Science fiction: near future

Book SynopsisEver had a bad day? Try having one on the moon...'Fascinating' Tim Peake, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ask an Astronaut______________________WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon.Population 2,000. Mostly tourists.Some criminals.Jazz Bashara is one of the criminals. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it's not enough.So when she's offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it's also a lot more dangerous.When you live on the moon, of course you have a dark side...______________________Andy Weir's new stunning science-based thriller PROJECT HAIL MARY is available now.______________________What everyone's saying about the follow-up to The Martian: 'A smart, fun, fast-paced adventure that you won't be able to put down' Ernest Cline, bestselling author of Ready Player One'What a page turner!' Milda on Goodreads, 5 stars'Fast paced, high octane and highly entertaining' Chrys on Netgalley, 5 stars'Artemis does for the moon what The Martian did for Mars' Guardian'A first rate thriller, this had me hooked from beginning to end' Robert on Netgalley, 5 stars'An absolute must read' Lauren on Goodreads, 5 stars'A clever and action-fuelled story' Culturefly'For those who loved The Martian, you won't be disappointed' Liz on Netgalley, 5 starsTrade ReviewArtemis does for the moon what The Martian did for Mars. His second novel concerns a likeable protagonist in peril, saved by her own resourcefulness, in a tale that leaves readers better informed about science than they were before they read it...Plus the narrator has real charm. There's no question that this novel is going to be a hit * The Guardian *Jazz, Weir’s main character, is a moon-born version of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. She is young, rebellious and a petty criminal...Weir’s great strength, as he showed in The Martian, is to make us believe. His future society living inside massive domes built not far from where Armstrong set foot in 1969 is utterly plausible. * The Times *Weir has done it again: he’s created a diverse and fantastic new world, filled with eclectic and memorable characters, and woven them into a dazzling work of contemporary science fiction – one that’s chock-full of actual science. Artemis is everything you could hope for in a follow-up to his smash debut The Martian: another smart, fun, fast-paced adventure that you won’t be able to put down, featuring a heroine who’s equal parts Ellen Ripley, Arya Stark, and Jyn Erso. I can’t recommend it enough! -- ERNEST CLINE * bestselling author of Ready Player One *All the things I loved about The Martian are here in spades—the hard science Weir somehow makes accessible and riveting, the masterful, never-see-it-coming plotting, but most of all the voice of his new protagonist, Jazz Bashara—an irreverent, witty, vulnerable heroine, who, just like Mark Watney, is exactly the kind of character you’ll want to spend a book with. With Artemis, Andy Weir has done the impossible—he’s topped The Martian with a sci-fi-noir-thriller set in a city on the moon. What more do you want from life? Go read it! -- BLAKE CROUCH * bestselling author of Dark Matter *Weir's great skill, as he already proved with The Martian, is his attention to detail. Artemis is a triumph of imagination * ESQUIRE *

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Book SynopsisEmily St. John Mandel was born in Canada and studied dance at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She is the author of the novels Last Night in Montreal, The Singer's Gun, The Lola Quartet and Station Eleven and is a staff writer for The Millions. She lives in New York City.Trade ReviewMandel’s beautiful depiction of the survival of human culture and art in a post-apocalyptic world, Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale. * Cosmopolitan *The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t the only one out there to examine life in a dystopia or collapsing society, or examine the challenges women face when confronting an authoritative power. * The Verge *A dystopian novel that every woman should read after The Handmaid’s Tale. * Refinery29.com *Glorious, unexpected, superbly written; just try putting it down. * The Times *One of the 2014 books that I did read stands above all the others, however: Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel . . . It's a deeply melancholy novel, but beautifully written, and wonderfully elegiac, a book that I will long remember, and return to. -- George R. R. MartinDisturbing, inventive and exciting, Station Eleven left me wistful for a world where I still live. -- Jessie Burton, author of The MiniaturistOnce in a very long while a book becomes a brand new old friend, a story you never knew you always wanted. Station Eleven is that rare find that feels familiar and extraordinary at the same time, expertly weaving together future and present and past, death and life and Shakespeare. This is truly something special. -- Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night CircusVisually stunning, dreamily atmospheric and impressively gripping . . . Station Eleven is not so much about apocalypse as about memory and loss, nostalgia and yearning; the effort of art to deepen our fleeting impressions of the world and bolster our solitude. * Guardian *Station Eleven is so compelling, so fearlessly imagined, that I wouldn't have put it down for anything. I think this one is really going to go places. -- Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and State of WonderA beautiful and unsettling book, the action moves between the old and new world, drawing connections between the characters and their pasts and showing the sweetness of life as we know it now and the value of friendship, love and art over all the vehicles, screens and remote controls that have been rendered obsolete. Mandel's skill in portraying her post-apocalyptic world makes her fictional creation seem a terrifyingly real possibility. Apocalyptic stories once offered the reader a scary view of an alternative reality and the opportunity, on putting the book down, to look around gratefully at the real world. This is a book to make its reader mourn the life we still lead and the privileges we still enjoy. * Sunday Express *Station Eleven is a firework of a novel. Elegantly constructed and packed with explosive beauty, it's full of life and humanity and the aftershock of memory. -- Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining GirlsThere is no shortage of post-apocalyptic thrillers on the shelves these days, but Station Eleven is unusually haunting . . . There is an understated, piercing nostalgia . . . there is humour, amid the collapse . . . and there is Mandel's marvellous creation, the Travelling Symphony, travelling from one scattered gathering of humanity to another . . . There is also a satisfyingly circular mystery, as Mandel unveils neatly, satisfyingly, the links between her disparate characters . . . This book will stay with its readers much longer than more run-of-the-mill thrillers. -- Alison Flood, Thriller of the Month * Observer *Station Eleven is a magnificent, compulsive novel that cleverly turns the notion of a "kinder, gentler time" on its head. And, oh, the pleasure of falling down the rabbit hole of Mandel's imagination - a dark, shimmering place rich in alarmingly real detail and peopled with such human, such very appealing characters. -- Liza Klaussmann, author of Tigers in Red WeatherA genuinely unsettling dystopian novel that also allows for moments of great tenderness. Emily St. John Mandel conjures indelible visuals, and her writing is pure elegance. -- Patrick deWitt, author of The Sisters Brothers (shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize)An ambitious and addictive novel -- Sarah Hughes * Guardian *Possibly the most captivating and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic novel you will ever read . . . Mandel truly creates a unique future - no battling for resources, but a Travelling Symphony of musicians and actors who go from settlement to settlement performing Shakespeare plays. Mandel's message is that civilisation - and just as importantly, art - will endure as long as there is life. She tells us that when humanity's back is against the wall, decency will emerge. Mandel has a beautiful writing style and the chapters preceding the apocalypse (the book jumps around in time) show an assured handle on human emotions and relationships, particularly those sequences involving Arthur Leander . . . Though not without tension and a sense of horror, Station Eleven rises above the bleakness of the usual post-apocalyptic novels because its central concept is one so rarely offered in the genre - hope. * Independent on Sunday *Station Eleven reads as a love letter - acknowledging all those things we would most miss and all those things we would still have -- Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesA haunting tale of art and the apocalypse. Station Eleven is an unmissable experience. -- Samantha Shannon, author of The Bone SeasonTremendous . . . if you are looking for a novel you can just wallow in I'd pick Station Eleven up right now. -- Jane Garvey * BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour *Station Eleven begins with a spectacular end. One night in a Toronto theater, onstage performing the role of King Lear, 51-year-old Arthur Leander has a fatal heart attack. There is barely time for people to absorb this shock when tragedy on a considerably vaster scale arrives in the form of a flu pandemic so lethal that, within weeks, most of the world's population has been killed . . . Mandel is an exuberant storyteller . . . Readers will be won over by her nimble interweaving of her characters' lives and fates . . . Station Eleven is as much a mystery as it is a post-apocalyptic tale . . . Mandel is especially good at planting clues and raising the kind of plot-thickening questions that keep the reader turning pages . . . Station Eleven offers comfort and hope to those who believe, or want to believe, that doomsday can be survived, that in spite of everything people will remain good at heart, and when they start building a new world they will want what was best about the old. -- Sigrid Nunez * New York Times *Station Eleven is the kind of book that speaks to dozens of the readers in me - the Hollywood devotee, the comic book fan, the cult junkie, the love lover, the disaster tourist. It is a brilliant novel, and Emily St John Mandel is astonishing. -- Emma Straub, author of The Vacationers and Laura Lamont's Life in PicturesEmily St John Mandel is currently gathering lots of world-ending buzz with her new novel Station Eleven . . . conjures up an eerie post-killer-flu future * Grazia *Speculative fiction . . . of a decidedly literary bent * Metro *Riveting, brilliant -- Nina Stibbe, author of Love, NinaA novel that miraculously reads like equal parts page-turner and poem. One of her great feats is that the story feels spun rather than plotted, with seamless shifts in time and characters . . . This is not a story of crisis and survival. It's one of art and family and memory and community and the awful courage it takes to look upon the world with fresh and hopeful eyes. * Entertainment Weekly *Ambitious, magnificent . . . Mandel's vision is not only achingly beautiful but startlingly plausible, exposing the fragile beauty of the world we inhabit. In the burgeoning postapocalyptic literary genre, Mandel's transcendent, haunting novel deserves a place alongside The Road * Booklist *This breathtaking highwire act argues theatre is primal - and instinct to tell and act out stories, to come together to experience art. Who wouldn't want to write novels about that? * Big Issue *An ambitious take on a post-apocalyptic world where some strive to preserve art, culture and kindness . . . Think of Cormac McCarthy seesawing with Joan Didion . . . Mandel spins a satisfying web of coincidence and kismet . . . Magnetic . . . A breakout novel. * Kirkus (starred review) *Station Eleven is a mesmerising and beautiful book that puts a unique spin on a familiar end-of-the-world scenario . . . Like The Road, Mandel's novel makes you desperately glad for the world we live in. -- Mark Edwards, author of The MagpiesDrew me in irresistibly -- Anne Tyler * New York Times *A theater troupe in a post-epidemic dystopia. Art and celebrity at the zenith of North American civilization and its nadir. Childhood and marriage and violence and comic books. Station Eleven is about all of these things, but none of them fully capture the magic of the book, which is one of the best I've read in a while . . . It reminded me quite a bit of Kate Atkinson's fantastic Life After Life. And the plot, characters, writing-it's all fantastic, as well. honestly, I don't know what else to say except . . . Buy, buy, buy. Seriously. Go pre-order it now. * BookRiot *Totally spellbinding . . . Deftly switching between the time before and after the pandemic, the story reveals the fates of six compelling characters, whose lives are interlinked. Full of eerie suspense and surprises, this is a haunting, original novel that makes you consider what's truly valuable in life. * Hello Magazine *A beautifully written and compelling debut from Emily St John Mandel * Good Housekeeping Magazine *Mandel's strong storytelling ability sets Station Eleven apart . . . Mandel fluidly switches between characters and time periods . . . the result is a provocative tale of societal apocalypse that convincingly creates a disorientated reality, where humanity moves into an uncertain future on a planet littered with reminders of an imperfect past * The List *Excellently written, Station Eleven is closer to Joyce than Orwell as it stealthily connects plots and people * Sunday Times *Plays with time and place in a manner that brings to mind Kate Atkinson's superb Life After Life. * Stylist *A deeply unsettling and well-crafted tale exploring human relationships in extreme circumstances -- Philippa Williams * The Lady *The inventiveness and exploration of ideas about survival and art give Mandel's novel its indelibility . . . Station Eleven amazed me with its sharp and emotionally true reimagining of nearly everything we take for granted in the world -- Meg WolitzerStrong storytelling and believable characters combine in this very human tale * Bella *

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Book SynopsisAstonishing, frightening, spectacular'NEW STATESMANA lasting monument to the uncanny'GUARDIANChilling'NEW YORK TIMESA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERWith an introduction by N. K. JemisinAfter thirty years, the secret government agency known as the Southern Reach has been unable to solve the mysteries of Area X, a seemingly malevolent landscape wiped clean of human civilisation. Or is pristine wilderness a better description? Expedition after expedition has failed to come up with answers, often disastrously. The Southern Reach, in the process, has become a backwater agency, forgotten and underfunded despite the urgency of its mission. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.Enter John Rodriguez (aka Control), the Southern Reach's newly appointed director. Working with a distrustful team desperate for success, Control must navigate a maze of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling Trade ReviewPraise for ANNIHILATION and the SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY: ‘I’m loving the Southern Reach Trilogy … Creepy and fascinating’ Stephen King ‘Hauntingly weird and brilliantly new … These are contemporary masterpieces and career-defining novels’ Adam Robert, Books of the Year, Guardian ‘This trilogy is a modern mycological masterpiece … Remarkable … Tense, eerie and unsettling … VanderMeer writes much better prose than Poe ever did … This is genuinely potent and dream-haunting writing. VanderMeer has arrived.’ Guardian ‘A teeming science fiction that draws on Conrad and Lovecraft alike … “Annihilation” shows signs of being the novel that will allow VanderMeer to break through to a new and larger audience’ Sunday Telegraph ‘A lasting monument to the uncanny … You find yourself afraid to turn the page’ Guardian ‘VanderMeer’s novel is a psycho-geographical tour de force, channelling Ballard and Lovecraft to instil the reader with a deep, delicious unease’ Financial Times ‘What a haunting book this is, lodging deep in the memory in similar fashion to otherworldly classics such as David Lindsay’s “A Voyage To Arcturus” … “Annihilation” is so disquietingly strange as to defy summarisation. Read it’ Daily Mail ‘Astonishing, frightening, spectacular … The imaginative daring and reach with which VanderMeer has invented and executed a concept such as Area X is breathtaking … Powerful and echoing … I hope the trilogy will come to be seen not only as the instant sci-fi classic it is, but also as Literature’ New Statesman ‘Immersive, insightful and often deeply bloody creepy, this is a startlingly good novel … A major work’ ***** SFX Magazine ‘A tense and chilling psychological thriller about an unravelling expedition and the strangeness within us. A little Kubrick, a lot of Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and claustrophobic dread that lingers long afterwards. I loved it’ Lauren Beukes ‘Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent’ Warren Ellis

