Promising Books being published on September 2026

September seems like a month packed to the brim with promising releases. There is one gem being republished in a new package after a long time, lots of stuff from well-known big names in genre fiction, as well as stuff from relatively lesser known writers, new entries into some beloved series and return of some much loved characters, as well as interesting new additions that might turn to big fame in future. Without further ado, lets look at what interests me most on the stuff being released this month.

"Second Nature by Joyce Carol Oates" from Hard Case Crime / Titan Books

Four decades ago, acclaimed literary author Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name "Rosamond Smith." In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles, and hidden second identities—initially, keeping her own double identity a secret.

Hard Case Crime is proud to bring these extraordinary works of crime fiction, long unavailable in bookstores, back into print in definitive double editions, each pairing two complete novels and two never-before-collected Oates short stories, all linked thematically, to weave a sinister web filled with dark reflections.

In This Volume...

A model suburban husband grows obsessed with a beautiful stranger in DOUBLE DELIGHT, while an eminent professor preys on a vulnerable student in NEMESIS – and the echoes continue in the rare short stories "A Girl Worth Twenty Million" and "First Death."

[ Hard Case Crime line releases so little stuff these days, and this is sort of a reprint, it seems quite promising. ]

"Wickhills" by Premee Mohamed from Tor Books

In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers... even at the threat of war.

Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency she works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue, and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon ― and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different... and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light.

[ Premee Mohamed is a writer I have been meaning to check out for a long time now. Maybe now is the time to finally get on with it. ]



"Exit Party" by Emily St. John Mandel from Knopf / Picador

The award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers.

Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.

As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change.

[ This sounds very promising. The blurb makes it sound like a post-apocalyptic literary science fiction. A thinking man's read, you gotta read these once in a while. ]

"Scion" by James Islington from S&S/Saga Press / Gollancz

My job, when you think about it, isn’t so different from a lot of people’s.

The more old-fashioned crowd do still get hung up on the "killing people" part of it, I guess, but that’s a them problem: it’s been perfectly legal to take out lifers for ages. Besides, once ultrawealthy morons realised they had a way to live forever—limited resources be damned—there was only ever going to be one genuinely practical deterrent.

So, sure, I have to deal with a ton of boring planning. Inconvenient hours. Some pretty awkward face-to-face interactions. And like most of us, I’m really only clocking in to try to crawl out from beneath my debts. But someone’s got to do it.

Luckily, my genetic compatibilities make me really, really good at doing it.

Still. This next job...I don’t know. It’s something I haven’t had to deal with in years. Kind of the opposite of my regular duties. Strange, that it got thrown my way.

I’m sure it’ll all go totally fine though.

[ This promises to be a short, fun, and fast-paced thriller. And from another author I have been neglecting to read for some time. ]

"Engines of Reason (Elder Race #2) by Adrian Tchaikovsky from Tor Publishing Group

On a planet where stories govern identity, where science and magic are a merely point of view, a fallen princess, a reluctant wizard, and a precocious child must unravel the past to shape the future.

Betrayal, ancient myths, and the clash of worlds converge in this spellbinding tale of courage, friendship, and self-discovery.

A profound exploration of identity, memory, and discovery from one of science fiction’s most compelling voices.

[ Wow, another one from Tchaikovsky. This guy is a literal machine. And this is the long-awaited sequel to Elder Race. Should be a blast. ] 

"The Rouse" by China Miéville from Del Rey

From the bestselling, award-winning master of uncanny fiction comes a defining work, twenty years in the making—a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic of personal grief, global tumult, and grim conspiracy.

Maur’s life has been shaped by loss: an apparently ordinary tragedy. But in its aftermath arise deeper, stranger questions. Their answers may lie within the dark heart and darker history of an old soldier who shares Maur’s obsessions and who is violently pursued by the same unknown, unquiet forces.

So begins a book unlike any other: at once an encyclopaedic and multitudinous saga of a bloody century and the intimate story of two lives, their loves, regrets, and secrets—and a terrifying journey into infinite mystery.

[ 1260 pages. A huge epic from China Miéville. Don't know when I'll be able to make the time to read this, but boy does this seem interesting. ]

"Blacktail" by Scott Hawkins from Crown Publishing Group / Tor Nightfire

The wolf Blacktail is faithful to his Forest God, but in these times, faith is not enough. His world is besieged by men. Soon his territory will be overrun, and then there will be nowhere left to go. When his mate, a house dog, is killed, Blacktail rebels. He invades the house of her owners, seeking vengeance.

