Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Beautiful Ones, Innsmouth Free Press, 2018.

The SCKA shortlist keeps on taking me out of my comfort zone and The Beautiful Ones, a fantasy novel by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a writer I've been wanting to read for a long time, is another story which shouldn't work for me at all but actually does.

Nick Harkaway, Gnomon, William Heinemann, 2017.

Did I like or did I dislike Gnomon? To be entirely honest with you, I'm still not sure. Probably both at the same time.

Juliet McKenna, The Green Man's Heir, Wizard's Tower Press, 2018.

I had fallen in love with McKenna's four series of epic fantasy, all set in a fascinating and diverse secondary world. So I was eagerly waiting for this new novel of her which, while still remaining fantasy, is set in our contemporary world, in the English countryside. It didn't disappoint.

Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad, Oneworld Publications, 2018.
Translation: Jonathan Wright.

In more ways than one Frankenstein in Baghdad is a novel in conversation both with a literary context and a historical context. And, strangely enough, this fantasy story has common points both with The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow, SF Masterworks, 2014.
Audio version available on Audible.
Originally published by Doubleday in 1955.

The Long Tomorrow had been sitting on my to-be-read piles for ages. One of the few recognised female writers during the so-called "Golden Age" of science-fiction, Brackett intrigued me. This novel proved to be interesting to read some 70 years later and also, sometimes, irritating.

Second in my series of reviews of novels published before 1978.

Paul Cornell, Chalk, Tor, 2017.
Audio version available on Audible.

I have some very mixed feelings about Chalk, a fantasy drama written by Paul Cornell, relying on English folklore. And maybe this review is just me trying to untangle them...

Cassandra Khaw, Food of the Gods, Abaddon, 2017.
Audio version available on Audible.

I had already read and enjoyed (and reviewed here) Hammers on Bone, but I had yet to try the Rupert Wong series, also by Cassandra Khaw. As it is shortlisted for the Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, it was the perfect occasion to dive into it. Food of the Gods (which comprises two novellas, Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef and Rupert Wong at the Ends of the Earth) proved to be a delightful and funny read, despite some "Eeks!" and some minor nitpickings.

John Ayliff, Belt Three, Harper Voyager, 2015.

Nothing I've read recently has quite made the cut for the blog. So here I was, wringing my hands, "What to review?", when I remembered Belt Three by John Ayliff. I read it a few months back, but at the time I was in a run of very strong stories and it fell off the podium despite some solid qualities. I'm glad this space opera got now its second chance because it is well worth a look.

Ellen Klages, Passing Strange, St Martin's Press, 2017.

I'm pretty sure there are many readers of this blog who will look at the cover of Passing Strange with raised eyebrows, wondering how come I'm reviewing a novella that, quite evidently, features heavily a romance, since romance isn't my cup of tea at all.
Let's face it: I'd never have read Passing Strange had it not ended up on the SCKA shortlist. And my initial reaction was "Meh". It took some conversation with fellow readers of the SCKA to go past my disinterest to consider the objective qualities of this fantasy story, which, in the end, make it a novella well worth reviewing.

Tade Thompson, The Murders of Molly Southbourne, Tor, 2017.

I had been very impressed by Rosewater, Thompson's previous novel (1), so I had to read this new story. Nonetheless, I was a bit wary of reading this novella that Tor, the publisher, presented as horror. It turns out that, yes, there is gore. But it's not so much the gore than the very dramatic story that makes it so striking.

Wendy Wagner, An Oath of Dogs, Angry Robot, 2017.
Audiobook version available on Audible.

Let's face it: after having finished An Oath of Dogs, I wasn't entirely convinced I would review it. But as I read other books, I realised that the characters and the story remained with me. To me, this is the sign that there is to a novel more than I first perceived, and it means that it is well worth a review.

W. E. B. DuBois, "The Comet", Darkwater, 1920.
Audiobook available on Audible.
Reprinted in Dark Matter: The Anthology of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction by Black Writers, edited by Renee Sheree Thomas and Martin Simmons (2000).

It's not my habit to read nor review short stories. They are, as it says on the tin, a tad too short. Nonetheless, I really wanted to read "The Comet", which is not only considered as a scifi classic but also written by one of the earliest Black American scifi writers. I wasn't disappointed.

First story in my series of reviews for stories written before 1978.

Karen Lord, The Best of All Possible Worlds, Jo Fletcher Books, 2014.
Audiobook available on Audible.

I had enjoyed a lot Karen Lord's debut novel, Redemption in Indigo, and this one came highly recommended. Though the narrative structure was different from what I expected, it is a scifi novel filled with great characters and both thoughtful and funny moments that makes it one of the best quest for happiness I ever read. It is also a novel that I read completely wrong and after a brief exchange with Lord, I realised I had to radically shift my way of looking at it.

Chris Brookmyre, Places in the Darkness, Orbit, 2017.
Audiobook available on Audible.

I had enjoyed a lot Bedlam and even more Pandemonium, Chris Brookmyre's two fantasy novels. So it was with some eagerness that I was waiting for Places in the Darkness, his first scifi novel. It didn't disappoint, it was even much better than what I expected based on his previous novels.

Jeannette Ng, Under the Pendulum Sun, Angry Robot, 2017.

Under the Pendulum Sun is a Brontë hommage on LSD and it's very, very, good.

This is, as usual, an entirely spoiler-free review. Jeannette Ng was extremely kind in accepting to answer some of my questions, so at the end of the post, after some suitably big and red and very visible warning, you'll also find a spoiler full Q&A with the writer.

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ironclads, Solaris, 2017.

Though I'm not a fan of military scifi, I was happy to get Ironclads because, well, Tchaikovsky wrote it. It didn't enthused me as much as Children of Time did but this novella is a delightful post Brexit satire and a cheeky rewriting of Heart of Darkness.

Martha Wells, All Systems Red, St Martin's Press, 2017.
Audiobook available on Audible.

All Systems Red is a fun and entertaining scifi novella. Though part of a larger series with future upcoming volumes, this first book is a stand alone and can be read independently.

Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn, Orbit, 1995.
Audiobook available on Audible.

"Feersum Endjinn? Really? C., you do realise I read it when it was first published and that I still love it as much as on the first day?"
I know, I know... But some of the blog readers were actually born in 1995 and may have missed it. So, dear old hands at scifi, I know, I'm going to kick down an open door.
But this is my love letter to Feersum Endjinn and while I hope it will convince new scifi readers to tackle it, I also hope that old hands at scifi will also share the many reasons of why they love it too.

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 Harry Potter 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.

JY Yang, The Tensorate series,

• The Black Tides of Heaven, St Martin's Press, 2017.
• Red Threads of Fortune, St Martin's Press, 2017.

The Tensorate series comprises so far two fantasy novellas. I finished reading them, unsure whether I'd review them or not, but on balance, I think what were to me the weakest points were very subjective whereas I felt that the strong points weren't. Will you agree with me? That is the question.