Here's the September book list!
15 new SF/F books for you to add to your TBR.
I always strive to have these book lists hit your inbox at the first of the month. I don't always hit that mark, and this last week, the reason has been wholly book-related. I work at the Vermont Historical Society as their PR and Guest Services person, which means lots of writing and editing, but also promoting our work as an independent publisher.
That's been the focus of my week this month so far, because we have a book coming out this week Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino! I've got an entry for it below and will have a post out tomorrow about some of the behind-the-scenes that went into getting it ready for publication.
As always, this newsletter is free to read, but it costs time and resources to put together. There are a couple of ways to support it!
- Sign up as a supporting member, which gets you additional posts and access to the TO Slack channel.
- Purchase a book through an affiliate link below.
- Ghost has a new way to support newsletter writers: you can now tip creators with a one-time payment and you can do that by clicking here.
Okay, here are 15 new books that you should check out this September. I'll have another list for you in a week or two.
Expeditionary Force: Task Force Hammer by Craig Alanson (September 10th)
Craig Alanson had planned an ending for his long-running Expeditionary Force series, but ended up realizing that he had some more adventures for the Merry Band of Pirates up his sleeve. In this new installment, the crew has stopped their enemy from stealing a Sentinel, and destroyed its Elder starship. But in doing so, they've realized that their enemy wasn't what they thought it was, and they now have to figure out if they can take it on.
A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and Other Wild Places by Christopher Brown (September 17th)
I've long been a fan of Christopher Brown's novels (Tropic of Kansas, Rule of Capture, and Failed State), which I've found to be some of the most prescient and smart science fiction out there at the moment.
I'm also a huge fan of Brown's newsletter Field Notes, which somewhat informs this book. Brown writes extensively about the intersection of human society and nature, and in the late 2000s, purchased a lot of industrial land in Austin, Texas to build his home. Since then, he's become fascinated by those formerly inhabited spaces and how nature has crept back in.
Kirkus Reviews says "Brown’s unusual combination of memoir and “natural history” contains many surprising images," and that it's "an appealing mixture of nature writing, memoir, and self-reflection."
William by Mason Coile (September 10th)
An engineer named Henry is trapped inside his home thanks to a case of agoraphobia. He spends his time inside working on a project: a half-completed robot that he called William. He made a breakthrough in artificial intelligence while working on the robot, and when his friends and coworkers come over to see it and his smart house, things go south quickly.
Kirkus Reviews says "Coile maximizes his premise’s inherent tension using nightmare imagery and an uneasy third-person-present narration shot through with powerlessness, paranoia, and dread."
Guillotine by Delilah S. Dawson (September 10th)
Dez Lane lines up a date with Patrick Ruskin as a way to meet his famous mother-in-law, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau Magazine, hoping that it'll help her line up an internship at the publication. When she arrives at his family's compound, she finds a wealthy estate, showing her a window into the way the 1% lives that she's never been able to experience. And once the guests arrive and the ferry to the island leave, things start going dark: the family's servants, long oppressed by horrible contracts, have decided that it's time to make a change, and Dez has to figure out where her loyalties lie.
Publishers Weekly says "Dawson’s vivid prose and snappy dialogue brings the gory, stylized action to life."
Sandymancer by David Edison (September 10th)
Caralee Vinnet has grown up in a desolate world, one where water is scarce and dust is everywhere, with a small group of powerful control the few elements that still exist out in the cosmos. Caralee has some options at her fingertips: she can draw upon the magic in her bones and command the sands. When she tries it, she accidentally summons a god-king who broke the centuries ago and ha now taken over the body of her best friend, and it's now up to her to make things right.
Publishers Weekly says "After a slow start, readers will be drawn in by the well-realized characters and the weird westernesque setting. Edison makes this dystopia fun."
Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino (September 13th)
This one isn't SF/F, but as noted above, it's a book that I've been working on for my day job at the Vermont Historical Society. This is the first biography in nearly a century of Ira Allen, who was one of the state's most important – and flawed – founding figures. It's an excellent read that explores not only Allen's life, but how Vermont went from a backwater, frontier at the edge of the colonies to its own republic and eventually, the 14th state. (I'll have a bit more about this tomorrow.)
Daughter of the Wormwood Star by Paul Jessup (September 10th)
A woman named Clara survived a brutal attack on her university, and in the aftermath, finds that she has a bond with her fellow survivors. They call themselves the "Knot", and they've discovered that some door that shouldn't have been opened have been. They find their horrors aren't over: a group of devotees are after them, and Clara and her sisters have to deal with everything from zombie cultists, a lighthouse filled with living shadows as they work to find the Jawbone Door, beyond which lies some true horrors.
