Nineteen years, three months, and one week before I found Seivarden in the snow, I was a troop carrier orbiting the planet Shis’urna. Troop carriers are the most massive of the Radchaai ships, sixteen decks stacked one on top of the other. Command, Administrative, Medical, Hydroponics, Engineering, Central Access, and a deck for each decade, living and working space for my officers, whose every breath, every twitch of every muscle, was known to me (9).

This unusual first novel by Ann Leckie is clearly the most lauded SF work of the last year. Our review follows.

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Kenneth Calhoun has written a range of literary short fiction; his debut novel appeared a couple of months ago, and it falls under the general category of apocalyptic SF. Four characters make their way through the waking nightmare of a world plagued by an epidemic of insomnia.

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The Nebula Awards took place this weekend. Click the link for the complete list.

Big winners include Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice (Best Novel), Gravity (Outstanding Dramatic Presentation), and Nalo Hopkinson’s Sister Mine (Best YA SF or Fantasy– not to be confused by the Tawni O’Dell novel of same title)

Look for more reviews of reading closer to the Hugos– and when my own schedule clears a little.

I have a meanness in me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.

Gillian Flynn’s 2009 bestseller takes its readers on a dark thrill ride as Libby Day, childhood survivor of a massacre blamed on Satanists, questions the events of the night and her own memories and testimony.

The film, starring Charlize Theron, Chloë Moretz, and Christina Hendricks (of Mad Men and Firefly fame), will be in theaters come September. Fans of suspenseful, dark mysteries will want to read the book first.

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South Africa’s Lauren Beukes might be one of the best genre writers of the early twenty-first century, but I prefer to think of one of its best writers, regardless of genre. Her third novel may be her best to date, a beautifully-crafted, thoughtful work about time-travel, a serial killer, and the young women he stalks.

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Douglas Smith has made a name penning excellent sf, fantasy, and horror short stories, but he’s never had a novel in print until now. The Wolf at the End of the World, a contemporary fantasy, takes its principal inspiration from the lore of the Cree and Ojibwe peoples.

Smith took as a starting point his award-winning story, “Spirit Dance,” but the novel can be read without any prior knowledge of its world.

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Then, after spending half a century on what an earlier age would have described as a war footing, on the eve of a widely-publicized announcement of some importance… Atlantis went dark (189)

Stross sets this novel in the same universe as Saturn’s Children, but it can only be called a sequel in the loosest sense. One need not have read the earlier book to enjoy this one, wherein a posthuman construct carries a secret that draws the attention of interstellar monarchs, a human church, and the space pirates of the Crimson Permanent Assurance Company.

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Stephen King’s latest has scares, to be certain, and touches of the supernatural, but it’s no horror novel. It’s a coming-of-age story, but the main character is twenty-one during the novel’s main events, and we see little of his childhood. The marketing suggests a crime novel and, while this may be accurate, the mystery hanging over this book drives only the last third of the plot.

No, in terms of genre, this is a yarn, and a darn good yarn.

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Jane Rogers’ entry into the over-harvested field of YA dystopian/apocalypse novels made the shortlist for the Booker Prize and won the 2012 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Unlike many other books in the genre, this story ignores the big picture. We’re seeing the potential end of the world from the perspective of an emotionally-charged teenager, with the emphasis on the choices she makes. The character, her world, and the issues will strike very close to home for many readers.

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