All-new Backyard Starship, Devoured Worlds and Alastair Reynolds – these are the most exciting new sci-fi books in September 2023
Sky vaults, devoured worlds and fox navigators. From thrilling space operas to universe-consuming quests and even missing alien babies, these are some of the most anticipated new releases among the sci-fi books of September 2023.
Complete with titles, release dates, authors, synopsis and links to pre-order and buy your favourite new science fiction book releases right now…
Awesome New Sci-Fi Books in September 2023
Machine Vendetta
Alastair Reynolds, 5 September 2023
Book 3 in Alastair Reynolds’s Prefect Dreyfus Emergency series. Machine Vendetta sees a female police officer walk straight into a deadly trap, leaving Tom Dreyfus to pick up the pieces. Chilling, since it might be his fault she went unarmed into a Yellowstone habitat that hates cops. This can only mean one thing, though, powerful adversaries return in Alastair Reynolds’s Machine Vendetta.

Genres Science Fiction, Space Opera
Author Alastair Reynolds Home Cardiff, UK
Publisher Orbit Buy it e-Book | Print | Audio
Payback in Death
JD Robb, 5 September 2023
The staggering Book 57 in JD Robb’s In Death (Eve Dallas) series. Payback in Death follows Encore in Death (from our big list of sci-fi books). And this time, Lt. Eve Dallas is called to the scene of a supposed suicide. Problem is the victim is a retired Internal Affairs captain who’d put away dirty cops for some 47 years. And it’s all just a little too perfect. Looks like vengeance in JD Robb’s Payback in Death.

Genres Science Fiction, Mystery, Romantic Suspense, Thriller, Crime
Author JD Robb Home Boonsboro, Maryland, US
Publisher St. Martin’s Press Buy it e-Book | Print | Audio
The Sky Vault
Benjamin Percy, 12 September 2023
The third instalment in Benjamin Percy’s The Comet Cycle series. The Sky Vault sees Theo thrust into a desperate investigation into his conspiracy theorist father’s death. The man had been onboard a disappeared aircraft over Fairbanks, Alaska, and had claimed the clouds were talking to him before his death. Turns out the plane and everyone on it had been affected by the passing interstellar comet Cain, and it’s attracted the attention of a top-secret laboratory buried deep in the mountains. The race is on the find out what exactly that comet is in Benjamin Percy’s The Sky Vault.

Genres Science Fiction
Author Benjamin Percy Home Northfield, Minnesota, US
Publisher William Morrow Buy it Hard Cover | Print | Audio
Heavy is the Crown
JN Chaney, Terry Maggert, 17 September 2023
Book 16 in JN Chaney & Terry Maggert’s Backyard Spaceship series. Heavy is the Crown sees Van facing the same decision ancestor Mark Tudor faced decades ago. With Earth factions baying for his blood and aliens looking to harvest and exploit humankind, it’s time to choose – to take up the mantle of Peacemaker or not. It could be the key to saving Earth, for now, but at the cost of laying the planet bare to everything else that might be waiting out there among the stars in Heavy is the Crown.

Genres Science Fiction, Space Opera
Authors JN Chaney & Terry Maggert Home Las Vega, USPublisher Variant Publications Buy it e-Book
Sandymancer
David Edison, 19 September 2023
A wild girl with sand magic and a mad god striving to mend his shattered world unite. Caralee Vinnet’s life is dust-bound; water is scarce, and controlled by a privileged few. Caralee harbours sand-based magic, inadvertently summoning a former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and inhabits her friend’s body. She’ll risk all to reclaim her loss, even if her new ally poses a threat in Sandymancer.

Genres Fantasy, Science Fiction, Epic Fantasy
Author David Edison Home California
Publisher Tor Books Buy it e-Book | Print
The Fractured Dark
Megan E. O’Keefe, 26 September 2023
Book 2 in Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Devoured Worlds series, The Fractured Dark follows on from The Blighted Stars (from our big list of bes sci-fi books). Having evaded brutal counterrevolutionaries, enigmatic creatures gone awry, and the gravitational grasp of a perishing planet, Naira and Tarquin’s fates are intertwined. They must uncover the truth behind the scourge that’s destroying worlds. Now, the disappearance of the Mercator leader and the universe’s last starship fuel sparks chaos. Naira’s revolutionary aspirations must be set aside to ensure the urgent survival of humanity in Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Fractured Dark.

Genres Science Fiction, Adult, Space Opera, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Space, Romance
Author Megan E. O’Keefe Home California, US
Publisher Orbit Buy it e-Book | Print | Audio
The Navigating Fox
Christopher Rowe, 26 September 2023
A standalone novella, Christopher Rowe’s The Navigating Fox sees Quintus Shu’al, the last fox navigator in the world, face shame for leading a fatal expedition that left no survivors. A year later, he’s presented an opportunity for redemption: guiding a diverse team, including humans and animals, on a perilous journey to the gates of Hell in The Navigating Fox.

Genres Science Fiction, Fantasy, Novella, Adult, Animals
Author Christopher Rowe Home Lexington, Kentucky, US
Publisher Tor Buy it e-Book | Print
Scarper
Jenny Schwartz, 29 September 2023
Book 2 in Jenny Schwartz’s Delphic Dame series. Scarper sees an alien infant slipped under Oracle-Captain Cherry Pendit’s radar. Not one to wait for a hero, she sets out in the Delphic Dame ship, only to discover there are many more pirate and alien dangers she never foresaw in Jenny Schwartz’s Scarper.

Genres Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy
Author Jenny Schwartz Home Australia
Publisher Independent Buy it e-Book
Plus: 20+ Brand-New Fantasy Books
Winds of heaven, desolate moors and things from the abbey. Check out all the cool new fantasy books in September (and some ultra-steamy fantasy romance books in September, if that’s your thing).

Plus: 5 Awesome New LitRPGs
Werewolves, condemned soldiers and powers of The Hunt. Check out these stunning new LitRPG Books in September and new YA fantasy books in September.

And: Awesome new Sci-Fi TV Shows
Guardians, kaiju and all them supes. There are a few really cool new sci-fi series in September and epic new fantasy series in September.

Note: I try my best to get every bit of info I can on these sci-fi books in September. And I’ll keep updating this page all the time. If you know of a book, author, show, channel or event that should be on this list, let me know at elvorne@scifixfantasy.com and I’ll make it happen.
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There’s a bit to explore already, and more coming soon. Enjoy!
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