Extinction Horizon meets Contagion in this sequel to 2025’s sci-fi thriller Symbiote, where the biological threat has escaped the South Pole and is now wreaking havoc upon Antarctica.
The survivors of the South Pole massacre will find that getting off the Antarctic continent may cost them their lives…
Months after the events of Symbiote, sunrise has come to the ice continent, bringing with it the beginning of the annual tourist season. where 1,500 summer visitors will soon call the coastal McMurdo Station home. With them are the architects of the classified CIA program that unleashed the deadly microbes, who are determined to uncover what happened with their experiment and harvest samples of the mutation to turn into a biological weapon.
However, when Ben Jacobs returns from an impossible journey to the Pole and is reunited with Penny – an asymptomatic carrier of the symbiotic microbes – all hell breaks loose. When the sea ice surrounding the station becomes a fertile breeding ground for a new and more dangerous infestation, Rajan Chariya and his friends will have to join forces with the CIA to fight the onslaught of infected “sea people” roving the streets. With tensions high and stakes even higher, the question becomes when will the group stop being useful, and start becoming targets who know too much?
Worse, there may be more than one asymptomatic carrier….
With a heart-stopping pace and twists that will leave readers breathless, Sentient is a thrilling sequel that brilliantly combines all the best horror tropes with real world scenarios.
No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure.
But goblins don’t go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece.
Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures…a human being.
My Review
I wasn’t planning to buy this book when I went into Waterstones Grimsby this afternoon. I was looking for the paperback edition of A Song of Legends Lost, by M. H. Ayinde. I have a lovely hardback and the paperback has just come out so I can start reading it at last. Anyway, this little gem was sat on the shelf and the cover made me pick it up. The blurb made me buy it.
I also found another dragon for my collection, a Charlie Bears Cuddle Cubs Collection one, its green with tired eyes and is currently sat with my blue and yellow Suki brand dragon that I got from Leeds Royal Armouries, and my ‘TY Original Beanie Babies’ dragon Scorch. The dragon shelf is full, so I’ve had to shift those three to a different part of the desk.
I need a bigger dragon shelf…
Back to talking about books and not my weird dragon stuffy collecting.
So, as I said I was initially attracted by the cover and then the description. I started reading while waiting for my bus home, then on the bus and I’ve just spent 2 hours on my settee finishing it. It’s a novella, obviously, and the first adult book the author wrote after writing best selling children’s books. It has too many dead bodies for a children’s book, although I’m pretty certain kids like goblins that are always picking their nose or ear, or running away and stripping off, or things blowing up. It’s funny, well-written and has a satisfying story arc and ending. I haven’t read any T. Kingfisher books, I don’t think, but I have Clockwork Boys on my TBR pile. I think I like the writing style of this book, so I’m hopeful that I’ll like a longer novel.
ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. Blade Runner, True Detective, and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick, and China Miéville in Adrian M. Gibson’s award-winning fungalpunk noir debut, now with a foreword from acclaimed author Nicholas Eames and six pieces of original interior artwork.
Two years after a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty, and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, hounding the native population.
As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD homicide detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division, and moral decay.
In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?
SPFBO X 2nd place. Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer. Winner of the FanFiAddict Award for Best Indie Debut, the Literary Titan Gold Book Award, and the Next Generation Indie Book Award.
My Review
I picked this book up at World Fantasy Convention 2025 in Brighton, from the Broken Binding table in the dealers room. I got a lovely signed and illustrated hardback edition. Usually I’m uncomfortable with mushrooms – I saw that episode of Hannibal where a killer was using bodies to grow mushrooms and one of the victims was alive and sprouting, and I’ve had an issue ever since. It’s weird, anything with parasites also upsets me, but I managed to read Alien Clay, so I can manage to read Mushroom Blues.
This novel was originally self-published in 2024 and did well in a variety of awards. The edition produced with The Broken Binding is a hardback, signed and illustrated. It’s published by Kinoko Book Co. which is hard to find anything about, so I’m assuming it’s the name the author has chosen for his self-publishing venture. Gibson is, according to his bio, “an award-winning Canadian SFF author, podcaster, illustrator, and tattoo artist. He is the creator of the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow authors M.J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly. The three host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses.”
This is his debut novel. And it’s really quite enjoyable. We follow Hofmann, a detective sent from the homeland to work for the NKPD, and she’s struggling. In a world of men, she’s a divorced older woman in recovery from alcoholism – caused by the job, worsened by the death of her daughter in a car crash Hofmann caused. She hates mushrooms. Not just the people of Hoppon, but mushrooms in general – she can’t see them or eat them without feeling sick. And she’s stuck in a place where humans are a minority, and the majority are fungal people who live in fungal architecture. It’s her worst nightmare. She’s been fed a load of manure in the form of propaganda and holds all sorts of prejudices about the Hopponese.
