The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler; The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King; Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher; Secret Lives of the Dead by Tim Lebbon; The Course of the Heart by M John HarrisonWhere the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler (W&N, £20) The new from the award-winning author imagines a world in which some nations have undergone “rationalisation” by accepting AI governance; while in the Federation, under a brutally repressive regime, the human leader maintains his iron grip, downloading his mind into a new body when the old one begins to fail. Lilia was lucky to be allowed to leave the Federation for London, where she worked on a device to enable neural entanglement. This could be a powerful tool for changing – or controlling – society, and there are those who will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. At the heart of this story is a dissident book, The Forever Argument, asserting the necessity of opposition in any society: “It keeps us not only honest, but human. Without it, anyone is a monster.” Like the fictional text, this thought-provoking, fast-moving thriller is also a heartfelt call for resistance to oppressive regimes.The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King (4th Estate, £16.99)Monica, a talented coder in present-day America, worries about her beloved grandparents, now in their 90s. She decides to track down her grandmother Yun’s long-lost cousin Meng, who remained in China after Yun emigrated. Once close, the two women were divided by political history, like so many Chinese families in the mid-20th century. Monica is puzzled when her attempt to connect with Meng results only in the gift of a single wooden pencil, but Yun understands. Before it is too late, she must tell her story – and reveal to Monica the secret power possessed by the women of the family, once used to reclaim the words written with the pencils their company sold in wartime Shanghai. The gift brought hardship and heartbreak, the shame of being forced by government officials to betray the secrets of people who bought their pencils, but also chances to preserve precious letters and poems that would otherwise have been lost. This unusual idea provides the single shining thread of fantasy illuminating an absorbing family saga interwoven with reflections on the power of stories, and who has the right to decide what is preserved or permitted to remain secret. Continue reading...

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