Awake By Laura Elliott (angry robot, £ 9.99)
A first novel set in an apocalyptic 2055, following the development of a neurons chip providing the need for sleep. At the beginning, it seemed a blessing: he increased people’s metabolisms, made them stronger and more productive, but when they ignored the advice to turn it off and sleep for at least a few hours a week, they turned into voracious monsters. Thea is part of a group of scientists who have developed the chip and who are now barricaded in the Tower of London, having difficulty reversing the damage they have caused, when two survivors appear in search of shelter: a silent and traumatized woman and her protector, an unnamed man who shows signs of having been without sleep himself. Thea comes to question her own values and actions spent in a dark and captivating Gothic tale with echoes of Frankenstein and yellow wallpaper.
Bury our bones in midnight soil by VE Schwab (Tor, £ 22)
The last of the author of the invisible life of Addie Larue extends over centuries and focuses on three women: Maria, born in 16th century Spain; Charlotte, in Victorian England; And Alice of the 21st century, who grew up in Scotland and has trouble adapting to life as a university student in the United States. All are sexually attracted to women and are isolated from their families. Other darker connections are revealed as their separate stories become more closely intertwined. A fresh and addictive version readable by a very appreciated horror / fantastic trope.
Immaculate design By Ling Ling Huang (Canelo, £ 14.99))
In a quasi-future America, Enka aspires to paint. In college, she felt fraud compared to her new friend Mathilde, a tortured artist whose work is based on personal trauma. The friendship and care of Enka save Mathilde from suicidal despair more than once, and later, when Enka is married to a technological billionaire, she sponsors new works. But she is secretly tormented by the jealousy of her friend’s talent. When her husband’s company develops a neuronal implant intended to increase empathy, Enka decides to use it, ostensibly to help Mathilde by absorbing part of her trauma – and perhaps her talent? A satirical but credible look at the extremes of the world of high -end art is also a disturbing portrait of the dark underwear of narrow female friendship.
Hope by Adam Oyebanji (Arcadia, £ 10.99))
In an apartment of high height in Chicago, a man and his young son were found dead, apparently drowned in seawater. The detective of the police Ethan Krol has trouble solving this impossible crime, but there can be a link with the unresolved murder of several family members in Nigeria, found in a pool six months earlier. Meanwhile, in Bristol, Hollie Rogers befriends Abi, a city visitor who claims to be Nigeria. But the reflexes and the incredibly rapid strength, combined with its high -tech gadgets and its ignorance about 21st century life, make Hollie Suspect. A quick and superbly drawn mixture of mystery and science fiction with roots extending to the slave trade and a terrible crime committed in the Caribbean in 1791.
Calm by Barnaby Martin (Pan Macmillan, £ 16.99)
This first novel by a award -winning composer opens with a dramatic prologue. Quoting “The Atavism Act of 2043”, a man seized Hannah’s little boy, Isaac, for genetic tests: “If he passes, he will be taken care of. Otherwise, you will be returned to you. ” It is not immediately clear if it has already happened or has not yet come, when the novel begins. The narrator, Hannah, is wary of video surveillance cameras and keeps Isaac near her still. The world has radically changed since the arrival of something called The Soundfield. The UV rays of the sun are so dangerous that people now sleep during the day and only go out after nightfall. The reader, too, is kept in darkness until almost the half of the book: despite Hannah’s status as a researcher in sound fields, she reveals little, or how she connects to genetic tests, and the story is sometimes deliberately misleading. But his concern for Isaac passes powerfully and, with all the mystery, maintains the reader hanging on the expectations of future revelations. Only the how and why of the sound field is not among them – and a concept so intriguing deserves a suite.