Books

cover of jumpnauts by jingfang
Books Reviews 

Niall Harrison Reviews Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang

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Jumpnauts, Hao Jingfang (trans. Ken Liu) (Saga 978-1-53442-211-7, 368pp, $18.99). March 2024.

Deep in the bowels of Hao Jingfang’s Jumpnauts, an alien guide reveals to the human protagonists that what defines civilisational progression, from their elevated perspective, is ‘‘the capacity for information exchange.’’ The development of writing, which allows information to be transmit­ted widely in space and time, was the necessary precondition to reach the ‘‘zeroth rank’’ of ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark

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The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom 978-1-25076-704-2, $20.99, 224pp, hc) April 2024.

Like Chekhov’s famous gun, it seems to be an un­stated principle among writers as diverse as Rob­ert Ludlum and Octavia E. Butler that a character suffering from total amnesia in the first act is in for some world-shaking revelations by the third. The same is true of P. Djèlí Clark’s The Dead Cat Tail ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews A View from the Stars by Cixin Liu

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A View from the Stars, Cixin Liu (Tor 978-1250292117, hardcover, 224pp, $27.99) April 2024

Most authors segregate their fiction from their non-fiction, compiling the two classes of work into separate collections. I always recall one exception I read as a teen, a minor Frederik Pohl volume titled Digits & Dastards, which featured two essays along with the stories. And I suppose that Harlan Ellison’s inclusion of long anecdotal ...Read More

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Jake Casella Brookins Reviews Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi

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The Truth of the Aleke, Moses Ose Utomi (Tor­dotcom 978-1-2508-4905-2, $24.99, 112pp, hc) March 2023. Cover by Alyssa Winans.

Among the more fascinating things that Moses Ose Utomi seems to be doing with his Forever Desert series is looking at how worldviews change with experience. The protagonist of The Lies of the Ajungo, a young teenage boy, cut through the titular deception with a heroic self-sacrifice. Generations later, ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews In Universes by Emet North

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In Universes, Emet North (Harper 978-0063314870, hardcover, 240pp, $26.99) April 2024

I never would have predicted that the fantastika genre would be graced in 2024 with a novel that resonated so vibrantly with two classics from the 1970s: Joanna Russ’s The Female Man and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. And yet that is precisely the vibe that I feel confident in proclaiming emanates from Emet ...Read More

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cover of cascade failure by sagas
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas

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Cascade Failure, L.M. Sagas (Tor 978-1-25087-125-1, $17.99, 416pp, tp) March 2024.

Clearly this is the month for me to discuss debut novels. Cascade Failure is the first novel from L.M. Sagas: a science fiction adventure in the high-octane tradition. Stories set in futures ruled by soulless corporations have multiplied in recent years, perhaps as the naked greed of unfettered capitalism has grown more blatant since the de­cade-defining financial crash ...Read More

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Jake Casella Brookins Reviews The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

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The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey 978-1-9848-2070-9, $28.99, 432pp, hc) Feb­ruary 2023.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s previous fantasy works – The Divine Cities and Founders trilogies – were immensely and somewhat unexpectedly delightful for me. I don’t often seek out fantasy series anymore. So, when I encounter an author who writes the kind of fun, propulsive work that kept my teenage self scouring the shelves for the next ...Read More

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Gabino Iglesias Reviews Clever Creatures of the Night by Samantha Mabry

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Clever Creatures of the Night, Samantha Mabry (Algonquin 978-1-61620-897-4, $18.99, 240pp, hc) March 2024. Cover by Kayla E.

Samantha Mabry’s Clever Creatures of the Night is a master class in atmosphere with a literary bent and a few surprising turns up its creepy sleeve. At once a murder mystery, a postapocalyptic narrative, and a story about friendship, this novel about a missing friend and some strange young people living ...Read More

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cover of someone you can build a nest in by wiswell
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

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Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (DAW 978-0-75641-885-4, $28.00, 320pp, hc.) April 2024.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In is award-winning short fiction writer John Wiswell’s debut novel. I went in expecting good things, and I wasn’t disappointed. The most straightforward shorthand I have to describe it is: ‘‘It’s as if T. Kingfisher wrote one of her fantasy romance novels from the point of view ...Read More

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cover of mars house by pulley
Books Reviews 

Niall Harrison Reviews The Mars House by Natasha Pulley

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The Mars House, Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury US 978-1639732333, 480pp, $29.99, hc). March 2024.

If, a century from now, there are enough readers and enough academic presses to warrant reprint­ing early 21st-century Anglophone science fiction, editors in search of candidates might do worse than considering Natasha Pulley’s The Mars House for their list. In its style, its intellectual interests, and the strengths and weaknesses of its execution, Pulley’s sixth novel ...Read More

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Colleen Mondor Reviews The Fair Folk by Su Bristow and The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert

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The Fair Folk, Su Bristow (Europa Editions 979-8-889-66012-5, $18.00, tpb, 464pp) January 2024.

