If you want to see the difference between a casual reader and a book lover, put a book from Folio Society into their hands. A casual reader will thank you and be on their merry way. A book lover will gasp, carefully take the book from you, gently open its pages, and admire the high quality craftmanship that goes into making it. That’s because Folio editions are sexy. Their stunning high-quality editions are the result of book lovers making books for other book lovers. Their aim is to publish keepsake editions of literary classics, including those found in the science fiction and fantasy sections.

Folio’s new Fall lineup includes a trio of fantastic-looking books aimed squarely at science fiction and fantasy book lovers:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Atwood’s 2003 novel tells a gripping story about the potential dangers of science. It begins in a plague ravaged near-future where humanity as we know it is in its twilight. Poised to take its place is a race of people genetically engineered to withstand the harsh new environmental realities of life on Earth. We learn this through the character called Snowman, a man at the center of the apocalypse who, before the plague, was known as Jimmy. Jimmy’s childhood friend Glenn, whom Jimmy calls Crake, eventually goes on to become an influential bioengineer. Unfortunately, Crake’s ideas of the beneficial uses of science steer directly into megalomaniacal mad-scientist territory. This page-turning story unfolds in flashbacks, with Jimmy reflecting on both his ill-fated friendship with Crake and his devotion to the enigmatic woman he meets named Oryx.

Atwood’s cautionary tale is a timeless story of excess and hubris. That timelessness elevates it and it’s the reason why Folio Society set its sights on the novel. Folio’s gorgeous edition of Oryx and Crake exudes the scientific underpinnings of the novel itself. The die-cut slipcase exposes the chemistry-inspired display of the book’s title on a sturdy hardback cover that actually glows in the dark. Inside are wonderfully serene-but-disturbing illustrations by Harriet Lee-Merrion created specifically for this edition using an apropos pastel color palette. Even the endpapers are given attention, showing an interesting marbled design. Atwood herself provides the introduction for this new edition. In it, she discusses the origins of the story. She also talks about the seemingly contradictory trends of humanity using science to make life better while simultaneously harming the environment that supports life. Will these “Frankenstein innovations” destroy us? As Atwood notes, speculative fiction isn’t here to provide answers, it’s here to ask questions. Oryx and Crake is thought-provoking because it does exactly that.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Butler was a pioneering force in the field of science fiction. This powerful 1979 novel is just one of the reasons why. It’s about a young black writer named Dana Franklin who lives in California in the 1970s with her white husband. Dana is inexplicably and repeatedly pulled back in time to the antebellum South where slavery is not only legal, it’s a thriving business and a way of life. Her connection to that time period is Rufus Weylin, the young white son of a Maryland plantation owner and one of Dana’s own ancestors. Dana seems drawn to the past whenever Rufus’s life is in danger. Although Dana’s trips to the past occur relatively close together from her perspective, they grow increasingly longer and the years in which she arrives are months or even years apart from Rufus’s point of view. Her trips also get increasingly more violent. Butler’s harrowing novel is an examination of race relations, the horrors of slavery, and the connections between past and present; specifically, it forces us to ask ourselves whether we have learned anything from the past and how we would handle ourselves in those dire situations.

For Folio Society’s new edition of Kindred, artist James E. Ransome was commissioned to create a series of watercolor illustrations visualizing Butler’s important and well-regarded classic. His depictions of life in the era of slavery are moving for managing to convey both dignity and hope amidst these horrors. This lavish edition also includes an illuminating introduction by author and journalist Tananarive Due, who draws on past interviews with Butler to discuss why she wrote it. It was done, in part, as a response to readers who dismissed science fiction as irrelevant. So Butler took on slavery with a direct approach that forces readers to imagine themselves in the same situations. By doing so, Due notes, Butler does more than just ask readers to empathize, she shows them what it feels like to be enslaved. That direct approach, she also notes, is why, although we have seen a graphic novel adaptation, some filmmakers are hesitant to adapt the work to TV and film. That’s too bad. Kindred is an important novel.

Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949, edited by Roy Thomas

In October 1939, the first issue of Marvel Comics was released. It featured the hero the Human Torch and the antihero Namor the Sub-Mariner. The proper “Marvel Era” of comics began in 1961 when Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others created Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, and a host of other super beings whose adventures fans would eagerly look for every week in the comic book rack of their local stores.

In the 80 years since that first edition, Marvel has become a driving force in the comic book industry. That influence can still be felt today; look no further than your nearest movie theater showing the latest film based on a Marvel character. To celebrate eight decades of memorable superheroes, Marvel has teamed up with Folio Society to create Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949, edited by Roy Thomas (successor to publisher Stan Lee).

This luxurious set, packaged in a clamshell box, contains reproductions of early Marvel titles in a beautiful hardback volume that comes with a ribbon bookmark. It also includes a facsimile of the comic book that started it all: the original Marvel Comics #1. Plus, there’s an exclusive print by contemporary Marvel artist Marco D’Alfonso. This volume, carefully curated by Thomas, includes five titles that originally appeared between 1939 and 1949. These are the stories that introduced Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and Captain America. Noticeably absent from the collection is an essay by cartoonist-editor Art Spiegelman (Maus) originally planned for the volume but pulled by Marvel because it was deemed too political. (That essay has since been posted online.) Even with that omission, Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949 is a treat for comic book fans. This is just the first in a series of collaborations between Marvel and Folio Society, so expect more volumes.

Science Fiction/Fantasy correspondent John DeNardo is the founding editor of SF Signal, a Hugo Award-winning blog. Follow him on Twitter @sfsignal.