14 more SF/F books to check out this September

Gripping true crime, screenplays, folkloric urban fantasy and quite a bit more to check out this month

Image: Andrew Liptak

September is turning out to be a busy month, in no small part because I've been on the other side of launching a book: Winters' Time: A Secret Pledge, a Severed Head, and the Murder That Brought America's Most Famous Lawyer to Vermont by Jeffrey L. Amestoy.

I've written a bit about it already (and there's more below), but I have to say that this is the part of my job that I enjoy the most. It's a good book: I read the manuscript, but recently read the finished product, and it's an engrossing read (and I'm saying that as a reader, not the person pushing it.) Amestoy packs a lot into this slim book: and as I was reading it, I was thinking about how well he unspools the story and covers a lot of ground without being distracted.

From the publicity and sales side, I've been working on reaching out to local press for reviews and coverage, local organizations for events, and bookstores to carry it. For big publishers, some of that is taken care of through companies like Ingram, but I essentially have to go door to door with cold call after cold call to try and get stores to pick it up. It's not something that I'd really done before this job, and it's been a good skill to pick up.

It seems to be working, too: the book has sold faster than anything we've sold in the past. Having the term "severed head" in the title doesn't hurt, I'm sure.

That's just one book coming out this month: there are 13 more hitting stores this week and next that you should check out as well, and as always, you can see prior lists via the Book List tag.

In case you missed it, here's the first list for September:

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Sunward by William Alexander (September 16th)

Set in the distant future, Captain Tova Lir decided to forgo her family's business of politics and become a courier, ferrying messages across the galaxy. Her friends encourage her to raise some baby bots: young AIs who're growing up and who need to be taught how to integrate into society. Her latest ward is Agatha Panza von Sparkles, and on a run, they come across an abandoned spaceship with an assassin onboard who chases them across the solar system.

Tova and Agatha's retreat impacts Agetha's development and Tova has to rely on her former pupils to help, bringing her family together across the solar system before they're captured.

Library Journal gave the book a starred review, saying "Recommend to readers who enjoy mercantile empire space opera, sapphic frenemy romances, found-family stories, and narratives where robots and artificial intelligences save the day."

(As a bonus, William is a fellow Vermonter!)

Winters' Time: A Secret Pledge, a Severed Head, and the Murder That Brought America's Most Famous Lawyer to Vermont by Jeffrey L. Amestoy (September 16th)

Winters' Time is the latest book from the Vermont Historical Society, written by Jeffrey Amestoy, the former Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. I designed the cover!

This is something a little different from what we usually release at VHS: it's a history of the time that Clarence Darrow (one of the country's most famous defense attorneys: you might know his names from the Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution in 1925) came to Vermont to help litigate a criminal appeal before the supreme court. It's a slim book, but it packs a punch, covering everything from Vermont's industrial history to a sensational criminal case to true-crime mystery.

In November 1926, a woman named Cecelia Gullivan, an executive for the Cone Automatic Manufacturing company in Windsor was brutally murdered in her home. The local cops quickly arrested a fellow employee with a record, John Winters, and charged him for the crime. Despite maintaining his denial that he committed the crime, he was convicted in a sensational trial.

But the twist came from something that happened in Norwich, Vermont years earlier: a man accidentally killed a child in a tragic accident, and promised the grieving family that if there was anything they could do in the future, they'd do it. That man was Clarence Darrow's son, and the mother of the Child was Winters' aunt. After his conviction, they called in the favor, and Darrow came to Vermont to take on the case.

I recently read and finished this, and I enjoyed it: Amestoy is an engaging writer, and while short (this clocks in at 122 pages, including footnotes), he packs a lot in: commentary about the 1920s, Vermont's history of capitol punishment, and a lot more.

Audition For The Fox by Martin Cahill (September 16th)

Nesi has the blood gods and is desperate to get a patron from one of the 99 Pillars of Heaven. If she can’t, she’ll never be allowed to leave home and after dozens of failed auditions, she’s about to take a big risk: audition before the Fox of Tricks, T’sidaan.

Stories portray the Fox as a lovable trickster, but Nesi ends up getting sent back in time centuries during a brutal period of their history, and has to figure out how to survive and take a fortress from a disgraced Pillar: The Wolf of the Hunt.

Exiles by Mason Coile (September 16th)

Humanity dispatched a trio of robots to establish a habitat on Mars, and when the first human crew arrives to set up a major colony, they find it half-destroyed. The robots have gone rogue and formed alliances and are generally being uncooperative – and one has gone missing. The crew needs to figure out who's telling the truth and what happened, or the entire endeavor will be doomed.

Writing in The New York Times, Emily C. Hughes says that "Coile wields genre conventions with a practiced and confident hand" and that "he’s particularly good at exploring how the mind plays tricks and conjures outlandish possibilities under extreme stress, and uses that skill to maintain the ambiguity of what’s really happening outside the base, teasing out the tension until the final pages."

