Lionheart Girl by Yaba Badoe

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought of It:

This is my home, yet I have to tell you plain-plain, my corner of the world is an inside-out, upside-down, twist-in-time place where strange things happen.

Sheba has been brought up by her grandmother and aunts – a family of women with magic in their fingers in a village in West African. Founded to protect those escaping from the slave traders, it has remained invisible for centuries and can only be discovered by those in the direst need. They live in a house without men, watched over by the spirit of Sheba’s grandfather, the chief Nana Gyata su, who can be seen at times walking the corridors of the house in the shape of a lion.

Sheba, like the rest of her family, has a gift. When she touches someone’s hair, to braid it and style it, she can read their memories and sense their innermost thoughts. But the most powerful of them all may be Sheba’s mother, the terrifying Sika, who can summon crows to do her bidding, and whose magic is far darker and more dangerous.

Sheba and her friends must reach deep within themselves to stop Sika destroying their village, and to protect themselves from getting sucked into her darkness.

The story is grounded in West African mythology, but there are also elements here of contemporary reality. Yaba Badoe is a Ghanaian-British documentary film maker. In 2011, she produced the film, The Witches of Gambaga, which tells the story of women in Ghana who have been accused of witchcraft and who have found sanctuary in the town on Gambaga in the north of the country.

The book is beautifully illustrated with delicate, shadowy images of trees, feathers, lions, and also with Adinkra symbols – Ghanaian designs used in fabrics and pottery, that each represent an abstract concept such as truth, strength and independence.

A story of courage and friendship and reaching deep inside yourself to find out who you really are.  

Longlisted for the 2022 Children’s and YA Jhalak Prize.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi; The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Avoid If You Dislike: Dark fantasy

Perfect Accompaniment: Tilapia grilled on an open fire

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Magic realism

Buy This Book Here

The Beautiful Side of the Moon by Leye Adenle

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

For those of you familiar with Adenle’s Amaka series of crime novels set in Lagos, this is a very different book. This is a fantasy – written in part so Adenle’s nieces and nephews might read something he wrote. And it's a fantasy grounded in Nigerian Edo tradition.

Osaretin is an IT guy, working in a typically boring job in downtown Lagos. He is vaguely aware that is father was a magician – the sort who can make money appear in a handkerchief and eggs disappear in the palm of his hand. But then one day he receives a letter written on light purple paper, smelling of lavender, purporting to be from a Most Magnificent Magician of the second to highest level and announcing that he will shortly pay Osaretin a visit to instruct him in the magic his father was famous for.

Of course, to begin with he assumes it is a prank. But then he receives two visits – the first from a beautiful woman called Adesua, the second from a man in a purple fedora who calls himself Brother Moses.

From there begins a journey that will involve a sphere that can turn back time, flying magicians, body swaps, a magnetic, healing garden – and a battle between good and evil. Is Osaretin really his father’s heir – the champion they have all been waiting for? Or have they picked the wrong man?

The Beautiful Side of the Moon is a less tightly plotted that Adenle’s crime novels. It unfolds in a dreamlike way, reminiscent of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Reading it, you experience something of the same sense of dislocation as Osaretin himself. It’s best to just hang on to Osaretin’s coattails and enjoy the ride.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas, The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Avoid If You Dislike: Books with a winding, dreamlike plotline.

Perfect Accompaniment: Fireworks and a glass of wine

Genre: Fantasy

Buy a copy here

Breaking the Lore by Andy Redsmith

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

Inspector Nick Paris doesn’t believe in fairies. Until he finds one crucified at the bottom of a garden. How is he supposed to investigate the murder of something that doesn’t exist?

He needs help and his intellectually challenged sergeant is more of a hindrance. Instead, he must put his faith in a talking crow with a nicotine addition, Tergil the elf, a rock troll and assorted other magical creatures from another realm. He is not ready for this and doubts he ever will be, no matter how much whisky he drinks.

