In the follow-up novel, George-Étienne and his children have formed The House of Styx, after finding a mysterious artefact on the surface of Venus herself. But with the discovery comes great risk, not only from a planet that kills with its very touch but also from the banks and powers of old Earth, who will stop at nothing to claim this new technology for themselves.

We sat down with Künsken to discover his process of building such epic worlds, how this duology differs from his Quantum Magician saga and what he has coming up next…

How does it feel to have concluded the story, there’s such emotion in the book, do you find yourself caught up in it at all?

First of all, thank you! Yes, I’m definitely caught up in the sweep of it. professional risk, maybe? That makes it hard to see the whole at once. I’ve noticed that I often am not able to say how I feel until I get to listen to the audiobook without any further responsibility for making changes. But as I was editing and polishing in early 2023, there were certainly moments and scenes and bits of dialogue that got to me and had me pausing to just feel, which doesn’t always happen with every story.

Knowing the story was a duology, did you approach House of Saints and House of Styx different to the Quantum Magician saga?

I totally approached it differently, but not because of the number of novels. Quantum Magician was a heist in space in the far future, so it has specific concerns and fun beats that have to happen to make it work. I approached House of Styx and House of Saints from the characters and their conflicts with each other, the government, and bank because a family saga works for different reasons and with different ingredients. The two books of the duology are a single story really, a bit like the Godfather and Godfather II are a single story. I think that the Quantum Evolution books are almost independently readable in a way that the Venus books are not.

No one in the book is safe and there are some pretty pivotal deaths, without spoilers, what’s it like having to kill off characters that you’ve spent so long creating?

I think I felt a bit of sadness though, with each death. This is why I don’t kill characters very often. To portray a character well, I think that I have to be able to imagine what it’s like being them, and what it’s like being around them. That does take time and energy and an ability to see their possibilities, and their futures, including  white picket fence endings. When they don’t get those futures, there’s a feeling of loss. I had some push back from my writers’ group, my agent, and my editor, and eventually I changed the fate of one character (they lived).

The House Of Saints takes us on an enormous journey both in terms of plot and emotional arcs, how do you approach tackling something so epic? Do you know the ending before you start? Or do things evolve naturally as you write?

Thank you for calling it epic! I actually don’t write anything without knowing the ending – novel, novella, short story, comic book. Early on, I used to pants it (the term some writers use for the process of “writing by the seat of your pants”), but I failed so often that I started writing less because I worried the effort and words were just going to be wasted. Knowing the ending gets me through moments of shaky confidence. For this two-book story, I knew where Saints had to end for Venus the colony to become Venus the capital of the Congregate by the time of the Quantum Evolution series. Who survived to the end of Saints and how they got there was a lot of puzzling and pondering with flip chart paper over days and weeks before I started writing. I usually get impatient at the outlining stage, so by the time I have a 75% complete outline, I just start writing. I trust that I’ll figure out the rest as I go.

Part of the plot revolves around building a base on the surface of Venus. What was the biggest challenge for you in anchoring such a technical process in reality while also keeping it an engaging read?

To write the two Venus books, I needed to know some chemistry, some meteorology, some naval engineering, some aerodynamics, but the rest was a lot of mechanical elements. How to drop something through the atmosphere and land it in a certain place is more of an engineering problem than a scientific one, for example. You’re right that keeping it an engaging read is the challenge – there’s not a lot of emotion in welding. I found, in pure writer trick terms, that just cutting a lot of the detail helped, as did focusing on the “man vs nature” essence of the conflict. But it didn’t hurt that the characters who built the base on the surface were also going through a difficult emotional moment too.

In The House of Saints, the political landscape created in The House of Styx becomes far more prevalent with corrupt governments, false imprisonment, murder and rebellion playing key roles. How important was it to weave these concepts into a story that could have typically just been about the exploration of Venus?

I think “man vs nature” conflicts are cool (and my first foray into Venus in the novelette Persephone Descending was very much that) but ultimately there’s only so much you can do with man vs nature. I’d always envisioned the creation of a state to be messy, and the way the Venusian state is born will determine some of its destiny in the later centuries. People on Venus want different things. Some of them are willing to go to great lengths to achieve them, sometimes down the wrong path, but for the right reasons. That’s humanity, and ultimately science fiction is about using the future to talk about our humanity in the present.

For The House of Styx, you cite Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars as a source of inspiration, what books were touchstones for you in concluding the story?