Blacktail’s fury catches the notice of an ancient and terrible feline witch, who makes an offer. What if Blacktail could end the human race responsible for the death of his family and for the destruction of the natural world, altogether? To do so, Blacktail must find and wake the Forest God. Only He might stand against the plague of men. Blacktail knows that his north woods are dwindling to nothing. He sees no other choice.

As Blacktail journeys farther from his wild home and deeper into the world of man, he encounters strangers—animal, mortal, and otherworldly—who, for their own reasons, want to help Blacktail rid the world of humans. Along the way, it becomes clear that he is more than just a wolf. The Forest God is sleeping, yes. But what will be the price of waking him?

[ A fantasy/horror from the point of view of an animal. And this book seems like it had a long time in the making, something that I think I will like a lot. ]

"Baldur's Gate 3: Astarion" by T. Kingfisher from Random House Worlds / Titan Books

You’re too pretty to die.

Astarion Ancunin was supposed to be a magistrate, not a vampire spawn. He was supposed to serve the law, not the vicious vampire lord Cazador Szarr. And he was supposed to drink fine wine, not rat blood. Alas—the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.

Though he has been powerless to resist his master’s bidding, haunting the nighttime streets to fetch warm blood, Astarion has never surrendered his hope. One day, this nightmare must end. He just has to find out how.

When the vampire lord announces a twisted competition for his favor, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a rare prize . . . and an unlikely alliance. The blood of a dead god is buried deep beneath Baldur’s Gate, and, to get it, Astarion will need the help of a handsome Aasimar paladin named Hahn den Suriel.

There are just a few problems. Astarion is not supposed to trust his fellow spawn. He’s not supposed to go out into the city for his own ends rather than the vampire lord’s. And he’s certainly not supposed to strike a deal with a stranger whose golden eyes can snare even a blackened, undead heart.

But the city of Baldur’s Gate cares little for what’s supposed to happen.

[ I was a bit sceptical about picking up a video game tie as I will probably never be able to play the game. But the early reviews with extensive praise and the author took me over in the end. ]

"Driven" by Mason Coile from G.P. Putnam's Sons

Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo, or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts—at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks. 

But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion—the world’s most advanced self-driving car—a sleek, private, contained vessel that is one-hundred percent safe. Or so he thought.  

Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented—wait, is that blood?—and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out.  

As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he's forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried. Driven is a taut, near-future fever-dream. Mason Coile delivers another one-sitting read that blends science fiction and psychological horror to explore loneliness, grief, and the things that make us human.

[ I really loved last year's Exile, heard that the author had died. Was quite surprised hearing this being published; will check out this out of my respect for the author. ]

"The Big Bad Book of Kaiju" Edited by  Jonathan Maberry from Titan Books

A thrilling and cataclysmic collection of city-smashing titans and the desperate coalitions of humanity clinging to survival in the wreckage, from the New York Times-bestselling and multiple award-winning editors.

Featuring bestselling and award-winning authors such as Tananarive Due, Christopher Golden, Seanan McGuire, Scott Sigler and Steve Alten, author of The Meg.

An explosive collection of monster terror, featuring 25 original tales of creatures the size of skyscrapers. See cities shattered and worlds ended, as great beasts rise from the deep.

[Wow, this looks like a fine anthology, indeed. Bring on the Kaijus. ]

"Mazywood" by Tananarive Due from S&S/Saga Press / Titan Books

All the Sinners Bleed meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this literary thriller following the grandson of a famous Black actress from the 1940s and 1950s, now a filmmaker himself, who returns to his grandmother’s cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter the legacy of her rage.

With flashbacks to Johnny’s grandmother, this novel explores three generations beginning with Mazelle Washington’s life as a young actress. Fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny will discover the secret she’s kept and nurtured since she was a child when she had a dark wish come true.

There’s a monster in the woods outside her mountain retreat, Mazywood, and it is lonely and angry.

[Latest from Tananarive Due, I need to check her out. Heard so many good things. ]

"Our Cut of Salt" by Deena Helm from Tor Nightfire

There is something haunting Nuhad's childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have been known to disappear entirely in its walls without a trace.

Our Cut of Salt is an unflinching, sinister and moving take on the haunted house novel, from a bold new Palestinian voice. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians and The Haunting of Hill House.

Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart. And, in return, the house did the same for her.

After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother's home in Haifa after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina's mother, Haifa-named for the city that was lost to their family-reluctantly agrees to her trip, despite her omnipresent anxiety.

When a long-buried spirit of the past begins to haunt both dreams and waking life, Marina develops breathing problems that cause her to feel as if she is drowning on dry land. Despite Nuhad's warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter. As the three women converge in their ancestral haunted home, they must learn what the price of the past truly is.

[ A Palestinian author turned her grief into horror fiction. As a sympathizer, we must check this one out and support her. ]

Promising Mystery, Sci-fi & Fantasy - November & December 2018

Well, you can guess from two months being squeezed into one post that the end of 2018 has not been great for fantasy and science fiction novels. But, nevertheless, here goes my list.

So Many Doors
Author - Oakley Hall
Publisher - Hard Case Crime

SHE WAS HIS V.
SHE WAS EVERY MAN’S V.
It begins on Death Row, with a condemned man refusing the services of the lawyer assigned to defend him. It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered—Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. That’s where this extraordinary novel begins. But the story it tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that unfolds, in the masterful hands of acclaimed author Oakley Hall, is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake. Unpublished for more than half a century, SO MANY DOORS is Hall’s masterpiece, an excoriating vision of human nature at its most brutal, and one of the most powerful books you will ever read.

[ A new 'Hard Case Crime' book that interests me. ]

How Long ’Til Black Future Month?
Author - N.K. Jemisin
Publisher - Orbit

In these stories, Jemisin sharply examines modern society, infusing magic into the mundane, and drawing deft parallels in the fantasy realms of her imagination. Dragons and hateful spirits haunt the flooded city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow south must figure out how to save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story “The City Born Great,” a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis’s soul.

[ I have heard so many good things about 'N.K. Jemisin', maybe her brand new short story collection is the thing for me to jump on the bandwagon. ] 

Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History #1)
Author - George R.R. Martin
Publisher - HarperVoyager / Bantam

With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling author George R. R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros.
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.
What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.
With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.

[ Would you believe me if I say that I always wanted to read more about the Targaryens history? No? Well, if its the only taste of Westeros I can get now-a-days, so be it. ]

Blackstone Fortress
Author - Darius Hinks
Publisher - Black Library

There are those in the great expanse of the galaxy that seek profit wherever it is to be found: the deal makers, the opportunists and explorers – the Rogue Traders. Granted power by an ancient charter, sanctioned by the Emperor Himself, these scoundrels, entrepreneurs and adventurers roam the galaxy in search of fortune and glory. None perhaps are as hungry for these twin-vices as Janus Draik. All but disowned by his wealthy family, regarded as a wayward son of ill repute and little potential, Draik knows he must restore his fortunes soon or his misadventures will see him destitute and discarded.
So it is then that when he finds a truly exceptional prize, one that will return him to his deserved station, Draik recruits a crew of fellow treasure seekers and sets them to the task. Draik's obsession is all-consuming, and he will risk everything to obtain his prize and its many secrets, including his life or even that of his crew…

[ The setting really intrigues me. ]

Titandeath (The Horus Heresy #53)
Author - Guy Haley
Publisher - Black Library

Horus’s armada gathers, and he has defeated all enemies sent against him, even the Emperor’s own executioner. One barrier remains before he can strike for Terra and lay waste to the Emperor’s dream.
The Beta-Garmon system occupies the most direct and only viable route to the Solar System and Terra. To break it, Horus assembles a war host of incredible proportions and Titans in untold numbers. To lose here is to lose the war and Horus has no intention of turning back. But the Imperium understands the importance of Beta-Garmon too. A massive army is arrayed, comprised of near numberless Army cohorts and a mustering of Titans to challenge even the martial might of the Warmaster.
Titans fight against Titans as the God-Machines of Loyalists and Traitors alike go to war. This conflict will be like no other before it, a world-ending battle that will determine the next phase of the war.

[ The latest 'Horus Heresy', into the fifty third entry still not ending, this one seems like quite a strong entry too. ]

Promising Mystery, Sci-fi & Fantasy - September 2018

Compared to July and August, September seems rather bleak in terms of release, don't you guys agree? But then again, it has some promising new content nevertheless.

