Locus Magazine

Ready to discover your next favorite book? Our September 1, 2026 new releases roundup highlights this week’s newest titles across Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Young Adult fiction. Whether you’re searching for bold new worlds, epic fantasy quests, unsettling horror, or compelling YA adventures, there’s plenty arriving this week to explore. We’ve picked out a selection of notable releases to help you find something worth adding to your reading queue.

Valet, J.P. Lacrampe (Saga 978-1-66821-643-9, $28.00, 272pp, hc) June 2026. These days, a novel that can make me laugh, that uses humour to briefly distract me from the awful parade of daily headlines declaring new acts of global cruelty, is a novel I cherish, whatever its flaws. J. P. Lacrampe’s debut, Valet, is one such novel. What it might lack in originality – a reimagining of P. G.

Accumulation, Aimee Pokwatka (Putnam, 979-8-21704-762-8, $30.00, 336pp, hc.) Cover by Christopher Lin. May 2026. Aimee Pokwatka’s Accumulation is her third novel. The first, Self Portrait with Nothing (2022), focused on a woman, abandoned at birth, who learns her mother is a famous artist with an uncanny talent for summoning a subject’s alt-universe double. In The Parliament (2024), a group of people are trapped inside a library when thousands of owls surround the building.

The shorthand for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is “slipstream slasher,” although it’s more funny than frightening so it’s not actually a horror film. It’s also earnestly weird so, despite the humor, not a satire. Teenage Sex and Death is a love letter to the subgenre. It’s a visual feast, anchored by outstanding performances, and multilayered with the type of metafictional alternate realities I find so charming when they’re done well.

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below. The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... Show more

Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun, Mónica Ojeda, tr. Sarah Booker (Coffee House Press, 978-1-56689-755-6, $20.00, 240pp, hc) May 2026.

The winners for the 2025 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were announced August 31, 2026 at LAcon V.

Author and editor David Kopaska-Merkel, 69, died August 26, 2026. David C. Kopaska-Merkel was born January 11, 1957 in Charlottesville VA. He attended William & Mary, earned a doctorate in geology, worked for the Geological Survey of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and wrote several articles and books on geology and paleontology.

The African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS) announced the shortlist for the 2026 Nommo Awards, given to works “by African authors” as defined by the ASFS and Nommo Awards Guidelines, on August 27, 2026 at LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention, in Anaheim CA.

Visit our bookshop.org page to purchase this week’s new books and support your local bookstore. And us! Aguirre, Ann: The Hocus Pocus Handbook (Sourcebooks Casablanca 978-1464224119, $18.99, 352pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 09/01/2026) SF romantic comedy novel. Thea, a changeling, was stolen from the mortal world and now lives in the wildlands. Now she has to hunt down Devan J. Fenelon, but she has to work with a difficult hunter known as Winter’s Hound.