It’s weird. I often have books in mind for loose inspiration, but I don’t know if any particular book helped frame my thinking in Saints. I do think that the Godfather movies informed some of the feel and the family dynamics I wanted to dig into. Maybe it’s just that to me Styx and Saints are a single story?

Last we spoke you were re-reading all of X-Men and blogging about it. What are you reading now?

I have a new baby, so time is at a premium. I listen to a lot of podcasts about comic books (as always). Some great ones are Marvel by the Month, Bronze Age Monsters, Graymalkin Lane, Cerebro, X-Men Unraveled, Voice of Latveria, Oh Gosh Oh Golly Oh Wow, and some others. I tend to start at episode one and listen to the whole podcast corpus, and on some of them, I’ve stalled on because I haven’t caught up on the Krakoa X-Men (I want to read all of it), and I’m avoiding spoilers. On novels, I listen to a number at once and pick them up depending on mood. I’m reading Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee, Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks, House of Chains by Steven Erikson, rereading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, Comfort Me With Apples by Cat Valente, and Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tasmyn Muir. Obviously, it takes me some time to finish a book…

The House of Styx and The House of Saints both fall into the same world as the Quantum Evolution series (with a very helpful timeline in the back of the book). Do you have plans to fill out the entire timeline? Or are you looking to step away from this universe for your next adventure?

I want to write The Quantum Temple—I’m outlining it right now. Temple will conclude the Quantum Evolution series. I’m not sure what to do afterwards. I’ve got a couple of novels in editing phase – an epic fantasy and a horror novel. I have ideas for other things like novellas, but I think it will take some time for me to figure out what will be best. And, somewhere in there, I’d like to write comics as well. I’m done some comic work for small press, but comic books are a deep and abiding love since I was ten years old.

The House Of Saints by Derek Künsken is out now. Order your copy here.

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In a tale of intertwined destinies, Toba Peres, is gifted with linguistic prowess and immerses herself in translating books while concealing her unconventional abilities. Meanwhile, Naftaly Cesques, burdened by his family’s tailoring legacy and plagued by enigmatic visions, embarks on a journey unknowingly entwined with Toba’s fate. As their shared community faces turmoil and persecution, Naftaly defies the Queen’s decree to expel Jews from Sefarad, their homeland, escaping with an enigmatic book, while Toba is drawn to a mysterious figure with piercing orange eyes…

In order to escape, Toba ventures through a pomegranate grove’s enigmatic portal, guided by the orange-eyed stranger where she enters an ancient realm entwined with her own. Here an age-old conflict threatens to shatter both worlds and determine the fate of her and Naftaly. Lost in separate realms, the interwoven perspectives add depth to this richly layered narrative, blending Jewish folklore with fantasy.

We sat down with the book’s author Ariel Kaplan to find out more…

When did you first get the idea for The Pomegranate Gate?

I’ve wanted to write a fantasy about Sephardi Spain for probably 20 years, and I had the idea for Toba’s part of the narrative several years ago. I realised pretty quickly that her story didn’t stand well on its own. It felt like half a novel, and it took me a long time to figure out what the other half needed to be. Once I had Naftaly, the story—well, it didn’t write itself, but the direction of it became clear.

How much research did you do before writing the novel?

That’s difficult to quantify—I have been reading Jewish folklore pretty intensively since I was young, but I spent several months before I started drafting The Pomegranate Gate going through and rereading the stories I knew I wanted to draw from (anything to do with the city of Luz, or the Ziz, or demons).

In terms of the historical aspects, I did a summer-long research project on Sephardi Spain back when I was at university, so that’s another long-standing interest. I did do a lot of refreshing my knowledge before I started writing— I still have all my old history books from that period, and I did a lot of additional reading to fill in the blanks for what I might have missed.

How would you describe the Maziks and their world?

The Maziks are immortal magic users who view themselves as extremely civilized. At the time of The Pomegranate Gate, they live in 11 cities, most of them Mediterranean-adjacent, each of which is cantered on a gate that opens to the mortal realm.

The world itself operates on a principle the Maziks call The Mirror, by which events in the mortal world are reflected in their own — sometimes disastrously. Whether the Mirror is something the Maziks can make use of, by influencing events in the mortal world, is an ongoing question.

The novel is incredibly expansive, and is set in two worlds – how did you go about creating the worlds in the novel?

I tried to keep Naftaly’s world in line with late-fifteenth century Spain so much as I could (though obviously, the geography and other details have been changed: this is a fantasy, not an historical novel).

