Spectacular Sci-Fi and Fantasy: Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman, Of Blood and
Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman (Michael Joseph £22, 400pp)
Your home is an outer planet with patched-up tech and your AI nanny electrocutes you whenever you swear. Also, you’ve split up with your girlfriend, got drunk and puked all over your communication device. Then you’re attacked.
To add insult to injury, the attackers are gamers: teenage morons with real bombs who are using your planet as a battleground for points and followers.
Dinniman is a master of the jaunty, brattish tone, here devastatingly undercut by dystopian peril.
It’s a horrendous, twisty, page-turning nightmare, shot through with the darkest satirical humour.
Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill (The Broken Binding Publishing £20, 494pp)
Some books have it all, and this is one of them.
A continent dominated by a hostile imperium, mythological beings that prove not to be mythological, scattered magic and orcish monsters in the woods . . . it doesn’t guarantee success but by golly it helps.
Carefree village teenagers, Calen and his friends get a massive wake-up call when their roistering leads them into trouble and an epic escape across a hostile landscape.
But there’s real heartbreak in the offing, and much violence, deserved and undeserved, with scenes that punch like mailed fist in the face.
Grace is available now
Grace by A. M. Shine (Head of Zeus, £20, 304pp)
Grace is a young Dublin bookseller with a secret past. Given up for adoption as a baby, her life is turned upside down with an unexpected call from a priest.
Her birth mother has just died and she’s inherited a house on a small island off Ireland’s west coast.
It’s a set-up that promises much, and delivers. A ghastly curse with mythological roots has her new home and its miserable inhabitants in thrall: Craggy Island this definitely ain’t.
A wonderful mystery, full of creeping menace, as chilling and enveloping as a sea mist.