From Huxley's Brave New World in 1932 to The Hunger Games, our fascination with the speculative & extreme never dwindles
Dystopian & Alternative History Fiction Books
Penguin Young Readers Soldados de Salamina Soldiers of Salamis
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£15.26
Random House USA Inc The Violence
Book SynopsisHow far would you go to be free? Three generations of women forge a new path through an America torn by a mysterious wave of violence in this “chilling [and] dizzyingly effective” (The New York Times Book Review) novel of revenge, liberation, and triumph.“A compulsively readable fusion of domestic thriller and modern horror.”—Kameron Hurley, author of The Light Brigade“A novel that defines this era.”—Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good IndiansFINALIST FOR THE ITW THRILLER AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York TimesThey call it The Violence: a strange epidemic that causes the infected to experience sudden bursts of animalistic rage, with no provocation and no memory of their crimes. While it tears the nation apart, one woman
£16.20
Random House USA Inc Out There
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£14.45
Random House USA Inc The Making of Incarnation
Book SynopsisFrom the Booker Prize–nominated author of Remainder and Satin Island, a wide-screen odyssey through the medical labs, computer graphics studios, military research centers, and other dark zones where the frontiers of potential—to cure, kill, understand, or entertain—are constantly tested and refined.Bodies in motion. Birds, bees and bobsleighs. What is the force that moves the sun and other stars? Where’s our fucking airplane? What’s inside Box 808, and why does everybody want it? Deep within the archives of time-and-motion pioneer Lillian Gilbreth lies a secret. Famous for producing solid light-tracks that captured the path of workers’ movements, Gilbreth helped birth the era of mass observation and big data. But did she also, as her broken correspondence with a young Soviet physicist suggests, discover in her final days a “perfect” movement, one that would “change everything”? An international hunt begins for the one box missing from her records, and we follow contemporary motion-capture consultant Mark Phocan, as well as his collaborators and shadowy antagonists, across geopolitical fault lines and through strata of personal and collective history. Meanwhile, work is under way on the blockbuster movie Incarnation, an epic space tragedy. As Tom McCarthy peers through the screen, or veil, of technological modernity to reveal the underlying symbolic structures of human experience, The Making of Incarnation weaves a set of stories, one inside the other, rings within rings, a perpetual motion machine.
£16.15
Random House USA Inc Chain Gang All Stars
Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR? FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION ?A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK? NATIONAL BESTSELLER ?Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America?s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black? LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE?This book is so good. Brutal subject matter, beautiful writing. This one is from the heart.??Stephen KingA Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Elle, Esquire, Chicago Tribune, Lit Hub, Kirkus Reviews?Like Orwell?s 1984 and Atwood?s The Handmaid?s Tale, Adjei-Brenyah?s book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we?re capable of doing.? ?The Washington PostShe felt their eyes, all those executioners…Loretta Thurwar and Hamara ?Hurricane Staxxx? Stacker are the stars of the Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial profit-raising program in America?s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It?s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death matches before packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, Thurwar considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games. But CAPE?s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo, and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar?s path have devastating consequences. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors, to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system?s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a ?new and necessary American voice? (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).
£22.95
Alfred A. Knopf Titanium Noir
Book SynopsisA virtuosic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler by way of Marvel—the story of a detective investigating the murder of a Titan, one of society’s most powerful, medically-enhanced elites. • “Cross-genre brilliance from the superbly talented Nick Harkaway.” —William Gibson, New York Times best-selling author of AgencyAn exemplar of its genre, Titanium Noir twists and turns between excellent fun and deep melancholy. —The New York Times Book ReviewCal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he’s called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he’s surprised by the routineness of it all. But when he arrives on scene, Cal soon learns that the victim—Roddy Tebbit, an otherwise milquetoast techie—is well over seven feet tall. And although he doesn’t look a day over thirty, he is ninety-one yea
£22.40
Penguin Young Readers Never Let Me Go
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£24.30
Diversified Publishing The Ferryman
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£28.80
Penguin Random House India Eden
Book SynopsisFrom the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Harvest and Quarantine, a gorgeous, unforgettable retelling of the myth of Eden.The inhabitants of Eden are untouched by death. In the garden they care for their orchards and the land, and give thanks for their good fortune, because they know that beyond the garden walls is a world where disease and hunger rampage.Eden is overseen by angels—their bodies covered in blue iridescent feathers, their beaks sharp and curved. It is a pleasant place where no one wants for a thing. But, as this story begins, something is wrong in Eden. Because years after Adam and Eve left the garden, another inhabitant has escaped…Weaving together elements of the dystopian, but never letting go of the sense of the sacred that saturates western myths of a perfect world before the fall, Eden manages to be both a critique of those stories and a sad reprise of their now-lost themes.In
£16.11
Tor Books The Angel of the Crows
Book SynopsisKatherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor, returns with The Angel of the Crows, a fantasy novel of alternate 1880s London, where killers stalk the night and the ultimate power is naming.This is not the story you think it is. These are not the characters you think they are. This is not the book you are expecting.In an alternate 1880s London, angels inhabit every public building, and vampires and werewolves walk the streets with human beings in a well-regulated truce. A fantastic utopia, except for a few things: Angels can Fall, and that Fall is like a nuclear bomb in both the physical and metaphysical worlds. And human beings remain human, with all their kindness and greed and passions and murderous intent. Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of this London too. But this London has an Angel. The Angel of the Crows.
