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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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Head below for the full list of science fiction titles heading your way in September!

Keep track of all the new SFF releases here. You can also find horror titles scheduled for 2020 here. All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher. Note: Release dates are subject to change.

 

WEEK ONE (September 1)

Set My Heart to Five—Simon Stephenson (Hanover Square)

Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can’t feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he’s crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what’s happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel. Overcome with a full range of emotions, and facing an imminent reset, Jared heads west, determined to forge real connections. He yearns to find his mother, the programmer who created him. He dreams of writing a screenplay that will change the world. Along the way, he might even fall in love. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins.

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy (Book I: Chaos Rising, The Ascendancy Trilogy #1)—Timothy Zahn (Del Rey)

Beyond the edge of the galaxy lies the Unknown Regions: chaotic, uncharted, and near impassable, with hidden secrets and dangers in equal measure. And nestled within its swirling chaos is the Ascendancy, home to the enigmatic Chiss and the Nine Ruling Families that lead them. The peace of the Ascendancy, a beacon of calm and stability, is shattered after a daring attack on the Chiss capital that leaves no trace of the enemy. Baffled, the Ascendancy dispatches one of its brightest young military officers to root out the unseen assailants. A recruit born of no title, but adopted into the powerful family of the Mitth and given the name Thrawn. With the might of the Expansionary Fleet at his back, and the aid of his comrade Admiral Ar’alani, answers begin to fall into place. But as Thrawn’s first command probes deeper into the vast stretch of space his people call the Chaos, he realizes that the mission he has been given is not what it seems. And the threat to the Ascendancy is only just beginning.

 

WEEK TWO (September 8)

Architects Of Memory (Memory War #1)—Karen Osborne (Tor Books)

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

Fearless—Allen Stroud (Flame Tree Press)

AD 2118. Humanity has colonised the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. Captain Ellisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies. Shann has no legs and has taken to life in zero-g partly as a result. She is a talented tactician who has a tendency to take too much on her own shoulders. Now, while on a regular six-month patrol through the solar system, Khidr picks up a distress call from the freighter Hercules

The Sentient—Nadia Afifi (Flame Tree Press)

Amira Valdez is a brilliant neuroscientist trying to put her past on a religious compound behind her. But when she’s assigned to a controversial cloning project, her dreams of working in space are placed in jeopardy. Using her talents as a reader of memories, Amira uncovers a conspiracy to stop the creation of the first human clone – at all costs. As she unravels the mystery, Amira navigates a dangerous world populated by anti-cloning militants, scientists with hidden agendas, and a mysterious New Age movement. In the process, Amira uncovers an even darker secret, one that forces her to confront her own past.

Second Chance Angel—Griffin Barber, Kacey Ezell (Blackstone)

After a devastating galactic war, disgraced veteran Ralston Muck ekes out a living as a bouncer at Last Stop Station’s premier nightclub, A Curtain of Stars. Night after night he listens to the club’s star performer, Siren, sing her memories and ease some of his aching loss. But when Siren goes missing, Muck finds himself drawn into a world of dirty cops, drug lords, and conspiracies that trace back to the war itself. The only person he can trust isn’t even human. Angel, Siren’s personal AI, was ripped from the singer’s mind the night Siren disappeared. With no idea what has happened to her human host, and pursued by a killer virus, Angel flees to Muck for answers. Together they struggle to comprehend the conspiracy that entangles both their lives. Can Muck and the angel on his shoulder recover Siren before it’s too late? Or will he lose everything that matters to him one more time?

Divergence (Foreigner #21)—C. J. Cherryh (DAW)

Bren Cameron, diplomat in residence, usually represents the ruler of the atevi state. But Ilisidi, the dowager, has been known to borrow his services from time to time—and she has her own notions how to solve the simmering hostilities in the south of the atevi continent, playing one problem against another. This time, she is betting the hard-won northern peace—and the lives of the people—on being right. She has commandeered the Red Train, taken aboard what passengers she chooses, and headed for the snowy roof of the world, where a hard-scrabble town and its minor lord are the first pieces she intends to use.

