Andy Weir’s follow-up to The Martian, the moon-heist thriller Artemis, is finally here, but that’s just one of dozens of new sci-fi and fantasy books out this month. The days are longer, it’s warm and sunny outside, and there’s no better time to pick out a new book or five to sit in the park and read. We have you covered.
Detail from cover for Artemis by Andy Weir. Image: Crown
All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault by James Alan Gardner
A science experiment gone awry transforms university student Kim and her three roommates into superheroes, but while they decide what their super alter-egos should be named and gleefully design their costumes, they also find themselves being pulled into a serious fight between light and darkness. (November 7)
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine: A Decade of Hugo & Nebula Award Winning Stories 2005-2015, edited by Sheila Williams
The Hugo winner curates a selection of the best recent short stories and novellas from Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. (November 7)
Down and Out in Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers by Tim Powers
The award-winning author of The Anubis Gates, Last Call and On Stranger Tides presents 20 sci-fi and supernatural tales culled from various points in his career, including the title story. (November 7)
Gluttony Bay by Matt Wallace
The latest in Wallace’s Sin du Jour series about paranormal caterers is, of course, another foodie tale – this time set in the not-so-friendly confines of Gluttony Bay High Security Supernatural Prison. (November 7)
Ironclads by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Only 1000 special-edition copies of this military sci-fi novella from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner will be released, so act fast if you want to get your hands on one. (November 7)
Jade City by Fonda Lee
The official description of this multigenerational saga – set in a world where jade is prized for its ability to enhance the powers of those who know how to use it – likens it to “The Godfather with magic and kung-fu”. Make your own “offer you can’t refuse” joke here, because you know that sounds awesome. (November 7)
The Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade, edited by William Ledbetter
The first collection in the Jim Baen Memorial Award’s 10-year history, this volume collects winners and runners-up that keep with the philosophy of “looking to the future with a positive outlook on humanity’s place in the universe”. (November 7)
More Human Than Human: Stories of Androids, Robots and Manufactured Humanity, edited by Neil Clarke
This reprint anthology is filled with tales about artificial humans. Contributing authors include Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow and Elizabeth Bear. (November 7)
Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander
In this sequel to Necrotech, cyberpunk mercenary Riko is on a desperate quest to salvage her recently battered reputation as the best of the best. (November 7)
The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle
This short-story collection includes a callback to the author’s classic, The Last Unicorn, along with several other new fantasy tales. (November 7)
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
In the post-apocalypse, humans with special abilities help bring justice and order back to a chaotic world. But where there are super-humans, there are always super-villains, including a young woman who joins a revenge scheme that could end the world for good. (November 7)
Shadowborn by David Dalglish
The author begins the final volume of his Seraphim trilogy amid a massive war, though the face of the rebellion that started it all has started to realise what’s most important to her: Rescuing her imperilled brother, and somehow figuring out a way to restore peace. (November 7)
The Sisters of the Crescent Empress by Leena Likitalo
The author continues her historical-fantasy Waning Moon series with a new story about the magical Romanov sisters, who are now being held captive and facing ghosts, strange mysteries, and difficult decisions about the uncertainty that lies ahead for each of them. (November 7)
Strange Music: A Pip and Flinx Adventure by Alan Dean Foster
The author’s latest in his extensive Commonwealth series brings a new adventure for Flinx and his venomous pal Pip. They head to a primitive planet teetering on the brink of war, but their plan to help calm the waters becomes complicated when Flinx realises he’s unable to use his empathetic abilities on the locals, who sing instead of speak. (November 7)
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines
The Hugo winner launches a humorous new series about the scrappy humans who’ve survived the apocalypse on Earth to become janitors – proof that there’s one job that will always need doing, even in space. Unfortunately for them, the crew of their ship has a bit of a zombie problem. (November 7)
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
The Hugo winner’s latest sounds perfect for fans of the Alien films (and maybe Event Horizon, too). It starts with a deep-space salvage crew discovering a seemingly long-abandoned ship that turns out to have one occupant – who, once revived, warns them of an alien race that mixes advanced technology with pure evil. (November 7)
