The Fiery Furnace Trilogy Boxed Set: The Kiss of Judas, Confessions, The Eleventh Hour

Positive Publishers Weekly Frequently funny, clever, and even heartwarming Though not a narrative in any conventional sense, this is a riveting concept and a challenging volume. A stunt more than a literary achievement; not without merit but requiring more effort than most readers are likely to want to give. Rave Kirkus Mona is cleareyed and funny, not a reliable person exactly but a trustworthy observer. This is not a new theme, of course, but Beagin makes it fresh with her sly, funny, compassionate voice. This is a terrific debut Positive Publishers Weekly The book comes alive The result is a funny, touching look at loneliness and the search for belonging.

Also starring Schumann, Verdi, Debussy, Puccini, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and, briefly, some up-and-comers like Philip Glass and George Benjamin, all exuberantly presented for your edification and enjoyment. Rave Publishers Weekly Seventeen classical composers are celebrated in these insightful critical essays The result is an engrossing study that will appeal to both classical music aficionados and novice listeners who want a road map.

Positive Publishers Weekly Dickinson packs a lot into this dense, multilayered, complicated epic, letting the story unfold through multiple perspectives, flashbacks, tense shifts, and other narrative devices. As Baru juggles increasing amounts of trauma with an unrelenting focus on the endgame, she continually proves herself as a fascinating, morally grey protagonist in a complex world where conflicts take place on the high seas, in the ballroom, and in the marketplace.

It all builds to a powerful cliff-hanger, with hints of much more to come. Positive Harlequin Junkie Beautiful Sinner is entertaining, emotional, and steamy. Sophie Jordan created strong, independent main characters who live for their families. Jordan provided a unique story, conflict, heat, anticipation, and complicated family dynamics. Beautiful Sinner can be read as a standalone book in this series.

Jordan is brilliant at creating vivid descriptions and using flashbacks to connect the lovers Rave Kirkus [An] insistent, memorable portrait Suggestive at times of a modern Decameron and a skillfully constructed epic that packs a tremendous amount of hard-won knowledge into its pages. Positive Publishers Weekly Crisp Mixed Publishers Weekly Booker winner James kicks off a planned trilogy with a trek across a fantastical Africa that is equal parts stimulating and enervating. Though marred by its lack of subtlety, this is nonetheless a work of prodigious imagination capable of entrancing readers.

Positive Publishers Weekly Ecologist Oakes traces the slow death of the yellow cedar, alternatively known as the yellow cypress, in this significant ecological study Discussions of academic and scientific methodology, for example, can become dull. In these passages, Oakes admirably melds the professional with the highly personal, ultimately delivering a work of sensitivity and philosophical grace. Hardy, diligent, and empathetic, the author makes vividly clear the difficulties of conducting multiyear field research on a remote archipelago Readers looking for a thorough understanding of the decline of the yellow-cedar tree will not be disappointed.

The data are here, collected and painstakingly recorded by intrepid young people living rough, sometimes in tents and sleeping bags, eating dehydrate The canary-in-the-coal-mine image is a powerful one, and this book carries a potent message sure to resonate with conservationists. He has continued guiding these scholarly workshops and classes flecked with humor for almost 20 years.

This book assembles the best of them in a thoughtful, engaging way—at least to liberal thinkers—though the author sometimes succumbs to broad generalizations As provocative as it is amusing—an edifying journey through the mind of a major talent. Rave Publishers Weekly This collection of speeches and conversations with Monty Python alum Cleese is not unlike the man himself: There is no unified theory of Cleese presented, rather something more akin to snapshots of a mind at work—but what a mind it is.

Affection is the subterranean river that frequently bursts through the surface to splash readers and, perhaps, convince them to put down the money for tickets. Rave Publishers Weekly Four scholars plumb the meaning and mechanics of presidential impeachments past—and, possibly, future—in this illuminating historical study Well researched, thoughtful, and engagingly written, this is one of the best of the current books mulling this suddenly fraught question.

Positive Kirkus Despite the title, readers will find little about Harvey Milk himself Illuminating political and social history. As the unnamed waiter opens the narrative, he mentions tradition, alludes to regularity, and defines his role: That sense of joy imbues his vivid recounting of one historic, emotionally roiling year Nevertheless, Phillips conveys the relentless tension of a game A treat for avid tennis fans.

Rave Publishers Weekly This entertaining, excellent book from Goodman How to Be a Tudor provides a window into the nitty-gritty of daily life for merchants, street sellers, and others listed in the subtitle in — England Accessible, fun, and historically accurate, this etiquette guide will yield chuckles, surprises, and a greater understanding of everyday life in Renaissance England. However, there is a more serious undertone to all of this impropriety, one that regards appropriate comportment and courtesy rituals as the lubrication of societal harmony The book overflows with historical curiosities, interesting asides, and eyebrow-raising aha moments She introduces us to a wide array of locals and their simple lives, now interrupted by search and rescue operations.

Anziska displays an admirable understanding of the Palestinian plight, and his fair and equitable treatment is laudable and encouraging. Positive Kirkus Writing a compelling food memoir is a delicate act; the recipes have to live up to the memories they evoke. In the hands of prolific author Hood, the stories themselves are the main dish—but the food still has to be delicious A full plate of heart and hearty eats.

Maria Gabriela Llansol, Trans. Gradually, however, it very much grew on me, as I started to appreciate what Llansol was doing. Clearly you cannot approach it the way you would a conventional novel. It is about images and thoughts, about writing and nature, about the role of women in communities Llansol denied that her work was difficult but I think many readers would consider this book difficult. Nevertheless, it is well worth the effort as it is a very beautiful book, superbly well written and a book that addresses European intellectual history and thought in a way that is rarely found in modern literature.

Positive Publishers Weekly Stubbs expertly weaves granular encyclopedic detail into a sweeping cultural history in this astute and entertaining study of how a fringe music form entered the mainstream. In an account that sometimes strays into academic aridity and postmodern tropism, Martinez explores a terrible history that reverberates today not only because of family memory and local curation including a small-town Dairy Queen with a display of photographs of lynched Mexicans , but also because so many of its particulars seem taken from current headlines as refugees continue to die in the desert Timely and of considerable interest to students of borderlands history as well as of sociology.

Danielle Dutton, Renee Gladman. This experimental novel is best read in a single sitting and, like the photographs that inspired it, can be viewed in any number of ways, with a different effect each time. Ariosto is on a mission to discover authenticity, a relatively subjective idea, but he does not idealize Cuba, and he is refreshingly aware of his privilege as a white American man. With his firsthand experience, Ariosto brings modern Cuba to life, with all its complexities and eccentric charms. Positive Kirkus A penetrating report A candid firsthand account of an island undergoing a shaky transition.

Positive Kirkus Selecky refuses to work strictly in tropes. What begins as a killer satire opens up to some messy ideas: Spiritual teachings can be mostly bunk but partly useful. And Lilian herself has strange and lovely depths that she manages to plumb thanks to—or in spite of—the work A funny, tender, gimlet-eyed dive into the cult of self-improvement.

