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Spring 2024
Film News
The Writers Guild of America strike ends. The 146 day strike – the second longest in the industry’s history – followed unsuccessful negotiations with studios (represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) over pay, streaming royalties and the use of artificial intelligence. A new three-year deal has been struck that: sets minimum staff requirements for shows, between three and six writers, and a minimum duration of work, starting at 10 weeks for shows that have not yet been approved for production; determines that once projects are green-lighted, the minimum of writers increases to five once the series reaches seven episodes; gives a 50% bonus if a programme reaches 20% of a streamers' US reach within 90 days or the first 90 days of any subsequent year; gives a 76% increase in foreign streaming residuals; provides guaranteed pay nine weeks after commencement of a project, for writers getting less than twice the established minimum; stipulates that edits must be paid for (studios have been known to ask writers to edit scripts for free); ensures that if a writer is asked to rewrite a script created by artificial intelligence (AI), the rewrite will still be considered an original script; and it determines that makers cannot require writers to use AI tools if they don’t want to and they must disclose to the writer if any material used was generated by AI. Finally, there is a 12.5% pay increase for this year, 4% for next year and 3.5% for the year after.
The US actors strike ends. The actors strike has ended. SAG-AFTRA reached agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers (AMPTP) in a unanimous vote. The union said the deal was valued at more than US$1bn (£814m) and included increases in minimum salaries, a new "streaming participation" bonus, and more protections against their images and voices being replicated by artificial intelligence. However, not all of the union's demands were met. SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 members and has been on strike since July 14, causing major disruption and knock-on effects for those in all branches of the film and TV industry, and in countries like the UK as well as the US.
What next? Well, you might expect that with pent up production, there will be a sudden explosion of work, but that will not happen. There are too many productions waiting to restart shooting and not enough studio space. Also there is a shortage of technical staff. Looking further ahead, next year sees analogous negotiations, to those that have taken place in the USA, taking place in the British isles. Of course, that the US actors and writers strikes have been resolved, will provide a basis for those negotiations. In short, there will not be a production surge.
Voice over artists are not happy with the SAG-AFTRA deal with an AI voice company. The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers does not cover voice-over artists working in the computer games industry. Separately, SAG-AFTRA made a deal with the A.I. (artificial intelligence) firm Replica Studios. It provides artificial voices for the games industry and can train an A.I. to sound like the voice of an established voice-over actor. But some voice over actors have said that they were never consulted about the deal prior to it being settled. Some have called the deal with Replica Studios 'garbage' as they do not feel it properly protects their voice's intellectual property. SAG-AFTRA said the deal was 'approved by affected members of the union's voiceover performer community'. Apparently, Steve Blum, a voice actor once credited by Guinness for being the most prolific in video games, said 'nobody' he knew of had approved the deal. Voice actors outside of gaming have also criticised the agreement… This story will continue…
Though there has been a writers strike settlement (see previous above), more films have been delayed. Further to delays announced last season, Dune: Part Two has been put back to March (2024), Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has been put back a month to April (2024), The War of the Rohirrim has had its release put back to December (2024).
+++ See also Television series delays due to the writers strike in the TV section below.
The Marvel Dr Strange and Spider-man rights battle may be over. Marvel sued in counter to a copyright claim from the estates of Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Don Heck and Don Rico. You may recall that Steve Ditko was a co-creator with the others of Dr Strange and Spider-man. It looks like the court case will soon end, that Marvel has seen sense (or rather, realised that the cost of continuing their case and the likelihood of losing, will be greater than settling). A long list of characters were at issue, including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk and Thor, are also involved.
Leavesden Studios are to expand by over 50%! The expansion of the British studio – currently an 80 ha (200-acre) complex – will include the addition of 400,000 square feet of production and support space, and increase the total stage count from 19 to 29 and overall space from 1.14 million square feet to 1.78 million. Construction will begin in the second quarter of 2024, and it is expected to be completed in 2027. DC Studios will be using the new facilities and are being consulted on the plans to ensure they get what they need. The Hertfordshire site will see work for both film and television. The site is already home to one of the largest filtered and heated stage-based water tanks in Europe and is currently owned by Warner Brothers. It was originally an aerodrome built in 1940 for WWII: it was where the Mosquito fast bomber aircraft was developed. Films shot there over the years have included James Bond's Golden Eye, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, The Batman (2022) and all the Harry Potter films. The television series Pennyworth (2019-'22) and House of the Dragon (2022-Present) were shot there.
Hammer Films rises from the dead as Hammer Studios. Founded in 1934, Hammer Films is synonymous with British horror, with classics such as Dracula (1958) The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and The Mummy (1959). Network Distributing took over Hammer in 2021 as Hammer Studios Ltd. Following the death of the death of managing director Tim Beddows in 2022, Network was liquidated. Fortunately, Hammer has now been acquired by the theatre producer John Gore. As Hammer Films, John Gore will be its chair and CEO. The aim is to blend the nostalgic charm of Hammer with modern cinematic style and innovation, while preserving its heritage and library. Its first new film will be Doctor Jekyll, starring Eddie Izzard and Scott Chambers and directed by Joe Stephenson.
Amicus rises from the dead. Amicus, based at Shepperton Studios, Great Britain, produced films between 1962 and 1977. It was mainly known for anthology films of four or five horror shorts each, including Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1971) and Tales from the Crypt (1972). Lawrie Brewster becomes Amucus' president. He is known for The Unkindness of Ravens (2016), The Devil’s Machine (2019) and Ghost Crew (2022). The new Amicus' first film will be an anthology called In the Grip of Terror.
Is The Old Man's War film really dead? John Scalzi's Hugo-winning Old Man's war was optioned by Paramount and Syfy without making it to the production stage. This is quite common, but this seemed sufficient positive back in 2016 for Scalzi contemplated as what it would mean for his personal life. Then in December 2017 it was again optioned, this time by Netflix, but then things went quiet. Scalzi recently gave an update that is sort of encouraging: apparently things are “slowly but surely moving along.”
Spider-Woman, Madam Web film coming next month (February 2024). It stars Dakota Johnson as the clairvoyant heroine Madam Web. Sydney Sweeney plays Julia Carpenter / Spider-Woman along with supporting cast that includes Isabela Merced (Anya Corazon), Adam Scott (Ben Parker), and Emma Roberts (Mary Parker). Madame Web concerns Cassandra Webb, an elderly blind woman suffering from a chronic neuromuscular disease that hinders movement and breathing. And so Madame Web remains connected to a life support system that looks like a spider’s web. She is clairvoyant and can predict the future. The character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210. Trailer here.
The latest Nosferatu remake gets a Christmas 2024 release date. Further to our previous reports on its cast, the Robert Eggers remake looks like it will be up against the general release of Disney’s Lion King prequel Mufasa and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This is the second remake of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 Dracula-inspired silent movie, following Werner Herzog’s 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre. You can see the 1979 remake's trailer here.
Twilight of the Dead, Romero's last film, is to be directed by Brad (The Machinist) Anderson. George Romero sadly died in 2017 but had already prepped Twilight of the Dead which was/is to be the last in his 'Living Dead' zombie films. Brad Anderson is known for making films on a budget which is what Romero did. +++ See elsewhere on this site: Night of the Living Dead book review; Zombies After Romero; and Zombies Before Romero.
Masters of the Universe cancelled by Netflix, but toy-manufacturer Mattel seeks another studio to take it over. He Man and The Masters of the Universe was a 1980s animation series based on the Mattel action toys. It featured the muscle-bound prince He-Man fight against the evil Skeletor. Netflix was considering making a live-action film and came up with a production budget north of US$200 million at which Netflix managers baulked. Netflix tried to get the budget down to US$150 million but failed. They even had gone as far as principal casting identifying writers and directors, and had spent reportedly over US$30 million on the project. Meanwhile Mattel has been buoyed by the 2023 summer success of Barbie and hopes another studio will pick it up. ++++ You can see the original's 1987 trailer here.
Taika Waititi's Star Wars film is a Schrodinger's cat: both alive and dead. The Hollywood rumour mill is abound with claims and counter claims as to whether Taika Waititi's Star Wars film is still on. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that there are at least four Star Wars films currently being produced by Disney/LucasFilm, from directors James Mangold, Dave Filoni, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Donald Glover. All that is kmnown for sure about the Waititi film was that he was unable to work on his Star Wars script for close to five months due to the Writers Guild of America strike, which began on 2nd May and concluded on 27th September.
Talk to Me sequel, Talk 2 Me, is coming. It is being written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, and has the original's directors Danny and Michael Philippou. From Australia, Talk to Me was the horror success of the summer. You can see the original's trailer here.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935), directed by James Whale, is being re-made. Netflix is reportedly making it with Maggie Gyllenhaal directing. You can see the original's trailer here.
Fantastic Four re-boot gets its first star casted. The re-boot has already gained a director in Matt Shakman. It has now been reported that Vanessa Kirby has been casted as Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman. She recently starred in Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. Fantastic Four is currently slated for a May 2025 release.
Pirates of the Caribbean to be re-booted. Craig Mazin – known for helming The Last of Us TV series – is behind the reboot. It is not yet known if Johnny Depp will reprise his role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the new film.
Star Wars: Lando TV series morphs into a film. The Disney+ and Lucasfilm series was being written by Justin Simien but in the summer (2023 Donald and Stephen Glover took over that role and it now looks like they will be making a film instead. The character of Lando Calrissian was originally played by Billy Dee Williams in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Stephen Glover debuted as a young Lando Calrissian in the Solo.
William S. Burroughs The Soft Machine novel may be made into a film. The 1961 novel is being considered for a film adaptation by director Gaspar (Gravity) Noé. The novel itself concerns body control that can be manipulated. The novel is credited with coining the rock music term "heavy metal".
New Spawn film to be more horrific than the previous 1997 version. Albert Francis "Al" Simmons, better known as Spawn, is a superhero appearing in a monthly comic book (1992) of the same name. In the original comic, Spawn is a human-turned-Hellspawn who possesses superhuman strength and speed, as well as near immortality. The character also has the ability to teleport, shape-shift and heal. Blumhouse Productions, who are making the forthcoming film, is best known for producing horror movies such as M3gan, Get Out and the Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Purge film franchises. he world from a second Ice Age… The film is due out in March (2024) You can see the trailer for the 1997 film here.
Troll sequel has been ordered by Netflix. Troll is the Norwegian action-adventure film directed by Roar (Tomb Raider) Uthaug. 'Troll 2' reunites Uthaug with writer Espen Aukan and producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud at Motion Blur. The first film takes place in the aftermath of an explosion in the Norwegian mountains, which awakens an ancient troll. It became Netflix's’s most popular non-English film of all time, with a record-breaking 103,000,000 views in its first 91 days. It also ranked in the streamer's Top 10 in 93 countries and topped the charts in Norway, the US and the UK. You can see the trailer for Troll here.
It Follows to have a sequel. It Follows was the surprise horror hit of 2015. It concerns a zombie like ghost that walks steadily towards its victim, relentlessly, no matter how far apart they are. It is a plot that has elements of the 1950s classic The Night of the Demon. The sequel is titled They Follow and will once more be directed by David Robert Mitchell and star Maika Monroe. SF² Concatenation cited It Follows as one of Best Films of 2015. You can see the trailer for It Follows here.
Black Phone to have a sequel and the original writers and cast are onboard. The original sees a 13-year old boy, abducted by a child killer in a suburban neighbourhood and locked in a soundproof basement, who begins to receive calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims… The original 2022 film was directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, both of whom are behind the sequel. Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies and Miguel Mora are apparently reprising their roles.&bnbsp; The story is based on a Joe Hill tale published in his 2005 collection, 20th Century Ghosts. The original film took US$161 million (£129m) worldwide with an estimated US$68 million (£54.5m) and as such was one of Deadline's most profitable films of that year. The sequel is currently slated for a release in June 2025. You can see the original's trailer here.
People Under the Stairs to have a re-make. Wes () Craven's People Under the Stairs (1991) was both horror and social commentary: a combination that made it something of a success. Jordan (Hugo short-listed Get Out, 2017) Peele and Win Rosenfeld are producing the remake and Ezra Claytan Daniels is writing the screen play. You can see the original film's trailer here.
Chuck Norris, Sophie Monk and Vanilla Ice play themselves in a forthcoming zombie film. In Zombie Plane, passengers on a jet flying from Sydney to Los Angeles become infected with new strains of zombie viruses, Vanilla Ice and Sophie Monk are forced to team up to contain the contagion before the US Air Force shoots it out of the sky. In the film, a secret government agency has recruited celebrities to be undercover agents and the celebs must save humanity from an imminent attack from the undead, hence the rationale for the stars playing themselves. The film is directed by Lav Bodnaruk and Michael Mier.
We Bury the Dead is director Zak (1922) Hilditch's next film. It will star Daisy Ridley who will play Ava. Ava, a desperate woman whose husband is missing in the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment. Hoping to find him alive, Ava joins a 'body retrieval unit,' but her search takes a chilling turn when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life… The article in Deadline announcing the film strangely does not use the term 'zombie'. This might signal that it is something different, or it could be a marketing ploy?
Send Help is director Sam Raimi next film and marks his return to horror. Sam Raimi is best know for the Evil Dead trilogy (1981-'92), Darkman (1990) and the first the first Spider-man trilogy (2002-2007). His last proper horror was Drag Me to Hell (2009). Send Help is billed as being Misery meets Cast Away. Apparently, it is a comedy-adventure horror about Linda, a female employee, and her irritating boss, Bradley. On a business flight, their plane crashes on an island with only the two of them making it out alive. Linda has serious survival skills, which means she is Bradley’s only hope to stay alive.
Conception will be a British-made dystopian film. It will star Keira Knightley and is being written and directed by Camille (Silent Night) Griffin. It is set in a future Britain where the government has taken control of parenting.
The Wild Robot novel to be adapted into film. The Peter Brown book concerns the Rozzum 7134 (“Roz” for short), robot that was designed for a futuristic urban world, but finds herself washed ashore on a deserted island, a tale of survival and discovery begins when she becomes the unexpected protector to an orphaned gosling, which she names Brightbill. Together they struggle to survive the harsh environment, but only succeed with the help of a close-knit group of misfit animals, who become first friends, then family. Ultimately, Roz and company save the island from a robotic invasion by Roz’s manufacturer, looking to bring her back to civilisation by any means necessary. In the process she becomes something much more than she was programmed to be, a wild robot…. The film will be directed by Chris Sanders who previously was responsible for How to Train Your Dragon.
The Long Walk novel to be adapted into film. The 1979 dystopian novel was by Stephen King (initially writing as Richard Bachman) and see a hundred teenage boys embark on the punishing titular journey that involves strict stipulations (they must walk at least four miles an hour) and ends with only one survivor. The book’s influence can be seen in later works, including Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games novel series. Lionsgate has acquired the rights to the novel and they are in discussion with Francis Lawrence to potentially direct. (Lawrence directed The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) and helmed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).) Lawrence is also working on he has been developing sequels to his Constantine (2005) and I Am Legend (2007).
The Dire Wolf will be a supernatural thriller. The film concerns Hank Whitmore, a sharp and stubborn New Mexican sheriff who aligns with the Navajo Nation when a series of supernatural events threatens his family, his town, and his way of life… The 'Dire Wolf' relates to a now extinct N. American species. Andrzej Bartkowiak is set to direct and the hope is for a 2025 release. Andrzej Bartkowiak was the cinematographer for Speed, Species and Dante’s Peak.
