‘High concept brilliance supercharged by low humour, great characters and a gripping
Pagans by James Alistair Henry (Moonflower £16.99, 192pp)
Imagine a world where the Romans and Normans gave us a miss – Africa is the world’s powerhouse and GB is a mishmash of surly Saxons, poetical Celts and gnarly northerners.
Add in a few murders and Aedith, a tough London cop along with Drustan, her druidical detective sidekick, have their work cut out.
With tribal tensions on the rise, the crucifixion of a diplomat in Epping Forest could derail a peace conference aiming to unite the disunited kingdom. A clever twist on the hard-boiled cop thriller and a satirical take on Britain.
Pagans delivers high concept brilliance supercharged by low humour, great characters and a gripping plot.
Grave Empire by Richard Swan (Orbit £22, 528pp)
Poor Peter, wholly unsuited for soldiering, is off to a desolate outpost to find out what’s disembowelling the troops.
Renata, rather too fiery to be the perfect diplomat, is off to negotiate with necromantic mermen.
There are rumours that all is not well in the spirit realm and the end of everything is nigh. Richard Swan has established a brilliantly drawn world, where supernatural terrors jostle with grounded detail.
The plot is complex and the writing brisk, wry and vivid. It’s the first in a series and this reviewer wants more!
The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon (Bloomsbury £22, 567pp)
First the good news: Paige Mahoney, the voyant Mime Queen, is back. She’s escaped from Scion, the Fascistic Empire controlled by demons who rule with an iron fist. The bad news: she’s been held captive for six months and had her memory wiped.
Front-loaded with explanation, the plot swings into life as Paige escapes to Italy. But the threat is relentless.
Capri has been taken over by Scion and one by one the countries of Europe are falling. There are traitors to unmask and Paige’s demon lover to free in a story that crackles with action and Samantha Shannon’s trademark lush prose and
high-stakes emotion.