Rave Publishers Weekly The love-hate relationship between L. Readers fascinated by the town will find an engrossing trove of colorful, witty insights here. Positive Kirkus Numerous revelatory, odd, and entertaining juxtapositions. Like the city itself, the book mashes wildly diverse sources into an intriguing and surprising whole. Rave Kirkus Setterfield masterfully assembles an ensemble of wounded, vulnerable characters who, nevertheless, live by the slimmest margins of hope Celebrates the timeless secrets of life, death, and imagination—and the enduring power of words.

Positive Publishers Weekly Setterfield braids miracle and mystery in this marvelous tale The balance between sweet and bitter produces a complex and winning love story. Rusbridger ends on a note of hope—and concern: A lively collection, on the whole, from a man of the world who is most comfortable on his own turf.

This open-minded, playful approach permeates his delightful essays. Rave Publishers Weekly James Stark, also known as Sandman Slim, is partially back from the dead and hoping to earn his way all the way back to life in his terrifically over-the-top 10th magical slugfest The nonstop action and dark humor will thrill urban fantasy fans, including those new to the series. Minor Queneau, but with enough rollicking merits, and somewhat special to begin with.

Whenever one man falls asleep, the narrative immediately shifts to the POV of the other Precision can be a gateway to enlightenment: Paced like a fine piece of fiction, this is a handsomely written chronicle of an interesting mob character. Rave Kirkus Di Cintio first traveled to Israel in When he returned again in , it was to seek out Palestinian writers to learn how they, rather than activists and politicians, saw the Arab-Israeli conflict.

In this literary travelogue, the author records his encounters with Arab writers from the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip Interweaving history and politics, the book introduces Western readers to the modern Palestinian literary scene while celebrating the rich diversity of voices that comprise it Illuminating reading from a highly engaged author. Pan Publishers Weekly Di Cintio offers a powerful and perceptive reflection on Palestinian culture in a memoir that mixes travelogue and literary appreciation.

This is a refreshing and hopeful reminder that on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are countless people who wish to live their lives free of the hatred borne of geopolitical conflict. Positive Publishers Weekly Suspenseful, well-crafted Mixed Publishers Weekly Somewhat dated The fuse lit to ignite a James M.

Cain—style atmosphere burns slow, and the clashes between Jack and V often come off as hysterical melodrama. The two leads prove less interesting than peripheral characters In this early novel, he may have created his own subgenre: Rave Publishers Weekly Luridly propulsive This disturbing book is a masterful look into the very instant when the truth of perverse human nature begins to shine. In each area, the author documents the dreadful early record of the Trump administration, followed by a succinct history of the civil rights gains made against stiff opposition during the second half of the 20th century Positive Publishers Weekly Tautly told Positive Kirkus Fabulist elements, lyrical prose, and a chorus of narrative voices give this slim novel depth and breadth.

Paul Volcker, Christine Harper. An orderly, winning book from the economist whose Volcker Rule limits risk-taking by banks. Rave Rainy Book Reviews I usually like to hazard a guess as to whodunnit at the beginning of the novel or at least partway in. This time, I had absolutely no clue as to how the book would turn out The places, the food, etc.

If you enjoy being exposed to other cultures, this book is for you.

However, the absolute star of this novel was not the mystery, nor the authentic-ness of the setting and characters. The development of the characters themselves was what really made this novel for me. Every character, every conversation is humorous, sarcastic and witty The complex, plausible plot is peopled with authentic characters, most notably the wry, pot-smoking, disillusioned Rocco Readers will hope to see a lot more of Rocco. Rave Publishers Weekly This anthology Overall, these pieces respond to a widespread sense of displacement and division by expressing a yearning for centeredness, as well as a fear that the hearth, and the sense of belonging it symbolizes, are disappearing from contemporary life.

Thought-provoking, meditative, mournful, and comforting for readers who seek a connection to purpose and meaning, the anthology acts as a hearth of its own. Positive Kirkus The author ably gets to the heart of the game, and if little of what he writes will come as news to discerning fans, there are some fine set pieces featuring battle-weary players and devious front-office types. A worthy offering for fans of the modern, increasingly embattled game.

Mixed Beatdom A valuable resource for Beat enthusiasts We get inside his mind and gain a new perspective on some parts of the journey — presenting a pretty different take from what appears in the major Ginsberg biographies Alas, none of his journals from Czechoslovakia survive or have been found, at least , so that part of the book is padded out with letters already published elsewhere, and a half-hearted attempt which ends very suddenly to recall events that he had written some time later My only criticisms of this book are superficial ones.

It is Ugly with a capital U. The fonts used throughout the book are inexplicably horrendous, particularly for titles, footers, and the table of contents. Cutesy hearts are used to separate certain sections, and the crude retro designs near the beginning of the book are truly off-putting. The pattern more or less repeats itself in Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Poland, to the detriment of the text, parts of which were confiscated.

Editor and Ginsberg biographer Schumacher accordingly supplements his faithful transcription with some additional materials, such as letters and retrospective accounts Mixed Publishers Weekly Although Emma covers an impressive range of topics, her treatment is heavy on anecdote and opinion, light on in-depth analysis or factual information. Most of the book, however, feels underdeveloped, typical perhaps of a web-posted piece but not as well adapted to a larger print volume. That said, the timeliness of the book and its easy reading poise it to be a likely gift buy to mark feminist friendships.

Mixed Publishers Weekly Bitter betrayals, testosterone-fueled male rivalry, erotic temptations, and dizzying shifts in allegiance abound. The author supplies a lush atmosphere based on Middle Eastern traditions, but her characters flounder in facile and often contradictory motivations. Arian succeeds by rejecting men who expect her to give up her individuality and her sworn duty. The challenging language makes it hard to get into this otherwise interesting tale. Positive Kirkus This is heavy stuff, but readers expecting a turgid, scholarly tome need not worry Throughout the narrative, Wootton demonstrates a consistent ability to make complex intellectual ideas approachable.

Histories of ideas can be a snooze, but this is a surprisingly lucid examination of a dramatic revolution in human thought. Berry nimbly covers New Orleans in all its aspects over years Every major city should have such a guide to its past. Positive Publishers Weekly Evocative It will be fascinating to anyone interested in the cultural influence of entertainment.

This excellent analysis is cogent, accessible, and well-argued. Positive Kirkus Want someone to blame for Iraq and Afghanistan? Williams renders in chilling detail, Mary was raped by and consequently forced to marry the Earl of Bothwell. Forced to abdicate, Mary fled to England hoping for assistance from Elizabeth, who instead detained her and subsequently ordered her execution. Though parts of the story may be well-known to readers of royal history, Williams injects enough fresh viewpoints to make it a satisfying whole.

Edited by Leslie S. Positive Kirkus A gargantuan, extensively annotated collection of five cornerstones of American crime fiction that every fan will want to own even if they never read or reread them If four of the five selections are memorable mainly as period pieces, Red Harvest still seethes with an unsettling power Though die-hard fans may find it disappointing to return to these hoary landmarks, Klinger has provided the perfect gift for newcomers lucky enough not to have read its contents already—and the perfect excuse to wonder if a s sequel may be lurking around the corner.

Positive Publishers Weekly These five novels, all wildly popular when first published, offer a window on the world of manners and attitudes in America in the s. Rainer Maria Rilke, Trans. He is courteous, sometimes urgently effusive, his writing occasionally borders on the starchy. He recognises that the process of mourning is individual.