£17.99
Mira Books Moonlight Road Virgin River Novel 10
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£10.52
Random House USA Inc Pym A Novel
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£15.30
Watkins Media Limited If Then 2 Seizure Trilogy
Book SynopsisJames has a scar in the back of his head. It’s where he was wounded in the Battle of Suvla Bay in August 1915. Or is the scar the mark of his implant that allows the Process to fill his mind with its own reality?In IF, the people of a small English town cling on after an economic collapse under the protection of the Process. But sometimes people must be evicted from the town. That’s the job of James, the bailiff. While on patrol, James discovers the replica of a soldier from the First World War wandering the South Downs. This strange meeting begins a new cycle of evictions in the town, while out on the rolling downland, the Process is methodically growing the soldiers and building the weapons required to relive a long lost battle.In THEN, it is August 1915, at the Battle of Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles campaign. Compared to the thousands of allied soldiers landing on this foreign beach, the men of the 32nd Field Ambulance are misfits Trade Review“Sumptuously written, with prose that glitters with a dark lustre like a Damien Hirst fly collage. intricately plotted, and a satirical point as sharp and and accurate as the scalpel of a brain surgeon: De Abaitua operates on the smiling face of the present to reveal the grimacing skull of the future.” – Will Self“This is the kind of post-apocalypse, after-it-all-changed novel – with clever codicils – that the Brits do with so much more classy, idiosyncratic style than anyone else. It is full of magisterial weirdness, logical surrealism, melancholy joy and hopeful terror. If I begin to toss out names like Adam Roberts, Brian Aldiss, Keith Roberts, and J. G. Ballard, I will not be lavishing undue praise.” – Paul Di Filippo, for Locus Magazine“If Then may be one of the most important works of British SF to appear in recent years. It is stunningly original and superbly well written. For those who care about such things, it is firmly of SF, not the literary mainstream – yet it is technically as complex and well executed as any modernist novel you may meet on your Booker travels. I hope this book will be discussed and debated and praised, for it deserves all three sorts of attention in generous measure. If Then is the opposite of the literature of reassurance, it is everything science fiction should be aiming for, and it is wonderful to see de Abaitua back on the scene.” – Nina Allan“I cannot praise (If Then) highly enough: eloquent, intelligent, brilliant.” – Elsa Bouet, Shoreline of Infinity“I can’t recommend this book more highly. It’s slipstream fiction for polymaths. If Then flips off expectations of genre and leaves me feeling like I’m riding its shockwave into the future of literature.” – Boldly Read“De Abaitua builds on the promise he demonstrated in The Red Men in this intellectual science fiction novel, whose ambition is matched by its execution. The author’s thoughtful world-building is enhanced by a cast of relatable characters.” – Publishers Weekly“The alternating viewpoints set in a modern town and during World War I will have you itching to know what’s really going on.” – Kirkus Reviews“One of the most intriguing and disturbing near-future speculations published for some years.” – Strange Horizons“This is a powerful novel, both in its portrayal of the horrors of World War I, the wasteful loss of life, the dreadful conditions, the failures of those who let the war happen, and also in showing how easily the systems that support our modern-day lives could fall apart.” – Steven Theaker, Interzone“De Abaitua draws on the techniques of British science fiction from Wells, Huxley and Stapledon through to Ballard and deploys them like a master in crafting this simultaneously parochial and profound meditation on the nature of war understood as an evolutionary process. With language that is both lyrical and precise he has created a philosophical fiction that is compelling, extremely moving and deeply unsettling. An extraordinary book.” – James Flint, author of The Book of Ash and 52 Ways to Magic America“Both bucolic and an oppressive love story set against the background of an enigmatic dictatorship of sorts, this tale of reality askew is also a powerful meditation on the nature of war, the misuse of technology and the grit and determination of the common man. Thoughtful, at times frustrating but well worth the final reward, and stylically elegant, a different kind of science fiction.” – Maxim Jakubowski, Lovereading“If Then is an incredibly enthralling and original tale that still has me thinking about it weeks after I read it. A brilliant entry onto the scene, If Then is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in speculative fiction.” – Smash Dragons“A fascinating read.” – Susan Hated Literature“Six out of five stars.” – One Breath Book Reviews“We are forced to reflect on the way modern society normalises war and conflict for the many by concentrating the horror of it in a few. If Then asks us what value we place on people beyond their role as economic units, and whether we would rethink our actions if we were able to truly experience their consequences at first hand.” – Astounding Yarns“If Then