The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet (Tor, April and August 2021). Cover art by Shutterstock

As days get shorter and nights get longer, my reading ambitions begin to grow. Recently I’ve been on the hunt for a more substantial reading project, and I think I’ve found it in J.S. Dewes debut series The Divide. The opening book The Last Watch received plenty of breathless notices; in her mid-year wrap-up of The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Year, Sadie Gennis at Vulture called it “one of the most stunning sci-fi series debuts of recent years… [a] nail-biting space epic,” and Booklist proclaimed it “a bravura debut that blends great action with compelling characters.”

The first volume was released in April, and sequel The Exiled Fleet followed hot on its heels four months later. Dewes has announced a third volume on her website, to be released next year. An epic space opera with more volumes in the pipeline is just what I had in mind for a fall reading project. Here’s a sample from Matt Matkowski’s enthusiastic review of the audiobook version of The Last Watch at Booklist.

This new sf series takes place at the edge of the universe. There, the human military stands watch in case a defeated alien threat returns from beyond. The book is set on an old Navy dreadnought that has had its engines removed and is now a space station. It is crewed by the military’s troublemakers, who have been sent to the post as punishment. Funny things can happen with time at the edge of the universe, and it quickly becomes apparent that something catastrophic is brewing…. Everything here is top-notch. Dewes has created a gripping, fast-moving story that is excellently told…

Read the whole thing here.

Back covers for The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet (Tor Books). Click to embiggen.

Here’s the complete details.

The Last Watch (476 pages, $18.99 trade paperback/$12.99 digital/$27 in audio formats, April 20, 2021)
The Exiled Fleet (420 pages, $17.99 trade paperback/$11.99 digital/$27 in audio formats, August 17, 2021)

Both books were published by Tor, with covers by Shutterstock.

See all our recent coverage of the best new SF and fantasy series here.