The best science fiction, fantasy and horror
Old Soul by Susan Barker (Fig Tree, £16.99)A chance encounter between two travellers who've missed their flight reveals a strange connection: each is haunted by an unexplained death. Although Jake's best friend Lena died in London a decade ago, while Mariko's twin brother died more recently in Japan, the circumstances were similar. In both, a rare physical condition that should have been known since birth was only found postmortem. Both had been recently involved with a female photographer, a European in her 30s or 40s, who disappeared soon after the death. Jake suspects it was the same woman and is determined to track her down. Through the testimony of others, the mystery deepens, as the story moves back and forth in time, from Japan to Germany, from rural Wales to the artistic circles of 80s New York, and Jake assembles a picture of a seemingly ageless woman behind a series of inexplicable deaths. An immersive, stunningly weird tale that closes like a trap round the reader.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon (Merky, £18.99)Can a house that's never been lived in before be haunted? Gender-fluid Ezri and their sisters carry scars from terrible experiences as the only Black family in a gated community in Dallas. The parents remain after their children are grown. When phone calls go unanswered, Ezri, now settled in London, fears the house has killed them, and must go back to Texas to confront the truth about the past. A disturbing, brilliantly twisty psychological horror exploring family dynamics, memory, gender identity and sexuality.
Mother of Serpents by John R Gordon (Team Angelica, £13.99)The latest from the award-winning author has something of the feel of classic Stephen King. The set-up is traditional: married couple with a small child leave their familiar urban environment to relocate to a spooky old house on the edge of a strangely silent forest in rural Maine, where the little boy speaks of nocturnal visits from an 'owl lady' who warns of danger. But this is a same-sex marriage and the stay-at-home spouse is a Black poet who fears his husband will attribute his increasingly weird experiences to the return of an earlier psychotic break. The fully realised, believable main characters exist in the real world, and the strong writing and specificity of detail make for a gripping read, with a genuinely original monster.
Symbiote by Michael Nayak (Angry Robot, £9.99)The author of this debut novel has worked at an Antarctic research station, and excels in capturing the wonder as well as the fear it inspires. The first volume of the Ice Plague Wars series opens with the arrival of Chinese scientists – one dead – at the American station. They are seeking refuge, but the US and China are at war, so they must be confined until a military authority is informed. And the Chinese have brought something incredibly dangerous with them: an infection spread by touch, triggered by extreme cold to ignite a murderous rage in the host. A grim, violent tale, as hard to resist as the rapidly evolving symbiote.
Waterblack by Alex Pheby (Galley Beggar. £20)The conclusion to the Cities of the Weft trilogy begins some years before the events of the first book, introducing new characters and a fresh angle on the power struggle between the Master of Mordew and the Mistress of Malarkoi. The right of those magical god-like rulers to exist is contested by an Assembly with a different view of reality, gearing up for the Eighth Atheistic Crusade. Their chief target is Nathan Treeves, returned to a life-in-death as the Master of Waterblack, the underwater city of the dead. There is much to enjoy, but it doesn't work as well as the first two volumes, marred by occasions when the omniscient narrative voice becomes a hectoring bore, and the apocalyptic finish dribbles away into appendices.
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