Toba’s Mazik world sprang very much from that, except you have a king and an Inquisition who can use magic and who don’t regularly die. I had to ask a lot of questions as to what certain things would look like in a world in which regime change is unusual, because the same king might be running things for a thousand years or more, or what would a world look like where immortals are being threatened with death?

What was it like writing the story from two very different perspectives and did you prefer writing for Toba or Naftaly?

Writing in both perspectives allowed me to expand the story to include both worlds, but it did present some challenges when keeping the timeline straight when events happened in both of them, like a full moon.

As for which was easier, it actually had to do with who else was in the scene; anything with Barsilay, for example, was very enjoyable to write because it’s so much fun to write his dialogue.

The Maziks have a lot of incredible magic – if you could choose one piece of magic that the Maziks have, what would that be?

Immortality would seem to be a good choice. Apart from that, I would very much like to be able to make a shade to do all my chores.

What can you tell us about the book’s sequel?

In The Pomegranate Gate, the characters are pretty much confined to the city of Rimon in both worlds. In the sequel, they get to explore the wider world—particularly the Mazik world. The scope of the story expands a lot, so if you’re wondering what the other Mazik cities look like, you’ll get to see them in the next book.

What are you reading right now?

I just started The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which I am enjoying very much!

What’s next for you?

I have some events coming up to promote the US edition of The Pomegranate Gate in a few weeks, and I’m actively revising the Pomegranate Gate sequel as we speak.

After that, it will be time to start the third book in the trilogy. I expect to be pretty immersed in this world for the next few years. After that, who can say?

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 Damsel, by Elana K. Arnold

“When the king dies, his son the prince must venture into the gray lands, slay a fierce dragon, and rescue a damsel to be his bride.” But when Ama awakens after her rescue in the kingdom of Harding, with no memory of the past, she realises her new fairytale life is a gradually constricting nightmare where nothing is as it seems. Arnold’s depiction of the claustrophobia and terror of coercive, misogynistic control makes this one of the most upsetting books I’ve read. But oh, the payoff! It’s worth the suffering for that one climactic moment, I promise.

Juniper and Thorn, by Ava Reid

This retelling of the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale The Juniper Tree doesn’t shy away from delving into all the elements that were present in the original, including child abuse, cannibalism, and murder. This book will make you viscerally understand why domestic abuse is also called intimate terrorism. But Reid never puts a foot wrong as a storyteller, and ultimately leads us on a path of escape where nothing is fixed, but healing is possible.

Nettle and Bone, by T Kingfisher

“This isn’t the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince. It’s the one where she kills him.” Marra is sick of watching her sister suffer at the hands of her abusive prince husband, and mounts a rescue mission. Kingfisher’s books acknowledge the darkness of the world — and then matter-of-factly remind you that there will always be ordinary people with pragmatism, good humour, and a willingness to roll up their sleeves to battle injustice. I’ve never once finished a Kingfisher story and not felt hope.

The Woods All Black, by Lee Mandelo

This Appalachian period novella explores small town religious bigotry, reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, and the absolute necessity of fighting to live who as you truly are. Mandelo doesn’t pull any punches, including in his delivery of PEAK queer revenge. If you don’t absolutely howl with schadenfreude at the ending, I don’t know what to do with you.

Wake of Vultures, by Lila Bowen

This definitive entry in the ‘weird western’ fantasy subgenre from a few years ago delivers us into an unsentimentally brutal world of cowboys, gods, and gruesome monsters. Bowen doesn’t shy away from depicting just how grim this world can be for her enslaved, mixed-race, trans protagonist. But it’s the story’s empathetic exploration of intersectional identity, and its grounding in native folklore, that really set this one apart from the white-protagonist classics of the genre.

Shelley Parker-Chan is an Asian-Australian former diplomat and international development adviser who spent nearly a decade working on human rights, gender equality and LGBT rights in Southeast Asia. Named after the Romantic poet, she was raised on a steady diet of Greek myths, Arthurian legend and Chinese tales of suffering and tragic romance. Her debut novel She Who Became the Sun owes more than a little to all three. In 2017 she was awarded an Otherwise (Tiptree) Fellowship for a work of speculative narrative that expands our understanding of gender. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family.

He Who Drowned the World is out now from Mantle Books. Find out more here.

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From Stephen Baxter’s latest exploration of the wonders of space, through to the sequel to the critically-acclaimed The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, we have science fiction and fantasy reads well and truly covered. And for those of you with a penchant for horror, Chuck Wendig’s new tale of poisonous apples is sure to whet your appetite.