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Book Synopsis_________________________A survival story for the 21st century and the international bestseller behind the major film from Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.I'm stranded on Mars.I have no way to communicate with Earth.I'm in a habitat designed to last 31 days.If the oxygenator breaks down, I'll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks down, I'll die of thirst. If the hab breaches, I'll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I'll eventually run out of food and starve to death.So yeah. I'm screwed.Andy Weir's second novel Artemis is now available, and his latest novel Project Hail Mary is now available for preorder._________________________'A saga of courage, ingenuity and humour... utterly convincing' STEPHEN BAXTERTrade ReviewAndy Weir's masterpiece! -- Tom Hanks * Twitter *Watney's gallows humour and his brushes with death as he uses every ounce of his intelligence and astronaut's training to claw his way out of the pit will have you laughing and gasping by turns. I read this book in a weekend. I didn't think I'd have the time to - but Andy Weir's edge-of-the-seat storytelling didn't leave me any choice. -- Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy Book ClubAndy Weir's terrific 'lost in space' novel is an absolute page turner from first to last ... Tautly-written, full of extraordinary and fascinating detail about life in a frozen red desert so far from home, The Martian is one of the best thrillers either of us has read in years. Highly recommended. -- Judy Finnigan, Richard and Judy Book ClubThe best book I've read in ages. Clear your schedule before you crack the seal. This story will take your breath away faster than a hull breech. Smart, funny, and white-knuckle intense, The Martian is everything you want from a novel. -- Hugh Howey * New York Times bestselling author of Wool *Accomplished…believable but suspenseful as [Watney] battles against the odds for survival * The Guardian *like Gravity meets Robinson Crusoe – utterly nail-biting and memorable. -- James Lovegrove * FT *A book I just couldn’t put down! It has the very rare combination of a good, original story, interestingly real characters and fascinating technical accuracy…reads like MacGyver meets Mysterious Island. -- Astronaut Chris Hadfield * Commander of the International Space Station and author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth *The amount of research here is astounding. We’re suckers for well-grounded fiction, and on the technical side, The Martian is exemplary ... witty ... funny * SFX *The Martian kicked my ass! Weir has crafted a relentlessly entertaining and inventive survival thriller, a MacGyver-trapped-on-Mars tale that feels just as real and harrowing as the true story of Apollo 13. -- Ernest Cline * New York Times bestselling author of Ready Player One *Weir’s debut is easily the best SF novel of the year so far * Financial Times *An impressively geeky debut novel ... the technical details keep the story relentlessly precise and the suspense ramped up * Entertainment Weekly *Strong, resilient, and gutsy. It's Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 21st century style. Set aside a chunk of free time when you start this one. You're going to need it because you won't want to put it down. -- Steve BerryThink Apollo 13 ... on Mars! ... A saga of courage, ingenuity and humour - and utterly convincing thanks to superb research. The best space disaster story since Clarke's A Fall of Moondust. -- Stephen Baxterjaw-clenchingly gripping ... a modern-day Apollo13 * Stuff Magazine *Brilliant…a celebration of human ingenuity [and] the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years…Utterly compelling. * Wall Street Journal *Don’t be put off thinking this is a sci-fi book – it’s so much more than that. Utterly brilliant. * Bella *One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time, an incredible story about an astronaut marooned on Mars. This is no science fiction tale: the technology is beautifully researched and based on what is currently envisioned for a manned flight to Mars. It feels so real it could almost be nonfiction, and yet it has the narrative drive and power of a rocket launch. This is Apollo 13 times ten. I could not put this book down. -- Douglas Preston * #1 New York Times bestselling author of Impact and Blasphemy *Gripping…shapes up like Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as written by someone brighter. -- Larry Niven, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of the Ringworld series and Lucifer’s HammerThe tension simply never lets up, from the first page to the last, and at no point does the believability falter for even a second. You can't shake the feeling that this could all really happen. -- Patrick Lee, New York Times bestselling author of The Breach and Ghost CountryWeir has fashioned in Mark Watney one of the most appealing, funny and resourceful characters in recent fiction ... gripping * Huffington Post *one of the best survival stories you’ll ever read (think Robinson Crusoe on Mars only more extreme). -- Martin Sorenson * Publishers Weekly *Sharp, funny and thrilling, with just the right amount of geekery. * Kirkus *Apollo 13-meets-Robinson-Crusoe-on-Mars, and I guess for those who enjoyed the films Gravity or Moon, this one will be a literary equivalent ... I was, in the end, totally won over by this book in its celebration of how humans can deal with anything the harshness of science and extreme environments can pose, and it kept me reading longer than I meant to * SFFworld.com *one of the most thrilling and absorbing novels I have ever read * Sfcrowsnest *Riveting...a tightly constructed and completely believable story of a man's ingenuity and strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. * Booklist *Weir combines the heart-stopping with the humorous in this brilliant debut novel... the perfect mix of action and space adventure. * Library Journal (starred) *An exciting, insightful science- based tale [that] kept me turning the pages to see what ingenious solution our hero would concoct to survive yet anotherimpossible dilemma * Terry Brooks *

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Book SynopsisIsaac Asimov's Robot series from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day.Two centuries have passed since Elijah Baley's actions on Aurora sent settlers from Earth to new worlds all over the galaxy.The Spacer planet of Solaria has been abandoned by humans, though countless robots remain. When settlers arrive to salvage them, something unthinkable happens the robots attack.Accompanied by Gladia Delmarre and the robots Daneel and Giskard, a descendant of Elijah Baley sets out for Solaria to investigate, a quest that will lead them to a vast, catastrophic conspiracy and a revolution in the Three Laws of Robotics.Trade Review‘Isaac Asimov was one of the great explainers of the age…It will never be known how many practicing scientists today, in how many countries, owe their initial inspiration to a book, article, or short story by Isaac Asimov’Carl Sagan ‘Asimov displayed one of the most dynamic imaginations in science fiction’Daily Telegraph ‘Asimov’s career was one of the most formidable in science fiction’The Times

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Book SynopsisNOW THE NO.1 DRAMA IN THE HISTORY OF APPLE TV+The much anticipated prequel to bestseller Wool that takes us back to the beginnings of the silo. In a future less than fifty years away, the world is still as we know it. Time continues to tick by. The truth is that it is ticking away.A powerful few know what lies ahead. They are preparing for it. They are trying to protect us.They are setting us on a path from which we can never return.A path that will lead to destruction; a path that will take us below ground.The history of the silo is about to be written.Our future is about to begin.________________'We have been mesmerised with Hugh Howey's silo stories since we first laid eyes on book one in the trilogy...' Grazia Daily'An epic feat of imagination. You will live in this world.' Justin Cronin

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Book SynopsisThis Snow Crash thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?Juanita shrugs. What''s the difference?The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the Burbclaves. Is it any wonder that most sane folks have forsaken the real world and chosen to live in the computer-generated universe of virtual reality?In a major city, the size of a dozen Manhattans, is a domain of pleasures limited only by the imagination. But now a strange new computer virus called Snow Crash is striking down hackers everywhere, leaving an unlikely young pizza delivery man as humankind''s last best hope.The perfect cyberpunk sci-fi read, Snow Crash is an equally worthy successor to William Gibson''s Neuromancer and predecessor to Ernest Cline''s Ready Player One.***What readers are saying about Snow Crash:''It''s hard to believe Neal wrote his books when the published date claims. He''s always so right about the future, and I keep on hoping he''s so wrong'' Goodreads Reader Review''Snow Crash is to Books as The Matrix is to movies (with only the absolute BEST parts of Tron and Da Vinci Code thrown in)'' Goodreads Reader Review''Loved it! Can''t recommend it highly enough. Everyone should read this book. Go do it. Do it now. It''s just awesome. You won''t regret it'' Goodreads Reader Review''It''s hilarious and mind-blowing. From the first page to the last, I was amazed at just how much influence this book has had on TV, movies, etc.'' Goodreads Reader ReviewTrade ReviewStephenson excels in marrying geekspeak with riotous action * Guardian *A cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole * San Francisco Bay Guardian *Brilliantly realized. Stephenson [is] an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow * The New York Times *A fantastic, slam-bang-overdrive, supersurrealistic, comic-spooky whirl through a tomorrow that is already happening. Stephenson is intelligent, perceptive, hip * Timothy Leary *Like a Pynchon novel with the brakes removed * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisONE OF THE BBC''S ''100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD''The year is 2021. No child has been born for twenty-five years. The human race faces extinction.Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.

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Book Synopsis''ORIGINAL, THRILLING AND POWERFUL'' - Guardian''HAUNTING, HEARTHBREAKING'' - VogueThe phenomenal million-copy bestseller that is also a BAFTA Award-nominated movieNOT EVERY GIFT IS A BLESSINGEvery morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don''t like her. She jokes that she won''t bite. But they don''t laugh.Melanie is a very special girl. Emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is the most powerful and affecting thriller you will read this year.''If you only read one novel this year, make sure it''s this one'' Martina Cole''As fresh as it is terrifying'' Joss Whedon''A great read that takes hold of you and doesnt let go'' - John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of LET THE RIGHT ONETrade ReviewOriginal, thrilling and powerful * GUARDIAN *Haunting, heartbreaking * VOGUE *As fresh as it is terrifying -- Joss Whedon, screenwriter, film and television producerIf you only read one novel this year, make sure it's this one, it's amazing -- No. 1 bestselling author Martina ColeA great read that takes hold of you and doesn´t let go * John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN *Vividly memorable and unexpectedly poignant * METRO *Keeps you on tenterhooks as the action unfolds * ELLE magazine *A masterpiece * SUN *Glorious * Bryony Gordon, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH *Complex,heartbreaking, hopeful and intelligently written . . . Enigmatic and utterly gripping * HARPER'S BAZAAR *Scary, tense and fast-paced . . . but with a heart-warming tenderness * MARIE CLAIRE *Brilliant . . . Gripping right to the end * SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Carole Matthews *Heartbreaking and shocking * FABULOUS (SUN magazine) *Both tender and devastating, a page-turner which kept me guessing up to the very last scene, as well as a meditation on what it means to be human . . . Fantastically enjoyable * Naomi Alderman, multi-award winning novelist *A gripping, moving novel that comes highly recommended * SCIFINOW *It was hard to quit reading such a compelling, intense book * i09.com *I often forgot to breathe while I was turning the pages * BOOKTOPIA *A heartbreaking and haunting story that is beautifully written * MINDFOOD *This innovative and pacy read gets to the heart of what it means to be human * PSYCHOLOGIES *Perfectly paced with a brilliant ending * Samantha Shannon, author of THE BONE SEASON *Carey paints a picture of a world teetering on the edge . . . I was tempted to read the entire book in one sitting * BOING BOING *

