The Eidolon by Libby McGugan

The Eidolon by Libby McGugan is available early next month from Solaris (£7.99).

“When physicist Robert Strong loses his job at the Dark Matter research lab and his relationship falls apart, he returns home to Scotland. Then the dead start appearing to him, and Robert begins to question his own sanity.

Vincent Amos, an enigmatic businessman, arrives and recruits Robert to sabotage CERN’S Large Hadron Collider, convincing him the next step in the collider’s research will bring about disaster. Everything Robert once understood about reality, and the boundaries between life and death, is about to change forever. And the biggest change will be to Robert himself...”

The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark

Between 1971 and 1978, during the Christmas holiday period, the BBC broadcast a series of dramas under the umbrella title of A Ghost Story for Christmas, most based on stories by M. R. James and all directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. This December, Spectral Press will be publishing its first hybrid/non-fiction book, The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark, in celebration of those classic short films.

Edited and introduced by Tony Earnshaw (Beating the Devil – The Making of Night of the Demon); Foreword by Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock, First Men in the Moon, the forthcoming The Tractate Middoth); plus all the M. R. James tales from which the dramas were adapted, each prefaced by a new introduction by Clark.

Additionally, there will also be a reprint of an unfilmed “Count Magnus” script by Basil Copper, as well as other material including unpublished behind-the-scenes photographs.

Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry

Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry is available from Simon and Schuster (£7.99).

“Benny Imura and his friends have found the jet and Sanctuary — but neither is what they expected. Instead of a refuge, Sanctuary is a hospice, and the soldiers who flew the plane seem to be little more than bureaucrats who have given up hope for humanity’s future. With Chong hovering between life and death, clinging to his humanity by a thread, Benny makes a startling discovery: A scientist may have discovered a cure for the zombie plague. Desperate to save Chong, Benny and his friends mount a search and rescue mission. But they’re not the only ones on the hunt. The reapers are after the cure too, and they want to use it turn all the zombies into superfast shock troops — and wipe humanity off the face of the earth.”

This is the conclusion to the Rot & Ruin series.

The Devil Delivered by Steven Erikson

The Devil Delivered by Steven Erikson (Bantam £16.99) includes three novella-length stories:

The Devil Delivered: “In the breakaway Lakota Nation, in the heart of a land blistered beneath an ozone hole the size of the Great Plains of North America, a lone anthropologist wanders the deadlands, recording observations that threaten to bring the world's powers to their knees.”

Revolvo: “In the fictitious country of Canada, the arts scene is ruled by technocrats who thrive in a secret, nepotistic society of granting agencies, bursaries, and peer review boards, all designed to permit self-proclaimed artists to survive without an audience.”

Fishing with Grandma Matchie: “A children's story of a boy tasked with a writing assignment becomes a stunning fantastical journey with his tale-spinning grandmother.”

Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams

Out next week: Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams (Hodder & Stoughton £18.99):

“My name’s Bobby Dollar, sometimes known as Doloriel, and of course, Hell isn’t a great place for someone like me — I’m an angel. They don’t like my kind down there, not even the slightly fallen variety. But they have my girlfriend, who happens to be a beautiful demon named Casimira, Countess of Cold Hands. Why does an angel have a demon girlfriend? Well, certainly not because it helps my career.

She’s being held hostage by one of the nastiest, most powerful demons in all of the netherworld — Eligor, Grand Duke of Hell. He already hates me, and he’d like nothing better than to get his hands on me and rip my immortal soul right out of my borrowed but oh-so-mortal body.”

Marauder by Gary Gibson

Marauder by Gary Gibson is now available from Tor (£18.99).

“Megan has a mission. But must she sacrifice herself to save our worlds?

Pilot Megan Jacinth has three goals, and they all seem unattainable. She must find her friend Bash, who she’d left for dead to save her own life. Then she needs Bash’s unique skill-set to locate an ancient space-faring entity. Lastly she must use this Wanderer’s knowledge to save human-occupied worlds from an alien incursion. The odds seem impossible, but the threat is terrifyingly real.

Megan finds Bash, but the person she’d known and loved is a husk of his former self. Bash is also held captive by her greatest enemy: Gregor Tarrant. Tarrant wants the Wanderer too, even more than he wants her life, with motives less pure than her own. And he’s close to finding Megan’s most closely-guarded secret.

A race across space to reach the Wanderer seems Megan’s best option. But this entity is also known as the Marauder, and is far from benign. The price for its secrets may be just too high. Megan should know, as she still bears the scars from their last encounter…”

Rome: Destroy Carthage by David Gibbins

Total War: Rome: Destroy Carthage is a tie-in novel (with the computer game) by David Gibbins (Macmillan £16.99).

“Carthage, 146 BC. This is the story of Fabius Petronius Secundus – Roman legionary and centurion – and of his general Scipio Aemilianus, and his rise to power: from his first battle against the Macedonians, that seals the fate of Alexander the Great’s Empire, to total war in North Africa and the Siege of Carthage.

Scipio’s success brings him admiration and respect, but also attracts greed and jealousy – for the closest allies can become the bitterest of enemies. And then there is the dark horse, Julia, of the Caesar family – in love with Scipio but betrothed to his rival Paullus – who causes a vicious feud.

Ultimately for Scipio it will come down to one question: how much is he prepared to sacrifice for his vision of Rome?”

On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds

On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds comes out later this month from Gollancz (£16.99).

“It is a thousand years in the future. Mankind is making its way out into the universe on massive generation ships... It’s a tale of betrayal and deceit aboard a flotilla of hollowed-out asteroids as they take millions of people to start a new world on a far distant planet at one seventh the speed of light.”

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s latest book for young children is Fortunately, the Milk (Bloomsbury £ 10.99), illustrated by Chris Riddell.

“You know what it’s like when your mum goes away on a business trip and Dad’s in charge. She leaves a really, really long list of what he’s got to do. And the most important thing is DON’T FORGET TO GET THE MILK.

Unfortunately, Dad forgets. So the next morning, before breakfast, he has to go to the corner shop, and this is the story of why it takes him a very, very long time to get back.

Featuring: Professor Steg (a time-travelling dinosaur), some green globby things, the Queen of the Pirates, the famed jewel that is the Eye of Splod, some wumpires, and a perfectly normal but very important carton of milk.”

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald

The Secret Lives of Married Women by Elissa Wald is released on 8 October by Hard Case Crime (£7.99):

“‘You can rid yourself of the wolf at your door, but what do you do when the wolf is in your bed...?’

Two identical twin sisters — one a sexually repressed defense attorney, the other a former libertine now living a respectable life in suburbia — are about to have their darkest secrets revealed, to the men in their lives and to themselves.

As one sister prepares for the toughest trial of her career and the other faces a stalker who knows details of her life that even her husband doesn’t, both find themselves pushed to the edge, and confronted by discoveries about their husbands that shock and disturb them.”

The Secret Lives of Married Women is Elissa Wald’s first novel in twelve years.