Bermuda will be an SFnal thriller based on the Bermuda Triangle mythos. Marc Webb is to direct. He recently directed Disney’s live-action adaptation of Snow White.
Following 2023's success of Oppenheimer and Barbie they are actually making Barbenheimer. The plot reportedly concerns Dr. Bambi J. Barbenheimer, a scientist doll from Dolltopia who has a boyfriend named Twink Dollman. After venturing into the real world, Dr. Barbenheimer decides to take nuclear revenge over the way human children treat their dolls… Lowe budget film supremo, Charles Band, is behind the film which he openly admits he is making the film to capitalise on the success of Oppenheimer and Barbie. His production company also plans to sell Barbenheimer dolls. ++++ You can see the trailer for Oppenheimer here and the one for Barbie here.
And finally…
Short video clips (short films, other vids and trailers) that might tickle your fancy….
Film trailer: The Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire trailer is now out. It sees the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who have developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artefact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age… The film is due out in March (2024) You can see the trailer here.
Film trailer: The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes trailer is now out. The new 'Planet of the Apes' film is set many years after the conclusion of 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes. Many apes' societies have grown from when the Moses-like Caesar brought his people to an oasis, while humans have been reduced to a feral-like existence. Some ape groups have never heard of Caesar, while others have contorted his teaching to build burgeoning empires. In this setting, one ape leader begins to enslave other groups to find human technology, while another ape, who watched his clan be taken, embarks on a journey to find freedom. A young human woman becomes key to the latter's quest, although she has plans of her own… The film is due out in May (2024) You can see the trailer here.
Film trailer: The Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire trailer is out. The new instalment in the Monsterverse puts the mighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal deadly threat hidden within our world that threatens the existence of their species and our very own, as well as diving deep into the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond. Delving straight into the origins of Hollow Earth, this film will explore the ancient Titan battle that bought man and monster together forever. Its release date is April (2024). You can see the trailer here.
Film trailer: A reminder, the delayed Dune Part II is finally coming out in March. Originally, it was meant to have been released in November last year (2023). Trailer here.
Want more? See last season's video clip recommendations here.
For a reminder of the top films in 2023 (and earlier years) then check out our top Science Fiction Films annual chart. This page is based on the weekly UK box office ratings over the past year up to Easter. You can use this page if you are stuck for ideas hiring a DVD for the weekend.
For a forward look as to film releases of the year see our film release diary.
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Spring 2024
Forthcoming SF Books
Doctor Who: Doctor Who – The Cuckoo by Anonymous, BBC Audio Books, £14, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-13873-3.
Audiobook. Jaye Griffiths reads this original adventure for the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, as played on TV by Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman.
For Clara Oswald, life has fallen into a routine. By day she teaches the pupils at Coal Hill School, and by night – and at weekends - she travels in Time and Space with the Doctor.
To Clara's immense shock, the Doctor has acquired a new companion – and Arix is just as at home in the TARDIS as she has been. Suddenly, Clara's world has tilted on its axis.
As the two companions size each other up, the Doctor is caught between them. And when they all wind up in an alien swamp, it's time for a reckoning of grievances, grudges- and bravery.
Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor Novels Volume 1 by Anonymous, BBC Audio Books, £16, Digital, ISBN 978-1-529-90658-5.
Audiobook. Arthur Darvill, Olivia Colman, James Albrecht and Nicholas Briggs read these four original stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor.
In Apollo 23, by Justin Richards, Amy is stranded on the moon, whilst the Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity.
In The Night of the Humans, by David Llewellyn, the Doctor and Amy arrive in the middle of an all-out frontier war on the Gyre, the most hostile environment in the galaxy.
In The Forgotten Army, by Brian Minchin, an ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy in New York.
In Nuclear Time, by Oli Smith, the Doctor finds himself living backwards through time, while Amy and Rory are hunted through the suburban streets of his future...
Doctor Who: The Lagoon Monsters by Anonymous, BBC Audio Books, £11, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-90816-9.
Audiobook. An original adventure for the Tenth Doctor and Martha, as played on TV by David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. The waters of the Pacific Ocean form the backdrop of this foray into Eighteenth Century seafaring for the Doctor and Martha, when the TARDIS materialises on board the Blue Groper sailing ship. Grudgingly accepted as stowaways by Captain Sadler's crew, the travellers learn that the ship is on a mission to Luna Puesta, 'the land where the Moon has set'. There, just off the coast of New Zealand, Professor James Tomlinson hopes to locate a missing archaeological link between dinosaurs and man. But what the expedition finds on arrival is far beyond the Professor's wildest dreams...
Doctor Who: The Third Monsters Collection by Anonymous, BBC Audio Books, £16, Digital, ISBN 978-1-52-990647-9.
Audiobook. Five classic TV novelisations pitch the Doctor against an array of monstrous foes.
In Daleks: The Chase the First Doctor and his friends must flee from the path of a Dalek execution squad.
The Macra Terror awaits the Second Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie within an apparently idyllic Earth colony, whilst in Doctor Who and the Web of Fear the Yeti have colonised the London Underground, at the behest of the Great Intelligence.
Doctor Who and the Mutants relates the oppression of the Solonian people at the hands of Earth authorities, and in Doctor Who and the State of Decay the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 encounter the terrifying Great Vampire.
Maureen O'Brien, Anneke Wills, David Troughton, Jon Culshaw and Geoffrey Beevers read these thrilling tales, with Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks and John Leeson as the voice of K9.
Available On: Audible, Apple, Google Play and Amazon.
Doctor Who: The Romanov Project by Anonymous, BBC Audio Books, £14, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-90818-3.
Audiobook. Toby Longworth reads this original adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor and Graham, as played on TV by Jodie Whittaker and Bradley Walsh. “There is a darkness here. A darkness that feeds.” It's 1970, and record-breaking explorer Silvia Sandstrom has completed an epic lone drive to the North Pole. But as she activates heron-board experimental equipment, her vehicle is swallowed by a massive hole in the ice. Meanwhile the TARDIS is drawn to an arid wasteland, also apparently at the North Pole. There the Doctor and Graham meet Silvia - but it's clear that she is a woman out of her own time. Why is a nearby experimental base haunted by deranged figures? And who is the genius behind the Romanov Project, the wave of energy that now threatens to rip the Earth.
War Bodies by Neal Asher, Tor, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-05010-3
Implanted with secret technology, Piper was raised to be a weapon against the dictatorial Old Guard. When rebellion strikes, he must decide where his loyalties lie – with the Cyberat who made him, the Polity who want him… or the planet that needs him.
Arks Volume One Descent by R. J. Collins et al, Clicky Sprout Wife, £25, pbk, ISBN 978-1-914-34017-8.
Full colour graphic novel. Arks is the story of Lilith and Joseph - two planetary engineers (Arks), who are booted by bacteria onto a terraformed world orbiting a distant star. To their horror, they discover that the process may have accidentally turned the entire planet into a bomb. Do they try to survive in this brutal and cruel world or do they do the unthinkable and euthanise the species…? See also below.
Artifice by Simon Chesterman, Marshall Cavendish Editions, £13.99 / Can$20.99 / US$15.99, pbk, ISBN 978-9-815-08492-4.
This is set in a near-future Singapore and takes on the challenge of what truly sentient AI might mean for humanity. This is speculative fiction in the mold of Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun or Le Tellier’s The Anomaly. Humanity’s greatest invention could be our last. Archie’s involvement in the artificial intelligence project known as Janus was limited to routine diagnostics. But when she discovers that she and everyone else has been deceived by their creation, it launches her on a journey that will change her life — and humanity’s future.&nbap; Set in a near-future Singapore, Artifice will resonate with anyone curious or concerned about developments in AI, as well as how such technological advances might make us rethink what it means to be human.
Arks Volume Two Descent by R. J. Collins et al, Clicky Sprout Wife, £25, pbk, ISBN 978-1-914340-16-1.
See previous item above.
Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman, Verve Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-857-30839-9
Doors open at 7. The Sacrifice is at 8. The dress code, as usual, is black tie… In an alternate Philadelphia that's bee eroded by extreme weather and disease-carrying mosquitoes, the Saturnalia carnival is about to begin. It's been three years since Nina left the elite Saturn Club with its genteel debauchery,. But she gets a call from an old Saturn Club friend to the club's biggest party of the year. But before the night is out she'll become the custodian of a terrible secret – and the target of a mysterious hunter…
Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde, Hodder & Stoughton, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-399-73176-8.
Science fantasy? It's the UK but not as we know it. Civilisation has been rebuilt over 500 years since the 'something'. Society is now colour based, the strict levels of hierarchy dictated by the colours you can see. Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, Eddie Russett and Jane Grey discover that all is not fair within their cosy environment. What is the truth of their world? And is there somewhere safe – purposefully unseen but watching them – across the sea?
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, Borough Press, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Annie is a robot, created to be the perfect girlfriend and satisfy the emotional and physical needs of her human boyfriend Doug. She has dinner ready for him after he gets back from work. She wears the clothes he buys for her. She can even raise her libido on command and warm her body to 98.6°F before seΧ. But as Annie grows more self-aware she begins to chafe against the borders of her life and she starts to wonder. What would life be like outside Doug’s apartment? What would life be like without Doug? Recalling Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels and the film Ex Machina, this book probes fundamental questions about intimacy, power, abuse and the human soul.
The Descent by Paul E. Hardisty, Orenda Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-916-78803-9.
Kweku Ashworth is a child of the climate cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the world on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, now long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing. But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail, steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, he knows that it is time to find out for himself.
The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty, Orenda Books, £9.99 / Can$22.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-914-58555-5.
In 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…
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks by Frazer Hines, BBC Audio Books, £14, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-90650-9.
Audiobook. An inventive retelling of one of Doctor Who’s all-time classic TV stories from Frazer Hines, who starred as the show’s longest-running companion, Jamie McCrimmon. Young astrophysicist Zoe wishes to join Jamie and the Doctor on their travels. To give her fair warning of the dangers she may face, the Doctor uses a mind projector to share one of their most harrowing adventures… And so, Jamie is forced to relive his struggle against the evil Daleks at their most powerful and calculating. In a complex plot that drags him from modern-day London to Victorian times and finally to the Dalek world of Skaro, he endures ordeals that test his courage, strength – and his friendship with the Doctor – to the limit… See also below.
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks by Frazer Hines, BBC Books, £22 / Can$49.95 / US$28, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-785-94843-5
This is the hardback of the above.
Doctor Who: The Giggle by James Goss, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-92822-8.
Audiobook. Dan Starkey reads this novelisation of a brand-new adventure for Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. A sinister toyshop. The Earth erupting in violence. Shockwaves travelling through history. With old friends powerless to help, the Doctor is drawn into a deadly duel against an old nemesis who can bend reality to his will – and change the Doctor’s life for ever… Dan Starkey, whose roles in the BBC TV series include the Sontaran Strax, reads James Goss’s novelisation.
Doctor Who: The Giggle by James Goss, Target – BBC Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-785-94847-3.
With old friends powerless to help, the Doctor is drawn into a deadly duel against an old nemesis who can bend reality to his will – and change the Doctor’s life for ever…
Hellweg’s Keep by Justin Holley, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58881-3.
Kendra Omen is on an off-world FBI mission, hoping to assuage the grief of losing a daughter and husband, but she learns that loss is unruly and not everyone, or everything, wants you to heal. Down in the depths of Hellweg’s Keep, she tries to find thirty-seven lost miners who vanished without a trace. Soon she’ll pray they don’t find her.
The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnstone, Orenda Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-916-78805-3.
Ava, Lennox and Heather make contact with alien Sandy and head for a profound confrontation that could mean a possible brighter future … or the decimation of the Encedalons and the entire human race…. Six months since the earth-shattering events of The Space Between Us, the revelatory hope of the aliens’ visit has turned to dust and the creatures have disappeared into the water off Scotland’s west coast. Teenager Lennox and grieving mother Heather are being held in New Broom, a makeshift US military base, the subject of experiments, alongside the Enceladons who have been captured by the authorities. Ava, who has given birth, is awaiting the jury verdict at her trial for the murder of her husband. And MI7 agent Oscar Fellowes, who has been sidelined by the US military, is beginning to think he might be on the wrong side of history. When alien Sandy makes contact, Lennox and Heather make a plan to escape with Ava. All three of them are heading for a profound confrontation between the worst of humanity and a possible brighter future, as the stakes get higher for the alien Enceladons and the entire human race
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord, Gollancz, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61891-5.
When two worlds collide, how can you find a solution for everyone? Grace Delarua, a civil servant with the Cygnus Beta government, remembers when the Sadiri arrived on their planet, a galactic hinterland for pioneers and refugees. Dllenahkh, leader of the Sadiri settlers, remembers the cool strong blues and gentle sunlight of his home world. He remembers the moment he was told his planet was destroyed. They must work together to rebuild his decimated population by searching for the last surviving members of his race.
The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord, Gollancz, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61894-6.
A tale of love, suffering and escape. For years, Rafi Delarua saw his family suffer under his father’s unethical use of psionic power. Now the government has Rafi under close watch but, hating their crude attempts to analyse his brain, he escapes to Punartam, where his abilities are the norm, not the exception. But the galaxy is changing – unrest is spreading and the cartels are plotting, making the stars a more dangerous place. There may be a solution – involving interstellar travel, galactic power and the love of a beautiful game.
Doctor Who: Escape the Daleks! by Steve Lyons, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-90523-6.
Audiobook. Katy Manning reads this original adventure by Steve Lyons for the Third Doctor, as played on TV by Jon Pertwee, and his companion Jo Grant. An Escape Room with a sting in its tail is the setting for the Doctor and Jo’s latest encounter with a familiar enemy. Three young graduates and their tutor race against time to crack the codes, open the exit door, and obtain ‘A New Life’ – at least, that’s what the publicity said. As the Doctor observes proceedings, he begins to suspect that something far more sinister lurks on the other side of the door. To make matters worse, the room appears set to eliminate anyone who doesn’t make the grade. Working against time, the Doctor and Jo form an uneasy alliance with the gamers. What terror lies waiting for them all?
The Family Experiment by John Marrs, Macmillan, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-01697-6.
Some families are virtually perfect… The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen, in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child – or risk it all for the chance of a real baby…
Star Wars: The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91944-8.
In the year before The Phantom Menace, Yoda, Mace Windu, and the entire Jedi Council confront a galaxy on the brink of change. The galaxy is changing, and along with it, the Jedi Order. More and more, the Order finds itself focused on the future of the Republic, secluded on Coruscant, where the twelve members of the Jedi Council weigh crises on a galactic scale. As Qui-Gon Jinn challenges the Council about the increasing isolation of the Order, Mace Windu suggests a bold response: all twelve Jedi Masters will embark on a goodwill mission to help the planet, and remind the people of the galaxy that the Jedi remain as stalwart and present as they have been across the ages. But the arrival of the Jedi leadership is not seen by all as a cause for celebration and the Jedi Masters must reckon with an unwelcome truth: that while no one thinks more about the future than the Jedi Council, nobody needs their help more than those living in the present.
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-93838-8.
Angela Wynter reads this novelisation of the first full adventure for the Fifteenth Doctor, as played on TV by Ncuti Gatwa, and Ruby Sunday as played by Millie Gibson. For Ruby Sunday, this Christmas Eve is a birthday she’ll never forget. It’s the day she joins the Doctor on board a Goblin ship. The day she learns of dangers from beyond the universe. The day her life really begins… or, perhaps, the day it ends. The television script by Russell T. Davies.