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Book SynopsisImmortality can be yours . . . at a pricePermutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes grows beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime, the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not enough - and much more - Permutation city is filled with the sense of wonder and dread. Can what makes you human be distilled into data? And what happens if you can''t afford to pay?Readers are having their minds blown by PERMUTATION CITY:Egan tells the story masterfully. I can only marvel at how he finds his inspiration for a high-tech tale in an ancient wisdom like Kabbalah, and then proceeds to out-Kabbalah even the Kabbalists with his creativity - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐Egan questions what it really means to be human in a way that it''s quite unsurpassed in my mind - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐THIS is why I read SF. THIS is the sense of wonder I''m looking for in a SF story. Forget everything you read about virtual reality, artificial life & consciousness - nothing compares to the concepts and the worldbuilding in this book. This is ultimate postcyberpunk ever - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐I can say without qualification that Greg Egan is the greatest science fiction author I''ve ever read - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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Book Synopsis''I loved this novel''s brain and heart''DAVID MITCHELL, AUTHOR OF CLOUD ATLAS''A first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive''JEFF VANDERMEER, AUTHOR OF ANNIHILATIONThere are creatures in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, they''re monsters. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study them, a revelation. Their minds are unlike ours. Their bodies are malleable, transformable, shifting. They can communicate. And they want us to leave. When pioneering marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen is offered the chance to travel to the remote Con Dao Archipelago to investigate a highly intelligent, dangerous octopus species, she doesn''t pause long enough to look at the fine print. DIANIMA - a transnational tech corporation best known for its grouTrade ReviewI loved this novel's brain and heart, its hidden traps, sheer propulsion, ingenious world-building and the purity of its commitment to luminous ideas. * David Mitchell, author of CLOUD ATLAS *The Mountain in the Sea is a first-rate speculative thriller, by turns fascinating, brutal, powerful, and redemptive. The book poses profound questions about artificial and nonhuman intelligence, and its answers are tantalizing and provocative. * Jeff VanderMeer, author of ANNIHILATION *Full disclosure: in all my years as a science journalist, I could never quite get my head around the so-called hard problem of consciousness. I could recite the theories, but it wasn't until I read Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea that I truly understood it in my bones. This book has many layers. It has the clothes of a futuristic eco-punk or cyberpunk thriller, the guts of a philosophy seminar and the soul of a religious tract. -- Sally Adee * NEW SCIENTIST *A novel of ideas... [a] cerebral but not self-satisfied book that also features welcome episodes of comic relief and tightly choreographed action... It is successful entertainment as well as a warning.' -- Steven Poole * GUARDIAN, Book of the Day *Ray Nayler has taken on the challenge of a near future that's less certain than ever, and made it gleam - not only with computer terminals and sentry drones (we love those, sure) but also polished coral and cephalopod eyes. From these pages, I got the sense of William Gibson, and Paolo Bacigalupi - and Donna Haraway, and Octavia Butler. This is a planetary science fiction, and a profound new kind of adventure, featuring ? among so many other wonders ? the best villain I've read in years. In the end, the enormity and possibility of this novel's vision shook tears loose. What a ride; what a feeling; what a future. * Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore *A wildly original, gorgeously written, unputdownable gem of a novel. Nayler is one of the most exciting new voices i've read in years. * Blake Crouch, author of DARK MATTER *With a thriller heart and a sci-fi head, The Mountain in the Sea delivers a spooky smart read. Artificial intelligence, nascent animal sentience, murderous flying drones: like the best of Gibson or Atwood, it brings all of the plot without forgetting the bigger questions of consciousness, ecocide, and scientific progress. Truly a one-of-a-kind story. * Kawai Strong Washburn, author of SHARKS IN THE TIME OF SAVIORS *I came to The Mountain in the Sea for the cephalopds (I love cephalopods) but I stayed for the fascinating meditation on consciousness and personhood. I loved this book. * Ann Leckie *Nayler's debut is in equal parts page-turning near-future thriller and a profound exploration of language, communication and otherness... exhilarating and kaleidoscopic. -- Jay Owens * NEW HUMANIST *The Mountain in the Sea is intelligent, ambitious and thought-provoking. . . For its thoughtful depth, its dealing with big ideas such as the manner and matter of intelligence and communication and its education about the oceans, it is very, very good. -- Mark Yon * SFF WORLD *An action thriller with profound consequences. Groundbreaking stuff. -- Doug Johnstone * THE BIG ISSUE *A high tide of ideas and emotion. A compelling vision of other minds sharing our world - a vision you will long to be true * Stephen Baxter *[A] brilliantly clever and compelling thriller. * PRESS ASSOCIATION syndicated to regional press *Readers of Peter Godfrey-Smith's Other Minds and Eduardo Kohn's How Forests Think will delight in an Anthropocene adventure that brings their ideas so vividly to life. -- Richard Lea * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Both a profound meditation on the way human actions are affecting the world we live in... but also a breathless thriller and a perfect example of world building, this is a breakthrough novel which I expect to have a major impact over years to come. -- Maxim Jakubowski * CRIME TIME *This is a tour de force in showing how well fiction can explore society's challenges and problems. It also is a delight that, while asking difficult questions, the author offers some hope for humankind, and redemptive joy in the struggles involved in facing our environmental battles. -- Graeme Gourlay * DIVE MAGAZINE *A hugely accomplished debut. -- Natalie Xenos * CULTUREFLY *Nayler's masterful debut combines fascinating science and well-wrought characters to deliver a deep dive into the nature of intelligent life . . . As entertaining as it is intellectually rigorous, this taut exploration of human - and inhuman - consciousness is a knockout * Publishers Weekly, starred review *Less a science fiction adventure than a meditation on conscioussness and self-awareness, the limitations of human language, and the reasons for those limitation, the novel teaches as it engages * Kirkus Reviews *This compelling debut is impossible to put down, a delightful embroidery of the rush of scientific discovery and the pain of isolation, asking hard questions about what society is and what it means to truly understand another creature * Booklist, starred review *Exceedingly ambitious . . . [This] is a novel that is alert, intelligent, open * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisTHE 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED MATERIALAfter the Internet, what came next?Enter the Metaverse - cyberspace home to avatars and software daemons, where anything and just about everything goes. Newly available on the Street - the Metaverse''s main drag - is Snow Crash. A cyberdrug that reduces avatars in the digital world to dust, but also infects users in real life, leaving them in a vegetative state.This is bad news for Hiro, a freelance hacker and the Metaverse''s best swordfighter, and mouthy skateboard courier Y. T.. Together, investigating the Infocalypse, they trace back the roots of language itself to an ancient Sumerian priesthood and find they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination.In this special edition of the remarkably prescient modern classic, Neal Stephenson exploreslinguistics, computer science, politics and philosophy in the form of a break-neck adventure into the fast-approaching yet eerily recognizable future.''Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the twenty-first century'' William Gibson''Brilliantly realized'' New York Times Book Review ''Like a Pynchon novel with the brakes removed'' Washington Post''A remarkably prescient vision of today''s tech landscape'' Vanity Fair

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Book SynopsisIf you want a better future tomorrow, you're going to have to fight for it today. Here are four urgent stories from author and activist Cory Doctorow, four social, technological and economic visions of the world today and its near – all too near – future. 'Unauthorized Bread' is a tale of immigration, toxic economic stratification and a young woman's perilously illegal quest to fix a broken toaster. In 'Model Minority' a superhero finds himself way out his depth when he confronts the corruption of the police and justice system. 'Radicalized' is the story of a desperate husband, a darknet forum and the birth of a violent uprising against the US health care system. The final story, 'The Masque of the Red Death', tracks an uber-wealthy survivalist and his followers as they hole up and attempt to ride out the collapse of society. 'Cory Doctorow is one of our most important science fiction writers' KIM STANLEY ROBINSON. Trade ReviewExcellent collection * SFX *A collection of extraordinarily clever novellas that cut right through to the anxieties that occupy Western societies as we continue to carve out a world that has an uneasy yet dependent relationship with technology * SciFiNow *A set of four superb, distinctive short stories... Doctorow's prose is punchy and direct, but he succeeds in conjuring the most vivid and plausible of situations with an impressive economy of words. While he is adept at intertwining questions of contemporary technology, culture and politics into his work, it is the calibre of his flawed but recognisable characters that ultimately brings these vivid short stories to life' * Starburst *A memorable collection of fascinating characters doing their best to survive an increasingly hostile world against the pressures of a civilisation that seems to be spiralling out of control. This is a highly recommended book from me -- Gareth Jones, at SFCrowsnestinfoExciting and very, very cinematic... "Radicalized" is the best of the bunch, and so clever... Fun, in a darkly, twisted sort of way' * Concatenation *This is no collection of preachy parables. For a start, it's often laugh-out-loud funny... Doctorow's characters have depth and nuance, and fighting the dystopian tide changes them' * New Frame *

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Book SynopsisA BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick - Booker Gems THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017 WINNER OF THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ''Astonishing'' Zadie Smith ''Stunning'' Spectator ''Extraordinary'' TLS An extraordinary story of love and hope from the bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist All over the world, doors are appearing. They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives. And in a city gripped by war, Nadia and Saeed are newly in love. Hardly more than strangers, desperate to survive, they open a door and step through. But the doors only go one way. Once you leave, there is no going back.*Coming soon as a major Netflix film - produced by Michelle and Barack Obama and starring Riz Ahmed* ''One of the year''s most significant literary works'' The New York Times ''A masterpiece'' Michael Chabon ''Addictively readable and brilliantly written. Fantastic'' Mail on SundayTrade ReviewAs with the very best literature, its crystalline readability fast eclipses its topicality * Mail on Sunday *[A] devastating portrait of victims of war, creating a singular parable about modernity, migration and the individual's place in the world * The Guardian *A deceptively simple conceit turns a timely novel about a couple fleeing a civil war into a profound meditation on the psychology of exile. A novel that fuses the real with the surreal - perhaps the most faithful way to convey the tremulous political fault lines of our interconnected planet * The New York Times *No conventional love story. [An] exceptionally moving and powerful novel * The Guardian *Publisher's description. In an unnamed city swollen by refugees, two young people fall in love. One day soon they will have to leave their homeland, running for their lives, searching for their place in the world. * Penguin *Powerful, vivid, poignant... Hamid is the master * Sunday Times *Writing in spare, crystalline prose, Hamid conveys the experience of living in a city under siege with sharp, stabbing immediacy * Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times *A love story as spare, haunting and spiritually powerful as a haiku. All my life I will remember Nadia and Saeed, their humanity against a surreal, broken landscape. Exit West is Hamid's finest book -- Kiran DesaiImaginative, inventive, graceful... Hamid exploits fiction's capacity to elicit empathy and imagine a better world * New York Times Book Review *A subtle and moving examination of how human relationships endure and falter under unimaginable pressures. Exit West is an instant classic * GQ *Impressive... Exit West confirms Hamid's reputation as a brilliant ventriloquist who is deeply engaged with the most pressing issues of our time -- Andrew Motion (Book of the Week) * Guardian *Astonishing -- Zadie SmithImmediately canonical * New Yorker *Part pared-down romance, part 21st-century fable, Exit West is a thought experiment that pivots on the crucial figure of this century: the migrant * Financial Times *Exit West packs such an emotional wallop you will be thinking about it for days afterwards. For Hamid is not only telling a story, he is asking what sort of a world we want to live in. * Editor's Choice, the Bookseller *It's a terrific, beautifully constructed, important novel of our time. This is what we expect fiction to do: to examine our age but also to cast an eye on the past and - very brilliantly in this case - on the future too. I love it. * Mirza Waheed *Exit West is a masterpiece. It stretches the boundaries of the real just enough to make a point about the state of immigrants and refugees in the contemporary world. But it's very much grounded in reality. It's a beautiful book. * Michael Chabon *Mohsin Hamid is one of the most talented and formally audacious writers of his generation * Telegraph *A man born to write -- Dave EggersThe voice of a changing continent. A writer at the top of his game * Metro *

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Book Synopsis***LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019*****SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE 2020****LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI PRIZE 2020**'Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'Inspired by Mary Shelley's gothic classic Frankenstein, discover this audacious new novel about the bodies we live in and the bodies we desire.As Brexit grips Britain, Ry, a young transgender doctor, is falling in love. The object of their misguided affection: the celebrated AI-specialist, Professor Victor Stein. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with his Mum again, is set to make his fortune with a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere.Ranging from 1816, when nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley pens her radical first novel, to a cryonics facility in present-day Arizona where the dead wait to return to life, Frankissstein shows us how much closer we are to the future than we realise.'Intelligent and inventive...very funny' The Times 'One of the most gifted writers working today' New York TimesTrade ReviewA riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own that reanimates Frankenstein as a cautionary tale for a contemporary moment dominated by debates about Brexit, gender, artificial intelligence and medical experimentation… While the story has a gripping momentum of its own, it also fizzes with ideas. -- Daisy Hay * Financial Times *A riotous reimagining with an energy and passion all of its own that reanimates Frankenstein as a cautionary tale for a contemporary moment dominated by debates about Brexit, gender, artificial intelligence and medical experimentation… While the story has a gripping momentum of its own, it also fizzes with ideas. -- Daisy Hay * Financial Times *Here, hard science and dreamy Romanticism exist in both tension and harmony… Frankissstein abounds with invention… this is a work of both pleasure and profundity, robustly and skilfully structured, and suffused with all Winterson’s usual preoccupations – gender, language, sexuality, the limits of individual liberty and the life of ideas. -- Sam Byers * Guardian, *Book of the Week* *A modern take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it’s a fascinating and engrossing look at AI, science, gender fluidity and, ultimately, what it really means to be human. -- Nicola Sturgeon * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *Yes, the book we have all been waiting for. Yes, everything Winterson has always done so well. Yes, above and beyond anything that is yet to be written.

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Book SynopsisA woman tries to find her way home in a world decimated by earthquakes, but there are people determined to stop her and harvest her DNA.Alice wakes up in the Los Angeles Quake Zone in 2025 having no idea how she got there. As her memories slowly return, she finds she''s being hunted by several armed groups intent on capturing her alive.At the same time, Este, a survivor of the quakes that destroyed Los Angeles, makes a living as a pathfinder for salvage teams in the city. Este rescues Alice from her pursuers and learns there is something not quite right about her - Alice is convinced it is 2003.Aided by Este''s occasional boyfriend Wilfredo and her dog Casey, Este and Alice try to evade those chasing Alice and discover why they value her so highly, all while trying to reunite her with her family as the earthquakes around the world grow worse.

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Book SynopsisIn the year 2100, the invention of the Electron Pump - an apparently inexhaustible supply of free energy - has enabled humanity to devote its time and energies to more than the struggle for survival, finally breaking free of the Earth. But the Electron Pump works by exchanging materials with a parallel universe, and such unbalancing of the cosmos has consequences. Humans and aliens alike must race to prevent a vast nuclear explosion in the heart of the Sun - and the vaporisation of the Earth exactly eight minutes later ...

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Book SynopsisFrom Andrew Caldecott, the bestselling author of ROTHERWEIRD, comes the jaw-dropping conclusion of the MOMENTICON duology - an epic adventure like no other!'Remember Simul' - the last words of a dying man, and the key to mankind's survival. Words which take Morag, Fogg and their friends on a wild ride through caverns and over mountains, into old paintings, to a university unlike any other and up the lethal Tower of No Return. A ride where mythical beasts, legendary monster-hunters and a corrupt establishment lie in wait . . . while the weather-watchers look on and bide their time. It's a race against extinction too . . . for nature herself is bent on vengeance.-------------------------'Unpredictable, dramatic and always utterly enthralling' - Reader review'Intelligent and also fun' - Reader review'Caldecott once again delivers in spades' - Reader review'Special and dangerous properties . . . opens a series of trap-doors in the readers' imagination' - Hilary Mantel, Booker prize winning author, on RotherweirdTrade ReviewSpecial and dangerous properties . . . opens a series of trap-doors in the readers' imagination * Hilary Mantel, Booker prize winning author, on Rotherweird *Whimsical science fiction at its finest. A satisfying jigsaw where the bigger picture doesn't become visible until the final piece is slotted into place * Geek Dad on Momenticon *It feels non-stop: constantly splitting the protagonists up and bringing them together again, delivering a series of growing climaxes and then leaving readers hanging for a concluding second volume * Pile by the Bed on Momenticon *One of the most unique books I've read . . . a compelling and enrapturing story that captures the reader from the first page to the last * Grimdark Magazine on Momenticon *Has the arbitrary and rather hallucinogenic atmosphere of the Alice in Wonderland books * British Science Fiction Association on Momenticon *A book that is unlike anything else you have read * SF Book Reviews on Momenticon *Caldecott successfully creates an equally engaging and original a world as Rotherweird. Highly recommended. * Goodreads reviewer on Momenticon *Momenticon is a perplexing and brilliant story full of literary and artistic rabbit holes and quirky characters. It ends on a cliffhanger and I want to continue this journey for sure. * Goodreads reviewer on Momenticon *I'm not sure there are enough words that can accurately describe this weird, brilliant, funny and adventurous read. * Goodreads reviewer on Momenticon *A rip-roaring adventure through a brilliantly weird and wonderful dystopian landscape. I can't imagine what'll happen in the next book but I can't wait to find out! * Goodreads reviewer on Momenticon *

