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By Riley August AN OCTOBER 2026 BARNES & NOBLE SPECULATIVE FICTION PICK! An Audible Best of the Year Pick for 2024! A Waterstones August Book of the Month Pick! "A quietly profound story about grief, purpose, and our place in the universe...Come for the cat, stay for the story. " —Sunyi Dean, internationally bestselling author of The Book Eaters A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes. 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. 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. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most. "The Last Gifts of the Universe 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 The Teller of Small Fortunes For readers who love: Cozy sci-fi by T.J. Klune and Becky Chambers Hope-core space stories such as Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary LGBTQ+ representation Healing stories about grief and second chances Cats in space