Frankie Barnet, Mood Swings (Astra House 5/24) This biting debut is set on a “preapocalyptic” Earth where all non-human animal life has become extinct… but a billionaire in California claims to have a time machine and a plan to save the world. “For a novel that doesn’t feature a single paradox, time loop, or change to history, Mood Swings offers up an incisive critique of time-travel narratives… [A] darkly satirical novel.” [Ian Mond]
Terry Bisson, Tomorrowing (Duke University Press 5/24) We lost the beloved Locus contributor in January 2024, but his legacy of satirical, insightful, and gonzo science fiction will live forever. This collection gathers nearly a thousand of the short alternate-history pieces he published in our magazine as “This Month in History” from April 2004 to July 2023. The book and author were the subjects of a long and laudatory New Yorker profile in October 2023, “Terry Bisson’s History of the Future”.
Alexander Boldizar, The Man Who Saw Seconds (Clash 5/24) Boldizar spins an elegant SFnal premise – a man who can see five seconds into the future – into a complex and enthralling political thriller that doesn’t shy away from deeper questions and implications. “Genuinely thrilling: the pacing is perfect, and the stakes ratchet up in a horrifying, relentless, and seemingly inevitable progression. Simultaneously, this is a novel that meditates on power and authority, and the ethics thereof.” [Alexandra Pierce]
Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time (Avid Reader 5/24) This charming debut combines time travel, romance, and spy thriller elements in the story of a woman who works for a government agency that retrieves people from the past – and who falls in love with a polar explorer from 1847. “This is the sort of novel you fall into, only to come up for breath to eat and sleep (though you may forgo the sleep).” [Ian Mond]
Jasper Fforde, Red Side Story (Hodder & Stoughton UK 2/24; Soho 5/24) The clever SF humorist has finally returned to the world of his 2009 novel Shades of Grey, set in a society where your position is limited based on the colors you can see. Eddie Russett, a Red, faces a trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and tries to save himself with the help of his co-defendant and forbidden romantic partner, a Green. “There is no denying the inventiveness of Jasper Fforde’s worldbuilding, nor his ability to understand human nature.” [Alexandra Pierce]
Andrea Hairston, Archangels of Funk (Tordotcom 5/24) Hairston returns to the inventive postapocalyptic fantasy milieu of Will Do Magic for Small Change (2015), with Cinnamon and her Circus-Bots working to help flood refugees fleeing the chaos of the Water Wars while disrupters, the nostalgia militia, and the Darknet Lords cause trouble.
Stephen King, You Like it Darker (Scribner 5/24) The long reign of the master of horror continues in his latest collection, gathering a dozen stories – including “Rattlesnakes”, a sequel to his classic 1981 novel Cujo – five of them new, with an afterword by the author discussing some of his inspirations. Fifty years after the publication of his debut novel Carrie, King is still writing at the height of his powers.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Lost Ark Dreaming (Tordotcom 5/24) This postapocalyptic SF novella is inspired by African myth and legend. After a flood destroys Lagos, the survivors inhabit a giant tower surrounded by the ocean… but their fragile existence is threatened when aquatic monsters invade. “Okungbowa’s clear-eyed look at present dangers and the compassion and conviction of his characters as they come to confront the dark realities of their society lend the tale a memorable and even heroic resonance.” [Gary K. Wolfe]
Stuart Turton, The Last Murder at the End of the World (Raven UK 3/24, Sourcebooks Landmark 5/24) This engaging novel combines elements of postapocalyptic survival and mystery/thriller, set on an island where 122 survivors found refuge from a deadly, insect-filled fog; things get worse when there’s a murder in their midst, and the investigation turns up dark secrets.
Nghi Vo, Brides of High Hill (Tordotcom 5/24) This novella is the fifth installment in the Singing Hills Cycle, and it shades a bit darker than the others, with elements of horror stories and Victorian Gothics, as Cleric Chih accompanies a bride’s family to her wedding and investigates the mystery of what happened to the groom’s former wives. “Vo has parlayed the East and Southeast Asia-inspired world of her Singing Hills cycle into not only a delightful playground for the adventures of her itinerant Cleric Chih… but also into a kind of laboratory for storytelling itself.” [Gary K. Wolfe]
From the July 2024 issue of Locus.
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