Fall New Release Books
Goodbye, Subject Matter Experts.
Hello, Galactic Guru Reader Types!
This fall, we’re introducing the Galactic Guru Reader Type—a group of readers who thrive on exploring the unknown and pushing the boundaries of reality. Once called subject matter experts, these readers are now defined by their passion for all things science fiction, dystopian worlds, and graphic novels. Galactic Gurus are the ones who look to the stars for answers, crave the thrill of technological advancements, and enjoy navigating the complex landscapes of future civilizations. October through December offers an exhilarating lineup of new releases that will capture their imaginations and take them on mind-bending journeys through time, space, and beyond.
From gripping dystopian novels that explore the consequences of our modern world to graphic novels filled with futuristic tech and complex characters, this season’s books are perfect for Galactic Gurus. Whether you're fascinated by space exploration, artificial intelligence, or immersive video game-like worlds, these new releases will feed your love for science fiction and speculative storytelling. Expect deep, thought-provoking narratives alongside action-packed adventures that will leave you pondering the future of humanity long after the final page.
December new release
The Way
by Cary Groner
A postapocalyptic road trip and a quest for redemption.
It's 2048, and the world has been ravaged by a lethal virus. With few exceptions, only the young have survived. Cities and infrastructures have been destroyed, and the natural world has reclaimed the landscape in surprising ways, with herds of wild camels roaming the American West and crocodiles that glow neon green lurking in the rivers.
Will Collins, the last surviving resident of a Buddhist retreat center in Colorado, receives an urgent and mysterious request: to deliver a potential cure to a scientist on the West Coast.
The Shutouts
by Gabrielle Korn
A brilliant queer dystopian novel from the author of Yours for the Taking, following a cast of characters on the margins of a strange and exclusive new society.
The year is 2041, and it's a dangerous time to be a woman driving across the United States alone. Deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires are pummeling the country while political tensions are rising. But Kelly's on the road anyway; she desperately needs to get back to her daughter, who she left seven years ago for a cause that she's no longer sure she believes in.
Almost 40 years later, another mother, Ava, and her daughter Brook are on the run as well, from the climate change relief program known as The Inside Project, where they've spent the past 22 years being treated as lab rats. When they encounter a woman from Ava's past on the side of the highway, the three continue on in a journey that will take them into the depths of what remains of humanity out in the wilderness.
Mechanize My Hands to War
by Erin K Wagner
September, 2060: Adrian Hall, acting director of the ATF, is holding a press conference. Yes, Eli Whitaker, anti-android demagogue, remains at large, and yes, he is recruiting children into his militia -- Adrian is careful not to use the word army. She is careful all the way through the conference, right up until someone asks her about her personal connection to Whitaker; about Trey Caudill, his foster son.
July, 2058: Farmers Shay and Ernst, struggling after they discover their GMO crop seeds have failed, hire android employees: Sarah as hospice, and AG-15 to work the now-toxic fields. Under one roof, four lives intertwine in ways no one expects.
July, 2060: Special Agent Trey Caudill is leading a raid on Eli Whitaker's farm when an android, call sign Ora, shoots and kills a child.
March, 2061: Ora sits in a room. He has been there for seven months, resisting diagnostic tests. He is drawing on the walls, scratching his artificial skin, tracing something over and over and over again with a tired metallic finger. There is nothing wrong with his circuitry, so why does Ora feel so broken?
Ageless
by Renée Schaeffer
Naissa Nolan is a happy child in 1850s Philadelphia--until tragedy strikes while she and her family are on holiday. Alone and heartbroken, she is thrust into an immortal life she never bargained for or imagined. Naissa spends the next few centuries on Earth--and beyond--desperate to learn more about her condition. While working with the esteemed Oberlin Institute in Vienna, she makes an important discovery that could change everything.
Alter Ego
by Alex Segura
Alex Segura, award-winning author of Secret Identity, returns with a clever and escapist standalone sequel set in the world of comic books. In the present day, a comics legend is given the chance to revive a beloved but forgotten character. But at what price?
Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she's never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available--until now.
But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle's father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie's inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play.
November new releases
Merlin's Tour of the Universe, Revised and Updated for the Twenty-First Century: A Traveler's Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, and Ev
by Neil Degrasse Tyson - Stephen J Tyson
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Astrophysics for People in a Hurry takes readers on an entertaining and edifying tour of the universe.
