Authoritative and finely judged: The best Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels out now – The Poet
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao (Gollancz £20, 400pp)
The once mighty Azalea Dynasty is running out of magic. Famine is ravaging the land and its borders are threatened.
Into the court’s seething maelstrom of ambition and nastiness is dropped Wei Yin, a poor farmer’s daughter betrothed to the sadistic ruler as a cruel joke.
And cruellest of all? To survive she must write a perfect poem even though she’s illiterate. It’s hard to overstate how calmly authoritative and finely judged this debut is.
Gorgeous settings, outstanding characters and tremendous narrative drive put it in a class of its own.
We Call Them Witches by India Rose-Bower (Michael Joseph £18.99, 304pp)
It’s the end of the world, but not as we know it.
Sara’s family is holed up in the country while monsters stalk the land.
Held at bay by wards, potions and herbs, they’re hybrid monsters of earth, plants and unpleasant dead things. And they’re hungry.
But when a strange girl comes a’knocking, Sara promptly falls in love, her brother disappears and . . . it’s a massive mess that only she can sort out.
A beautifully told story of dystopian apocalypse and in-your-face horror, supercharged by the stabs and jabs of adolescent angst.
The Salt Bind by Rebecca Ferrier (Renegade £16.99, 400pp)
A hugely successful and poetically charged foray into a world of folk magic, village life and Cornish witchery. Kensa is just a girl when she’s chosen by the village Wise Woman.
Before her lies a life of respect and loneliness; though the villagers need her expertise, she is shunned and marginalised for her gifts.
Just as the Salt Bind’s language surges and twists with lyrical exuberance, so Kensa is determined to live her own life.
But there is deep magic of sea and land at work – and nothing comes for free.