RaveLibrary Journalhe novel puts Arthur into a mythical framework that lets the legends blend into an anachronistic but harmonious whole, while giving Camelot one last quest and one last hurrah that sets England on the path of its mythical history.
Helen Oyeyemi
PositiveLibrary JournalReaders of literary fiction, those who love stories whose protagonists are entire cities, and the many fans of the award-winning Oyeyemi will fall in love with the novel’s constantly shifting perspectives every bit as much as the author has clearly fallen in love with Prague.
Kelly Link
PositiveLibrary JournalLovers of magical coming-of-age stories will find the protagonists’ journeys compelling, while anyone who believes that love is the greatest magic of all will find the redemptive power of love (of all types) imbued in every single page.
Nick Harkaway
PositiveLibrary JournalThis SF thriller hits all the beats of a gritty noir mystery, wrapped in a near-future setting where immortality can be had for a price ... Harkaway... combines a satisfying mystery with a thought-provoking science-fictional setting and just the right touch of heartbreak to make for a compelling read.
Paz Pardo
RaveLibrary JournalThis science-fictional noir will appeal to readers who have fallen hard for the upswing in blended SF/mysteries such as John Scalzi’s Lock In and Dispatcher series. The blend brings a new twist to both parts of its equation, with the mystery and all its delicious red herrings set in a world not quite like the present. Curtida fits right into the mold of the noir detective while giving Sam Spade and company an entirely different perspective as a neuro-atypical Latinx protagonist.
Veronica Roth
RaveLibrary JournalWhile the actions of surveillance states are chilling, it’s Sonya’s journey that carries the reader through this walk into dark places, as the deeper she looks into the mystery, the more is revealed about her and her family’s crimes ... Roth’s latest is highly recommended for readers of dystopian fiction, lovers of Philip K. Dick’s thought-police science fiction, and anyone who wants to see how far \'If you see something, say something\' can be led astray.
Silas House
PositiveLibrary JournalThe not-too-distant dystopia of House’s latest becomes a vehicle for the author to tell a compelling story about a refugee crisis. Because House takes the story out of a contemporary context, readers can more easily empathize with the novel’s refugees rather than focusing on real-world quandaries.
Ainslie Hogarth
PositiveLibrary JournalTold in Abby’s snarky, sarcastic, and increasingly unstable voice, this tale of psychological horror goes to places that invoke many trigger warnings, even as readers will cackle along with Abby’s wry observations ... recommended for horror readers who like to see all of everyone’s issues eviscerated on the table and who won’t mind never again being able to eat chicken à la king after the novel’s disturbing take on it.
Megan Giddings
PositiveLibrary JournalCombining the misogynist oppression of The Handmaid’s Tale with the sharp insight and SFnal (science fictional) tone of Octavia Butler, Giddings’s latest is a chilling but all too plausible tale.
Eddie Robson
RaveLibrary JournalFans of John Scalzi’s Lock In and Brandon Sanderson’s Legion will be enthralled with this deft blend of murder mystery and science fiction. In the end, the motives for the crime are all too human, while the means, methods, and opportunities are all firmly part of this futuristic setting. Highly recommended.
Juno Dawson
PositiveLibrary JournalReaders who love a big fight between good and evil, who enjoy seeing magic in the everyday world, and those who like their heroine’s journeys to include all facets of heartbreak will savor the cut and thrust of this battle.
Holly Black
RaveLibrary JournalCharlie Hall is every \'bad luck and worse trouble\' protagonist to ever magic her way into urban fantasy. She’s desperate, she’s profane, she’s fascinating, and she kicks ass and takes names with the best antiheroes of the genre. Her world is gritty and mysterious, the stakes are always high, and the power is always tempting.
Vauhini Vara
RaveLibrary Journal\"Highly recommended for readers of climate fiction, social engineering sf, and dystopian catastrophe novels.\
Nghi Vo
RaveLibrary JournalMovie magic is made manifest, beguiling, and deadly in Vo’s (The Chosen and the Beautiful) tale about Luli, a Chinese American girl who is determined to realize her dreams of movie stardom, no matter how much she has to lie, cheat, or steal ... Luli is a compelling character both on and off the screen in this story that takes the mythmaking of Hollywood and transforms it and her into something transcendent. Highly recommended.
