JS Barnes’s last, Dracula’s Child, was a follow-up to Bram Stoker; THE CITY OF DR MOREAU (14 September, Titan) riffs on HG Wells. Spanning more than a century, it follows the descendants of the inhabitants of The Island Of Dr Moreau. Nick Tyrone’s THE PATIENT (out now, Headline) is a dystopian tale of bodily autonomy and the medical establishment, in which a couple anticipating the birth of their first child enter a hospital that’s strangely difficult to leave… William Gibson’s contribution to the Alien franchise has already been adapted as a comic and an audio drama. Those drew on his second draft. Now Pat Cadigan has novelised his initial attempt, as ALIEN 3 : THE UNPRODUCED FIRST DRAFT SCREENPLAY (out now, Titan). The Age Of Madness, Joe Abercrombie’s second trilogy set in his First Law universe, concludes with THE WISDOM OF CROWDS (14 September, Gollancz). Industrialisation has hit the world of The Union, but now the Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power… We gave Rena Barron’s West Africainspired epic fantasy Kingdom Of Souls .