The Indie Author Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror New Release List: September 2026
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The Chosen One Con by Trudie Skies: Available September 1, 2026
Lost in the Aether, Book 1
Subgenre(s): Gaslamp
Magic is a rich man’s game.
Archons control magic in the great city of Aefenhold. Brand-name spells, addictive potions, and celebrity TV keep the poor entertained while they toil in the factories manufacturing magic. That should have been the fate of Max and his childhood friend Lyle, until a violent workers’ strike tears their lives apart, condemning Lyle to the aetherstone mines and leaving Max orphaned with no choice but to sell his labour to a brothel.
Life under the Archon’s rule has given Max a taste for magical narcotics, and left Lyle with aether dust in his lungs and a deep resentment for magic. So when Aefenhold’s rulers announce a televised contest to find the chosen one—a prophesized distraction to unite the city against its detractors—both Max and Lyle see an opportunity to con their way into the contest.
Where Max seeks to steal magic for his freedom, Lyle views magic as a tool of oppression to be destroyed. Their old friendship will be tested as they’re forced to become adversaries against famous rival mages in a series of magical trials. Whoever becomes the chosen one will change the shape of magic forever.
But magic is a rich man’s game, and should Max or Lyle be discovered as frauds, their deaths will be televised next.
Crimson in Quietus by Eugen Bacon: Available September 1, 2026
Subgenre(s): Magical Realism, Urban Fantasy, Light Sci-Fi
In a world where sound is a tangible force, Muso’mi is a maadiregi―an expert in the art of consuming it. At the prestigious Mahadum, she researches the language of silence, seeking to master the gift her mother calls theft. But academic intrigue turns to deadly peril when her friend vanishes after unearthing a hidden truth.
Pursuing clues through pools of quietude across worlds, Muso’mi stumbles upon a horrifying discovery: a pattern of carnage left in fields of harvested silence. Now, the hunter becomes the hunted, as her unique expertise draws her into the orbit of a serial killer who understands the power of sound all too well.
Tiger Cowers, Dragon Falls by Charlotte Saulter: Available September 1, 2026
Four Guardians, Book 2
Subgenre(s): Dark Fantasy
Spring should have brought vengeance.
Instead, it brought chains.
The four who once found each other are scattered to the winds.
Wang Longwei is trying to outrun his past, only to find it waiting for him at every turn. Zhou Shufang is a prisoner in all but name, forced into a life built on obedience and silence. Yang Huizhong is powerless in the dark, with nothing to fight but her own fear. And Hu Jindai has been dragged to the empire’s heart, where the price of survival is losing himself.
Behind every chain, every wound, every loss, the Empress is there: more dangerous than any of them imagined, and far from done with them.
Dance the Harvest Home by E.H. Timms: Available September 15, 2026
Dandelion Duology, Book 1
Subgenre(s): Cozy Fantasy, Queer Fantasy
Uninterested in romance and unable to understand speech, Dandelion has never really fit in with other people. For many years he gave up, retreating to live in the wild with his ponies and only coming back to town to trade for what he couldn’t make.
Until now. Now, he has the chance to make somewhere better, somewhere kids like him can grow up without being ostracised, and somewhere he can actually talk to the people around him. A chance to turn half-bitter daydreams into reality.
But first, his collection of outcasts and oddities must prepare to survive winter.
Astra Idari: Taker of the Dawn by Darby Harn: Available September 18, 2026
Stargun Messenger, Book 3
Subgenre(s): Space Opera
Astra Idari is a living ark. She carries in her advanced android memory the entire record of her dying universe. Idari must deliver it to a cosmic forge constructed by ancient universe-smiths, or else when the light goes out in existence, it goes out forever.
Idari wants nothing more than to secure another dawn, but when the opportunity to save a lost friend presents itself, her heart and her duty collide. Her quandary is complicated by the fact she isn’t sure whether this is a cruel trick by the dark entity determined to ensure Idari fails. They chase her across space and time, hoping to tear the ark from her memory, and the last light of hope from the stars, root and branch…
Sold to the Dark Vampire Prince by Kat Kinney: Available September 18, 2026
Immortal Royals, Book 1
Subgenre(s): Dystopian Romantasy
To save her sister, she’ll make a dangerous bargain with the heir to the vampire throne.