In her gorgeous new historical fantasy, The Fair Folk, author Su Bristow crafts the story of a particularly complex interaction between mortals and faeries. Opening in 1959, the novel follows the shifting relationship between then-eight-year-old Felicity and Elfrida, the apparent queen of a long-established fairy group ensconced in the woods near her home. At first, the ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Alexandra Pierce Reviews Triangulum: An Epic of the Nine Worlds of Surya by Subodhana Wijeyeratne

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Triangulum: An Epic of the Nine Worlds of Surya, Subodhana Wijeyeratne (Rosarium Pub­lishing 979-8-98661-460-1, $19.95, 300pp, tp) January 2024.

In his first novel, Subodhana Wijeyeratne takes elements of religious stories from the Indian subcontinent and reimagines them in space, with godlike aliens and humanity spread across the solar system. None of these aspects are apparent from the outset, but are gradually revealed as the story unfolds in epic, and ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar

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The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain, Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom 978-1-2508-8180-9, $18.99, 128pp, tp) April 2024.

Generation starship stories tend to come in a few distinct flavors, with distinct character types. There are the refugees, trying to keep humanity alive while escaping a dying or overpopulated Earth (the sort of wishful fantasy that Kim Stanley Robinson set out to demolish in Aurora a few years ago). There are the ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Russell Letson Reviews Doorway to the Stars by Jack McDevitt

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Doorway to the Stars, Jack McDevitt (Subter­ranean 978-1-64524-188-1, $40.00, 107 pp, hc) February 2024. Cover by Edward Miller.

In two novels nearly 20 years apart, Jack McDe­vitt offered a platter full of puzzles and oddities. Ancient Shores (1996) and Thunderbird (2015) begin with the discovery of certain artifacts and buildings on what, 12,000 years earlier, had been the shore of the inland sea of Lake Agassiz in North Dakota: ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews The Invisible Hotel by Yeji Y. Ham

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The Invisible Hotel, Yeji Y. Ham (Zando 978-1-63893-137-9, $28.00, 320pp, hc) March 2024.

Early on in Yeji Y. Ham’s intense debut novel, The Invisible Hotel, our narrator, Yewon, describes her mother’s daily ritual of cleaning of their ances­tor’s bones in the family’s bathtub.

My stomach began to thrash. I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want to smell it. Heat, breath, sweat, the odor that rose into the ...Read More

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Liz Bourke Reviews The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

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The Principle of Moments, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson (Gollancz 978-1-47323-419-2, £18.99, 520pp, hc.) January 2024.

Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson’s The Principle of Moments, the debut original novel from the first winner of the UK’s Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy & Science Fiction Writers of Colour (in 2020), feels like an answer to the question of: What happens if you cross Star Wars with Doctor Who? And then make it queer (queerer ...Read More

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Books Reviews 

Niall Harrison Reviews The Inhumans and Other Stories: A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction edited by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

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The Inhumans and Other Stories: A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction, Bodhisattva Chatto­padhyay, ed. (The MIT Press 978-0-26254-761-1, 162pp, $19.95, tp). March 2024. Cover by Seth.

For about 15 years now, Joshua Glenn has been banging the drum for the historical and literary value of “proto-SF” published between roughly 1900 and 1935. He dubs this period, with a touch of dark whimsy, the “Radium Age,” on the grounds that ...Read More

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Jake Casella Brookins Reviews The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed

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The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed (Solaris 978-1-8378-6046-3, $27.99, 432pp, hc) March 2023.

“Weird” is a word that’s been worn thin with use, even in regular conversation. I hesitate to apply it in a genre sense – whether old or New – for fear of misusing it, wading too deep into niche catego­rization, or merely adding more wear to the term. But there’s a sense in which its ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi

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Parasol Against the Axe, Helen Oyeyemi (Faber & Faber 978-0571366620, £16.99, 272pp, hc) February 2024. (Riverhead 978-0-59319-236-8, $28.00, 272pp, hc) March 2024.

Helen Oyeyemi’s new novel, Parasol Against the Axe, takes place in Prague, Oyeyemi’s home since 2013. Interviewed by The Guardian in 2019, Oyeyemi described Prague as a “very layered city; it could be a film set; it could be a fairytale; it could be a gritty, ...Read More

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Russell Letson Reviews The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler

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The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom 978-1-25085-552-7, $26.99, 101pp, hc) January 2024. Cover by Faceout Studios.

It is a proposition universally asserted that the novelette and novella are the optimal lengths for science fiction. Or frequently suggested, anyway, despite the number of five-volume trilo­gies and long-running series out there. And the relatively recent renaissance of small-press opera­tions has certainly given freestanding midlength work renewed visibility outside the pages ...Read More

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Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter

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The Briar Book of the Dead, A.G. Slatter (Titan 978-1-80336-454-4, $16.99, 368pp, tp) Cover by Julia Lloyd. February 2024.

With The Briar Book of the Dead following up The Path of Thorns, A.G. Slatter shows that her genius for the magical gothic tale is not waning, with witches and ghosts and terrible deeds coming together to create a riveting story.

The Briar witches live in, and govern, the ...Read More

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Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction by Ann Leckie

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Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction, Ann Leckie (Orbit 978-0-3165-5357-5, $29.00, 416pp, hc) April 2024.