The 14th Storm by Daniel Mooney, Legend Press, £9.99 / Can$24.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-915-64366-7.
In 2043, the climate has finally changed. The planet is ravaged by violent storms and failing crops and much of the world is now uninhabitable. Amidst a world of hungry and desperate people, the Department of Environmental Justice have been tasked with finding and executing those who have denied climate change. On the eve of the 14th storm, Broderick and Malley are asked to hunt the leader of a stirring rebellion, but something feels wrong. Broderick is shut off and interested only in exacting revenge. Malley is sceptical, and thinks their latest target is more politically-motivated than their employer is letting on. Their journey is upended by Fionnuala, a young and idealistic runaway who is hopeful for the future and desperate to save the target. Together, the three of them must learn to adapt to the climate and the polarized groups if they are to survive.
Lake of Souls: Leckie Anthology by Ann Leckie, Orbit, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52346-0.
Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie has her first 'collection' of shorts published – so this is not an anthology, which is a volume of stories (usually thematic) by a number of authors. Journey across the stars of the Imperial Radch universe. Listen to the words of the Old Gods that ruled The Raven Tower.
Learn the secrets of the mysterious Lake of Souls.
Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder by Mark Morris, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-92820-4.
Audiobook. Bonnie Langford reads this novelisation of a brand-new adventure for Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. A ship at the edge of space. A robot with a secret. A sinister presence. The Doctor and Donna are trapped on board a mysterious spacecraft. Fate of the crew: unknown. Fate of the universe if what’s on board gets out: terminal…. Bonnie Langford, who plays Mel in the BBC TV series, reads Mark Morris’s Novelisation.
In Universes by Em North, Hutchinson - Heinemann, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-15359-0.
Raffi is a physicist who spends their days removing stars from pictures of the night sky, dreaming about parallel universes. Here in this one, they’re falling for a queer sculptor named Britt who they almost met when they were kids – if only they’d had the courage to say hello. What if Raffi had said hello? The question catapults Raffi across alternate universes, each an answer to the question of what their life might be like if things had happened just a little differently. Each universe is beautiful and dangerous for Raffi. Where apocalyptic landscapes teem with bears, mothers fracture into hordes of animals, and glistening sandcastles stand tall enough to live inside. Across them all, Raffi searches for a life and a love that feels their own.
Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder by Mark Morris, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-92820-4.
Bonnie Langford reads this novelisation of a brand-new adventure for Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary, featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. A ship at the edge of space. A robot with a secret. A sinister presence. The Doctor and Donna are trapped on board a mysterious spacecraft. Fate of the crew: unknown. Fate of the universe if what’s on board gets out: terminal. The episodes original script was by Russell T Davies.
Doctor Who: River of Death by John Peel, BBC Audiobooks, £11, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-91163-3.
Audiobook. Nicola Bryant, who played Peri Brown, companion to the fifth and sixth Doctors, reads John Peel's brand-new original adventure, a stirring historical tale of human endeavour and American pioneers featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri. A visit to the Grand Canyon begins with disaster for the Doctor and Peri, when the TARDIS plunges into a ravine. The travellers' only hope is to descend to the valley on foot and then track the course of the Colorado river.
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61854-0.
A queer Science Fiction novel about a refugee and a xenophobic politician who agree to a fake marriage to save their reputations. January, once a principal in London’s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Mars. January is now an Earthstronger – a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars’s lower gravity and so poses a danger to its natives. January’s life is dictated by this, and now xenophobic politician Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse. When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot press junket interview that goes horribly awry, Gale proposes a solution – a political marriage.
Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-0-575-09081-1.
Panoply is a small, efficient police force, dedicated to maintaining the rule of democracy among the 10,000 disparate city states orbiting the planet Yellowstone. Ingvar Tench was one of Panoply’s most experienced operatives. So why did she walk alone and virtually unarmed into a habitat with a vicious grudge against her organisation? Police investigator Dreyfus must pick up the investigation, which will unearth both unpleasant answers and secrets from his own past…
Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61768-0.
Billed by the publisher as Event Horizon meets Brave New World. Good is a construct. Evil is a virus. The starship Sa Niro and the starship SB Oubliette were in orbit around a black hole one afternoon… by the end of the day, the crews of both starships were dead, victims of a single killer, Captain Alpha Raine. But something inexplicable has been happening to Raine and whatever it is seems to be spreading. It becomes increasingly undeniable that there’s something inside that black hole… and it’s found a way out…
Poster Girl by Veronica Roth, Hodderscape, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-33102-8.
What's right is right… Sonya knows this slogan and has lived by it all her life. For decades everyone in the Seattle Portland megapolis lived under it as well as the constant surveillance in the form on Insight, an ocular implant that tracks every word and action, rewarding or punishing by a rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation… Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its leaders locked in the Aperture prison on the outskirts of the city…. Sonya, a former poster girl for the Delegation is imprisoned but now after a decade someone comes to visit her to give her the offer of a mission…
Doctor Who: The Star Beast by Gary Russell, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-92818-1.
Audiobook. Jacqueline King reads this brand new adventure for Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary, based on a script by Russell T. Davies and featuring the Fourteenth Doctor and Donna Noble, as played on TV by David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Landing on Earth, the Doctor finds a stranded alien in need of protection – and is dragged headlong into the life of his old friend Donna Noble, knowing that if she ever remembers their time together, she will die… Jacqueline King, who plays Sylvia Noble in the BBC TV series, reads Gary Russell’s novelisation.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast by Gary Russell, Target – BBC Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-785-94845-9.
Landing on Earth, the Doctor finds a stranded alien in need of protection – and is dragged headlong into the life of his old friend Donna Noble, knowing that if she ever remembers their time together, she will die…
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61347-7.
Years ago, he had comrades and a cause to believe in, now the man known as Nomad knows only a life on the run. Forced to hop between worlds whenever the Night Brigade gets close, Nomad lands on a planet and is caught in the struggle between a tyrant and rebels trying to escape being turned into mindless slaves – all under the threat of a sunrise that will melt stones. Can he escape before his mind or body pay the ultimate price?
Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen by Eric Saward, BBC Audiobooks, £20, CD, ISBN 978-1-529-90525-0.
Audiobook. David Banks, best known for his portrayal of the Cyber-Leader, reads this novelisation featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri. What links a diamond raid in 20th Century London, a secret base in the heart of the city's sewer system, a cold and desolate planet light years from Earth, and a daring plan to alter the entire course of interplanetary history? The Doctor's old enemy, Lytton, has allied himself with the Cybermen. Their scheme, if successful, could bring the human race to its knees. For the Cybermen have journeyed back in time to prevent the destruction of their home world. And for Mondas to survive, the Earth must die...
Jubilee by Stephen K. Stanford, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58884-4.
Who would not enjoy living on Jubilee, that artificial haven outside of our Universe? It is a lawless, artificial world within its own parallel universe, a seething cesspool of vice ruled by an eccentric A.I. Detectives Col and Danee are sent on a hastily organised mission to recover the body of a leading politician. But the corpse has been switched…! Billed by the publisher as being in the vein of Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat.
Idolatry by Aditya Sudarshan, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58851-6.
Mumbai, India. In the decaying near future. A new technology for the engineering of customized gods is erupting in dangerous and mind-altering ways. One man, the so-called Happy Maker, wants to ride the wave all the way to godhood. What will it take for anyone to save their sanity? But is sanity even worth saving?
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-01374-6
When xeno-biologist Arton Daghdev is exiled to an alien planet, he journeys through a dangerous and hostile wilderness. Yet on his expedition, he uncovers lost alien ruins – and the mysterious builders who abandoned them. The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there. In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilisation, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.
Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-05200-8
The conclusion to 'The Final Architecture' trilogy.
The Best of World SF 03 by Lavie Tidhar, Ad Astra – Head of Zeus, £25, hrdbk, ISBN not provided
In this third instalment, the reader will discover alien artists, rioting dinosaurs, shape-shifting rabbits, heartbreak-harvesting cafes and one robot on a quest for meaning. Readers will be transported to the stars and back down to Earth and sideways, with the order of the world turned upside down. Authors come from Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, Ghana, Greece, India, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore and South Africa.
Of Heroes, Homes and Honey: Coronam Book III by Johnny Worthen, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58798-4.
Where the enemy ends and dissatisfaction begins blurs in the lines of battle. The many stir against the few, led forward by the drone of alien bees, and the words of a child on far away Tirgwenin. The powerful know war and time is against the Family. Genocide approaches. Heroes will fall, others rise and the homes of humanity shall be remade.
One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon, Trapeze, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-398-71540-0.
Billed by the publisher as The Stepford Wives meets Get Out in this thriller. When Jasmyn and her family move to the predominantly Black town of Liberty, California, she expects to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality. What she discovers is a terrible secret that threatens to destroy her world in ways she could never have imagined. Because it transpires that Liberty is the staging ground for a group of Black people recruiting others to undergo a process to become white, forgetting their past lives and identities to escape the trauma of their current existence…
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Spring 2024
Forthcoming Fantasy Books
The Snow Ghost and Other Tales Classic Japanese Ghost Stories edited by Anonymous, Vintage Classics, £16.99 / Can$35.99 / US$29.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-784-87872-6.
Enter the haunted world of Ancient Japan in this spine-tingling collection of ghostly tales told andretold across the centuries. From Goblin infested caves and haunted Tombs, to vengeful spirits and strange, sinister happenings, Ancient Japan was a country and culture that lived with between realms: the world of everyday and the world of supernatural. It was a time and place where men could be brought down by karmic forces or lured into deadly danger by ghostly apparitions, and where the land held sorrowful secrets or stories that long-awaited an opportunity to reveal them and seek reparation. The Snow Ghost and Other Tales brings together some of the best and scariest tales that endured across centuries of folk lore in one new beautiful hardback collection. Finally committed to writing during the turn of the twentieth century by a unique set of folklorists, the ghost stories presented in this new anthology will transport readers to a time of magic and mystery, and let them relish in the spine-tingling traditions of Japanese culture largely lost now to modernity.
Rift by Seth C. Adams, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58878-3
Estranged husband. Grieving father. A doorway through which the dead – or something else entirely – speak. How far would you go to see the ones you’ve lost, just one more time? Would you step through the rift? And, what if something else stepped out?
The Flaw in the Crystal And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair edited by Mike Ashley, British Library Publishing, £9.99 / Can$22.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-712-35477-6.
At that moment, in a flash that came like a shifting of her eyes, the world she looked at suffered a change... It was the same world, flat field for flat field and hill for hill; but radiant, vibrant, and, as it were, infinitely transparent. Tales of eternal damnation, love, sexuality, death and supernatural talents form the core of May Sinclair’s essential and groundbreaking oeuvre. Literary and still thrilling today, her stories explore the strangeness at the heart of human experience and relationships, where the mundane and the everyday meets lurking, otherworldly weirdness. Including the contents of the classic collections Uncanny Stories (1923) and The Intercessor and Other Stories (1931), this new volume also features two rare strange tales from a third, lesser-known book.
Algernon Blackwood Horror Stories by Algernon Blackwood, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17709-9.
Blackwood, alongside M.R. James, is one of the pillars of the modern horror story. With an eye for a chilling detail he leaves the reader always casting nervously behind. Blackwood wrote story after story of haunted places, and long dark shadows, many of which feature in this stunning new collection, including ‘A Haunted Island’, ‘The Willows’ and more.
Spirits & Ghouls Short Stories edited by Ahmed Al-Rawi, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17586-6.
New stories from open submissions, by both emerging and established writers, mingle with the spirits of an older age, stretching back from the Victorian obsessions of M. R. James, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Amelia Edwards, to the tales of the Arabian nights.
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, Bantam, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-787-63724-5.
New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she's doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message: This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door. Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book - a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous - or dreadful and terrifying - things. Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it.
The Nameless by Ramsey Campbell, Flame Tree Press, £9.95 / Can$19.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58767-0.
Barbara Waugh’s daughter Angela is kidnapped and a disfigured body turns up. Grieving, Barbara focuses on her work. Years later, she receives a phone call from Angela. Barbara’s investigations reveal that a brainwashing cult was responsible for the abduction. The more she learns, the less she can trust. Will she succumb to a murderous evil?
Simul by Andrew Caldecott, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-41548-3.
‘Remember Simul’ – the last words of a dying man, and the key to mankind’s survival. Words which will take Morag, Fogg and their friends on a wild ride where mythical beasts, legendary monster-hunters and the forces of 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.
Those Who Dwell in Mordenhyrst Hall by Catherine Cavendish, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58821-9.
Evil runs deep at Mordenhyrst Hall. But it is rooted far deeper than the foundations of the ancestral home. Its inhabitants and the entire village are infested with a legacy so evil, it transcends the laws of nature. In a world where nothing is as it appears to be, Grace and Coralie must seek out and find the truth – whatever the cost.
The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell, Jo Fletcher Books, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-42279-5.
Click on the title link for a standalone review. Billed by the publisher as Brandon Sanderson meets Deadpool. My name is Cade Ombra, and I used to be far more noble – until my employers changed that. Now I'm a war mage on the run – violent, angry, and forming a group to kill the seven deadliest mages on the continent. What could go wrong?
Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-787-47146-7.
Damelas Chademantaigne picked a poor night to fleea judicial duel. He has precious little hope of escaping the wrath of the Vixen, the most feared duellist in the entire city, until he stumbles through the stage doors of the magnificent Operato Belleza and tricks his way into the company of actors. An archaic law provides a temporary respite from his troubles - until one night a ghostly voice in his head causes Damelas to fumble his lines, inadvertently blurting out a dreadful truth: the city’s most legendary hero may actually be a traitor and a brutal murderer. With only the help of his boisterous and lusty friend Bereto, a beautiful assassin whose target may well be Damelas himself, and a company of misfit actors who’d just as soon see him dead, this failed grandson of two Greatcoats must somehow find within himself the courage to dig up long-buried truths before a ruthless band of bravos known as the Iron Orchids come for his head. Oh, and there’s still that matter of the Vixen waiting to duel him…
Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan, Orbit, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52239-5.
Welcome to Tiankawi - shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Orat least, that's how it first appears. But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on top: peering down from shining towers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk - sirens, sea witches, kelpies and kappas -who live in the polluted waters below. For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to help her downtrodden people. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn't hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when Nami, a know-it-all water dragon - fathomfolk royalty - is exiled to the city. When extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Both Nami and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth paying, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.
Czech Folktales edited by Rajendra Chitnis, Flame Tree Press, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17781-5.
This new collection will acquaint you with classic tales such as ‘The Three Roses’ and ‘The Witch and the Horseshoes’. The lively stories of the Czech people are parables and moral fables – rich with satire they cling to the hope that all will come well in the end, that justice will be well served by truth.
The Crimson Moth by Kristen Ciccarelli, Magpie, £14.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
In the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is. Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution. Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty is someone who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Elusive by Genevieve Cogman, Tor, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-08377-4
Revolutionary France is full of blood and bite as vampires plot for power. Eleanor, once a lowly English maid, is now a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, known for their daring deeds and rescuing aristocratic vampires from the guillotine. This time, Eleanor and the League are investigating the disappearance of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the notorious French statesman and diplomat. But they soon uncover two vampire parties feuding for power and learn Talleyrand’s disappearance is part of a bigger, more dangerous scheme that will throw France into bloody chaos.
