Add All of These Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Your August Reading List
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August brings the final book in N.K. Jemison’s Hugo-winning Broken Earth trilogy, The Stone Sky—as well as Stephen Baxter’s sequel to H.G. Wells’ classic The War of the Worlds (ominously titled The Massacre of Mankind). And those are just two of the titles on this rather long list, so you’d better start turning some pages.
After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley by Rob Reid
After a title change and a release date shift, the latest novel from Reid (Year Zero) has finally arrived. It imagines a powerful new social network called “Phluttr,” an instantly essential invention that’s poised to either elevate humanity to a new level—or take over the world. Read an excerpt here. (Aug. 1)
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After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley
The Best of Bova, Volume 3 by Ben Bova (Aug. 1)
The latest collection of hard science fiction tales selected from the six-time Hugo Award winner’s long and prolific career.
The Best of Bova: Volume 3 (3)
The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor
The author of Titanic novel The Girl Who Came Home uses another event from that era for inspiration: the 1917 photos taken by two young girls that, at the time, were believed to be of real fairies. It explores that moment in history as well as the life of a present-day woman who realizes she has a strange connection to it. (Aug. 1)
The Cottingley Secret: A Novel
The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy
Everyone knows that criminals lurk within the internet’s darkest recesses, but what if an ancient evil began to manifest there as well? Fortunately for the rest of the world, a scrappy group centered in Portland—including a journalist, a hacker, a former evangelist, and a 12-year-old with high-tech visual prosthetics—will pool their skills to try and fight it. (Aug. 1)
The Gates of Tagmeth by P.C. Hodgell
In this high fantasy sequel to The Sea of Time, a noblewoman with chaos and destruction in her blood must battle a being that has crossed multiple universes to bring permanent darkness—or else see her people wiped out forever. (Aug. 1)
The Gates of Tagmeth (8) (Kencyrath)
Halls of Law by V.M. Escalada
This first book in a new fantasy series introduces a world balanced between its military forces and its lawmakers, the latter of whom are all magically talented. But the balance is alarmingly tenuous, as one young psychic finds when a devastating invasion occurs and the royal family is wiped out. (Aug. 1)
Halls of Law (Faraman Prophecy)
Hex-Rated by Jason Ridler
Another first book in a series—but this one’s styled like a 1970s pulp novel and is about a Los Angeles detective named Brimstone whose latest case is overflowing with supernatural elements. (Aug. 1)
Hex-Rated: A Brimstone Files Novel
A Man of Shadows by Jeff Noon
A down-on-his-luck private eye is hired to find a teenage runaway who may have a strange connection to a serial killer who’s prowling the streets. This would be a very dark and noirish tale, except it takes place in a city where night never falls. (Aug. 1)
Monster Hunter Siege by Larry Correia
Correia’s popular horror-fantasy series rolls on with a massive tale about “the single biggest operation in Monster Hunter International’s history.” The tag line is literally “go big or go home,” so you know some demon heads are gonna roll. (Aug. 1)
Reaping the Aurora by Joshua Palmatier
The author wraps up his trilogy set in the now-destroyed city of Erenthrall, where attempts to stabilize the region’s magical ley lines and restore order are sabotaged by unrest among the few but fierce survivors. (Aug. 1)
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 in space—proof that there’s one job that will always need doing, even if everything else ends. (Aug. 1)
Update: The publication date for Terminal Alliance is now November 7.
