I am still alive! And still reading, though having a physically challenging day job where I’m often in overtime (hopefully soon to change now that I have just received a promotion) has certainly impacted the amount of time I have for books (and has severely impacted my writing). Still, I’m here. And there is so, so much to look forward to over the rest of the summer.

I’m no longer pretending, even to myself, that I’ll get around to reading everything on this list, but this is what I’ve got my eye on in July, August and September of 2018.

Tor.com Publishing

One look at my list of books I’ve actually read this year will tell you that I have given up trying to read every single novella Tor.com publishes. There’s just too many, and while I have always appreciated that reading them all took me outside my comfort zone and got me to read genres and styles that I don’t normally seek out, less time to actually spend reading in general means that I’m getting a little more selective about where I take risks. After absolutely despising Myke Cole’s The Armored Saint (apparently 2018 is not a year in which I want to read stories where the bodies of women and girls are destroyed in service of taking hackneyed jabs at organized religion), I have to admit the shine wore off of Tor.com for me a little bit. That feeling, combined with an uninspiring publication schedule full of too many sequels to things that I liked-but-didn’t-love has meant a lot less Tor.com novella-reading for me this year.

That said, there’s a lot to look forward to from Tor.com Publishing over the remainder of this summer.

• Deep Roots by Ruthanna Emrys – 7/10
  I know someone must just be eating up all the Lovecraftian reimaginings Tor.com has published in the last couple of years, but I am not that someone.
• The Expert System’s Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky – 7/17
  I rather loved Tchaikovsky’s D&D-esque adventure novel, Spiderlight, but this book sounds basically nothing like that at all. I’m not sure I’m down for it, to be honest, but we’ll see how the early reviews of it shape up.
• The Binti Trilogy hardcovers – 7/24
  I don’t usually buy hardcovers, especially after I’ve already bought and read ebooks, but have you seen how fantastically beautiful these redesigns are?
• The Descent of Monsters by JY Yang – 7/31
  Hurray for more Tensorate!
• Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells – 8/7
  Hurray for more Murderbot!
• The Million by Karl Schroeder – 8/14
• The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark – 8/21
  Having been informed by P. Djeli Clark’s essays and moved by his short fiction, I’m thrilled to see what he does with this longer format.
• Warcry by Brian McClellan – 8/28
• State Tectonics by Malka Older – 9/11
  I’m so excited for this book, but I’m also so sad that it’s the last in its series. I fully expect it to be one of my favorite reads of 2018.
• The Queen of Crows by Myke Cole – 9/18
  Nope.

Novels

• Space Unicorn Blues by T.J. Berry – 7/3
• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal – 7/3
  It’s a Lady Astronaut novel.
• Heroine’s Journey by Sarah Kuhn – 7/3
  Book 3! It’s about Bea Tanaka!
• Lost Gods by Micah Yongo – 7/3
• European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss – 7/10
  A sequel to last year’s The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter.
• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – 7/10
  I haven’t gotten my hands on an ARC of this, but it sounds like an expansion of Novik’s story of the same title in The Starlit Wood. I loved that story, and I have high hopes for this novel.
• Suicide Club: A Novel About Living by Rachel Heng – 7/10
• Competence by Gail Carriger – 7/17
  In all likelihood, I’ll hold off on reading this one til its companion comes out in another year or so, but I’m still looking forward to it. In the meantime, I will continue eating up Gail Carriger’s delicious novella-length works as fast as she can churn them out.
• Apocalypse Nix by Kameron Hurley – 7/17
• The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvahna Headley – 7/17
  I’m surprisingly hyped for this Beowulf in the suburbs novel.
• Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers – 7/24
  Probably my most-anticipated book of 2018.
• Kill the Farmboy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne – 7/24
  This seems like it might be cute.
• A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole – 7/31
  I don’t read much romance these days, but I loved the first book in Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series and preordered this one as soon as I finished the first.
• Temper by Nicky Drayden – 8/7
  I really liked Nicky Drayden’s debut novel, The Prey of Gods, so I’m interested to see what she does next.
• The Moons of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen – 8/14
  2015’s Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard was a tragically underappreciated gem that was done a great disservice with its 12/28 release date, and it’s been a long wait for this sequel. I’d love to see
• The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal – 8/21
  It’s another Lady Astronaut novel.
• Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames – 8/28
  Kings of the Wyld was a surprising entry on my Best of 2017 list, and I cannot wait to read this sequel/companion to it.
• The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner – 9/25

Collections and Anthologies

• Worlds Seen in Passing edited by Irene Gallo – 9/4
  A collection of short fiction from the first ten years of Tor.com. I don’t know if it’s the sort of thing that I’ll read cover to cover, but it should be a great addition to my collection of anthologies that I slowly work through over the course of some years.
• A Cathedral of Myth and Bone by Kat Howard – 9/25
  I believe this is mostly previously-published work, but there’s quite a lot of it that I haven’t read and I’m very excited to read the Arthurian novella that’s included in the collection.

Comics and Graphic Novels

• Monstress, Volume 3: Haven by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
  I don’t read many comics, but I’ll never miss a trade paperback of this one. If you are a collector of trade paperbacks, you may also want to check out Barnes & Noble’s exclusive edition of this title, which comes with an alternate cover and a double-sided poster.

Magazines

• FIYAH Literary Magazine, Issue 7, “Music”
  FIYAH continues to be one of the most exciting and important SFF markets in publication.
• Fireside Quarterly
  I’ve already received my copy of this, and it is a stunningly beautiful little book. It’s printed on gorgeous satiny paper, sports top-notch interior design, and has gorgeous artwork–including multiple fold-out pages. It’s a truly impressive piece of work. You can get your own by supporting FIreside at the $10/month level on Drip or on Patreon.
• Apex Magazine #110, #111, #112I
  I’m still getting the paperback issues of Apex as well, which are getting slightly nicer each issue as they work out some design kinks and get things a little better put together each time.
• Clarkesworld #142, #143, #144
• Uncanny #23, #24
  Issue 23 is DINOSAUR-themed.