20 new SF/F books to close out October with

The title wave continues with new horror, science fiction, and fantasy books to add to your TBR

Image: Andrew Liptak

October has been packed with books, and we're almost to the end. I've been working my way through Joe Hill's cat killer-class tome, King Sorrow, which has been a delight to read: an engrossing and intriguing read, one that I'll likely be reviewing once I collect my thoughts on it. There's a handful of others from the month that I've got my eyes on as well: Ken Liu's All That We See Or Seem and Daniel H. Wilson's Hole in the Sky, among others on the TBR.

In case you missed it, here's the first list for the month, and here's the second. As always, you can find other installments in this series via the Book List tag.

Here are 20 more new SF/F books to check out this month.

Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud (October 21st)

Nathan Ballingrud continues the story he began in Crypt of the Moon Spider, a horror story set in 1923 when a woman named Veronica Brinkley arrives at the Barrowfield Home for Treatment of the Melancholy on the Moon, where they implant a spider silk from a massive spider whose silk grants its worshippers new mental powers.

In this novella, Ballingrud takes readers to Jupiter's moon of Io, where one half of Charlie Duchamp's brain is located. The other is in his body, hosting eggs from the spider and filled with anger and rage. On Io, a crashed ship contains a centipede known as the Bishop, who's taken control of a dead astronaut. As both halves of Charlie converge on the site, another generation of Moon Spiders are about to be born.

Library Journal says "Ballingrud combines body horror with the creepiest gothic setting for this story that offers a gory version of space travel and exploration. The alternate gothic setting will appeal to readers of Westside by W. M. Akers, while the body transformations will enmesh readers of body horror in its web."

The Changeling Queen by Kimberly Bea (October 28th)

Inspired by Robert Burns' famous poem "Ballad of Tam Lin," a pregnant woman named Janet rescues Tam Lin from the Wild Hunt, but incurs the wrath of the Faery Queen, and they fight over his fate.

The Queen was once a changeling daughter of a midwife named Bess, and for a long time believed that she had no place in the world before finding a home with the illegitimate son of a noble, Thomas Shepherd. She used her knowledge and powers to attract the attention of an elf Lord, Amadan, and let her into the Faery realm, where she fights to keep her heart and destiny together.

Lilith’s Brood: The Xenogenesis Trilogy by Octavia E. Butler (October 14th)

Library Of America has released a new collection of Octavia Butler's novels: Lilith's Brood, also known as the Xenogenesis trilogy, which includes the novels Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, about a young woman named Lilith who's been abducted by aliens after a nuclear apocalypse, and who's been selected because of her cancer – something that her captors, the Oankali, are keenly interested in. This isn't the first round for Butler at LoA: the publisher released Octavia Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories back in 2021.

Tall is her Body by Robert de le Chevotière (October 28th)

A boy named Fidel is orphaned after his mother is killed, knowing only the island of Guadeloupe as his home before he's shipped off to Dominica and a series of relatives. As he moves from home to home, he begins to learn a bit more about his family's story and the secrets and divisions that make up their past.

It's a complicated story, one that folds in the catholic church, the impact of colonialism on the island's indigenous population, conveyed through family members, real and in spirit form, all helping him figure out his future and his complicated relationship with home.

Tom's Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski (October 28th)

Mark Z. Danielewski is best known for the classic horror novel House of Leaves. He's back with a new novel, Tom's Crossing, in which two kids, Kalin March and his classmate Tom Gatestone are growing up in the town of Orvop, Utah in 1982. Tom is terminally ill, and the two boys decide to free a pair of horses who're destined for the slaughterhouse. Kalin works to keep his promise to free the horses, embarking on a journey through the mountains that'll take them on a strange adventure.

Kirkus Reviews says "With echoes of The Iliad and a body count to rival Blood Meridian, morphing from Western to horror to police procedural and back again, Danielewski’s yarn is carefully plotted and imaginatively written."

Dead Hand Rule by Max Gladstone (October 28th)

Max Gladstone concludes his Craft Wars trilogy (preceded by Dead Country and Wicked Problems, and which in turn follows the Craft Sequence, Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow, Four Roads Cross and Ruin of Angels).

