KELL WOODS Upon A Starlit Tide. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Kell Woods blends history, folklore and fairytales in her second novel set on the French coast in eighteenth-century Saint Malo. I know what it is to cry and have no one but the sea there to listen. Lucinde de Leon has always loved the sea. Whenever she can, she...
JOHN WISWELL Wearing the Lion. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
His first novel has just won a prestigious Nebula Award; now John Wiswell puts his humorous and humanist spin on the labours of Heracles. The retelling of tales from Greek mythology is not new – Shakespeare did it, among others. But it feels like there are a lot of...
EMILY TESH The Incandescent. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Emily Tesh’s magical fantasy is as much about the art of teaching as it is about dealing with demons. There are so many magical academy books now that they have become a definable sub-genre. While the first fantasy book to feature a magic school was Ursula K Le Guin’s...
CHRIS FLYNN Orpheus Nine. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The dystopian new novel from the author of Mammoth imagines a shocking, and ongoing, tragedy to explore grief, community, and anger. Chris Flynn opens his new novel Orpheus Nine with a staggering, horrifying scene. At a children’s soccer game in Gattan, a small...
ALEXANDRA ALMOND Thoroughly Disenchanted. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Alexandra Almond’s cosy fantasy demonstrates why you really should be careful what you wish for. In Australian author Alexandra Almond’s debut fantasy novel, lovers Genevieve and Oliver spent a weekend in an enchanting old house – that may or may not be haunted...
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY Shroud. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Adrian Tchaikovsky imagines a planet inhabited by intelligent life yet toxic to the humans who urgently need to understand it. Hot on the heels of the third book in his incredible Tyrant Philosophers fantasy series, prolific and multi-award-winning British science...
INGA SIMPSON The Thinning Reviewed by Ann Skea
The new novel from the author of Understory explores what happens when mining dramatically changes life on Earth. We haven’t always lived on amber alert, ready to run. When Dianella was the photographer in residence and Dad the head astronomer, we used to have a...
ANN LIANG A Song to Drown Rivers. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Ann Liang’s first novel for adults reimagines an ancient Chinese tale of deception and betrayal – and the life of a legendary beauty. Based on the story of one of the Four Beauties of ancient China, Liang’s novel is a gripping tale about love, war, sacrifice and...
TIM WINTON Juice. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Tim Winton’s new novel dives into a post-climate-change world where violence seems the only solution. The opening of Tim Winton’s new novel Juice cannot help but put readers in mind of Cormac McCarthy’s seminal work The Road. A man, possibly an ex-soldier, and a young...
ALINA BELLCHAMBERS The Order of Masks. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Spies, magic, intrigue, and the human cost of an expanding empire all feature in Australian author Alina Bellchambers’ debut fantasy. Growing up on the run from mysterious criminals with her mother, Mira has always dreamed of having safety and stability; of being able...
LARRY BUTTROSE Everyone on Mars. Reviewed by Sue Woolfe
Not just astronauts and science experiments: Larry Buttrose’s stories imagine what it would be like if we had to live on Mars. One of the most memorable opening lines in fiction is Ford Maddox Ford’s ‘This is the saddest story I have ever heard.’ The Good Soldier is...
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