Charlesgate Confidential
Author - Scott Von Doviak
Publisher - Hard Case Crime / Titan Books

An ingenious debut-novel unraveling the heist of the century, in 1946, 1986 and present-day Boston
A group of criminals in 1946 pull off the heist of the century, stealing a dozen priceless works of art from a Boston museum. But while the thieves get caught, the art is never found. Forty years later, the last surviving thief gets out of jail and goes hunting for the loot, involving some innocent college students in his dangerous plan - and thirty years after that, in the present day, the former college kids, now all grown up, are drawn back into danger as the still-missing art tempts a deadly new generation of treasure hunters. A breathtakingly clever, twist-filled narrative that moves from 1946 to 1988 to 2014 and back again, CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL establishes Scott Von Doviak as a storyteller of the first order, and will leave you guessing until the very last page.

[ Another new 'Hard Case Crime' book that interests me. I am a sucker for a good crime noir most of the time. ]

Salvation (Salvation Sequence #1)
Author - Peter F. Hamilton
Publisher - Del Rey Books

Humanity's complex relationship with technology spirals out of control in this first book of an all-new trilogy from "the owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction" (Ken Follett).
In 2204, humanity is expanding into the wider galaxy in leaps and bounds. A new technology of linked jump gates has rendered most forms of transporation--including starships--virtually obsolete. Every place on earth, every distant planet mankind has settled, is now merely a step away from any other. And all seems wonderful...until a crashed alien spaceship is found on a newly-located world 89 light years from Earth, harboring seventeen human victims. And of the high-powered team dispatched to investigate the mystery, one is an alien spy...
Bursting with tension and big ideas, this standalone series highlights the inventiveness of an author at the top of his game, as the interweaving story lines tell us not only how humanity arrived at this moment, but also the far-future consequences that spin off from it.

[ I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading anything from this author, but I have been meaning to for a long time. May be, now is the time to finally dive in with this new series on the horizon. ]

The Dreaming Stars (Axiom #2)
Author - Tim Pratt
Publisher - Angry Robot

Ancient aliens, the Axiom, will kill us all – when they wake up. In deep space, a swarm of nanoparticles threatens the colonies, transforming everything it meets into computronium – including the colonists. The crew of the White Raven investigate, and discover an Axiom facility filled with aliens hibernating while their minds roam a vast virtual reality. The treacherous Sebastien wakes up, claiming his altered brain architecture can help the crew deactivate the swarm – from inside the Axiom simulation. To protect humanity, beleaguered Captain Callie Machedo must trust him, but if Sebastien still plans to dominate the universe using Axiom tech, they could be in a whole lot of trouble.

[ Well, I have the hard copy of the first one of this series on my bookshelf, need to start reading I guess. ]

Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy #1)
Author - Tade Thompson
Publisher - Orbit

Tade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices.
Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.
Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

[ Very, very unusual setting. to say the least. Should be my cup of tea. ] 

Port of Shadows (Chronicles of the Black Company #1.5)
Author - Glen Cook
Publisher - Tor Books

The father of Grimdark returns…
The soldiers of the Black Company don’t ask questions, they get paid. But being “The Lady’s favored” is attracting the wrong kind of attention and has put a target on their backs, and the Company’s historian, Croaker, has the biggest target of all.
The one person who was taken into The Lady’s Tower and returned unchanged has earned the special interest of the court of sorcerers known as The Ten Who Were Taken. Now, he and the company are being asked to seek the aid of their newest member, Mischievous Rain, to break a rebel army. However, Croaker doesn’t trust any ofthe Taken, especially not ones that look so much like The Lady and her sister…

[ Hmm, the latest entry into the 'Chronicles of the Black Company', Need I say more? ] 

The Queen of Crows (Sacred Throne #2)
Author - Myke Cole
Publisher - Tor.com Publishing

Myke Cole, star of CBS's Hunted and author of the Shadow Ops series is here with book two of the Sacred Throne Trilogy: The Queen of Crows.
In this epic fantasy sequel, Heloise stands tall against overwhelming odds--crippling injuries, religious tyrants--and continues her journey from obscurity to greateness with the help of alchemically-empowered armor and an unbreakable spirit.
No longer just a shell-shocked girl, she is now a figure of revolution whose cause grows ever stronger. But the time for hiding underground is over. Heloise must face the tyrannical Order and lay siege to the Imperial Palace itself.

[ I loved the first one of this series, which I reviewed for fantasy-faction (review link). I have been a fan Myke Cole for a while now. Quite confident this should be even better than its prequel. ]