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Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A genuinely thought-provoking piece of fiction' THE TIMES'Extraordinary' WILLIAM BOYD'Profoundly moving . . . a wonderful and life-affirming love story' JAMES HOLLAND'His greatest novel yet' ANTONY BEEVOR'Original and enthralling' PETER JAMES‘A beautifully written novel. On the one hand you have love, kindness, responsibility; on the other monstrous arrogance and indifference to consequences’ SCOTSMANA CHILD WILL BE BORN WHO WILL CHANGE EVERYTHINGWhen a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman's child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences.Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before. Through a series of IVF treatments, which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment that will upend the human race as we know it.Seth, the baby, is delivered to hopeful parents Mary and Alaric, but when his differences start to mark him out from his peers, he begins to attract unwanted attention.The Seventh Son is a spectacular examination of what it is to be human. It asks the question: just because you can do something, does it mean you should? Sweeping between New York, London, and the Scottish Highlands, this is an extraordinary novel about unrequited love and unearned power.Trade ReviewThis is a genuinely thought-provoking piece of fiction. You could devour it in a day and be wholly transported into the near future, then set it back down, dazed but enlightened, in the present day where you will see the world anew in all its wonders and frailties * The Times *A stunning novel: profoundly moving, deeply unsettling, thought-provoking and prescient but also a wonderful and life-affirming love story too -- James HollandOnce I had started I literally could not stop. It really is his greatest novel yet, and of course beautifully written in that wonderful, understated style -- Antony BeevorFaulks is one of the most original and compelling writers in the world. This enthralling novel is right up there among his very finest work -- Peter JamesA completely fascinating and extraordinary novel. A profound and moving examination of our complex human nature -- William BoydA beautifully written novel. On the one hand you have love, kindness, responsibility; on the other monstrous arrogance and indifference to consequences * The Scotsman *Brilliant, original and unputdownable. An absolute cracker -- Peter FrankopanBrilliant -- Matthew ParkerThis elegant near-future novel about a daring scientific experiment explores the evolution of consciousness… Faulks is an enviably graceful and economical writer. The early chapters of the book rip along with clarity and elegance. He conjures up the various worlds, brings the central characters vividly to life and keeps the story moving intriguingly forward * Guardian *A high-concept page-turner… Pitched somewhere between Michael Crichton and Ian McEwan, it’s a timely meditation on the whims of rich tycoon * Mail on Sunday *Engaging and thought-provoking … The Seventh Son straddles two worlds, encompassing the distant past as well as the future. In so doing, Faulks asks difficult questions about who and what we are, and whether we could ever justifiably alter our genes to remove the worst of our defects * Herald *Thought-provoking and chilling * I Paper *Fabulously compelling… a provocative, poignant and disturbing examination of what it is to be human… Who says a novel of ideas can’t be as thrilling as a holiday beach read? The Birdsong author’s novels invariably examine big, bold ideas yet are beautifully told with a gossamer light touch. The Seventh Son is no exception * Express *A resonant hint of Frankenstein’s wretched monster about Seth who, functional, capable and literate as he is, stands at the book’s emotional centre, desperate for a companionship he can never find * Daily Mail *Cutting-edge science and big, meaty ideas aside, it’s the minute details of everyday life and the bursting-from-the-page characters that make this thought-provoking novel come alive -- Johanna Thomas-Corr * The Times *Sebastian Faulks has long been a novelist much occupied with ideas, especially scientific and medical ones, while contriving to marry this to a strong plot and credible characters . . . gripping, horribly persuasive and sad -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE PHILIP K. DICK AWARD The baker's dozen stories gathered here turn readers into travellers to the past and the future, and explorers of the weirder points of the present. The journey is the thing as Pinsker weaves music, memory, technology, history, mystery, love, loss, and even multiple selves on generation ships and cruise ships, on highways and high seas, in murder houses and treehouses. They feature runaways, fiddle-playing astronauts and retired time travellers. Weird, wired, hopeful, haunting, and often beautiful, Sarah Pinsker's stories cast a searching light on human nature. But what the heart wants is not always right, or easy. Praise for Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: 'Simply wonderful... Each story is generous and original' KAREN JOY FOWLER 'An auspicious start to what promises to be one wild ride of a literary career' KIRKUS 'Stories that are as delightful and surprising to pore through as they are introspective and elegiac' PUBLISHERS WEEKLYTrade ReviewThis collection of stories is simply wonderful. Each story is generous and original; as a collection, the tales are varied, but with recurring themes of memory and music through-out. Pinsker has emerged as one of our most exciting voices. I love this book completely -- Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesIn her debut collection, widely lauded author/musician Pinsker zips through road trips, space ships, speculative futures, and parallel presents with stories that are equal parts hard-wired sci-fi theory and hard-traveling rock-and-roll attitude... In the speculative tradition of Ursula K. Le Guin or Kelly Link but with her own indomitable voice front and center. An auspicious start to what promises to be one wild ride of a literary career' * Kirkus Reviews *This beautiful, complex debut collection assembles some of Nebula winner Pinsker's best stories into a twisting journey that is by turns wild, melancholic, and unsettling... The stories are enhanced by a diverse cast of LGBTQ and nonwhite characters. Pinsker's captivating compendium reveals stories that are as delightful and surprising to pore through as they are introspective and elegiac' * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *

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Book SynopsisThe nail-bitingly suspenseful second book in the smash-hit Wayward Pines trilogy, from the bestselling author of Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade.It’s the perfect town . . . as long as you don’t try to leave.Nestled amid picture-perfect mountains, the idyllic town of Wayward Pines is a modern-day Eden – at least at first glance.Except that within its fences, the residents are told where to work, how to live, and who to marry. None of them know how they got here. Some believe they are dead. Others think they’re trapped in an unfathomable experiment. Everyone secretly dreams of leaving, but those who dare face a terrifying surprise.As sheriff, Ethan Burke is tasked with enforcing the town’s laws, and he’s one of the few entrusted with the truth – even though, for all his knowledge, he’s as much a prisoner of Wayward Pines as anyone else.But when a murder investigation draws him deeper into the town’s inner workings, Ethan learns that its past is darker than even he suspected – and finds himself faced with an impossible choice.The second novel in Blake Crouch’s blockbuster series, Wayward delves deeper into the irresistible mysteries and horrors of this perfect little town, even as it asks what it means to live with secrets – and what price we’ll pay for the truth.

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 FINALIST FOR THE BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE 2022 FINALIST FOR THE URSULA LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 WATERSTONES AND ESQUIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 ‘Haunting and luminous … An astonishing debut’ – Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta 'A powerfully moving and thought provoking read. At times sublime, strange and deeply human' Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling author of the Children of Time series Siberia, 2031. After a virus, unearthed from melting permafrost, unleashes a deadly plague upon humanity, those left alive are forced to adapt to a new world, and do so in myriad moving and inventive ways. Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects — a pig — develops human speech; and a widowed painter and her teenage granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet. A story of unshakeable hope that seamlessly crosses literary lines, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humankind endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible. [How High We Go in the Dark] reaches far beyond our stars while its heart remains rooted to Earth, and reminds us that our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of our world - Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree Trade ReviewHaunting and luminous, How High We Go in the Dark orchestrates its multitude of memorable voices into beautiful and lucid Science Fiction that resembles a fitful future memory of our present. An astonishing debut * Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta *Imaginative and fascinating … On a sentence level, the writing in this book is simply beautiful ... An immersive, hypnotic read * Roxane Gay *A powerfully moving and thought provoking read. At times sublime, strange and deeply human * Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling and award-winning author of the Children of Time series *As ambitious as it is intimate, How High We Go in the Dark is both a prescient warning and a promise of human resilience in the face of any odds. Sequoia Nagamatsu masterfully connects each slice of life into one epic and unforgettable tale, spanning centuries and generations. His debut envisions a future that is at once wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible. It reaches far beyond our stars while its heart remains rooted to Earth, and reminds us that our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of our world. -- Samantha ShannonLike a Polaroid photograph, How High We Go in the Dark takes time to show its true colours. When they finally appear, the effect is all the more dazzling ... His novel, with its emphasis on family, mutual acceptance and the often unorthodox ways in which we are all connected, will be admired as much by fans of Becky Chambers’s hugely popular Wayfarers series as by readers of Richard Powers’s Booker-shortlisted Bewilderment. It is a truly genre-transcending work in which sense of wonder and literary acumen are given boundless opportunity to shine * Guardian *Moving and thought-provoking… A welcome addition to a growing trend of what we might call the ‘speculative epic’: genre-bending novels that use a wide aperture to tackle large issues like climate change while jumping between characters, timelines and even narrative modes… Nagamatsu squarely hits both the ‘literary’ and ‘science fiction’ targets, offering psychological insights in lyrical prose while seriously exploring speculative conceits… How High We Go in the Dark is a book of sorrow for the destruction we’re bringing on ourselves. Yet the novel reminds us there’s still hope in human connections, despite our sadness * New York Times *A refractive glass exploring themes of loss, mourning and recovery through an impressive variety of characters, moods and situations …The elegiac opening story is about a man mourning his grown-up daughter as he studies a 30,000-year-old corpse … Nagamatsu’s footwork is impressive as he skips from trope to trope, and epoch to futuristic epoch * The Times *A novel that is both grimly timely while also moving past our usual notions of time to reveal a wider view— Sequoia Nagamatsu allows his story to unspool with such a great sense of scope, freedom, and clarity, creating a stunning mosaic of experience and humanness * Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake *Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark is a sprawling, epic debut that ventures from the Arctic to interstellar space, from life to what may come after it. With precision and harrowing prescience, Nagamatsu envisions the effects - both cultural and planetary - of a mysterious, devastating pandemic; but he explores, too, the astonishing commitment, resilience, and capacity for resilience that enables life - human and otherwise - to reach for survival. Sequoia Nagamatsu is a writer whose imagination is matched only by his compassion, the kind we need to light our way through the dark * Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists *How High We Go in the Dark is wondrous not just in the feats of imagination, which are so numerous that it makes me dizzy to recall them, but also in the humanity and tenderness with which Sequoia Nagamatsu helps us navigate this landscape, to find a way to survive while holding onto the things that make us human. This is a truly amazing book, one to keep close as we imagine the uncertain future * Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here *One of the best novels I've read recently ... Reimagines this world and the next to come * Alexander Chee *Wildly imaginative, pandemic prescient … Nagamatsu depicts his homeland’s reaction to a deadly virus with a droll eye … a terrifyingly original novel * Independent.co.uk, Books of the Month *A prescient warning of an all-too-plausible future and a spellbinding mosaic of characters who stand as a testament to human inventiveness in the face of catastrophe, Nagamatsu’s ambitious, haunting debut announces the arrival of an astonishing new voice in science fiction * Waterstones, Books to Read in 2022 *With How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu has done the impossible: written a book expansive enough to tackle the enormity of our climate crisis—and then gone further, to capture our even larger capacity for creation. It is clear from this book that Nagamatsu possesses one of literature’s most vibrant and generous imaginations. You will fall in love with these characters and, in so doing, remember your love for the world. How High We Go in the Dark rejects the idea of the novel as the story of an individual and bravely takes on the collective nature both of global warming and of how we can face it. * Matthew Salesses, author of The Hundred Year Flood *Gorgeous, terrifying, compassionate. With funerary skyscrapers, a generation ship painted with history, and a pyramid of souls reaching for light, How High We Go in the Dark is both powerful and original. Nagamastu elegantly dissects disaster with an eye toward empathy and curiosity. At this book’s center is a great big beautiful heart. An exceptional accomplishment that left me equal parts hope and wonder * Erika Swyler, author of Light From Other Stars and The Book of Speculation *A book of incredible scope and ambition, a polyphonic elegy for the possible, for all that might be won and lost in the many worlds we make together: the world of our families, our civilization and our planet, the planets beyond. Sequoia Nagamatsu’s debut generates fresh wonder at all we are, plus hope for all we might become, in these unforgettable futures yet to be * Matt Bell, author of Appleseed *Like an ice core carved from the frozen depths of an ancient sea, this is a novel that captures the drama across eons, containing the glittering secrets of some future history. An astonishing vision of the end of the Anthropocene * Matthew Baker, author of Why Visit America *You can try to compare Sequoia Nagamatsu to George Saunders or Charlie Kaufman or David Mitchell, but his is a singular voice and this is a book so original and wondrous and reality-shredding that it defies easy summary or categorization, like a dream that feels more vivid than life. It’s brave and prescient, completely bananas and yet absolutely moving, packed with humor and heart. I loved it * Benjamin Percy, author of Ninth Metal, Red Moon, and Thrill Me, and writer of X-Force and Wolverine for Marvel Comics *How High We Go in the Dark is not a plague novel; it is an after plague novel. Sequoia Nagamatsu nimbly bounds through time, space, and species while tackling the question, Where do we go from here? My favorite kind of speculative fiction—philosophical and hopeful; endlessly inventive, with a beating heart * Gabrielle Zevin, New York Times bestselling author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry *Both epic and deeply intimate, Nagamatsu’s debut novel is science fiction at its finest, rendered in gorgeous, evocative prose and offering hope in the face of tragedy through human connection. * Booklist, starred review *Exactly the white-hot missive of hope, humanity, and compassion you need … Each story is a marvel of imagination… Rich in scope and vision, with each nested story masterfully rippling across others, this is a visionary novel about grief, resilience, and how the human spirit endures * Esquire *Wildly imaginative, pandemic prescient … A terrifyingly original novel * Independent.co.uk *Spanning countries and centuries, an ambitious speculative debut * Highlights of the Year, Guardian *A brave, thoughtful and sometimes moving novel * SFX *An intergenerational mosaic of loss and love … Here is imagery unforgettable and awe-inspiring … Nagamatsu has crafted a dazzling work of ambition, compassion, and imagination that grapples with all these complexities. It offers a whisper of what might matter most, and how high we might go – together – in dark * Lunate *A product of more than 10 years’ labor, this novel will ring out sharply in today’s pandemic world .… Nagamatsu blends literary and visionary verve in a narrative winning comparison to Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven * Library Journal *A book that is innately, essentially human in a way few writers manage to * Lightspeed *Expansive and breathtaking * Debutiful *Deeply hopeful and cathartic, How High We Go in the Dark challenges preconceptions about speculative and science fiction * Bad Form Review *Nagamatsu conjures a world that is at once unrecognisable and frighteningly close to our own. It’s an ambitious and timely piece of speculative fiction that is both harrowing and hopeful * Monocle *Resonant of inventive hybrid novels such as Bewilderment by Richard Powers, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel and XX by Rian Hughes … This story ultimately demonstrates how we can each form our own destinies * Lonesomereader.com *Sequoia Nagamatsu is being hailed as one of the most exciting new writers of 2022 * Popshot Quarterly *I loved [How High We Go in the Dark] ... It exists at the intersection of bleak and beautiful, where hope lies. * Hayley Campbell *How High We Go in the Dark is an awe-inspiring, devastating, genre-busting rollercoaster of empathy, tragedy, joy and compassion. This book will break your heart - and mend it, too. I loved it * Kesia Lupo, author of We Are Bound By Stars *Desolate and sad, but also ambitious and lightly insane. Talking pigs, roller coaster euthanasia machines for children, generational trauma. I suspect this will be a book that gets a lot of attention and it should * Jenny Lawson, author of Broken *

