The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup

Our Child of the Stars (Quercus) by first-time novelist Stephen Cox takes a number of well worn science fiction tropes – a crash-landed starship, an alien survivor up against the odds, and a big, bad government out to quash the rights of the individual – and invests them with a new energy thanks to some sympathetic characterisation and fine storytelling. What is thought to be a meteor falls to Earth near a US town; nurse Molly Myers is called on to help an injured child who turns out to be the only survivor of a crashed extraterrestrial vessel. When government officials arrive to investigate the crash site and arrest a colleague of Molly’s for hampering their work, she and her husband Gene flee with the alien and attempt to keep one step ahead of their pursuers. What makes this such a satisfying read, apart from the thrillingly rendered chase (and the refreshing notion that not all aliens are bent on inimical invasion), is the characterisation of Molly and Gene, a childless couple given this one miraculous chance to show love for an adopted son. This is an optimistic take on the ET theme, done without the schmaltz of the film.

Another successful debut, this time in the dark fantasy genre, is Gareth Hanrahan’s inventive The Gutter Prayer (Orbit), book one of the Black Iron Legacy series, which combines some fine eldritch world-building, truly gruesome monsters, vengeful gods, alchemical weapons, odd but likable central characters, and vividly rendered battle scenes. In the ancient city of Guerdon, a cross between Victorian London and Gormenghast, three thieves are tasked with pilfering arcane documents from the House of Law, little realising that they’re being used by their wily Thief Master. When they learn of the betrayal, the trio vow to exact revenge on their leader. In the course of the labyrinthine plot, dark gods are awakened and the thieves find they’ve taken on more than they bargained for, suffering terrifying hallucinations, out-of-body experiences and a plague that turns victims to stone. A wonderfully bizarre vision, The Gutter Prayer reads like a collaboration between Hunter S Thompson and HP Lovecraft.

Asian fantasy has been a welcome addition to the genre in recent years, and the latest to hit the bookshops is The Girl King by Mimi Yu (Gollancz), a beautifully written epic replete with magic, shapeshifting characters, complex political intrigue and the obligatory battles between good and evil. Lu is set to become the first female leader of the Empire of the Flame, but her hopes are cruelly overturned when the dying emperor names her cousin as his next in line, and demands that Lu marry him. After an attempt is made on her life, she sets out on a tortuous journey to petition the aid of magicians and shapeshifters and raise an opposition to the emperor’s rule, in a bid to reclaim her birthright. The story shuttles between Lu’s picaresque adventures with her friend Nokhai, a young man with a troubled history that has left him morphing into the form of a wolf, and Lu’s submissive sister Min, left behind at the court to work on her own plans to become empress. Strong female characters and a helter-skelter plot make for a compelling read.

African SF has been making great strides recently, with such writers as Nnedi Okorafor, Lauren Beukes and Tade Thompson leading the way. AfroSFv3 (StoryTime), edited by Ivor W Hartmann, is the third in the pan-African anthology series to be published in six years. The 12 stories are a bit of a mixed bag: pick of the bunch is South African Cristy Zinn’s excellent “The Girl Who Stared at Mars”, a first-person account of a mission to Mars, detailing how the narrator’s position aboard the flight, and her sanity, are compromised by a crime committed by her father. Also seek out “The Luminal Frontier” by Gambian Biram Mboob, set in a brilliantly imagined future; it starts as a gripping space opera in which the crew of a starship is faced with a moral dilemma, but soon develops into something much more complicated.

Teenager Kat Waldgrave, protagonist of David Owen’s compulsively readable third novel All the Lonely People (Atom), is a typical child of our time, immersed in social media. But when Kat becomes the subject of vicious bullying by “alt right” trolls, she does the previously unimaginable and deletes her online presence. Then, in a series of poignantly described scenes, she begins to disappear in real life, fading away and effectively becoming a non-person – until she meets a girl in a similar situation and starts to fight back against her persecutors. Alternating with Kat’s narrative is that of her bully, Wesley, and as their stories intermesh we come to understand his vulnerability and motivations. All the Lonely People is an adroit, fast-paced YA page-turner that movingly explores themes of isolation, disaffection and our overwhelming need to be connected.