In the Craft Wars sequence, Gladstone follows Tara Abernathy, who returned home and ended up saving a girl and ends up changing the course of the world with an apocalypse. A new god is being born, and its arrival is shaking the world and dark forces are threatening to destroy anything that stands in their way. In Alt Coulomb, the world's great powers have come together to try and save the world, and they have to figure out how only how to save it, but who they're saving it for.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (October 28th)

It follows a knight named Sir Una Everlasting, who was Dominion’s greatest hero: she rose from poverty to become a knight and ended up dying for her queen, but who’s story lived on in legend.

Centuries later a scholar named Owen Mallory becomes obsessed with her story and begins researching it, and ends up slipping into the past himself, entangling himself in her story.

I’m looking forward to this one: I’ve really enjoyed Harrow’s books over the years (Ten Thousand Doors of January is a phenomenal read) and this looks like it’ll be just as interesting.

Simultaneous by Eric Heisserer (October 28th)

Heisserer is the screenwriter behind films like Arrival and Bird Box, and he’s now written a novel. It follows a federal agent who works for a unit in the Department of Homeland Security, Predictive Analytics. There, he and his fellow agents sort through tips trying to stop terrorist attacks before they happen.

One call about an explosion in New York leads him to Mexico, where me meets a therapist who recently uncovered a strange phenomenon, and together, they uncover a plot that stretches across the country, timelines, and consciousnesses.

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert (October 21st)

The Folio Society is continuing their run of Frank Herbert's Dune novels with God Emperor of Dune, set thousands of years after the events of Children of Dune. It's where the series really gets weird, and it includes art from Grace Aldrich, who previously illustrated the publisher's edition of Childhood's End.

Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur (October 28th)

In this sequel to Blood of the Old Kings, we're introduced to an Empire that runs on necromancy: it relies on dead sorcerers who're drained of their magic to further its expansion across the world.

The Empire has made a fragile peace by conquering their enemies with massive war machines, they've created a breeding ground for revolutionaries. In the Imperial capitol, Emere is a politician with little power, and when someone tries to assassinate him, he discovers a greater plot at the center of the Empire. Meanwhile, Arienne has been on a journey to uncover more information about a weapon that destroyed the nation of Mersia, and finds more than she bargained for in the ruins.

Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "This sequel adds incredible amounts of depth to Kim’s world, weaving history and lore through three gripping narratives, making this a must-read series for epic fantasy lovers."

Red Star Hustle / Apprehension by Mary Robinette Kowal / Sam J. Miller (October 21st)

In Red Star Hustle, an escort named Aran is framed for the murder of his client and is forced to go on the run after a bounty hunter with her own secrets pick up his trail. Along the way, he encounters the handsome clone of a murderous royal and has to figure out how to keep from falling for him.

Flip the book over and you've got Apprehension, in which a family vacation goes awry when Bonniejean's grandson is kidnapped by a terrorist organization looking to sway a global election, thinking that she was given the secret to their operation by a dying double agent. As it turns out, it was something of a misunderstanding 30 years ago, and now she has to go save her grandson.

Star Wars: The Last Order by Kwame Mbalia (October 21st)

One of the biggest missed opportunities in the Star Wars sequel trilogy was Finn, the stormtrooper who broke through his programming and joined the Resistance. He's finally getting some new adventures in the form of a new YA novel by Kwame Mbalia, The Last Order. Set after the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Resistance forces rescue a ship full of children who were kidnapped by the First Order, and Finn and Jannah are tasked with finding the officer behind it, before he can kidnap more children, all while they reckon with their own pasts as Stormtroopers.

The Essential Patricia A. McKillip by Patricia A. McKillip (October 28th)

Patricia A. McKillip is one of the fantasy genre's best-known authors, having written books like Harpist in the Wind, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, and The Book of Atrix Wolfe. This volume is a career-spanning retrospective that includes some of her best-known stories, and comes with an introduction by editor Ellen Kusnher.

