There’s plenty more books we couldn’t squeeze in.
Stephen King is namechecked in the PR for Ronald Malfi’s BLACK MOUTH (out now, Titan). It features a group of friends returning to their home town to confront a figure they first encountered as teenagers (in this case, a creepy magician). Now, where have we heard that before? Expect explosive battles, romance and glam in Alex White’s space opera AUGUST KITKO AND THE MECHAS FROM SPACE (out now, Orbit). Can gay jazz pianist Gus Kitko and nonbinary rock star Ardent Violet help save humanity from the AI-powered giant robots hell-bent on destroying humanity? Fingers crossed. The latest Doctor Who novel for younglings (ages 9-12) features Tom Baker’s Doctor. Paul Magrs’s THE RETURN OF ROBIN HOOD (out now, BBC Children’s) sees the Time Lord meeting a now disenchanted Robin Hood. There’s a new Sheriff of Nottingham out to get the outlaws, and the shape-shifting Mother Maudlin is spinning her magic… Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale’s 1949 collection TOMATO CAIN (out now, Comma Press) has been out of print for yonks. Be aware: most of these 32 short stories are realist vignettes of rural life on the Isle of Man. Maybe five or six qualify as fantasy/ horror, such as the haunted house tale “Minuke”. Mark Gatiss provides an introduction. Of course he does. Finally, Beth Revis’s Star Wars novel THE PRINCESS AND THE SCOUNDREL (16 August, Del Rey) revolves around Han and Leia’s honeymoon, on a luxury vessel visiting some wondrous planets. But with Imperial remnants having retrenched, the danger is not yet over…