But he tends not to focus on the person that has died In a sense, the contents of this book should be relabelled letters of non-condolence. Mixed Kirkus The letters included in this brief but dense collection are In each letter, Rilke addresses the death of the person in question, but he also uses it as a steppingstone to offer his own perspective on the ways in which humans are conditioned to die But for those just now discovering his work, the letters might serve as a disservice to the colossal beauty of his poetry Harper is faithful to the historical record of the Ripper murders, but his solution, which combines elements of several theories, disappoints.

Readers will hope Harper treads less familiar ground in any sequel. As in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a leading feature is the vivid, thorough questioning of a colorful cross-section of Londoners, here including brash Cockney boy John Richardson, inept but loquacious Dr.

BEAU IDEAL

Llewellyn, and beat policeman Sgt. At length Doyle does indeed stir the interest of the serial killer who calls himself Jack the Ripper, and he and Margaret get close enough to him to rescue an intended victim Rave Publishers Weekly Roberts continues to mine both quotidian and existential moments in another deeply satisfying collection of simultaneously deadpan and poignant autobiographical comics, delineated in slightly awkward but appealing black-and-white drawings. Roberts depicts moments of funny domestic life with her husband, Scott; their young daughter, Xia; their dog, Crooky; and her quirky but always supportive parents Her spare but evocative line drawings, with their generous use of white space, work in tandem with the direct and detached tone of her narratives, allowing readers to fill in the emotional spaces between visual pauses.

Roberts is a unique and nuanced storyteller, and this proves her best, richest book yet. Readers will come away with a cleareyed portrait of the author through the stories of her joys, sorrows, and intimate impressions. A powerful testimony to the determination and strength necessary to persevere despite assumptions, scrutiny, and societal stigmatization.

Pan Publishers Weekly Jessie Sloane, the chief narrator of this lackluster psychological thriller from bestseller Kubica, spends her teen years caring for her mother, Eden, until Eden dies from cancer at their home in Chicago. Numb with grief, insomniac Jessie tries to get on with her life by applying to a community college, but a college official informs her that her Social Security number belongs to a girl who died 17 years earlier Kubica fans will hope for a return to form next time.

Rave Kirkus Quiet, gorgeously put-together The metaphorical layering with regard to extinctions—the ends of things—is beautifully accomplished The various sad backstory details about old deaths, betrayals, and other wounds are teased out slowly and patiently, but that momentum is no greater than the more uplifting one: A really fine, deeply intelligent book with so much to think about and so much unexpected hope.

A final twist at the end fails to elevate this hard-to-stomach love story. Harper Lee, Illustrated by Fred Fordham. Assuming and shedding identities like a snake would its skin, Gracie somehow contrives to stay a half-step ahead of disaster, albeit not always believably. But while she may escape unscathed, her actions often wreak devastating collateral damage. Fascinated readers will keep turning the pages. An unusual female perspective defies expectations and, ultimately, entertains.

While recognizing the efficacy of political assassination, Bergman is also sharply critical of its use, which is rife with those unintended consequences and often involves the killing of civilians—leading, in turn, to the deaths of civilian Israelis A significant contribution to our understanding of Middle Eastern politics and its far-reaching effects. Pan Publishers Weekly Uneven Smart, convincing dialogue compensates only in part for a trite solution to the murder and a denouement that strains credibility.

Rave Publishers Weekly This gorgeous, complex, and magical novel, grounded in Germanic, Russian, and Jewish folklore but richly overlaid with a cohesive, creative story of its own, rises well above a mere modern re- imagining of classic tales Her work inspires deep musings about love, wealth, and commitment, and embodies the best of the timeless fairy-tale aesthetic. Readers will be impressed by the way Novik ties the myriad threads of her story together This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever.

Positive Kirkus In spare prose of great clarity Novik weaves in and out of multiple first-person narratives in sometimes-illuminating, sometimes-disconcerting or confusing ways A medieval fable of obscure moral import blossoms into a thoughtful, emotionally complex, absorbing drama that stands confidently on its own merits. Rave Publishers Weekly Each story in this poignant debut plays on how music is interwoven with the deeply felt emotions of its young characters, each of whom are poised at tipping points in their lives This stunning debut pulls off the rare feat of drawing about music with authenticity and charm.

Positive Kirkus As Wilson acknowledges, Graves has been the subject of several well-regarded biographies. Despite these sources, however, this biography offers a familiar, if finely nuanced, portrait of Graves, his family, and his scandalous relationship with the mercurial Riding A delightful and sexy take on love between a suave African prince and a nerdy epidemiology student. After a strong start, the ending falters, but the chemistry between the lovers makes up for that slight disappointment. These disparate stories are woven into a beautiful narrative The novel reads like a love song to a tortured, desperately messed-up city that is undergoing remarkable transformations.

Rave Kirkus One must hope that this book is a harbinger of a coming flood of other fantasies that draw on traditions and cultures outside the confines of Northern Europe Those accustomed to the usual run of epic fantasy will find familiar elements A very strong start for a new voice. Rave Publishers Weekly [A] complex, affecting epic fantasy Thanks to the miracle of caffeine, the author delivers a stirring, nonpreachy sermon on gratitude.

Rave Publishers Weekly Mason, Mo. The language is smooth and the story moves along at a comfortable pace to a fitting, albeit easy, ending. This pleasant novel highlights the joys that can come from the little things in life. Positive Kirkus In this small town, truisms prevail over truth every time Psychological realism sacrificed on the altar of niceness. Mixed Kirkus Hey, what if a book was like Fight Club but instead of fights, everyone takes a heroic dose of drugs and plays superhero?

This ambitious, half-cracked debut about Generation Z students struggling with a bent concept of the future in the midst of a slow apocalypse is an ambitious but acidic take on superhero stories and the price of growing up A timely fable of generational angst armed with that old punk ethos: Laura is an enjoyably flawed protagonist Though relatively young, Clae fills the mysterious mentor role perfectly, his secrets hidden behind literal dark curtains.

City of Broken Magic shines most brightly in the interactions between the three Sweepers, and fantasy fans will hope for more exploits in Amicae. Rave Publishers Weekly Comes to life thanks to a no-frills, working-class point of view that immerses readers in the world of the Sweepers This debut builds a fascinating setting that readers will want to keep coming back to. Mixed Kirkus The magic system is fascinating, but the worldbuilding can be confusing: Overlong and rough around the edges but still promising. Positive Dailymail I found the bizarre, gory tales in The Penguin Book Of Japanese Short Stories infinitely more absorbing than those involving the humdrum arena of everyday life, an area much more acutely handled by Western writers The earliest story in the entire book was written in Even though Japanese literature stretches further back in time than our own — they were even writing science fiction as long ago as the 10th century — the editor offers no explanation for this strange cut-off point.

Positive Kirkus Recounted with deadpan British wit and irony Newcomers are advised, however, that the frequent references to previous events and episodes may prove confusing even as they enrich the context. The one aspect that lacks real depth is the magic, which is flatly Harry Potter—ish Lively and amusing and different.