Daniela Girard understands all too well that ever since the fall of the human race, survival has meant making yourself indispensable to one of its new masters. The fae and the wolves can mostly be avoided, but the vampires thirst for human blood, and at a terrible price.
Dani despises none of them more than cold Crown Prince Alexander Visconti, who insists on making announcements about his impending royal engagement ball while she and her two sisters slowly starve.
In the dark of winter, her ten-year-old sister Ava’s chronic illness reaches a breaking point. With her father gone and her stepmother lost to the ravages of blood addiction, Dani has to find a way to obtain the medicine she needs. And she has nothing left to sell but herself.
But when she’s saved from the blood auctions and her rescuer turns out to be none other than Alexander, Dani doesn’t know what to do. Each time he feeds from her throat, she cannot deny the dark yearning she feels, the unexplained connection to a prince she knows she should get as far away from as possible, and a man who she is discovering is anything but what she initially believed him to be.
Neither of them anticipates the connection that forms.
Every taste of her blood, every stolen kiss she knows she shouldn’t allow, buys her sister a few more days. Every time Alex feeds from her, the bond between them grows harder to sever.
A bond that could prove very dangerous for her if discovered.
Dweller in Darkness by Sam Flynn: Available September 22, 2026
The Deadlights Duology, Book 2
Subgenre(s): Dark Fantasy, Horror Fantasy
“God-killing seemed a lofty ambition. Then again, is that not what we’re here to do in our hunt for the Dweller in Darkness?”
All of Cassius Marius’ life has been spent in service to the Pale King. Ever since his birth sixteen years ago on the night the Hero of Hathur died, his mother prepared him to join the Lightbringers: seven young men selected every equinox by the Church of the Pale King to descend underground to hunt and destroy the Dweller in Darkness, a chthonic entity the Church names as source of an unnatural blight ravaging Hathur and beyond, year after year.
Cassius has known since he could speak that he was destined to destroy the great evil poisoning his home. His inevitable confrontation with the Dweller on his holy descent changes him inside and out and puts him on a collision course with the Pale King he once worshipped. With his world and body crumbling around him, Cassius must choose between loyalty and honor, family and humanity, not to save his home. But to destroy it.
The sequel to The Mystery of the Pale King and conclusion of the Deadlights Duology, Dweller in Darkness traverses a doomed empire polluted by corruption to ask if the world was ending, what would you save? And what would you leave behind?
The Wolf in the Lantern by Iseult Murphy: Available September 22, 2026
The Wolves of Bala, Book 1
Subgenre(s): Epic Fantasy
A buried past, a dangerous future, a fiery destiny.
Orphaned at a young age, Simone has never felt she belonged to the Champion class of her parents, despite her ability to work fire that far surpasses her peers. When Simone’s best friend is killed by fearsome beasts, Pyra, a magical flame wolf, visits Simone with a request. The flame wall that protects the town of Ember is failing, and the Dimmers – terrifying creatures that dwell in the wasteland beyond the fires – are breaking through. Only by finding and reuniting the three keys to Pyra’s power will the flame wall be strong enough to once again protect Ember and its inhabitants.
To aid Simone on her hunt, Pyra nudges her towards the reclusive Champion, Fisher, with his knowledge of a forgotten past, as well as Robin, the daughter of the Champion of Champions, who has fallen into a dark world of artisans and freemen in her desire for revenge.
As the three unearth the secrets hidden in the heart of Ember, enemies gather around them. Their search brings them closer to those who want the flame wall to fail, threatening the lives of Fisher and Robin, and forcing Simone to confront her destiny.
Weak in the Head by Jan Miklaszewicz: Available September 23, 2026
Hartmouth Horrors, Book 4
Subgenre(s): Slasher, Folk Horror
When five friends go camping on Hartmouth Moor, the worst they expect to deal with is heavy weather or a bad trip from the mushrooms they’ve taken. But instead they stumble upon a scene so nasty, so incriminating, that they’re forced into a gutsy fight for survival coupled with a hair-raising rescue mission. And with their adversaries prepared to silence them by any means necessary, all they can do is keep going until the bitter bloody end.
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