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Book SynopsisWelcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction-What does it mean to be human when you''re part of the machine? Synners are synthesizers - not machines, but people. They take images from the brains of performers, and turn them into a form which can be packaged, sold and consumed. They don''t use the net, they are the net.Everything is automated. Everything is synthetic. But when the technology starts to fail, the terrifying question remains: what is a human?Winner of the 1992 Arthur C. Clarke Award, Synners was Pat Cadigan''s early stories, and cemented her place in the core of the cyberpunk movement, and has even inspired academic works. Lauded for her complex characters and plots, and seen as a stalwart of feminist SF, Cadigan has gone on to win another Clarke and a Hugo for subsequent works.-''Racingly told, linguistically acute, simultaneously pell-mell and precise in

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Book SynopsisTHE #2 WATERSTONES BESTSELLER'Beautifully explored and deeply complex' Gal GadotJoyful, devastating, and profound, Meet Me in Another Life is a story of love and connection in every possible form that will captivate fans of Stuart Turton, Claire North, and Audrey Niffenegger.Thora and Santi have met beforeUnder the clocktower in central Cologne, with nothing but the stars above and their futures ahead.They will meet againThey don't know it yet, but they'll meet again: in numerous lives they will become friends, colleagues, lovers, enemies meeting over and over for the first time, every time; each coming to know every version of the other.Only they can make sure it's not for the last time.But as they're endlessly drawn together and the lines between their different lives begin to blur, they are faced with one question: why?They must discover the truth of their strange attachment before this, and all their lives, are lost forever.Trade Review‘Engaging and inventive, this debut novel will appeal to fans of THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE’’BookBub, The Best Books of Spring 2021 ‘Will break your heart in the best possible way’ Popsugar, The 25 Best Books of April ‘Clever and, in the end, heartbreaking’Financial Times ‘I'm psyched about . . . MEET ME IN ANOTHER LIFE (been waiting for this one!!)’Jodi Picoult ‘A remarkable debut, haunting, genre-transcending. The human condition reflected in a shattered mirror’Stephen Baxter ‘Science fiction can reach out to the stars and at the same time hold tight to the human heart. The many layers of mystery in this beautiful love story lead to a breathtaking ending’Sue Burke, author of SEMIOSIS ‘An incredibly clever book that takes a thought experiment and gives it heart and depth. A brilliant premise beautifully executed’Christina Sweeney-Baird, author of THE END OF MEN ‘A sweet, melancholy heartache of a novel’Kate Mascarenhas, author of THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME TRAVEL ‘Inventive, bold, and surprising – from where the novel starts I could have never imagined where it ends. Along the way the story of Thora and Santi builds in suspense and emotion, revealing itself page by page, layer by layer. Cleverly constructed and highly entertaining’Charles Yu ‘Brilliant, lush, and achingly imaginative! I love this book in every life’Beth Revis, bestselling author of ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and A WORLD WITHOUT YOU ‘A truly captivating work with an ending that rocked my socks off’Erika Swyler, author of LIGHT FROM OTHER STARS and THE BOOK OF SPECULATION

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Goodreads Awards 2023.From the bestselling author of The One, now an eight-part NETFLIX series. Set in the same world as The One, The Marriage Act is a dark, high-concept thriller.‘One of the most exciting original thriller writers’ - Simon KernickWhat if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?Britain. The near future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills – the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is supervising every aspect of our personal lives, monitoring every word, every minor disagreement . . . and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour and obey.'Black Mirror' meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman’s The Power.Praise for John Marrs:'Clever, compelling and terrifyingly plausible . . . And talk about a page-turner. This one will leave you with paper cuts!' - C. J. Tudor, author of A Sliver of Darkness'A brilliantly tricksy read' Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond'Dark, immersive speculative fiction at it’s very best!' - Sarah Pearse, author of The Retreat and The SanatoriumTrade ReviewClever, compelling and terrifyingly plausible. A near future nightmare that grips from the first page and never let’s go. The Marriage Act is a brilliant examination of relationships and the power we let others have over us. And talk about a page-turner. This one will leave you with paper cuts! -- C. J. Tudor, author of A Sliver of DarknessA scarily plausible alternative future with a truly twisted narrative. Tensely plotted and terrifyingly imagined - it’ll put you off marriage and modern technology for life! -- Harriet Tyce, author of Blood OrangeThe king of near-future what ifs is back with a smart and chilling page-turner. Twisty, unsettling, scarily believable and thought provoking, this is his best yet. -- Ellery Lloyd, author of The ClubOne of the most exciting original thriller writers -- Simon Kernick, author of Good Cop Bad CopJohn’s creative, high-concept thrillers never fail to keep me furiously turning the pages and The Marriage Act is no exception. Pacy and packed full of tension, the book kept me constantly guessing as the thought-provoking plot about marriage and everything that comes with it unfolded in the most sinister of ways . . . dark, immersive speculative fiction at it’s very best! -- Sarah Pearse, author of The Retreat and The SanatoriumJohn Marrs can do no wrong. Like Huxley and Orwell before him, Marrs manages to take real life sanctities and twist them into something terrifyingly plausible. All hail the master of the speculative thriller! -- Jack Jordan, author of Sunday Times bestseller Do No HarmAn absolute blinder of a book . . . another gripping page turner. -- Claire Allan on The Marriage ActI really loved it… a plot that had me guessing all the way through. A triumph. -- Justin Myers on The Marriage ActClever, original, and impossible to put down. The Marriage Act had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. John Marrs is a master of suspense. -- Jeneva Rose, international bestselling author of The Perfect MarriageMarrs is brilliant at twists . . . for the addicts of adrenaline-fuelled twisty rides -- Peter James, author of Picture You DeadA page-turning and thought-provoking read * Daily Mirror *Skilfully evokes a future Britain . . . Marrs also excells when it comes to worldbuilding . . . a socially aware novel packed with thought-provoking questions * SFX Magazine *Another savagely clever near-future thriller. Provocative, terrifying and compulsive. If you loved The One, you'll love this! -- Cara Hunter, author of Hope to DieA tense, thrilling read – I found it impossible to put down. It’s dark and twisted, and I loved it -- Alex Michaelides, bestselling author of The Silent PatientOriginal thriller with lots of surprises * My Weekly *Dark, twisted, and full of surprises -- Mark Edwards, bestselling author of Her to Stay and The RetreatFour couples navigate an increasingly claustrophobic world in this razor sharp and chillingly plausible tale from the masterful John Marrs * Woman's Own Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe Sunday Times bestsellerA stunning science fiction debut, The Space Between Worlds is both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.'My mother used to say I was born reaching, which is true. She also used to say it would get me killed, which it hasn't. Not yet, anyway.'Born in the dirt of the wasteland, Cara has fought her entire life just to survive. Now she has done the impossible, and landed herself a comfortable life on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, she's on a sure path to citizenship and security - on this world, at least.Of the 380 realities that have been unlocked, Cara is dead in all but 8.Cara's parallel selves are exceptionally good at dying - from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn't outrun - which makes Cara wary, and valuable. Because while multiverse travel is possible, no one can visit a world in which their counterpart is still alive. And no one has fewer counterparts than Cara.But then one of her eight doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, and Cara is plunged into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and future in ways she never could have imagined - and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her earth, but the entire multiverse.Trade ReviewJohnson's debut is a rare bird in any reality: a novel that is twisting, suspenseful, and profound * Max Gladstone, co-author of the Hugo and Nebula-winning THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR *Profoundly satisfying . . . [it] remained two steps ahead of my imagination, rattling it out of complacency and flooding it with color and heat * The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice *A gritty, riveting, and ultimately hopeful novel about the people, choices, and relationships who make us who we are - in this world, and in those we can only imagine * Kameron Hurley, Hugo and Locus award-winning author of The Light Brigade *A strong new voice in science fiction * Sunday Times Culture *Fascinating, complicated, compelling . . . this is a jewel of a novel, all the more impressive for being Johnson's debut * Locus *Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose * Library Journal Starred Review *Johnson bursts onto the scene with this thought-provoking, high-concept sci-fi debut that impresses with exceptional worldbuilding and a distinctive protagonist * Publishers Weekly *Johnson excels at contrasting lives of privilege and poverty, and at drip-feeding information that gradually reveals Cara's complex character * Guardian *A dark, provocative read that's both challenging and satisfying * SFX *Micaiah Johnson's debut is a punk album, presenting a world where even our possibilities are colonized. I loved every twisting minute of it * Alex White, author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe *A riveting story filled with adventures and emotions * The Nerd Daily *Gorgeous writing, mind-bending worldbuilding, razor-sharp social commentary, and a main character that demands your attention - and your allegiance * Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse *An imaginative tale of multiverses and doppelgangers * Choice Magazine *A witty, deep and savvy tale . . . Fresh and interesting * New Scientist *Sliding Doors meets Mad Max . . . a fast-paced, compelling read * SciFiNow *Micaiah Johnson's debut is a punk album, presenting a world where even our possibilities are colonized. I loved every twisting minute of it * Alex White, author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe *Johnson's world-hopping debut uses science fictional tools and an exciting plot to address urgent questions of privilege and position. . . . A compelling stand-alone debut that will leave readers thrilled, thoughtful, and anticipating the author's next book * Kirkus Reviews *50 Best Sci-fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade * NPR *At a time when I was really struggling with the cognitive demands of reading anything for work or pleasure, this book flooded me with oxygen and lit me on fire. I can't say for certain that it enabled me to read again, but in its wake, I could * Amal El-Mohtar, award-winning author of This Is How You Lose the Time War *A dark, provocative read... The social commentary is hard-hitting, delivered with plenty of gripping, well-crafted storytelling * SFX *Johnson, while never neglecting the necessity for story, has taken the opportunity to treat with profound questions if you read closely * ParSec Magazine *

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Book SynopsisThe #1 New York Times bestselling author returns with a visionary technothriller about climate changeStephenson's reputation as a sci-fi titan is deserved' Sunday TimesHis most visionary, and timely, book yet' Chicago Review of BooksAbsorbing speculative fiction' GuardianBrilliantly entertaining at science fiction's cutting edge' SFXIngenious and sometimes prophetic' TelegraphNeal Stephenson's sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world where the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves, and virulent, deadly pandemics.One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as elemental. But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet and all of humanity should it be applied?As only Stephenson can, Termination Shock sounds a clarion alarm, ponders potential solutions and dire risks, andTrade Review‘Absorbing speculative fiction’ Guardian ‘Neal Stephenson has never been afraid of engaging with big ideas within genre forms, and Termination Shock might be his most visionary, and timely, book yet’ Chicago Review of Books ‘Brilliantly entertaining… at science fiction’s cutting edge’ SFX ‘Wonderfully human… ingenious and sometimes prophetic… Stephenson has become a totemic figure for 21st century scientific writers’ Daily Telegraph ‘Stephenson’s reputation as a sci-fi titan is deserved’ Sunday Times

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Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL FROM WILLIAM GIBSON, THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NEUROMANCER-----San Francisco, 2017. Clinton''s in the White House, Brexit never happened - and Verity Jane''s got herself a new job.They call Verity ''the app-whisperer,'' and she''s just been hired to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice...Only Eunice has other ideas.Pretty soon, Verity realises that Eunice is smarter than anyone she''s ever met. Which is just as well since suddenly some very bad people are after Verity.Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked with interfering in the alternative past in which Verity and Eunice exist. It appears something nasty is about to happen there - and fixing it will require not only Eunice''s unique human-AI skillset but also a little help from the future.A future that Verity fears Trade ReviewA sensual, remarkably visual ride, vigorous with displays of conceptual imagination and humour * The Guardian *One of the most influential writers around . . . with Gibson's trademark panache, the story rattles along with great pace and suspense * Sunday Times *One of our greatest science-fiction writers * New York Times *Among our most fascinating novelists * Daily Telegraph *His eye for the eerie in the everyday still lends events an otherworldly sheen * New Yorker *One of the most visionary, original, and quietly influential writers currently working * Boston Globe *Gibson is a prophet and a satirist, a black comedian and an astounding architect of cool * Spectator *Engaging, thought-provoking and delightful... [Gibson] can always be counted on to show us our contemporary milieu rendered magical by his unique insights, and a future rendered inhabitable by his wild yet disciplined imagination * The Washington Post *Gibson blurs the line between real and speculative technology in a fast-paced thriller that will affirm to readers that it was well worth the wait * Booklist *Typically visionary, yet plausible and thrilling too * I Paper *If you're one of those who sees Gibson as a visionary, it's time to be scared - the scenarios he's playing with here don't make for comfort reading * SFX magazine *

