Mariam Xi – Mars – is on the run from a military research unit. Gifted with extraordinary psychic powers and trusting only a tiny, genetically-engineered creature who likes to sleep in her spacesuit, her instinct is to go it alone. But even a voidwitch needs allies if she’s to discover who – and what – she really is, and just what she can become…
4 stars
The Saypuri overthrew their Continental masters, killed their gods and passed the Worldly Regulations outlawing any further mention of them. But belief in the Divine lingers. Divine power can still be channelled. And now a Saypuri scholar of that forbidden history has been murdered in the Continental capital. Are the Divine returning to Bulikov?
The Vanishers left the world in tatters. The waters are poisoned, disease is rampant, lives are balanced against value and need. The elders give Yên to a dragon as payment for a healing; but what value can a failed scholar have to an immortal spirit? What need can an unwanted peasant girl fulfil?
Young, sheltered and abused, Maia is the Emperor’s least-loved son, the only offspring of a poorly-judged political match. When a terrible accident kills his father and brothers, Maia is recalled from exile and proclaimed Emperor – upsetting every apple cart in the empire. Can he hold on to the throne?
Just how far will a group of experimental archaeologists go to re-enact Iron Age life and rituals? Time for a rare break from my usual genre diet to enjoy Sarah Moss’s brilliant new short novel, Ghost Wall.
The fires of Kos Everburning, last surviving god of Alt Coulumb, have gone out. Necromantic lawyer Tara Abernathy and her boss Elayne Kevarian must find out what killed him – and resurrect him before the church’s creditors claim the spoils, and the city is left to freeze and riot…
The fall out just keeps on falling out as rocks continue to shower the Earth, and shaky alliances begin to crumble. While billions starve and the few control the future of the many, will anyone realise that – against all odds – humanity may not be the only threat to its own survival?
The Hadleys are on the run, at the heart of a struggle that is challenging their convictions about who they are. The Jardines are in control of the country, the ruthless Chancellor happy committing atrocities and ruling by fear. But power is a slippery thing, and family can’t be trusted any more than rebels…
Kellen Argosi is both hunted and hunter – the Jan’Tep want him dead as a shadowblack-cursed traitor, while he is intent on thwarting their nefarious plot to possess the children of their foreign rivals. But Kellen is a 17-year-old with only one trick up his sleeve. You’d be right to think he’s at a disadvantage. Just as well he’s got friends to help him fight his family…
William Manderlay is old and arthritic. In his dreams, he relives his golden days as a violinist, a sailor, a lover – until the nightmares hunt him down. But William’s music holds the key to the prison at Solomon’s Eye, terrifying heart of the dream beyond dreams. Does William have enough youth left to him to help the Sleepwalkers fight off an army of nightmares intent on releasing the monster trapped there?
The Red Gods were defeated, their followers banished to the mountains to eke out a violent subsistence in the rocky heights. But their time is coming. The Blessed One of the Mireces is determined to open the door for the return of the Dark Lady and the Blood God. Is the kingdom of Rilpor ready to be tested?
Nina Beaulieu is a debutante, spending the Season with her cousin Gaetan and his glamorous wife Valerie. They will usher her into a glittering world of balls and find her a suitable husband. But Nina has a mind of her own, and talents that aren’t welcome in polite society. Can she be satisfied within its constraints?
The Hexarchate is no more. Only two Hexarchs survive: slippery Shuos Mikodez, backing Cheris’s nascent democracy; and immortal Nirai Kujen, determined to resurrect the high calendar to maintain his grip on life. And even Protector-General Kel Inesser and her fleet don’t back him. Kujen isn’t worried: he has another incarnation of Shuos Jedao at his command…
The Mertikan empire grows ever stronger, Rumika’s industrial prowess is bringing it new influence, and Quloo is literally sinking into the Mists. Welcome to a world of islands floating in the sky, where airships carry trade and war and magic is cast by swordcraft.
In the outer reaches, the protomolecule has built a gate to… somewhere else. It’s the last place a haunted Jim Holden wants to go, but a determined young woman with a vendetta against him holds all the cards. Leaving human space may be the only way the Rocinante can escape her well-laid plans…
