Extremophile by Ian Green (Head of Zeus, £20)
The bestselling fantasy author makes his SF debut with a compelling biopunk thriller set in a grimly believable near-future London ravaged by climate change. Charlie, half of the punk band Horse Theory, is a biohacker who provides genetic tweaks for paying customers and friends from the music scene. She tries to live a moral life, despite breaking many laws, so she’s not enthusiastic when some serious ecoterrorists want to hire her for a violent heist. Her partner, though, is convinced it could help save the world. An electric charge of anger animates this gripping novel: rage against the selfish individuals and amoral corporations bent on extracting maximum profit with no thought for the lives, and the world, their greed destroys.
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan (Orbit, £20)
Rae is dying in a hospital bed when she’s given the chance to enter the world of her favourite fantasy series, promised that if she manages to steal “the Flower of Life and Death” she will wake up cured. But in the dangerous realm of Eyam, Rae finds herself not the heroine, but a villain who dies in the first volume: the evil Lady Rahela, now locked up awaiting execution. Drawing on her memories of the later books, and an appreciation of genre tropes, she works out a plan to change the plot and save herself. Other characters will have to die, but they’re not real people – are they? Written by the author of award-winning YA fantasies, herself a cancer survivor, this is a clever, funny and thrilling novel with a heart. It is very knowing about the appeal of the fictional villain, and the ways life diverges from fantasy.
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Dead Ink, £10.99)
When 11-year-old Santiago dies, his grieving mother Magos is driven by a mad impulse to cut into his body and take a piece of the single, insufficient lung he was born with. Leaving her husband in New York, she returns to her mother’s house in Mexico City, where she secretly nurtures the lung, which becomes a feral, bloodthirsty little monster. She hopes that by letting it thrive and learn, it will become more like her lost son. As the years go by, the being known as Santiago, Monstrilio or M matures, his secret protected by the few who know the truth, and life takes them from Mexico to Berlin and New York. Told in four sections, from four different viewpoints, this is a deeply strange and powerful, horrifying yet beautiful novel about love and grief and monstrousness.
The Formidable Miss Cassidy by Meihan Boey (One, £16.99)
This charming fantasy from a Singaporean writer and visual artist introduces the titular character as she arrives in Singapore from Scotland in 1895, to take up a position as companion to a young lady. There she finds a vampiric creature, the Pontianak, is gradually sucking the life from her employer. Saving him is only the first of many supernatural adventures she will have alongside keeping a household running smoothly. There are echoes of Mary Poppins here, but Leda Cassidy is something else. An unusual mix of myths and legends from around the world, this feels like a classic-in-waiting.
Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts (Gollancz, £22)
In a far-future, post-scarcity utopian society, no one has to work for a living; there are no professionals, only talented amateurs aided by AI, whether they are part of physics fandom, seeking to learn more about how the universe works, or history nerds curious about serial killers in the early 21st century. During an investigation of a black hole, starship captain Alpha Raine is convinced he has established communication with an alien intelligence existing, impossibly, inside. When his crew won’t support his theory, he murders them all. Combining hard science with metaphysics, and mingling humour with horror, this is another wild ride from one of our most talented, thought-provoking writers of speculative fiction.