In Neil deGrasse Tyson's delightful journey through the cosmos, his fictional character Merlin responds to popular questions asked by adults and children alike. Merlin, a timeless visitor from Planet Omniscia in the Andromeda Galaxy, has observed firsthand many of the major scientific events of Earth's history. Merlin's friends include the most important scientific figures and explorers of all time--da Vinci, Magellan, Newton, Einstein, and Hubble.
The Swarm
by Andy Marino
From the bizarre and audacious imagination of horror author Andy Marino comes a harrowing tale of the insect that will herald the apocalypse…
It begins with cicadas. It will end with the swarm.
When a bizarre murder case lands on the desk of Detective Vicky Paterson, it's just the start of her nightmare. On the same day, her young daughter, Sadie, is swarmed by cicadas emerging off-cycle from their seventeen-year pattern. Sadie barely survives, and her condition is critical.
An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth
by Anna Moschovakis
After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic "healing" ideologues with uncertain motives.
Interstellar Megachef
by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Masterchef in Space! A fun, satirical, thought-provoking novel by the critically-acclaimed author of The Ten-Percent Thief
Looking for your one shot to rise to the "top of the pots" in the cutthroat world of interstellar cuisine? Look no further--you might have what it takes to be an Interstellar MegaChef!
Stepping off a long-haul star freighter from Earth, Saras Kaveri has one bag of clothes, her little flying robot Kili... and an invitation to compete in the galaxy's most watched, most prestigious cooking show. Interstellar MegaChef is the showcase of the planet Primus's austere, carefully synthesised cuisine. Until now, no-one from Earth--where they're so incredibly primitive they still cook with fire--has ever graced its flowmetal cookstations before, or smiled awkwardly for its buzzing drone-cams.
October New Release Books
Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel
by Jeff VanderMeer
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2024:
TIME, Kirkus, Literary Hub, Goodreads
Esquire's Book Club Pick for October
The surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach series--and the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.
When the Southern Reach trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story before publication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed the bestseller list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.
Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions
by Nalo Hopkinson - Joshua Mays
Caribbean-Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring) is an internationally beloved storyteller. This long-awaited new collection of her deeply imaginative short fiction offers striking journeys to far-flung futures and fantastical landscapes.
In Nalo Hopkinson's first collection of stories since 2015, a woman and her cyborg pig eke out a living in a future waterworld; two scientists contemplate the cavernous remains of an alien life-form; a trans woman at a funeral might be haunted by more than just bad memories; and an artist creates nanotechnology that asserts Blackness where it is least welcome and most needed.
American Rapture
by Cj Leede
An Indie Next Pick!
From CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly, comes a scorching new apocalyptic novel. American Gods meets The Last of Us in this epic and sweeping story about the end of the world as we know it.
A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust.
Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin…
The Ancients
by John Larison
A richly imagined, sweeping novel of hope, love, and adventure set in the unforgiving world of our own descendants, by the acclaimed author of WHISKEY WHEN WE'RE DRY
A young boy and his older sisters find themselves suddenly and utterly alone, orphaned in an abandoned fishing village. Their food supplies dwindling, they set out across a breathtaking yet treacherous wilderness in search of the last of their people.
Down the coast, raiders deliver the children's mother, along with the rest of their human cargo, to the last port city of a waning empire. Determined to reunite with her family, she plots her escape--while her fellow captives plan open revolt.
The Art Thieves
by Andrea L Rogers
TO: Angel Wilson (LawAngel@IBLO.gov)
FROM: Stevie Henry (shenry@gmail.com)
Thanks for coming to see me; but by the time you read this, it will be too late. No one will have started to panic, yet; but in less than two months nothing will be the same. What came first, The Chicken or the Egg Flu? I wish it mattered. But let's just say, maybe go back to wearing a mask, bathing in sanitizer, and avoid birds and eggs for a bit...
I did not kill my brother. I did quite the opposite, really.
It's the year 2052. Stevie Henry is a Cherokee girl working at a museum in Texas, trying to save up enough money to go to college. The world around her is in a cycle of drought and superstorms, ice and fire ... but people get by. But it's about to get a whole lot worse.