Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Other Worlds Than These (Scribner) debuts strongly, ranking #3 on three lists. Also on three lists: V.E. Schwab’s Victorious (Tor), third book in the author’s Villains trilogy; and Veronica Roth’s The Six Faction (HarperCollins).

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

Rebecca Yarros’s Threshing Day (Entangled: Red Tower Books), fourth book in the author’s Empyrean series, ranks #1 on all four print lists compiled here. Other books debuting this week include titles by T. Kingfisher, Amber V. Nicole, and Kate Golden.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

COVER REVEAL!

Check out this gorgeous, colorful cover for THE APPRENTICE LIAR AND THE DEATH OF THE WORLD by Isabel J. Kim, coming out March 2, 2027 from Union Square & Co!

From the publisher:

Arrow-Lee sold his first name to Death in a dream. In return, he relives his family’s death in his nightmares until he can figure out how to rewrite time, cheat Death, and live happily ever after. Should be easy. There’s only one problem: Arrow-Lee is seventeen and doesn’t know how to do any of that. Fortunately, he’s found Calla, a wizard with a library filled with black magics, and Arrow-Lee has no problems lying and grifting his way into an apprenticeship with her.

But apprenticeship comes with its own challenges. Like getting attached to Calla, who he’s supposed to be stealing from. Like learning that there are worse entities to make deals with than Death. And like learning that their timeline is more fragile than Arrow-Lee realized, and he might be the only person who can prevent reality from cracking like an egg. It’s too bad that everyone Arrow-Lee ever loved is on the other side. With reality itself on the line, Arrow-Lee is going to have to decide what really matters to him.

Award-winning author Isabel J. Kim’s The Apprentice Liar and the Death of the World is a smart contemporary fantasy filled with humor, heart, and the mind-bending physics of magic that’s perfect for fans of Lev Grossman and Maggie Stiefvater.

PRAISE
“The Apprentice Liar and the Death of the World is a heartfelt multiverse fantasy about life, death, magic, identity, and responsibility, where characters learn how to let go of the past and move on from their mistakes. Kim shows us that we don’t have to grapple with our grief, loss, and pain alone through the intersecting lives of each of the characters and the guilt and regret they shoulder.” 
—Ai Jiang, Nebula and Bram Stoker award-winning author of An Empire in the Clouds

“There’s breathtaking wizardry in these pages—heartbreak and humor and regret and growth and friendship—and a sense of magic as rich as any I’ve seen. Isabel J Kim is a brilliant writer.”
—Max Gladstone, New York Times bestselling author of This is How You Lose the Time War

COVER CREDIT
Jacket design by Liam Donnelly
Illustration © 2027 Carolina Fuenmayor
Jacket © 2027 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

[sponsored content]

COVER REVEAL!

 Check out this delicious cover for The Cookout, edited by Erin Brown, Emmalia Harrington, Tonya R. Moore, and P.C. Verrone, coming out from Android Press!

Cover art illustrated by Ziziian, Cover design by Erin Brown

From the publisher:

“The Cookout” calls to something in our blood that unites us in love and community. Across the African Diaspora, with the fluctuations of ancestral knowledge and cultural roots, in wealth and happiness, in sickness and danger, in celebration and defiance, in every nook and cranny of the world, you’ll find The Cookout. But can it reach the depths of a Level 100 dungeon? Can we put picnic tables in the stars? Gather round the grill in another dimension? Source our seasonings in the furthest realms of our imaginations?

The Cookout: Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora was edited by Erin Brown, Emmalia Harrington, Tonya R. Moore, and P.C. Verrone, with stories by Shingai Njeri Kagunda, Brent Lambert, Eden Royce, DaVaun Sanders, and many more!

[sponsored content]

Sabaa Tahir’s Empire (Putnam’s), second in a duology following 2024’s Heir, debuts on three lists, ranking #1 on the NY Times’ Young Adult Hardcover list. Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Other Worlds Than These, to be published tomorrow, is selling on the Amazon sites today.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

Six titles debut in the top 10 on one or more lists this week. The two most prominent are Leigh Bardugo’s Dead Beat (Flatiron), third in the author’s Ninth House trilogy, ranking #1 at New York Times, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Exit Party (Knopf), ranking #1 at Los Angeles Times. Other debuts are by Keri Lake, Jasmine Mas, B.K. Borison, and Devney Perry.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

S.C. Bandreddi, The Game of Oaths (Candlewick 6/26) Bandreddi’s debut outing is a young-adult historical dark fantasy novel about a magical circus in 1896 Paris. Performers trapped by contracts are forced to compete in a deadly tournament to entertain the elite while promising freedom for the winner – but one competitor is more interested in revenge. Full of magic and brutal action, with a diverse cast dealing with issues of colonialism that add a serious touch.