is a very interesting combination of science fiction and war literature, questioning what people are capable of and how far they should go. The book poses some great questions on artificial intelligence and technology without really giving you any answers, but it definitely makes it worth it reading this book with someone else and then discussing it to death. If Then definitely demands your attention and if you’re looking for a mind-boggling and challenging read then you should definitely give this one a try.” – Bored to Death Book Club“If Then is an extremely satisfying story about humanity’s inability to cope with both change and uncertainty.” – Lit/Rant“If Then is a particular kind of British rural science fiction, in which a deeply unsettling pall overshadows what should be a Utopian idyll. The novel has antecedents in the works of John Wyndham, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley – and it is every bit as good as the best works of those writers. It is full of mind-bending ideas, great characters and wonderful writing. If there is any justice, it deserves a nomination for the next Hugos.” – Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing“This is a really tremendous speculative fiction book that examines humanity and society. The tenor of the book reminds me of the speculative fiction writers I was reading back in the 1970’s. Michael Bishop, Thomas Disch, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny. I consider some of their work to be thoughtful, introspective studies on humanity and self. And while it reminds me of these authors, this book strikes me as quite original. I was hooked early on with author Matthew de Abaitua’s descriptions of the people and the community. He created something very real and easy to believe in, and managed to let us know right away that we were outside our modern norm. I am impressed with science/speculative fiction is headed these days. If you want something more than just a space opera or fantasies with trolls and elves and lots of magic, there are strong works out there, such as this one.” – Looking for a Good Book?“Interesting and intriguing.” – YLogs“If Then is a vitally intelligent book that asks the difficult, probing questions we need to be asking ourselves about consciousness, morality, how we are going to live in the future and our own humanity. It is, in the best sense, a profoundly worrying novel, one that the reader’s mind keeps returning to long after finishing.” – Golden Apples of the West“If Then is by any measure an extremely fine work s which stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best for several reasons. The overall concept is complex and original and is handled with complete confidence. The characters are fully formed and the sheer quality of both the vivid descriptive passages and the believable dialogue makes the book a complete cerebral and visceral three-dimensional experience.” – The Generalist“If you like a challenging read, worry about the human mind and our cognitively dissonant yearnings for self-destruction and self-preservation, or you’re interested in the horrors of war or the Gallipoli landings of 1915, or you have a yen for dystopian near-futures, or are a fan of Brian Aldiss, Aldous Huxley (whose brother makes an indirect appearance) or, indeed, Olaf Stapledon, then you should pick up a copy as soon as you can.” – MetaliteratureFurther praise for Matthew De Abaitua:“De Abaitua’s extraordinary fictions, scientific and otherwise, emerge from a deep and mysterious understanding of culture, and show it to us in a new light.” – James Bridle“The Red Men is a breathtaking novel of ideas.” – I09.com“The Red Men is an exciting and confident debut.” – Strange Horizons“If Then is a love story, the history of a marriage, a topical meditation on the end of capitalism; best of all, it is a bone-deep, blood-sweet British fantasy, naive and ingenious as William Morris and as warpedly nostalgic as Richard Jeffries’ After London. As disturbingly hyperreal as any Pre-Raphaelite painting, If Then imagines what the end of history really will really look like, what’s really at stake, and maybe, just maybe, what we can do about it.” – Simon Ings, author of Wolves“This near-future literary thriller is remarkably prescient… it is De Abaitua’s pinsharp observations of human nature that make this an uncomfortably standout read for me.” – Sarah Higbee“Matthew de Abaitua challenges the expanding enactment of modern culture through social media and its devices by taking it to its furthest extreme, and that’s only one of the issues he grapples with in this extraordinarily well-written, intelligent and meticulously researched work… This brilliant book tests the reader with questions relevant to our day-to-day lives.” – Fiction Uncovered“De Abaitua deliciously smashes together today’s worst middle-class fears of economic catastrophe with the empire-fracturing legacy of the First World War. He equates our surrender to a digitised society with the soldiers’ incorporation into the imperial war machine – and, through some clever attention to historical detail, he suggests that our past might yet hold the key to a weird and hopeful future.” – Matt Finch / Mechanical Dolphin“The prose has a wonderful lightness and simplicity at odds with its complex subject; at no point is the dense narrative difficult or obtuse. Visceral yet bracingly clever; haunting but more timely by the day, If Then is one of the most insightful and relevant English science fiction novels of recent years.” – Andrew Wallace, author of Sons of the Crystal Mind
