The Last Gifts of the Universe

<strong>AN OCTOBER 2026 BARNES & NOBLE SPECULATIVE FICTION PICK!<br />An Audible Best of the Year Pick for 2024!<br />A Waterstones August Book of the Month Pick!</strong><br /><br /><strong>"A quietly profound story about grief, purpose, and our place in the universe...Come for the cat, stay for the story.<em>"</em>—Sunyi Dean, internationally bestselling author of <em>The Book Eaters</em><br /><br /><em>A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes.</em></strong><br /><br />When the Home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell them is unknown. All Home knows is that they are the last ones left – and whatever came for the others will one day come for them.<br /><br />Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts: interesting technology, cultural rituals – anything left behind that might be useful to Home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable: a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago.<br /><br />Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.<br /><br /><strong><em>"The Last Gifts of the Universe</em> is a meditation on grief and meaning disguised in the spacesuit of a thrilling, beam-me-up galactic treasure hunt. Riley August has written a quietly wonderful, hopeful novel that heals the parts of you that you didn't know were hurt." —Julie Leong, author of <em>The Teller of Small Fortunes</em></strong><br /><br /><strong>For readers who love:</strong><br /><ul> <li><strong>Cozy sci-fi by T.J. Klune and Becky Chambers</strong></li> <li><strong>Hope-core space stories such as Andy Weir's <em>Project Hail Mary</em></strong></li> <li><strong>LGBTQ+ representation</strong></li> <li><strong>Healing stories about grief and second chances</strong></li> <li><strong>Cats in space</strong></li></ul><br />