Mixed Publishers Weekly More funny than memorable, with the plot overshadowed by the laugh-out-loud prose At more than pages, it is around twice as long as the norm for graphic narratives, and Anderson does a solid job with the narrative arc, showing how the young ardent idealist, educated as a physician, became synonymous with heroic revolutionary commitment, which ultimately led to his falling out with Fidel Castro On the visual level, it succeeds brilliantly, with the sweeping scale of the illustrations taking the measure of the man and his legacy.

However, the necessary abridgement of text falls somewhere between simplifying his story enough to capture a younger readership and retaining enough of its context and complexity to satisfy those for whom this would not be an introduction A valiant effort and a visual triumph, though the necessary abridgment compromises the depth. An affecting and original thrill ride highlighting the bond between two friends put in a horrible situation by actual Chinese government policies.

While some of her observations may be dated, most remain relevant as she astutely holds fast to the importance of giving children honest, hopeful, and entertaining stories in a changing world. Rave Kirkus Curiously fascinating Her thoughts on traditional attitudes toward sex, emotional attachment, and misappropriation add clarity and perspective to a narrative that reads as more than a simple discourse on bridging robotic automation and artificial intelligence with adult novelty.

Her visit to a sex doll factory provides a future-forward glance at the race to capitalize on this fascinating and lucrative niche market An immensely absorbing and provocative book. He clearly illuminates both the promise and the peril of driverless vehicles An invigorating bit of future-trend prognosticating, generally positive, if warning direly of global gridlock if trends continue.

Urban planners, architects, and transportation activists will definitely want to take note. Previous biographies came from past lovers and friends, and each seemed to have an agenda, often salacious. Griffin goes a long way toward rectifying this issue, casting a respectful light on some fresh as well as familiar details. Throughout, [Griffin] provides a balanced, multifaceted view of his subject Despite a colorful cast of characters that ranges from Hollywood royalty to Newport Beach party boys, Hudson himself remains a cipher.

Positive Publishers Weekly Kate Granger, the heroine of this well-crafted supernatural thriller from Webb Well-delineated characters and a suspenseful plot make this a winner. Simultaneously melancholy and sweet at its core. Positive Publishers Weekly Well-researched and fast-paced Groom effectively synergizes the interactions of personalities and policies to make a persuasive case This is an excellent history. Not Groom at his best but certainly serviceable for readers without much background in the history of the era.

Positive Publishers Weekly Readers unfamiliar with Israeli author and public intellectual Oz will find this collection of three essays, adapted from a series of lectures, a good introduction to his nuanced perspective Oz examines zealotry in general terms, noting that it predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and is not currently limited to radical Islam The author makes it clear that these female kings could be as tough, and sometimes as sanguinary, as their male counterparts; if forgotten, most were also skillful.

The most famous, Cleopatra, was an exception, for Cooney reckons her a failure, having tied her fortunes too closely to a man Cooney provides welcome insights into pharaonic politics while bringing numerous little-known Egyptian women to the fore. Attempting to draw parallels between the pharaohs and contemporary rock stars and politicians, Cooney occasionally asks too much of her narrative. In an era of McCarthy-ite redbaiting and witch-hunting, how could scientists with leftist affiliations keep on working on classified projects related to that struggle against the Communist bloc?

A strong contribution to the history of modern science. She writes informatively about the political events and issues that influenced American policymakers, among them the Soviet launch of Sputnik and the debate over atomic weapons proliferation. Wolfe also focuses on how, as the Cold War progressed, the CIA, in service to using the American scientific community as a weapon of propaganda, became increasingly involved in influencing or controlling the exchange of scientific information between scientists in the U.

While the suspense is thin, Sise offers an astute glimpse into tragic loss, the innermost lives of women, and the highs and lows and societal expectations of motherhood Though melodramatic, this compelling character study will resonate. Rave Kirkus A highly detailed account The interplay of personal stories with the broader strategic picture makes the book especially illuminating, and the author also provides a few pages of helpful diagrams and maps A fascinating must-read for World War II aficionados.

Positive Kirkus Follows an intriguing premise A novel and wide-ranging examination of the conclusion of the war once solemnly declared to be the one to end all wars. Rave Publishers Weekly The Weavers Detailed and smartly reported, this work marvelously captures the four voices in a complex era that influenced pop-folk bands that followed. Positive Kirkus Jarnow delivers a by-the-numbers biography of a band whose popular songs and covers earned them plenty of attention during the Red Scare and a place on the blacklist There are also interesting cameos sprinkled throughout this colorful tale A well-researched music biography best read with some traditional American folk songs playing in the background.

A whimsical story collection from a gifted writer with a keen eye and a playful sense of humor. Funny without collapsing into wackiness, these eccentric, beguiling stories are reminiscent of Haruki Murakami and Kafka. Positive Kirkus Tremblingly earnest The real power of the book, though, lies not in its philosophizing but in the unsteady tenderness between its characters A book that attempts to walk the thin line between the trite and the profound—and sometimes succeeds.

Positive Kirkus The borders between the animal, human, and spirit worlds are constantly breached in these creepy magical realist tales of grief and obsession Brief, macabre stories that twist our obsessions with animals and our own thoughts. Like Poe for the new millennium. Rave Kirkus In the first half of the book, Brothers focuses on Duke Ellington and his many collaborators, most notably the composer Billy Strayhorn The Beatles were another story Brothers frames his analysis in smooth, relatable prose that anyone familiar with the music of Ellington and the Beatles can understand.

Along the way, the author provides a sweeping history of 20th-century popular music, the rich backdrop against which the incredible music of Ellington and the Beatles was composed—music that is incredible primarily because of the cooperative spirit that brought it to life A fresh blend of scholarly musical analysis and provocative ideas about creativity and how composers create great art.

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Rave Publishers Weekly Duke University musicologist Brothers explores the collaborative nature of two massively influential 20th-century songwriting pairs in this probing study of pop-music collaboration Listeners of Wait Wait. The book——part memoir, part advice column——is both entertaining and poignant. A four-person character study—here as always, Hadley is a master of interpersonal dynamics—the novel captures the complexity of loss.

Their grief is not only for Zachary; it is for the lives they thought they knew. Hadley is a writer of the first order, and this novel gives her the opportunity to explore, with profound incisiveness and depth, the inevitable changes inherent to long-lasting marriages. Positive Kirkus A mistress of the sweeping family saga, bestselling author Trigiani A heartfelt tale of love too stubborn to surrender to human frailties. Positive Publishers Weekly Trigiani Packed with melodies, memories, humor, and love and loss, this effortlessly plotted novel is an emotional page-turner.

Positive Kirkus Reina, as translated from the Spanish by Nelson The book is wonderfully paced and suitably tense without ever drifting into melodrama. It reads like a cozy, middle-grade fantasy novel, but for an adult audience. An enjoyable, finely written fantasy tale. Edited by June Eric-Udorie. Positive Kirkus In an eloquent and searing introduction, debut editor Eric-Udorie Murrow and perhaps not enough practical resistance, the author rightly points out how the media brought some of the trouble on themselves by allowing Trump all the oxygen in the room—which can be fixed.

In this brief yet vigorous broadside, Kalb concludes that the media must shoulder the burden of checking the authoritarian impulse at work today: Pan Kirkus This novella originally appeared in , as one of the contributions to Millennial Women Rave Kirkus This short novel, which could probably be read with equal pleasure by any intelligent person between the ages of 14 and 90, is a paradox of sorts: I myself must mix with action lest I wither by despair [Tennyson]. Physical Energy -- N.