This is a wonderful mash-up of crime caper and comic fairytale, with a laugh on every page. Redsmith has created a thoroughly enjoyable cast of characters, including the deadly Vanethria and his unexpected ally, a witch called Cassandra. The pace is crackling and this tone witty and dry, making this light-hearted adventure one to relish.
I hope we see more of Inspector Paris and his unusual companions.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Anything by Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams

Avoid if you don’t like: Urban fantasy and so-bad-they’re-good puns

Ideal accompaniments: Toast with crunchy peanut butter, ginger ale and Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King

Genre: Comedy, crime


Available on Amazon

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

Tomi Adeyemi is a part of a new wave of authors who – like Cherie Dimaline and Daniel Jose Older –are creating fantasy novels not rooted in Western European folklore and mythology but which draw upon their own particular heritage. In doing do, they are breathing a new and exciting life into the genre.

In Adeyemi’s case, this is a Yoruba heritage from Nigeria.

The story takes place in Orïsha, a beautiful but dystopian world, divided between dark-skinned, white haired divîners and the lighter skinned kosidán. The divîners were once majis, the descendents of ten clans who could control the natural forces of the world. But magic has been stolen from the world, destroyed by the King, Saran, who fears its power and hates those that wield it. And now divîners are little more than slaves, despised, abused – referred to as maggots.

But then the king’s daughter, Amari, finds there are three artefacts that could bring magic back into the world. When she stumbles into the arms of Zélie, the daughter of a powerful maji killed by Saran when he tried to wipe magic from the earth, the two of them may just have a chance to change Orïsha forever.

It is not only traditional Yoruba stories that Adeyemi has drawn on in creating this story. As she makes clear in her Afterword, everything that happens to her characters has been visited upon Black bodies in the not-so-distant past and much of it is still being visited upon them today.

No one is the villain of their own story. And some of the power of Adeyemi’s story telling is the credible fear of magic she creates through the point of view of Inan, Saran’s son and Amari’s sister. He too wants to change Orïsha, but his vision is very different from Zélie’s.

It is the mutual fear and distrust between divîners and kosidán– between those with the power to wield magic and those who have used brute force to suppress it – that will stand in the path of a new and more equal Orïsha.

A fresh new new voice in the fantasy genre - and a powerful and beautiful allegorical tale for our times.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Avoid If You Dislike: Scenes of violence and torture

Perfect Accompaniment: Fried plantain and jollof rice

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Available on Amazon

Blessed Fury: Angels of Fate Book 1 by CS Wilde

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

Paranormal romance is not my usual genre, but having read one of CS Wilde’s previous books, A Courtroom of Ashes, I dived into this with anticipation. This is an epic adventure of angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, Warriors and Erudites. Guardian Ava is tasked with protecting Liam, one of the Selfless, after he has lost his partner.

He’s angry, passionate and hell-bent on vengeance. Keeping him out of trouble is going to take everything Ava’s got, especially when a malevolent force is setting species against each other. And if that’s not enough to contend with, she finds herself powerfully attracted to her charge. Sparks are going to fly.

This is a wonderfully realised world with its own laws and codes of honour. The characters leap of the page and the action is breath-taking. There is a huge cast of beings and it feels as if there is much more to be learned, so it’s reassuring to see this is the first of a series.



You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Gods and Monsters, The Dimensions Series, Requiem for Fallen Gods

Avoid if you don’t like: Paranormal elements, fantastical creatures, fighting

Ideal accompaniments: Popcorn, a Bloody Mary and a thunderstorm.


Available on Amazon

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought: I’d been hearing about Daniel José Older’s Shadowshaper for months, but I had to wait for it to be available in the UK before I could read it for myself. I wasn’t disappointed.

Sierra’s grandfather is a shadowshaper, someone who can channel spirits and give them form through his paintings. But his stubborn old-school machismo has stopped him from passing on the secret to Sierra. Instead he has inducted one of her schoolmates, a young graffiti artist called Robbie. But now all the murals they painted are fading, the whole world of the shadowshapers is under threat, and Sierra may be the only one who can save them.

From the streets of brownstone houses, to the walls covered in giant murals and old men playing dominos in an old junkyard, Shadowshaper is firmly rooted in the present-day streets of Bed-Stuy – the Bedford–Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn, New York. Its teenage characters come from a Puerto Rican and Haitian community slowly being squeezed out of Bed-Stuy by gentrification.

Sierra loves her family, but her life is a constant battle against biases that would constrain - her grandfather’s affectionate misogyny, her mother’s rejection of her spiritual inheritance, even her aunt’s bias against dark skin and her ‘wild, nappy hair’. But with the help of her friends, Sierra will prove far stronger than she ever imagined herself to be.