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole, Atom, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-349-12544-2.
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She's a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbours. When she's forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn't expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon-or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister. As Faron's desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other's lives,as well as the fate of their world.
Indian Ghost Stories edited by Mithuraaj Dhusiya, Flame Tree 451, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17594-1.
Featuring a wonderful range of ghost tales from South Asia, some extending back to early cultures of the Indus river. Stories include Life’s Secret, The Story of Prince Sobur, The Ghost-Brahman, The Origin of Rubies, The Match-Making Jackal, The Boy With the Moon on His Forehead, The Ghost Who Was Afraid of Being Bagged, The Field of Bones.
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi, Harper Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Influenced by West African lore, Faebound takes place in a world where Humans and Fae are long dead, survived only by the Elves that now rule and fight over the remaining lands. It tells the story of Yeeran Teila, a Colonel who becomes exiled, and her sister Lettle, a seer. A series of dramatic events leads to them being captured by a hidden tribe of Fae from which they have to escape if they are to warn their people of the Fae threat.
The Weavers of Alamaxa by Hadeer Elsbai, Orbit, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52050-6.
A feminist fantasy set in an Egyptian-inspired world.
Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs, Ad Astra – Head of Zeus, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided
Fryda has grown up hearing tales of her uncle, King Beowulf, and his spectacular defeat of the monstrous Grendel. Her one desire is to become a shield maiden, but a terrible accident during her childhood has thwarted this dream. Yet still, Fryda feels an uncontrollable inner power. A power that grows as foreign kings and chieftains descend upon her home to celebrate her uncle, and there is talk of a political marriage for Fryda, whose heart already belongs to someone else. At the same time Fryda’s untamed power is also awakening a fearsome dragon from her long, cursed sleep…
Blackheart Ghosts by Laure Eve, Jo Fletcher Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-41181-2.
Billed by the publisher as Bladerunner meets Camelot. Retired King's Champion Garad Gaheris may have uncovered a conspiracy amongst London’s elite, as the city’s godchildren, born with illegal magical abilities, have had enough of persecution and are willing to do whatever it takes to assure their ascension.
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-51915-9.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore, and has catalogued many secrets of the Hidden Folk in her encyclopaedia with her infuriatingly charming fellow scholar, Wendell Bamble by, by her side. But Bambleby is more than just a brilliant and unbearably handsome scholar. He's an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother, in search of a door back to his realm. By lucky happenstance, Emily's new project, a map of the realms of faerie, will take them on an adventure tothe picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby's realm, and the keyto freeing him from his family's dark plans. But with new friendships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors, and of her own heart.
Haunted House Stories edited by Hester Fox, Flame Tree 451, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17593-4.
Gothic mansions, haunted estates, houses over-run by phantoms: this new collection of classic tales will keep you entertained in the long watches of the night, with neck-tingling tales from E.F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Edith Wharton and more.
Lost Atlantis Short Stories edited by Jennifer Fuller, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17585-9.
Packed with intriguing stories from new submissions and ancient visionaries. Atlantis began with Plato but the idea of a perfect society lost to the world haunted the speculative mind for over 2000 years, with the tales of Francis Bacon, the Utopian explorations of Thomas More, Samuel Butler and in modern times, TV series and short stories galore.
The Queen of the Dawn edited by Allison Galbraith & J. K. Jackson, Penguin, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94589-6.
Cassia Greythorne has survived battles with gods and monsters and the crown is in her grasp. But the power of the dark god Malaphar grows ever stronger, threatening the future of their world before her reign has even begun. Still there is hope: a way to banish him forever has been revealed. It will take Casia and her friends into a strange new realm, where they must face old enemies and race to decipher a bewildering ancient magic. But time is short. Chaos spreads throughout the empires and the bonds between allies begin to fray. With every bloody battle, the cost of saving their world becomes clearer.
Dawn is coming. But will they survive to see the new day?
Scottish Folk & Fairy Tales edited by Allison Galbraith & J. K. Jackson, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17590-3.
From the clash of swords between knights and clan leaders to the exploits of brownies, bogles and the enchanting ‘fair folk’, this collection of tales captures the essence of Scotland’s ancient and vibrant mythic tradition – including tales and characters from a shared heritage with Ireland, alongside a variety of uniquely Scottish stories.
An Education In Malice by S. T. Gibson, Orbit, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-51932-6.
Deep in the forgotten hills of Massachusetts stands Saint Perpetua's College. Isolated and ancient, it is not a place for timid girls. Here, secrets are currency, ambition is lifeblood, and strange ceremonies welcome students into the fold. On her first day of class, Laura Sheridan is thrust into an intense academic rivalry with the beautiful and enigmatic Carmilla. Together, they are drawn into the confidence of their demanding poetry professor, De Lafontaine, who holds her own dark obsession with Carmilla. But as their rivalry blossoms into something far more delicious, Laura must confront her own strange hungers. Tangled in a sinister game of politics, bloodthirsty professors and dark magic, Laura and Carmilla must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in their ruthless pursuit of knowledge.
A Dawn Of Onyx by Kate Golden, Jo Fletcher Books, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43404-0.
To save her brother, Arwen promises her freedom and her healing magic to the vicious Onyx King. She must navigate infuriating but charming prisoners, dark betrayals and her own powers to escape with her life… and hopefully her heart.
A Promise of Peridot by Kate Golden, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43406-4.
Arwen Valondale is sailing for the mysterious Kingdom of Citrine after the battle of Siren’s Bay. Reeling from shocking revelations and her newfound powers, Arwen directs all of her pain and rage toward the man who betrayed her: King Kane Ravenwood. Kane’s presence is unavoidable as he travels with Arwen and her friends to seek the Blade of the Sun, a legendary weapon inextricably tied to her fate and the future of the realm. Even an uneasy truce proves difficult as Arwen fights against her unresolved feelings for Kane, who is willing to become darkness itself to protect her. As Arwen faces creatures, foes, and magic beyond her wildest imaginings, she must discover the secrets of her past to defeat the monstrous Fae King Lazarus. But finding the light within might mean the death of her and everyone she loves.
The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-399-62313-1.
Translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel. A new novel from the International Booker Prize-winning author of Time Shelter (2022). In a radical reimagining of the Minotaur myth, a narrator named Georgi constructs the story of his life like a labyrinth, meandering through the past to find the child at the centre of it all. Spanning from antiquity to the Anthropocene, he catalogues curious instances of abandonment; recounts a turbulent boyhood in 1970s Bulgaria; and even has a bizarre run-in with an eccentric flâneur named Gaustine.
The Gauntlet and the Broken Chain by Ian Green, Ad Astra – Head of Zeus, £20, hrdbk, ISBN not provided
Final book in the Rotstorm trilogy, a demon-dark fantasy that opens in a world wracked by the aftermath of an ancient conflict. Climate catastrophe, animist gods and a legion of monsters. And one woman against them all. The land is gripped in a claw winter. The rotstorm has breached the walls of Undal City. The children of the storm have claimed the Northern Marches. The deathless mage has been unchained. The dead god hunts again. And Floré will raise her gauntlets against them all.
Ancient Ghost Stories. edited by Camilla Grudova, Flame Tree 451, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17595-8.
The stories of ghosts here can be found in the retold literature of ancient peoples, including ‘Khonsemhab and the Ghost’ from Ancient Egypt, ‘Philinnion and Machates’ from Ancient Rome, spirits featured in Homer’s Odyssey, and tales of Babylonian demons and the netherworld.
The Burning Land by David Hair, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-42286-3.
Billed by the publisher as Brandon Sanderson meets Joe Abercrombie. The Falcons are knights of the Vestal Order, pledged to use their powers to protect the Empire of Talmont from the cruel Vyr and the carnage they unleash. However, when they learn that the Empire’s worst enemy may be the Vestal Order itself, they go rogue, embarking on a desperate quest for answers. Can the Falcons evade capture and discover the truth before time runs out?
Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton, Headline, £25, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-40642-5.
I was marrying a vampire. To them I might as well be marrying a demon straight out of hell. If they ever met a demon they'd understand the difference….
Medea by Rosie Hewlett, Transworld, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-787-63729-0.
A re-telling of the epic Jason and the Golden Fleece by an author who has a BA degree in Classical Literature and Civilisation. Medea longs for a different life. Since childhood, she has been separated from her sister, shunned by her mother, and persecuted and tormented by her brother and father. All because of a unique and dangerous gift: witchcraft. But when a dashing young hero, Jason, arrives to claim the famed Golden Fleece that her father protects, Medea sees her opportunity to escape. Her offer to help Jason overcome the trials set by her father sets in motion a journey that will test every ounce of her strength, magic and loyalty; a journey that will see her battle monsters, dethrone kings and fall in love. But when faced with the ultimate betrayal, Medea is driven to an act of desperation so brutal it rips apart the lives of everyone involved... The authors self-published debut, Medusa, won the Rubery Book of the Year award in 2021.
Silent Key by Laurel Hightower, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58854-7
After losing her husband under mysterious circumstances, former detective Cam Ambrose must learn how to keep her young daughter safe from a world of the supernatural she never knew existed. She sets out to solve a decades-old mystery entangling the machinations of an obsessed killer, her husband’s mistress, and a series of deadly hauntings.
Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland, Macmillan, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-07740-7.
Two women walk on a knife-edge as war looms in ancient Britain. One is immortal and cursed. The other is a mortal warrior, doomed to a loveless marriage. But they must work together as dangers mount, or they'll both be as lost as the realms they call home. Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, land and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield – a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes. Queen Aethelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter. But when she leads her forces to disaster in battle, her husband’s court turns against her. Yet King Ine needs Aethel more than ever: the dead kings of Wessex are waking, and his own brother seeks to usurp him. Ine’s only hope is to master the magic that’s lain dormant in his bloodline since ancient days…
William Hope Hodgson Horror Stories by William Hope Hodgson, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17796-9.
Hodgson, in the company of Algernon Blackwood, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Machen, Arthur Conan Doyle and many other distinguished authors of the late Victorian era, created the foundations of the modern short story, the weird, the dark and the delightful, the supernatural, the fantastic and the imaginative.
The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T. L. Huchu, Tor, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-09774-0
Ghostalker and magician-in-training Ropa Moyo is stoked to be attending an important magical convention. But her sleuthing skills will be put to the test when a magician is murdered. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect – and someone has betrayed their group.
Serbian Folktales edited by Jake Jackson, Flame Tree Press, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17783-9.
This collection gathers together classic tales of the proud, poetic South Slavs, such as ‘He Who Asks Little Receives Much’, ‘The Maiden Wiser Than the Tsar, ‘The Biter Bit’, ‘Good Deeds Never Perish’ ‘The Three Suitors’ and ‘The Ram With the Golden Fleece’.
Bittershore by V. V. James, Gollancz, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61726-0.
The only thing stronger than a witch’s promise is a mother’s vengeance… Sarah loved and trusted no one in her close-knit coven more than her oldest friend, Abigail. Then Abigail’s son was found dead at a house party and Sarah’s daughter, Harper, was accused of murdering him. Sarah and Harper lost everything but their lives. This is a fearless portrait of the hatred and hysteria that can corrode a community consumed by bigotry.
A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen, Del Rey, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91644-7.
A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king – while also fighting her growing desire for his fiery son – in this Norse-inspired fantasy romance from the bestselling author of the TikTok sensation 'The Bridge Kingdom' series. Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back. Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: she possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which gives her magic capable of repelling any attack. A magic that was foretold would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath a king – the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.
The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, Gollancz, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-473-23420-8.
Biled as Star Wars meets Doctor Who in an epic adventure where Black protagonists dismantle empires, travel through time and save worlds. Asha knows she’s just another cog in the vast machine of the Thracin Empire. When she discovers she has a sister in the bowels of the imperial prison, she risks everything.
Obi knows he has to cure the sickness he caught when he split his soul. When his path tangles with Asha’s, they realise they are pawns in a prophecy, destined to thwart an interdimensional apocalypse.
Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner, Harper Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The godkiller is dying. Having plunged into the sea’s depths to save Elo, Inara and Skedi from the fire god, her only chance of survival is to put her life in the hands of yet another god: Osidisen, god of the sea, for whom she is named. But no godkiller wants to be at the mercy of a god, and if she lives it will be to continue her quest to destroy all she comes across. Meanwhile, Elo searches for people to take up his call of rebellion and join his cause to destroy the man he once called friend and still calls king. A king whom once devoted himself to destroying all gods throughout the land, but has now entered into an unholy pact with the most dangerous of them all. And where once his heart beat, a god now burns.
The Third Love by Hiromi Kawakami, Granta, £14.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-783-78887-3.
Translated from the Japanese by Ted Goossen. A novel that moves between Japan past and present to tell a time-bending story about desire and destiny. Having married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has been soured by infidelity. One day, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams – dreams that transport her back through history and towards her future love.
The Heart of Winter by Shona Kinsella, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58636-9
When Brigit is faced with a forced marriage to Aengus, god of Summer, she flees into the Highlands, searching for the Cailleach, Queen of Winter. Determined to make her own way, she seeks tutelage from the Queen. Caught between two gods, she’ll be tested to her limits and will form unlikely friendships until she finds her true place in the world.
Heartsong by T. J. Klune, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-00221-4
Set in the dreamy backwoods of Oregon, Heartsong is a queer, paranormal romance of love and pack loyalty, and is the third book in the Green Creek series. All Robbie Fontaine ever wanted was a place to belong. After the death of his mother, he bounces around from pack to pack, forming temporary bonds to keep from turning feral. It’s enough – until he receives a summons from the wolf stronghold in Caswell, Maine. Life as the trusted second to Michelle Hughes – the Alpha of all – and the cherished friend of a gentle old witch teaches Robbie what it means to be pack, to have a home. But when a mission from Michelle sends Robbie into the field, he finds himself questioning where he belongs and everything he’s been told. Whispers of traitorous wolves and wild magic abound – but who are the traitors and who the betrayed? More than anything, Robbie hungers for answers, because one of those alleged traitors is Kelly Bennett – the wolf who may be his mate. The truth has a way of coming out. And when it does, everything will shatter.
In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune, Tor, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-08804-5
A heart-warming, queer retelling of the Pinocchio story, In the Lives of Puppets is a standalone fantasy adventure.
Hades by Mark Knowles, Ad Astra – Head of Zeus, £9.99, pbk, ISBN not provided
The third and final instalment in the 'Blades of Bronze' trilogy, a unique re-telling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts by a Cambridge Classicist who happens to be an extremely gifted storyteller. Decades after the voyage of the fabled Argo, the last remaining Argonauts are scattered to the corners of the Greek world, old men living on past glories. The great victory at Troy is a memory. The gods have abandoned Greece. The Age of Heroes is dead. The Sea People are coming...Only one young man can rise up, channel the spirit of the Argonauts, and inspire and renew the heroism of old: Xandros, callow grandson of the great Jason. His mission is a desperate one, and it may yet be too late.
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff, Harper Voyager, £22, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Gabriel de Leon has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone. But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed. A truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.
The Silverblood Promise by James Logan, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43281-7.
Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. However, when Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered, he finds fresh purpose, vowing to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death. His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where everything has a price – but the price of truth is the deadliest of all.
Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis, Transworld, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-857-52946-6.
