For over a decade, Barnes & Noble buyer Jim Killen has been a driving force behind Barnes & Noble’s science fiction and fantasy sections. Each month on Tor.com, Mr. Killen curates a list of science fiction & fantasy titles, sometimes focused on upcoming titles and sometimes focused on a theme.
Here are the Barnes & Noble science fiction and fantasy picks for September!
The Witch With No Name—Kim Harrison
(September 9, HarperCollins—Hardcover)
After ten years and thirteen adventures, the triumphant conclusion to Kim Harrison’s Hollows series! Rachel Morgan’s come a long way from the klutzy runner fleeing a bad job. She’s faced vampires and werewolves, banshees, witches, and soul-eating demons. She’s crossed worlds, channeled gods, and accepted her place as a day-walking demon. She’s lost friends and lovers and family, and an old enemy has become something much more.
But power demands responsibility, and world-changers must always pay a price, and to save her best friend Ivy’s soul and the rest of the living vampires, to keep the demonic ever-after and our own world from utter destruction at the hands of fanatics, Rachel Morgan will risk everything.
A New Dawn: Star Wars—John Jackson Miller
(September 2, Random House Publishing Group—Hardcover)
For a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights brought peace and order to the Galactic Republic, aided by their connection to the mystical energy field known as the Force. But they were betrayed—and the entire galaxy has paid the price. It is the Age of the Empire.
Now Emperor Palpatine, once Chancellor of the Republic and secretly a Sith follower of the dark side of the Force, has brought his own peace and order to the galaxy. Peace through brutal repression, and order through increasing control of his subjects’ lives. But even as the Emperor tightens his iron grip, others have begun to question his means and motives. And still others, whose lives were destroyed by Palpatine’s machinations, lay scattered about the galaxy like unexploded bombs, waiting to go off… .
Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson—Patricia Briggs
(September 2, Ace—Hardcover)
Dark fantasy takes a giant step forward with this anthology of short stories and novellas from Patricia Briggs. Six of these fictions have never been previously published; another six are deservedly recycled favorites.
The range of these pieces is striking; from the first novella about Anna and Charles and a tale about a house-buying vampire to two original outtakes from Silver Borne and a mission of mercy by Mercy.
The Golden Princess: A Novel of the Change—S. M. Stirling
(September 2, Roc—Hardcover)
Princess Órlaith, heir to Rudi Mackenzie, Artos the First, High King of Montival, now wields the Sword of the Lady—and faces a new enemy. Fortunately, she also has a new ally in Reiko, Empress of Japan, who has been pursued to America by a conquering army from Asia.
To combat their mutual foe, Órlaith and Reiko embark on a quest to find the fabled Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, one of the three great treasures of the Japanese Imperial House. But dreams have revealed that the road to Kusanagi lies through the meganecropolis of the City of Angels, the greatest and most perilous of the dead cities…and beyond it, to a castle in the fearful Valley of Death. And their relentless enemy will stop at nothing to prevent them from succeeding.
The Midnight Queen—Sylvia Izzo Hunter
(September 2, Ace—Paperback)
Gray’s deep talent for magick has won him a place at Merlin College. But when he accompanies four fellow students on a mysterious midnight errand that ends in disaster and death, he is sent away in disgrace—and without a trace of his power. He must spend the summer under the watchful eye of his domineering professor, Appius Callender, working in the gardens of Callender’s country estate and hoping to recover his abilities. And it is there, toiling away on a summer afternoon, that he meets the professor’s daughter.
Even though she has no talent of her own, Sophie Callender longs to be educated in the lore of magick. Her father has kept her isolated at the estate and forbidden her interest; everyone knows that teaching arcane magickal theory to women is the height of impropriety. But against her father’s wishes, Sophie has studied his ancient volumes on the subject. And in the tall, stammering, yet oddly charming Gray, she finally finds someone who encourages her interest… After the king’s closest advisor pays the professor a closed-door visit, they begin to wonder if what Gray witnessed at school might be even more sinister than it seemed. And they are determined to find out, no matter the cost.
Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales—Wendy Froud, Brian Froud
(September 16, Abrams—Hardcover)
Following in the footsteps of Trolls, Brian and Wendy Froud lead readers deep into the world of faeries. Humans throughout history have always had special relationships and bonds with faeries, whether loving and helpful or at times destructive. This new book explores that complex relationship and the liminal state between the human and faery world where interaction occurs.
In Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales, readers encounter individual faeries, each with a story to uncover, as told by the faeries themselves. Many of the stories are familiar to humans, but the “true” story is told by the faeries. Similar to the Trolls fragments, the faeries’ tales are coupled with portraits and interspersed with drawings and studies of the mysterious and enchanting folk who travel back and forth between the human world and theirs.
House Immortal—Devon Monk
(September 16, Roc—Paperback)
Matilda Case isn’t like most folk. In fact, she’s unique in the world, the crowning achievement of her father’s experiments, a girl pieced together from bits. Or so she believes, until Abraham Seventh shows up at her door, stitched with life thread just like her and insisting that enemies are coming to kill them all. Tilly is one of thirteen incredible creations known as the galvanized, stitched together beings immortal and unfathomably strong. For a century, each House has fought for control over the galvanized. Now the Houses are also tangled in a deadly struggle for dominion over death—and Tilly and her kind hold the key to unlocking eternity
The secrets that Tilly must fight to protect are hidden within the very seams of her being. And to get the secrets, her enemies are willing to tear her apart piece by piece.
Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 2 Vol. 1— Tom Taylor
(September 30, DC Comics—Hardcover)
The best-selling prequel to the hit videogame picks up right where it left off! Year one is over—now, year two begins. The death of one of their own has divided Earth’s protectors as hero turns against hero. As Superman’s iron grip on the world tightens, at the edge of the galaxy, another grave threat approaches…
Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 2 continues the story from the New York Times best-selling graphic novel with rising star writer Tom Taylor (EARTH 2) and a team of artists including Mike S. Miller, Bruno Redondo and Tom Derenick.
Collects Injustice: Gods Among Us Year 2 #1-5
Avengers Undercover Volume 1: Descent—Dennis Hopeless
(September 9, Marvel—Hardcover)
When teen heroes infiltrate the Masters of Evil, who will break bad? Damaged by their experience in Murderworld, five conflicted young superhumans go rogue and pose as villains, planning to bring the Avengers’ rivals down from within. But the longer the teens spend undercover, the more they descend into darkness—and as they start to build relationships with these multi -layered criminals, the line between good and evil blurs.
What will happen first…joining the Masters for real, or getting exposed and killed? What happens when the teens confront their former captor Arcade? And what on earth do the undercover heroes do that brands them as Public Enemy #1?
Collects Avengers Undercover #1-6
FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics Vol. 2: Wish You Were Here—Simon Oliver, Robbi Rodriguez (Illustrator)
(September 30, DC Comics—Paperback)
Federal Bureau of Physics agents Rosa and Adam are invited to take part in an experiment that will test their limits and blur their concept of reality. And after a beautiful moment is shattered, Rosa and Adam get to see firsthand why Nakeet is known as the strangest town north of the 48.
This volume collects issues #8-13.
Infinity—Jonathan Hickman
(September 23, Marvel—Paperback)
To save the world from ever-greater dangers, the Avengers got bigger. Yet when the oldest race in the universe marks Earth for destruction, it’s time for Captain America to think grander still. As the most powerful Avengers team ever assembled heads into space to join an intergalactic alliance against the ancient Builders, an old enemy deems their home unprotected. Thanos, the Mad Titan, unleashes his forces on Earth in the latest chapter of his endless quest for death.But even a world without Avengers has its defenders. Among them, the secret cabal of history-shapers known as the Illuminati—a group riven with internal conflict already confronting another planet-ending crisis. As Earth’s Mightiest Heroes wage war on multiple fronts, their battle for Infinity threatens to descend into Inhumanity.
Collects: Infinity #1-6, New Avengers #7-12, Avengers #14-23