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Book SynopsisAfter a fateful confrontation with her former ally, Tony Barlow, Amira Valdez is on the run, pregnant with her own clone and desperate. The fundamentalist Trinity Compound has grown in strength and numbers, and with the help of the powerful mind-controlling drug Tiresia, is ready to march on the city of Westport. All of Amira’s hopes lie with finding Nova, the first human clone, and solving the greatest riddle in human history – how to preserve human consciousness after death. Only Amira and Nova, together, can stand in the face of a world on the brink of disaster.Trade ReviewPraise for The Sentient, Book 1 in the series: "Afifi’s staggering and un-put-downable debut offers a fresh and feminist-forward take on cloning [...] This riveting debut is a must-have for any sci-fi fan." — Publishers Weekly starred review "Afifi’s first novel is a science fiction noir [...] The worldbuilding is a particular strength, as every locale feels well-realized and lived-in. This is an excellent book for fans of Mira Grant and Michael Crichton, or readers who love a thrilling narrative and welcome moral and philosophical questions in their science fiction." — Booklist "Nadia Afifi is a brand-new voice, and one you should become familiar with [...] Exciting, mesmerizing, and full of cutting-edge science, 'The Sentient' is an excellent beginning to what’s sure to be a successful career." — Analog SF “Honestly, this book was big on character, big on plot, and a well written science fiction piece, all good things I love as a bookworm and a scientist!” — The Nerd Daily "A piece of ethical excellency, a cry of freedom, and a thought-provoking debut is what Nadia Afifi has delivered for those who love to plunge into the gray morality of stories, as well as the riveting explorations of science fiction and the theory of the multiverse." — Bookwyrm's Guide to the Galaxy

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Book SynopsisEarth is falling. Will our call for help be heard? The Saints of Salvation is the extraordinary conclusion to Peter F. Hamilton’s Salvation Sequence: a high-octane adventure from a master of the genre.'The most powerful imagination in science fiction' – Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the EarthLive in hiding – or die for freedomHumanity welcomed the Olyix and their utopian technology. But mankind was tricked. Now these visitors are extracting a terrible price.For two years, the Olyix have laid siege to Earth, harvesting its people for their god. One by one, cities are crumbling beneath their devastating weaponry. And while millions have fled to seek refuge in space, others continue to fight an apparently unwinnable war.As Earth's defeat draws near, a team attempts to infiltrate the Salvation of Life – the Olyix’s arkship. If it succeeds, those chosen will travel to a hidden enclave thousands of light years away. Once there, they must signal its location to future generations, to bring the battle to the enemy. Maybe allies scattered throughout space and time can join forces. Yet in the far future, humanity are still hunted by their ancient adversary. And as forces battle on in the cold reaches of space, hope seems distant indeed . . .The Saints of Salvation is the third and final book in the Salvation Sequence by Peter F. Hamilton.'A stirring finale' – Guardian'It delivers on every level' – Daily MailTrade ReviewPeter F. Hamilton brings his Salvation trilogy to a satisfying climax . . . a stirring finale -- GuardianThis is outstanding sci-fi, monstrous in scale both physical and temporal, with knock-out thrills and spills . . . It delivers on every level -- Daily MailA massive, knock-your-socks-off, bravura finish -- Locus MagazineA rousing, action-packed space opera that further cements his reputation as a master of the genre . . . Fans will be thrilled to see this series go out on a high note -- Publishers Weekly, starred reviewExceptional . . . shows a writer that is the master of his genre, delivering everything expected, and more. Highly recommended -- SFFWorldThe Saints of Salvation is exactly what I have come to expect from a Peter F. Hamilton novel – grand awe-inspiring celestial vistas and plots that manage to be both devilishly simple yet also fiendishly complex. I can confidently confirm you’ll find all that and more in his latest masterwork -- EloquentPageA satisfactory conclusion -- SFCrowsnestPrepare for science fiction on a truly galactic scale . . . This was an awe-inspiring read -- RunalongTheShelvesEverything readers of Salvation will have hoped for. A series emerging as a modern classic -- Stephen Baxter, author of Time, on Salvation LostThis is galactic-scale space opera . . . audacious, exciting, funny and just happens to have the most terrifying alien invasion concept I've ever encountered -- Alastair Reynolds, author of Revelation Space on Salvation LostSavage, brilliant and compelling. A masterclass in tension and spectacle -- Gareth L. Powell, author of Embers of War, on Salvation Lost

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Book Synopsis***SHORTLISTED FOR THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL******A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2018******A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF 2018*** ***A WASHINGTON POST BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF 2018***''A remarkable work of dystopian imagination'' - Starburst''Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder'' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author*****After the climate wars, a floating city was constructed in the Arctic Circle. Once a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering it is now rife with corruption and the population simmers with unrest. Into this turmoil comes a strange new visitor - a woman accompanied by an orca and a chained polar bear. She disappears into the crowds looking for someone she lost thirty years ago, followed by whispers of a vanisheTrade ReviewA remarkable work of dystopian imagination . . .a gorgeously realised world that feels authentic . . . [Miller] writes exquisitely and presents us with a future that is terrifyingly plausible but never less than mesmerising . . . It's too early in the year to begin assembling 2018's 'best of' list, but Blackfish City has got to be an early contender. -- STARBURSTMiller gives us an incisive and beautifully written story of love, revenge, and the power (and failure) of family in a scarily plausible future. Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder. Plus, it has lots of action and a great cast of characters. Not to mention an orca and a polar bear! -- Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning authorMiller excels at depicting a metropolis bursting at the seams and populated by both refugees and the elite. Blackfish City is a compelling dystopian thriller -- GUARDIANMiller's poetic prose gives this dystopian story a taut, lyrical edge -- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYA floating Arctic city; nano-bonded orcas and polar bears; an Earth violently reshaped by the mistakes we're making right now . . . I haven't been this swept away by imagination and worldbuilding since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. A gorgeous, queer, muscular novel -- Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award-nominated author of HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIESBlackfish City is an exhilarating tour of a post-catastrophe future that's both fantastical and eerily convincing. Imagine The Yiddish Policeman's Union cross-bred with Snowcrash and you'll get an inkling of the imaginative horsepower on display here. A saltwater-splashed refuge for misfits and cutthroats, teeming with mystery and intrigue, Blackfish City is a place you might never want to live in - but as a reader, you won't want to leave -- Adam Sternbergh, author of THE BLINDSYou know it's a good story when the watery death of the world we know, and the nanobonded orca, aren't even the most interesting things going on! -- N. K. JemisinAn urgent tale imploring us to look at the ties between technology, race, gender and class privilege . . . Surprisingly heartwarming . . . an action-packed science fiction thriller -- WASHINGTON POSTAn ambitious, imaginative, and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that's by turns elegiac and angry. . . Miller has crafted a thriller that unflinchingly examines the ills of urban capitalism. [the city] is a beautiful and brutal character in its own right, rendered in poetic interludes. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLYBlackfish City is a triumph. Thrilling, heartfelt and ferociously political, it is the kind of fiction we need more of if we are to survive the climate catastrophe that is already enveloping our world -- James Bradley, author of CLADEFans of dystopian sci-fi will eat this one up - it's only January and already I can guarantee this one will make a lot of best of 2018 lists -- BOOKBAGThis is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for -- B&N SCI-FI AND FANTASY BLOGBlackfish City is a wildly inventive post-cyberpunk ride that also has real things to say about community and family. Sam Miller's drowned future is vivid and fully real, even as he throws in the weird and the fantastic: nano-bonded orcas, cage fighters, AIs and post-human sword fighters. Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast -- Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy Award-winning author of SPOONBENDERSI LOVED Blackfish City - imaginative, compelling . . . with beautifully immersive descriptive prose and characters that just pop . . . it was a pure pleasure to read first page to last. Highly Recommended. -- LIZ LOVES BOOKSA marvellously intricate mosaic of human stories and survival in a city afloat in the wreckage of the anthropocene -- Paul McAuley, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning authorBlackfish City is a book that seethes with competing interests and despair, but also joy, politics, crime, and brutal orcamancy. Miller is our best guide for this prophetic tale with its morass of characters locked into their destiny against a background of warped urban landscape. The book is cinematic and punchy -- Tade Thompson, Nommo Award-winning author of ROSEWATER and THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNEMiller draws a fascinating post-collapse future, mixing low-life and high concept SF to create something very different -- Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning authorImaginative, compulsive and all-too plausible -- Gareth L. Powell, BSFA Award-winning authorMiller has created a world that is so deep, complex and well-imagined that it almost appears to be a living breathing entity . . . Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys science-fiction . . . I can see this making many 'best-of-the-year' lists in 2018 -- FANTASY BOOK REVIEWA powerful novel about political corruption, organized crime and technology run amok in a dystopian city floating in the Arctic Circle -- KIRKUSA vivid dystopian metropolis that feels distressingly real and wonderfully fantastical . . . You'll be drawn in to Blackfish City in no time at all -- SCIFINOWImagines a rough, cobbled-together future, then brings forth a little magic from its potential darkness . . . An addictive tale of redemption and hope -- BOOKPAGEBlackfish City feels like a place I've never seen in a story before, but I came away feeling as though I'd lived there forever. One of the most intriguing future cities in years -- Charlie Jane AndersA timeless story of rebellion against a corrupt master, giving it a kind of Hunger Games resonance that reaches beyond any genre boundaries. Miller is a graceful writer -- BOOKLISTSam J. Miller has proven himself a force to be reckoned with . . . Blackfish City is an eco-punk thriller with startling implications for how climate change, technology, and the political machinations of the mega-rich could dramatically alter our future . . . Sam J. Miller's sophomore effort proves him a writer with real potential. Best to start here, and prepare yourself for many more strange journeys at his side -- B&N SCI-FI AND FANTASY BLOGThe novel flows with the momentum of an epidemic, an outbreak, and it doesn't slow down until the floor is littered with blood and bodies, and the air smells of fire and ash and hope . . . From battles involving polar bears and orca whales to daring rescues through maximum security installations, the novel brings a vivid action and fast pace . . . Damn near perfect -- THE BOOK SMUGGLERS

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Book Synopsis**A must-read thriller for lovers of The Passage, World War Z, The Martian or Interstellar**What happens when you make a discovery that changes everything?Deadwood, USA. A girl sneaks out just before dark to ride her new bike. Suddenly, the ground disappears beneath her. Waking up at the bottom of a deep pit, she sees an emergency rescue team above her. The people looking down see something far stranger...We always look forward. We never look back.That girl grows up to be Dr. Rose Franklyn, a brilliant scientist and the leading world expert on what she discovered. An enormous, ornate hand made of an exceptionally rare metal, which predates all human civilisation on the continent. But this thing ... it''s different. It challenges us. It rewrites history.An object whose origins and purpose are perhaps the greatest mystery humanity has ever faced. Solving the secret of where iTrade ReviewAs high-concept as it is, Sleeping Giants is a thriller through and through. . . . One of the most promising series kickoffs in recent memory * NPR *This stellar debut novel . . . masterfully blends together elements of sci-fi, political thriller and apocalyptic fiction. . . . A page-turner of the highest order * Kirkus Reviews *This year's The Martian * Buzzfeed Summer Reads *It bursts at the seams with big ideas. This book is a sheer blast from start to finish. I haven't had this much fun reading in ages * Blake Crouch *

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Book SynopsisMetro Best New Books to Read in Spring Pick Glossary Magazine Highly Anticipated Fiction Pick A road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world? Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program. Every week they feed him data, starting from the beginning of written history, era by era, and ask him to predict what will happen next to the human race. At the same time they're involved in an increasingly fraught philosophical debate about why human life is sacred and why the purpose for which he was built - to predict threats to human life to help us avoid them - is a worthwhile and ethical pursuit. These two strands come together in a way that is always suspenseful, surprising and intellectually provocative: this is an extraordinarily prescient and vital work of fiction - an apocalyptic road novel to frighten and thrill.Trade ReviewChilling, cryptic-apocalyptic, and highly thought-provoking -- Andrew Hunter Murray, Sunday Times Best-selling author of The Last DayHighly readable and hugely important ­- an apocalyptic road trip into our near future informed and shaped by the most pressing issues of our present * Owen Sheers *Achingly believable, unsensational, and chilling * The Times *A book of insight and foresight, lit with wit and gorgeous with intelligence -- Jay Griffiths, author * Wild: An Elemental Journey *Under the Blue is a novel with a terrible beauty. Oana Aristide gives us so much to think about: environmental destruction, the melting of the polar ice, eco-terrorism, but all within a heart-stopping story of three survivors travelling through Europe alone. I couldn't look away -- Claire Fuller, author * Bitter Orange *A super-smart and relentlessly gripping addition to the ecofiction genre, Under the Blue is by turns chilling, incisive, and casually hilarious. It also features one of the most convincing sentient-AI characters in recent fiction -- Sandra Newman, author * The Heavens *The discussions between human and AI are fascinating, revealing different ways of perceiving reality ... a beautifully written, emotionally gripping book. -- GuardianOana Aristide has woven deep questions about ethics, artificial intelligence, our treatment of the natural world and the prospect of human extinction into a page-turning thriller with a surprising ending -- Peter Singer, author * The Most Good You Can Do *Chillingly evocative and relentlessly unsettling. A compelling battle for humanity's survival fought simultaneously on both the physical and intellectual fronts. -- Chris BrookmyreHighly readable and chilling. Threads together a pandemic storyline with the implications of AI in a way that is very intriguing and especially relevant today -- Mark Lynas, author * Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency *Under the Blue fuses the 'keep moving' urgency that drives apocalyptic road novels with a restrained love story and a science fiction that is at once unnerving, tender and credible -- Cynan Jones, author * The Dig *Terrifying but hopeful, smart, vital and urgent: the ultimate must-read. -- Charles Foster, author * Being a Beast *What an extraordinary book this is; ostensibly a compelling, addictive post-apocalyptic thriller, but also a ferociously intelligent examination of artificial intelligence, a highly accomplished treatise on the function of art, and a lyrical, moving, vitally urgent plea for expanded ecological awareness. It is a book with the force of prophecy -- Niall Griffiths, author * Broken Ghost *A clear-eyed, unstinting challenge to all our complacencies that is unsettling, brave, philosophical, and as fast-paced as a thriller. A Frankenstein for modern times that, maybe, if we are lucky and if we listen to what it has to say, just might be the book to change our lives * Laura Beatty *A startling, intellectual, post-Covid adventure * New Scientist *Under the Blue's depth of thought shows through in its parallels with real events, and its angle on the subject emerges gradually but resonantly... a sad, angry novel with a surprising note of hope * SFX *

