NICK HARKAWAY Titanium Noir. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
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...
BRANDON SANDERSON Tress of the Emerald Sea. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
AK LARKWOOD The Unspoken Name and The Thousand Eyes: Books 1 and 2 of The Serpent Gates. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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.’...
JO RICCIONI The Branded. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
SHELLEY PARKER-CHAN She Who Became the Sun. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
RAY NAYLER The Mountain in the Sea. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
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...
MYKAELA SAUNDERS (ed.) This All Come Back Now. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
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...
JULIET MARILLIER A Dance with Fate and A Song of Flight. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
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...
ASTRID SCHOLTE League of Liars. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Melbourne-based Astrid Scholte’s new novel pits its characters against injustice. Liars … recount their stories perfectly. As though they’ve memorised the story from start to finish. However, the truth is organic. Details are remembered in bits and pieces....
RHETT DAVIS Hovering. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Rhett Davis’s novel explores the relationship between art and artist in an increasingly surreal landscape. Rhett Davis’s debut Hovering won the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for best unpublished manuscript. This award has achieved a reputation...
ANDREW NETTE and IAIN McINTYRE (eds) Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical science fiction 1950 to 1985. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Dangerous Visions and New Worlds explores how science fiction reflects the times in which it is written. In this lavishly illustrated collection of essays, Nette and McIntyre take a third loving look at the era of pulp fiction, following on from their Girl Gangs,...
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