Don’t forget to let us know what made your list this month by reaching out to us on our social channels. We love hearing what you think.

Rachel Harrison

5 September – Titan Books

Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison is a collection of four short stories that delve into a variety of topics, including female friendships, queer relationships, the supernatural, bachelorette parties, ritualistic sacrifice and, of course, some creepy dolls.

From the best-selling author of Such Sharp Teeth (which made our May top books), Harrison returns with more empowered female leads delving into the relatable anxieties that lurk within the hearts of modern women. Each story resonates with emotional authenticity, tackling complicated friendships, struggles with body image and eating disorders as well as the slippery slope to self-sabotage. Harrison once again manages to make us flinch while laughing out loud, exploring the darkest sides of feminine horror.

Stephen Baxter

21 September – Gollancz

In the year 2255, 20-year-old Salma becomes the first woman to witness the enigmatic entity, ‘Planet Nine’ via her ship’s advanced sensors. Initially misidentified as a black hole, it soon transforms and starts communicating, unveiling an extraterrestrial enigma shrouded in mystery.

This cosmic bombshell triggers worldwide turmoil, and bizarrely coincides with the awakening of a distant quasar, threatening and heating our solar system. Humanity’s destiny now hinges on Salma solving this celestial puzzle in a race against time to decode its secrets before it’s too late.

Creation Node is a standalone novel from sci-fi fan favourite, Stephen Baxter, and this time he’s tackling the very real threats of climate change and the toll of exploitation and exploration. Always eye-opening and starkly incisive with the topics at hand, Creation Node is the perfect gateway for newcomers to Baxter’s writing and a welcome new story for existing fans.

Josiah Bancroft

26 September – Orbit

The Hexologists – Iz and Warren Wilby – are seasoned experts in unraveling the supernatural dilemmas of city life. With an arsenal of hexes and a trove of bewitched artifacts, they confront the extraordinary, thriving on the most perplexing cases.

In this first book in Josiah Bancroft’s new series, the Hexologists are summoned by the royal secretary to handle an astonishing request from the king himself: to be baked into a cake. (something he’s so determined on he even crams himself into a lit oven!). As the Wilbies delve into a royal secret buried for decades, they confront a host of challenges: from fervent anti-royalists to insatiable ghouls, and even dimension-hopping alchemists. Not to mention a dragon with the occasional taste for eating people.

Bancroft’s writing shines throughout the book, with an entertaining balance of delightful wordplay and down-to-earth storytelling. He has created a Victorianesque world filled with magic, creatures, spells, and relics, blending elements of mystery, fantasy, and steampunk, to create a real sense of wonder and excitement.

Chuck Wendig

28 September – Del Rey

In the quiet town of Harrow, an eerie shift in the nature of the townsfolk begins when an unusual apple tree starts producing bewitching fruit. These apples, with their deep red hue, promise newfound strength and vitality to those who eat them. However, the more they indulge, the deeper the consequences grow, ensnaring them in an insatiable obsession that offers happiness, confidence, and power but leads to something much darker. As autumn casts its shadow, a mysterious stranger arrives in Harrow and must help prepare the town for an impending reckoning.

Renowned author Chuck Wendig, (known for Wanderers and The Book of Accidents) returns with a chilling new masterpiece. Black River Orchard is a subtle and textured horror tale; its underlying social commentary evolving into a nuanced exploration of human nature. A dark parable that examines the slippery slope to exposing the darkness that lies within all of us.

Shauna Lawless

14 September – Head of Zeus

The Words of Kings and Prophets by Shauna Lawless is a gripping historical fantasy set in 1000 AD Ireland. Gormflaith, an immortal Fomorian and queen, is driven to locate and destroy her sworn enemies, the Descendants, while grappling with her constrained role as the wife of High King Brian Boru. Possessing the gift of magic, Gormflaith discovers herself more powerful than she realised and must question her ability to use them responsibly.

Meanwhile, Fódla, a Descendant’s healer, safeguards her banished sister’s son, harboring secrets that could jeopardise their safety. Their lives intersect with the arrival of Tomas, an ambitious and unscrupulous immortal, whose presence at King Brian’s court holds the potential for both salvation and calamity. As tensions escalate, mortals and immortals converge in a fateful clash that will shape the destiny of Ireland and its people.

A sequel to the celebrated The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, Lawless continues to weave a tale of power, magic, and ambition. A captivating continuation of the Gael Song series, the story picks up the flowing narrative we loved in the first book. Steering the reader through Viking raids, political maneuvering, and religious conflicts, and brimming with tension and a real love of Ireland and its history, The Words of Kings and Prophets is a welcome return to a world of enthralling historical fantasy.