One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun, translated by Jung Yewon (August 20th)
Set in an electronics slum in Seoul, Eungyo and Mujae have found a decent living working as assistants in repair shops, only to find that their home has been slated for demolition. At the same time, strange shadows of the slum's inhabitants have begun to rise,
Writing in Speculative Fiction in Translation, Rachel Cordasco says "the book exudes a quiet sadness mixed with a glimmer of optimism- the latter, I think, stems from the sweet and tentative relationship that develops between the two friends."
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune (September 10th)
T.J. Klune pens a sequel to his blockbuster novel The House in the Cerulean Sea, following Arthur Parnasus, who's the headmaster of an orphanage on a distant island, where he hopes to guide and teach the magical children who live there.
That sense of calm is shattered when he's called to speak about his dark past, and finds that he has a fight on his hand for the future of the magical children in his care. When a new child arrives on the island, one who believes that he's a monster and one that Arthur had worked to protect his children from, everything is on the verge of falling apart.
Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "The emotional arcs are epic, taking readers from sadness to laughter, and the children sit front and center in the action."
Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker (September 3rd)
A young woman named Mara gets a job working on the night shift for a reality how called Haunt Sweet Home, he realizes that "reality" is a stretch: she's hiding fog machines and making up scares for homeowner. When a new, creepy coworker comes on et, she has to figure out who's she's really been tricking.
Library Journal says "Pinsker’s evocative prose turns an amusing reality-show backdrop into a haunting story of hiding from (and discovering) oneself."
The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart (September 3rd)
In this new series from Andrea Stewart (who earned acclaim for The Boneshard Daughter and its sequels), a war has left humanity in ruins. In their desperation, the struck a deal with the god Kluehnn, who would restore the world but at a steep price: humanity would be indebted to him. As he transformed the world, the inhabitants were as well.
Hakara wasn't willing to go along with the deal, and fled with her family to a neighboring kingdom, and was forced to abandon her sister. Now, she's discovered that she can channel magic from the gems that she was forced to mine for the god, and discovers that her sister is alive. She'll have to team up with a band of rebels working to undermine the pact to save her.
Publishers Weekly says "While the duplicity of Kluehnn is never in doubt, Stewart maintains a good balance between the sisters and their competing goals, creating a fascinating level of moral ambiguity so that readers will feel that each character is justified in making her choices."
Vigilance by Allen Stroud (September 3rd)
Allen Stroud caps off his trilogy The Fractal with Vigilance (preceded Fearless and Resilient), in which humanity has colonized the solar system. Captain Ellisha Shann commands a search and rescue ship called the Khidr, and had responded to a distress call, leading to the discovery of some strange phenomena.
In this final installment, Phobos Station has been destroyed, and there are some malevolent forces that are working to stop humanity's colonization of the solar system's other worlds, all while Shann and her crew are working to figure out the workings of an ancient alien ship.
The History of Middle-earth box set #4 by Christopher Tolkien and J. R. R. Tolkien (September 10th)
This is the fourth and final boxed set of Christopher and J.R.R. Tolkien's sprawling History of Middle Earth series, which is a deep dive into work that went into creating the larger Middle-earth legendarium. This boxed set contains Morgoth's Ring and The War of the Jewels, which detail the writing of the Silmarillion; The Peoples of Middle-Earth, a deep dive into the chronology of the fourth age, genealogies, and quite a bit more; and an Index for the entire series.
This boxed set follows The History of Middle-earth boxed set #1 (The Silmarillion / Unfinished Tales / Book of Lost Tales, Part One / Book of Lost Tales, Part Two), Boxed Set #2 (The Lays of Beleriand / The Shaping of Middle-Earth / The Lost Road), and Boxed Set #3 (The Return of the Shadow / The Treason of Isengard / The War of the Ring / Sauron Defeated)
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White (September 10th)
One of Dracula's first victims was Lucy Westenra, the daughter of a wealthy family and friend of Mina Murray. Turned into an immortal vampire by Dracula's bite, she's been trying to escape from the monster's grasp for years and figure out who she really is. Eventually, in the 21st century, she meets a woman named Iris, who's also trying to escape from her past — a long-held family secret that underpins her wealthy family's empire. Lucy finds herself falling for the woman, only to face a bunch of outside forces: Iris's family, and Dracula, who's returned once again.
Publishers Weekly says "White paints familiar characters in a new light, and her enchanting prose will keep readers enthralled. This is a must-read for Bram Stoker fans who believe Lucy deserved better."
Out of the Drowning Deep by A.C. Wise (September 3rd)
Set in the distant future, Scribe IV is a robot that lives in a secluded monastery called Bastion. When the Pope is murdered on a visit, Scribe IV has to figure out how to uncover the culprit before the Sisters of the Drowned Deep come to exact punishment on the inhabitant of Bastion for the crime. He turns to Quin, a drug addict in recovery who's been working as a private investigator, and an angel who hears his prayers. Together, they work to try and find the culprit before it's too late.