£7.99
Random House USA Inc A Cure for Suicide
Book Synopsis***LONG-LISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD***A man and a woman have moved into a small house in a small village. The woman is an examiner, charged with teaching the man a series of simple functions—this is a chair, this is a fork, this is how you meet people. Still, the man is haunted by strange dreams, and when he meets a charismatic, volatile young woman named Hilda at a party, it throws everything he has learned into question. What is this village? And why is he here? A fascinating novel of love, illness, despair, and betrayal, A Cure for Suicide is the most captivating novel yet from one of our most audacious and original young writers.
£11.71
Crown Publishing Group (NY) The Book of Esther
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£14.40
Random House USA Inc The Intuitionist
Book SynopsisA 25th anniversary hardcover edition of the debut novel by the two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Underground Railroad that wowed critics and readers and marked the emergence of an important American writer. EVERYMAN''S LIBRARY CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS. It is a time of crisis in a major metropolitan city''s Department of Elevator Inspectors, and Lila Mae Watson, the first black female elevator inspector in the history of the department, is at the center of it. There are two warring factions in the department: the Empiricists, who rely on tests and measurements; and the Intuitionists, who can intuit any defects merely by entering an elevator cab. Lila Mae is an Intuitionist, with the highest accuracy rate in the department. But when an elevator goes into freefall on her watch, chaos ensues. It''s an election year, and the good-old-boy Empiricists would love nothing more than to blame an Intuitionist.Meanwhile, star
£22.40
Random House USA Inc Smoke
Book SynopsisReaders of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Arcadia by Iain Pears are sure to be mesmerized by Dan Vyleta’s thrilling blend of Dickensian historical fiction and fantasy, as three young friends scratch the surface of the grown-up world to discover startling wonders—and dangerous secrets. In an alternate Victorian England those who are wicked are marked by the smoke that pours out of their bodies. The aristocracy are clean, proof of their virtue and right to rule, while the lower classes are drenched in sin and soot. Thomas Argyle is the only son of a wayward aristocrat. Charlie Cooper is his best friend. When Thomas finds himself under the boot heel of a sadistic headboy in the treacherous halls of their elite boarding school, he and Charlie begin to question the rules of their society. Then the boys meet Livia, the daughter of a wealthy and powerful family. She leads them to a secret laboratory where they learn t
£15.26
Picador USA The Mere Wife
Book SynopsisNew York Times bestselling author Maria Dahvana Headley presents a modern retelling of the literary classic Beowulf, set in American suburbia as two mothersa housewife and a battle-hardened veteranfight to protect those they love in The Mere Wife. From the perspective of those who live in Herot Hall, the suburb is a paradise. Picket fences divide buildingshigh and gabledand the community is entirely self-sustaining. Each house has its own fireplace, each fireplace is fitted with a container of lighter fluid, and outsidein lawns and on playgroundswildflowers seed themselves in neat rows. But for those who live surreptitiously along Herot Hall's periphery, the subdivision is a fortress guarded by an intense network of gates, surveillance cameras, and motion-activated lights. For Willa, the wife of Roger Herot (heir of Herot Hall), life moves at a charmingly slow pace. She flits between mommy groups, playdates, cocktail hour, and dinne
£16.20
Celadon Books Elsewhere
Book SynopsisRichly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear.Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning. Vera, a young girl when her mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood,
£15.29
St Martin's Press The Dragon Waiting
Book SynopsisThe best mingling of history with historical magic that I have ever seen.Gene Wolfe In a snowbound inn high in the Alps, four people meet who will alter fate.A noble Byzantine mercenary . . .A female Florentine physician . . .An ageless Welsh wizard . . .And Sforza, the uncanny duke.Together they will wage an intrigue-filled campaign against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucesterand make him Richard III. Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times-bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic.Had [John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would've been George R.R. Martin. Neil Gaiman
£16.14
Tor Books He Who Drowned the World
Book SynopsisUSA TODAY bestseller, #1 international bestseller, and Indie Next PickBest of 2023 Pick for Autostraddle and BookPage; a Recommended Reading List Pick for Locus; Locus Award Finalist; Dragon Award FinalistThe sequel and series conclusion to She Who Became the Sun, the accomplished, poetic debut of war and destiny, sweeping across an epic alternate China. Mulan meets The Song of Achilles.How much would you give to win the world?Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.But Zhu isn't the only one with imperial ambitions. Her neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband-and she's strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky allian
