Ahmad, The Age of Calamities (Holt 1/26) Original debut collection of nine stories (two reprints) with surreal, fantastic, and historical elements: Anne Boleyn keeps coming back to life whatever Henry does, a choose-your-own-apocalypse story set at the Manhattan Project, and a dinner party mystery with Nefertiti to Marilyn Monroe, among others. “Dazzlingly inventive…. These stories make it clear how ancient history and myths still linger in contemporary life….” [Kelly Link]
Samantha Mills, Rabbit Test and Other Stories (Tachyon 4/26) The author’s first collection with 13 stories, two new, originally published from 2018 to now; includes the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and Locus Award-winning title story. Mills provides an afterword and notes on the inspirations for the stories. “In every story here, there is a twist on the familiar that is entirely unexpected.” [Abigail Nussbaum]
Terry Dowling, Bedlam Rose and Wormwood (PS Publishing 3/26) Noted Australian author Dowling gets UK publication for his collection Wormwood (originally published by Aphelion in 1991, here with one added story previously collected elsewhere) of ten linked stories from a far-future Earth transformed in strange, mysterious ways by aliens; new novel Bedlam Rose returns to that setting for new adventures and discoveries. “The collection is a very good introduction to Dowling’s stylised, complicated, and also playful prose.” [Alexandra Pierce]
Justin Feinstein, Your Behavior Will Be Monitored (Tachyon 4/26) Satirical near-future SF novel about a man training a revolutionary advertising AI to write emotionally manipulative copy, told through “questionably obtained” company emails, chat transcripts, and more. “In an afterword to [the book], Feinstein notes that he was constantly revising the manuscript to stay ahead of the rapid acceleration of AI.” [Ian Mond] A first novel.
Cecile Pin, Celestial Lights (Holt 3/26) “In the beautifully written and achingly realistic Celestial Lights, author Cecile Pin takes readers along on astronaut Oliver Ines’s deep space mission.” [Colleen Mondor] This novel follows a man born the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded who makes it his life’s ambition to become an astronaut, and ends up on a mission to Europa.
Kim Samek, I Am the Ghost Here (Dial 2/26) A first collection, this offers 12 stories (six reprints) about women in strange yet familiar situations, often involving human connection through technology, in a mix of the weird, witty, and absurd. The collection contains elements of magical realism and examines trauma, illness, and grief.
Jo Walton & Ada Palmer, Trace Elements (Tor 3/26) Non-fiction collection of 25 essays and five poems, subtitled Conversations on the Projects of Science Fiction and Fantasy, in which Walton & Palmer share their scholarly and writerly thoughts on the genre, how it is written, how it works, how it has changed over the years, and how it is read. “It offers a lively and sometimes surprisingly personal appreciation of the field today by two of its most distinguished practitioners.” [Gary K. Wolfe]
Michael Swanwick, The Universe Box (Tachyon 2/26) Collection of 19 stories, two new, in an eclectic variety of topics and styles. It blends magic and science to create new myths and legends. “For all his narrative adventurousness and sly wit, Swanwick can also be a master of evocative, graceful prose.” [Gary K. Wolfe]
Sara Hashem, Where No Shadow Stays (Holiday House 3/26) Young-adult horror novel about an American-Egyptian homecoming queen who visits Egypt and comes back with a sinister presence following her, part of an old family debt. The story flows through different time periods and multiple points of view to reveal the terrifying truth of the generational curse.
Andrew Ludington, Double Shadow (Minotaur 4/26) SF thriller novel, second in the Splinter Effect series about time-traveling archaeologist Rabbit Ward, who heads to first century Jerusalem to track down a deadly time-traveling thief. It contains romance, adventure, and a serial killer.
The post New & Notable, June 2026 appeared first on Locus.
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