August is traditionally a quiet month in publishing, and this one is no different. But there are still science-fiction gems to look forward to, including a fascist empire, courtesy of Richard Swan, and some scary Korean sea monsters from Kim Bo-young. I can also recommend M. John Harrison’s The End of Everything, published earlier this year but just longlisted for the Booker prize. It’s rare for sci-fi to make this prestigious literary longlist so that is a tribute to Harrison’s writing – as our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson highlighted last month. And do join us at the 91av Book Club, where we’re reading Peter Heller’s post-apocalyptic novel The Dog Stars, set after a superflu has wiped out most of humanity (and written well before covid-19). A Ridley Scott-directed film adaptation of it is about to be released, so we’re ahead of the crowd.
by Richard Swan
I hear good things about this one from Emily H. Wilson, who has a review forthcoming. It’s set in a fascist and galaxy-spanning empire, where Katherine Fuller’s husband has died, leaving her an immensely wealthy woman. Katherine is given the chance to buy a world, and create a better society – but will the empire let her make a democracy? It’s pitched by its publisher as Nineteen Eighty-Four meets The Man in the High Castle, which is enough to hook me.
by Kim Bo-young, translated by Sophie Bowman
I’m also really excited about this one, in which bodyguard Mu-young is heading to an isolated Korean seaside village with her niece when she learns that a huge earthquake has hit the region. She travels there regardless, but the earthquake unleashes an ancient plague, which turns those who catch it into “fishy monsters”. The village is locked down – and Mu-young is trapped. Perfect beach reading, perhaps?
Advertisement
by Tim Pratt
This space opera with a “touch of romance” follows graduate student Glenn and his girlfriend Vivy, a spy who has been tasked with stopping a rogue comet but finds herself also trying to find a stolen jewel that can destroy universes.
by C.A. Fletcher
I always love a post-apocalyptic story in which a few hardy souls are struggling to survive. As previously noted, we’re reading Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars in the 91av Book Club this month, and it’s a prime example of the genre. In Fletcher’s intriguing-sounding take, humans have stopped being able to have children (shades of P. D. James’s The Children of Men, perhaps?), and Mouse and Cat are our indomitable duo living in an almost-empty world, 200 years on.
by Andrea Hairston
I rather like this title – and the story sounds fun, too. It’s a murder mystery set in the multiverse, in which Oona (a St Berdoodle, which I’m assuming is a type of dog) and her owner Zsuzsu are investigating the death of a local celebrity. Oona, it turns out, can travel between dimensions, and she knows the identity of the killer. We are also promised “conundrums” and “alien tricksters” from the publisher.
by Nicole Brooks
A “once-in-a-lifetime flood” hits Raven’s family home, and she finds herself trapped on the roof with her children, her dog and her stepmother, struggling to survive. The novel is set over 6 hours and sounds very nail-biting – more thriller-y than sci-fi perhaps, but it’s an exploration of the power of a changing nature, so I’m keen to read it.
by W.H. Chizmar
Described as a post-apocalyptic horror survival novel by its publisher, and therefore ticking all my favourite boxes, this follows the fallout when a government project to transport matter across the universe brings back something alive – and dangerous. When this “something” is being transported (in a lorry – come on, people!), its lorry overturns and “unleashes an otherworldly horror upon an unsuspecting New England countryside”. Three years on, a man is trying to stay alive on the US’s now-deadly East Coast.
by Jodi Taylor
This is the latest Smallhope and Pennyroyal time-travelling adventure, and sees Lady Amelia Smallhope attempting to relax after she nearly died in the last book. However, she and Pennyroyal are targeted by someone with knowledge of the latter’s “murky past”, and further adventures ensue.
When you make a purchase via the links on this page, we receive a commission.