£23.19
Henry Holt & Company Inc Did You Hear About Kitty Karr
Book SynopsisREESE''S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICKBOOK OF THE MONTH MAY 2023 PICKA multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty's affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty's journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal couldand between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty. The truth behind Kitty''s ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-A
£21.59
Tor Books Flint and Mirror
Book SynopsisCrowley is generous, obsessed, fascinating, gripping. Really, I think Crowley is so good that he has left everybody else in the dust.Peter StraubFrom award-winning author John Crowley comes a novel that masterfully blends history and magic in Flint and Mirror.As ancient Irish clans fought to preserve their lands and their way of life, the Queen and her generals fought to tame the wild land and make it English.Hugh O''Neill, lord of the North, dubbed Earl of Tyrone by the Queen, is a divided man: the Queen gives to Hugh her love, and her commandments, through a little mirror of obsidian which he can never discard; and the ancient peoples of Ireland arise from their underworld to make Hugh their champion, the token of their vow a chip of flint.From the masterful author of Little, Big comes an exquisite fantasy of heartbreaking proportion.
£17.09
St Martin's Press The Spare Man
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£15.19
Holt McDougal The Council of Animals
Book SynopsisFrom national bestselling author Nick McDonell, The Council of Animals is a captivating fable for humans of all agesdreamers and cynics alikewho believe (if nothing else) in the power of timeless storytelling.Now,' continued the cat, there is nothing more difficult than changing an animal's mind. But I will say, in case I can change yours: humans are more useful to us outside our bellies than in.'Perhaps.After The Calamity, the animals thought the humans had managed to do themselves in. But, it turns out, a few are cowering in makeshift villages. So the animalsamong them a cat, a dog, a crow, a baboon, a horse, and a bearhave convened to debate whether to help the last human stragglers . . . or to eat them.Rest assured, there is a happy ending. Sort of.Featuring illustrations by Steven Tabbutt
£15.29
St Martin's Press The Lost Cause
Book SynopsisIt's thirty years from now. We're making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who can't let go?For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn''t controversial. It''s just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their alternative news sources that reas
£23.99
WW Norton & Co The Wall A Novel
Book SynopsisAn NPR "Favorite Books of the Year" and Financial Times "Best Fiction of the Year" selection. The best-selling author of The Debt to Pleasure and Capital returns with a chilling fable for our time.Trade Review"Lanchester’s novel…elegantly and chillingly imagines how current political attitudes might play out as the repercussions of climate change grow more severe." -- New York Times"Gripping…Full of tense action and sudden reversals…Few readers will stop until they reach its final page." -- Alec Nevala-Lee - New York Times Book Review"Thrilling…A topical and deftly satirical novel." -- Anna Mundow - Wall Street Journal"As in all good dystopian fiction, Lanchester shows us a world that could become a reality…[He] maintains measured, elegant prose–creating an assuredly human dystopian novel." -- Lucas Wittmann - TIME"[A] taut tale…It’s not clear what it will take to finally convince us that it’s time to panic about climate change, but works of fiction such as The Wall have an important role to play." -- Stephen Dyson - Washington Post"Bold and confident fiction that highlights the current American and British issues of Trumpism and Brexit. " -- Los Angeles Times"A chilling reminder of the ease with which myopia can turn to dystopia." -- Michael Magras - Houston Chronicle"Chillingly real." -- Boris Kachka - New York magazine"An utterly persuasive story set in a dystopic future. Unputdownable. It's 1984 for our times." -- Michael Lewis"In The Wall, John Lanchester takes our current political climate to its terrible and logical extreme. A harrowing, brilliant, and troublingly plausible vision of the future." -- Emily St. John Mandel"The Wall is something new: almost an allegory, almost a dystopian-future warning, partly an elegant study of the nature of storytelling itself. I was hugely impressed by it." -- Philip Pullman
£19.22
WW Norton & Co Saha A Novel