If this sounds like a bit of you, then why not check out Shauna’s guest post where she counts down five books that use Irish mythology as inspiration? Read it here.

John Connolly

7th September – Hodder & Stroughton

Following a car accident that leaves her daughter Phoebe comatose, Ceres resorts to reading Phoebe’s cherished fairy tales in hopes of reawakening her and reuniting her disembodied spirit. Meanwhile, an old house on the hospital grounds begins to beckon to Ceres. Intrigued, she steps inside, falling into a realm steeped in childhood memories and folklore. Here she must confront witches, dryads and giants while old adversaries lurk in the shadows.

Land of Lost Things marks Author John Connolly’s long-awaited return to the literary landscape of his acclaimed novel The Book of Lost Things. Weaving a heart-wrenching tale of loss, longing and magic, while deftly blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination, Conolly’s new standalone novel doesn’t require prior reading and instead unwraps as a beautifully dark tale that pulls on the human heart.

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From Jennifer L. Armentrout, the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of From Blood and Ash, comes a brand new romantic fantasy with Fall of Ruin and Wrath and we have two copies to give away!

Read on for how to enter, but first, check out the official synopsis for Fall of Ruin and Wrath…

Long ago, the world was destroyed by gods. Only nine cities were spared. Separated by vast wilderness teeming with monsters and unimaginable dangers, each city is now ruled by a guardian – royalty who feed on mortal pleasure.

Born with an intuition that never fails, Calista knows her talents are of great value to the power-hungry of the world, so she lives hidden as a courtesan of the Baron of Archwood. In exchange for his protection, she grants him information. When her intuition leads her to save a travelling prince in dire trouble, the voice inside her blazes with warning – and promise. Today he’ll bring her joy. One day he’ll be her doom.

When the Baron takes an interest in the prince, and the prince takes an interest in Calista, she becomes the latter’s temporary companion. But the city simmers with rebellion, and with knights and monsters at her city gates and a hungry prince in her bed, intuition may not be enough to keep her safe. Calista must choose: follow her intuition to safety or follow her heart to her downfall.

Want to curl up with a good book? Fall of Ruin and Wrath is an ideal companion this autumn and we have two copies to give away! To be in with the chance of winning one, simply answer the question below…

This competition closes on 28 September. Good luck!

Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout is out now. Order your copy here and find more competitions at SciFiNow.

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Solaris has announced a new edition of Helix by the late Eric Brown, with a redesigned cover and a new introduction by Stephen Baxter.

A classic first-contact novel from a preeminent voice in British science fiction, Helix is a pacy sci-fi adventure following the plight of four humans who crash-land on what they think is a desolate planet. Dealing with climate change in a way that is even more pertinent now than it was upon its original release in 2007, Helix is a tale of survival that Solaris has said that they are “enormously proud to be bringing to a new generation of readers”.

“Eric had a vivid, creative imagination and the worlds he created come to life through his fiction,” said Finn, Eric’s wife, on the reissue. “An essential aspect of this is Eric’s engagement with his characters. He predominantly wrote science fiction, but not from a scientific or technological perspective (he never even had a mobile phone).

“Instead, it is the lives and loves of his characters that predominate, a focus that reflects the importance of friendship, love and compassion in Eric’s own life. He will be greatly missed.”

Eric Brown was the award-winning author of a huge number of SF novels, children’s books, radio plays, articles and reviews, including Helix, Helix Wars, the Bengal Station trilogy, the New York trilogy, Kethani, Engineman, Guardians of the Phoenix, Kings of Eternity, The Serene Invasion, two Weird Space novels and The Fall of Tartarus. Eric passed away in 2023.

“When I heard the news that Eric Brown had left us, I was honestly devastated,” added Editor Amanda Rutter. “I had read a couple of his novels and always felt that Eric had a deft and compassionate view of humanity – and the publishing team at Solaris believed that the best way to celebrate Eric’s life and to honour him was to bring his writing to those who perhaps hadn’t had the opportunity to enjoy his stories in the past.

“Therefore, I asked Stephen Baxter to provide an introduction for the novel we felt reflected Eric the most clearly, and am incredibly pleased to announce that we are re-releasing Helix in October with a beautiful new cover.

“We hope that you enjoy the novel and will join us in commemorating the astonishing SF career of Eric Brown.”

Helix will be re-released in October 2023.

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