The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup

The Tower of Fools by Andrjez Sapkowski; Midway by Tony Ballantyne; The Saints of Salvation by Peter F Hamilton; Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott; and The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton

Islands of Mercy by Rose Tremain review – a globe-trotting adventure

There are glimpses of Tremain at her best in a passionate tale of coloniser and colonised in the British empire

Carmilla review – clever but bloodless spin on classic female-vampire yarn

Writer-director Emily Harris’s version of Le Fanu’s lesbian vampire tale adds a feminist focus on repression but the sparks don’t fly

Dishing the Dirt by Nick Duerden review – the hidden lives of house cleaners

An entrepreneur, an exploited migrant, a mother who feels liberated ironing naked … meet the cleaners who work in households across London

Love by Roddy Doyle review – profundity down the pub

Two lives are revealed through one evening’s blunted dialogue, in a skilful if repetitive excavation of the sublime buried in the mundane

Mafia Inc review – old-school gangster pic based on real Canadian milieu

Montreal’s underworld is the focus for this meaty flick about a crime boss aiming to set up a money-spinning project in the old country

Failosophy by Elizabeth Day review – the feel-good ‘failing-well’ industry

‘Look at me now!’ Elizabeth Day is a witty, likable writer, but can failure always be turned into a positive?

Reproduction by Ian Williams review – fallout of an unlikely affair

With subtlety and wit, this prizewinning debut explores a liaison across race and class divisions in Canada

My Life in Red and White by Arsène Wenger review – what was his secret?

You’d never seen anything like it at Highbury ... but the long-term Arsenal manager leaves plenty of questions unanswered

Ivor Cutler by KT Tunstall review – a plum of a programme

Tunstall’s celebration of the eccentric, poet and performer didn’t eschew more difficult testimony, but made a heartfelt love letter to a charming and yet slightly unsettling man

Boris Johnson: The Gambler by Tom Bower review – the defining secret

The affairs, the lies, the shoddy handling of coronavirus … Johnson is let off the hook in this biography – it’s his father, Stanley, who emerges as the villain

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata review – compellingly weird

The bestselling Japanese author of Convenience Store Woman offers another offbeat tale of a heroine at odds with society’s expectations

Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes review – ancient misogyny

The writer and broadcaster rescues the reputation of the women demonised in classical literature in this erudite and funny study

The Contradictions by Sophie Yanow review – on the road with a raging bore

This funny story of a student’s trip abroad with her new anarchist friend will resonate with anyone who has been a fresher

The Butterfly Effect by Marcus J Moore review – hobbled by jargon

The remarkable rise of rapper Kendrick Lamar deserves a more compelling book than this hyperbolic account