Older’s brilliantly original fantasy has roots that reach deep into the history of Puerto Rico and Haiti – to the Taino Indians indigenous to both places and the Black Africans who were brought there as slaves. That history is literally written on the body of Robbie, in the form of elaborate tattoos.

Older also takes a well-aimed swipe at those (largely white) anthropologists and others who appropriate, distort and exploit aspects of culture under the guise of study.

A many layered story that makes for a great read for adults and teens alike.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: Technologies of the Self by Haris Durrani (adult), Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence (YA)

Avoid if You Dislike: Fantasy in a contemporary setting

Perfect Accompaniment: Arroz con Pollo, a set of paints and a blank wall

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Available on Amazon

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

Ink and stars - the two most fundamental tools of the cartographer.

Isa is the daughter of a cartographer, and his unofficial apprentice. The two live on their own, following the deaths of both Isa’s mother and her twin, Gabo.

Isa’s world is one that bears some resemblance to ours – it has continents called Afrik, Europa and Amrica, and oceans called the Frozen Circle, the Vanishing Triangle and the Cerulean Sea. But it is also a world where islands like Joya can be float free to sail across the oceans. And fire-breathing creatures at the centre of the earth may be more than just metaphors for a volcano.

For the time being, though, Joya is anchored to the seabed. And ever since the Governor arrived and took up residence in a grand palace above Isa’s village, the villagers have been forbidden access to the sea or the forest and their lives have shrunk to the little space in between. Isa’s Da no longer roams the world to map its continents, but walks heavily supported by a stick. And the only guide to the Forbidden Forest is an ancient cloth map left behind by Isa’s mother.

So when a girl is found dead in the Governor’s orchard and his daughter, Isa’s friend Lupe, disappears into the forest, it is up to Isa to don the mantle of cartographer and guide the search party into the heart of the island, where no one has travelled for years.

Maps have a magic about them. They can say as much about the people who made them as they do about the lands they depict. Kiran Millwood Hargrave has spun that magic into a tale of adventure that is – as all good heroic journeys should be - about friendship and courage, self discovery and self sacrifice. And just look how that magic is captured in the beautiful cover!

It is a book I would have loved reading aloud to my children when they were that age – and one of six shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: Nation by Terry Pratchett, Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, and (for slightly older readers) Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Avoid If You Dislike: Adventure tales set in fantasy worlds

Perfect Accompaniment: A large sheet of paper and a set of coloured inks

Genre: Fantasy Adventure for ~9-12 year olds.

Available on Amazon

Sons of Light and Darkness by Adam Ingle

Reviewer: JW Hicks

What we thought: If you like bloody battles, Angels versus Demons and strange unpredictable alliances served up with a robust dose of humour you will love this off-beat novel.

Sons of Light and Darkness is the second in the series of Afterlife adventures. It is written as a stand-alone.

The first in the series, Necessary Evil and the Greater Good, introduces the captivating rogues, Levitcus and Mestoph. An unlikely pairing of two friends from radically different backgrounds, Leviticus being of the angelic persuasion, Mestoph belonging to the demon fraternity. Think buddy movies like Lethal Weapon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and you’ll get the picture. (Pun intended.) 

Mestoph works for Hell Industries, Leviticus for Heaven Inc.; low-level grunts bored senseless with their thankless toil, wracking their brains for a way to grab sufficient loot to enable them to escape Afterlife drudgery and live in comfort to The End.

Their first attempt at freedom – the abortive Ragnorak affair – ended badly, resulting in the wrath of God and Satan raining down hot and heavy on their heads. 

The Sons of Light and Darkness tells of their second attempt.

Ingle certainly knows his religions, introducing a fabulous concoction of gods and demons snatched from every religion you can think of and winding them into a marvellously twisted plot, laced with humour that ranges from the sly to the uproarious. The narrative is rich with vivid description, bringing reality to this world of intricate and fantastical imagination.

All in all a very enjoyable book. Top marks. Oh, and by the looks of things there’s a third in the pipeline. Can’t wait.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Cleverly plotted stories, irreverent films such as Dogma, and fabulous main characters that you won’t be able to forget.

Ideal accompaniments: A non-stop supply of cappuccinos and biscotti.