Maurice Broaddus, A City Dreaming (Tor 6/26) The third and final volume in the Astra Black trilogy offers a complex mix of political intrigue and action, as a signal from a wormhole promises new arrivals, triggering conflicts across the solar system that threaten the Muungano Empire.

Ellen Datlow, ed., Lovecraft’s Brood (Tachyon 7/26) A new anthology by noted editor Datlow offers 19 stories of cosmic dread from the last 20 years, with new takes on Lovecraftian themes. Authors include Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, Caitlín R. Kiernan, T. Kingfisher, Steve Rasnic Tem, Paul Tremblay, and L. Marie Wood.

Kate Heartfield, Mercutio (Harper Voyager UK 5/26) In this ‘‘prequel’’ to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo’s witty friend Mercutio gets his own story told, as he and Dante Alighieri team up to stop a Faerie invasion into the real world.

Allan Kaster, ed., The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 10 (Infinivox 6/26) The latest volume in this popular SF year’s best anthology presents 11 stories from 2025 by an impressive roster of writers, including Vera Brook, Isabel J. Kim, Nancy Kress, Allen M. Steele, Bruce Sterling & Paul Di Filippo, and Peter Watts.

Justin C. Key, The Hospital at the End of the World (Harper 2/26) This near-future SF novel imagines a world ‘‘in which hospitals are run entirely by AI and where doctors are little more than glorified software engineers.’’ [Ian Mond] Pok, a medical student, is forced to work in the only hospital not run by algorithms and learn how to deal with patients in a human way, all while trying to uncover his father’s secret.

Haralambi Markov, The Language of Knives (Mythic Delirium 7/26) A collection of 13 dark fantasy/horror stories, four new, many involving elements of Slavic myth, dark humor, and questions of queer identity. This is Markov’s first collection, with an introduction by Ann VanderMeer.

Alex Shvartsman, The Best of All Possible Planets (UFO Publishing 7/26) A satirical SF space opera novel, inspired primarily by Voltaire’s Candide (and not a little Douglas Adams), but with dozens more inspirations (and targets) from genre and pop culture (a list is provided). ‘‘But an exhaustive hunt for every Easter Egg would go against the spirit of this breezy read. Just relax and let the ride take you away from the actual world for a bit.’’ [Adrienne Martini] A small group sets out to get a new protective force shield for Earth, AKA Planet Dirt, and chaos naturally ensues.

Jen St. Jude, Where You’ll Find Us (Bloomsbury US 6/26) This young-adult fantasy novel follows a disowned queer teen who finds a farmhouse out of time where queer kids from different decades have found refuge and share their experiences – until one day the clock starts ticking again.

Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky (Subterranean 6/26) A hefty collection of 37 stories, chosen by the prolific author as his best, and with an Introduction by John Scalzi. Tchaikovsky notes he chose to omit some previously collected stories (notably those in his Shadows of the Apt series and his Lovecraftian Mythos stories) – what remains is a plentiful and entertaining mix of SF, fantasy, and ‘‘weirdness’’ that spans most of Tchaikovsky’s career, from early to recent tales.

#noinsta

COVER REVEAL: Check out this dramatic cover for Battle for the Drømme, by Charles R. Cooke and Christopher X. Ryan, coming out September 29 from Driller Press.

From the publisher:

The Underground expands with Battle for the Drømme, the next action-packed novel from Charles R. Cooke and Christopher X. Ryan.

Häzzel has never ventured beyond the Drømme, the notorious trading post where smugglers, gangsters, and politicians all do business under the same roof in the frozen north of Tovsta.

When Ruslan, the newly crowned Supreme Archdeacon, begins tearing through the underground, demanding submission to his ruinous new tax, he sets his sights on the Drømme. Not to control it, but to destroy it.

With no army and no time, Häzzel does the unthinkable. She journeys into the Ulak Mountains in search of the legendary City of Lost Soldiers, a refuge for exiled warriors, disgraced soldiers, and mercenaries who fight for one thing alone: a price.

To reach them, she’ll risk everything. To hire them, she’ll have to survive them.

If she fails, the Drømme burns. If she succeeds, the battle for the Drømme begins, and something far worse may rise with it.

[sponsored content]

The most prominent debut this week is Penn Cole’s Burn of the Everflame (Atria), fourth in the Kindred’s Curse Saga, ranking #1 on three of the print lists compiled here. Other debuts: Alice Hoffman’s The Witches of Cambridge (Scribner), on three lists, and associational novel Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang, ranking in the top 10 on four lists.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

The post Weekly Bestsellers, 21 September 2026 appeared first on Locus.

