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Club Codex 2026–27 Selections
Club Codex, the official book club for The Cosmic Codex, offers a convenient way to discuss award-winning science fiction novels and collections. Each month, I’ll read a new selection and post my thoughts in the discussion thread. You’re welcome to participate, or just follow along—whatever works best for you!
See below for our upcoming selections.
November 2026
In the Belly of the Whale by Michael Flynn
Winner of the 2025 Prometheus Award for Best Novel of libertarian science fiction1
Aboard a vast generation ship, the founders’ rigid rules for keeping humanity alive harden over the centuries into separate societies divided by class, belief, and identity. As those divisions deepen, talk of rebellion spreads through the crew, and the voyage becomes a test of how far people will go to win their freedom.2
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December 2026
Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Winner of the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel written by an Australian citizen or permanent resident3
At Chronos College, humans and cats travel through time for a living, and the job is pure joy apart from the occasional lost traveler, or lost cat. A chance to rescue a missing legend sends the team to the 1960s, if they can persuade Professor Boswell, a famously cranky marmalade tabby, to come along.4
January 2027
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel5
Kyr has spent her life on Gaea Station among humanity’s last survivors, training to avenge Earth’s destruction. When her superiors send her brother to certain death and assign her to the nursery to bear sons, she breaks away with his rebellious friend and an imprisoned alien, and discovers a universe stranger and richer than anything she was taught.6
February 2027
Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
Winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Science Fiction audiobook7
Cassie remembers everything and understands almost nothing about other people. After one disastrous day costs her a relationship, a job, and her local café’s banana muffins, she discovers she can travel back in time and undo her mistakes. Unlimited do-overs, however, may not be enough to set things right.8
March 2027
The Artificial Man and Other Stories by Clare Winger Harris
Clare Winger Harris, winner of the 2024 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award for underread science fiction and fantasy authors9
Ten pulp stories from a pioneering woman of early twentieth-century science fiction, selected and introduced by scholar Brad Ricca. Giant insects, Martians thirsty for Earth’s water, and a journey back to ancient Rome fill a collection that shows how much the young genre owed to a writer it largely forgot.10
April 2027
Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford
Winner of the 2023 Sidewise Award for Best Long-Form Alternate History11
In an alternate 1922 where the great Indigenous city of Cahokia never fell, the Mississippi metropolis has become an industrial hub of many races and faiths, held together by a fragile peace. When two detectives find a body on a skyscraper roof one snowy night, a week of upheaval follows that may destroy that world or remake it.12
May 2027
A New Eden by Menilik Henry Dyer
Winner of the 2024 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel of New Zealand science fiction and fantasy13
On a future Earth ruled by the Fermion Party, which preaches immortality through uploading into a simulated metaverse, four astronauts training on Mars become targets for assassination. Launched early in four ships guided by four AIs, they set out as uploaded minds to find habitable worlds, reunite across the stars, and survive first contact while the Fermions hunt them down.14
June 2027
Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha
Winner of the 2026 Locus Award for Best Collection and the 2026 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection15
Thomas Ha’s debut collection turns on familial love and trauma, set against societal and technological anxieties, questions of identity and class, and near futures slightly askew from our own. The title novelette won the 2026 Nebula Award.16
July 2027
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Series, and of the 2014 Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards17
Breq was once the warship Justice of Toren, an AI commanding thousands of soldier bodies for the conquering empire of the Radch. After an act of treachery ripped that life away, she survives in a single human body, on a remote, icy world and closing in on the revenge she has pursued ever since.18
August 2027
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Series19
Now serving the Radch’s ruler and seeking atonement for past crimes, Breq takes command of a new ship and an uneasy crew and is sent to Athoek Station, charged with protecting the family of a lieutenant she once killed.20