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Book SynopsisThe final novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's massively successful and lavishly praised Mars trilogy. The ultimate in future history' Daily MailMars has grown upIt is fully terraformed genetically engineered plants and animals live by newly built canals and young but stormy seas.It is politically independent. A brave and buzzing new world. Most of the First Hundred have died. Those that remain are like walking myths to Martian youth.Earth has grown too muchChronic overpopulation, bitter nationalism, scarce resources. For too many Terrans, Mars is a mocking utopia. A dream to live for, fight for perhaps even die for.Trade Review‘One of the finest working novelists in any genre’GUARDIAN 'If I had to choose one writer whose work will set the standard for science fiction in the future, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’NEW YORK TIMES Praise for The Mars Trilogy: ‘One of the finest works of American SF’TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ‘The ultimate in future history’DAILY MAIL ‘Absorbing, impressive, fascinating… Utterly plausible’FINANCIAL TIMES ‘A staggering book. The best novel on the colonization of Mars that has ever been written’Arthur C. Clarke ‘Red Mars may simply be the best novel ever written about Mars’INTERZONE

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Book SynopsisIsaac Asimov's ROBOT series from the iconic collection I, Robot to four classic novels contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the Three Laws of Robotics, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day.How could robots be used in a time of war? Could a robot be raised like a child? Could we allow them to have children of their own? Is there any human profession that could never be performed by a robotic replacement?In The Rest of the Robots, robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan return to investigate many more puzzling anomalies and catastrophic malfunctions.With characteristic wit, foresight and imagination, Asimov's stories uncover the practical and ethical issues humanity will encounter in a robotic future.Trade Review‘Isaac Asimov was one of the great explainers of the age…It will never be known how many practicing scientists today, in how many countries, owe their initial inspiration to a book, article, or short story by Isaac Asimov’Carl Sagan ‘Asimov displayed one of the most dynamic imaginations in science fiction’Daily Telegraph ‘Asimov’s career was one of the most formidable in science fiction’The Times

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Book SynopsisWAR IS PEACEFREEDOM IS SLAVERYIGNORANCE IS STRENGTH Winston Smith is a good worker. He supports the Party. He is good at his job rewriting history to Government specification. Big Brother watches him, but there is nothing to see.Winston''s struggle against the totalitarian world he inhabits is a closely guarded secret. It exists only in his mind until he begins a secret love affair with Julia, a fellow worker. Is this enough to push him to revolution? Or is it the beginning of his downfall?A masterwork of dystopian fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is harrowingly prescient, and its impact has stretched around the globe.With a new introduction by political editor and writer Ian Dunt, this brand new edition of a science fiction classic is a must-have for any collector.

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Book SynopsisThe Moon wants to kill you. It might not get there first.Luna is a gripping thriller about five corporate families caught in a bitter battle for supremacy in the harsh environment of the moon. It''s very easy to die on the moon, but with its vast mineral wealth it''s also easy to make your fortune. Following the fortunes of a handful of disparate characters, from one of the lowliest workers on the moon to the heads of one of the most powerful families, LUNA provides a vast mosaic of life on this airless and terrifying new home for humanity.This is SF that will be perfect for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson and Ken Macleod alike.''McDonald is one of the best world builders I''ve ever read'' - Tamora PierceReaders are being swept away by LUNA: NEW MOON:''It''s a great epic read. It''s also filled to the brim with imminently plausible science. Not a single thing was out of place''- Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ Trade ReviewIan McDonald is one of the very best SF writers in the world. His novels are fearless, brilliant wise...they illuminate and entertain spectacularly * Kim Stanley Robinson *I will read anything that man writes-he is the most underappreciated genius working in the field today * Cory Doctorow *Provocative, gripping and prancingly adult, it's a stunning example of how good science-fiction can be, and proof that McDonald is one of the best writers currently working in the genre * SFX *Luna: New Moon is a world that has been intricately woven together by its author. It's compelling and thought-provoking, and all without relying on overbearing sci-fi clichés. Brilliantly done. * Sci-Fi Now *Imagine Ben Bova's Farside mixed up with Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress and David Wingrove's Chung Kuo series but then re-imagined for the 21st century, with a sexed-up, more global viewpoint and you'll get an idea of Luna. I foresee great things for this book and award nominations a-plenty. Recommended. * SFF World *Luna is a remarkable novel! It is enormously clever and spectacularly visual and yet nothing overshadows the strength of its characterisation. A standout novel in a year that has been fantastic for science fiction. * For Winter's Nights *There's a lot of intrigue, some violence, rather more sex - healthily polymorphous and energetic, this - and all the pleasures of a cut-throat soap opera in space: a sort of Moon-Dome Dallas. -- Adam Roberts * The Guardian *In its gravitas and tension and, alas, tragedy, it's damn near Shakespearian. Add to that all the compulsive qualities of A Song of Ice and Fire, as I suggested in the header: a setting so brilliantly built and deftly embellished that buying into it isn't ever an issue; a vast cast of characters as satisfying and sympathetic individually as they are as part of McDonald's elaborate ensemble; and a plot composed of so many threads that you never know where it's going to go-except that when it ends, it's destined to end terribly. * Tor.com *Luna: New Moon is the best moon novel I've seen in many years...Inasmuch as it challenges one of the cherished master narratives of SF, in which the moon is only a stepping-stone, and despite what it owes to the tropes of '70s-era social melodrama, McDon­ald's novel has some formidable SF stingers not far beneath its densely textured surface. * Locus Mag *McDonald creates a complex and fascinating civilization featuring believable technology, and the characters are fully developed, with individually gripping stories. Watch for this brilliantly constructed family saga on next year's award ballots. * Publishers Weekly *Overall, it's a really good read - the environment is convincing, the characters wonderfully flawed and entirely believable, and the plot well-paced and gripping. It'll draw you into its world and refuse to let you out again. If you want to try an innovative piece of sci-fi, with a lot to say and a good means of exploring ways to say it, then this is the book for you. * SF&F Reviews *McDonald has created a totally believable setting and does it with a deft touch....This is one of the best Science Fiction novels to reach the shelves this year. Indulge yourself. * SF Crowsnest *"Luna: New Moon" is a refreshing and complex science fiction of the best kind - one that is universally clever and thought provoking, and one that stays with you long after you close the final page. * Upcoming 4 Me *Luna is a remarkable novel! It is enormously clever and spectacularly visual and yet nothing overshadows the strength of its characterisation. A standout novel in a year that has been fantastic for science fiction. * For Winter's Nights *This is masterful, adult SF and I can't wait to read the sequel. * BSFG *

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Book SynopsisThe gripping final instalment in the Sleeping Giants trilogy - perfect for fans of Ready, Player One, The Martian and Transformers. ________ We always thought the biggest threat to humanity would come from the outside. We were wrong . . . Ten years ago, alien robots descended to Earth killing one hundred million people. And when they retreated, they took brilliant scientist Rose Franklin and her team with them. Now, after nearly ten years on another world, Rose and the Earth Defence Corps manage to escape - only to find that a devastating new war has begun. This time, it''s between humans. As the human race looks set to destroy itself, Rose and her comrades must find a way to unite Earth. The stakes couldn''t be higher, as the aliens intend to finish the annihilation they started . . .Praise for the Sleeping Giants trilogy: ''This year''Trade ReviewPure, unadulterated literary escapism featuring giant killer robots and the looming end of mankind. In a word: unputdownable * Kirkus Reviews *Kick-ass, one-on-one robot action combines with mind-bending scientific and philosophical speculation * Booklist *Superb * SciFiNow *This year's The Martian. So good and so eerie * Buzzfeed *A sheer blast from start to finish -- Blake CrouchA winning combination of briskly paced action and futuristic dystopia * RT Book Reviews *

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Book SynopsisIn a near future, where civilisation has collapsed, a government of youth has taken power in North America. All older people deemed responsible for the cataclysmic climate emergency are relocated, but a breakaway group escapes exile to seek freedom … at devastating cost… 'The dystopian future landscape of The Forcing comes with a heightened realism that grips and shakes you … provocative and insightful, visceral and terrifying' SciFi Now Book of the Month ‘A superbly handled tale of struggle and survival in a maimed world’ The Times 'Smart, gripping, and all too plausible … announces Paul E. Hardisty as the true heir to John Christopher' Tim Glister The jaw-dropping, passionate and provocative climate-emergency thriller from one of the world's leading environmental scientists. ___________ Civilisation is collapsing… Frustrated and angry after years of denial and inaction, in a last-ditch attempt to stave off disaster, a government of youth has taken power in North America, and a policy of institutionalised ageism has been introduced. All those older than the prescribed age are deemed responsible for the current state of the world, and are to be 'relocated', their property and assets confiscated. David Ashworth, known by his friends and students as Teacher, and his wife May, find themselves among the thousands being moved to 'new accommodation' in the abandoned southern deserts – thrown together with a wealthy industrialist and his wife, a high court lawyer, two recent immigrants to America, and a hospital worker. Together, they must come to terms with their new lives in a land rendered unrecognisable. As the terrible truth of their situation is revealed, lured by rumours of a tropical sanctuary where they can live in peace, they plan a perilous escape. But the world outside is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined. And for those who survive, nothing will ever be the same again… _________ 'A compelling, moving story of survival in a dying world … a novel that might have actually predicted our future' Ewan Morrison 'A bold, beautifully written and imagined novel about an all-too plausible future – Paul Hardisty is a visionary' Luke McCallin 'Hardisty is a fine writer' Lee Child 'An excellent blend of deep suspense, thriller and – to be honest – horror. The message within it is all too plausible, the solution to the problem distinctly chilling' James Oswald 'Fierce, thoughtful, deeply humane and always compelling … the tension builds from page one and never relents' David Whish-Wilson 'Outstanding! Thrilling and thought provoking. If there's any justice, this book will be HUGE!!!' Michael J Malone ‘A clear-eyed reckoning with social and political currents we don't like to examine … tough, suspenseful and action-packed’ Jock Serong 'The book I've been waiting and hoping for…' Paul Waters What readers are saying… ‘Stark, gripping, often poignant’ ‘Riveting and suspenseful’ ‘A twist I didn’t see coming’ ‘Dark and disturbing’ ‘I got a real Atwood vibe’ ‘A masterpiece’ ‘Powerfully told’ ‘Full of pace’ ‘An author at the very top of his craft’ ‘The biting intensity of a thriller and the majestic world-building of a classic dystopian tale’

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Book SynopsisPolity Agent is the fourth novel in Neal Asher's popular Agent Cormac series.There's danger without and within.Refugees arrive in the Polity from eight hundred years in Agent Cormac’s future. And once they are through, the gate they use is dumped into the sun, as something dangerous and non-human is in pursuit. Cormac soon learns that the Maker civilization they have come from has been destroyed – by alien Jain technology.Orlandine, an augmented human, is studying this lethal tech in Cormac’s timeline. She may manage to harness its power, or it might destroy her. Meanwhile, Cormac is desperate to stamp down on this same technology, but someone or something is spreading it. And just outside humanity’s Polity worlds, something very nasty indeed might just be pulling their strings.Polity Agent is followed by Line War in the action-packed Agent Cormac seriesTrade ReviewOne of the best yet . . . destructive high Space Opera spectacle * Starburst *He’s got a fantastic eye for monsters, writes turbo-charged battle sequences, and can describe cosmic events and alien landscapes with an edge of evocative beauty * SFX *

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Book SynopsisTerrifying serial killer thriller set in the gritty Glasgow of the near future, from the bestselling author of the Logan McRae series.There are worse things than the death penaltyThey call them halfheads: convicted criminals, surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community so everyone will know what happens when you break the law. There are no appeals, no reprieves, and no one ever comes back. Until now.Dr Fiona Westfield, one of the most prolific serial killers Glasgow has ever seen, is waking up. Surrounded by blood and death and darkness.William Hunter has risen through the ranks since putting Westfield away; now he's Assistant Network Director, in charge of police actions. But a routine murder investigation is about to embroil him in an appalling conspiracy.The vast connurb blocks on Glasgow's deprived south side are ready to explode. Eleven years ago the VR riots killed millions now someone wants to start them all over again. AnTrade Review‘Slick, gruesome and brutally intelligent, this is bare knucklesthriller-writing.’ Michael Marshall ‘Compelling’ SFX Praise for Stuart MacBride: ‘Riveting and gruesome’ Telegraph ‘Grim, gritty and great fun’ Daily Sport ‘Stuart MacBride goes straight for the jugular with a tight, thrilling novel’ Glasgow Herald ‘The action is fercious and the pace unrelenting’ Northern Echo

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Book Synopsis'The Mother Code is a dystopian tale for all, which is scarily relevant right now' Press AssociationWhat it means to be human-and a mother-is put to the test in Carole Stivers' debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever. Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners has acquired the worldwide film rights for THE MOTHER CODE.It's 2049, and the survival of the human race is at risk. Earth's inhabitants must turn to their last resort: a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots-to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order-an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right-the Mother Code.Kai is born in America's desert southwest, his only companion is his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too-in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human-and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.Trade ReviewSome stories are so unique, yet so universal, that it is wonder they aren't a part of the human fable already. Carole Stivers's THE MOTHER CODE, is such a novel. Simply written but powerful, chock full of ideas and extrapolations about what it means to be a mother and all that such a word implies. Both apocalyptic, yet hopeful, treat yourself to this story. You'll be well rewarded. * James Rollins *Set against a post-pandemic apocalypse, biochemist Carole Stivers's The Mother Code offers it all: intriguingly flawed characters; compelling action; and, that most elusive of things, a fresh plot-children raised from birth by mother bots. The Mother Code asks us to reimagine the limitations of artificial intelligence and the costs of species survival, and in doing so, offers a profound meditation on motherhood and what it means to be human. Stivers is a brilliant storyteller! * Lori Ostlund *I could not put down The Mother Code! Part action adventure, part sci-fi, the novel is suspenseful and cinematic and such a pleasure to read. Carole Stivers is a masterful storyteller and she has combined science, technology and history to tell a beautiful story of humanity and love. * Devi S. Laskar *Carole Stivers is far from the first to wonder if motherhood can be scientifically replicated, but this is a thoughtful and thought-provoking addition to that meditation,. An end-of-times tale that focuses less on what has been lost and more on what and who might be saved (and how.) Stivers' wonderful story settles right on the line between human and machine, as blame and threat and rescue and love shift from character to character in surprising and powerful ways * Karen Joy Fowler *Biochemist Stivers's sweeping, cinematic debut raises probing questions about the nature of family and human connection... This dystopia is painful, provocative, and ultimately infused with hope * Publishers Weekly, starred review *The Mother Code is a dystopian tale for all, which is scarily relevant right now * Press Association review *The Mother Code is a dystopian tale for all * The Irish News (Belfast) *The Mother Code is a dystopian tale for all, which is scarily relevant right now * The Irish Examiner *Silicon Valley biochemist Stivers writes with a calm, technical authority * Financial Times *Stivers delivers a gripping techno-thriller that offers hope despite its bleak premise * The Guardian *An uneasy mix of techno-thriller and examination of the effects of new technology on human development * ParSec *

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Book SynopsisThe year is 2110. Humankind is entering a new golden age.But when an amateur astronomer points his telescope at just the right corner of the night sky, he sees disaster hurtling toward Earth: a chunk of rock that could annihilate civilization. While a few fanatics welcome the apocalyptic destruction as a sign from God, the greatest scientific minds of Earth desperately search for a way to avoid the inevitable. On board the starship Goliath, Captain Robert Singh and his crew must race against time to redirect the meteor from its deadly collision course. Suddenly they find themselves on the most important mission in human history - a mission whose success may require the ultimate sacrifice.