Terminal Alliance (Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse)
Urban Enemies edited by Joseph Nassise
Seventeen urban fantasy tales told from a dastardly villain’s point of view, brought to you by authors Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), Seanan McGuire (October Daye), Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger), and others. (Aug. 1)
American Ghost by Paul Guernsey
The ghost of a weed-dealing biker is determined to solve his own murder, then get revenge on whoever dunnit. But he’ll need two unlikely allies who are still lurching around this mortal coil—an unemployed ghost hunter and a writer-turned-pig farmer—to help him carry out his quest for justice. (Aug. 8)
Binary/System by Eric Brown
A scientist crash-lands on a hostile alien planet and must cross the icy landscape to reach a possible escape point—a treacherous journey she undertakes with the help of “a friendly chimpanzee-like alien and a giant spider crab.” So, things could be worse. (Aug. 8)
Blackthorne by Stina Leicht
In the sequel to Cold Iron, twins Nel and Suvi try to keep the people of their fallen kingdom safe from demonic forces—a life-or-death task that’s made more difficult with each passing day, as the magic that protects them has started to lose its potency. (Aug. 8)
Blackthorne (2) (The Malorum Gates)
The Mystery Knight: A Graphic Novel by George R.R. Martin, adapted by Ben Avery and illustrated by Mark S. Miller
Sure, you already know and love this Dunk and Egg tale (set several decades before the events of Game of Thrones)—but isn’t that a great reasons to pick up this new version and enjoy it all over again as a graphic novel? (Aug. 8)
The Mystery Knight: A Graphic Novel
Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle
When a group of Irish teens happens upon a book of magic spells, they think they’ve discovered an easy way to reclaim all of the things missing from their lives, from lost objects to past relationships. Unfortunately, it all turns out not to be that simple—or harmless. (Aug. 8)
Spellbook of the Lost and Found
Call of Fire by Beth Cato
The sequel to Breath of Earth is set in an alternate-universe version of San Francisco just after the devastating 1906 earthquake. Young geomancer Ingrid must live with the knowledge that her similarly gifted father is the reason San Francisco is now flattened—and also do her best to escape the bureaucrat who wants to use her powers for evil. Good thing she has a mysterious hero named Theodore Roosevelt on her side. (Aug. 15)
Call of Fire (Blood of Earth, 2)
The Dinosaur Princess by Victor Milán
As you can see right there on the cover, George R.R. Martin himself called this fantasy series “a cross between Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones.” There’s more plot than that, of course—involving a warrior who was resurrected by magical beings, but would really prefer not to be indebted to them forever—but the main draw is, quite obviously, the fact that knights in this world ride freaking dinosaurs into battle. (Aug. 15)
The Dinosaur Princess (The Dinosaur Lords, 3)
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
A woman searching for answers about her best friend’s suicide visits a town that seems to be a paradise filled with free-living anarchists. That is, until the three-antlered, blood-red, demonically-driven deer show up and start wrecking the scene. (Aug. 15)
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (Danielle Cain)
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
With this novel that arrives with the decisive tagline “THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME,” Jemisin wraps up her post-apocalyptic, Hugo-winning Broken Earth trilogy. (Aug. 15)
The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth, 3)
The Massacre of Mankind: The Sequel to War of the Worlds by Stephen Baxter
This authorized sequel picks up 14 years after the Martian invasion, a time when the armies of Earth are confident that they’ll be able to repel any future attacks. But the Martians have changed their tactics, and humankind—including Wells’ (previously unnamed) protagonist, Walter Jenkins, and his sister-in-law, a war reporter—faces a greatly heightened threat when the aliens make a return visit. (Aug. 22)
The Massacre of Mankind: Sequel to The War of the Worlds
The New Voices of Fantasy edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman
Rising stars of fantasy fiction (Sofia Samatar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Max Gladstone, Alyssa Wong, and many more) contribute to this 19-story genre collection, which is co-edited and curated by Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn). (Aug. 22)
Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore
A man who falls in love with Death (he calls her Suzie) goes through 10,000 reincarnations, solving various pieces of the cosmic puzzle as he aims for the ultimate prize: an eternity spent with his sweetheart. It’s a love story, sure, but it’s also “the story of everything that makes life profound, beautiful, absurd, and heartbreaking.” (Aug. 22)
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock
In this debut fantasy novel, a princess agrees to wed a stranger for strategic political reasons—if she can survive the trip to the altar, considering a sorcerer has assassinated the last two women who tried to marry the guy. Fortunately, she’s incredibly smart, and she has a skilled musketeer watching her back as she tries to unravel the intrigue that threatens not just her life, but the stability of the world. (Aug. 29)
An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors: Book One in the Risen Kingdoms (The Risen Kingdoms, 1)
The Plague Diaries by Ronlyn Domingue
In this conclusion to the author’s Keeper of Tales trilogy, heroine Secret Riven has her telepathic powers in check and has taken a job in a mystical library. But her life as an archivist soon takes a turn when she discovers a manuscript that may contain one of her family’s deepest secrets—which, if unlocked, could have the power to change the world. (Aug. 29)
The Plague Diaries: Keeper of Tales Trilogy: Book Three (3) (The Keeper of Tales Trilogy)
Raising Fire by James Bennett
As the protagonist of Bennett’s Chasing Embers has learned the hard way, messing around with evil spirits can spell trouble in the modern world. But as this sequel proves, sometimes you can’t just press pause on your crappy life to get good and drunk. Sometimes, you have to muster up the energy to be the hero once again—especially when some jerk starts unleashing ancient magic all over the place. (Aug. 29)
Raising Fire (A Ben Garston Novel)
The Crow’s Dinner by Jonathan Carroll
The veteran writer of contemporary fantasy (The Land of Laughs, A Child Across the Sky, Outside the Dog Museum) releases his first collection of essays, drawn from works originally published on Medium. (Aug. 31)
Golden Age and Other Stories by Naomi Novik
Though the author wrapped up her alternate-history-with-dragons Temeraire series last year, she’s back in that world for this set of tales—a collection which also pays tribute to her loyal readers, pairing each story with a piece of fan art. (Aug. 31)
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