September 2027
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Winner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Series21
Just as Breq gains a measure of control at Athoek, a search of the station’s slums turns up someone who shouldn’t exist, an envoy arrives from the alien Presger, and the empire’s fractured ruler, Anaander Mianaai, comes calling. Breq refuses to abandon the station’s people, whatever the odds.22
October 2027
Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc. by Ash Bishop
Winner of the 2023 Audie Award for Science Fiction audiobook23
Russ Wesley unearths a strange artifact in his grandfather’s collection of antiquities and promptly attracts a vicious alien. The squad of reckless intergalactic exterminators sent to deal with it is so impressed by his marksmanship that they recruit him, whether he likes it or not.24
November 2027
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
Winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States25
Small-time thief Jun Ironway has stolen a secret big enough to topple the Kindom, the galaxy-spanning power built on the bones of a genocide. Two of its most brutal clerics, the stoic Chono and the hotheaded Esek, are sent to hunt her down, while a figure from their shared past, known only as Six, follows all three.26
December 2027
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Winner of the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year27
Microbiologist Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, finding refuge from an unhappy home at the water’s edge. When she joins an expedition to a newly discovered trench in the Atlantic, what she finds there unsettles everything known about life’s origins, and leads her to a new space agency in the Mojave and an impossible choice between her family and a journey across the cosmos.28
Club Codex FAQ
What is Club Codex?
A book club organized by The Cosmic Codex newsletter.
What type of books do you read?
We read and discuss one award-winning science fiction book each month. Most selections are recent winners, with a few older favorites and two short-story collections mixed in.
Do I have to read all the books?
Nope. Read as few or as many as you prefer.
What if I take longer than a month to read a book?
This season runs fourteen months, from November 2026 through December 2027, and every selection is announced in advance. Pick a book on the schedule that’s two, three, or more months down the road. Start reading it as early as you like!
How does the discussion work?
All discussion is online, chat-based, and asynchronous. Only have time to post your thoughts on your lunch break, late at night, or early Saturday morning? No problem! The Internet is always here. Your posts will be waiting for the rest of us when we check in later.
What does it cost?
Nothing! A free subscription to The Cosmic Codex is all you need.
How do I get started?
You can join Club Codex in three easy steps:
If you haven’t already, subscribe to The Cosmic Codex:
If you have time, introduce yourself in our welcome thread:
Join the discussion thread for each book you want to read when I post it at the beginning of the appropriate month. Leave a comment, like “Join,” so you will receive alerts on your Substack account.
That’s it. You’re now a member of Club Codex. Talk to you in November!
Thoughts about the upcoming Club Codex selections? Please comment below!
Artificial intelligence tools performed multiple tasks in the creation and publication of this article.
This month, I’m sharing my thoughts about B. L. Blanchard’s Sidewise Award-winning novel The Peacekeeper on Club Codex, where any Cosmic Codex subscriber can follow along, comment, or ask questions.
Here’s my latest comment in the discussion thread:
”As someone who spent half his childhood growing up on a farm, this really resonates with me:
’Takumwah led Chibenashi to a conference room with a long table in the middle made from planks of reclaimed wood and scattered mismatched chairs all around it. The smell of the wood from the table took Chibenashi back to Baatwitigon. He hadn’t realized until now just how many smells a city didn’t have—ones that reminded him of home. Smoke and cold in the winter. The wetness of wood and dirt in the spring. Fruit and flowers in the summer. Pine cones and rain in the fall.’”
Click below to participate:
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Libertarian Futurist Society, announcement of the 2025 Prometheus Award for Best Novel. See also the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Prometheus Awards 2025.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Michael Flynn, In the Belly of the Whale (CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, an imprint of Arc Manor, 2024). The publisher, the publication year, and the voyage’s timescale (two centuries into a projected eight) come from the Libertarian Futurist Society announcement in note 1.
Aurealis Awards, 2023 Aurealis Awards winners, announced May 2024. Eligibility rule: Aurealis Awards, FAQ.
