The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan (Head of Zeus, £20)
Better known as a film-maker, Jordan has never stopped writing novels. His latest opens in 2084 in rural Ireland, where Christian Cartwright works for the Huxley Institute in the titular library, secretly misusing its memory storage technology to talk with his dead lover Isolde, restoring her to a semblance of digital life. The story moves between Christian’s experiences and similar events two centuries earlier in the life of his ancestor, Montagu Cartwright, the architect responsible for the Huxley Mansion and local church, who owned an ancient obsidian mirror, believed to have been the famous scrying glass of John Dee. Lyrically written, brimming with ideas, sometimes sinister and often humorous, it’s an enchanting read.

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan (Tor, £22)
This debut novel is based on the historic Beast of Gévaudan, a wolf-like creature that terrorised a region of France between 1764 and 1767. But it is much more than another werewolf fantasy. The narrator, Sebastian Grave, seems immortal, writing a memoir in the 21st century about his adventures in the 1700s. Even then he was old, and shared his mind and body with a demon called Sarmodel, whose occult powers helped him to destroy a terrible beast. Twenty years later, the same area is once again ravaged by a bloodthirsty creature: since Sebastian is sent for by the man who had been his boon companion on the first hunt, and his lover, he hopes this means an end to their long estrangement. A wonderfully original, engrossing novel, combining history and fantasy, with a unique narrative voice and fascinating characters.

Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison (Virago, £10.99)
First published in 1952, this original fairytale by a multitalented feminist icon manages to feel very old but always fresh and new. Orphaned baby princess Halla is saved from her stepmother’s spite to be cared for by bears, and then adopted by a dragon. She grows up with both bearish and dragonish traits, learning to hate heroes, because they tend to slay dragons. Despite many opportunities, she resists becoming a hero herself, but also rejects the usual female roles, making friends with a Valkyrie and deciding to see more of the world; helping people she meets along the way, and always travelling light. An essential classic in a lovely new edition.

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman (Gollancz, £22)
Set in a Europe devastated by the Black Death, this remarkable blend of fantasy, horror and historical fiction tells the story of Thomas, a disgraced knight who finds himself the reluctant protector of Delphine, an orphaned girl who can see angels. She tells him they must travel to Avignon if they are to have a chance to avert a disaster even greater than the plague: Lucifer and his fallen angels are waging another war against heaven, and the world of men has been drawn into it. With what feels like a genuinely medieval mindset, this vividly written book depicts a world of monsters and miracles, with scenes that echo elements from Gawain and the Green Knight to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Despite its ever-present dangers and violence, the story is shot through with a deep, compassionate humanity.

Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran (Riverrun, £20)
A girls’ boarding school in 1928 England is the hothouse setting for this debut horror novel. It begins when 18-year-old Violet falls to her death from a staircase landing. Narrator Emily can see that an accidental fall over a balustrade was impossible, so it must have been murder; the only person close enough to have done it was the only witness, the French mistress, Mademoiselle. Emily believes pashes between girls are natural, but not in a grown woman; the teacher must have been driven to murder by her unnatural desires. She tells her fellow students they must force Mademoiselle to confess. Then another girl dies horribly while eating dinner, and as the death toll mounts it becomes clear that some long-repressed force, or the school itself, is bent on their destruction. A compulsively readable twist on the old-fashioned school story.