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Nettle and Bone, by T. Kingfisher  

A sort-of princess, who is not quite a nun, builds a dog from bones to save her sister from an evil prince, because yes, this is simply the way things are done around here.

Picking up a delightful cast on route—an acerbic necromancer, a demon chicken, a bumbling fairy godmother and a stoical knight—our unlikely heroes must defeat a spell holding the kingdom in its power, and kill an evil prince before his heir’s christening. As you do.

“Magic never seemed to be much use at doing the things you wanted done in a reasonable time frame.” ― T. Kingfisher, Nettle & Bone

The novel is frankly adorable and was received with great excitement, winning the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel and being nominated for the 2023 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the Nebula Award for Best Novel of 2022. The tone is wry, homely, and fun, and the fairytale setting is extravagant with world-building, taking us from ‘the blistered lands’ through medieval countryside to a goblin market, and finally the labyrinth of crypts below the palace.

This is a simple quest narrative, well told, and boasting a delightful cast of loveable characters. If you’re looking for an easy, pacy, feel-good read, this is it. Sure, there’s a dark side to the political fairytale marriage where the prince is not charming and the princesses are replaceable, but stick with your friends and everything will come right in the end. With real life so full of tragedy, a bit of ‘happily ever after’ is a welcome relief.

If you’ve already read Nettle and Bone, let me know what you thought in the comments, and as always, don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates. 

Buy on kindle £4.68 

Paperback from AbeBooks £7.43

Follow the author @UrsulaV and if you want more book recommendations, follow me at @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading, or check me out on TikTok @theyrhymesometime

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Lote by Shola von Reinhold 

As laconically seductive as the 1920’s which so inspire its heroine, Lote is a tantalising work of black, queer, speculative fiction. Appropriately genre-bending in its style, it combines the page-turning appeal of an investigative thriller, with the nonchalant grace of a period piece set in the modern day. 

Like Europeans in a Henry James, we would be creatures of genteel penury, full of education, artifice, a little vampiric, duping all the dull rich people around us. Except we were Black, except were poor, except we were basically self-taught (by their standards), except we were infinitely more subtle and fabulous, as far as we were concerned.

Mathilda is an escape artist. She has many names and specialises in her own reinvention in the pursuit of a life of beauty and glamour. An ‘Arcadian’, she is much more interested in the past than the present, and spellbound by her ‘fixations’—flashes of inspiration connecting her to figures from the past—she gets herself accepted onto a prestigious, if strange and secretive, residency in order to continue her ‘research’ into their lives.

Dripping with baroque prose, charming characters, and historical references to forgotten Black modernist figures, the book is as decadent as a goblet of foamy pink champagne in a dining hall draped in candlelight. It absolutely delights in its own opulence, channeling all the energy and frivolity of the Bright Young Things, to waltz you through a mystery that asks whether certain historical truths are forgotten, or mislaid, on purpose.

LOTE, is Scottish author, Shola von Reinhold‘s debut novel, and won the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the James Tait Memorial Prize in 2021. If you’ve already read it, let me know what you thought in the comments, and as always, don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates. 

Buy on kindle £3.99 

Paperback from World of Books £7.90

Follow the author @socialmedea__

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

Check me out on TikTok @theyrhymesometime

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The Once and Future Witches, by Alix E. Harrow

An oppressive shadowy force weighs on the inhabitants of New Salem and it’s down to three estranged sisters to rally the voices of dissent and arm themselves for a fightback.

Somewhere between historical fantasy, fairytale, and a feminist call to arms, this is a charming story of magic, rebellion and sisterhood, with a host of wonderful characters, and plenty of action to keep you entertained.

Proper witching is just a conversation with that red heartbeat, which only ever takes three things: the will to listen to it, the words to speak with it, and the way to let it into the world. The will, the words, the way…

The town of New Salem is an echo of 1600’s America, complete with suffragettes and racial segregation, but the characters are made for today’s battles; the fight for class, race, gender and sexual equality. Fittingly, the folklore which forms the magical collective consciousness of the novel – the nursery rhymes, sayings and children’s stories – is all invitingly familiar, teasing us with the promise of magic at our own finger tips. The world is not our world, but we are encouraged to feel part of the secretive pact of information sharing, solidarity and insurgency, as the Eastwood sisters learn to extend their circles of trust, past the point where it is comfortable, in order to harness the strength they need to defeat their foe in the book’s tragically stirring finale.

The novel is Hugo nominated Author, Alix E Harrow’s second novel, and it won the British Fantasy Award’s Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2021. For those of you who are suckers for a bit of magic, this will definitely inspire you to get in touch with your inner witch, and maybe stir up some mayhem while you’re at it.

As always, don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates. 

Buy on kindle £4.99 

Paperback from BUUKs £6.99 

Follow the author @AlixEHarrow

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

Check me out on TikTok @theyrhymesometime

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Speculative Reader’s Best of 2022

I read lots of great books this year, but have whittled it down to my favourite five. If you have any recommendations for books I should read in 2023, I’d love to hear them, so please drop me a note in the comments, and as always, don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates. 

My top five reads from 2022, in no particular order…

 

Best space opera: A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine 

Overflowing with wonderful characters, a charming love story, elegantly rendered intergalactic politics and some fascinating philosophical questions to boot, this is an exciting, glorious book and you should read it.



 

 

Best sci-fi:  This Is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

I can’t stop recommending this to everyone who’ll listen. A heart-wrenching story of love, friendship, and solidarity, staged against an ideological cold war for the fate of the universe. I doubt you’ve read anything like it before and you should absolutely read it now.



