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.

Art by Josh Kirby for the cover of Hogfather.

Christmas is coming and you want to fill the world with your love of scifi and fantasy? Alas! The ruffians that are your family and friends used The Lord of the Rings to start a chimney fire, they think that Foundation is the name of a beauty product and they said that Earthsea would be nice if only there wasn't so many spells and invented stuff in it.
But here is a way to sneak upon them science fiction and fantasy novels! All the following books have been tested and approved by people who are usually allergic to space ships and magic.
As usual in the collections, they are by chronological order.

Jo Walton, Thessaly,

• The Just City, 2015.
• The Philosophers Kings, 2015.
• Necessity, 2016.

Plato's Republic, Greek gods, Socrates, time travel and robots. Honestly, what's not to like? ...

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...

Connie Willis, To Say nothing of the dog, Bantam Spectra, 1997.

When someone tells me they don't like reading science-fiction but would like to give it another try anyway, To Say nothing of the dog is the book I always recommend. It's also one of my all times favourites...

Terry Pratchett, Night Watch, Doubleday, 2002.

Night Watch is the sixth novel (1) in the Watch series, itself comprised within the Discworld series written by Sir Terry Pratchett (speak his name).

Sir Samuel Vimes after many ups and downs (mostly downs) in his life has everything: a loving wife who expects their first child, a high social status though he comes from the gutter and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (2) to which he dedicated his life is thriving. But while he is in hot pursuit of a psychopath killer, a magical incident sends him to the past, to be precise to his past...