Here’s our selection of 9 exciting sci-fi, fantasy and horror books to add to your reading list this August.

1. One Way

J. Morden

One Way is being pitched as Orange is the New Black meets The Martian. It’s the dawn of a new era – and we’re ready to colonise Mars. But the company that’s been contracted to construct a new Mars base has made promises they can’t fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners.

Frank – father, architect, murderer – is recruited with the promise of a better life on Mars, along with seven of his most notorious fellow inmates. But as his crew sets to work on the red wasteland, the accidents mount up, and Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all. As the list of suspect grows shorter, it’s up to Frank to uncover the truth before it’s too late.

2. I Am Behind You

John Ajvide Lindqvist

I Am Behind You is the latest novel from the internationally bestselling author of Let the Right One In. It’s about four families on a caravan holiday in Sweden that wake one day to find the world has been transformed into an endless expanse of grass. The sky is blue, but there is no sign of the sun; there are no trees, no flowers, no birds. And every radio plays nothing but the songs of sixties pop icon Peter Himmelstrand.

As the holiday-makers try to come to terms with what has happened, they are forced to confront their deepest fears and secret desires, and in many cases expose the less appealing aspects of their character. Past events that they have tried to bury rise to the surface and take on a terrifying physical form. Can any of them find a way back to reality?

3. To See the Sun

Kelly Jensen

To See the Sun is an LGBT sci-fi romance that follows miner-turned-farmer Abraham and Gael Sonnen.

Abraham yearns for a companion in the off-world colonies, while Gael Sonnen has never seen the sky, having spent his whole life in the “undercity”. For a chance to get out, Gael will do just about anything – even travel to the far end of the galaxy as a mail-order husband.

Things go wrong from the moment he steps off the shuttle, and Gael arrives with unexpected complications. Abraham is prepared to make their relationship work –until Gael’s past catches up with them, threatening Abraham’s livelihood, the freedom Gael gave everything for, and the love neither man ever hoped to find.

4. Noumenon Infinity

Marina J. Lostetter

Noumenon Infinity is the sequal to Noumenon and is being pitched as a tale of exploration, adventure, and science.

In 2125, the interstellar convoy Noumenon set out on a voyage that changed humanity’s place in the universe forever. Three millenia later, the convoy’s remaining ships and the clone descendants of its original crew are returning to an anomalous star with new dreams and new objectives.

Noumenon Infinity is the story of two missions, aeons and light years apart but connected in an interstellar mystery that transcends time and space.

The story follows physicist Vanhi Kapoor, who pushes the boundaries of subdimensional research further than ever before. Disaster strikes, and suddenly, Vanhi’s crew find themselves very far from home, with the unknown on their horizon.

5. Herokiller

Paul Tassi

Herokiller is pitched as Ready Player One meets Gladiator in a “high-octane thriller that mixes black-ops espionage with fight-to-the-death combat in the arena”.

Set in the near future where prison inmates fight to the death, the book is about a new tournament that anyone can enter – ­The Crucible, where the winner is promised unimaginable wealth and glory . . . if they’re able to survive a series of globally broadcast fight-to-the-death matches with medieval weaponry against the world’s most fearsome fighters, of course.

The story follows former black-ops operative Mark Wei who wants nothing more than to be left alone to drink after sacrificing everything including his family in America’s covert Cold War II against China. However Mark is convinced to enter the tournament arena as an undercover agent.

He finds himself not just fighting for his life in the arena against trained killers, but racing to expose The Crucible’s founder’s secrets while navigating a viral phenomenon in which the stakes are literally life and death. . . .

6. No Gig is Too Small

Andre Duza

No Gig Too Small is a horror novel told as a transcript of a “rockumentary” about the first band to go on tour after the zombie apocalypse.

It’s about a rock band called Serpentine that go from selling out stadiums to scavenging for food, shelter, and supplies. But even after the apocalypse, they can’t escape their biggest fan – an undead groupie, dressed in a Serpentine t-shirt, that seems to be following them across the country.

Across America, small communities of survivors are rebuilding and trying to recreate the world that was lost. After making contact with one, Serpentine travels there to play a gig.

When they get there though the band discovers they’ve been experimenting with the undead and Serpentine’s music could hold a key to moving forward in a world dominated by the walking dead.

7. Alternate Routes

Tim Powers

Alternate Routes is the new novel from fantasy and science heavyweight Tim Powers. This is being pitched as a modern ghost story set in Los Angeles where the freeways are filled with… you guessed it – ghosts. There are phantom cars, lanes from and to nowhere, and sometimes unmarked off-ramps that lead to purgatory or beyond.

The story follows Sebastian Vickery, disgraced ex-Secret Service agent, and a driver for a covert supernatural-evasion car service. But another government agency is using and perhaps causing the freeway anomalies, and their chief is determined to have Vickery killed because of something he learned years ago at a halted Presidential motorcade.

Vickery must discover what nefarious entity is causing freeway anomalies before it kills him—and destroys the city he calls home.

8. The Psychology of Time Travel

Kate Mascarenhas

The Psychology of Time Travel is being pitched as a time travel murder mystery and perfect for readers of The Power and Station Eleven.

Set in our time, time travel is big business after the invention of a time machine in the 60s by four female scientists. The story follows Ruby and Odette. In 2017 Ruby receive a message from the future – a newspaper clipping reporting the mysterious death of an elderly lady…

In 2018, Odette discovers the body of a dead woman. When the inquest fails to find any answers, she is frustrated. Who is this dead woman that haunts her dreams? And why is everyone determined to cover up her murder?

9. Stars Uncharted

S.K.Dunstall

Stars Uncharted is being pitched as a thrilling science fiction adventure about a band of explorers looking to make the biggest score in the galaxy and stay one step ahead of “the Companies” who hold most of the power in this universe.

This book features strong female characters, explorers looking for a lost planet, and a rich universe that will appeal to fans of the TV show Firefly, according to publisher Ace, with band of mismatched characters that form the crew: including a junior engineer decked out in bioware, a renowned body-modification artist on the run off-world from client and who dragged a rookie “modder” with her.

Together this mismatched crew will end up on one ship, hurtling through the lawless reaches of deep space. Trailed by company men, they will race to find the most famous lost world of all – and riches beyond their wildest dreams . . .