by NRB | 27 Feb 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
Mykaela Saunders’ stories imagine a future where the connection to land and culture is central. Mykaela Saunders won an Aurealis award for her exciting and thought-provoking anthology of First Nations speculative fiction This All Come Back Now. In the same year her...
by NRB | 15 Feb 2024 | Fiction, SFF |
The conclusion to Jo Riccioni’s high fantasy series The Branded Season brings Nara and her sister Osha to the Shadow City of Reis. This exciting sequel to The Branded concludes a thought-provoking and fast-paced story about two sisters finding their place in a harsh,...
by NRB | 31 Oct 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
Shelley Parker-Chan’s award-winning tale of an alternate ancient China continues in He Who Drowned the World. ‘… the most dangerous person in a game is the one nobody knows is playing.’ Dive back into the fascinatingly complex alternate ancient China of Shelley...
by NRB | 12 Oct 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
TJ Klune’s werewolves challenge gender roles and showcase love and understanding among the bloodletting. ‘… even one such as you cannot live on rage alone.’ In Wolfsong, the first of TJ Klune’s Green Creek series, Oxnard’s father walks out one day,...
by NRB | 6 Jun 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
Nick Harkaway’s dystopian new novel features a classic noir detective. While it is always true to say genre is fluid, occasionally something magical can happen when crime fiction meets science fiction. This may be because the best crime fiction uses its tropes...
by NRB | 11 Apr 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
The first of Brandon Sanderson’s ‘secret novels’ delivers a resourceful heroine on an epic quest. During the pandemic, prolific fantasy author Brandon Sanderson found he had more time on his hands and, as he puts it, ‘Brandon + Time = Stories‘. He...
by NRB | 28 Mar 2023 | Fiction, SFF |
AK Larkwood’s debut fantasy series combines a death cult, magical artefacts, and an accomplished assassin. ‘Only I am without end, for desolation is my watchword. Yet nothing is to be forgotten that belongs to me. All things that are lost come into my keeping.’...
by NRB | 8 Dec 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
In the world of Jo Riccioni’s debut fantasy novel, surviving a plague carries a price. How I longed to be allowed to wield a sword, to fight, to kill the Settlement’s enemies when I trained with Brim in the Fornwood. Now I’d give anything not to. Acclaimed...
by NRB | 24 Nov 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
Australian Shelley Parker-Chan’s historical fantasy has won a Hugo Award for Best New Writer and two British Fantasy Awards. Shelley Parker Chan’s debut novel reimagines the rise to power of the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in fourteenth-century China. During the...
by NRB | 15 Nov 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
Octopuses and artificial intelligence feature in ‘one of the best science fiction novels of 2022’. While there are plenty of great space-battle and apocalypse and time-travel stories out there, some of the best science fiction deals in ideas. Ray Nayler’s...
by NRB | 1 Nov 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
This anthology showcases the range of First Nations speculative fiction. This All Come Back Now is a collection of speculative fiction by First Nations authors curated by Mykaela Saunders, who observes that First Nations writers in this genre are rarely able to get...
by NRB | 6 Sep 2022 | Fiction, SFF |
Juliet Marillier’s Warrior Bards series is a joy to read and has a lot to say about tolerance. I remember the times when Brocc and I played and sang for weddings and festivals. That feels so long ago. Before Swan Island. Before I met Dau … A different world. But...
CHER The Memoir Part 1. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell16 January 2025Cher is a genuine superstar who has had an extraordinary career across music, [ … ]
PETER GODWIN Exit Wounds. Reviewed by Ann Skea15 January 2025Peter Godwin’s memoir charts a life of exile, ranging from the horror of civil [ … ]
MARK SMITH Three Boys Gone. Reviewed by Michael Jongen14 January 2025Mark Smith’s first novel for adults is both a psychological thriller and an [ … ]
NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 202419 December 2024Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? [ … ]