Genre: Contemporary Dark Fantasy.

Available on Amazon

Technologies of the Self by Haris A Durrani

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

I first encountered Haris Durrani on the Bare Lit panel (Re)Writing Pasts and Futures which brought together fantasy and fiction novelists Tendai Huchu, Zen Cho, Tosin Coker and Durrani.

Jihad (now known as Joe, because it saves explanations) is an engineering student in New York. Like Durrani himself, he is of mixed Pakistani Muslim and Dominican Catholic descent. Joe is trying to be a ‘Good Muslim.’ His encounters with friends and girlfriends are tinged with a yearning, which any immigrant will understand, to find someone with whom he can share at least some common experience. Yet it is to his mother’s sprawling Latino family, and in particular to his uncle Tomás, who claims to have met the demon Santiago in 1967 and to have been stalked by him ever since, that Joe repeatedly turns in his effort to make sense of his place in the world.

As the novella progresses, it splinters into a rainbow of ideas. Discussions about the different strands of Islam bump up against ideas for travelling between different dimensions. Notions of devils, djinns and fallen angels sit alongside questions of ecological damage to the Dominican Republic through bauxite mining.

Durrani’s prose verges on poetry – perhaps at its best when it focuses on the banal details of everyday life. Here the adolescent Tomás encounters Veronica, one of his ‘three interlocutors.’

‘Her toenails glinted in the afternoon light, when the sun reached the right angle in the sky and Tomás would stare at faint line of dark skin that circled above her ankle bone like an old burn mark. She reeked of hard alcohol and thick jasmine perfume.’

The term ‘technologies of the self’ was used by the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, to describe “practices and strategies by which individuals represent to themselves their own ethical self-understanding.” Joe/Jihad associates it with medieval Muslim theologian, Al Ghazali and his description of prayer and recitation, which make the body sacred and shape it for good works. In the context of the novella, it seems to encompass the myriad tools needed to construct one’s own identity – especially as a second generation immigrant of mixed heritage living in the post-9/11 West.

In the end, Joe must battle the same demon who has dogged his uncle’s footsteps, and reclaim his identity as Jihad.

Technologies of the Self is not exactly what the general reader might expect from science fiction / fantasy. Magic realism perhaps comes closer. But the book defies categorisation. The nearest I can come to summing it up is: a reflection on religion, philosophy and identity, by an author with the mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet.

You can get a taste of Durrani’s writing (and meet the young Joe/Jihad) in his award-winning short story, “Forty-Two Reasons Your Girlfriend Works For The FBI, CIA, NSA, ICE, S.H.I.E.L.D., Fringe Division, Men In Black, Or Cylon Overlords,” available to read here.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, VALIS by Philip K Dick;  The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine

Avoid if you Dislike: Poetry, religion and philosophy with your fantasy (or vice versa)

Perfect Accompaniment: Lamb with okra and a cup of fragrant tea.

Genre: Literary Fiction, Magic Realism, Fantasy

Available on Amazon

A Courtroom of Ashes by CS Wilde

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought: This fantastic, roller-coaster, mind-bending adventure tests the limits of belief. But keep the faith because there are hidden depths.

A young lawyer at a New York law firm rewards herself. Monetary if not moral successes earn her a mirror wall in her bedroom. Recycled mirrors have history, and so does she.

The mirror is a portal to the world of Death – and there’s someone on the other side Santana Jones really needs to talk to.

In this tale of otherworldly experience and emotional intelligence, Wilde blends realism and fantasy to an extraordinary degree. The main character is plausible and layered, the worlds she inhabits feel familiar and the descriptions of locations are practically poetic. Witty allusions abound and despite the tension, you will snort with laughter, I guarantee.

Wild, fanciful and occasionally absurd, the undeniable pace and personality drive this story with a furious energy. Shove JRR Tolkein, Philip K Dick and Ally McBeal into a blender and add some chilli pepper and you’re almost there. But this book has a rough, raw flavour all its own.

I look forward to reading more from this exceptional voice.

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Rats by JW Hicks, Kimi's Secret by John Hudspith or Truly, Madly, Deeply.

Avoid if you don’t like: Inexplicable occurrences, fantasy/reality mix, violence.

Ideal accompaniments: Fresh bread, harissa and a tequila slammer.