Stranger Things: The Complete Scripts Season 1 and Season 2 by The Duffer Brothers (September 2nd)

This is pretty interesting: with the final season of Netflix's Stranger Things coming out later this year, Random House Worlds is publishing the scripts for each season as individual volumes, starting this month with seasons 1 and 2.

Each book will bring together the scripts for all eight episodes of each season, along with introductions written by both Matt and Ross Duffer, as well as character, dialogue, and scene directions, as well as some additional commentary that provides new insights into the show and its creation.

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (September 16th)

Thomas Ha entered the SF/F scene in 2020 and has been extremely prolific ever since: he's written dozens of stories for publications such as Crossmass Infinities, Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld Magazine, and many others. This is his debut collection.

The Lottery and Other Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson (September 16th)

The Folio Society unveiled its Fall Collection last month, and one of the books included is a collection of Shirley Jackson's short fiction: The Lottery and Other Dark Tales.

This book was originally released as a limited edition, and it's now coming out as a core edition from the publisher. It includes 20 of Jackson's stories, including her best-known classic, "The Lottery." This volume also includes an introduction by her biographer, Ruth Franklin, and art by Angie Hoffmeister.

Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest by Nick Mamatas (September 23rd)

Nick Mamatas turns to Shakespeare for inspiration for his latest novel, reimagining The Tempest through a science fictional lens. In this read, Kalivas lives off the coast of San Francisco on the Farallon Islands. He's the last free-range human and when the Master and his daughter arrive, they press him into service for a variety of tasks. That new order is upended when a storm washes across the island, providing Kalivas a choice: he can free himself and his home from his new overseers, or commit to remaining in their service.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (September 16th)

Another addition to The Folio Society's Fall Collection is Walter M. Miller Jr.'s classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. This was also originally released as a limited edition in 2024, and it features an introduction by critic Michael Dirda and art by Elliot Lang.

The Summer War by Naomi Novik (September 16th)

When her brother Argent leaves home, Celia discovers that she has a talent for magic. She's angry and hurt, believing that he's abandoned her, and accidentally curses him in a fit of rage.

Now Argent wanders the world, looking for fame and glory rather than love and a home, while Celia desperately tries to figure out how to undo the curse she leveled against him. When she discovers the truth behind a long-running war between her people and the immortal summerlings, she might have found a solution to her mistake and to her people's suffering.

Publishers Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying "Novik’s fans will be pleased by the canny twists and turns of the plot, as well as the sweet queer romance between Argent and the Summer Prince at its center."

Who Will You Save? by Gareth L. Powell (September 16th)

Gareth L. Powell is a prolific writer, and his latest book is a new collection of his short fiction. This volume contains 32 of his short stories, spanning his entire career with a table of contents that includes some of his best-known stories and some previously unpublished ones that bring readers back to some of his best-known worlds.

To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth (September 16th)

Last year, Veronica Roth released When Among Crows, an excellent novella about a knight named Dymitr, who’s trying to track down the legendary witch known as Baba Jaga. Along the way, he meets Ala, a creature known as a zmora whose bloodline has been cursed. The two agree to help one another, and the secrets they hold almost destroy the two of them.

In this sequel, Dymitr is called back to his ancestral homelands for a funeral rite, and he uses the opportunity to take a family relic: a book of curses that might be able to take care of the debt he owes to Baba Jaga. But first, he needs to survive his family.

Publishers Weekly awarded the book a starred review, saying “Roth’s darker sequel maintains the seamless worldbuilding of the previous book while giving each member of the main trio a distinct and well-developed character arc; probing themes of intergenerational trauma, familial duty, and morality; and setting the stage for the finale.”

Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon (September 16th)

Back in 2019, Samantha Shannon released The Priory of the Orange Tree, a sprawling epic fantasy and in 2023, released A Day of Fallen Night, a prequel. Now, she has a new prequel out, Among the Burning Flowers, which takes the story back even further.

The land of Yscalin has experienced centuries of peace after the Draconic Army almost destroyed humanity. Not all is well: King Sigoso controls his daughter, Marosa Vetalda, imprisoning her in their home, while she’s promised to Aubrecht Lievelyn, who rules Mentendon. Across the world, a dragon hunter named Estina Melaugo is working to track down the sleeping dragons, and one of them, Fýredel is about to wake up. When he does, Yscalin is sure to fall.

Kirkus Reviews says “Devoted series fans will appreciate the added pieces to this expansive narrative puzzle.”

Thanks as always for reading. Let me know in the comments what catches your eye and what you have on your TBR! I'll have one more book list for September coming in a couple of weeks: there's still a lot more headed our way.