Matt Dinniman had a very good June, with four books in his Dungeon Crawler Carl series taking the top four spots on our hardcover list. Carl’s Doomsday Scenario came in first, followed closely by The Gate of the Feral Gods. We Burned So Bright (Tor), TJ Klune’s new end-of-the-world standalone novel, was our first runner-up. There were 51 nominated titles, up from 45 last month.

Matt Dinniman continued his dominance on the trade paperback list with Dungeon Crawler Carl flipping last month’s order, and coming in first over Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, last month’s winner and this month’s second place. Our new runner-up was Sarah J. Maas’s Kingdom of Ash (Bloomsbury US), the seventh book in her Throne of Glass series. Seventy-two titles were nominated, up from last month’s 63.

Two books by Dan Abnett tied for first place on our media and gam­ing-related list, Warhammer 40,000: Eisenhorn: The Omnibus and Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy: Horus Rising. Critical Role: Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon come in a close second. There were no new runners-up. We had 20 titles nominated, up from 15 last month

Compiled with data from: Bakka-Phoenix (Canada), Book Moon (MA), Borderlands (CA), McNally Robinson (two in Canada), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Toadstool (two in NH), White Dwarf (Canada).

Data period: June 2026

The post Locus Bestsellers, August 2026 appeared first on Locus.

The major debut this week is Rachel Gillig’s The Knave and the Moon (Orbit), second in the The Stonewater Kingdom series, debuting on all four print lists compiled here, ranking #1 on three of them. Also notable: Chloe Benjamin’s literary SF novel Under Story (Putnam’s) debuts on three lists; James Islington’s Scion (Saga) debuts on three lists; and books by Brom, Katherine Rundell, and Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson debut on two lists each.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

The post Weekly Bestsellers, 14 September 2026 appeared first on Locus.

T. Kingfisher’s latest, Daggerbound (Bramble), debuts in the top 10 on three print lists.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

The post Weekly Bestsellers, 7 September 2026 appeared first on Locus.

The post Magazines Received – July appeared first on Locus.

The notable debut this week is Sheila Masterson’s romantasy The Poison Daughter (Slowburn), ranking #1 or #2 at New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

The post Weekly Bestsellers, 31 August 2026 appeared first on Locus.

The Locus Selected Books by Author list has been updated on our Forthcoming Books page, with information from the September 2026 issue covering upcoming titles from genre houses slated through March 2027. Find out about your favorite authors’ upcoming books!

For the complete list of books by publisher, subscribe to our print magazine or purchase the September issue in print or digital editions, available September 1, 2026.

The post Forthcoming Books Through March 2027 appeared first on Locus.

Matt Dinniman matches his record of a couple months ago, with six titles on the New York Times hardcover fiction list this week. Now he also has two of those titles on the NYT trade paperback list. The seventh in Sarah J. Maas A Court of Thorns and Roses series now has a title: A Court of Forgotten Melody. It’s due January 12, 2027, from Bloomsbury.

The table shows the current rank of each book and the change since last week, where:

= same as last week

+/- change since last week

+ back on list

++ new on list

x no longer on list (number of x’s: weeks off list)

All lists rank hardcovers and paperbacks separately, except for the USA Today list, which is a single list combining fiction and nonfiction in all formats. Dates shown are posted dates, except those in parentheses, which are dates compiled. New York Times posts its list one week in advance of print publication.

Note that some sources do not compile paperback bestsellers, and some exclude YA books (like the Harry Potter series) from their hardcover and paperback fiction lists.

The post Weekly Bestsellers, 24 August 2026 appeared first on Locus.

Mahbod & Mahyar A. Amouzegar, To­morrow Brings Joy: Elysium (University of New Orleans Press 3/26) Near-future SF novel set in Elysium, a utopian society where humans and androids coexist, but Dolores and her android companion KR uncover a place called Walled City, a par­allel social experiment that reveals some unsettling truths about Elysium’s origins.

Andrea Hairston, The Redemption Center Is Closed on Sundays (Tor 5/26) Multi-dimensional SF mystery novel. A local celebrity is murdered in a small town with a mysterious building where time stands still and dimensions collide. But only an inter-dimensional traveling St. Berdoodle named Oona knows who the killer is. “My favorite part of [the book] is not its playful premise, but that misfits, local personalities, and nosy neighbors are the beating heart of the book.” [Maya C. James]

S.L. Huang, The Language of Liars (Tordotcom 4/26) SF novella about body jumping, secrets, linguistics, and consequences. Reo, a member of an empathic species, trains in linguistics to help him understand and “jump” into the mind of a Star Eater, in order to spy on the species and find out why they are dying out – a desperate concern for many worlds, since Star Eaters are the only beings capable of mining a substance necessary for faster-than-light travel – but Reo has no idea just how dark a secret he’ll uncover. “Huang’s book works beauti­fully on multiple levels. It’s a tautly plotted spy-thriller-mystery.” [Vanessa Fogg]

T. Kingfisher, Wolf Worm (Nightfire 3/26) Southern gothic horror novel set in 1899 North Carolina, where scientific illustrator Sonia Wilson jumps at the chance to illustrate a reclusive scientist’s collection of insects. “Once the pace accelerates and the true nature of [the scientist’s] research becomes clear, those who came for the horror won’t be disappointed.” [Gary K. Wolfe]

TJ Klune, We Burned So Bright (Tor 2026) Cozy end-of-the-world SF short novel about two gay men, together for 40 years, who decide to take a road trip as a wandering black hole ap­proaches. They race from Maine to Washington state to take care of unfinished business and meet a kaleidoscope of characters along the way.