Batman: Revolution by John Jackson Miller (October 21st)

In this followup to last year's Batman: Resurrection John Jackson Miller revisits the world of Tim Burton and Michael Keaton's 1989 Batman for another adventure. The city of Gotham has put the Joker's rampage behind them, and mayor Max Shreck has been working to put together a major Independence Day celebration for the city.

But Gotham is still plagued with crime and Batman has been waging a low-level war against the city's gangs and criminals, while the people of the city have been protesting against the city's excesses. Norman Pinkus has been working away at the Gotham Globe as their mastermind behind the Riddle Me This word puzzle, and has been using his intellect to sold crimes by calling in tips to the police line. He reaches a breaking point as Batman gets the credit for solving the city's problems, and devises a plan with some dangerous friends to draw the caped crusader into a game of riddles that could bring danger to the already fragile city.

On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts by Valerie Neal (October 28th)

This seems like a must-read for anyone who was a fan of Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut novels: an overarching biography of the 61 American women who became astronauts, written by Valerie Neal, the emerita curator in the Department of Space History at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. In it, she looks at the challenges they faced and their experiences in the space program.

The Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor (October 21st)

This was a pleasant surprise: Nnedi Okorafor's Africanfuturist Binti trilogy is a wonderful set of novellas, following an African woman named Binti, who leaves her home and family to study at an interstellar university called Oomza Uni. While she's headed off to school, her ship is attacked by jelly fish-like aliens called the Meduse, and after her fellow passengers are killed, she's able to neigotiate with them and set up a peace agreement with them.

This edition comes with art from David Palumbo, and it looks like a really stunning edition. The complete trilogy is also available from DAW books.

The Book of Dust: The Rose Field by Philip Pullman (October 23rd)

After years and years of work, Philip Pullman has finally completed The Book of Dust, a companion trilogy to his His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). Preceded by La Belle Sauvage (set prior to the events of The Golden Compass) and The Secret Commonwealth (set after The Amber Spyglass), the trilogy has followed Lyra's story and continues to expand the relationship between the Magisterium and its control of Dust, a fundamental particle that's related to consciousness.

In The Secret Commonwealth, Lyra has been on a journey to find her daemon Pan, and was left alone in a series of ruins known as the Blue Hotel, where lost daemons had gathered. She's followed by Malcolm Polstead, who had saved her as a child, as they search for a mysterious rose that might hold the secret of Dust. Also on their tail is the Magisterium's forces, as well as a number of others. It's a journey that will strain everything they believe in.

The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (October 21st)

There have long been stories of a knight and a witch who're destined to meet and fall in love, only to bring about one another's downfall. It's a tale that's been told over and over and over again, in a version of England that's been enchanted by the Eternal Queen, held together by stories. If the story isn't told, everything will vanish. A knight and a witch, Vina and Simran are caught in the cycle, and the two women fall for one another, and try and find a way to break out and find a better story that allows them to escape their fates.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, saying "Previous Suri works have featured unique, fascinating magical systems, and this book continues in that vein. It’s one of the more innovative and thoughtful uses of fantasy to explore colonialism and the potential poison of assimilation, popular genre themes in recent years."

Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky (October 28th)

Adrian Tchaikovsky first came to my attention when Tordotcom published his novel Spiderlight in 2016, and it's been one of those books that I've had lingering on my to-read list ever since. The book is getting a new edition, and it looks like a fun ride: a fantasy quest about a band of misfits who've been prophesized to bring about the end of Dark Lord Darvezian, and armed with an artifact that they stole from the Spider Queen.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (October 21st)

One of my favorite novels of 2022 was Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: it's a heartbreaking novel about two friends who work in the game industry: Sam Masur and Sadie Green, who rekindle their friendship after a chance meeting in Boston. The two begin work on an innovative new game, Ichigo, and as they find success beyond their wildest dreams, their friendship is tested and could undermine everything they've worked toward.

The Folio Society has added the book to its collection, with art from Manshen Lo and a new introduction by Zevin.

As always, thanks for reading. Let me know what you've got on your TBR and what's caught your eye this month.