This is a genre adjacent offering. This is set in 19th century Paris, following two con-artist sisters who pose as gifted mediums to pull off one last job… Paris, 1866. When Baroness Sylvie Devereux receives a house-call from Charlotte Mothe, the sister she disowned, she fears her shady past as a spirit medium has caught up with her. But with their father ill and Charlotte unable to pay his bills, Sylvie is persuaded into one last con. Their marks are the de Jacquinots: dysfunctional aristocrats who believe they are haunted by their great aunt, brutally murdered during the French Revolution. Sylvie and Charlotte will need to deploy every trick to terrify the family out of their gold – until they experience inexplicable horrors themselves. The sisters start to question if they really are at the mercy of a vengeful spirit. And what other deep, dark secrets threaten to come to light...?
Gwain and the Green Night by Alan Lupack, Flame Tree Press, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17783-5.
Gawain is a treasure of medieval literature, brought to life in the 2021 movie Green Knight starring Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander and Joel Edgerton. An Arthurian legend of note it revels in its Celtic origins, playing with the mysteries of chivalric romance, the warrior hero and the
deeper truths of eternal life.
Relight My Fire by C. K. McDonnell, Transworld, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-857-50535-4.
A new standalone novel in the 'The Stranger Times' series, that is Manchester-set revolving around the investigations of The Stranger Times newspaper into the weird and the supernatural! Stella is enjoying life as an almost student, or at least she is until a man falls from the sky right in front of her, leaving a big old hole in the pavement for Manchester Council to fill. The obvious question of how he ended up in the sky in the first place has no obvious answers, which is where The Stranger Times come in. But this isn't just the hunt for another story. Dark powers think Stella might have been involved and the only way she and the team can prove her innocence is to find out what the hell is really going on. And what have dodgy gear, disturbed graves and a decommissioned rock star got to do with all this?
Arthur Machen Horror Stories by Arthur Machen, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17795-2.
Alongside M.R. James, H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood and Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen wrote powerful, chilling and thought-provokling stories. His supernatural tales draw their power from the long nights and dark lanes of the Welsh countryside that raised him surrounded as he was by the remains of Roman forts and Iron Age archaeology.
House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas, Bloomsbury, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-408-88444-7.
The third book in the 'Crescent City' series. Bryce Quinlan is stranded in a strange new world. She’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again and return to everything she loves. But that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Meanwhile, Hunt Athalar is back in the Asteri’s dungeons. Stripped of his freedom and the happiness he’d fought so hard for, he’s without a clue as to Bryce’s fate. Hunt is desperate to help his Mate, but until he can escape the Asteri’s chains, his hands are quite literally tied. As Midgard is brought to the brink of collapse, the fate of the world rests on the hope of rebellion. But the fight for survival, freedom and love may cost everything Bryce and Hunt have.
Celtic Weird: Tales of Wicked Folklore and Dark Mythology by Johnny Mains, British Library Publishing, £15.99 / Can$33.99 / US$24.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-712-35432-5.
In this volume, Johnny Mains dives into the archives to unearth a hoard of twenty-one enthralling tales imbued with elements of Celtic folklore, ranging from the 1820s to the 1980s and including three weird lost gems translated from Gaelic. From the shorelines, hills and towns of ancient lands, tales of twisted creatures, sins against nature and pagan
revenants have been passed down from generation to generation. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, folklore from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man inspired a new strain of strange short stories, penned by writers of the weird and fantastic including masters of the form such as Arthur Machen, Edith Wharton and Robert Aickman.
The Murmurs by Michael J. Malone, Orenda Books, £9.99 / Can$22.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-914-58582-1.
A young woman starts experiencing terrifying premonitions of people dying, as it becomes clear that a family curse known only as The Murmurs has begun, and a long-forgotten crime is about to be unearthed… On the first morning of her new job at Heartfield House, a care home for the elderly, Annie Jackson wakens from a terrifying dream. And when she arrives at the home, she knows that the first old man she meets is going to die. How she knows this is a terrifying mystery, but it is the start of horrifying premonitions.
The Island of Mists and Miracles by Victoria Mas, Transworld, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-857-52936-7.
In 1830 a young novice called Catherine Labouré was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary. Nearly 200 years later, Sister Anne is also waiting for a sign. Which is why she accepts a mission to go to a tiny community on an island just off the coast of Brittany. Her only companion there is a sceptical, chain-smoking older nun who just wants to be left in peace. On the island she meets Hugo, the son of a devout family who prefers to look for the meaning of life amid the stars; Madenn, a grandmother whose daughter was killed in a crash and who finds meaning in routine; Isaac, Madenn's grandson, an otherworldly teenager who doesn't fit in but who befriends Hugo, and Julia, a sickly child. If anyone needs a miracle, it is her. But it is not Sister Anne who receives a vision. Instead it is Isaac who is found on a promontory, transfixed, unable to utter more than the words 'I see'. The event soon becomes headline news and the world descends on the small island, opening old wounds and unleashing a chain of events none of them could have foreseen.
Shadows on the Water Short Stories edited by Steve Mentz, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17778-5.
The mysteries of the rivers, the secrets of the lochs, the whispers across the vast stretches of the ocean, there are so many stories from the beginnings of civilisation, through myth and folklore, to the dark fantasies and ghostly tales of the modern storyteller. An entertaining, chilling collection of supernatural tales.
They Stalk the Night by Brian Moreland, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58857-8
In the Minnesota wilderness, the inhabitants of a remote town hold dark secrets. Retired police chief Sam Larsen knows what abomination stalks the forbidden woods atop Buckhead Hill. His worst nightmare becomes real when a pipeline company destroys a sacred barrier, unleashing an ancient enemy. Now, evil returns to feed again.
Darkness Beckons edited by Mark Morris, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58729-8
The fourth volume in the ABC of Horror, a non-themed series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris.
One Eye Opened in That Other Place by Christi Nogle, Flame Tree Press, £9.95 / Can$19.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58836-3.
Christi Nogle’s best weird and fantastical stories are collected here, each focusing on liminal spaces and the borders between places and states of mind. Within its pages you’ll travel across thresholds, and arrive at other times and places that are by turns disquieting, terrifying, and wonderful. Make sure to bring your special glasses!
African Ghost Short Stories edited by Nuzo Onoh, Divine Che, Neba, & Chinelo Onwualu, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17797-6.
A deluxe edition of new writing and tales rooted in ancient culture, this volume explores the deep-seated supernatural element in African storytelling: from the spirits and ancestors of folklore to the vibrantly modern ghosts of today’s horror. New and contemporary stories from African voices complement poignant folktales from around the continent.
Moonstone by Laura Purcell, Magpie, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Young adult novel. A gothic retelling of a folklore favourite… werewolves! A dark
regency fantasy shot through with magic and love that will keep you up all night. Billed by the publisher as perfect for fans of Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Silvia Moreno Garcia, this is a sparkling gothic story of forbidden love with real bite…
Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross, Harper Fiction, £14.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Two weeks have passed since Iris Winnow returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Her enemy-turned-lover Roman has been captured, and the city continues to dwell in a state of disbelief and ignorance. When given another chance to report from the frontline, she takes the opportunity and heads towards the danger. As the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together, the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.
What If... Loki Was Worthy? by Madeleine Roux, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91433-7.
Loki and Valkyrie seek redemption in the first adventure of an epic new multiversal series that re-imagines the origins of iconic Marvel heroes.
Thor – Son of Odin, God of Thunder, wielder of the hammer Mjolnir – is dead. And Loki is responsible. It was only meant to be a joke – but Loki’s harmless prank spiralled out of control, unleashing death and destruction on New York City and the heroes sworn to protect it. Furious and heartbroken, the All-Father banishes Loki to Earth for his crime. Loki finds himself in a realm of boxed wine, instant noodles, and some sort of regional performance troupe known as the ‘Buffalo Bills’. Yet, he cannot even endure his exile in peaceful isolation. A Valkyrie barges into his trailer-home with his brother’s final words from the beyond: a plea to find a certain Dr Jane Foster and pass on Mjolnir to its rightful heir. And as Asgard looks to Loki for salvation, he must answer the question: Am I truly worthy?
Bored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella, Atlantic, £14.99 / Can$33.99 / US$24.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-838-95701-8.
Brian, an aimless slacker, works doubles at his shift job, forgets to clean his room and lays about with his friends Nik and Darby. He's been struggling to manage his transition to adulthood almost as much as his monthly transitions to a werewolf. Really, he is not great at the whole werewolf thing, and his recent murderous slip-ups have caught the attention of Tyler, a Millennial were-mentor determined to take the mythological world by storm. Tyler has got a plan, and weirdly his self-help punditry actually encourages Brian to shape up and to stop accidentally marking out guys who ghosted him on Grindr as potential monthly victims. But as Brian gets closer to Tyler's pack, and alienated from Nik and Darby, he realizes that Tyler's expansion plans are much more nefarious than a little lupine enlightenment...
A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene, Orbit, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-52237-1.
In a kingdom where magic has been lost, Fia is a rare changeling, left behind by the wicked Fair Folk when they stole the High Queen's daughter and locked the gates to the Otherworld.
The Queen treats Fia as a daughter and trains her to be a spy. Meanwhile, the true princess Eala is bound to Otherworld, cursed to become a swan by day and only returning to her true form at night. When a hidden gate to Otherworld is discovered, Fia is tasked by the High Queen to retrieve Eala and break her curse. But she doesn't go alone: with her is prince Rogan, Eala's betrothed and Fia's childhood best friend. As the two journey into a world where magic winds through the roots of the trees and beauty can be a deadly illusion, Fia's mission is complicated by her feelings for the prince. . . and her unexpected attraction to the dark-hearted fae lord holding Eala captive. Irian might be more monster than man, but he seems to understand Fia in a way no one ever has.
Holy Ghosts: Classic Tales of the Ecclesiastical Uncanny edited by Fiona Snailham, British Library Publishing, £9.99 / Can$22.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-712-35413-4.
A couple witnesses a ghostly procession from centuries past; a tourist confesses her sins to a priest long since dead; cursed statues torment a sinning Archdeacon. Churches, monasteries and convents have long been associated with sanctuary: sacred spaces should offer protection from evil in all its forms. This new anthology raises questions about the protection offered by faith, bringing together a collection of tales in which holy places are filled with horror; where stone effigies come to life and believers are tormented by terrifying apparitions. In a host of uncanny stories published between 1855 and 1935, Holy Ghosts uncovers sacrilegious spectres and the ecclesiastically eerie. Reincarnating forgotten authors, from Mrs Henry Wood to Ada Buisson, Robert Hichens to M R James; Amelia B Edwards to Vernon Lee, the anthology exhumes stories buried deep in the British Library stacks.
Central African Folktales edited by Enongene Mirabeau Sone, Flame Tree Press, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17780-8.
Modern national boundaries complicate the origins of the stories still told in the DRC, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and more but many can be traced back to the Sao civilization of the 6th Century BCE.
Robert Louis Stevenson Collection by Robert Louis Stevenson, Flame Tree Press, £20.00 / Can$40.00 / US$30.00, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17710-5.
Universally known for his masterpiece The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson was a supreme storyteller of many dark and monstrous tales that tease at the duality of human nature. This gorgeous new collection gathers together ‘The Body Snatcher’, ‘A Lodging for the Night’, ‘The Isle of Voices’ and many other chilling stories.
The Uncanny Gastronomic edited by Zara-Louise Stubbs, British Library Publishing, £9.99 / Can$22.99 / US$16.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-712-35428-8.
A brush with the mushroom devil whets the appetite. The meat at the werewolf’s table is a dish to relish. Dessert with London’s cannibal club may be the cherry on top. From fairy tales and folklore focused on magical foods and strange eating came an enduring tradition of writers playing with food and the uncanny. In the fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries this tradition thrived, with themes of supernatural consumption, weird transformation and sensual euphoria as key ingredients. Raiding this dark pantry of writing, this new collection presents a feast of sixteen classic tales, two poems and one essay, with choice morsels by masters of the macabre including Shirley Jackson, Franz Kafka, Angela Carter and Roald Dahl.
The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan, Orbit, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-356-51647-9.
The third in the 'Empire of the Wolf' series.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Flame Tree Press, UK £8.99 / Can$15.99 / US$11.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17789-1.
The unabridged text of this edition is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary Terms produced for the modern reader.
Tales from the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tan, Harper Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
The collection gathers material both seen and new, illustrated throughout, making this the perfect complement to this majestic series. These fantastical stories are set in the enriched world of The Celestial Kingdom duology – filled with magic, adventure, and friendship. With stories that take place before and after the two novels, this collection includes the tales of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess, and Houyi, the Sun Warrior, from special editions, as well as a neverbefore- read epilogue to the duology, another story of Chang’e and Houyi, and stories from both Liwei and Wenzhi’s perspective. Each story will be illustrated, illuminating the text and adding richness to Sue Lynn Tan’s wonderful prose. With romance and heartache, mistakes and amends, this collection takes the Celestial Kingdom duology to new heights.
High Vaultage by Chris Sugden & Jen Sugden, Gollancz, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-399-60416-1.
Billed by the publisher as Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett meet Charles Dickens in this hilarious new murder mystery. 1887. London, but not as you know it. The Industrial Revolution went further than anyone could have imagined, and Even Greater London spreads across southern England. Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle hoped things would pick up quickly for their new enterprise. No one is taking them seriously, but their break will come soon. When a woman witnesses a kidnapping, Fleet-Entwhistle Private Investigations is the only place she can turn for help. But things go deeper than they could ever have anticipated…
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufons by Wole Talabi, Gollancz, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-399-61566-2.
A supernatural heist novel that goes deep into the heart of the British Museum
Shigidi is a disgruntled nightmare god in the Orisha Spirit Company, reluctantly answering the prayers of his few remaining believers to satisfy the demands of the company board. When he meets Nneoma, everything changes. Together, they attempt to break free and live on their own terms. But the elder gods have other plans for Shigidi, and the Orisha Spirit Company is not so easy to leave. The chairman has a final job for Shigidi and Nneoma.
The Night Alphabet by Joelle Taylor, Riverrun, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43094-3.
A woman walks into a tattoo parlour. But this is no ordinary woman, and this is Hackney in 2233. Jones’ body is covered in tattoos but she wants to add one final inking to her gallery – a thin line of ink mixed with blood that connects her body art together, creating a unique map. As the two artists set to work, Jones tells them the story behind each tattoo. As Jones is no ordinary woman, these are no ordinary stories: each one represents a doorway to a life Jones fell into, a ‘remembering’. Some of these lives were in the past, others in the future, some are sideways, but each of them connects Jones to the two tattoo artists in some way, though they are unaware of it. We visit the dystopian cities of the Quiet Men, the coal mines of 19th century Lancashire, join a gang of vigilante sex workers, enter the world of an INCEL murderer, haunt the old Maryville gay bar, and uncover plans to genetically modify female children. Each of the stories brings us closer to Jones’ truth, and how her life is intricately interwoven with that of the women tattooing her body.
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, Tor, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-035-03099-6
They wanted to open a cosy bookshop. They discovered a world of adventure. Reyna and Kianthe dream of opening a friendly book shop together, serving the very best tea and cakes. Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters – all complemented by love and good company. But Reyna is an elite bodyguard to a vengeful queen, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence. Leaving their lives behind seems impossible. Yet they flee to Tawney, a town nestled in the icy peaks of dragon country. There, they open the bookstore they'd always wanted. What follows is a tale of mishaps, mysteries, dragons, and a murderous queen throwing the realm’s biggest temper tantrum. And two women will discover what they mean to each other – and their world.