Book SynopsisTIME • Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2022 From the international best-selling author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 comes this chilling dystopian fable for fans of Netflix’s Squid Game.Trade Review"A dystopian thriller with a series of intimate character sketches that form a portrait of a community. (Imagine “Winesburg, Ohio” set in “1984.”)... Cho draws touching portraits of her discarded denizens… illuminat[ing] the systemic enforcement of class in the same way that “Kim Jiyoung” revealed gender inequality…. An affecting portrait of people doing their best to survive in a world that would rather pretend they didn’t exist." -- Lincoln Michel - New York Times Book Review"What is it called again when dystopian fiction seems too uncomfortably plausible: Horror? Speculative fiction? A wake-up call? Treading in territories visited over time by Dickens, Orwell, Atwood, Ishiguro, Squid Game, and Parasite, Cho recounts—in specific and painstaking detail—the miserable lives endured by the many residents of the Saha housing complex... This successor to Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2020), Cho’s chronicle of the misogynistic forces behind South Korea’s #MeToo movement—a finalist for the National Book Award—addresses another equally corrosive social horror. Read. Weep. Learn." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
£13.29
Sourcebooks, Inc The Last Dog on Earth
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£15.99
Amazon Publishing Traitor Born
Book SynopsisThe Wall Street Journal bestselling sequel to Secondborn. In the Fates Republic… Firstborns reign supreme. Secondborns kneel in servitude. Thirdborns face death. And Census shadows them all. Secondborn Roselle St. Sismode was pressed into military service to battle the rebel uprising threatening the society that enslaves her. Now, powerful factions conspire to subvert the lines of succession, positioning Roselle to replace her mother as leader of the Republic’s armed forces. But the woman who bore her would sooner see Roselle dead than let her usurp her firstborn brother’s command. The deadly war of intrigue between her new masters and her ruthless family is but one conflict challenging Roselle. A soldier for the rebellion has drawn her into a rogue army’s plot to overthrow the Republic and shatter its brutal caste system. Targeted by assassins and torn between allies, Roselle will have her loyalty, love, and honor tested in the greatest battle of—and for—her life.Trade Review“The world of the Republic is cleverly detailed…With elements of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and Ian Fleming’s James Bond, Traitor Born will keep the reader entertained all the way up to the cliff-hanger ending.” —Booklist “If you liked Secondborn, you’ll love Traitor Born. This sequel takes everything that’s enjoyable about the first novel (the action, the sexual tension, the political intrigue) and turns it up a few notches—It has a really episodic feeling to its storytelling. The characters are complex and multilayered, the action is exciting, and the interpersonal relationships are fascinating. It’s a great read that you’ll have trouble putting down.” —Hypable “Traitor Born is perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series, Mary Lu’s Legend series, and similar dystopian fantasy novels…Traitor Born brings new characteristics to the mix.” —Teenreads “…A fast-paced, action-packed second book…Amy [Bartol] draws you into the story, every single time, leaving you hooked, invested, and clamoring for more.” —Vilma Iris
£12.82
Blackstone Publishing Hell Divers
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£23.74
Penguin Books Ltd The Last Day: A Novel
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£21.60
Penguin Books Ltd The Last Day: A Novel
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£15.30
Grand Central Publishing Humans, Bow Down
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£9.49
Amazon Publishing Bridge 108
Book SynopsisFrom the Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author, a dystopian novel of oppression set in the climate-ravaged Europe of A Calculated Life, a finalist for the Kitschies award and Philip K. Dick Award. Late in the twenty-first century, drought and wildfires prompt an exodus from southern Europe. When twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during their trek north, he soon falls prey to traffickers. Enslaved in an enclave outside Manchester, the resourceful and determined Caleb never loses hope of bettering himself. After Caleb is befriended by a fellow victim of trafficking, another road opens. Hiding in the woodlands by day, guided by the stars at night, he begins a new journey—to escape to a better life, to meet someone he can trust, and to find his family. For Caleb, only one thing is certain: making his way in the world will be far more difficult than his mother imagined. Told through multiple voices and set against the backdrop of a haunting and frighteningly believable future, Bridge 108 charts the passage of a young boy into adulthood amid oppressive circumstances that are increasingly relevant to our present day.Trade Review“This coming-of-age story, told through a mosaic of voices, is enjoyable for readers young and old alike.” —Kirkus Reviews “Readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories with hopeful messages will be gratified by this topical tale of human resourcefulness in the face of climate disaster.” —Publishers Weekly “Arthur C. Clark Award-winning Charnock (Dreams Before the Start of Time) provides a window into a future that feels all too near in this post-Brexit world. From the fears and repercussions of intense drought to the politics and panic of immigration, Caleb’s story, sadly, rings true.” —Library Journal “An interesting and thoughtful book that keeps readers engaged