Genre: Fantasy, contemporary, YA

Buy on Amazon

Hollow Pike by Juno Dawson

Reviewer: David C Dawson www.davidcdawson.co.uk

What we thought:

This is an exceptional debut novel. The characters are well drawn, it’s easy to empathise with them, and the threats are very real, even though this is a fantasy novel.

This Young Adult fiction book was highly recommended to me, when I was looking to broaden my knowledge of LGBTQ fiction. It is a book that will hook you from the start and keep you with it to the very end.

Lis London arrives in Hollow Pike, Yorkshire to live with her older sister. She was bullied at her school in Wales and needs a new start.

The village of Hollow Pike has ancient connections with witchcraft. Everyone has a tale to tell about witches that were murdered in the nearby forest long ago. In a series of nightmares, Lis dreams she is being chased by a killer through the woods.

She tries to ignore the dreams, but when a girl from her class is found murdered in the forest, Lis fears she will be next. Her class friend Danny becomes her confidant, but then maybe he knows more about macabre events than he is telling her. Lis doesn't know who to trust anymore.

Juno Dawson creates very real characters, set in a very scary story of mystery and witchcraft. At the same time, she deals with the issue of teenage bullying and homophobia in a way that is both low-key and thought provoking.

When you learn that Juno Dawson was once a teacher, and spent a lot of time tackling bullying and homophobia in schools, you can understand why much in this novel rings true.

Dawson was awarded the title Queen of Teen in 2014, voted for by thousands of teenage readers. At the time, Juno was James Dawson, so until the reprints come, you will need to look for this title under her previous name.

Highly recommended!

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Alan Garner, J. K. Rowling

Avoid if you don’t like: Fantasy

Ideal accompaniments: A large bar of dark chocolate on a dark night

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ

Available from Amazon

The Six and the Crystals of Ialana by Katlynn Brooke

Reviewer: JW Hicks

What we thought: An ideal first read for young adults attracted by the fantasy genre.

Fundamentally this novel is a Quest story. Three village boys, Jarah, Blaidd and Adain are forcibly conscripted into the army. Tristram, a young soldier press ganged some years before them, helps them escape. The escape is instigated by the onset of the mysterious dreams they all share. The dreams set them on a quest of discovery. Not only do they learn about reincarnation and their own past lives, but they gain astonishing information about the world they live in.

On their travels they meet three other dream guided teens, Djana, Kex and Tegan, and discover new things about themselves, some pleasing... some horribly disturbing and deeply troubling.

The questers viewing their past lives through dreams, learn that their deaths were brought about by treachery, that they were betrayed by one of their number; one of their brother questers.

Together and with some other-worldly help the companions must defeat an all-powerful enemy and prevent the cataclysmic destruction of their world.

This fast moving story is packed with peril and unexpected twists and turns... and magic, oodles and oodles of magic.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: The Beast Quest series and the works of Andre Norton and Terry Brooks

Avoid if you don’t like: Magic, mystery and psychic crystals.

Ideal accompaniments: For adults: A deckchair within sound of the sea and a tall glass of Pimm’s No 1. For teens: a flagon of Iron Bru, a family sized packet of Kettle Chips, and a comfy sofa.

Genre: Fantasy

Slade House by David Mitchell

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What We Thought: Down a back alley is a small door, leading to an improbably large garden and exceptional house. Over decades, people are lured inside, with the promise of fulfilment. Fulfilment does indeed lurk within, but not for them.
Mitchell has often stated he’s writing an ‘über-novel’, with each of his books as chapters in it. Characters reappear, themes recur, motifs abound and certain questions are addressed from a variety of angles. Slade House is a whimsical chapter, an example of the author extrapolating and enjoying himself by delving into a plotline overtly from The Bone Clocks but less visibly, Cloud Atlas.

This ghost story began life as a Twitter tale, told in 140 character chunks. Its origins and length make it perfect for a dark and stormy night in front of the fire. Nods and winks to conventions of storytelling, haunted houses and fantastically alluring predators are familiar. The author’s trademark brilliance with voice and character sparkles as the victims’ stories are told through the prism of their own egos. References to the various periods are subtly flagged making this an ideal Christmas Eve TV adaptation. Are you listening, BBC?

