The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

The Naked Light by Bridget Collins; Exiles by Mason Coile; Alchemised by SenLinYu; Saltcrop by Yume Kitasei; Big Time by Jordan Prosser

Clearing the Air by Hannah Ritchie review – practical climate optimism

A data scientist rebuts 50 arguments against green technology with lively pragmatism and authority

Desolation by Hossein Asgari review – an accomplished exploration of love, truth and the cruelty of fate

A storyteller who lies in service of truth meets a writer who doesn’t believe in true stories in this sophomore work set in Adelaide and post-revolutionary Iran

I Love You, Byeee by Adam Buxton audiobook review – warm and witty whimsy

A chatty, self-deprecating memoir recalls the podcaster’s start in TV and his lifelong friendship with comedian and film-maker Joe Cornish

All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert review – excruciating to read

The Eat Pray Love author’s account of her relationship with her late partner Rayya is solipsistic and self-indulgent

The Climate Diplomat by Peter Betts review – the most important person you’ve never heard of

A British civil servant’s revelatory account of negotiations to avert climate catastrophe

No Friend to This House by Natalie Haynes review – a thrilling take on the Golden Fleece myth

Medea tells her side of the story in a reimagining of the ancient Greek stories that puts women centre stage

The Man in My Basement review – Willem Dafoe is an unsettling guest in eerie psychodrama

Adapted for the screen from his own novel Walter Mosley examines power dynamics and racial tension with a deftly disquieting hand in this deeply strange parable

The Long Walk review – Stephen King death game dystopia is the grimmest mainstream movie for some time

Fifty young men compete in an endurance event, during which they are shot in the head at point-blank range if they slow down, in this horrific buddy story adaptation

A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna review – a woman’s ambitions in Pakistan

This novel fizzes with energy as it follows the parallel lives of two siblings and exposes the crushing divides of gender and class

How to Save the Internet by Nick Clegg review – spinning Silicon Valley

Instead of recognising that social media harms mental health and democracy, the former deputy PM and Meta executive repeats company talking points

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown review – weapons-grade nonsense from beginning to end

Code-breaking hero Robert Langdon is back for another conspiracy thriller, featuring underground laboratories and new thoughts on the nature of consciousness

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai review – a dazzling epic

Longlisted for the Booker, this capacious story of love, work and family set between India and the US is both dizzyingly vast and insistently miniature

Between the Waves by Tom McTague review – the long view on Brexit

An ambitious history of Britain’s volatile relationship with Europe, culminating in the 2016 referendum

Steve review – Cillian Murphy is outstanding in ferocious reform school drama

Adapted by Max Porter from his novella Shy and co-starring Little Simz, Emily Watson and Tracey Ullman this brutal but ultimately hopeful story is fiercely affecting