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In which C. reviews the best scifi and fantasy books read recently.

Lorraine Wilson, The Way the Light Bends

27/7/2022

 
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Lorraine Wilson, The Way the Light Bends, Luna Press, 2022.
Audiobook available.

The Way the Light Bends hovers delicately on the fragile definition of speculative fiction by telling you the story of three siblings in contemporary Scotland.

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Gigi Ganguly, One Arm Shorter Than the Other

1/5/2022

 
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Gigi Ganguly, One Arm Shorter Than the Other, Atthis Arts, 2022.

The scifi novella One Arm Shorter Than the Other joyfully blurs genre lines with, at its heart, the city of Delhi and a thoughtful take about humanity.

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T. L. Huchu, The Library of the Dead

15/4/2022

 
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T. L . Huchu, The Library of the Dead, Tor, 2021.
Audiobook available.

The Library of the Dead blends skillfully a post-cataclysm world and magic, with a main character you'll enjoy following.

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Stewart Hotston, The Entropy of Loss

4/4/2022

 
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Stewart Hotston, The Entropy of Loss, NewCon Press, 2022.

In this scifi novella, Hotston explores with delicacy the themes of grief and first contact.

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Catriona Silvey, Meet Me in Another Life

12/3/2022

 
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Catriona Silvey, Meet Me in Another Life, Harper Voyager, 2021.
Audiobook available.

So, you want a scifi story that will be part cute, part bitter-sweet, part devastating, part elating, and that'll have you theorising instead of sleeping? I've got what you need.

Below the review, you'll find a Q&A with Catriona Silvey. Although the review is as usual entirely spoiler free, the Q&A discusses what happens in the book. A large red banner will warn you that you enter spoiler territory.

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Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shards of Earth

27/2/2022

 
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Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shards of Earth, Tor, 2021.

Shards of Earth is the first volume in a series of epic space opera novels, and the perfect read for an adventure with subtle satire.

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Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, The House of Rust

21/2/2022

 
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Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, The House of Rust, 2021, Graywolf Press.

This delightful magical realism novel follows Aisha, a young woman whose father has disappeared and who will embarked on a boat made of bones to find him.

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Tiffany Jimenez, The Moment You Remember You Forget

29/1/2022

 
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Tiffany Jimenez, The Moment You Remember You Forget, Luna Press, 2022.

The Moment You Remember You Forget is a maze in the form of a novella about family, siblings, memory, grief and life.

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Shingai Njeri Kagunda, & This Is How To Stay Alive

10/1/2022

 
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Shingai Njeri Kagunda, & This Is How To Stay Alive, Neon Hemlock Press, 2021.

This gorgeously written fantasy novella is more than a time travel story. It is a poignant story about grief and a sharp satire about society.

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Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars

1/11/2021

 
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Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars, Tor Books, 2021.
Audio book available on Audible.

There are few books that made me feel what I felt when I read Light of Uncommon Stars. I devoured that science-fantasy novel in less than 24 hours because of how extraordinary it is.

Content warnings below, but please, trust me: you want to read it despite those.

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Jennifer Marie Brissett, Destroyer of Light

30/10/2021

 
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Jennifer Marie Brissett, Destroyer of Light, Tor, 2021.

Destroyer of Light takes you to a planet colonised by humans after they've lost the war against aliens. The novel follows the path of Cora / Stefoniewhile alternating through the timelines to reveal the full extent of the tragedy unfolding.

Content warnings below.

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Charlie Stross, The Merchant Princes / Empire Games

27/10/2021

 
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Charlie Stross, The Merchant Princes series:
  • The Bloodline Feud, Tor, 2013.
  • The Trader's War, Tor, 2013.
  • The Revolution Trade, Tor, 2013.
Charlie Stross, Empire Games series:
  • Empire Games, Tor, 2017.
  • Dark States, Tor, 2018.
  • Invisible Sun, Tor, 2021.
All six novels are available on Audible.

Not one then, but two trilogies. Not to worry, these techno-thrillers with multiverse hopping are the most engrossing novels ever and you'll soon regret that there aren't, actually, more of them.

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Juliet McKenna, The Green Man's Challenge

3/9/2021

 
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Juliet McKenna, THE GREEN MAN'S CHALLENGE, Wizard's Tower Press, 2021.

The Green Man's Challenge is the fourth volume in a series of self contained cosy contemporary rural fantasy, and like the previous ones, it is a delight to read.

Below the review, you'll find a Q&A with Juliet McKenna. Although the review is as usual entirely spoiler free, the Q&A discusses what happens in the book. A large red banner will warn you that you enter spoiler territory.

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Lorraine Wilson, This is our Undoing

20/7/2021

 
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Lorraine Wilson, This is our Undoing, Luna Press, 2021.

Take a near future with fascist states and extreme weather events. Take a woman in an Eastern European forest, hiding from her past. Add a sprinkling of unexplained events. Then you'll have an incredibly engrossing novel.

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Ibtisam Azem, The Book of Disappearance

24/4/2021

 
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Ibtisam Azem, The Book of Disappearance, Syracuse University Press, 2019.
Translated by Sinan Antoon.

The Book of Disappearance is an extraordinary novel that gripped me from the start and that I found equally painful and beautiful.

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Dilman Dila, The Future God of Love

13/4/2021

 
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Dilman Dila, The Future God of Love, Luna Press Publishing, 2021.

The Future God of Love is a short fantasy novella, with wonderful world building, about loneliness and the need for being loved.

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Premee Mohamed, These Lifeless Things

11/4/2021

 
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Premee Mohamed, These Lifeless Things, Solaris, 2021.
Audio version available.

Mohamed's debut novel, Beneath the Rising, wasn't my cup of tea but I was happy to give her stories another try. These Lifeless Things, a horror novella, turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

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R. B. Lemberg, The Four Profound Weaves

3/4/2021

 
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R. B. Lemberg, The Four Profound Weaves, Tachyon Publications, 2020.
Audio version available.

With incredible delicacy, Lemberg tells a story of change, hope and resistance in a wonderfully detailed secondary world.

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Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds

21/3/2021

 
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Simon Jimenez, The Vanished Birds, Titan, 2020.

The Vanished Birds will take you away in an intricately built far future, you'll travel from planet to planet. But the most important in this novel, isn't what happens to the characters, it's the characters themselves.

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Sheree Renée Thomas, Nine Bar Blues

20/3/2021

 
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Sheree Renée Thomas, Nine Bar Blues, Third Man Books, 2020.

I rarely review short stories collections or anthologies, so as you can guess, when I do it, it's because the collection or anthology is exceptional. Thomas' Nine Bar Blues, a collection of 16 short stories, is, indeed, exceptional.

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    All reviews are spoiler free unless explicitly stated otherwise.

    I only review stories I have liked even if my opinion may be nuanced. It doesn't apply for the "Novels published before 1978" series of blog posts.

    Comments are closed, having neither time nor the inclination to moderate them.
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