Prime Deceptions (Chilling Effect #2)—Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager)

Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra find themselves once again on the fringe of populated space—and at the center of a raging covert war. When Eva’s sister asks for help locating a missing scientist, promises of a big paycheck and a noble cause convince Eva to take the job despite lingering trust issues. With reluctant assistance from her estranged mother, Eva and her crew follow the missing scientist’s trail across the universe, from the costume-filled halls of a never-ending convention to a dangerous bot-fighting arena. They ultimately find themselves at the last place Eva wants to see again—Garilia—where she experienced her most shameful and haunting failure. To complete her mission and get paid, Eva must navigate a paradise embroiled in a rebellion, where massive forests and pristine beaches hide psychic creatures and pervasive surveillance technology. Can she find her quarry while avoiding the oppressive local regime, or will she be doomed to repeat past mistakes when her dark deeds come to light?

Blue Planet (Second Species #3)—Jane O’Reilly (Piatkus)

Dax and Jinn may be together again in body, but Jinn fears that the distance between them will never be bridged. Her love for Dax remains strong, but their experiences on Sittan cannot easily be forgotten, and the tension between them threatens everything she holds dear. Luckily, there’s no time to dwell on her failings—for they are running out of time…The Sittan are rampaging through neutral space, coming ever closer to Earth, and the government does nothing, frozen by bureaucracy, ignorance and fear. Ferona may be down, but she’s far from out—and she is as ruthless and determined as ever. Meanwhile, the deadly Shi Fai wait for a chance, any chance, to claim more of their shared universe. With enemies on all sides, Jinn is driven to embrace the extraordinary power she’s been holding at bay. The mysterious living metal Virena may well hold the secret to ending the war and saving her species…but in letting herself go, will Jinn lose her own humanity?

Cypher (Violet Wars #2)—Rich Larson (Orbit)

The invasion is over, but not all the aliens are gone. As the outside world learns what happened to the city, Violet and Bo struggle to keep their ally Gloom hidden from prying eyes. Those in power believe he is the key to unlocking the invaders’ technology, and will stop at nothing to capture him. All the while, the invasion’s survivors are being drawn to a mysterious anomaly that might be their destruction—or their salvation from an even greater threat.

 

WEEK THREE (September 15)

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars—Christopher Paolini (Tor Books)

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move. As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope…

An Unnatural Life—Erin K. Wagner (Tordotcom Publishing)

The cybernetic organism known as 812-3 is in prison, convicted of murdering a human worker but he claims that he did not do it. With the evidence stacked against him, his lawyer, Aiya Ritsehrer, must determine grounds for an appeal and uncover the true facts of the case. But with artificial life-forms having only recently been awarded legal rights on Earth, the military complex on Europa is resistant to the implementation of these same rights on the Jovian moon. Aiya must battle against her own prejudices and that of her new paymasters, to secure a fair trial for her charge, while navigating her own interpersonal drama, before it’s too late.

Sons of War 2: Saints—Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Blackstone)

In the aftermath of a devastating civil war, America has fallen into anarchy and chaos. Los Angeles is divided into different territories controlled by criminal organizations. Don Antonio Moretti has won a slice of the pie but is hungry for more. In his quest for power, he sends his nephew and a small crew to Mexico, to negotiate a new deal for their staple product, while the don returns to Italy for some unfinished business. While the crime families battle for power in LA, Dominic Salvatore and his elite team at the LAPD fight tirelessly to stem the rot. But their fight often seems futile in a force rife with corruption. Dom s father, Ronaldo, is a deputy fighting to secure the border, but when intel arises about his missing daughter, he leaves Los Angeles for the desert wastes, to find her and bring her home. To the Morettis and the Salvatores, family is everything, and they will protect their own no matter the cost.

 

WEEK FOUR (September 22)

The Doors of Eden—Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit)

Four years ago, two girls went looking for monsters on Bodmin Moor. Only one came back. Lee thought she’d lost Mal, but now she’s miraculously returned. But what happened that day on the moors? And where has she been all this time? Mal’s reappearance hasn’t gone unnoticed by MI5 officers either, and Lee isn’t the only one with questions. Julian Sabreur is investigating an attack on top physicist Kay Amal Khan. This leads Julian to clash with agents of an unknown power—and they may or may not be human. His only clue is grainy footage, showing a woman who supposedly died on Bodmin Moor. Dr Khan’s research was theoretical; then she found cracks between our world and parallel Earths. Now these cracks are widening, revealing extraordinary creatures. And as the doors crash open, anything could come through.

 

WEEK FIVE (September 29)

The Loop—Jeremy Robert Johnson (Saga)

A small town nestled in the hills of central Oregon becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence when the teenaged children of several executives from the local biotech firm become ill and aggressively murderous. Suddenly the town is on edge, and everyone must do everything it takes just to survive…

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