Physical Inertness -- N. Absence of Influence -- N. Breadth, Thickness, -- N. Eastern; orient, oriental; Levantine; Western, occidental, Hesperian. Northern, septentrional, Boreal, arctic; Southern, Austral, antarctic. Platonic bodies; cube, rhomboid; tetrahedron, pentahedron, hexahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron, eicosahedron; prism, pyramid; parallelopiped; curb roof, gambrel roof, mansard roof. I watched the little circles die [Tennyson].

Meredith]; now good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both! Eolus, Boreas, Zephyr, cave of Eolus. Darwinism, neo-Darwinism, Lamarkism, neoLamarkism, Weismannism. Eliot]; varium et mutabile semper femina [Lat. Sexuality [human] -- N. Physical Sensibility -- N. Physical Insensibility -- N. Physical Pleasure -- N. Physical Pain -- N. Special Sensation 1 Touch. Sensations of Touch -- N. Angostura [additive for alcoholic beverages], aromatic bitters. Rossetti]; tacent satis laudant [Lat. Musician [Performance of Music. Musical Instruments -- N. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon [Milton].

Optical Instruments -- N. Absence or want of Intellect -- N. Meredith]; go speed the stars of Thought [Emerson]; in maiden meditation fancy-free [M. Inquiry [Subject of Inquiry. Incomparability [Lack of comparison] -- N. Evidence [On one side. King Richard has been captured on his return from the Holy Land. Now less read than it deserves to be. The most famous animal story of the 19th century. The novelty of the work is that it is narrated by a horse apparently sexless , which is miraculously able to talk like a well-brought-up Victorian servant.

Maus exploded not merely any preconceptions about appropriate subject matter for a comic strip, but also suggested that the unspeakable might best be rethought through unexpected means. Adam Newey Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. A much loved, popular novel that almost transcended the cult label. He meets and mocks both his fellow English travellers on their Grand Tours and the French philosophes whom he visits in their Paris salons Sterne, as the celebrated author of Tristram Shandy, had recently cut a swathe through fashionable Parisian society. Oddly enough, these are usually attractive young women who are happy to have their pulses felt by a sympathetic gentleman.

David Balfour, an orphan, comes to live with his villainous uncle, Ebenezer of Shaws. Having failed to murder his ward himself, Ebenezer has his nephew kidnapped, as a white slave, on the brig Covenant. The vessel runs down a rowing boat containing a Jacobite rebel, Alan Breck. He and David conspire to escape their captors and, on land, the brutal English soldiery who are still ravaging Scotland.

Alan takes refuge in France. Also on board their vessel, the Hispaniola, is the villainous, one-legged sea-cook, Long John Silver, who takes over the vessel. Without it, we would never have had Pirates of the Caribbean. Then on his last voyage he meets the Houyhnhnms, virtuous and perfectly rational talking horses, and his pride collapses into misanthropy and self-loathing.

He and we are just Yahoos, the malevolent, cunning, libidinous beasts with whom the Houyhnhnms are fated to share their land. Its dispassionate eye follows peasants, emperors, soldiers, and priests through decades, taking in life and death in all its forms. This is no heroic tale of good versus evil, of strategies and battle formations, but a vivid depiction of the banality, tedium and senselessness of war.

Its everyman hero, Pierre played unforgettably on TV by Anthony Hopkins , blunders along, struggling to find meaning in his life, and each of the dozen or so central characters battle their own demons, searching for truth and peace. Their struggles are timeless, as is the unforgettable love story at its heart. Imogen Tilden Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Huck escapes, and drifts by raft down the Mississippi, with a runaway slave, Jim.

After various adventures and reunion with Tom all comes well. At the end, the two young heroes intend to light out to the Indian territory — a sequel Twain never wrote. Master of the voyage imaginaire , Verne also revealed himself adept at mingling high adventure with Thomas Cook-style tourism. Fogg, having read of a new railway link in the Indian subcontinent, wagers his fellow Reform Club members that he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days. The itinerary is meticulously chronicled. Fogg arrives back to foggy London, as he thinks, a day late — but he has forgotten that he has crossed the date line.

He makes it to the club with seconds to spare. A williwaw is a snow-laden hurricane, and 50 years before The Perfect Storm was a bestseller, Vidal showed us how it should be done. Our fresh-faced hero embarks on his picaresque journey across Europe and Latin America, which sees Enlightenment optimism sorely tested by — among other delights — rape, murder, syphilis, cannibalism, the wanton destructiveness of natural forces and the human cost of the western addiction to sugar.

He is, perhaps, mad. Or, as he believes, he has been given the power of clairvoyance and time travel by extraterrestrial Tralfamadorians, whose prisoner he is. The Tralfamadorians have destroyed the universe by their bombing error but can enjoy the good moments of their previous existences. The narrative recoils from graphic description of wartime atrocity to fanciful space opera. As Konnegut records, it was an immensely painful novel to write and, for all its incidental comedy and literary skill, remains painful to read.

But necessary, none the less. Basil Seal, posh and feckless, has been a leader writer on the Daily Beast, a champagne salesman, a tour guide, a secret policeman in Bolivia, and an adviser on modernisation to the emperor of Azania — all way relationship between a young southern writer, a Polish Auschwitz survivor and a Jewish New Yorker interweaves a host of complex themes survivor guilt, ancestral guilt, madness and betrayal.

The movie was Oscar-nominated; the book was banned in libraries across the States. But this is not just about provocative comparisons. Guy Crouchback is the last of an ancient English Catholic family — miserable, childless, divorced and forbidden by his religion to remarry. At 35, the outbreak of war seems to give meaning to his life: Under his Darwinian scalpel, animals are raised to quasi-humanity. Moreau is killed by a puma he is tormenting and rebellion breaks out. The animals revert to their natural animalism. After their school takes a hit during an air-raid, McGill and his friends make use of the free time to wage their own war against the enemy.

The Machine Gunners, which was adapted into a BBC television serial in , brilliantly evokes Tyneside in the second world war and the disruption to ordinary family life, while capturing the complicated relationships that exist between children and adults.

James Smart Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Voss, a German explorer, sets out in to cross the uncharted Australian desert. Before leaving, he meets Laura Trevelyan, a young Englishwoman newly arrived in the colony, and they fall in love. All the future cliches are here, but new-minted: This book has all the freshness of a literary pioneer. Jean Macquart, earthy and pragmatic, wins the respect of the intellectual and mercurial Maurice Levasseur.

Andrew Pulver Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Set aboard a vast generation starship millennia after blast-off, the novel follows Roy Complain on a voyage of discovery from ignorance of his surroundings to some understanding of his small place in the universe. Complain is spiteful and small-minded but grows in humanity as his trek through the ship brings him into contact with giant humans, mutated rats and, ultimately, a wondrous view of space beyond the ship.

Eric Brown Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Hari Seldon invents the science of psychohistory with which to combat the fall into barbarianism of the Human Empire, and sets up the Foundation to foster art, science and technology. Wish-fulfilment of the highest order, the novels are a landmark in the history of science fiction. EB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. On planet Zycron, tyrannical Snilfards subjugate poor Ygnirods, providing intercoital entertainment for a radical socialist and his lover. We assume she is Laura Chase, daughter of an Ontario industrialist, who records their sex and sci-fi stories in a novel, The Blind Assassin.

