Sistersong by Lucy Holland ★★★ Engaging yet ultimately dispiriting tale of Ancient Britain In Dumnonia in the 6th century AD there live three sisters. Riva, Keyne and Sinne are Celtic princesses, the daughters of King Cador and Queen Enica. Riva, the eldest, was injured in a terrible fire when she was younger, leaving her with permanent scars and a disability, but, by the same token, she is gifted with an extraordinary power to heal. The only person she cannot heal is herself. Keyne, the middle sister, loathes all that being female and being forced to do the “feminine” things required of women and girls in a rigidly patriarchal society entail. Such is her antipathy towards her female body and what is expected of her that she longs to be...

Shelter: Tales of the Aftermath by Dave Hutchinson ★★★★★ A darkly compelling dystopian tale of post-apocalyptic England One hundred years ago, a series of meteors known as The Sisters struck Earth, causing an ecological disaster that led to a century of rain, flooding, hail and blizzards known as the Long Autumn. Tsunamis devastated vast tracts of land, whole cities and towns were erased, and entire populations died of starvation and disease. As the story begins, society is slowly beginning to emerge from the aftermath. Modern technology, industrialisation and infrastructure are all but gone. In what remains of England, life is hard, lawlessness abounds, travel is difficult, and survivors of the disaster are huddled in isolated areas,...

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield ★★★★★ Magic and the material world converge in a spellbinding story 1887: on the long, dark night of the Winter Solstice, a badly injured man stumbles into the Swan Inn on the banks of the River Thames carrying a dead child. The Swan Inn being a traditional hub of storytelling, the miracle of what subsequently occurs spreads rapidly and has a ripple effect which forever transforms the lives of the community. Innkeepers Margot and Joe Bliss and their teenage son Jonathan, farmers Robert and Bess Armstrong and their adult son Robin, nurse and midwife Rita Sunday, photographer Henry Daunt, affluent married couple Anthony and Helena Vaughan, housemaid Lily White – all their fascinating stories flow like...

Wolf of the Tesseract: Wolves of the Tesseract – Book One by Christopher D. Schmitz ★★★★★ An exciting introduction to a universe which blends science and magic Claire Jones is a person anyone would envy. A bright college student, daughter of a renowned archaeologist, and engaged to a handsome Hollywood star, her life appears to be perfect. However, the re-emergence of Rob, an old acquaintance from her high school days, quickly shatters Claire’s illusions as she realises that nothing and no one is what they seem. Beneath the veneer lie multiple realities engaged in a war which threatens to wipe out all existence. Learning that she is vital to the plans of an evil warlock, Claire is forced to go on the run with Rob, pursued across the...

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers ★★★★★ Erudite, captivating and thought-provoking sci-fi tale “We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship – to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate.”– from former UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim’s message on the Voyager Golden Records, included aboard Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched in 1977 Ariadne O’Neill (born in 2081) and her three crewmates, mission specialists Elena Quesada-Cruz, Chikondi Daka and Jack Vo, are on an interstellar mission to survey exoplanets which are known or thought to sustain life. As Lawki 6, they form part of the Lawki program developed by Open Cluster Aeronautics (OCA), a global non-governmental...

Threadneedle – The Language of Magic Book One by Cari Thomas ★★★★★ Thrilling and enthralling tale of modern-day witches and magic “Magic is the first sin; we must bear it silently.” Six women, all eerily similar in looks, are found hanging from the shattered windows of Big Ben, with a seventh noose empty. They become known as the Faceless Women. No one knows who they are or what they were doing in the clock tower at midnight. Since the tragic deaths of her parents when she was a baby, teenager Anna Everdell has lived with her Aunt Vivienne in a cold, spartan, rigidly ordered London house, its pots of tightly closed rose buds that never open conveying the joylessness contained within. Vivienne is a Binder, a member of a much-feared group...