The Curious Affair of the Missing Mummies by Lisa Tuttle, Jo Fletcher Books, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-529-42275-7.
What appears to be a minor theft from the British Museum may just mask secret organisations and individuals of London eager to acquire ancient Egyptian magic. As the death toll mounts, the detectives wonder if the madness is really the curse of the museum’s new mummy?
Chinese Folktales edited by Wang & Chuanji Hu, Flame Tree Press, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17782-2.
A new introduction highlights the exquisite stories within this collection of classic Chinese folk and fairy tales, including ‘The King of the Ants’, ‘The Ghost Who Was Foiled’, ‘A Night on the Battlefield’, ‘The Lady of the Moon’ and ‘The Flower Elves’. Stories of gods, heroes and creatures vie with the curious, poetic delights of ancient China.
Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell, Jo Fletcher Books, £14.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43134-6.
Billed by the publisher as Beauty and the Beast meets The Shape of Water by the Nebula-award winning author of the short story ‘Open House on Haunted Hill’. Shesheshen has made a fatal mistake for a monster: she’s fallen in love. Shesheshen is a shape-shifter, who usually resides as an amorphous lump in the swamp of a ruined manor, unless impolite monster hunters invade intent on murdering her. Through a chance encounter, she meets a different kind of human, warm-hearted Homily, who mistakes Shesheshen for a human in turn. Shesheshen is loath to deceive, but just as she’s about to confess her true identity, Homily reveals she’s hunting the shape-shifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give them both a chance at happiness, she must figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with the woman she loves.
Japanese Ghost Stories edited by Hiroko Yoda, Flame Tree 451, £8.99 / Can$16.99 / US$12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-17592-7.
Japan has a long and ancient custom of sharing stories of the supernatural, brought to fashionable prominence in the Kaidan literature of the Edo period. This new collection brings together the fantastic tales of vengeful spirits, mountain-dwelling phantoms, man-eating oni, haunted trees, and child-rearing ghosts.
Lord of the Feast by Tim Waggoner, Flame Tree Press, £12.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, ISBN 978-1-787-58636-9
Twenty years ago, a malevolent cult failed in their attempt to create their own god: The Lord of the Feast, forging instead a horrible, misbegotten creature, so the cultists destroyed it, trapping each piece in scattered, mystic nightstones. Now, Ethan plans to resurrect the god, and fulfil its ancient promise.
Dragonlance: Dragons of Fate by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, Penguin, £10.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-804-94693-0.
The second new Dragonlance novel.
Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao, Harper Fiction, £16.99, hrdbk, ISBN not provided.
Years ago, the Elantian colonizers invaded Lan’s homeland and killed her mother in their search to uncover the Last Kingdom’s greatest secret the location of its legendary four Demon Gods. Lan’s mother devoted her life to destroying the Demon Gods, and Lan is determined to finish her mission. Yet, there are others searching for the gods, too. Zen knew his soul was forfeit the moment he made a deal with the Demon God known as the Black Tortoise, but he’s willing to lose himself if it means saving the Kingdom – and the girl – he loves. But to crush the colonisers who have invaded his land he needs more power than even a single Demon God can provide. He needs an army. And he knows exactly where he can find it – in the undead army his great grandfather lead decades ago.
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Spring 2024
Forthcoming Non-Fiction SF &
Popular Science Books
Quantum Drama: From the Bohr-Einstein Debate to the Riddle of Entanglement by Jim Baggott & John L. Heilbron, Oxford University Press, £25, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-192-84610-5.
In 1927, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein began a debate about the interpretation and meaning of the new quantum theory. This would become one of the most famous debates in the history of science. At stake were an understanding of the purpose, and defence of the integrity, of science. What (if any) limits should we place on our expectations for what science can tell us about physical reality?
Quantum Drama reveals, science owes a large debt to those who kept the discussions going against the apathy and indifference of most physicists before definitive experimental inquiries became possible. Although experiment moved the Bohr-Einstein debate to a new level and drew many into foundational research, it has by no means removed or resolved the fundamental question. There will be no Nobel prize for an answer. That will not shut off discussion. Our Drama will continue beyond our telling of it and is unlikely to reach its final scene before science ceases or the world ends.
Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe by Harry Cliff, Picador, £18.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-09286-8.
Experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff offers an eye-opening account of newly discovered strangenesses of the universe that could transform our understanding of the fundamentals of physics and of reality. Something strange is going on in the cosmos. Scientists are uncovering a catalogue of weird phenomena that simply can’t be explained by our long-established theories of the universe. Particles with unbelievable energies are bursting from beneath the Antarctic ice. Unknown forces seem to be tugging on the basic building blocks of matter. Stars are flying away from us far faster than anyone can explain. After decades of fruitless searching, could we finally be catching glimpses of a profound new view of our physical world? Or are we being fooled by cruel tricks of the data?
Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet by Chris Dixon, Cornerstone Press, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-92562-3.
We are entering the third age of the internet. Here, the world’s leading blockchain investor reveals how Web 3.0 will transform technology – and what that means for us all. The history of the internet is a three-act play. First came Web 1.0, the earliest and most open version of the internet. In these halcyon days, the web was egalitarian and decentralised – a playground for anyone who wanted to build something new. Then came Web 2.0, an internet defined by transformative technologies like social media. This new world connected billions of people, but also concentrated power and wealth in the hands of a tiny few. But what comes next? Here, Chris Dixon – founder of the world’s largest dedicated crypto fund, and angel investor in the likes of Uber, Pinterest and Kickstarter – offers a playbook for building a radically democratic internet: one that will hand power back to the creatives and innovators who defined the internet of the past. He calls it Web 3.0.
2024 Guide to the Night Sky by Storm Dunlop & Wil Tirion, Collins, £7.99 / Can$16.99 / US$13.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-008-61962-6.
This practical guide is both an easy introduction to astronomy and a useful reference for seasoned stargazers. Now includes a section on comets and a map of the Moon. Designed specifically for the northern hemisphere. Written and illustrated by astronomical experts, Storm Dunlop and Wil Tirion, and approved by the astronomers of the Royal Observatory Greenwich…. (Now in three editions: Britain and Ireland; North America; Southern Hemisphere.)
After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon by Greg Eghigian, Oxford University Press, £22.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-190-86987-8.
This is a comprehensive account of the stories, the people, and the strange events that went into making the fascination with UFOs and aliens a worldwide phenomenon among believers, sceptics, and the simply curious. It traces how an odd sighting of “flying saucers” by an American pilot in 1947 inspired governments, the media, scientists, writers, and the general public to consider the possibility that extraterrestrials were visiting Earth.
Planet Earth: Accompanies the Landmark Series Narrated by David Attenborough by Michael Gunton, BBC Books, £30 / Can$55 / US$63.95, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-785-94827-5.
The iconic series that started it all returns: accompanying an 8-part programme narrated by David Attenborough, Planet Earth III takes you closer than ever to the world's most fascinating animals and landscapes - and humanity's irrevocable impact upon them. There are over 100 billion planets in our galaxy. Only one is home to life. Ranging across seven dramatic habitats, from the depths of the ocean, to the scorching desert and into the to the darkest jungle, Planet Earth III showcases places and animals from all corners of our amazing, unique, planet. For the first time, Planet Earth III introduces a human element to each landscape - highlighting how, in the age of the Anthropocene, today's planet has been forever changed by humanity and that wildlife now faces new challenges in our crowded, modern world. Using state-of-the-art photography techniques, the Planet Earth team has spent longer in the field than ever before, bringing you closer to some of the planet's most intriguing species, unseen landscapes and natural phenomena.
Unseen Universe by Caroline Harper, Greenfinch, £30, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43050-9.
An upmarket, gift-worthy book of stunning images and breakthrough scientific discoveries from NASA’s revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope. From the towering dust cliffs of the Carina Nebula to Jupiter glowing like an iridescent disco ball in the sky, these stunning new images have captured the imagination of millions all over the world. Launched on 25th December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful and complex space telescope ever built, capturing a glimpse of deep space billions of years in the past. Now, Dr Caroline Harper and contributing astrophysicists from across Europe and the USA use Webb’s photography to answer 10 of the biggest questions humankind has about the universe, including:· How are stars born? · How do galaxies form and evolve? · What are the origins of black holes?· Where do planets get their water?
Superspy Science: Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond by Kathryn Harkup, Bloomsbury, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-1-472-99241-3.
In 007 chapters, the science behind James Bond’s exploits – armaments, tactics, plots and enemy tech. Ian Fleming’s novels based on the adventures of the secret service agent James Bond have thrilled readers since Casino Royale was published in 1953. And when the film of Dr No was released in 1962, Bond quickly became one of the world’s favourite secret agents. In Superspy Science, Kathryn Harkup explores the science and technology central to the plots that make up the world of Bond. Naturally, there are 007 chapters, covering the full range of Bond’s exploits, and the arms, technologies, tactics and downfalls of his various foes. Could our favourite Bond villains actually achieve world domination? Were the huge variety of weapons and technology in Bond’s arsenal ever actually developed? And would 007 actually escape all those close shaves with his life intact? Readers of this book will see James Bond and his world through new eyes.
The Harry Potter Official Afternoon Tea Cookbook by Veronica Hinke & Jody Revenson, Greenfinch, £25, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-43499-6.
Host a magical afternoon tea inspired by the Wizarding World… Indulge in an afternoon tea inspired by the Wizarding World with the favourite afternoon treats of wizards and Muggles from your favourite best-selling franchise. With more than 50 recipes, from ‘Lavender Brown’s Lavender Cake’ to ‘Professor Trelawney’s Divination Tea’ and stunning full-colour photography, as well as behind-the-scenes facts from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, this cookbook offers step-by-step instructions on creating a bewitching afternoon feast.
Nuclear War: A scenario by Annie Jacobsen, Transworld, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-911-70959-6.
We could have an uninhabitable earth in a century. It could take 26 minutes and 40 seconds. An edge-of-your-seat nonfiction thriller that has to be read to be believed. Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the Pentagon. Second by second and minute by minute, these are the real-life protocols that choreograph the end of civilisation as we know it. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled to evacuate the chosen few to secure bunkers. One nuclear missile will provoke two dozen in return. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction. Based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts, Nuclear War is at once a compulsive non-fiction thriller and a powerful argument that we must rid ourselves of these world-ending weapons for ever. Annie Jacobsen is a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Accidental: The Biggest Science Blunders and How They Changed the World by Tim James, Robinson, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-472-14840-7.
We may imagine that science is a process of breakthroughs and light bulb moments. But in reality, science goes wrong 99% of the time. Almost every idea a scientist comes up with is quickly disproved by a failed experiment or rival research. Science moves at a rate of inches per decade and we like it that way. But occasionally, just occasionally, a complete fluke happens and changes everything. From an untimely sneeze in a Petri dish leading to antibiotics to the discovery of microwaves via melted chocolate, this is a rip-roaring adventure through science gone wrong, accidentally changing humanity for the better.
Kubrick: An odyssey by Robert P. Kolker & Nathan Abrams, Faber & Faber, £30, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-571-37036-8.
The enigmatic and elusive film-maker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years. Kubrick: An Odyssey fills that gap. Based on access to the latest research – especially into his archive – as well as new interviews with family members and those who worked with him, it offers in-depth coverage of Kubrick’s personal, public, and working life. Stephen Spielberg said of Kubrick: ‘He was a chameleon who never made the same film twice. The only thing that bonded all his films was the incredible virtuoso that he was with his craft.’ This biography will puncture the myths about this allegedly reclusive filmmaker, who spent his career observing human folly, determined to make something new that would transcend traditional film-making.
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan, Ebury, £12.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-753-55902-4.
In this ground-breaking blend of imaginative storytelling and scientific forecasting, a pioneering AI expert and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an imperative question: How will artificial intelligence change our world within twenty years? AI will be the defining development of the twenty-first century. Within two decades, aspects of daily human life will be unrecognisable. AI will generate unprecedented wealth, revolutionize medicine and education through human-machine symbiosis, and create brand new forms of communication and entertainment. In liberating us from routine work, however, AI will also challenge the organizing principles of our economic and social order. Meanwhile, AI will bring new risks in the form of autonomous weapons and smart technology that inherits human bias. AI is at a tipping point, and people need to wake up-both to AI's radiant pathways and its existential perils for life as we know it. In this provocative, utterly original work of "scientific fiction," Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and bestselling author of AI Superpowers, joins forces with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In ten gripping short stories, set twenty years in the future, they introduce readers to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings.
Our Accidental Universe: Stories of discovery from asteroids to aliens by Chris Lintott, Transworld, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-911-70918-3.
Our view of the Universe is changing. The timeless heavens, turning ceaselessly above us, have been revealed to be dynamic and ever-changing, requiring a new kind of astronomy. On mountaintops and in deserts around the world, new telescopes are being built to show us this changing sky. But amongst all this technological development, the major astronomical events of the past century have largely come about by accident - found not by careful experiment but as surprises when we were looking for something else entirely. A tour of the key astronomical research of the past century, and of all the accidents and human error involved in our pursuit of asteroids, radio waves, new stars and alien life.
Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About The End of the World by Dorian Lynskey, Picador, £25, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-09593-7.
Human beings have been imagining the end of the world from the Book of Revelation to Avengers: The Age of Ultron. Every generation imagines that its visions of the end times are new. Following his, Baillie Gifford long-listed exploration of dystopian futures in The Ministry of Truth, which investigated both the sources and inspirations of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and its current ubiquity in fiction, media and online, Dorian Lynskey investigates our fantasies of the end of the world, across both high and popular culture, from the Reformation to the present.
The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless quest to own the world and remake corporate power by Dana Mattioli, Transworld, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-911-709565.
From veteran Amazon reporter for the Wall Street Journal, The Everything War is an exposé of Amazon's endless strategic greed, from destroying competition to remaking corporate power, in pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary. Amazon is a behemoth in the truest sense of the word. It might be synonymous with shopping, but the company now dominates a dozen industries beyond retail. As it turns out, the Amazon that Jeff Bezos invented is fundamentally driven by a competitive edge that will stop at nothing -if Amazon could own the world and be everywhere, it would. Currently, the company is under investigation in US Congress, at the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and the European Union for potential anticompetitive business practices. In The Everything War, award-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli follows this unfolding battle, exploring the infamous rise of Bezos and exposing how Amazon has become too big for antitrust investigators to ignore. While Amazon's business practices grow to monopolistic proportions, international authorities are quickly discovering that Amazon is an adversary unlike any they have ever faced. Using meticulous reporting, Mattioli reveals how Jeff Bezos learned to leverage his influence in the corridors of power, preparing for this fight he always knew would come. This book unveils a side of Amazon, and its leader, that has never been told before: its ruthless, competitive, killer instinct to destroy everything in its wake for dominance. Amazon's rise to supremacy is reaching a boiling point, and now squarely in the crosshairs of multiple international governments looking into its practices. Mattioli's The Everything War broaches this question: has the company become too powerful- and too enmeshed with public interests- to stop?
Data Grab: The new Colonialism of Big Tech and how to fight back by Ulises A. Mejias & Nick Couldry, Ebury, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-753-56020-4.
