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Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed (Gollancz, £22)
On a giant spaceship in the middle of its 400-year journey to a new world, hundreds of Earth colonists are kept refrigerated by a growing maintenance crew. Not all workers are happy with the way their lives are being brutally controlled by the Administration, and peaceful protests have fueled whispers of change. The multi-lingual cruise ship has two official languages: Inglez and Arabek. Iskander Ezz is a translator between the Crew and the Administration, he knows that “when you speak a different language, you become a different person”. Damietta, his younger cousin, finds Nupol too unfriendly to communicate with his fellow dissidents. Nupol, a multilingual phrase for “Dead Land”, is used in this book by several characters, adding a different flavor to the fantasy fiction its author calls Arabfuturism. Partly inspired by the history of the Arab spring, this is a thoughtful and entertaining opera.
Orphans of the Rain by Naomi Ishiguro (Solstice, £20)
The first volume of a trilogy inspired by Japanese culture is set in the overcrowded city of Rainshadow, where technological wealth and an evil king coexist with magic, poverty and crime. Toshiko, Jun and Mei and the Kawakamis, want to take random revenge on the Lucky Crow group for killing their foster aunt. When Toshiko is about to steal a precious dragon pearl from a powerful gangster, she becomes involved in a high-speed adventure involving a plot to round up all of the city’s immigrants to death, replacing low-paid workers with beautiful female robots. Different genres see characters gaining magical powers, a mother dragon trying to save her child’s life, and a surprisingly helpful cat. Trope-heavy, fun fun, and a cartoon vibe.
There are no Spirits by Max Lury (Peninsula Press, £12.99)
Ghosts are gone: that’s what magicians and healers all over Britain are saying. Kieran has never believed in ghosts, but driven by loneliness and the hope of finding out what happened to his missing friend Annie, he takes part in a group that tries to reconnect with the connections he makes during the game. Meanwhile Harlow, who was Annie’s best friend, becomes obsessed with pieces of the AI-generated video, convinced that he saw Annie in it. He meets others who share his passion for putting these pieces together, and both strings are truly amazing. A meticulous, well-narrated exploration of the reality of modern life, it’s an extraordinary tale of extraordinary events, a classic ghost story of our time.
Houses of the Crow by Ray Nayler (W&N, £22)
June 1941: Neriya, a doctor’s daughter, follows a crow deep into a Lithuanian forest, and avoids being killed by German soldiers who occupy and burn her village. Czeslaw, a young soldier in the Red Army, the only survivor of his group, flees into the same forest. Then he met Kezia, a Romani girl who lived in the country, and a troubled little boy, speechless. Crows play an important role in the story, warning when danger is near, and revealing unexpected aspects of their way of life in this amazing, moving and relentlessly thought-provoking book from the author of The Mountain in the Sea.
Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon (Angry Robot, £9.99)
In Lancashire in 1968, the world is different from ours in one respect: Greot. No one knows why this strange colored dust floats in the air and settles everywhere, only appearing for a short time at night. All this time, only a few can see: Joe Sutter is one of the gifted. As the author of this book, he was 11 years old in 1968 and grew up writing science fiction. The book is presented as Joe’s memoir of one fateful year, when an encounter with a dead man, a famous author of forgotten fiction, set him on the path to becoming a writer himself. Magical, magical-mostly magical, this is a beautifully written thriller.
