DEBUT Half-siblings Scout and Kieran are archaeologists scouring the galaxy for information caches left behind by other civilizations. Every known alien world is dead, destroyed by an unidentified force sweeping across the universe. Scout hopes their latest cache—a message left by the long-dead alien Blyreena, describing her last stand—might hold a clue of what they're up against. Megacorporation Verity Co. also wants that information for themselves, and they're determined to get there first. Racing for clues to the vanquishment of a galactic threat propels this novel, but its emotional core comes from Scout listening to the messages Blyreena left behind. Blyreena's and Scout's backstories weave a thematic message about dealing with grief, which takes precedence over finding a concrete solution to saving the galaxy. The addition of a cat to Scout and Kieran's archaeology team adds humor and charm in a story that emphasizes love and connection. VERDICT Originally self-published and now picked up by a big publisher, August's debut is a quick read that will appeal most to fans of character-driven sci-fi, such as the work of Becky Chambers.—Erin Niederberger

August debuts with a thought-provoking postapocalyptic space opera about being alone in the universe. By the time humans developed the tech for space exploration, every planet they discovered was eerily deserted, but without evidence of violence or catastrophe. Now archivist Scout travels the desolate universe with their brother, Kieran, and their cat, Pumpkin, looking for data caches left behind by lost civilizations and hoping for clues as to what happened. On one such mission, Scout and crew discover a message that gives a name to the world-ending entity: Endri. It's the best intel they've found and the closest they've come to being able to save their own people from meeting a similar fate, but a greedy, for-profit corporation eager to steal the information before they can get it in the right hands. The stakes should feel high as they race from one destination to the next, but August keeps things fairly mellow with a tight focus on the characters' internal lives, frequent flashbacks, and excerpts from a data cache about the dead civilizations. Readers who like their space operas on the cozy side will find this hits the spot. (Oct.)Correction: A previous version of this review used the wrong pronoun to refer to Scout and misidentified the source of the excerpts about the dead civilizations.