Janelle Monáe
PositiveLibrary JournalMonáe’s collection speaks to both the sf tradition of mind-control tyranny and the way that the powerful marginalize individuals in order to control the whole. Highly recommended for readers of conspiracy and thought-control sf or of Afrofuturist works by the likes of Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor.
Scotto Moore
PositiveLibrary JournalThe inventiveness and intensity of Moore’s storytelling perfectly blends Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Readers who enjoy gaming will find the novel accessible and appealing.
Nnedi Okorafor
RaveReading RealityThis big story, like that big ecological disaster, starts small ... A story that winds up like a hurricane or a tornado, pauses in a calm storm’s eye in the middle, and then unwinds quickly in an explosive ending as the storm dissipates ... The story expands its tent to encompass colonialism, complacency and exploitation in ways that make the most singular acts have the most global of consequences – and the other way around – in an infinity loop at the heart of the storm.
Saad Z. Hossain
PositiveLibrary JournalHossain\'s novel can certainly be read as a cautionary tale about climate change, but the energy that powers this story will remind many readers of a twisted version of Ernest Cline\'s Ready Player One: society has descended into dystopia after ecological catastrophe; the protagonist\'s quest is driven by privilege and self-interest; and the virtual world runs on greed ... Highly recommended for readers of cli-fi and those looking for a story that explores the virtual world.
John M Ford
PositiveLibrary JournalHighly recommended for readers looking for classic spy stories such as those by John le Carré and Len Deighton, because this work stands up to the best of the genre.
Terry Miles
PositiveLibrary JournalRabbits is a story for readers who don’t think the stakes in Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One were nearly high enough. And for those who think The Matrix didn’t have nearly enough conspiracy theories or coincidences. It’s recommended for readers who like their SF on the techno-thriller side, and their endings somewhat equivocal. And for anyone who believed that the TV series Lost was a bit too straightforward after all.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa
RaveLibrary JournalHighly recommended for fans of epic fantasy based on non-European mythologies, like The Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse; readers who enjoy protagonists on troubled journeys, like in Jenn Lyons’s The House of Always; or anyone who likes to chew on stories with complex shenanigans.
Constance Sayers
RaveLibrary JournalEncompassing as many genres as a circus carousel has animals to ride, this is ultimately a story about love ... Highly recommended for lovers of timeslip fiction, readers who enjoy their genres very bent indeed, and those who have dreamed of running away to the circus.
Janice Hadlow
RaveLibrary JournalThis is a charming and enchanting story featuring one of the overlooked characters of a beloved classic. While the cast feels very much as remembered from the original, Mary comes into her own ... Readers with fond but not necessarily exhaustive memories of Pride and Prejudice will love this story, as will historical fiction readers looking for intelligent heroines with agency and heart who belong to their time and place without quite fitting in.
Jonathan Lethem
PositiveLibrary Journal... lives up to its title ... These stories are more \'whydunit?\' than the traditional \'whodunit?\' and all the more chilling for it ... Recommended for readers of psychological mysteries and thrillers as well as genre aficionados seeking the standout stories of the year.
Louise Penny
PositiveLibrary Journalhis title brings several character arcs to a close while resetting others to make this psychological mystery serve both as a beginning for new readers and a satisfying continuation for series fans. Gamache is an explorer of the human psyche, and the care he takes with the victims, their friends and family, as well as his own allows this series and his character continually to surprise, delight, and enthrall. Highly recommended for lovers of psychological, character-driven mysteries.
Cory Doctorow
RaveLibrary JournalThis collection showcases the author\'s (and genre\'s) propensity for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable with stories of near-future dystopias so close we can see them from here. Only one has an even slightly hopeful ending ... The stories get less hopeful and more frightening ... The near futures Doctorow...portrays in these stories are chilling in their possibility and will draw in any sf reader who imagines what might happen if our current situations remain unchanged. Highly recommended.
C Robert Cargill
PositiveLibrary JournalThis collection...is filled with the darkest of dark fantasy. With one exception, the stories are horror with a supernatural or magic realism bent ... Aficionados of supernatural horror and fantasy with extremely dark surprises will thrill at every chill.