Summary adapted from the author-publisher’s description: Tansy Rayner Roberts, Time of the Cat (self-published, 2023; eligible for the 2023 Aurealis Awards, which cover works first published that year; see note 3).
The Hugo Awards, “2024 Hugo Awards.” See also Glasgow 2024, “2024 Hugo Award Winners.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Emily Tesh, Some Desperate Glory (Orbit UK, 2023). US edition: Tor Books.
Audio Publishers Association, 2024 Audie Awards winners press release. The award honors the HarperAudio production narrated by Kristin Atherton. See also Locus, report on the 2024 Audie Award winners, March 2024.
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Holly Smale, Cassandra in Reverse (Penguin, 2024); first published in the UK as The Cassandra Complex (Century, 2023). US edition: MIRA.
Locus, report on the 2024 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, July 2024. The award recognizes lesser-known authors rather than a single book.
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Clare Winger Harris, The Artificial Man and Other Stories, introduction by Brad Ricca (Belt Publishing, 2019).
Locus, report on the 2023 Sidewise Award winners, announced August 2024 at the Glasgow 2024 Worldcon.
Summary adapted from the publishers’ descriptions: Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz (Scribner, 2024); first published in the UK by Faber & Faber, 2023.
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Menilik Henry Dyer, A New Eden, The Betaverse, Book 1 (Podium Publishing, 2023).
Reactor, report on the 2026 Locus Award winners, June 1, 2026; Science Fiction Awards Database, “World Fantasy Awards 2026,” presented October 25, 2026, at the World Fantasy Convention in Oakland. The collection also received a special citation for the 2026 Philip K. Dick Award; see the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Thomas Ha.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Thomas Ha, Uncertain Sons and Other Stories (Undertow Publications, 2025). For the novelette’s Nebula, see the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Nebula Awards 2026.”
The Hugo Awards, “2024 Hugo Awards” (Best Series, Imperial Radch) and “2014 Hugo Awards” (Best Novel); SFWA, “Nebula Awards, award year 2013”; Arthur C. Clarke Award. For the 2024 Best Series result, see also Glasgow 2024, “2024 Hugo Award Winners.” For all three 2014 wins, see also the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Ann Leckie.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice (Orbit, 2013).
The Hugo Awards, “2024 Hugo Awards.” See also Glasgow 2024, “2024 Hugo Award Winners.” Ancillary Sword also won the 2015 Locus Award for Best SF Novel and the 2015 BSFA Award for Best Novel; see the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Ann Leckie.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Ann Leckie, Ancillary Sword (Orbit, 2014).
The Hugo Awards, “2024 Hugo Awards.” See also Glasgow 2024, “2024 Hugo Award Winners.” Ancillary Mercy also won the 2016 Locus Award for Best SF Novel; see the Science Fiction Awards Database, “Ann Leckie.”
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy (Orbit, 2015).
Audio Publishers Association, 2023 Audie Awards winners. The award honors the audiobook narrated by Scott Brick and Suzanne Elise Freeman. See also Locus, report on the 2023 Audie Award winners, March 2023. The recording was reissued by Baker & Taylor in 2025 (see its Audible listing). Marble Press later acquired CamCat’s catalog and intellectual property from Baker & Taylor (Publishers Weekly, report on the acquisition, January 2026).
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description as listed on NetGalley, posted for CamCat Books by the Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op: Ash Bishop, Intergalactic Exterminators, Inc., The Intergalactic Archives, Book 1 (CamCat Books, 2022). Series per its Audible listing.
Locus, report on the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award, April 2024. See also Norwescon, 2024 Philip K. Dick Award winner announcement, March 29, 2024.
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Bethany Jacobs, These Burning Stars, The Kindom Trilogy, Book 1 (Orbit, 2023).
Arthur C. Clarke Award, announcement of the 38th winner, July 2024.
Summary adapted from the publisher’s description: Martin MacInnes, In Ascension (Black Cat / Grove Atlantic, 2024); first published in the UK by Atlantic Books, 2023.