Children are going missing. Hipponese and ‘half-breeds’ – mixed human and Hipponese children. An Elder finds the dismembered body of one of the children on a sacred island. The NKPD assign the job to Hofmann, and the force’s only Hopponese officer, Koji Nameko, since he was the one to first arrive and to speak to the elder who found the body.
They uncover the fates of the missing children and race to prevent a disaster that involves Nameko’s own family at a major midwinter festival.
As the pair investigate, Hofmann finds herself overcoming her prejudices and learning to appreciate the culture of the people her own are occupying. She even eats mushrooms and doesn’t vomit, at one point.
It’s obviously based, in part at least, on conditions in Japan between 1945 and 1970. After the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the yanks imposed a military occupation on Japan. Japan had been the aggressors, attacking China and Russia from the 1930s, before joining the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) and attacking Hawaii in 1940. There are still people alive who were children at the time and had relatives who fought with British, Commonwealth/Imperial forces in the Pacific, and who have inherited hate for Japanese people. Australian forces were expecting a Japanese invasion, British colonies around the Pacific were invaded and occupied. We’ve all heard about the horrors of Singapore and the POW camps that murdered thousands.
After the war, the USian Americans felt particularly aggrieved, as though they were the only ones to lose people in horrible ways, to be traumatised. And they took it out on the ordinary people of Japan during their occupation. Soldiers and civilian occupiers had been fed a diet of dehumanising propaganda for years and as a result treated everyone as though they were personally responsible for the actions of prison camp guards and commanders.
No one gets out of this looking good, by the way. There were massacres of people protesting for equal treatment in their own home, soldiers killed with impunity, the General in charge was a nutter. Japanese survivors of the hydrogen bombs were stigmatised because of fears of mutations and genetic damage and the institution of the Japanese Emperor got out of everything without a stain. Blame bad advisors, for the throne is divine and can do no wrong. Where have we heard that before?
Anyway, I recommend learning a little post-war Japanese history, after reading this novel, because the context adds depth.
Of course, this book is about an imaginary world, an imaginary war, and imaginary species, an imaginary occupation…
The mystery is well-paced throughout and the climactic race to stop the murder of children and incite a riot at a temple is exciting and balanced by the post action resolution. The description of the city is a blend of cyberpunk futurism and early 20th century detective noir, gritty and flashy, destruction and growth. The main characters develop as people and we learn about their back grounds as they move through the story. It was a quick read, although it’s not a short book, and I really couldn’t put it down.
Genre – horror > supernatural ● ISBN hardback – 978-1-78758-918-6 ● ISBN ebook – 978-1-78758-919-3 ● Pricing [USD] $26.95 (HB) / $4.99 (EB) ● Pricing [GBP] £20 (HB) / £4.95 (EB) ● Releases January 20 2026 ● Published by Flame Tree Press ● Distributed by Hachette UK / Simon & Schuster US
SYNOPSIS
Driving a logging truck through the Romanian mountains, smuggler Rosi and her crew come across a radio signal that hints at impending doom. As the world goes completely dark, their truck becomes a vessel sailing across a sea of nothingness.
But they’re not alone: transmissions trickle in through the radio from similar isolated islands across the country, from amateur radio hobbyists and police cars and customs facilities. Attempting to rescue survivors and find a way out, the group save more lives, but soon discover that something hungry lurks below, and it’s sending up agents – and transmissions – of its own.
Comparison Titles: Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess, The Boats of the Glen Carrig by William Hope Hodgson, Void 1680 AM by Ken Lowery, The Vast of Night (2019 film directed by Andrew Patterson)
Format: 126 pages, Hardcover Published: October 14, 2025 by Head of Zeus — an AdAstra Book ISBN 9781035911448 Format: Audible Audio Published: October 14, 2025 by Head of Zeus — an AdAstra Book
City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring ‘Perfection’ and ‘Correctness’ to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they despatch Outreach – the rain before the storm.
Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy — converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.
Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she’ll learn that the price of her nation’s success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.
LIVES OF BITTER RAIN is a novella in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s award-winning Tyrant Philosopher series. It is a prequel to the third novel in the sequence, DAYS OF SHATTERED FAITH.
My Review
I’ve listened to all of the books in this series, and have them all in hardback, so obviously I had to get this novella.