Best historical fantasy: She Became The Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan

An epic story of human will, set in 1300’s China. The heroine is irresistible, the world achingly real and the story of a peasant monk’s mission to rewrite their own fate is and change the world is utterly captivating, you won’t be able to put it down.


 

 

Best speculative detective: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

If you’re a sucker for a classic whodunnit and you’re down for some speculative genre-bending, you will absolutely adore this book. Everyone I know who’s read it has raved about it, so if you’re looking for something gripping and eminently readable, get ready to be charmed.



Best novella: Agua Viva, by Clarice Lispector

An absolute flying gut punch of a book. To say it’s a novella is slightly misleading, but I don’t know what else to call it. It’s an immersive experience in which you enter the current of another’s mind; a mind painfully astute, exquisitely poetic, and utterly consuming. Brace yourself, breathe deep and dive in.



Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

Check me out on TikTok @theyrhymesometime



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The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin

A homeless kid becomes the human embodiment of New York City, when a terrifying alien force arrives to destroy it (and possibly the universe). 

N.K.Jemisin is undeniably a grand dame of speculative fiction and having gotten two highly-acclaimed, sci-fi trilogies under her belt (Broken Earth and Inheritance), here she tries her hand at something new. 

Set in our world, in our time, we find ourselves in a reality where cities are extra-dimensional organisms that are born and can die. In order to birth themselves, cities must chose a human avatar from among their residents, who they imbue with special powers, drawn from the essence of the city and the people who live there. It’s an entertaining premise, and one with plenty of scope for exciting world-building.

“Come, then, City That Never Sleeps. Let me show you what lurks in the empty spaces where nightmares dare not tread.” The City We Became

The book is immediately immersive; giant cosmic battles, spunky characters and the plot is always moving. There is some space given over to considering the beauty and the violence of the all-too-human (all-too-inhuman) entities that are cities, and some commentary on the divisions we carve around ourselves, even while living on top of each other. The heart of the book however, is undoubtedly the author’s love affair with New York and its boroughs.

Perhaps that is why—as a Londoner—I felt it sometimes fell short; lapsed into all too easy moralising, while taking aim at obvious crowd-pleasing targets (‘Karens’, whiny hipster boys). It seemed to want to say something about gentrification, but it couldn’t quite decide what. 

I was undone by The Broken Earth Trilogy, but The City We Became simply doesn’t have its depths. However, when complaining that a book is not someone’s best work we must remember who we’re talking about. This book won the BSFA Award for Best Novel this year, and was nominated for the Nebula, and Hugo Best Novel Awards. It will also be part of a trilogy, so I will certainly be tuning in to see what the next one has to say.

Have you read it? Let me know what you thought in the comments and don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates.

Buy on kindle £4.99 

Paperback from Hachette £8.99

Follow the author on twitter @nkjemisin

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

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The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton

I knew nothing about this book and had no idea what to expect, which made it all the more fun! I therefore won’t stray into any spoilers here.

The story opens with the first person narrator crashing into consciousness, to find themselves in the middle of a foreboding wood. We hear a scream and a gunshot, and then a mysterious figure creeps up behind us and drops a compass into our pocket, instructing us to head East. From here, we find ourselves sucked into the oppressive world of Blackheath Manor with a murder to solve.

“The future isn’t a warning my friend, it’s a promise, and it won’t be broken by us. That’s the nature of the trap we’re caught in.”

The book won the Best First Novel prize in the 2018 Costa Book Awards, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut of the Year, and reached number one on The Saturday Times Bestseller list, so it comes highly recommended. It’s ultimately a new take on a classic whodunnit, but this is an extremely ambitious book. Its vastly complex structure is managed adroitly, the pacing is excellent, and the blending of genres is a lovely way to breathe fresh life into some of the old tropes. I was absolutely gripped within the first few pages and it held me tight throughout.

If you love a classic, big house murder mystery, and you’re down for some speculative genre blending, you will adore this book.

Already read it? Let me know what you thought in the comments and don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates.

 

Buy on kindle £4.74 

Paperback from Awesome Books £3.05

Follow the author on Twitter @stu_turton  

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

Like poetry? Check me out on TikTok @theyrhymesometime

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Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark

Winner of the British Fantasy, Locus and Nebula Award’s in 2021, this fast-paced, 180 page novella is an action-packed historical fantasy. It is set in the American deep South after the civil war, where a hardened bunch of sassy, gun-toting vigilantes, hunt demonic beings known as Ku Kluxes.

The author is a New Yorker with familial ties to Trinidad and Tobago, who studied in Texas, and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Connecticut. He has only been publishing since 2018, but has been nominated for pretty much every literary recognition going. If you haven’t already, you should definitely check him out.

The story is as much fun as it sounds. The characters are wonderful, the world-building immersive, and the fight scenes befitting of top-grade action movie. But of course, it is not all fun and games. The story is a poignant musing on our collective darkness and its role in the perpetration of human misery throughout the course of history. It asks questions about the nature of hate, and while it never resorts to simplistic moralising, it does not pull any punches either.

If you’re down for thoughtful fantasy with plenty of action and you’re ready to have your heartstrings pulled, I recommend reading this one.

Already read it? Let me know what you thought in the comments. and don’t forget to sign up for future blog updates.

Buy on kindle £7.01

Buy hardback from Blackwells £12.63

Follow the author at @pdjeliclark

Like reading speculative fiction? Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on my latest posts.

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