Iris is 83 in the cantankerous present-day narrative, and ready to set the story straight about the suspicious deaths of her sister, husband and daughter. In this Booker prize-winning novel about novels, Atwood bends genre and traps time, toying brilliantly with the roles of writing and reading. Natalie Cate Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Anna Blume, 19, arrives in a city to look for her brother.

She finds a ruin, where buildings collapse on scavenging citizens. All production has stopped. Nobody can leave, except as a corpse collected for fuel. Anna buys a trolley and wanders the city, salvaging objects and information. She records horrific scenes, but also a deep capacity for love. This small hope flickers in a world where no apocalyptic event is specified. Instead, Auster creates his dystopia by magnifying familiar flaws and recycling historical detail: NC Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop.

Consider Phlebas introduced the first of many misguided or untrustworthy heroes — Horza, who can change his body just by thinking about it — and a typically Banksian collision involving two giant trains in an subterranean station. PD Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. A magic carpet is the last refuge of a people known as the Seerkind, who for centuries have been hunted by both humans and the Scourge, a mysterious being that seems determined to live up to its name. Nicola Barker has been accused of obscurity, but this Booker-shortlisted comic epic has a new lightness of touch and an almost soapy compulsiveness.

A jumble of voices and typefaces, mortal fear and sarky laughter, the novel is as true as it is truly odd, and beautifully written to boot. He sends him back to the far future in an attempt to save the Eloi woman Weena, only to find himself in a future timeline diverging from the one he left. Bear combines intelligence, humour and the wonder of scientific discovery in a techno-thriller about a threat to the future of humanity.

A retro-viral plague sweeps the world, infecting women via their sexual partners and aborting their embryos. Somehow surviving, he swiftly gets down to it. Those who stumble across it are inevitably surprised to find it was written half a century ago. Along the way he joins up with a group of vampires, finds his true family and discovers what he really values, amid much blood, sex, drugs and drink. Keith Brooke Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Al Barker is a thrillseeking adventurer recruited to investigate an alien labyrinth on the moon.

Barker is the first person to survive the trauma of witnessing their own death, returning again and again to explore. Rogue Moon works as both thriller and character study, a classic novel mapping out a new and sophisticated SF, just as Barker maps the alien maze. KB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. When the Devil comes to s Moscow, his victims are pillars of the Soviet establishment: This is just a curtain-raiser for the main event, however: For his hostess, his satanic majesty chooses Margarita, a courageous young Russian whose lover is in a psychiatric hospital, traumatised by the banning of his novel.

No prizes for guessing whom Bulgakov identified with; although Stalin admired his early work, by the s he was personally banning it. In this pioneering work of British science fiction, the hero is a bumptious American mining engineer who stumbles on a subterranean civilisation. Also present are ray guns, aerial travel and ESP. Ironically, the hero finds utopia too boring. He is rescued from death by the Princess Zee, who flies him to safety.

One of a flurry of novels written by Burgess when he was under the mistaken belief that he had only a short time to live. Set in a dystopian socialist welfare state of the future, the novel fantasises a world without religion. JS Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. In one of the first split-screen narratives, Burgess juxtaposes three key 20th-century themes: JJ Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. John Carter, a Confederate veteran turned gold prospector, is hiding from Indians in an Arizona cave when he is mysteriously transported to Mars, known to the locals as Barsoom.

Butler single-handedly brought to the SF genre the concerns of gender politics, racial conflict and slavery. Several of her novels are groundbreaking, but none is more compelling or shocking than Kindred.

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The hero Higgs finds himself in New Zealand as, for a while, did the chronic misfit Butler. Does it sound familiar? Higgs escapes by balloon, with the sweetheart he has found there. He ends up keeping his promise, witnessing the French revolution and its Napoleonic aftermath from the perspective of the Italian treetops. In this novel, the domineering old spinster Queenie dies — a relief to those around her. Her niece Alison inherits the house, but soon starts to suspect that the old woman is taking over her eight-year-old daughter Rowan.

A paranoid, disturbing masterpiece. Alice, while reading in a meadow, sees a white rabbit rush by, feverishly consulting a watch. She follows him down a hole Freudian analysis, as elsewhere in the story, is all too easy , where she grows and shrinks in size and encounters creatures mythological, extinct and invented. Morbid jokes and gleeful subversion abound. More donnish in tone, this fantasy follows Alice into a mirror world in which everything is reversed.

Her journey is based on chess moves, during the course of which she meets such figures as Humpty Dumpty and the riddling twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee. More challenging intellectually than the first instalment, it explores loneliness, language and the logic of dreams. The year is — and other times.

Fevvers, aerialiste, circus performer and a virgin, claims she was not born, but hatched out of an egg. She has two large and wonderful wings. In fact, she is large and wonderful in every way, from her false eyelashes to her ebullient and astonishing adventures. The journalist Jack Walser comes to interview her and stays to love and wonder, as will every reader of this entirely original extravaganza, which deftly and wittily questions every assumption we make about the lives of men and women on this planet.

The golden age of the American comic book coincided with the outbreak of the second world war and was spearheaded by first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants who installed square-jawed supermen as bulwarks against the forces of evil. It celebrates the transformative power of pop culture, and reveals the harsh truths behind the hyperreal fantasies. XB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop.

One of the first major works to present alien arrival as beneficent, it describes the slow process of social transformation when the Overlords come to Earth and guide us to the light. At the centre of all is the terrifying Sunday, a superhuman force of mischief and pandemonium. Two rival magicians flex their new powers, pursuing military glory and power at court, striking a dangerous alliance with the Faerie King, and falling into passionate enmity over the use and meaning of the supernatural. The book is studded with footnotes both scholarly and comical, layered with literary pastiche, and invents a whole new strain of folklore: This classic by an unjustly neglected writer tells the story of Drove and Pallahaxi-Browneyes on a far-flung alien world which undergoes long periods of summer and gruelling winters lasting some 40 years.

This is just the kind of jargon-free, humane, character-driven novel to convert sceptical readers to science fiction. This is a story about the end of the world, and the general falling-off that precedes it, as year-old Karen loses first her virginity, then consciousness. When she reawakens more than a decade later, the young people she knew and loved have died, become junkies or or simply lost that new-teenager smell.

Wondering what the future holds? That said, the creepiness stays with you, especially the house that keeps stealthily remodelling itself: A curly tail, trotters and a snout are not far off. Joanna Biggs Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. The setting is a post-apocalyptic future, long past the age of humans. The novel follows Lobey, who as Orpheus embarks on a quest to bring his lover back from the dead. With lush, poetic imagery and the innovative use of mythic archetypes, Delaney brilliantly delineates the human condition.

Here California is under-populated and most animals are extinct; citizens keep electric pets instead. In order to afford a real sheep and so affirm his empathy as a human being, Deckard hunts rogue androids, who lack empathy. As ever with Dick, pathos abounds and with it the inquiry into what is human and what is fake. The Axis has won the second world war. Imperial Japan occupies the west coast of America; more tyrannically, Nazi Germany under Martin Bormann, Hitler having died of syphilis takes over the east coast. The Californian lifestyle adapts well to its oriental master.

