The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds; Paris Fantastique by Nicholas Royle; All Tomorrows by CM Kosemen; The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson; The Witching Hour by various authors
Jonathan Coe: ‘I was a Tory until I read Tony Benn’
The author on getting hooked on Flann O’Brien, reassessing Kingsley Amis, and why his grandfather was outraged by Watership Down
Horror hit Paranormal Activity spawns a West End play – and even its director yelped with fear
Inspired by the scary film franchise, playwright Levi Holloway and Punchdrunk maestro Felix Barrett are bringing the ‘bizarrely joyous’ world of terror to the stage
Sophie Kinsella obituary
Author whose Shopaholic series of romcom novels were global bestsellers and adapted into a Hollywood film
Jarvis Cocker and Mary Beard announced as Booker prize judges
The historian is set to lead a ‘stellar’ 2026 panel featuring the Pulp frontman and other acclaimed writers, as the search begins for next year’s standout work of fiction
Daniel Woodrell obituary
Author of ‘country noir’ novels, such as Winter’s Bone, set in the rural communities of the Ozark mountains
Ever Since We Small by Celeste Mohammed review – a big-hearted Caribbean tale
This Trinidadian family saga blurs the line between real and imagined to create a multilayered history of an island and its people
Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55
The ‘queen of romantic comedy’ has died 18 months after announcing her brain cancer diagnosis
Flat Earth by Anika Jade Levy review – fear and loathing in New York
This sharp, bleak debut satirises the current cultural moment through the life and loves of a cynical young writer
Dracapella review – power ballads and beatboxing as ghoulish comedy gets down for the count
Gleefully leaning into all the cliches and groansome laughs, Dan Patterson and Jez Bond’s musical vampire romp is supremely silly
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle review – how to make a timeloop endlessly interesting
The hypnotic third novel in the hit Danish series grapples with the philosophical realities of being stuck on repeat in 18 November
The Effingers by Gabriele Tergit review – a vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis
Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life
The best fiction of 2025
The Guardian’s fiction editor picks the best of the year, from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count to Thomas Pynchon’s return, David Szalay’s Booker winner and a remarkable collection of short stories
Five of the best science fiction books of 2025
An eco-masterpiece, icy intrigue, cyberpunkish cyborgs, memory-eating aliens and super-fast travel sends the world spinning out of control
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles review – a deliciously sweary, prize-winning monologue
The actor Paul Hilton brilliantly inhabits the character of a ranting working-class academic in this debut novel