Dystopian and utopian fiction
Penguin Books Ltd The Last Day: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£21.60
Penguin Books Ltd The Last Day: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Grand Central Publishing Humans, Bow Down
Book Synopsis
£999.99
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
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
Book Synopsis
£21.60
Penguin Putnam Inc Gold Fame Citrus: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£16.15
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
Book Synopsis
£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
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
Soho Press Inc Venomous Lumpsucker
£15.30
Seven Seas Entertainment, LLC High-Rise Invasion Omnibus 7-8
Book SynopsisOn the roof of a high-rise building, a young girl named Yuri witnesses a masked figure split a man’s head open with an axe! It’s not exactly an everyday occurrence for a high schooler, but things only get weirder from there. Yuri soon finds herself in a strange world of skyscrapers with only two options for escape - fight past the mysterious masked figures or leap to her death!
£15.19
Algonquin Books Clean Air
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Catapult Notes on Her Color: A Novel
Book SynopsisWinner of the Vulgar Geniuses AwardFlorida kitsch swirls together with magical realism in this glittering debut novel about a young Black and Indigenous woman who learns to change the color of her skinGabrielle has always had a complicated relationship with her mother Tallulah, one marked by intimacy and resilience in the face of a volatile patriarch. Everything in their home has been bleached a cold white—from the cupboards filled with sheets and crockery to the food and spices Tallulah cooks with. Even Gabrielle, who inherited the ability to change the color of her skin from her mother, is told to pass into white if she doesn’t want to upset her father.But this vital mother-daughter bond implodes when Tallulah is hospitalized for a mental health crisis. Separated from her mother for the first time in her life, Gabrielle must learn to control the temperamental shifts in her color on her own.Meanwhile, Gabrielle is spending a year after high school focusing on her piano lessons, an extracurricular her father is sure will make her a more appealing candidate for pre med programs. Her instructor, a queer, dark-skinned woman named Dominique, seems to encapsulate everything Gabrielle is missing in her life—creativity, confidence, and perhaps most importantly, a nurturing sense of love.Following a young woman looking for a world beyond her family’s carefully -coded existence, Notes on Her Color is a lushly written and haunting tale that shows how love, in its best sense, can be a liberating force from destructive origins.
£21.60
Catapult I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel
Book SynopsisDept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance stateIn a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime—and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. She can’t forget her wife, but with time, she can make a new life for herself and the kid, supported by a community of fellow misfits who defy the Department to lift one another up in solidarity and hope.With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.
£21.60
Catapult I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself: A Novel
Book SynopsisDept. of Speculation meets Black Mirror in this lyrical, speculative debut about a queer mother raising her daughter in an unjust surveillance stateIn a United States not so unlike our own, the Department of Balance has adopted a radical new form of law enforcement: rather than incarceration, wrongdoers are given a second (and sometimes, third, fourth, and fifth) shadow as a reminder of their crime?and a warning to those they encounter. Within the Department, corruption and prejudice run rampant, giving rise to an underclass of so-called Shadesters who are disenfranchised, publicly shamed, and deprived of civil rights protections.Kris is a Shadester and a new mother to a baby born with a second shadow of her own. Grieving the loss of her wife and thoroughly unprepared for the reality of raising a child alone, Kris teeters on the edge of collapse, fumbling in a daze of alcohol, shame, and self-loathing. Yet as the kid grows, Kris finds her footing, raising a child whose irrepressible spark cannot be dampened by the harsh realities of the world. She can?t forget her wife, but with time, she can make a new life for herself and the kid, supported by a community of fellow misfits who defy the Department to lift one another up in solidarity and hope.With a first-person register reminiscent of the fierce self-disclosure of Sheila Heti and the poetic precision of Ocean Vuong, I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself is a bold debut novel that examines the long shadow of grief, the hard work of parenting, and the power of queer resistance.