Ann Leckie, Radiant Star (Orbit US 5/26) Standalone SF novel in the world of the Imperial Radch, who consider the Temporal Location of the Radiant Star to be an antiquated religious site, but decide to allow one last man to join the mummified bodies there to become a “liv­ing saint”, and naturally complications ensue. “What it is about, I think, is where the various characters land in their attempts to find where they belong, where they can be themselves, where they can be at home.” [Russell Letson]

James Machell, Human Voices, Alien Con­versations (Space Cowboy 6/26) Non-fiction collection of 16 interviews on writing and SF, conducted by Machell, asking intriguing ques­tions of an interesting mix of authors, artists, critics, and editors, from old legends to new tal­ents, including Paolo Bacigalupi, Pat Cadigan, P. Djèlí Clark, Neil Clarke, John Clute, Samuel R. Delany, Ai Jiang, Ken Liu, Cheryl Morgan, and John Picacio.

Suzanne Palmer, Ode to the Half-Broken (DAW 5/26) A hopeful post-apocalyptic SF novel. An old ex-assassin robot, who’s been hiding out for decades in the remains of the New York Botanical Gardens, is forced to reconnect with the outside world as he looks for his stolen leg with the help of a human mechanic and a chatty cyborg dog. “This book is a masterclass in how to write near-future SF that features both an old-school wisdom and charms and a totally contemporary vibe.” [Paul Di Filippo]

Cameron Reed, What We Are Seeking (Tor 4/26) SF mystery/adventure novel. John Maraintha is abandoned on the planet Scythia, a strange world where “survival means transformation”, where plants give birth to insects, trees kill, artificial monsters and aliens lurk, and people follow a barbaric custom called marriage. “’Things that are changing are beautiful’ is a recurring phrase in What We Are Seeking. Talking to each other is how we understand this, how we make sure we are fitting the categories to the people, not the people to the categories.” [Niall Harrison]

Paul Tremblay, Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep Near-future SF horror novel with darkly humorous moments. A female gamer gets a temp job piloting a comatose man, driving him with a game-like controller across the country for the company that owns the AI tech in his brain – while he’s tortured by surreal nightmares. “This lone harried individual experiencing his ‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’-style mental captivity does evoke Phildickian ego-unease expertly and vividly.” [Paul Di Filippo]

#noinsta

Nghi Vo, A Long and Speaking Silence (Tordotcom 5/26) Fantasy novella, seventh in the Singing Hills Cycle, a prequel to previous tales, following Chih’s earliest days as a wandering cleric with their hoopoe companion Almost Bril­liant, dealing with a refugee crisis and unraveling a mystery. “It continues to be the most rewarding cycle of novellas I’ve seen in recent years.” [Gary K. Wolfe]

The post New & Notable, August 2026 appeared first on Locus.

The two top finishers on our hardcover list were both new release from popular series – Martha Wells’s Platform Decay, book eight in the Murderbot Diaries, and A Parade of Horribles, the eighth book in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Platform Decay came in first, edging out A Parade of Horribles by less than a handful of votes. The Last Contract of Isako (Orbit US), Fonda Lee’s new standalone science fiction novel, was our runner-up. Due to simultaneous hardcover and trade paperback publication, The Last Contract of Isako also came in at number four on our trade paperback list. There were 45 nominated titles, down from 54 last month.

In a repeat of last month’s voting, the top two books on our trade paperback list remained unchanged: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, followed by Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl. There were no new runners-up. Sixty-three titles were nominated, the same number as last month.

On our media and gaming-related list, only two books made our list. Warhammer 40,000: The Horus Heresy: Horus Rising by Dan Abnett squeaked by with a win over Seanan McGuire’s Magic: The Gathering: Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos. There were no new runners-up. We had 15 titles nominated, down from 16 last month.

Compiled with data from: Bakka-Phoenix (Canada), Book Moon (MA), Borderlands (CA), McNally Robinson (two in Canada), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Toadstool (two in NH), White Dwarf (Canada).

Data period: May 2026

The post Locus Bestsellers, July 2026 appeared first on Locus.