The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed (Gollancz, £22)
On a gigantic spaceship halfway through its 400-year voyage to a new world, hundreds of Earth colonists are kept in frozen stasis by the ever-increasing maintenance crew. Not all the crew are happy with the way their lives are harshly controlled by the Administration, and peaceful protests have inspired whispers of revolution. The multicultural city-ship has two official languages: Inglez and Arabek. Iskander Ezz is a translator between Crew and Administration, aware that “when you speak a different language, you become another person”. Damietta, his younger cousin, finds the unofficial Nupol better for communicating with her fellow protesters. Nupol, an argot made up of many “dead Earth” languages, is used throughout the book by several viewpoint characters, adding a distinctive flavour to a speculative fiction its author calls Arabfuturism. Partly inspired by the historic Arab spring, this is a thoughtful, exciting space opera.
The Rainshadow Orphans by Naomi Ishiguro (Solstice, £20)
The first volume of a trilogy inspired by Japanese pop culture is set in bustling, crowded Rainshadow City, where hi-tech wealth and a corrupt emperor exist alongside magic, poverty and criminality. Toshiko, Jun and Mei are the Kawakamis, haphazardly seeking revenge on the Lucky Crow gang for the murder of their adoptive Aunt. When Toshiko almost accidentally steals a precious dragon pearl from a powerful gangster, they’re plunged into a fast-moving adventure involving a conspiracy to deport all the city’s illegal immigrants to certain death, and replace low-paid workers with attractive female robots. Various plot strands see characters discovering magical powers, a mother dragon desperate to save her baby’s life, and a strangely helpful cat. Trope-heavy, entertaining fun, with a cartoonish vibe.
No Ghosts by Max Lury (Peninsula Press, £12.99)
The ghosts are gone: that’s what psychics and mediums all over Britain say. Kieran never believed in ghosts, but driven by loneliness and the hope of finding out what happened to his missing friend Annie, he becomes involved with a group trying to recreate the connection they used to get during seances. Meanwhile Harlow, who was Annie’s best friend, becomes obsessed with fragments of AI-generated film, certain she’s seen Annie in them. She meets others who share her obsession with putting these fragments together, and both plot strands become increasingly weird. A closely observed, meticulously described study of the emotional undercurrents of contemporary life, it’s also a deeply strange tale of emergent hauntings, a brilliantly original ghost story for our times.
Palaces of the Crow by Ray Nayler (W&N, £22)
June 1941: Neriya, a doctor’s daughter, follows a crow into the depths of a Lithuanian forest, and avoids death at the hands of invading Germans who loot and burn her village. Czeslaw, an underage soldier in the Red Army, the sole survivor of his band, takes refuge in the same forest. Later they’re joined by Kezia, a Roma girl used to living off the land, and a traumatised, speechless little boy. The crows play an important part in the story, giving warning when danger is near, and revealing unexpected aspects of their own way of life in this constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking novel from the author of The Mountain in the Sea.
Moon Over Brendle by Jeff Noon (Angry Robot, £9.99)
In the Lancashire of 1968, the world is different from ours in one respect: Greot. No one knows why this strange multicoloured dust drifts through the air and settles everywhere, only becoming visible briefly at night. For the rest of the time, only a very few can see it: Joe Sutter is one of those with the gift. Like the author of this book, he was 11 years old in 1968 and grew up to write science fiction novels. The novel is presented as Joe’s memoir of that one life-defining year, when an encounter with a dying man, the prolific author of forgotten pulp fiction, set him on the path to becoming a writer himself. An unusual, magical faux-autobiography, this is a vividly written delight.