In a Locus interview last year, Ann Leckie noted that, prior to Ancillary Justice, “Nobody paid much attention to my stories,” and she was nei­ther complaining nor being falsely modest. While a few of the stories in Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction made the Locus recommended read­ing list or best-of-the-year ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews Snowglobe by Soyoung Park

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Snowglobe, Soyoung Park (Delacorte 978-0-59348-497-5, $20.99, 384pp, hc) February 2024.

There’s significant whiplash going from the op­pressive darkness of Yeji Y. Ham’s The Invisible Hotel to the propulsive plotting and excitement of Soyoung Park’s debut young-adult novel Snow­globe (translated from Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort). Set two centuries into the future, we are presented with a world (or at least the tiny portion we see) blanketed in snow and ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow

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The Bezzle, Cory Doctorow (Tor 978-1250865878, $27.99, hc, 240pp) February 2024.

Cory Doctorow is certainly experiencing a “hot hand” run. That sports phenomenon, where one success impels and invites a subsequent triumph, sometimes in a long streak, can be seen in Doctorow’s two most recent books, which have appeared practically back to back. In November of 2023 came The Lost Cause (reviewed by me for this very publication), which showed ...Read More

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Colleen Mondor Reviews Calamity by Constance Fay

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Calamity, Constance Fay (Bramble 978-1-250-33041-3, $18.99, tpb, 320pp) November 2023.

Constance Fay’s debut, Calamity, is an SF ad­venture set on a distant planet amidst several groups and individuals all operating with their own conflicting purposes and totally willing to kill each other to achieve their goals. The heroes are the small crew of the somewhat dilapidated space vessel Quest, who scout out various planets for whatever their clients, ...Read More

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Gabino Iglesias Reviews The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings by Angela Slatter

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The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings, An­gela Slatter (Brain Jar Press 978-1-92247-961-7, $14.99, 186pp, tp) October 2023

Sometimes awards don’t mean much, but Angela Slatter’s accomplishments – a Shirley Jackson Award, a World Fantasy Award, a Brit­ish Fantasy Award, three Australian Shadows Awards, and eight Aurealis Awards – point to one thing very clearly: She’s a superb writer. She’s also a writer who is constantly pushing the envelope of ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

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Those Beyond the Wall, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey ‎ 978-0593497500, hardcover, 384pp, $28.99) March 2024

It seems safe to say that the evergreen SF trope of a high-tech city or culture besieged by low-tech outsiders or “barbarians” goes back at least to H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) with its depiction of the Eloi and the Morlocks. Of course, Wells had myriad historical examples to inspire his conception, ...Read More

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Niall Harrison Reviews The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis

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The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Caezik/OD Ekpeki Presents, 978-1-64710-077-3, $11.49, 450pp, eb) December 2023.

The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 opens with WC Dunlap’s “March Magic”, a brief story about a critical day in twentieth-century American history. It is 28 August 1963, the day of the March on Washington, and Mama Willow, a swamp witch – ...Read More

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Alexandra Pierce Reviews Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

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Red Side Story, Jasper Fforde (Hodder & Stough­ton 978-1444763669, £17.99, 384pp, hc) February 2024. (Soho Press 978-1-64129-628-1, $29.95, 456pp, hc) May 2024.

When Jasper Fforde did clever things in The Eyre Affair (2001), I was one of many people who fell in love with this funny, bizarre, slightly-askew-to-reality world. Fforde was writing humorous fantasy that com­mented on and skewered the real one. It sounded superficially like the Discworld novels ...Read More

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Ian Mond Reviews The Briar Book of the Dead by A. G. Slatter

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The Briar Book of the Dead, A.G. Slatter (Titan Books, 978-1-80336-454-4, $16.99, 368pp, tp) February 2024.

When I reviewed A.G. (Angela) Slatter’s 2022 novel The Path of Thorns, I said she was one of the best contemporary fantasists in the field. But I was wrong; my vision was too narrow. Angela is simply one of the best contemporary writers of fiction, regardless of genre. Deep down, I already ...Read More

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Paul Di Filippo Reviews The Morningside by Téa Obreht

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The Morningside, Téa Obreht (Random House 978-1984855503, hardcover, 304pp, $20.00) March 2024

Is the New Weird still a going concern? Dating roughly from the turn of the century (China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station is the Monolith that enlightened the hominid readers), with the term itself harking to the year 2002 (courtesy of M. John Harrison), the subgenre with famously leaky borders and hazy definitions is approaching its 25th birthday. ...Read More

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Books Reviews Short Fiction 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein

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These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart, Izzy Wasserstein (Tachyon 978-1-61696-412-2, $15.95, 174pp, tp; -413-9, $11.95, ebook) March 2024.

The term “dystopia” has been so widely and slop­pily overused of late that, in the eyes of some, I suppose, it might just as well refer to anyplace without a Starbucks. Without parsing defini­tions, I’ve always thought of it as a bad society resulting from actual policies and decisions, not just ...Read More

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