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Book SynopsisARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD FINALIST 2022Drink down the brew and dream of a better Earth.Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita.But safety from what? Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars.Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.Did humanity really win the war?This is Jamaica Inn by way of Jeff Vandermeer, Ursula Le Guin, Angela Carter and Michel Faber, a beautiful story of belonging, identity and regret.Trade Review“Its triumph lies in the way Whiteley uses the metaphor to examine the tortured process of love and attachment.” -- The Guardian * The Guardian *“A murky delirium of sinuous language and unnerving storytelling that will delight both experienced genre fanatics and literary fiction lovers alike.” * Kirkus *“Whiteley has a penchant for describing the disturbing… a surreal and disquieting post-apocalyptic consideration of the roles we place ourselves in.” -- The Barnes and Noble SF&F Blog * The Barnes and Noble SF&F Blog *"A story of the future that is an appeal to the present. The best kind of science fiction. A novel of its time, confronting current and terrible misjudgements with which humanity assures its own demise. All made startling by a typical Whiteley strangeness." -- Adam Nevill, author of The Reddening and Wyrd and Other Derelictions"Whiteley [is] one of the most original and provocative voices in contemporary science fiction." -- Nina Allen, author of The Rift“Visceral and unsettling - I loved it” -- G. V. Anderson, award-winning speculative fiction author"Intense and consuming writing, constantly challenging expectations." -- Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time“The absolute best kind of philosophical SF, & indisputable inheritor of Le Guin. Aliya Whiteley forces us to confront difficult ideas, but they are important, and will become even more so. Exactly what SF should do.” -- Marion Womack, author of The Golden Key"Clever and touching: a book of cosmic scope but with real characters and a human heart." -- Chris Beckett, author of the award-winning Dark Eden series"A powerful and surprising examination of colonialism and its unintended consequences. Highly recommended." -- Helen Marshall, author of The Migration“Skyward Inn is an experience. Whiteley is a strong voice in speculative fiction and readers will be delighted and unsettled by her novels for years to come.” -- The Nerd Daily -- Kibby Robinson * The Nerd Daily *"Whiteley takes the reader on a cryptic journey of trust, identity and knowing your place in the world." -- Starburst Magazine -- Fred McNamara * Starburst Magazine *"A moving and thought provoking tale, completely unlike anything I’ve read before." -- The Bibliophile Chronicles * The Bibliophile Chronicles *"There are some books that are simply beautiful. And Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley is one of those." -- Libri Draconis * Libri Draconis *"Whiteley's trademark subtle surrealism shines." -- Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *"A melancholy and compellingly weird tale of identity in crisis." -- SFX -- Will Salmon * SFX *“Skyward Inn feels like an instant classic of the genre.” -- The Guardian -- Lisa Tuttle * The Guardian *"A beautifully realised story, with achingly engaging prose." -- The British Fantasy Society * The British Fantasy Society *"Rarely has a writer who is not Philip K. Dick had so much fun building a world only to take it apart." -- LA Times -- Noah Berlatsky * LA Times *"A vital contribution to modern speculative fiction and a novel to be read and reread and pondered at length.” -- The Fantasy Hive -- Jonathan Thornton * The Fantasy Hive *"A unique work of literary and speculative excellence." -- SciFiNow -- Bert Peterson * SciFiNow *"When it comes to misdirection, Aliya Whiteley is the very devil." -- The Times -- Simon Ings * The Times *The Times SF Book of the Month * The Times *"Whiteley explores questions of identification, attachment and belonging, tying everything together in a wonderfully surreal and weirdly uplifting denouement." -- The FT -- James Lovegrove * The FT *"Skyward Inn is a quietly disarming and beautiful book that masterfully blends literary conventions with science fiction." -- Dark Matter Magazine -- Alexander Pyles * Dark Matter Magazine *"A book to take solace in." * Locus Magazine *

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Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE INAUGURAL ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTIONIntense, beautifully crafted . . . Her talent is electric. Get ready for a shock' GuardianThis is a work of fiction. Keep telling yourself that.America has changed. For women, it has changed for the worse.Ro, a single high-school teacher, is desperate to become a mother. But with IVF now illegal along with abortion and other reproductive rights parenthood looks increasingly unlikely for her. Her best friend Susan is trapped in a failing marriage with two children, her star student Mattie is unwillingly pregnant and Gin, an outcast offering other women natural remedies, has become the centre of a modern-day witch-hunt.With warmth, wit and ferocious inventiveness, Red Clocks shows us an all-too plausible near-future: like The Handmaid's Tale, it is a call to arms, set to become a modern classic.Trade Review‘Intense, beautifully crafted…Her talent is electric. Get ready for a shock’ Guardian ‘Timing is everything – and the release of Red Clocks couldn’t be more apt’ Grazia ‘A fearless novel with a frightening premise that seems plausible. One for fans of Naomi Alderman’s The Power’ Stylist ‘Lyrical and beautifully observed … highly absorbing’ Naomi Alderman, author of The Power ‘Necessary and so of the moment … this is your go-to book in 2018’ Elle ‘Terrifyingly real’ The Pool ‘Vividly imagined’ Sunday Times ‘Sharp, bold, funny’ Esquire ‘Powerful, beautifully written (and, at times, wry and funny) … Red Clocks is set to become one of the essential reads for 2018’ Emerald Street ‘This provocative exploration of female longing, frustration and determination couldn’t be more timely, and yet there’s nothing fleeting about it … Zumas has written a novel that’s political without being doctrinaire, that expands the dimensions of our most pressing social debate’ Washington Post ‘The dystopian feminist novel for a new generation and a story that will rev you up to be part of the resistance’ Refinery29 ‘In bristling sentences that strike with stunning efficiency, Leni Zumas shows girls and women defying the excruciating restrictions imposed by both law and culture. This is not only timely but necessary fiction—uncannily prescient, unabashedly political, and fiercely humane. We so desperately need books like this’ Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves ‘Hilarious, terrifying, and masterful–this pitch-perfect, timely novel reflects the horror and absurdity of our political landscape with a brilliance that ensures the book's timelessness. It's as riotously fun as it is chilling. Zumas has produced a poignant, wickedly sharp classic’ Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa

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Book SynopsisWhen a one-night stand leads to a long-desired pregnancy, Susan will do anything to ensure her husband won’t find out … including the unthinkable. But when something horrendous is unleashed around the globe, her secret isn’t the only thing that is no longer safe…‘The first half is a high-concept thriller; the second edges into science fiction as a generation of genetically optimised children respond to the social pressures they are under … an astute, well-researched and convincing novel of ideas’ The Times'If you could create a "perfect" baby through genetic engineering, would you? A disturbing and interesting thriller, perfect for book club discussions' Nina Pottell, Prima‘A fantastic exploration of the ethics and allure of genetic engineering woven into a captivating, thought-provoking thriller. Provocative, pacy and scarily all-too-possible’ Philippa East––––––––––––An unthinkable decisionA deadly mistakeIn an all-too-possible near future, when genetic engineering has become the norm for humans, not just crops, parents are prepared to take incalculable risks to ensure that their babies are perfect … altering genes that may cause illness, and more…Susan has been trying for a baby for years, and when an impulsive one-night stand makes her dream come true, she’ll do anything to keep her daughter and ensure her husband doesn’t find out … including the unthinkable. She believes her secret is safe. For now.But as governments embark on a perilous genetic arms race and children around the globe start experiencing a host of distressing symptoms – even taking their own lives – something truly horrendous is unleashed. Because those children have only one thing in common, and people are starting to ask questions…Bestselling author of The Waiting Rooms, Eve Smith returns with an authentic, startlingly thought-provoking, disturbing blockbuster of a thriller that provides a chilling glimpse of a future that’s just one modification away…_____________‘An effective thriller that will keep you hooked to the very end … more than that, it’s a nuanced, believable examination of how human genetic engineering might play out...’ SFX Magazine ‘A brilliantly chilling work of speculative fiction – a disturbing but all-too-possible vision of the near future, where each of us gets to play God. Superb!’ Guy Morpuss‘Sharp, intelligent, frightening and original’ NB Magazine‘An eerily prophetic near-future viewed through a compassionately anchoring lens ... As tempting and tantalising a read as the vision of the future it presents’ SciFi Now‘This is what speculative fiction should be – plausible, pacy, and with a story that packs real emotional punch’ Louise Mumford‘When a writer’s work is compared to Michael Crichton’s, there’s reason to sit up and pay attention … a cautionary tale that’s full of thrills’ LoveReading ‘With jaw-dropping twists, high stakes and so much heart, this is a book that everyone will be talking about’ Awais Khan‘Fast-paced, emotional, disturbing. Lovers of cleverly plotted speculative fiction should jump on this’ Catherine McCarthy‘Eve Smith has done it again! A brilliant read’ J.M. Hewitt‘One of the most exciting writers around … master of the high-concept thriller’ Chris McDonald‘Eve Smith has crafted a world that feels not only lived-in, but utterly plausible’ Russel McLean‘Captivating’ Professor Joanna Verran‘Eve Smith is becoming the Jodi Picoult of speculative medical thrillers’ The Reading ClosetPraise for The Waiting Rooms*****‘Combines the excitement of a medical thriller à la Michael Crichton with sensitive characterisation and social insight in a timely debut novel all the more remarkable for being conceived and written before the current pandemic’ Guardian‘STUNNING and terrifying … The Waiting Rooms wrenches your heart in every way possible’ Miranda Dickinson‘Chillingly close to reality, this gripping thriller brims with authenticity … a captivating, accomplished and timely debut from an author to watch’ Adam Hamdy‘Engrossing and eye-opening, with heart-stopping plot twists … a stunning medical thriller set in a terrifying possible future’ Foreword Reviews For fans of Emily St John Mandel, Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen and Louise Dought

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Book SynopsisWhat if John F. Kennedy survived?President Nixon, with the help of former president JFK, has just green-lit NASA's first manned expedition to Mars.Aboard, Natalie York, a geologist who risks everything she loves for the chance to go to space; Phil Stone, former X-15 test pilot; and Ralph Gershon, a Vietnam War hero intent on being the first African American to reach another planet.Exploring mankind's presence in the extra-terrestrial expanse, VOYAGE chronicles the incredible story of what could have been.Trade Review‘The most important living science-fiction writer in the country’THE TIMES ‘The best SF writer in Britain’SFX Praise for The NASA Trilogy: ‘VOYAGE is, quite simply, a brilliant book . . . skilfully constructed and enthrallingly told’SFX ‘Baxter handles a complex and gripping plot with his customary aplomb… The ending will blow your mind. Buy TITAN, read it – and then go out and buy everything else that Baxter has ever written’NEW SCIENTIST ‘A plausible tale of America’s last gasp at interplanetary exploration… Stephen Baxter proves what a cosmic thinker he is’WASHINGTON POST

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe best what-if thriller for a long, long time -- LEE CHILDA tour de force in both storytelling and breadth of concept. It is story not just of an alternate history but a cautionary tale that directly impacts and reflects upon the struggles of our time and place. It is thrilling, disturbing, inspiring, and left me all too often in awe. This book will make you look at history-and your role in it-in an all new light. Be prepared to be forever impacted, forever changed. -- JAMES ROLLINSA dystopian thriller that wears its smartness on its sleeve . . . will appeal to fans of The Handmaid's Tale . . . I suspect that this summer, you'll never be far from someone who has been claimed by The Ottoman Secret * Independent *Alternate histories don't get much better than this thought-provoking mind bender... Superior and plausible worldbuilding matches an ingeniously imaginative conceit. This ranks as a classic of the genre. * Publishers Weekly *The Ottoman Secret is a masterpiece. A compelling saga, on a grand scale, with food for thought on every fascinating page. It's a breath of fresh air, an alternate history firing on all cylinders that will stay with you long after finishing. A stellar epic. -- STEVE BERRYA world-class writer of pure-bred thrillers * Daily Telegraph *Raymond Khoury has created an alternative history tale that will blow your mind. A story strung along the centuries that is thoroughly engrossing and one you will long remember. -- DAVID BALDACCIThe real excitement in Khoury's complex multi-plot comes not from the thrills on the surface, but from the ideas underneath * The Wall Street Journal *Alternate history...tons of adventure...this is real fun. Not just an intelligent, immersive thriller, but also a timely visit to a reality that easily could've been. So well researched and written it feels chillingly real. As thought-provoking as it is entertaining.Alternative history yarns are still very much in vogue and Raymond Khoury has come up with a fine addition to the genre. * Weekend Sport *

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