Lavie Tidhar, Unholy Land, Tachyon Publications, 2018.

I haven't liked what I've read of Lavie Tidhar as much as some reviewers have, but Unholy Land has certainly fascinated me. This tangle of uchronic worlds that some people are able to visit centre around the question of Zionism and identity. I've found it an intriguing novella despite some niggles.

Simon Morden, The Books of Down, Gollancz,

• Down Station, 2016.
• The White City, 2017.

"No, I'm sorry, I don't review an unfinished series," I usually say. Except that it's exactly what I'm doing here. So be warned: The Books of Down is a trilogy and the third volume hasn't got a publication date yet. But it's the best portal fantasy I've read in a long time and it deserves some love bombing so that this third volume can finally hurry our way.

Emma Newman, The Split Worlds,

• Between Two Thorns, Diversion Publishing (reprint) 2016.
• Any Other Name, Diversion Publishing (reprint) 2016.
• All is Fair, Diversion Publishing (reprint) 2016.
• A Little Knowledge, Diversion Publishing, 2016.
• All Good Things, Diversion Publishing, 2017.
  

Audio version available on Audible.

Myself: "I thought we said 'Never two reviews for the same author, except in the Collections'!"
Me: "Excuse Me? Are you telling Me off because I'm breaking rules? Furthermore rules of my own making?"
Myself: "But there are so many authors out there, all worth discovering!"
Me: "If I read this five books fantasy series in five days, it's probably for the good reason that I loved it. And we also said that this blog was only for books I loved."
Myself: "But you reviewed an Emma Newman series barely 6 months ago! Couldn't you have waited a bit at least?"
Me *blows a raspberry at Myself and keeps on with the review because that series is too bleeding good to not review it*

Oliver Langmead, Metronome, Unsung Stories, 2017.

"And then he woke up and it was all just a dream..." is probably the most pointless and infuriating sentence I can read. Except that it's the premise of Metronome, by Oliver Langmead and that, far from being pointless and infuriating, it leads to a poetical and gripping fantasy tale. To keep it short: it's made of awesome...

Genevieve Cogman,

• The Invisible Library, 2015.
• The Masked City, 2016.

The Invisible Library is one of these novels when you think "It ain't much but it's fun". It's even a bit of a pity that the novel has some flaws because the concept is attractive and intriguing...

Iain Pears, Arcadia, Faber & Faber, 2015.

Last month, I was writing: "The 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award will be chosen between Adrian Tchaikovsky and Nnedi Okorafor." That was before reading Arcadia by Iain Pears which is also shortlisted...

Illustration by TravisTheGeek.

There was the GamerGate, then the ridiculous drama that the Hugo were. 2015 really contributed to make everyone think that science-fiction was a conservative genre, not to mention sexist, fascist, racist and homophobic, despite the history of the genre itself.
So here is a short collection of SFF novels that could all pass the Bechdel test. This list comprises only ten books (and it was bleeding hard to keep it to only ten books!) with completely personal choices and by chronological order...