£16.16
Kodansha America, Inc Love and Lies 12: The Lilina Ending
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
The New York Review of Books, Inc Chevengur
Book Synopsis
£21.56
Quirk Books Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel
Book SynopsisAn original novel, with all-new characters and a new story set in the world of Attack on Titan! Fans of the series and readers alike will enjoy this immersive and engaging experience of the pop culture phenomenon and manga mega-hit. With the last vestige of the human race threatened by unstoppable carnivorous giants, a brave young woman decides to defy her wealthy family and join the military to fight against humanity's enemies. But Rosalie Dumarque soon finds out that bloody sword fights with monsters aren't the only dangers faced by the Wall Rose Garrison. Can she earn the trust of her fellow soldiers, stand up to a corrupt authority, navigate a forbidden romance...and cut her way out of a titan's throat?Trade Review“An engaging, thrilling, and deeply personal story . . . if you are a fan of either Attack on Titan or Rachel Aaron . . . you need to read this book.”—Geeks of Doom“Set in the world of Hajime Isayama's popular manga series Attack on Titan, this action-packed fantasy will appeal to existing fans and newcomers alike.”—Booklist “Exciting and sometimes gruesome . . . A great page-turner for fans of the Attack on Titan series, as well as any readers who enjoy fantasy, suspense, horror, and kick-ass heroines.”—School Library Journal “A good introduction to Attack on Titan for those new to this dark, terrifying, yet utterly fascinating saga.”—Midwest Book Review “It’s a really enjoyable book. The writing is crisp, and...often vivid. The action scenes only improve as the book goes on...with moments that Isayama himself might envy."—All the Anime“For teens who want the female protagonist to kick ass more than kiss.”—Kirkus Reviews
£11.39
Vertical Comics Immortal Hounds 6
Book Synopsis
£11.66
Meerkat Press Missing Signal
Book SynopsisFrom Seb Doubinsky, author of The Song of Synth, The Babylonian Trilogy, White City, Absinth, Omega Gray and Suan Ming, comes his highly anticipated next installment in the City-States Cycle.Missing Signal—a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a government conspiracy? Agent Terrence Kovacs has worked for the New Petersburg Counter-Intel Department propagating fake UFO stories for so long that even he has a hard time separating fact from fiction. Especially when he’s approached by a beautiful woman named Vita, who claims she’s been sent from another planet to liberate Earth.Trade ReviewBeneath the entertaining wrapper of science fiction, Missing Signal is a masterfully written work, both provocative and rewarding. -- Susan Waggoner -- Foreword Reviews"Crisp chapters cartwheel you in an incredible odyssey that gets wilder and weirder as it possesses you . . . Something about the novel abolishes distraction. Once you open the book, you are committed. No hard work, just a heart-thud moment, electricity, and you're hooked. In its tiny chapters pulsing with voltage, the narrative leaves nothing short. The reading is like a golden egg hunt, literary gifts tucked away in findable nests." -- Eugen Bacon -- Breach Magazine"Seb Doubinsky's always beena critique of modern politics and the tyrannical fallacies of consumerism.Missing Signalis another addition to that nuanced, but powerful legacy as it's a novel about being told what to do and who to believe, which doesn't lead to any satisfying answers if you don't proactively choose your own path through a maze of make believes and misinformation." -- Benoit Lelievre -- Dead End Follies(5 stars) "I'm delighted to have discovered an exciting new voice in Seb Doubinsky's unusual novella. This is not a traditional sci-fi story but is one which offers a disturbing glimpse into a dystopian city-state future which reflects, albeit in an exaggerated way, so much of all that is disturbing in our 21st century world. -- Linda Hepworth -- Nudge-Book MagazineThe tense, sparse prose of this novella-which explicitly names its inspirations in the aesthetics of Michelangelo Antonionia's 'beautiful emptiness,' William S. Burrough's theories, and the porn and B-movies of the 1960s and '70s, as well as the tropes of alien encounters in early SF matches its strong themes of loneliness, paranoia, and the search for identity in a world of deception. -- Publishers Weekly
£13.25
Two Dollar Radio Landscapes
Book Synopsis
£20.80
Random House USA Inc The Paradox Hotel: A Novel
Book Synopsis
£15.30
Vintage Publishing Something New Under the Sun: A Novel