There are some goosebumpy, skin-shivery moments, an increasing sense of menace and several hearty laughs. It’s not quite the Michelin-starred feast of Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green or The Bone Clocks, but rather like cheesy-beans-on-Marmite-toast. You scoff it down in one greedy sitting and afterwards feel smug and satisfied, but certainly not guilty.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Woman in White, The Little Stranger, Interview with the Vampire.

Avoid if you dislike: Spooky houses, shifting realities and hidden icebergs of references.

Ideal accompaniments: Honey-glazed roast pumpkin, a Bloody Mary and the soundtrack to The Hunger.

Genre: Literary fiction, fantasy

Available on Amazon

Starborn by Lucy Hounsom

Reviewer: JW Hicks

What we thought: This YA fantasy adventure will satisfy and excite in equal measure. It crackles tension from the very first page, and once started it is impossible to put down.

Starborn is, in the true sense, a journey. The storyline forces the heroine, Kyndra, away from a normal humdrum life that will trundle on in the age old way, and leads her to the astonishing realisation of who she really is and where her destiny lies.

Her story begins on Inheritance Day: the coming of age day when the young people of Brenwym must look into the Relic to learn their true name and see their future in its depths. Once seen that future can never be altered.

When Kyndra’s turn comes, something happens that not only stops the ceremony but destroys all hope of future ones. Kyndra is named as culprit and also blamed for the horrific storm that occurs immediately after the disrupted ceremony. Accused of witchcraft and threatened with immolation, she is rescued by magic-wielding strangers, and spirited away from harm.

She and her saviours travel to the hidden citadel of Naris where the magic-workers live. Once there she experiences waking dreams, haunting visions of the past. Believed to have hidden powers, she is subjected to callous and agonising testing. Enduring the testing she discovers things about herself that terrify and confuse: things that rouse the magic she holds within herself, a force so strong that it could alter her and her world forever.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Game of Thrones, and the works of Trudi Canavan

Avoid if you don’t like: Vivid descriptions of horrors beyond imagining, and the decisions that have to be made by persons possessing tremendous power.

Ideal accompaniments: Calming possets and warm, gooey brownies.

Genre: YA Fantasy Fiction

Available on Amazon

The Imagination Thief, by Rohan Quine

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought: Another difficult to classify book, but that’s precisely why it works so well. Part literary fiction, part fantasy, it is a surreal experience which makes the most of its equally offbeat location. With a cast of unforgettable characters and a central premise both intriguing and epic, this is what indie fiction does so very well – breaks boundaries and takes risks. In this case, it pays off.

From something as mundane as a drink from vending-machine, Jaymi unlocks an extraordinary ability: he can mine human imaginations. He wants to use this for the general good, enabling people to unlock and enjoy that inner universe. He has a plan. With his knowledge of the business and the unearthly vocal talents of his friend Alaia, he plans a broadcast like no other.

In Asbury Park, New Jersey, an abandoned holiday resort, preparations for the strangest and biggest show on earth continue. They encounter an eclectic bunch of characters; lovers, enemies, slaves and masters, all of whom provide Jaymi with a wealth of material. But information is power, and more than one person wants access.

The swooping eloquence of this book had me hypnotised. Quine leaps into pools of imagery, delighting in what words can do. The fact that the reader is lured into joining this kaleidoscopic, elemental ballet marks this out as something fresh and unusual. In addition to the language, two other elements make their mark. The seaside ghost town with echoes of the past and the absorbing, varied and rich cast of characters.

It’s a story with a concept, place and people you’ll find hard to leave.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs, How To Be Both, by Ali Smith, Tainted Love, by Stewart Home

Avoid if you dislike: surreal tangents, a blend of fantasy and reality, the unconventional

Ideal accompaniments: A classic Margarita with lime-salted rim, a sherbert dab and Björk’s Pagan Poetry

Genre: Literary fiction, fantasy

Available from Amazon

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

Reviewer: JW Hicks author of Rats

What We Thought: Famed for his adult Epic Fantasy, Brandon delivers on all counts in this YA novel.

The Rithmatist is an inventive and detailed story which focuses on two outsiders studying at Armedius Academy: Joel the chalk-makers son, with an instinctive, internalised grasp of mathematics who is not, though he longs to be, a Rithmatist, and Melody Mims, a failing Rithmatist student who prefers to sketch unicorns rather than improve the accuracy of her geometric diagrams.

