The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon, £14)
The latest SF from acclaimed author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) theorises that a 1950s American pulp writer discovered the true nature of reality and encoded it into an obscure paperback novel before founding the Church of God’s All-Seeing Eyes. That short novel, Lode Stars, makes up the central part of this book, followed by a biographical sketch of its fictional author, Eugene C Hartley, his authenticity buttressed by letters ventriloquising authors and editors from Robert A Heinlein to Jack Kerouac. (The real American writer and founder of a science-fictional religion is never mentioned.) Other sections focus on the few people in London who have read, or even seen, a copy of Lode Stars: Delia Welegtabit (Hartley’s mathematician granddaughter), Oskar Lens (a Russian criminal) and Daniel Chase, the rare-book dealer Delia hires to search for her missing husband. It’s a lot to cram into a short book, and the effect is of an interesting collage, clever and entertaining parts that finally fail to cohere.
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis (Serpent’s Tail, £14.99)
Longing for a more meaningful life, Amber applies to be a contestant on a reality TV show. The prize, for the two people who are not voted off, is a trip to Mars. She becomes determined to win, undeterred by the fact that it’s a one-way journey: she’ll spend the rest of her life on that lifeless planet, using the frozen water in the planet’s crust to create oxygen and grow food. This impressive debut novel alternates between Amber’s experiences and the observations of Kevin, her boyfriend for the past 14 years, a stoner who can’t understand why she wants anything more than the life they share in a basement apartment, growing hydroponic weed. They love each other – as they repeat, “for no reason” – but they want different things. A bleak yet darkly funny story that dissects with compassion and wit the reality of “reality TV” and the fantasy of escaping eco-catastrophe by moving to another planet.
The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord (Gollancz, £20)
The latest from the award-winning Barbadian author is set a hundred years from now, when a group of young people from around the world are chosen for an intensive training course in foreign diplomacy. But under the pressure of dealing with climate change, the nations of Earth have managed at last to unite under a global government, so there’s no longer a need for foreign diplomats. Could the training, as some of the thought experiments they are tasked with solving imply, be in anticipation of first contact with an alien race? But what if those beings are already here? This complex, engaging novel takes an unusual approach to the classic trope of aliens in our midst, with a warmth and intelligence reminiscent of Ursula K Le Guin.
Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy (Quirk, £15.99)
Once in a generation, a horde of deadly sentient tornadoes attacks a small, isolated midwestern town. The inhabitants’ only hope of survival lies in the hands of the teenage boy known as the Tornado Killer. The narrator, an alienated high school student, is strangely drawn to this boy, and he seems to feel a connection to her, but any human contact will reduce his power, leaving the town at the mercy of the gathering tornadoes. She realises the adults are hiding a secret about the origin of the Tornado Killer and their reasons for taking their teenage daughters to visit the sinister Mr Z – but can she learn the truth and still escape? A powerfully weird, original tale that combines American folk horror with a surreal coming-of-age nightmare.
The Land of Lost Things by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99)
A return to the world of The Book of Lost Things (2008) by the award-winning author of the Charlie Parker crime thrillers. Like his first fantasy novel, it moves from humorous reinventions of fairytale figures to scenes of violence and horror. Instead of a young boy struggling to cope with the death of his mother, the main character drawn into another world is a mother caught between hope and despair for her daughter, who is in a coma. This can be read as a standalone, and may well prove as popular as its predecessor, but probably will appeal most to those who are not regular fantasy readers.