If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product. In the past, colonialism was a land grab of natural resources, exploitative labour and private property from developing countries. It made shiny promises to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It made native populations sign contracts they didn't understand, and took resources just because they were there. Colonialism has not disappeared it has taken a new form. In the new world order where data is the new oil, big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources – our data - exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. They tell us this is for our own good, to build innovation and develop new technology. But in fact every time we unthinkingly click 'Accept' on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to kept indefinitely, repackaged by big Tech companies to control and exploit us for their own profit. This is the era of data colonialism. The new colonial land grab is a DATAGRAB.
Alien Minds: How The Intelligence Revolution Will Change How We Work and How We Live by Ethan Mollick, Ebury, £16.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-0-753-56077-8.
Consumer AI arrived with a bang in November 2022 when OpenAI released ChatGPT. Within four months it hit 1 billion users, and media pundits were forecasting the end of jobs and a knowledge revolution. But its actual impact has been far different from what pundits predicted. Ethan Mollick has been a leading voice cutting through both the AI evangelists and the AI doom mongers, by charting and explaining how Consumer AI is developing, what it can do well and also - importantly - what it can't. Considering AI as a co-worker, a teacher, an expert, and even as a companion, Mollick grapples with the philosophical, social, and economic implications of integrating artificial intelligence into society and culture and offers reassurance about the role and responsibility of humans in directing and protecting against AI.
This Volcanic Isle: The Violent Processes that Forged the British Landscape by Robert Muir-Wood, Oxford University Press, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-198-87162-0.
This explores the rich geological history of the British Isles, and its resulting legacy. Along the way he introduces the personalities who shared a fascination for Britain’s tectonic history, including Charles Darwin the geologist, Tennyson the science-poet, and Benoit Mandelbrot, the pure mathematician who labelled the west coast of Britain a fractal icon. Here is the previously untold story of how earthquakes and eruptions, plumes and plate boundaries, built the British Isles.
Dark Folklore by Mark Norman & Tracey Norman, The History Press, £18 / Can$30.99 / US$22.99, trdpbk, ISBN 978-1-803-99329-4.
The first entertaining, yet rigorously researched, modern anthology to explore a wide range of
creepy beliefs, customs and stories. How did our ancestors use the concept of demons to explain sleep paralysis? Is that carving in the porch of your local church really what you think it is? And what’s that tapping noise on the roof of your car…? The fields of folklore have never been more popular – a recent resurgence of interest in traditional beliefs and customs, coupled with morbid curiosities in folk horror, historic witchcraft cases and our superstitious past, have led to an intersection of ideas that is driving people to seek out more information.
Tracey Norman and Mark Norman lead you on an exploration of those more salubrious facets of our past, highlighting those aspects of our cultural beliefs and social history that are less ‘wicker basket’ and more ‘Wicker Man’.
Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity by Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Oxford University Press, £26.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-197-67604-2.
A highly readable history of beer and the brewing industry around the world over the centuries, Hopped Up narrates the oscillations between distinctive regional and national preferences and the capitalist global standardization of beer style and taste in a work that will appeal to historians and beer connoisseurs alike.
Why We Remember: The Science of Memory and How it Shapes Us by Charan Ranganath, Faber & Faber, £20, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-571-37414-4.
Memory is about far more than storage – it’s crucial to understanding who we are, to grounding ourselves in time and space. Over the course of twenty-five years, pioneering neuroscientist and internationally renowned memory researcher Charan Ranganath has studied the flawed and purposefully inaccurate nature of memory to examine how our brains extract the information needed to guide us into our futures. Drawing from case studies and cutting-edge science, Why We Remember unveils the principles behind what and why we forget – shining new light on the pervasive influence of memory on how we learn, heal and make decisions – and provides a vital user’s guide to remembering what we hold most dear.
Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Collection 12 by Royal Observatory Greenwich, Collins, £30 / Can$55 / US$45, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-008-60431-8.
From the number one Astronomy publisher, this book showcases the most spectacular space photography, taken from locations across the globe. Marvel at the wonders of the universe captured by the most talented astrophotographers. Be captivated by 140 winning and shortlisted images from the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, hosted by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These awe-inspiring images are submitted in several categories: Skyscapes, Our Sun, Galaxies, Our Moon, Aurorae, Planets, Comets and Asteroids, People and Space, Stars and Nebulae. Plus Best Newcomer, Image Innovation and Young Competitor categories. Each image is accompanied by caption, photographer, location and technical details. There is also a location map showing the origin of all images and a visual appendix of all images.
The judges are from an expert panel of distinguished astronomy experts.
How AI Thinks: How we built it, how it can help us, and how we can control it by Nigel Toon, Transworld, £22, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-911-70946-6.
We are used to thinking of computers as being a step up from calculators - very good at storing information, and maybe even at playing a logical game like chess. But up to now they haven't been able to think in ways that are intuitive, or respond to questions as a human might. All that has changed, dramatically, in the past few years. Our search engines are becoming answer engines. Artificial intelligence is already revolutionising sectors from education to healthcare to the creative arts. But how does an AI understand sentiment or context? How does it play and win games that have an almost infinite number of moves? And how can we work with AI to produce insights and innovations that are beyond human capacity, from writing code in an instant to unfolding the elaborate 3D puzzles of proteins? We stand at the brink of a historic change that will disrupt society and at the same time create enormous opportunities for those who understand how AI thinks. Nigel Toon shows how we train AI to train itself, so that it can paint images that have never existed before or converse in any language. In doing so he reveals the strange and fascinating ways that humans think, too, as we learn how to live in a world shared by machine intelligences of our own creation. Nigel Toon is the founder of Graphcore and a leading AI entrepreneur.
The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking by Shannon Vallor, Oxford University Press, £22.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-0-197-75906-6.
Shannon Vallor makes a wide-ranging, prophetic, and philosophical case for what AI could be, and what we can be with it. She calls us to reclaim our human potential for moral and intellectual growth, rather than losing sight of our shared humanity as we gaze dully into our AI mirrors.
When The Heavens Went On Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach by Ashlee Vance, Ebury, £9.99, pbk, ISBN 978-0-753-55776-1.
Beyond the headlines of SpaceX, Virgin Galactic an Blue Origin there is a new secret space race that could change everything.
Microlands: The Future of Life on Earth (and Why It’s SmallerThan You Think) by J. Craig Venter & David Ewing Duncan, Robinson, £25, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-472-14417-1.
A celebrated genome scientist sails around the world, collecting tens of millions of marine microbes and revolutionising our understanding of the microbiome that sustains us. Upon completing his historic work on the Human Genome Project in 2002, J. Craig Venter declared that he would sequence the genetic code of all life on Earth. Thus began a fifteen-year quest to collect DNA from the world's oldest and most abundant form of life: microbes. Boarding the Sorcerer II, a 100-footsailboat turned research vessel, Venter travelled over 65,000 miles around the globe to sample ocean water and the microscopic life within. In Microlands, Venter and science writer David Ewing Duncan tell the remarkable story of these expeditions and of the momentous discoveries that ensued, revealing the unimaginable complexity of life on earth. Yet, Venter also encountered sobering reminders of how human activity is disturbing the delicate microbial ecosystem that nurtures our planet. In the face of unprecedented climate change, Venter and Duncan show how we can harness the microbial genome to develop solutions that might ultimately avert our destruction. A captivating story of exploration and discovery, this book restores microbes to their rightful place as crucial partners in our evolutionary past and guides to our future.
How to Apocalypse: An illustrated survival guide by Steve Wildish, Ebury, £12.99, hrdbk, ISBN 978-1-529-91992-9.
A funny infographic survival guide. Prepare for every possible end of days with this essential
survival guide. Covering crucial survival skills, the ideal Plan A and Plan B, tips for survival on the road as you travel from chaos to salvation, and assembling the perfect team, this hilarious book has everything you need when Doomsday strikes. Includes: Zombies, Alien Invasion, Nuclear Fallout, Climate Crisis, Asteroids, Viruses, Robots and more!
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Spring 2024
Rest In Peace
The last season saw the science and science fiction communities sadly lose…
Alan J. W. Bell, the TV director, has died aged 85. He directed the much loved, rural, eldster and whimsical comedy, The Last of the Summer Wine sixth series, but his greatest genre contribution is arguably his work on The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series.
Philip N. Benfey, the US molecular biologist, has died aged 70. He is known for his work on transgenic plants, discovering the transcription factor SHORT-HAIR (SHR) and the invention of the fluorescence-activated cell sorter. He founded was Grassroots Biotechnology in 2007. It was a computational biology company that looked at improving plant traits. (It was eventually acquired by Monsanto.) He became an American Society of Plant Biologists 'Pioneer' in 2022.
Peter Betts, the civil servant, has died aged 80 from a malignant brain tumour one year after his diagnosis. He was best known as a climate diplomat, serving as a lead negotiator for the UK and EU and helping deliver the Paris Accord in 2015. He left the civil service in 2018, when Claire Perry O’Neill was climate minister, but was brought back in 2020 as a part-time strategic adviser on the COP26 Glasgow climate summit. In the interim he had been advising a range of global bodies including the International Energy Agency. In 2022 he held a party to mark his impending death. Barack Obama’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern, arrived from the US. Birol came from Paris. Francesco La Camera, head of the International Renewable Energy Agency, travelled from Abu Dhabi. Economist Nicholas Stern was there, along with many active in international climate policy development. He was an admirer of Greta Thunberg for keeping climate change high on the public and political agenda. He was critical of China, the US, Canada, Australia and Japan, for failing to grasp climate change policies. He was of the view that if we do go above 1.5°C, the message is not to give up: it’s to double down. Along with climate and environmental scientists, he considered the scientific and economic case as overwhelming.
Helena Binns, the Australian SF fan, has died aged 81. She joined the Melbourne Science Fiction Club as a teenager in 1958 and remained active in fandom in the 1960s. She rejoined fandom in the 1990s. She garnered lifetime memberships of Continuum and of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club. She was also involved in Star Trek and Tolkien fandom, and – despite being refused entry to science college courses – she was a lifelong member of the Science Association of Australia.
Michael Bishop, the US author, has died aged 78. He has had 15 novels published and some 150 short stories. He was twice awarded the Nebula: in 1981 for 'The Quickening' (Best Novelette) and in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He also received four Locus Awards and his work has been nominated for numerous Hugo Awards. In July 2009, 'The Pile' was the recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award For Best Short Story of 2008.
Terry Bison, the US author, had died aged 81. His short story 'Bears Discover Fire' was a hugo and also a Nebula winner. His books included the novelisation of a number of films including: The Fifth Element, Alien Resurrection and Galaxy Quest.
Frank Borman, the US astronaut, has died aged 95. He commanded Apollo 8’s historic Christmas 1968 flight that circled the moon 10 times and paved the way for the lunar landing the next year.
Richard Bowes, the US author, has died aged 79. His story 'Streetcar Dreams' won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1998 and also the Lambda Literary Award in 2000. 'If Angels Fight' won the world Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 2009. A number of his shorts have been collected in Transfigured Night and Other Stories (2001).
John Burns, the British comics artist, has died aged 85. John Burns' oeuvre reads like a history of British comics from the mid-1950s through to 2023. His early genre work included Space Family Robinson for Lady Penelope (a spin-off from TV Century 21 and UFO for TV Action and even Dan Dare for the revived Eagle comic (1990-'91). For 2000AD he drew a number of Judge Dredd strips (1991-2013) but is possibly best known for his work on Nikolai Dante (1999-2012). Through to the end he was a traditionalist and unlike other artists who submitted their work electronically as PDFs, he physically mailed in his artwork rolled up in tubes. His final story artwork for 2000AD, 'Nightmare New York', with frequent collaborator Kek-W, will be published posthumously later this year.
(Dame Antonia Susan Duffey) A. S. Byatt, the British author, has died aged 87. Some of her work had a fantastical element, it merges realism and naturalism with fantasy. She won, among other awards, the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award in 2018 and the Shakespeare Prize in 2002. One of her influencers (and friend) was the fantasy author Angela Carter. In 1988 she won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, for her collection The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye which includes a number of mainly folk, fairytale fantasies. She also won the Booker Prize for her 1990 novel Possession.
Fred Chappell, the US author, has died aged 87. He won two World Fantasy Awards for short fiction, 'The
Somewhere Doors' (1992) and 'The Lodger' (1994).
Darrah Chavey, the US fan, has died. In life he was a maths professor. He was a member of the Beloit Science Fiction and Fantasy Association andwas an active volunteer in putting on WisCon for a number of years.
Phyllis Coates, the US actress, has died aged 96. Her genre work included the film serial Panther Girl of the Kongo (1955), the TV series Science Fiction Theatre (1955) and the film I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957). However, she is best known for playing Lois Lane in film Superman and the Mole Men (1951) and also the first season of the television series Adventures of Superman (1952–1953). Among many other films and TV episodes, she went on to play Lois Lane's mother in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1994).
Jean Combes, the amateur naturalist, has died aged 91. She is noted (and received an OBE) for her contributions to phenology by recording over the years when the oak buds (comes into leaf) in spring: the warmer the year the earlier the first bud dates.
D. (David) G. Compton, the British SF author, aged 93. He used the name Guy Compton for his earlier crime novels and the pseudonym Frances Lynch for his Gothic novels. His 1970 novel The Steel Crocodile was short-listed for a Nebula Award. The 1983 film Brainstorm is strikingly similar in content to Compton's 1968 novel Synthajoy. He also garnered the SFWA Author Emeritus status in 2007.
David Drake, the US author, has died aged 78. He collaborated on series with Eric Flint and S. M. Stirling. A number of his shorts were collected in Hammers Slammers (1979). He founded the small press, Carcosa, with Karl Edward Wagner (editor) and James Groce and this garnered a World Fantasy Award in 1976. Arguably, his best-known solo work is the Hammer's Slammers series of military science fiction. His newer Republic of Cinnabar Navy series are space operas inspired by the Aubrey–Maturin novels. During 1997, Drake began his largest fantasy series, 'Lord of the Isles', using elements of Sumerian religion and medieval technology. In 2007, he completed the series with its ninth volume. He authored and co-authored over 80 books.
William B. Ellern, the aerospace engineer and SF author, has died aged 89, two weeks before what would have been his 90th birthday. In July 1965 he asked for, and received, permission from E. E. Smith to extend the 'Lensman' series of novels. He was a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and served a term on its board of directors.
Steve Ellison, the British fan has died. He was a long-term regular at the Festival of Fantastic Films.
David Elliott, the British TV director, has died aged 92. He worked on a number of Gerry Anderson series The Adventures of Twizzle (1957-'58) Four Feather Falls (1960), Supercar (1961-'2), Fireball XL5 (1962-'3), Stingray (1964-'5) and episodes of Thunderbirds (1965-'6). He, with Anderson, decided to shoot Stingray in colour at a time when TV was still black and white. At one time, Anderson's production company, AP Films, was Britain's the largest consumer of colour film. He left Thunderbirds in 1966, after falling out with Anderson over their successful sound effects company. He then went to the BBC as an editor where his genre work included Adam Adamant Lives! and Doctor Who. From there on, he largely worked editing documentaries before retiring in 2001. However, he directed a special anniversary episode of Thunderbirds in 2015.
Albert Eschenmoser, the Swiss biochemist, has died aged 97. he is noted, along with a collaborating research team, for having synthesised vitamin B12. He is also known for elucidating the nature and properties of nucleic acid structure. (Watson and Crick discovered the structure but Eschenmoser elucidated its structural properties.) He noted that that the helical shape of double-stranded DNA is a direct consequence of the sugar ring’s five-carbon structure. He observed that DNA’s helical shape allows it to achieve optimal base-pair stacking distances and selects purine-pyrimidine pairings over purine-purine pairings, and that Watson-Crick pairing rules arise not only from the constitutions of the nucleic acid bases but also from the structure of the sugar backbone. He received many awards, including the Wolf Prize (1986), the Roger Adams Award (2003) and the Benjamin Franklin Medal (2008).
