The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Out in October 2026

For fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife, October brings an unexpected story set in that book’s world. This speculative novel following Alba, who’s witness to a dystopian future she can’t change as a result of hereditary Chrono-Displacement Disorder, can be read as a standalone. Alba’s life is in chronological disarray, true to the story’s title, and she does what she must to cope with and navigate her lot.

The Chosen and the Beautiful, Nghi Vo’s inspired spin on The Great Gatsby, was so lush and captivating, who wouldn’t be excited about a Gothic Vo novel that takes a page from Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age? Demonic marriage, deadly games, and stolen identity collide in this story following a young French and Vietnamese woman running from her past and into the identity of a wealthy white woman. In the stead of the missing Howard granddaughter, Judith is tasked with making her debut and seducing a demon.

V.E. Schwab’s popular Villains series concludes with Victorious this month. Beginning with Vicious, the series follows ambitious college roommates Victor and Eli who discover a way to develop super powers. The pair become archenemies and set out on a mission of vengeance. Schwab is a household name in fantasy with The Shades of Magic series, and she writes provocative antiheroes. This one is sure to fly off the shelves.

This YA dystopian fantasy following orphaned best friends Petra and Jade sounds perfect for spooky season. The besties are trying to pull themselves out of the slums of the City of the Void and the only way they know how is by guiding treasure-seekers into the treacherous Void. Petra agrees to Jade’s wishes to venture into the more mysterious Sixth Layer for a bigger payout, but when Jade gets lost in the Void, Petra has to journey deeper into danger to rescue her friend.

You had me at chupacabra toddler. Reggie is a paranormal investigator, cryptozoologist, and new parent to an adopted chupacabra. Along with Reggie’s little blood-sucker, Eldi, we’ve got a sentient winnebago and cryptids. Reggie has to team up with an alluring podcaster-turned-werewolf when she attracts the attention of an anti-supernatural agency that could put Eldi and others in danger. This sounds like a wild adventure.

One of my favorite SF/F writers, especially when it comes to found family stories, is back with a new space romp, and it’s the first book in a duology. Following Cora, a botanist who treats those left behind with the medicines she makes, and Signy, a talented pilot of living ships, this is described as “a love story centered around survival.” I know this book is going to make me emotional and fill me with joy and I can’t wait.

Stephen Graham Jones can’t quit impressing readers and providing nightmare fuel. In this sequel to The Only Good Indians, we return to the Blackfeet reservation five years after that story. A group of activists go in search of the bones of a Blackfeet boy who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. But when the group finds the bones they intend to repatriate home, something terrifying escapes with them. If you’re looking for horror with depth and historical grounding, this one’s for you.

If you’re trying to read more works in translation, this modern fantasy retelling of Peter Pan, translated to English for the first time, promises a refreshingly unique spin on the classic. Set in the metropolis of Rome, magic is returning and the deities are battling it out for dominance. The people of Rome are oblivious to the threat of bloodshed, but Pan is coming for them.

The author of perhaps the only speculative bestseller with that many footnotes has a short story set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. And it’s illustrated! The story following the Bishop of Durham, who sets off on a somewhat self-serving mission to unite human and fairy kind as a legion of trees trap his city, is set 700 years before Clarke’s debut novel. She previously published another short story, The Wood at Midwinter, and a short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, set in the same world.

I was excited to learn that the author of Bright Lines and In Sensorium: Notes for My People has a speculative near-future novel out this month. If stories about the mother-daughter bond are in your wheelhouse, pick up this new book following struggling musician Qamar. After a breakup, Qamar goes looking for her estranged mother only to find the scientist’s opus, a machine consciousness called VEDA. VEDA’s technoscape has some revelations in store for Qamar.

Short story time! Sim Kern’s collection of speculative short stories takes readers to distant planets, dystopian realms, mirror worlds, and other spaces in the farthest reaches of our imagination. They also confront threats of our time, including climate disaster and rising fascism. This isn’t a collection that will give you those doomscrolling feels; it’s described as funny, fast-paced and a read that will fill you with “radical, revolutionary optimism.”

Alright, let’s talk about the book that will dominate the bestsellers lists. The sixth book in Maas’s wildly successful ACOTAR series will finally land in some very hot hands. This fantasy romance (“romantasy”) epic that began with 19-year-old huntress Feyre being dragged into the dangerous world of Fae has seduced countless readers and is going to be the buzziest book on TikTok this month.

The award-winning author of Ninefox Gambit is back with a linguistics-focused space opera. Yoon Ha Lee’s imagination is on another level and this thrilling new romp sounds singular. The ruler of an empire and her oath-sister are at work to destroy foreign texts and languages, but an attempt to control and use the lethal gaze of an imprisoned traitor backfires when she learns he’s impervious to her tools of manipulation.

Looking for YA fantasy about the mortal and immortal world mingling? In Mortal Things Death’s harbinger, a mortal, is chosen to replace him and it might be her only chance to save her best friend. But she has to be tested by another harbinger to claim her seat, and they’re both about to learn some dangerous secrets about the gods. Marie Lu is a versatile writer who knows how to immerse readers in a story. I have no doubt this romantasy will satisfy.

Can’t get enough near-future novels? Check out this sapphic cli-fi thriller. Dr. Cassandra Barlowe works on an island of floating trash, studying plastic-dissolving fungi. Cassandra’s work is underfunded thanks to her ex-lover Dr. Yana Gulsvig’s field of expertise, deleria. The new drug has everyone focused on searching different timelines for a solution to climate devastation. When Yana dies with deleria research in an explosion and Cas is accused of terrorism, she throws herself across timelines with the choice of seeking closure in unreality or facing reality and the work of saving humanity.

In this YA fantasy we venture into the world of the fae with Trixie Godfrey who’s out to avenge her Pop’s murder. Trixie’s Sight allowed her to see that it wasn’t wild animals or tragic accident that led to her grandfather’s death, and she has to use her gift to get rid of the monsters in Woods Crossing. But her quest for justice lands her in the midst of a power struggle between ancient and cruel families.

Who else can’t resist a first-contact story? I’ve talked at great length about my love for Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life,” and Talabi’s new hard sci-fi novel is compared to Arrival (the adaptation of Chiang’s story). Call me curious because this story about the arrival of a non-communicative alien spacecraft also involves an assassin, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer. All three are on a dangerous journey of survival as they attempt to understand their and humanity’s connection to the space craft.