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A novelist discovers the dark side of Hollywood and reckons with ambition, corruption, and environmental collapse in “a darkly satirical reflection of ecological reality” (Time) LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Vulture, Thrillist, Literary Hub “An urgent novel about our very near future, and a deeply addictive pleasure.”—Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies Novelist Patrick Hamlin has come to Los Angeles to oversee the film adaptation of one of his books and try to impress his wife and daughter back home with this last-ditch attempt at professional success. But California is not as he imagined. Drought, wildfire, and corporate corruption are everywhere, and the company behind a mysterious new brand of synthetic water seems to be at the root of it all. Patrick finds an unlikely partner in Cassidy Carter—the cynical starlet of his film—and the two investigate the sun-scorched city, where they discover the darker side of all that glitters in Hollywood. Something New Under the Sun is an unmissable novel for our present moment—a bold exploration of environmental catastrophe in the age of alternative facts, and “a ghost story not of the past but of the near future” (The New York Times).Trade Review“Kleeman is a visionary writer . . . She’s also very funny. These two qualities are shown to great effect here, as she turns her attention to the movie business, our looming climate crisis, corporate malfeasance and the Disney child star system. It’s a brilliant, ambitious book.”—Refinery29“With nods to Beckett and Stoppard, Kleeman juxtaposes fiery doom with passages of sharp, absurdist dialogue and a sprinkle of one-liners reminiscent of Fleabag.”—Instyle“The varieties of emergency—ecological, psychological, familial, medical—are the half-hidden subject of Kleeman’s novel, burning at the periphery of what begins as a modishly detached rollick through Hollywood and its empty promises. . . . It is a ghost story not of the past but of the near future, a ghost story as alarm bell, one hard to leave in the realm of fiction.”—The New York Times“Kleeman’s world is unsettled, but so is ours. And she leans into that unsettledness to create a world that is just a few notches more uncanny than our own, starkly making the absurdity of ours that much more clear.”—Nylon“Kleeman’s great skill, and this novel’s abiding triumph, is how seamlessly she blends the horrific with the mundanely troubling, the ridiculous—or the impossible—with the ordinarily absurd.”—LA Review of Books“Throughout, Kleeman writes expressively about place and the manifold ways our lives are shaped by our imperiled environment, foregrounding the slow-motion catastrophe of climate change and its attendant anxieties.”—Vulture“Because this is an Alexandra Kleeman novel, none of it goes where you think it’s going to, but it’s all so wildly entertaining and beautifully written that it really doesn’t matter where you end up.”—Literary Hub“Written with tremendous verve and flair, Something New Under the Sun is both an urgent novel about our very near future and a deeply addictive pleasure. . . . Kleeman is a phenomenon, one of the most brilliant and gifted writers at work today.”—Katie Kitamura“Alexandra Kleeman expertly conjures California noir filtered through the ambient and not-so-ambient apocalypse.”—Emma Cline “A magnificent and stunning novel, by turns hilarious, satirical, moving, and so very, very much what we need in these uncertain times.”–Jeff VanderMeer“With this novel, Alexandra Kleeman confirms her place as one of the major writers of her generation. Reading it is like looking at a familiar room through warped glass: What you perceive is distorted and unsettling while remaining curiously beautiful.”—Esmé Weijun Wang“Something New Under the Sun is a richly rendered ecological novel, characterized not only by how it sets the landscape but also by the fact that the landscape is quite often allowed to run the show. Kleeman is at her very best here. This is a book I’ll be thinking about for years to come.”—Kristen Arnett“Readers will be captivated by this intelligent, rip-roaring story.”—Publishers Weekly
£14.19
Vegueta Ediciones El Final del Que Partimos
Book Synopsis
£19.06
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Riesgos de los viajes en el tiempo / Hazards of Time Travel
£30.97
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial El corredor o las almas que lleva el diablo / The
Book Synopsis
£23.67
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Un pianista de provincias / Provincial Pianist
Book Synopsis
£13.91
Ediciones Robinbook Hijos del Trueno
Book Synopsis
£16.31