After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard
H.P. Lovecraft enters the alternate-history 21st century through this tale of Emily Lovecraft and Daniel Carter, who investigate scientific mysteries in a world where the Nazis won and the Cold War never happened. There are plenty of human monsters running around, but there are plenty of supernatural ones, too. (November 14)
Artemis by Andy Weir
Weir’s follow-up to The Martian is about a heist on the moon. This would already be an awesome premise even without the story’s other details, such as the fact that the protagonist is a female smuggler who’s grown tired of serving the inhabitants of the very posh, apparently very corrupt moon city of Artemis. Can’t wait to read it… and watch the inevitable movie, too. (November 14)
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
In this debut novel set in and around 18th century Cairo, a faux fortune teller realises she has actual magic powers, awakened by the arrival of a mysterious djinn warrior who opens up her world for better and worse. (November 14)
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
In Victorian London, a pair of sisters – a fencer and a wannabe art critic – living on the outer rim of high society become unwittingly entangled with a supernatural cult. Only one sister takes up the side of fighting demons, while the other is drawn into worshipping them. (November 14)
The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities by James Lovegrove
Holmes and Watson embark on a Lovecraftian case when an amnesiac Bedlam asylum patient begins speaking the language of the Old Ones. After the detectives piece together that he’s a former science student from Miskatonic University, they realise they have uncovered a much greater mystery. (November 14)
The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen
The award-winning author’s first short-story collection in over a decade imagines familiar characters (such as Peter Pan‘s Wendy, The Wizard of Oz‘s Dorothy and Emily Dickinson) undertaking new and unexpected adventures. (November 14)
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
A dystopian novel about a world that somehow starts evolving backwards, and the young pregnant woman who is determined to keep her unborn baby safe amid all the rampant paranoia and terrifying chaos that surrounds her. (November 14)
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
The author (Mira Grant is a pen name used by the award-winning Seanan McGuire) returns with an aquatic mystery about a ship that vanishes while its crew is filming a mockumentary (or is it?) about ancient mythological sea creatures. (November 14)
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
A “magical pseudo-biography” of Benoit Mandelbrot, exploring how he used mathematics to cope with the rise of Hitler and to help save his family as he was growing up in Vichy France. (November 14)
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
The sequel to Worlds of Radiance continues the author’s epic Stormlight Archive fantasy series, as humankind once again faces certain destruction from the vengeful Voidbringers. (November 14)
Seventh Decimate by Stephen R. Donaldson
This is the first volume in a new trilogy about a prince who’s tasked with finding a special library that can save his people, but considering it’s a magical library hidden in a treacherous world controlled by battling sorcerers, it will be no easy quest. (November 14)
The Caldera (The Brotherband Chronicles) by John Flanagan
The seventh Brotherband book sees the Herons on a daring rescue mission involving a kidnapped royal heir, pirates, stormy seas, and a seemingly impossible-to-penetrate fortress. (November 21)
The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories by Charlaine Harris
True Blood fans won’t want to miss this complete collection of all of Harris’ short stories, exploring more adventures of the telepathic waitress who’s forever becoming entangled with the supernatural. Harris also contributes a new introduction. (November 21)
Sweet Dreams by Tricia Sullivan
In 2022, a “dreamhacker” – someone who can enter your dreams and help you shape them – is a very popular thing to be, especially since there’s only one person in all of London who has the right skills. Or so she thinks, until her clients start having nightmares she can’t control. (November 21)
Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier
A dark fantasy tale set in a land ruled by two cruel kings, where a princess and a duke who both long for freedom very reluctantly join forces to plot a revolution. Supernatural forces and a bleak midwinter forecast won’t make their grand scheme any easier. (November 21)
Darkness Falling by Ian Douglas
The author continues his Andromedan Dark space odyssey with this sequel to Altered Starscape, following a colony ship that travels to the deepest corners of the universe – where it encounters a new race that seems rather intent on wiping everyone aboard out of existence. (November 28)
Starfire: Shadow Sun Seven by Spencer Ellsworth
The Starfire trilogy space opera continues with its three main characters dodging mercenary aliens (among other enemies) as they plot to obtain something so valuable it will surely secure their freedom: A stash of pure oxygen cells. (November 28)