Fantasy and Science Fiction
August 2026
Recent Releases
Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne
Moss'd in Space
by Rebecca Thorne

Cargo handler Torian Razner gets more than she bargained for when she discovers that the dilapidated spaceship she just bought is covered in sentient moss. Running afoul of Moss' previous owner (who has also accused Torian of stealing the ship), the unlikely pair enlist the help of Amelia Perrosk, Torian's former captain and would-be lover. This action-packed 1st in a new series is perfect for fans of Julie Leong. 
Not with a Bang by Temi Oh
Not with a Bang
by Temi Oh

Station Eleven meets Leave the World Behind in this family drama at the end of the world about a crumbling household's attempts to find their way back to each other amidst a cataclysmic event. Our father had imagined the end of the world so often that, for a while, he believed that he summoned it. The Minton family is in crisis. After losing his job, Marcus begins stockpiling cans, running evacuation drills and digging a doomsday bunker in the back garden. At the same time, his daughters are unravelling in their own ways - Chantale is being haunted by dreams of disaster, and Briar's obsession with a missing classmate draws her deeper into the seductive world of a UFO cult. Meanwhile, no one is aware of the diagnosis their mother has been trying to keep hidden. When, on the morning of the eldest daughter's wedding, an extinction-level event tears the world apart, the Mintons must fight their way through a devastated city--back to safety, survival, and each other.
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer
The Book Witch
by Meg Shaffer

Rainy March knows the rules of being a book witch: real people belong in the real world, and characters belong in their books. Knowing this hasn't stopped her from falling in love with fictional detective the Duke of Chicago, though she's forbidden from seeing him. But when a priceless book is stolen and her grandfather goes missing, Rainy knows there's only one detective who can crack the case. With a feel-good plot and likeable characters, this fluffy bookish fantasy is a treat "for anyone who ever wished they could walk around in their favorite book" (Kirkus). 
Temporal by Stephanie Williams
Temporal
by Stephanie Williams

A retired time thief risks everything to steal a vintage gaming console for her son, accidentally reawakening dangerous forces that could collapse all realities, forcing her to confront her past to save her family's future. Once upon a time, Savannah and Marcus were the most skilled temporal thieves in the business, slipping through history to acquire rare artifacts. That was before they settled down, had a son, and built a quiet life together. Ten years later, as their son Harper celebrates his birthday, Savannah questions whether suburban bliss is enough. When Harper's disappointment over a replica gaming console triggers memories of her former life, Savannah makes a decision that could jeopardize everything she and Marcus have built. Against her husband's knowledge and her best friend's warnings, Savannah steps back into the portal for one last job - a simple mission to retrieve an original gaming console from the past. But nothing stays simple for long in a business where time is money.
Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty
Time Travel for Beginners
by Jaclyn Moriarty

On a bustling road in Sydney, Australia, lies a nondescript storefront known simply as the Time Travel Agency. Inside, you'll be welcomed by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, a selection of baked goods...and the question, Where in time do you wish to go? The guidelines are simple: you can go whenever you wish into the past, and there's no fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert, witness the Olympics in ancient Greece. Perhaps a more personal trip? Visit your long-lost grandmother, recapture the heady days of your youth, return to the idyllic time when your teen was a babbling baby--or watch yourself make the one decision that changed everything. Is it a hoax? And if it's real, what's the catch? When single mother Anna is offered a job at the agency, she glimpses the possibility of happiness. Meanwhile, Teddy's a customer hoping to untangle his recently imploded marriage. And Jade, who has a deeply buried secret, despises the agency for offering false hope. In Jaclyn Moriarty's incandescent novel, Anna, Teddy, and Jade leap headlong into time, hurtling on a crash course toward one another. At turns entertaining and illuminating, Time Travel for Beginners explores the moments, big and small, that shape our destiny.
Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim
Fishbone Cinderella
by Elizabeth Lim

1940s Hong Kong: When Japanese soldiers invade her hometown, Ha Yut Ying makes an unlikely escape--by turning invisible. But her miraculous survival is only the beginning. After the war is over, she's sent to Hong Kong to live with her distant father and glamorous stepmother, who end her dreams of becoming a singer and turn her into the family's servant. As the years pass, Yut Ying learns the hard truths of betrayal and ambition, of forbidden love and devastating loss, and discovers that sometimes the only way to endure is to disappear. 1960s San Francisco: Marigold has always had a knack for uncovering secrets, but nothing prepares her for the day she accidentally witnesses her mother vanish before her eyes. The moment fractures their bond, leaving questions that shadow her entire childhood. But when her mother's condition suddenly deteriorates, Marigold is convinced she's the only person who can save her. To do so, she must journey into the secrets her mother never shared and uncover the tragic, fairytale-tinged history their family has fought to forget.
Sea of Charms: A Spellshop Novel by Sarah Beth Durst
Sea of Charms: A Spellshop Novel
by Sarah Beth Durst

Marin has always belonged on the great blue sea. Betrayed by love, she lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew. On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway--and her friend Dax in the line of fire. What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: She will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home. But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile--and realizes that perhaps she isn't saving him. Maybe it's the other way around. Sea of Charms is a cozy fantasy romance about finding your crew, your family, and moreover, finding yourself. 
Time to Burn by Ellery Lloyd
Time to Burn
by Ellery Lloyd

Mercurial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank has perfected commercial time travel, though it is tightly regulated and so expensive that it's open only to the very wealthiest. His company, Tempus Tours, has so far been approved for just one route: a journey back to London in 1941, to the days of the Blitz, allowing the super-rich to experience the awesome sights and sounds of the aerial bombardment of the capital during World War II. It's a slick operation--routes across the wartime city are meticulously plotted, guides are extensively trained, and rules for the time tourists are strictly enforced.To immortalize his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing. Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman, and knows not only that she's not who she claims to be but that she has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that she had sinister motives for returning to the past--and that people close to Phoebe are in danger. Phoebe must race to untangle the truth--before past and the future are rewritten.
The Infinite State: Book One of the Decurion Saga by Richard Swan
The Infinite State: Book One of the Decurion Saga
by Richard Swan

Katherine Fuller's husband is dead. As an esteemed member of Pater Aeternus--governing party of the fascist, galaxy-spanning Decurion Empire--he has left behind an estate of immeasurable wealth. And Katherine is going to inherit it. Life under the Eternal Father is rigidly stratified, surveilled, and controlled--each new day to be endured, not lived. But with Katherine's newfound fortune, she is presented with a rare and dangerous opportunity: purchase a virgin world, and create a better, fairer society. But the Empire cannot allow its wayward daughter to succeed. And as Katherine works in secret, recruiting allies she's not even sure she can trust, she will discover exactly how far Pater Aeternus is willing to go to stop her. Because Katherine is going to create something nobody has seen for many years. A democracy.
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum by W. Maxwell Prince
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum
by W. Maxwell Prince

Superman faces his own worst weakness in a story where Kryptonite reveals more than just physical pain. From the acclaimed creative team behind Ice Cream Man, this DC Black Label event bends genre, tone, and form as Superman is exposed to not only green, red, and black Kryptonite--but new and never-before-seen forms like Purple, Cobalt, and Speckled. Each of the five issues serves as a boundary-pushing meditation on power, identity, and trauma. With Batman at his side and Earth at stake, Superman must confront how the shards of his broken home world reveal fault lines in his soul.
Contact your librarian for more great books!

Tel: 603.485.6092
Txt: 844-854-4475
hplbooks@hooksettlibrary.org
hooksettlibrary.org