Germany, although on the brink of space travel and the possessor of vast tracts of Russia, is teetering on collapse. The novel is multi-plotted, its random progression determined, Dick tells us, by consultation with the Chinese I Ching. And in the character of Isserley — her curiosity, resignation, wonderment and pain — he paints an immensely affecting portrait of how it feels to be irreparably damaged and immeasurably far from home. Determined to extricate himself from an increasingly serious relationship, graduate Nicholas Urfe takes a job as an English teacher on a small Greek island.

Walking alone one day, he runs into a wealthy eccentric, Maurice Conchis, who draws him into a succession of elaborate psychological games that involve two beautiful young sisters in reenactments of Greek myths and the Nazi occupation. Appearing after The Collector, this was actually the first novel that Fowles wrote, and although it quickly became required reading for a generation, he continued to rework it for a decade after publication.

Before long, he is embroiled in a battle between ancient and modern deities: The three narrative strands — young lovers in the s, the chaos of thebetweenalcoholics, English civil war and soldiers going native in a Vietnam-tinged Roman Britain — circle around Mow Cop in Cheshire and an ancient axehead found there. Dipping in and out of time, in blunt, raw dialogue, Garner creates a moving and singular novel. A fast-paced thriller starring a washed-up hacker, a cybernetically enhanced mercenary and an almost omnipotent artificial intelligence, it inspired and informed a slew of films and novels, not least the Matrix trilogy.

When the adults finally arrive, childish tears on the beach hint less at relief than fear for the future. When Haldeman returned from Vietnam, with a Purple Heart for the wounds he had suffered, he wrote a story about a pointless conflict that seems as if it will never end. Known for his intricate short stories and critically acclaimed mountaineering novel Climbers, Harrison cut his teeth on SF.

In typical fashion, he writes space opera better than many who write only in the genre. For all its star travel and alien artefacts, scuzzy 25th-century spaceports and drop-out space pilots, Light is actually about twisting three plotlines as near as possible to snapping point. This is as close as SF gets to literary fiction, and literary fiction gets to SF. Jon Courtenay Grimwood Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Amateur stonemason, waterbed designer, reformed socialist, nudist, militarist and McCarthyite, Heinlein is one of the most interesting and irritating figures in American science fiction.

This swinging 60s bestseller working title: The Heretic is typically provocative, with a central character, Mike Smith, who is raised by Martians after the death of his parents and questions every human assumption — about sex, politics, society and spirituality — on his arrival on Earth.

Set on the desert world of Arrakis, this complex novel combines politics, religion, ecology and evolution in the rise to power of Paul Atreides, who becomes a revolutionary leader and a prophet with the ability to foresee and shape the future. Epic in scope, Dune is primarily an adventure story, though Herbert was one of the first genre writers convincingly to tackle the subject of planetary ecology in his depiction of a drought-stricken world.

After the Bomb — long, long after — humanity is still huddled in medieval-style stockades, cold, ignorant, superstitious and speaking in degraded English, the patois in which this book is written. Yet his story is still poignant. This is what happens to Robert Wringhim, who is brought up in the Calvinist belief in predestination. When he encounters a devilish figure known as Gil-Martin, Wringhim is easily tempted into undertaking a campaign to purge the world of the Reprobate — those not selected for salvation. After a series of rapes and murders, and seemingly pursued by demons, Wringhim yields to the ultimate temptation of suicide.

Sexist, racist, snob, Islamophobe … Houellebecq has been called many things, with varying degrees of accuracy. The charge of misanthropy is hard to deny, given his repeated portrayal of humankind as something that has lost its way, perhaps even its right to exist. Atomised — set in the world we know but introduced by a member of the superior species that will supplant us — provides two more examples of our inadequacy in half-brothers Michel and Bruno, an introverted biologist and a sex-addict teacher. Conflict has been eradicated with the aid of sexual hedonism and the drug Soma; babies are factory-bred in bottles to produce a strict class hierarchy, from alpha to epsilon.

It is the year AF After Ford Eventually he recalls that he is an eminent concert pianist, scheduled to perform. The man is shepherded through an expanding and contracting world, his own memories and moods changing like the weather. Yet the dream-logic is rooted in real, poignant, human dilemmas. One for readers who have grown out of Philip K Dick.

CO Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. Hill House is haunted, but by what? The ghosts of the past or the people of the present? Here is a delicious, quietly unnerving essay in horror, an examination of what makes us jump. Jackson sets up an old dark house in the country, garnishes it with some creepy servants, and then adds a quartet of intrepid visitors.

But her lead character — fragile, lonely Eleanor — is at once victim and villainess. By the end, the person she is scaring most is herself. Are the ghosts that a new governess in a country house believes to be steadily corrupting her young charges apparitions, hallucinations or projections of her own dark urges? The book divides SF critics and puzzles fans of her crime novels, but remains one of the great British dystopias and a trenchant satire on our times and values.

JCG Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. In the centre of England, a vast crystalline lake has formed. A strong candidate for the most beautiful of all Victorian novels. Owing debts to Jimi Hendrix and offering a decidedly 60s summer festival vibe, Bold as Love is the first in a series of novels that mix politics with myth, counterculture and dark age sensibilities. It deservedly won Jones the Arthur C Clarke award. On the morning of his 30th birthday, Josef K is arrested by two sinister men in dapper suits. PO Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop.

The story has two central characters. Algernon is a mouse, whose intelligence is surgically enhanced to the level of rodent genius. The same technique is applied to Charlie Gordon, a mentally subnormal fast-food kitchen hand. The narrative, told by Charlie as his IQ soars, traces the discontents of genius. Alas, the effects of the surgery are shortlived, and the end of the story finds Charlie back in the kitchen — mentally challenged but, in his way, happy. Being smart is not everything.

The hotel is haunted by unexorcised demons from brutal murders committed there years ago. Torrance is possessed and turns, homicidally, on his wife and child. Jack is beyond salvation. The film was brilliantly filmed by Stanley Kubrick in A young married woman, Melanie, scours antiques shops to furnish her new home and comes back with an old chaise-longue, which is perfect apart from an unsightly reddish-brown stain.

She falls asleep on it and wakes up in an unfamiliar house, an unfamiliar time — and an unfamiliar body. At first she assumes she must be dreaming. But gradually she starts to piece together the story of Milly, the young Victorian woman in the last stages of consumption whom she has apparently become, and the nature of the disgrace she has brought on the household run by her fearsomely stern elder sister.

Why does the sight of the doctor make her pulse beat faster? And can she find a way back to her own life? AN Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. This is frequently judged the best ghost story of the Victorian period. On the sudden death of her father, Maud, an heiress, is left to the care of her Uncle Silas, until she comes of age. Sinister in appearance and villainous by nature, Silas first plans to marry Maud to his oafish son, Dudley who is, it emerges, already married. When this fails, father and son, together with the French governess Madame de la Rougierre, conspire to murder their ward with a spiked hammer.

Told by the ingenuous and largely unsuspecting Maud, the narrative builds an impending sense of doom. Set in a near-future in a disintegrating city, where lawlessness prevails and citizens scratch a living from the debris, this dystopia is the journal of an unnamed middle-class narrator who fosters street-kid Emily and observes the decaying world from her window. Despite the pessimistic premise and the description of civilisation on the brink of collapse, with horror lurking at every turn, the novel is an insightful and humane meditation on the survivability of the species.