At first they don’t get on, Melody has a scratchy personality and a massive chip on her shoulder, but the twosome find common ground in attempting to work out why Rithmatist students are disappearing, kidnapped from their rooms at night... leaving trails of blood.

Rithmatists from the islands of the New World use their magical powers as a defence against the inimical Chalklings who inhabit the Tower of Nebrask – the only freestanding structure of apparent human design to be found when the Islands were first discovered.

Students who complete their training at the Armedius Accademy, are sent to Nebrask to help keep the Chalklings penned in the Tower, and thus keep the American Isles safe from their depredations. It turns out that the kidnapped students are top-quality Rithmatists expected to be powerful fighters in the Tower war. Their loss is catastrophic.

Joel is assigned to Professor Fitch as an aide in Fitch’s investigation into the kidnappings. Inquisitive Melody tags along. In the course of their investigation, Joel discovers vital information in his dead father’s workshop. Then after a confrontation with a magical opponent he and Melody realise that there’s a whole lot more going on at Nebrask than people are aware of.

What they discover is something that will change Rithmatics, and their world, forever.

This fabulous book meant for young adult readers is more readable than a lot of lit-fic novels written for the older reader. The excitingly-tense story is told with flowing ease and is a definite page turner. I look forward to reading the planned sequel, The Aztlantian.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: A taste of Rowling mixed with a scoop of Plowman, melded with an added soupçon of Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching stories.

Avoid if you don’t like: Scary tales of teens battling man-eating Chalklings.

Ideal accompaniments: A box or two of Thorntons Irresistible Irish Cream Truffles.

Genre: YA Fantasy

Available from Amazon

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

 Reviewer: JW Hicks author of Rats.

What we thought: This YA novel, written by Welsh author Catherine Fisher, is totally gripping from the get-go. It’s Gothic Fantasy, what’s not to like?

Incarceron: an unimaginably massive prison; a world-scape filled with mountains, rivers, cities and labyrinthine dungeons. Sealed for centuries, it is a storehouse for malcontents, criminals and the indigent, created as a computer-run safe haven. But Incarceron becomes sentient and turns the safe haven into a living hell. Generations live and die unaware that they are captives forever barred from reaching the freedom of Outside. What they don’t know is that the ‘free’ world of Outside is as much a prison as Incarceron.

Outsiders are forced to live in a manufactured, medieval world, where progress is prohibited. Most live a life of serfdom. In this fiercely feudal society, they must toil with basic hand tools, barely subsisting, while their ‘betters’ live the faux life of lordlings – lordlings with access to futuristic technology.

Finn, cell-born deep within the dungeons of Incarceron, is haunted by visions of an earlier life. He refuses to believe he was born in the prison and has always lived there. Convinced he was born Outside, he makes plans to escape with his oath-brother Keiro.

Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, lives Outside, trapped in the artificial world of the past, in dread of a forced marriage to a man she despises. She, too, seeks to escape a life of lies, and is helped by her tutor, Jared.

When Finn and Claudia find identical crystal keys, through which they can communicate, their plans look set to be realised. But plans do not always work smoothly. Plans so often go awry, especially under the all-seeing Eyes of Incarceron.

The novel comes complete with a remarkable set of characters, not least the ruthlessly cruel gaoler, Incarceron itself – the AI prison-mind that seeks to see the stars. All of the characters, both evil and good, are many faceted and make compelling reading.

Incarceron is guaranteed to pique, then to sustain your interest until the last page is turned. Once that last page is read, you will feel a sense of loss, a loss eased by the knowledge that there is a sequel. The sequel is Sapphique.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Titus Groan, Mythago Wood, The Obsidian Mirror

Avoid if you don’t like: Time portals, black-hearted villains and hidden love.

Genre: YA, Gothic Fantasy

Available from Amazon

The Sadness of Angels by Jim Williams

Reviewer: Barbara Scott Emmett, author of The Land Beyond Goodbye, Don’t Look Down and Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion. (http://barbarascottemmett.blogspot.co.uk/)

What We Thought: I didn’t know quite what to make of this novel at first as it’s rather different from the other books by Jim Williams I’ve read. But then all Williams’ books are different, both from each other and from just about any other book you care to mention. It’s also some time since I read any Sci Fi (Asimov half a lifetime ago) and I generally avoid fantasy altogether (despite loving the fantastical when it’s couched in reality).