throughout, both emotionally and politically.” —Interzone “Anne Charnock’s Bridge 108 is set in the same universe as her terrific 2013 debut A Calculated Life…[Bridge 108] seems horribly prescient. With the inclusion of climate refugees, child trafficking, and slavery, Bridge 108 adds that final touch of verisimilitude to Charnock’s post-Brexit nightmare.” —LOCUS Magazine “Charnock tells her story through the lives of ordinary people caught up in situations beyond their control, and Bridge 108 is all the more powerful for that.” —The Guardian “[Bridge 108] tells a very strong message of the potential consequences of allowing global warming to continue as it is. The world that Charnock builds for us is realistic and frighteningly possible in the current political and social environment.” —BSFA Review “The novel’s near-future setting feels grimy, sweltering, and lived-in. Environmental collapse has brought out the worst in everyone, and instances of kindness are few and far between. It’s a commanding, if demanding, read.” —Financial Times “Like her three previous novels, this one reveals how large, systemic problems like economic stratification and climate change are tightly entwined…Through vibrant storytelling and compelling character development, Bridge 108 depicts a possible future rife with ecological destruction and millions of climate refugees.” —Chicago Review of Books
£12.42
Exile Editions Food of My People: The Exile Book Of Anthology
Book SynopsisEating is a symbolic and magical act, a transformation, a covenant, a ritual, a comfort, a necessity - but all through history, food-themed stories have also had their dark sides. Food can be integral to the magic, the meetings, the processes of fantastical fiction: from myth and legend to high fantasy, from hard-science speculative fiction to post-modern magic realism, from Hansel and Gretel to Soylent Green, from Persephone to 2001, from Alice in Wonderland to Alien. In this anthology, Ursula Pflug and Candas Jane Dorsey, two award-winning senior writers of literary speculation, have gathered a range of speculative writing that recognizes both our attraction to the candy coating and our fascination with the poisoned apple. Paired with each story is a recipe, real or fantastical, for food mentioned in the story: consume at your own risk!
£23.16
St Augustine's Press Lord of the World
Book SynopsisCan a timeless book become timely 100 years after its first appearance? In this profound and prescient novel, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson gives us an imaginative foretelling of the end of the world. All stories, Aristotle said, have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but most ends are relative, the terminus of this chain of acts or that. But what of the end that terminates all human action as we know it, the end of time itself, the Second Coming? Since this novel appeared in 1906, many others have been devoted to nuclear disaster, destructive comets, and other hair-raising possibilities. What sets Benson’s story apart and makes it as readable today as when it was written is the Catholic and biblical context that provides the ultimate meaning. Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) was the son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and his conversion to Catholicism caused a stir. He became a great apologist for the faith, in spiritual works as well as in works of the imagination. Lord of the World is first of all a tremendous “read,” but it is also spiritual food for thought. The late Ralph McInerny contributed a fine preface to the work, and recently Fr. C. John McCloskey III, a specialist on the work of Robert Hugh Benson, added a fascinating introduction.
£14.25
Soft Skull Press Users: A Novel
Book SynopsisA New York Times Book Review Editors'' ChoiceMarrying the philosophical absurdities of life, technology, start-up culture, and family, Users is for readers of Ling Ma, Dave Eggers’s The Circle, and viewers of the hit Apple TV+ original series SeveranceMiles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its “original experiences,” has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the “game” is simple: a user’s simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they’re haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover.However, when a shift in the company''s strategic vision puts The Ghost Lover at the center of a platform-wide controversy, Miles becomes the target of user outrage, and starts receiving a series of anonymous death threats. Typed notes sealed in envelopes with no postage or return address, these persistent threats push Miles into a paranoid panic, blurring his own sense of reality, catalyzing the collapse of his career, his marriage, and his relationship with his children.The once-promising road to success becomes a narrow set of choices for Miles, who, in a last ditch effort to save his job, pitches his masterpiece, a revolutionary device code-named the Egg, which will transform the company. The consequences for Miles seal him inside the walls of his life as what was once anxiety explodes into devastating absoluteness.In a world rife with the unchecked power and ambition of tech, Users investigates—with both humor and creeping dread—how interpersonal experiences and private decisions influence the hasty developments that have the power to permanently alter the landscape of human experience.
