The Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy to Read Now

"The Fourth Consort is silly and bizarre in equal measure, with the sort of dry, dark humor that Ashton is so skilled at writing. It’s also a book that never loses its momentum, managing to pull the reader along in the maelstrom of Dalton getting in ever further over his head, even as it tackles questions of honor and survival, of when to make alliances and when to break them, and of what, if anything, makes humans special. In the end, The Fourth Consort reminds us: If someone offers you a too-good-to-be-true job in outer space, you should probably read the fine print first." – Sasha Bonkowsky, Reactor

"It is an admirably ambitious book, intellectually and otherwise, from an obviously brilliant writer, and it deserves to be read and discussed... Above all else he is concerned with the way that power endlessly reproduces itself, not through the individuals who appear to wield it but through the systems and structures they occupy — and from which their own authority actually derives." – Jacob Brogan, The Washington Post

"Luminous is profoundly interested in what it means to be a person, in where authenticity is located – through love, grief and connection... [This is] a novel of huge humanity not despite but because Park is so attuned to the encroachments of technology and artificiality upon the human condition. This is the arrival of a major new voice in SF." – Adam Roberts, The Guardian

"No review can do a book like this justice. How do I feel about this new novella? I feel like running up to random people in the street and shaking them. I want to buy dozens of copies to throw at strangers like that Melissa McCartney gif. I want to clear an entire shelf on my bookcase just to put two dozen copies of this book on it. I want it on every SFF awards nomination list next year and I want El-Mohtar to earn so much she can swim in her royalties Scrooge McDuck style." – Alex Brown, Reactor

"Martine hat-tips William Gibson fairly early in the investigation, and Rose/House reads, in part, like a riff on the underexplored creepiness of his work: the uncanny closeness of inhuman technology, the hauntology of artifacts and built environments, both the promise and the threat of technological expanse and evolution. The nebulous larger plot behind the murder is one involving digital archives, legally and ethically fraught urban planning, and, as the novella somewhat self-consciously reminds us, weird architects: it all combines for a story that’s stylish, discomforting, and strangely believable." – Jake Casella Brookins, Locus

"'Vanishing World,' her fourth book to be crisply translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori, is like 'The Handmaid’s Tale' on acid — and it is also quintessentially Murata. The author puts her abiding preoccupations — with conformity, sexuality and family — in a petri dish and incubates a disquieting dystopia in which artificial insemination has become the global norm." – Madeleine Feeny, The New York Times

"Wallace & Gromit dream is more of a nightmare in this darkly farcical science fantasy in which the moon inexplicably becomes…well, not green, but decidedly dairy... Scalzi’s premise is absurd, but it’s merely the pretext to take a multifaceted, satiric look at how Americans deal with large-scale crisis, something we’re abundantly and recently familiar with, and will no doubt experience again in the not-so-distant future... A ridiculous concept imbued with gravity, charm, humor, plausible cynicism, and pathos—and perhaps the merest touch of spite." – Kirkus Reviews

"Powerful, richly conceived... Lalami skates along at the height of her powers as a writer of intelligent, complex characters... Although it relies on a speculative technology for its plot, The Dream Hotel is astounding, elegantly constructed, character-driven fiction." – Anita Felicelli, Los Angeles Times

"A reminder that Collins is awfully good at what she does — the sharp descriptions, the heart-pounding battles, the creative punishments and machinations in the Arena that make me wonder what goes on between her ears — and that readers of all ages would do well to take another trip to Panem." – Lizz Schumer, People

"It’s Gregory’s most complicated and so­phisticated narrative structure to date, and while some readers might find it daunting to keep track of nearly two dozen characters and their emerging secrets and relationships, it’s something of a tour de force that will likely satisfy both readers familiar with Gregory’s signature inventiveness and anyone fascinated by the sort of post-Dickian reality-testing that he handles here with unusual sophistication and – more important, perhaps – with a cast of characters whose fates seem worth investing in." – Gary K. Wolfe, Locus