Karen Lord, The Blue, Beautiful World, Del Rey, 2023.
Audiobook available.

The Blue, Beautiful World is a fascinating science-fiction stand-alone novel about first contact.

Juliet McKenna, The Green Man's Quarry, Wizard's Press Tower, 2023.

Welcome to your yearly review of the latest instalment in the Green Man series by Juliet McKenna!

E. G. Condé, Sordidez, Stelliform Press, 2023.

Sordidez is a near-future novel, tangling the fate of three indigenous characters of Central America and the Caribbean, as they are confronted to climate catastrophes and colonisation.

Ned Beauman, Venomous Lumpsucker, 2022, Sceptre.
Audiobook available.

Venomous Lumpsucker is the winner of the 2023 Clarke Award. This scifi novel will make you both laugh and scream in rage as it paints the painfully hilarious reality of mass extinctions driven by capitalism.

Micaiah Johnson, The Space Between Worlds, Hodderscape, 2020.
Audiobook available.

If, like me, you missed The Space Between Worlds back in 2020, now is the time to catch up on this brilliant scifi take on the multiverse and class struggles.

Ally Wilkes, All the White Spaces, Titan, 2022.

All the White Spaces is a psychological horror novel built on the tension of the unseen. It will take you on a doomed expedition to Antarctica.

Vajra Chandrasekera, The Saint of Bright Doors, Tordotcom, 2023.
Audio version available.

The Saint of Bright Doors is a fascinating fantasy novel dealing with cults and revolutions, the fragility of time, space and truth, and the sometimes abusive relationship between a child and his parents.

Neil Williamson, Queen of Clouds, NewCon Press, 2022.

Queen of Clouds is a chonky fantasy stand-alone novel which, under the guise of very familiar tropes, tackles topical themes.

Ann Leckie, Translation State, Orbit, 2023.
Audiobook available.

Translation State is a very enjoyable stand-alone coming-of-age scifi novel, set in the same universe as Leckie's previous scifi novels.

Indra Das, The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar, Subterranean Press, 2023.

Indra Das is too rare an author. This new fantasy novella offers us glimpses of dragons and of another world in exile, through dream-like memories.

N. K. Jemisin,

• The City We Became, Orbit, 2020.
• The World We Make, Orbit, 2022.

With this fantasy duology, Jemisin confirms once more what a fantastic writer she is, this time tackling cities in an epic and fun story.

Sara A. Mueller, The Bone Orchard, Tor, 2022.
Audiobook available.

The Bone Orchard is a fantasy novel with an impressive world building, a magical system that will intrigue and impress, and is overall a sweeping story about a revolution and a woman's quest for her autonomy, in body and mind.

Arkady Martine, Rose House, Subterranean Press, 2023.

Arkady Martine offers us in this excellent scifi novella a locked-room mystery with a potentially homicidal AI and a focus on architecture, all wrapped beneath a stunning cover.

Juliet McKenna, The Cleaving, Angry Robot, 2023.

Amidst the few Arthurian retellings being published at the moment, The Cleaving by Juliet McKenna stands out because of its point of view, but also because of its ambitious span.

Rhiannon A. Grist, The Queen of the High Fields, Luna Press, 2022.

The Queen of the High Fields is a contemporary fantasy novella that'll take you deep into Welsh myths.

Okwiri Oduor, Things They Lost, Oneworld Publications, 2022.
Audiobook available.

Things They Lost is a mesmerising magical realism tale about mothers and daughters, with a fascinating and rich world, and a very endearing main character.

Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2022.
Audiobook available.

The Mountain in the Sea is a fascinating short scifi novel that'll particularly enchant those of you who like first encounters and semiotics.

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Memory, Tor, 2022.
Audiobook available.

Children of Memory is the third instalment in the scifi series by Adrian Tchaikovsky which started with the Clarke Award winner, Children of Time. Like its predecessors, it offers a thoughtful and inventive take on progress, humanity and communication.

The review is spoiler free and is followed by a Q&A with the author about his series. The Q&A includes spoilers for all three volumes in the series, but a large red banner will warn you that you enter spoiler territory.

Darcie Little Badger, Elatsoe, Levine Querido, 2020.

Elatsoe is a YA fantasy novel I enjoyed tremendously thanks to great characters, a wonderful worldbuilding and magic system, and meaty themes.

Eloghosa Osunde, Vagabonds!, Fourth Estate, 2022.
Audiobook available.

Vagabonds! is a remarkable magical realism story - or rather multiple stories of life in Lagos, and particularly stories of LGBTQIA+ persons and women.