£21.60
Soft Skull Press Liquid Snakes: A Novel
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£21.60
Penguin Putnam Inc Gold Fame Citrus: A Novel
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£14.45
The Library of America Philip Roth: Novels 2001-2007 (LOA #236): The
Book SynopsisThe definitive Philip Roth edition continues with three novels written in his late sixties and early seventies. The Dying Animal (2001) marks the final return of David Kepesh from The Breast (1972) and The Professor of Desire (1977). Now an eminent cultural critic in his sixties, Kepesh expertly seduces a beautiful twenty-four-year-old daughter of Cuban exiles only to find himself torn by sexual jealousy and the anguish of loss. As The Plot Against America (2004) begins, aviation hero Charles A. Lindbergh has defeated Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, and fear invades every Jewish household in America. Lindbergh has publicly blamed the Jews for pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, and now in office, he negotiates a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler. What follows for Jews during the Lindbergh presidency—most particularly in the Newark household of the boy Philip Roth—is the subject of an extraordinary work of historical imagination. With Exit Ghost (2007) Roth rings down the curtain on perhaps his greatest literary creation. Nathan Zuckerman returns to a radically changed New York, the city he left eleven years before, where a rash decision draws him into a vivid drama rife with implications for his future, and his past.Philip Roth is the only living American novelist to have his work published in a comprehensive, definitive edition by The Library of America. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, the National Medal of Arts, and the Gold Medal in Fiction, the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
£26.25
Top Shelf Productions A Shining Beacon
Book SynopsisPictures at a revolution: acclaimed graphic novelist James Albon (Her Bark and Her Bite) explores the role of the artist in a frighteningly familiar near-future of tyrannical regimes and popular revolts.Francesca Saxon, artist and loyal citizen of the nation, is thrilled when she receives a commission to design the central mural of an epic new swimming pool: the jewel in the crown for an insecure regime obsessed by propaganda. Leaving the comfort of her coastal hometown for the lap of luxury of the capital, she is swept up in the paranoia of a government threatened by underground revolutionaries, whose promise of a freer, happier future looks increasingly appealing. Torn between rival factions and her personal loyalties, she realises that when ideology has a stranglehold on art, the picture is rarely pretty.
£17.09
Akashic Books The Freedom Artist
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£15.26
Kodansha America, Inc Fire Force 8
Book SynopsisThe city of Tokyo is in the grip of a reign of terror! Possessed by demons, people have begun to burst into flame, leading to the establishment of a special firefighting team: the Fire Force, ready to roll on a moment's notice to fight spontaneous combustion anywhere it might break out. But the team is about to get a very unique addition: Shinra, a boy who possesses the unique power to run at the speed of a rocket, leaving behind the famous devil's footprints. Can the Fire Force discover the source of this strange phenomenon and put a stop to it? Or will the city burn to ashes first?
£10.44
Kodansha America, Inc Love And Lies 4
Book SynopsisYukari is dull. He doesn't even stand out enough to be bullied - he's just a generally lower-middle-class kid. He's in love with Misaki, the most popular girl in school. There's just one problem: He's 15, one year away from receiving his government-assigned marriage partner. He normally wouldn't have the courage to defy the law, but his sickly classmate Ririna still believes in love, and won't stop goading him into confessing his feelings!
£11.69
Kodansha America, Inc Clockwork Planet 8
Book SynopsisNaoto's a high school dropout and brilliant amateur tinkerer. He lives in a world that has been so over-exploited that the entire surface has become one vast machine. When a box crashes into his home containing a female automaton, it's a harbinger of change that will rock the entire globe, and give Naoto his chance to be a hero.
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing Outlawed
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£13.72
Seven Seas Entertainment, LLC Sheeply Horned Witch Romi Vol. 1
Book SynopsisAn offbeat dark fantasy about two strange classmates who fall in love in a transformed post-apocalyptic world.The world has changed: everyone has fallen into a deep slumber, except a bunch of sheep, a sheep-horned witch, and her senpai. And now monsters are closing in! Why are the only people still awake two teenagers snarled up in a tangle of complicated emotions? Find out in this beautifully illustrated, unique dark fantasy!
£10.44