We follow the life of Angilly from the time her parents die in Jarokir to the day she fights a duel in Usmai. Each important moment of her life as she rises to the rank of Resident is catalogued.
If you’ve read Days of Shattered Faith this will give you some insight into the actions and character of Angilly and extra background to the events in that novel. If you haven’t, you should, and this novella will give you a taste of the style of writing and the worldbuilding.
The narration is excellent as ever and it is easy to listen to. At just over 4 hours, this novella can keep you company for half a work shift if you can’t get away with reading at work.
ISBN: 9781835413807 Format: Paperback Pages: 384 Published: 3 Feb 2026 (US) 3 Feb 2026 (UK)
Description
In Which Many Dangerous and Homosexual Things Happen.
All his life, Sir Cameron has stayed as far away from danger as possible. He is quite frankly too handsome to die a pointless death in battle. But then the Church hands down a prophecy to his fellow knights: the only way to defeat their nemesis, the mad sorcerer Merulo, is to kill Sir Cameron. Short of ideas, Cameron throws himself on the mercy of the one person who now actually wants him to survive: the mad sorcerer.
Merulo isn’t thrilled to be babysitting a spoilt, attention-seeking knight, but transmogrifying him into a vulture is at least entertaining. Cameron, meanwhile, is on a voyage of self-discovery. It turns out he’s really, really into surly sorcerers who lock him up and tell him what to do. Who knew?
As a legion of knights surround their stronghold, the sorcerer’s poisonous ambitions draw ever closer to fruition. Cameron is quite invested in not dying, but he finds he’s also invested in Merulo. And sometimes, supporting the sorcerer you care about means taking an interest in their hobbies. Even if that hobby is trying to kill God.
Even if it might get you killed, too.
Fall in love with this laugh-out loud, genre-bending romp full of concussed elves and queer romance like you’ve never seen before.
PUBLICATION DATE: 29 JANUARY 2026 PAPERBACK ORIGINAL | £ 9. 99 | ORENDA BOOKS
The year is 2082. Climate collapse, famine and war have left the world in ruins. In the shadow of the Alpha-Omega regime – descendants of the super-rich architects of disaster – sixteen year-old Boo Ashworth and her uncle risk everything to save what’s left of human knowledge, hiding the last surviving books in a secret library beneath the streets of Hobart.
But Boo has a secret of her own: an astonishing ability to memorise entire texts with perfect recall. When the library is discovered and destroyed, she’s forced to flee – armed with nothing but the stories she carries in her mind, and a growing understanding of her family’s true past.
Hunted and alone, and with the help of some unlikely allies, she must fight to save her loved ones – and bring hope to a broken world.
Release date: 28 January 2026 Kindle eBook Paperback Hardback later in 2026 Page count: 40 Self-Published
Blurb
A short, mixed style poetry collection about not dying just yet – exploring chronic illness, depression, trauma and finding moments of joy and love in a painful world. Inspired by the authors own experiences with disability, trauma, healing and then healing again, this collection captures the strange existence of someone not quite living but still alive.
The paperback is 283 pages. Genre is sci-fi, cli-fi and dystopian.
Blurb:
When the past lies buried beneath the waves, and the present hides behind a veneer, what power do we have over the future?
As high-flying energy magnate, Parsley Ringland, prepares for maternity leave, tragedy strikes. She passes out after a health complication and wakes up elsewhere. In the tower that sustained the life she had once known.
As she fights to protect herself and her unborn child, Parsley begins to fear for humanity itself. She is faced with an impossible dilemma. Does she keep the world in comforting darkness? Or expose a cruel truth that might destroy it?
Is it better to endure a terrible truth than to lounge inside a lie?
War Comes For Those Who Forge It. And It Never Forgives…
Haltveldt is a nation built on bloodshed. With the Order of Sparkers brought to heel, Emperor Locke wields his mages – and their magic the Spark – like a weapon as he wages a war of genocide.
But the enemies of his empire multiply.
In the almost-forgotten north, the ancient citadel of Solitude, filled with two-hundred exiled Sparkers, watches over the mysterious Banished. With a new apprentice under her wing, Zanna Alpenwood pines for her estranged daughter when everything changes – for the first time in centuries, The Banished are on the move.
Miles away in Haltveldt’s southern frontlines, Calene Alpenwood makes a startling discovery in the most unlikely of places and her estrangement from her mother is tested. As is her faith in the Order of Sparkers and loyalty to the Empire.
And in Haltveldt’s capital, Kade Besem – whose son Arlo is training with Zanna – scrambles to react to the events at Solitude in a den of vipers.
