October 2026 Books

What’s new and good to read?

Dan Coombes has a look at what’s on offer from publishers in October and chooses Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub; One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak; and As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers.

Other Worlds Than These by Stephen King and Peter Straub

A new Stephen King book: Big news.

A new Stephen King book, created both literally and in spirit with a massively underrated writing partner that concludes one spectacular trilogy while also tying into another even more beloved series, neither of which have seen anything new for a decade and quarter of a century respectively… well, now you’re talking.

I love a bit of Stephen King, but my colleague is a next-level superfan. I can’t really spell the excited noises he made when he discovered this was coming, but they certainly illustrate the vast levels of anticipation for the biggest book in years from one of the most talented and beloved authors of all time, so I have to try.

Think of a combination of Homer Simpson spotting a free beer buffet and an incredibly excited young person who really wants to open a birthday present. Let’s go with ‘Hnnyruurrrlglglglglaarrrghnnngg.’ That seems about right.

This the story of Jack Sawyer who first travelled between America and the Territories to save his mother’s life as a twelve-year-old boy. Many years later, as a retired policeman, he returns to face a serial killer.

Now, he must undertake a dangerous journey, to stop both a rampaging gang of infected teenagers from America-side and the forces of the mysterious Gullet at the edge of Mid-World before they destroy our world and all worlds. But Jack is older, his band of pilgrims, his ka-tet, is fraying and his task is nearly impossible

Both a stand-alone novel, the unforgettable finale to The Talisman Trilogy and a wrapping-up of the fate of the worlds in King’s iconic, beloved Dark Tower epic.

Other Worlds Than These; Authors Stephen King and Peter Straub

One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak

The trend of novels reshaping myths, legends, momentous historical events and iconic stories in new ways or from a different point of view has become hugely popular and given rise to some incredible stories by incredible writers, which doesn’t mean that a little ‘earth-shattering reimagining of another classic’ fatigue doesn’t occasionally set in, but fear not…

If you had to pick someone to take this trend, make it their own and evolve it into something much more complex and brilliantly insightful, it would have to be one of the most critically acclaimed and talented literary writers to appear in the last twenty years or so, right?

If I was hip and cool I’d make some reference to Elif Shafak seeing all the other authors doing this and saying ‘hold my beer’, which I assume everyone still says these days. This is no mere reinterpretation of another story but a multi-layered and genre-blurring new take.

During a time of great turmoil, Gustave Flaubert created literature’s most scandalous heroine: Madame Bovary. He then poisoned her with arsenic. But what if, 175 years later, Emma – and the women history overlooked – could seize the quill from his hands and tell a different story?

In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a luminous reinvention of an iconic male writer, told through the eyes of the women – real and fictional – who shaped him: a devoted nursemaid, an Egyptian dancer and a passionate, jealous lover who refuses to be forgotten.

An intimate portrait of a great artist and an epic meditation on storytelling itself: who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how can literature endure through political upheaval, war and injustice?

When the world feels broken, how do we find the hope to carry on?

As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers is awesome. She writes, by and large, uplifting and wholesome science fiction, which is not to say it lacks punch or imagination or is too busy being saccharine to tell a good story.

Her Wayfarers series has been a cult smash for years, her Monk & Robot books won the Hugo and Locus awards and her new novel, a celebration of humanity, love and overcoming difference even if that difference is, y’know, massive tentacles or eighteen heads or being an inscrutable cosmic lifeform – only looks set to increase her standing and acclaim.

If you want a break from twelve-book sagas of intergalactic conflict and doom this could be just what you need, and if the thought of wholesome sf induced even the teeniest eye roll, give it a whirl anyway – you might just be surprised!

The stars are waiting for you. We hope you will come find us there. Life on Fortune is hard. The atmosphere is poisonous, the planet hardly fit for life. But for its inhabitants, it’s home.

Pilot Cora suffers from a rare and dangerous condition, brought about by her bond with Colibri, the alien animal she pilots to quarry vital water for the colony. If Cora seeks treatment, she risks losing her license – and her connection to Colibri forever.

Then she meets Signy, a brilliant but reclusive botanist, whose bio-printed medicine is the only thing that can save her. But to do so, Signy must break the rules that govern their lives, risking her livelihood and the other colonists who rely on her for survival.

As Cora and Signy navigate their balance of risk and trust, they are forced to confront what they owe to each other and to their community – and begin to question whether survival is enough.

Dan Coombes is a bookseller at Bookcase independent bookshop on Chiswick High Road.