The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
Godfall by Van Jensen; The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier; The Poet Empress by Shen Tao; A Hole in the Sky by Peter F Hamilton; Hello Earth, Are You There? by Brian Aldiss
Belgrave Road by Manish Chauhan review – a tender tale of love beyond borders
This poignant debut about two strangers who fall in love offers a powerful portrait of the lived realities of immigrants in Britain
The Guardian view on granting legal rights to AI: humans should not give house-room to an ill-advised debate
Editorial: Anthropomorphising tech helps Silicon Valley shares to soar, but our empathy should be directed to worthier causes
This, My Second Life by Patrick Charnley review – an astonishing debut of recovery
Drawing on his own near-death experience, the author finds a powerful intensity in this tale of a young man’s convalescence in a Cornish village
With Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, Béla Tarr became the vividly disquieting master of spiritual desolation
The Hungarian director’s films moved slowly like vast gothic aircraft carrier-sized ships across dark seas, giving audiences a feeling of drunkenness and hangover at the same time
Love, desire and community: the new generation of readers bonding over romance novels
Young women drawn to ‘morally grey characters’ are driving a boom sparked by TikTok, Instagram and online friendships
Arborescence by Rhett Davis review – why would people turn into trees?
This quietly satirical speculative novel tells a story of metamorphosis, but feels insulated from real ecological crisis
Australian books to look forward to in 2026: from a 278-page sentence to a memoir about a ‘cursed vagina’
It promises to be a marvellous year ahead for OzLit, with new books from the likes of Kate Grenville, Siang Lu, Antoinette Lattouf, Shaun Micallef, Judith Lucy and more
The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers review – the midlife adultery story our generation deserves
This is a witty takedown of insufferable millennial New Yorkers who have managed to ruin even sex
When a heart attack left me in a coma, my hallucinations inspired a novel – and a new life
After his heart stopped beating for 40 minutes, the former lawyer experienced weeks of hallucinations. The visions he experienced during his recovery set him on the path to a new career
‘It has become difficult to live’: Hungarian writers bemoan country’s hostile environment
Nobel prize for László Krasznahorkai provides a rare glimpse of unity in a nation divided on party lines
The hill I will die on: Fan fiction is real literature, whatever the snobs say
Yes, it’s messy, derivative and occasionally incomprehensible – but so is life, says comedian Urooj Ashfaq
Andrew Miller: ‘DH Lawrence forced me to my feet – I was madly excited’
The novelist on how Lawrence’s The Rainbow made him want to write, the strange genius of Penelope Fitzgerald and finding comfort in Tintin
Blank Canvas by Grace Murray review – a superb debut from a 22-year-old author
In this energisingly original novel, an emotionally detached English student at college in New York tells a big lie
Thursday briefing: Thirty years of the Women’s prize for fiction – have male novelists been edged out?
In today’s newsletter: As the literary award marks its 30th anniversary, the debate about whether it is relevant when women dominate bestsellers list has resurfaced