Haltveldt is an empire forged in fire and nothing is at it seems. But one thing is certain: with the Banished returning, and the elves to the south on the brink of annihilation, Zanna, Calene and Kade stand on the brink of earth-shattering change.
A great game, millennia in the making, is coming to its stunning conclusion. Who will survive? And who is the true enemy of Haltveldt? ‘In Solitude’s Shadow: Extended Edition’ – now with all new chapters, expanded scenes and including the prequel ‘Before The Shadow’, reveals all…
The magic of ‘The Wheel of Time’ meets the grittiness of ‘The Witcher’ in this fast-paced series starter!
If you read ebooks, the whole saga is available on Kindle Unlimited.
My Review
I have two editions of this book, the original and the updated edition. I’ve only read the updated edition. There are spoilers in this review.
Set some time after Magic, Maps, and Mischief, about two centuries I think, we return to Haltveldt to find the eleven genocide almost complete, a paranoid emperor, and a Master of War searching for new enemies.
In Solitude, Zanna Alpenwood watches as the Banished gather before the gates, running from something. Zanna wants to talk to them, the leadership want to kill them.
Her daughter, Calene, leaving the southern battle front finds herself escorting a Banished to the capital, until terrible events in Spring Haven and an assault on the road, leads Calene and her new companions towards Solitude. Something is happening in the far north and it’ll bring destruction to the empire.
The characters of Zanna and Calene are fully fleshed out and their relationship reads realistically. The rift between them is illogical – Zanna killed to save Calene – but understandable in the cultural context. The healing of their rift is a slow but natural consequence of the changing circumstances.
Zanna is caring for a 12 year old apprentice, Arlo. His parents are a man of influence in Spring Haven, Kade, and an elven slave, who died in childbirth. The relationship between Zanna and Arlo is parental and loving. She’s in awe of his growing power and dedication to research. He’s instrumental in finding information relevant later in the story. His heritage puts him at a severe disadvantage in Spring Haven but in Solitude nobody notices and his strong Spark protects him. So long as no one finds out his mother is an elf.
The nascent relationship between Sparker Calene, recently returned from the battlefields to the south, and Brina, an elven freedom fighter who rescues enslaved elves from humans, is subtle and well-written. Brina is angry and hates humans, because they’re committing genocide against her people. The humans have been convinced by imperial propaganda that elves are evil and will kill humans if given a chance, even though the elves and humans worked together to defeat their common enemy in the past. Calene doesn’t believe it, but she is forced by the Emperor, like all Sparkers, to fight in his war. She doesn’t kill, only defend and heal. Brina makes it clear she feels that’s a narrow distinction without meaning.
Kade Besem has a minor ministerial position in the imperial government, with a serious addiction to a snuff-like substance, a son in Solitude, and very few friends. He is increasingly side-lined, when he receives the message that the Betrayed are at Solitude’s gates and tells everyone, he is ignored. Kade tries to get mercenaries to go to Solitude but is prevented by the mad Master of War, who kills his allies and tries to kill Kade. Kade grabs a ship and travels north.
Tilo is Tilo. A Betrayed sent south to find his purpose and to warn the humans of the south that there is something coming. Calene finds him in a cellar and initially plans to take him to Spring Haven, but an attack on the road by a new type of Sparker changes plans. He slowly learns to understand Brina and Calene, as they travel north, and rescues Kade from a murderous attack. His singing magic is unusual to Calene and Brina who are used to the Spark.
This disparate and desperate band come together on the road to Solitude to help Zanna and Arlo, find out what is happening beyond Solitude, and alert the rest of Haltveldt to the danger.
Greton makes appearances by reputation if not in person throughout. He’s leading some sort of resistance from his library by the sounds of it.
Unfortunately, there are people who don’t really want them to get there. The emperor and his Master of War are both paranoid and narcissistic, convinced that they are right and that hidden prophesies are about them. This leads them to commit terrible acts of torture, murder, and genocide which leaves the empire vulnerable to the unseen forces coming from beyond Solitude.
The worldbuilding is strong and full. The magical system has rules and consequences for breaking the rules. The writing is easy to read and flows well, while the dialogue feels natural. The events rush along with action and not a scene wasted. The tone is quite dark but the moments of affection and lightness relieve it.
The final scenes are a crashing wave of excitement, fear, and then a mix of sadness and relief. I loved it, but I need to know what happens next.
I really enjoyed the novel and would like to read the rest of the series. I need to order them directly from the author, when I’ve got enough money together. The full series is available on Kindle Unlimited, but as people know, I struggle with e-books, so usually use that to read graphic novels. I will be downloading it though, to help David.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 