As I read on I found myself entering into a dream world, a barren land of strange creatures and bold yet vulnerable characters. This is a world of long Great Years where the sun barely rises above the horizon for generations at a time and people are either old to the point of immortality or rarely live beyond thirty. It is a disorientating world with hints of myth and legend, and a sense of some greater truth hidden beneath it all.

Destructive angels mingle with self-styled gods, evil sultans, mad emperors – devils in disguise. Opposing them are our heroes (and heroines) – novice priests of a mysterious Order which violently opposes those claiming to be descended from monkeys, filthy horsewomen who keep their men veiled, an ancient Mapmaker who travels the globe like the Wandering Jew, a half mythical princess of an icy land. A Game is being played but no one quite knows what the rules are or what the outcome might be.

A battle is fought against the Slavers, a rough bunch who round up anyone they can put to work and who curse in various bastard languages. Our heroes haven’t a hope of winning – and yet...

This is often a very funny book and one that conjures strange images. The animals, though having familiar names – horses, bears etc – have wheels and tentacles. They emit gases through anal vents and often sound vaguely motorised. The Monkey (the last perhaps of its kind) has green fur that glows and it witters through its anal vent. It made me think of a Furby.

The effect of all this is the disorientation of the mind (well, the mind of this reader anyway) – a disorientation that leads to a dreamlike state where anything can happen, and often does.

This is the first book in a series in which Williams intends to explore the implications for space travel by creatures with a human lifespan faced with the vast distances between planets.

I look forward to reading more of the adventures of this odd band of fellow travellers and having my mind bent further. My straining to find the meaning behind it all may just turn out to be the koan that flips me into enlightenment.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Mysterious dreamlike novels full of strangeness.

Avoid if you dislike: Anything that doesn’t strictly conform to genre standards.

Ideal accompaniments: Swirling electronic music mixed with a Bach fugue.

Genre: Sci –Fi, Fantasy, Literary

Available from Amazon

The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker

Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of Spirit of Lost Angels and Wolfsangel

What we thought: Set in Italy in 1899, The Witch of Napoli is inspired by the true-life story of the controversial Italian spiritualist physical medium, Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918). Palladino’s expensive performances involved, amongst other things, levitating herself and tables, materializing, and communicating with, the dead, and producing spirit hands and faces in wet clay. Some believe these things to be the result of trickery, however many parapsychologists regard Palladino as a baffling, impressive and genuine Spiritualist medium.

In this same vein, The Witch of Napoli tells the story of the Neapolitan peasant and medium, Alessandra Poverelli. When the flamboyant and volatile Alessandra levitates a table during a Spiritualist séance in Naples, a reporter––Tomaso Labella––photographs the miracle. This leads the rich, but skeptical Jewish psychiatrist, Camillo Lombardi to Naples to investigate. When Alessandra materialises the ghost of Lombardi’s mother, he funds a Continental tour to challenge the exclusive European academics to test Alessandra’s powers, in the hope that she will help him redefine, and rewrite, science. At the mercy of her violent husband, Pigotti, who wants to kill her, Alessandra sees Lombardi’s payment as a way of escape, and the means to start a new life in Rome.

Naturally, Alessandra hits the newspaper headlines, and the public is curious. Does she truly have these supernatural powers?

Nigel Huxley, the impeccably dressed and extremely confident upper crust detective for England’s Society for the Investigation of Mediums––who also has a reputation as a genius for detecting the mechanics of fraud––hatches a plan to try and expose Alessandra.

To say anything more about the story would be to spoil the ending of The Witch of Napoli, so all I shall reveal is that the investigation, the pressing question of Alessandra’s authenticity, and the lyrical narrative engaged me right from the beginning. The author’s personal experience as an investigative journalist and nationally-known writer on scientific anomalies and the paranormal also adds great authenticity to this story. I would highly recommend The Witch of Napoli to readers with an interest in the supernatural, and the ongoing debate over the existence of life after death.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: tales about supernatural powers

Avoid if you don’t like: historical fantasy stories about erotic mediums and dead people coming back to life.

Ideal accompaniments: Spaghetti con Fegatini with a tumbler of Chianti

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Available from Amazon