing less on the fantasy elements than on the relationships among the characters, which are straightforward and touching."

Hunter's Heart Ridge by Sarah Stewart Taylor (August 5th)

One of the books that I enjoyed last year was Sarah Stewart Taylor's Agony Hill, a Vermont-set mystery that took place during a particularly transformative time in the state's history.

She's back with a sequel: Hunter's Heart Ridge, which finds Vermont State Police detective Frank Warren and his neighbor Alice Bellows investigating what appears to be an accidental shooting at an exclusive hunting club called The Ridge Club. The victim is a former ambassador, and Warren and Bellows quickly figure out that a whole bunch of the man's companions might have a motive to carry out murder.

Alice, who has some connections to the CIA, has to contend with the arrival of her former handler, Arthur Crannock, and she begins to wonder if his unexpected arrival is tied to that recent death.

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (August 12th)

Something strange took place four years ago: eight million people died in one day. Not from any one accident, but individually: people were strangled by balloon ropes, exploding manhole covers, or by animal attacks.

The incident was known as the Low-Probability Event, and a former statistics and probability instructor named Vera has been struggling with the losses she incurred that day. When a special agent arrives on her doorstep investigating a casino that seems to be unusually lucky, they think it might be connected to that horrible day, giving Vera the chance to make sense of the world.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "The comedic carnage might overwhelm a lesser novel, but Tingle’s fast-paced plot makes it work, and his ability to effectively wield the many disparate elements at play here impresses."

A Catalog of Storms: Collected Short Fiction by Fran Wilde (August 12th)

Fran Wilde is one of my favorite people in the entire SF/F scene, so I'm delighted to see that she's collected some of her short stories into a new collection: A Catalog of Storms. It'll include 14 of her recent short stories, including the Hugo/Locus-nominated "A Catalog of Storms," as well as other stories about sentient storms, strange creatures, uncanny museum guides, and quite a few more.

Thanks for reading. As always, let me know what you're reading and what catches your eye on this list.