Bernie Evans, the British SF fan, has died aged 77. Her fanzine was It Must Be the Sixties -- Bernie's Pregnant!. She also chaired Novacon 17 in 1987 and Novacon 20 in 1990.
Bertil Falk, the Swedish editor, author, TV journalist and SF scholar, has died aged 90. In Swedish SF terms he is perhaps best known for his three-volume history of SF in the Swedish SF language, Faktasin, though internationally perhaps it is his Feroze Gandhi biography that was written in English and well received in India. In the late 1960s he re-launched Jules Verne-Magasinet that was originally founded in the 1940s. In 1987 he became a TV journalist based in London for the Swedish TV3 satellite channel that then broke the Swedish state TV monopoly. For several years from the late 1990s he edited D.A.S.T. (Detective Agent Science fiction Thriller) magazine. He also authored many non-fiction and fiction, including SF, books.
Michael Flynn, the US author, has died aged 76. He was short-listed seven times for the Hugo mainly in the novella and novelette category but also for the novel Eifelheim (2007). He twice won a Prometheus Award: for In the Country of the Blind and Fallen Angels, the latter being co-written with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Richard Franklin, the British actor, has died aged 87. His significant genre contribution was playing the character, co-created by Henry Lincoln and Mervyn Haisman, Captain Mike Yates of UNIT in 42 episodes of Doctor Who, principally the Jon Pertwee Doctor. He invariably appeared with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (played by Nicholas Courtney).
Sir Michael Gambon CBE, the Irish-British actor, has died aged 82. He has had a long and distinguished career that has included contributing to a number of genre productions. In television, his genre works included: The Singing Detective (1986); The Wind in the Willows (1995); and Doctor Who Christmas special:
'A Christmas Carol' (2010). His genre films included: Sleepy Hollow (1999); Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001); Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004); The Omen (2006); The Book of Eli (2010); Paddington (2014); Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017); and Johnny English Strikes Again (2018). Notably, following the death in 2002 of Richard Harris, he took over the role of Albus Dumbledore and played the part for six Harry Potter films. He gave a slight Irish lilt to Dumbledore, which was appropriate given Richard Harris' Irish connections. However reportedly the final Potter film's director did not find the accent convincing and so he dropped it (despite Michael Gambon being born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised there for six years). Of television note, early in the Clarkeson/May/Hammond years of the BBC TV show Top Gear Michael Gambon took the final corner of the show's race track so fast that the car was on two wheels. That corner was thereafter known as Gambon.
Ian Gibson, the British comic book artist, has died aged 77. He was known especially for his work with the weekly comic 2000AD (the Galaxy's greatest comic) contributing continuously from its founding year, 1977, through to 2008. He drew for a number of 2000AD strips including: Tharg the Mighty, Ace Trucking Co., a couple of Tharg's Future Shocks, and over two score Judge Dredd stories, many of them jointly scripted by John Wagner and Alan Grant. Arguably his most famous work for 2000AD was the art for the Alan Moore scripted The Ballad of Halo Jones. He also worked on several Star Wars titles for Dark Horse Comics.
Keith Giffen, the US writer and comics artist, has died aged 70. He was known for his work for DC Comics on The Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League titles as well as for being the co-creator of Lobo, Rocket Raccoon and Jaime Reyes. He took a break from the comic industry for several years, working on storyboards for television and film, including shows such as The Real Ghostbusters and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy. He received an Inkpot Award in 1991.
Mark Goddard, the US actor, has died aged 87. His genre contributions include playing a detective in the series Strange Invaders (1983). He is probably best known for playing Major Don West on Lost in Space (1965 – 1968).
Eva Hauser, the Czech SF fan and author, has died aged 69. She also edited her personalzine Wild Sharkaaah (1990–1) on the strength of this, she won the 1992 GUFF (Get Up and Under Fan Fund) Race. She was one of the editors of the monthly prozine Ikarie. She largely gafiated in the 1990s. As to her pro writing, in 1988 she garnered a Karel Capek Award for 'best novella'.
Roger Hill, the US comics fan has died aged 75. During the 1990s he was the comic art advisor to the Sotheby’s Comic Book and Comic Art auctions in New York City (USA). His own fanzine the EC Fan Addict Fanzine saw its fifth issue from Fantagraphics in November 2023, and a sixth, posthumous issue is due out in June 2024. His books include Wally Wood: Galaxy Art and Beyond (2016).
Saleemul Huq OBE, the Bangladesh botanist turned climate impact scientist, has died aged 71. Having trained in botany at Imperial College London, he turned to studying the impacts of climate change. He attended all the climate conferences of the parties (COPs) up until his death. At these he championed the creation of a ‘loss and damage’ fund which initially garnered pledges from developed nations amounting to US$700 million (£552 m) a month before his passing. He also contributed to the third, fourth and fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessments. He was awarded 2020 National Environment Award by the Government of Bangladesh for his contribution to the development of the environment. He received an OBE from the Queen in 2022.
Evelyn Keller, the US physicist, has died aged 87. Her early work looked at the intersection of physics with mathematical biology. However as her career developed she began looking at the issues and barriers female scientists faced. Her books include Feminism and Science (1996), Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines (2002) and Making Sense of My Life in Science: A Memoir (2023). Late in her career, she turned to environmental issues and with Philip Kitcher wrote The Seasons Alter: How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts (2017).
James Hosek, the US author, has died aged 59. A veterinarian in real life he also wrote veterinary mysteries as well as SF. He served a term from 2017 administering the SFWA's Nebula Award. He was also a particular fan of Doctor Who
Pete Kozachik, the US visual effects artist and cinematographer, has died aged 72. His work had a recognisable style. He worked on films such as style to stop-motion animation classics including The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inner Space, Corpse Bride, Starship Troopers, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. He was short-listed for an 'cinematography' Oscar in 1994 for his work on Nightmare Before Christmas
Donald Longmore, the British surgeon and clinician, has died aged 95. He is noted for having been one of the team that performed Britain's first heart transplant in 1968. Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours, "for services to Magnetic Resonance Scanning".
Emmanuel Lotem, the Israeli SF/F translator, has died aged 80. He translated into Hebrew over 400 works including those by Tolkien, Herbert and Crichton, as well as non-fiction by Stephen Hawking. He was one of the founders of the Israeli Association for Science Fiction and Fantasy and headed it for a number of years. As such he was one of the founding fathers of the Israeli SF community.
David McCallum, the British actor, has died aged 90. Arguably he is best known for playing the Russian, UN spy law enforcer Ilya Kuryakin in the techno-thriller The Man From U.N.C.L.E (1964–'68) for which he was twice short-listed for an Emmy. In 1986 he reunited with U.N.C.L.E.'s co-star Robert Vaughn in an episode of The A-Team entitled 'The Say U.N.C.L.E. Affair', complete with "chapter titles", the word "affair" in the title, the phrase "Open Channel D", and similar scene transitions. He also played Flight Lt. Simon Carter in the hit BBC series Colditz (1972-'74). Of genre note, he starred in The Invisible Man (1975-'76) as Dr Daniel Weston, as well as starring in Sapphire & Steel (1979–1982) as a pan dimensional investigator. His bit parts included an episode of Babylon 5 as Dr Vance Hendricks., 4 episodes of Team Knight Rider as Mobius. In the 1970s, he recorded three H. P. Lovecraft stories for Caedmon Records. He also voiced Alfred in a number of Batman animation films. Recently, he came to a new generation as the forensic medical examiner Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard in the US comedy police drama NCIS (2003-2023). It was a role he took to heart and spent much time studying forensic biology including attending symposia, so much so that he was almost considered to be the show's biomedical science advisor. He also starred in episodes of the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits: 'The Sixth Finger' (1963), playing an ordinary man who volunteers to undergo evolutionary advancement at accelerated speed; 'The Forms of Things Unknown' (1964); and 'Feasibility Study' (1997). He appeared in an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man 'Wine, Women and War' (1973). He was short-listed for an Emmy for his role in The Great Escape (1963). He was also an accomplished musician and made a number of records. Channel D remains open…
Ken Mattingly, the US astronaut, has died aged 87. He was scheduled to fly on the Apollo 13 mission, but three days prior to launch, he was replaced by Jack Swigert because he was exposed to German measles (which Mattingly did not contract). Mattingly later flew as Command Module Pilot for Apollo 16 and made 64 lunar orbits, making him one of 24 people to fly to the Moon. He, and his commander from Apollo 16, John Young, are the only people to have flown to the Moon and also a Space Shuttle mission. He was portrayed by actor Gary Sinise in the 1995 film Apollo 13 and by Zeljko Ivanek in the 1998 HBO
Miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.
Olexandr Mokrovolsky, the Ukrainian translator, has died aged 77. Among those of whose works he translated were: Richard Adams, Brian Aldiss, Eoin Colfer, Neil Gaiman and J. R. R. Tolkien. Having worked for three years as a translator at the Cherkasy Chemical Plant after which he worked as an editor at the Veselka and Dnipro publishing houses in Kyiv for about 15 years. He was also an artist and photographer and some of his photographs and paintings are on display at the Irpin Museum of History and Local Lore. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he did not leave Irpin even during the fierce Battle of Irpin. A couple of weeks before his passing his latest book, one of poetry Sonnet Against the Empire, was published as part of the Kyiv Book Weekend. He leaves a daughter who is currently abroad because of Russia's invasion.
Jason Morgan, the US geophysicist, died over the summer aged 87. He is best known for being part of a cadre of scientists who, in the mid-1960s developed what had been Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift (1930). Various scientists in the 1960s developed separate as well as independently proposing the same, aspects of the theory. Jason Morgan's contribution was his proposing that the Earth's crust is dived into 12 rigid plates and that it was these plates growing and subducting through plate tectonics that result in continental drift. Following graduation and two years at the navy teaching nuclear physics, he went to Princeton University and obtained his doctorate. He spent his entire career at Princeton aside from his last years living outside Boston as a visiting scholar at Harvard University in Cambridge.
Marilyn (Fuzzy Pink) Niven, the US fan, has died aged 83. She was a longstanding member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society having joined in 1968. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests (SCIFI) Inc., which is currently bidding for the 2026 Worldcon. She has also been the Hugo Award-winning author, Larry Niven's wife for 54 years.
John O’Connell, the US author, has died aged 54.
Piotr ‘Raku’ Rak, the Polish SF fan, has died aged 61. He was a fanzine editor and conrunner. Active in Polish fandom since the 1970s, he was a founding member and leading light of the Silesian Fantasy Club. He was also well known in Czech fandom.
C. R. Rao, the Indian statistician, has died aged 102. He trained as a mathematician but went on to specialise in statistics. His work focused on the statistical estimator, a rule for calculating an estimate of a given quantity. (The sample mean, for example, is a routinely used estimator of the population mean.) The Cramér-Rao lower bound derives the minimum possible variance of an unbiased estimator in finite samples. Conversely, the Rao-Blackwell theorem provides a blueprint for automatically improving the efficiency of an estimator. His books included Advanced Statistical Methods in Biometric Research (1952) and Linear Statistical Inference and Its Applications (1965). His awards include: the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, India’s second highest public award; he US National Medal of Science in 2002; and the International Prize in Statistics in 2023, which is regarded as the Nobel Prize in the field of statistics
Mark Samuels, the British author, has died aged 56. He wrote weird and fantastic fiction in the tradition of Arthur Machen and H. P. Lovecraft. A number of his short stories are collected in The White Hands and Other Weird Tales (2003). His last novel was Witch-Cult Abbey (2021). His works were short-listed four times for the British Fantasy Award.
Mankombu Swaminathan, the Indian agricultural biologist, biological conservationist and politician, has died aged 98. Early in his career, he conducted basic research related into potato, wheat and rice. Following the death of his father when Swaminathan was 11, he stayed with his uncle's extended family. From childhood, he interacted with farming and farmers; his extended family grew rice, mangoes, and coconut, and later expanded into other areas such as coffee. There he saw the impact that fluctuations in the price of crops had on his family, including the devastation that weather and pests could cause to crops as well as incomes, and as a teenager he witnessed the impacts of the Bengal famine of 1943 (arguably aggravated by British rule). He completed a BSc in zoology but went on to undertake postgraduate studies in agriculture. Social pressure saw him complete examinations for the civil services. He then spent a few years in the Netherlands, Germany and Britain before a year and a half in the USA. He returned to India in 1954 and worked in a number of agricultural research Institutes. There he developed high-yield cultivars of various crops. Notably he developed IR-64, a rice variety that yielded up to 24% more grain than an earlier strain. He coined the term "Evergreen Revolution" in 1990 to describe his vision of productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm. He has been called the main architect of the green revolution in India. After a number of years as a scientific advisor to Parliamentarians, he sat for one term (2007 – 2013) in India's Parliament during which he put forward a bill for the recognition of women farmers in India. He has garnered many honours including: the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, first World Food Prize in 1987, and the Albert Einstein World Science Award. On winning the World Food Prize he said: "As we depart for dinner this evening, what could be a more satisfying and joyful feeling than knowing that every other member of the human family will also go to bed after a nourishing meal? Until such a wholly attainable world becomes a reality, our task remains unfinished.”
Endel Tulving, the Estonian turned Canadian psychologist, has died aged 96. He is known for challenging the idea of memory as simple stimulus-response associations. In 1966, he showed that learners impose subjective organisation onto new information. In 1973, he revealed the 'encoding specificity principle': retrieval cues’ capacity to elicit memories depends on matching encoding conditions. Distinguishing semantic memory (general knowledge of the world) and episodic memory (personally experienced unique events) was arguably Tulving’s most far-reaching contribution. Up to then the prevailing view was that long-term memory was unitary. With colleagues in 1982 they found that recognition memory, like other explicit memory types, declines over time, but priming effects (things that trigger the recollection of a memory) do not. During one lecture at an international conference, he had a student cross the stage dressed in a gorilla costume to make the point that novelty is key to making episodic memories endure. Among a number of awards and prizes he has gathered was the Officer of the Order of Canada, that nation’s most prestigious civilian honour.
Natalia Vitko, the Russian SF book editor, has died aged 75. In addition to her editorial work for a number of publishing houses, she was an organiser of the St. Petersburg Fantastic Assembly SF critics’ convention. It is not known whether she supported Putin's invasion of Ukraine (expressing dissenting views is illegal in Putin's Russia), but we are given to understand that Ukrainian SF fans mourn her passing.
Don Walsh, the US navy officer, has died aged 92. He is noted, along with Jacques Piccard, for making the first descent into the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean: 35,798 feet.
Ed Young, the Chinese born US illustrator, has died aged 91. He illustrated and wrote children's books, a number of which were fantasy. In both 1992 and 2000 he was short-listed for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators.
Nikolay Yutanov, the Russian publisher of SF, has died aged 64. During his long career, he ended up heading the Russian publishing house of Terra Fantastica. He was also a novelist in his own right and an organiser of the annual Congress of Russian SF Writers. It is not known whether or not he is a supporter of Putin's invasion of Ukraine (a number of Russian SF/F authors actively support Putin) but we are given to understand that many Ukrainian SF fans consider him a remarkable person in post-Soviet SF and publishing.
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