Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee (Orbit, £16.99)
Merlin ensured that King Arthur’s knights would return from a magical sleep whenever the kingdom was in peril. Having fought in many wars over the centuries, Sir Kay knows the drill. But when he wakes in a 21st-century Britain ravaged by the climate crisis and social unrest, it’s hard to identify the enemy. After rescuing a young woman fleeing from armed guards near a blazing fracking facility, he allies himself with feminist eco-terrorists trying to save the planet. The appearance of a fire-breathing dragon suggests somebody is messing around with magic, and he has a duty to stop them. Humorous fantasy based on magical mishaps may not be a comfortable fit with the grim vision of a very near future in which half of England is underwater, but it works. This audacious, original debut is angry as well as entertaining, and an exciting new take on the Matter of Britain.
The Grief Nurse by Angie Spoto (Sandstone, £16.99)
Lynx is the titular Grief Nurse, marked from birth by the pale eyes and white hair that indicate her special power to absorb and relieve the sorrow, fear, anxiety and heartaches of her employers. She is kept by the wealthy Aster family to banish every negative feeling, so they always glow with health and happiness, even at the funeral of their eldest son. Lynx has never questioned her role, until the arrival of another Grief Nurse on the Asters’ private island opens her eyes to her own unhappiness. The island comes to seem more like a trap when bad weather makes it impossible to leave, and people start dying. A powerful debut novel that explores serious, sensitive issues through a unique prism of fantasy.
Airside by Christopher Priest (Gollancz, £22)
In 1949, a Hollywood film star flew from New York to London and vanished. In the 1960s, Justin Farmer, a film student in London, is charmed by her movies and intrigued by the unsolved mystery of her disappearance, though it is not until years later, when he’s a respected film historian and critic, that he meets people who may know what happened to her. He also has his own uncanny experience in the liminal space of an international airport. The spirit of La Jetée, Chris Marker’s 1962 short SF film, hovers over the latest novel from the author of The Prestige. Reviews of real movies complement interviews with fictional characters and musings on people who choose to disappear; the mixture of stress and boredom that permeates modern air travel is interwoven with Farmer’s investigation to create an absorbing, distinctive narrative.
Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas (Head of Zeus, £16.99)
The new novel from the author of The Psychology of Time Travel is set in 1929, mainly in and around a hotel in central Birmingham where Nora, a half English, half Czech doctor with the uncanny ability to precisely mimic the speech of anyone she hears, has arrived to spy on another guest. What begins as a compelling psychological mystery in a vividly real setting turns to the supernatural, when Nora wakes one night to find a huge dog on her bed. A local woman confirms she has seen the ghost of an axe murderer who used to work nearby, and Nora knew him. The story plunges into full-on visceral horror as we learn about Nora’s childhood connection to a terrible murder that affected the course of her life. A well-plotted, original, nightmare blend of madness and monsters.
The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson (HarperVoyager, £16.99)
The sequel to Her Majesty’s Secret Coven takes up the story of modern witches following the cliffhanger ending of the first. We finally get the inside scoop on Niamh’s “evil twin”, Ciara, and some shocking revelations relating to a couple of previously minor characters. It’s a great read, every bit as exciting, intelligent and addictive as the first, with a third (final?) volume still to come.