The world has entered the Second Enlightenment after the Faith Wars. In the Republic of Scotland, Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson investigates the murders of religious leaders, suspecting atheists but uncovering a plot involving artificial intelligence. Before his current incarnation as a thriller writer specialising in conspiracy theories and psychopathic gore, Marshall Smith wrote forward-thinking sci-fi which combined high-octane angst with humour both noir and surreal. His debut features a bizarre compartmentalised city with different postcodes for the insane, the overachievers, the debauched or simply those with unusual taste in interior design; as well as adventures in the realm of dreams, a deep love of cats and a killer twist.

Robert Neville is the last man standing, the lone survivor in a world overrun by night-crawling vampires. But if history is written by the winners, what does that make Neville: Clearly this was too much for the recent Will Smith movie adaptation, which ran scared of the very element that makes the book unique. Francie Brady is a rambunctious kid in s Ireland.

McCabe leads us on a freewheeling tour of a scattered, shattered consciousness, as Francie grows from wayward child to dangerous adult — nursing his grievances and plotting his revenge. Chances are that old Mrs Nugent has a surprise in store. These two figures are pushing south towards the sea, but the sea is poisoned and provides no comfort. In the end, all they have and, by implication, all the rest of us have is each other. During the Korean war and then the space programme, Yeremin closes down his emotions even as his horizons expand, from the Arctic skies to the moon itself.

The second of his sprawling steampunk fantasies detailing the alternate universe of Bas-Lag follows Armada, a floating pirate city, in its search for a rip in reality. Miller breathes new life into the Gothic antihero with his beautifully written Impac-winning first novel. In an epilogue, a spaceship leaves Earth with a cargo of monks, children and the Leibowitzian relics.

The Wandering Jew makes recurrent and enigmatic appearances. Then it hops all the way back down again, resolving each story in turn. These include a camp Ealing-style misadventure, an American thriller and an interview with a clone, all connected by a mysterious comet-shaped tattoo. Moorcock spills out such varied books that he often feels impossible to nail down, which is probably the point. Mother London, his most literary — it was shortlisted for the Whitbread — shows him at the height of his powers. Having gone to sleep on the London underground, the narrator awakes to find himself in 20th-century Hammersmith.

He bathes in the now crystalline Thames and spends a day in what used to be the British Museum, airily discussing life and politics. He then travels up the river to Runnymede, where Magna Carta was signed, going on from there to some idyllic haymaking in Oxford.

Sweet Home is a deceptive name for the Kentucky plantation where horrific crimes have been committed, as Beloved is for this shocking and unforgettable account of the human consequences of slavery. Sethe lives in Ohio in the s; she has escaped from slavery, but cannot escape the past, which quite literally haunts her. It sparks off a page adventure that sees him trapped at the bottom of a well, marked with a strange blue stain and taken on many otherworldly adventures, all in search of his missing wife. Murakami has the Japanese trick of writing about surreal events in a matter-of-fact way, making them all the more disturbing.

Ada or Ardor is part sci-fi romance, part Proustian memoir. It plays out on a fantasy planet, a marriage of contemporary America and pre-revolutionary Russia, and details the love affair of precocious Van Veen and his sister Ada, chasing them from lustful puberty to decrepit old age. It is a gorgeous display of narrative wizardry, at once opulent, erotic, playful and wise. A moving affirmation of the continuities of love against unusual odds. JH Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. But this novel, which won Hugo and Nebula awards, reminds us he was once one of the most exciting names in hard sci-fi.

Part of the Known Space series, it follows a group of humans and aliens as they explore a mysterious ring-shaped environment spinning around a star like a giant hula-hoop. Set in Manchester in the near-future and in a phantasmagorical virtual reality, Vurt is the story of Scribble, his gang the Stash Riders and his attempt to find his sister Desdemona, who is lost in a drug-induced VR. Set in a rural Ireland that is also a vision of hell, it features policemen turning into bicycles; that SF standby, the universal energy source; and any number of scientific and literary in-jokes.

According to Yoruba tradition, a spirit child is one who has made a pact with his fellows in their other, more beautiful world, to rejoin them as soon as possible. Azaro breaks the pact, choosing to remain in this place of suffering and poverty, but the African shanty town where he lives with his parents teems with phantoms, spirits and dreams. An angry, impassioned fantasy of how to take down corporate America, and an ingenious modern version of the myth of the double.

Thwarted in love, the hero Scythrop reads The Sorrows of Werther and considers suicide, but settles for the comforts of madeira instead. Sinister and sensual, overwrought and overwritten, Titus Groan is a guilty pleasure — a dank, dripping Gothic cathedral of a novel. Titus himself is a minor character — literally: He inherits Gormenghast castle and its extraordinary household: But at its heart is a chilling glimpse of the nature of evil.

With this gargantuan novel, Powys set out to take a location he knew well from his boyhood and make it the real hero of the story. It tells the story of Glastonbury through a year of turmoil, setting mystic mayor John Geard against industrialist Philip Crow. Geard wants to turn the town into a centre for Grail worship, while Crow wants to exploit and develop the local tin mines.

Complex and rich, this is a landmark fantasy novel. The novel is as much a study of their obsession as a brilliant examination of magic and rationalism. A Benedictine monk who gave it up to study medicine, Rabelais wrote this satirical tale of the giant Pantagruel and his even more monstrous and grotesque father Gargantua on the cusp between eras. In his portrayal of Gargantua, a belching, farting scholar given to urinating over the masses below his ivory tower, he satirises medieval learning as well as the emerging Renaissance thirst for knowledge.

Remind you of anything more contemporary? NB Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. This was the novel that brought the one-time astrophysicist to the attention of the SF mainstream.

What follows is a history of our world with Islam and Buddhism as the dominant religions and the major scientific discoveries and art movements we take for granted happening elsewhere. Necessarily schematic in places, but a stunning achievement all the same.

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Every now and then, a book comes along that is so influential you have to read it to be part of the modern world. It is also a truly global phenomenon, and a nice little earner for the tribe of British character actors who have had the good fortune to be cast in the films.

Claire Armitstead Buy this book at the Guardian bookshop. The offensive core of the novel depicts, under thin disguise, the prophet Muhammad, and wittily if blasphemously questions the revealed truth of the Koran. Stranded in the Sahara, a pilot meets a boy. He claims to have come from an asteroid, which he shared with a talking flower, and to have visited many other worlds — one inhabited only by a king, another by a businessman, a third by a drunkard … On Earth, he has chatted with a snake and tamed a fox.

Blindness is black, says an onlooker to the man who has suddenly ceased to see while sitting in his car at the traffic lights; but this blindness is white, a milky sea in the eye. Soon everyone is affected and the city descends into chaos. His flowing, opaque style can be challenging, but this parable of wilful unseeing, which resists reductive interpretations, is full of insight and poetry.

When Lily Bloom dies, she simply moves house: The classic Gothic tale of terror, Frankenstein is above all a novel of ideas. Victor Frankenstein is a young Swiss student who resolves to assemble a body from dead parts and galvanise it into life. As well as an exploration of nature and nurture, the book can be read as a reaction to motherhood and a comment upon creativity.