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.
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.
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?
Format: 352 pages, Paperback Published: January 24, 2023 by Tor Trade ISBN: 9781250778543
Titanic meets Event Horizon in this SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn’t yet ended.
Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed―made obsolete―when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.
What they find is the Aurora, a famous luxury spaceliner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick search of the ship reveals something isn’t right.
Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Messages scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold on to her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.
My Review
I ordered this book after seeing it on one of the GoodReads challenge lists. I hadn’t heard of it before although the author’s name pinged something in my brain. I liked the description and thought it would be entertaining.
Oh boy! I read the hype at the beginning of the book when it arrived and thought it might be exaggeration, just a touch.
I was wrong! It’s really good!
I read this book in an evening. At one point I had to skip forward to find out what happened, and then I went back once I was reassured at least some people would be alright.
The story is told from the perspective of the traumatised and quite likely psychic Claire Kovalik, team lead for a maintenance crew. The five-person crew service the comms network that’s scattered across the solar system, they live for weeks at a time on a tiny space vessel, being picked up and dropped off by larger freighters. It’s Claire’s last rotation, at 33 she’s considered too old, and due to her history, too unstable, to carry on.
Then, they hear a beacon. After an argument, they head out into uncharted territory to find the source of the beacon. What they find is the first and only luxury space liner. Twenty years lost, the Aurora’s disappearance destroyed the company that built it, allowing Verux, the company Claire works for, to take over. It’s worth a fortune to those who find and salvage it. But there are secrets.
Claire and her crew go aboard the Aurora and find terrible things.
We swap to Claire in the mental hospital, some time after she boards the Aurora with her crew. She doesn’t remember much. Her old mentor, Max, and a bully from Verux, Reed, a nepo-hire, who is determined to prove she murdered her crew for money, are questioning her. Claire tells them everything she can remember, up to the point where her skull is fractured. The hallucinations, the violent deaths of her colleagues, the developing romantic relationship between her and Kane, her number two, and the plan to get the Aurora back to the comms network so they can call for help.
Reed fails and Max recruits Claire to go back to the Aurora with him – she’s the only person who survived. Her mental illness might actually have helped. When they get there, Claire finds the neatly wrapped bodies of three of her colleagues and the last hallucinating in a room padded with mattresses. She also finds a conspiracy that Verux really don’t want to get out.
There is madness. There are explosions.
I loved it!
Claire is a beautifully flawed character. She blames herself for everything when it’s clearly not her fault, she refuses to let people care for her and fears what will happen when they do – convinced she’ll cause their deaths somehow, and she’s severely traumatised by events of her childhood. Also, she can see ghosts.
The relationship between Claire and Kane is sweet and develops naturally as they go through difficult events. The resistance Claire feels about getting close to people is a response to her trauma, and Kane’s calming presence, knowing her past, slowly helps her build trust in herself and him.
The corporate evil of Varux is entirely believable – destroy a competitor and then try to clear up the mess by murdering people. I know this has happened in real life, although usually the firms involved distance themselves by saying it was rogue contractors – see VWs slave plantations in the Amazon during the 1980s, or mining companies that regularly allow their ‘security contractors’ to murder local activists – especially in the Amazon. Putting it in space makes it sound like fiction, but this shit is happening in the real world now. I direct you to Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy by Claire Provost and Matt Kennard ( I have a Left Book Club copy that I’m reading at the moment) for more information.
I was absolutely rivetted by this book, by the mystery of how the people went mad and what happened to Claire, allowing her to escape and return to rescue what was left of her crew. Definitely going on my favourites list for this year.
Moojag and Nema are back for a final roller coaster of an adventure, this time to save Box Hill from total destruction and rescue a bunch of mossy sloths from nasty Brix’s celebration feast.
But their new, slow-moving friends have a secret weapon and together they’re all set to prove that saving the Real World literally takes guts!
My Review
Moojag and Nema are back, the Conqip have invaded and are threatening to destroy Box Hill. With the help of various parents and grandparents (Adam’s dad and granddad reappear), a colony of sloths, the fruit-happy Pofs, and a gang of Gajooms, the evil plans of the Conqip are defeated and the island saved, although not without loss. We learn more of the history of the families, the secrets of the Conqips and how they came about, and see the responsible use of future technology in action.
This one was fun, and the cover is very colourful. There are bits of information sprinkled about and it ends with hope for a better future, even if Moojag does go off to live in the woods with the sloths. The families are reunited, and the danger to their world is removed. Some of them have gone to London Tops to help others surviving in London. There’s a future in sight.
There are also a lot of Beatles references, most of which I didn’t get because I don’t listen to the Beatles.
Reading the books one after the other, I might have got a few events mixed up; the stories follow straight on from the one before and I read them in quick succession. The overall arc is visible to me, and it’s a lovely story, but the details get a bit jumbled. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing for the characters, as they race across islands and Gajoomdom, and I got a little confused at times about who was doing what. It is the nature of children’s fiction that sometimes adults don’t quite get the story.
I actually really enjoyed this one, and the sloths digestive victory made me laugh. The development of the relationships over the course of the stories makes sense, as the reader learns with Nema about how things got the way they were and the reasons people act the way they do. There was something satisfying about the conclusion.
A lovely series of bonkers adventures for children, in a possible future world. Age recommendation for series 8+
The stand-alone sequel to ‘Moojag and the Auticode Secret’, endorsed by award-winning authors Patience Agbabi, Alex Falase-Koya, Ben Davis, and Daniel Aubrey.
A multigenerational story, featuring a neurodivergent cast and audhd, non-binary, POC, main characters, for readers 8 years and over.
When Nema returns to Gajoomdom, she discovers three forgetful grannies who have totally lost track of time. If she and Moojag can’t help them remember, everyone’s memories are in danger. But turns out not everyone is who they thought they were. Who will they rescue? Will they rescue them in time to save their perfect Real World from the nasty Conqip?
‘Lost Memories’, inspired by the author’s grandmother, and living with dementia and disability during the pandemic, shows us the impact of loss and the power of memory, as well as the importance of future technology when used for good.
Format: 288 pages, Paperback Published: November 9, 2020 by Spondylux Press ISBN: 9781838097806
Book description
When Nema and her friends discover a hidden sugar-hooked society holding lost kids, they find their perfect world in danger. The strange, sticky place hides the truth about Nema’s missing brother, and a plot to destroy the free world she knows. But only they can reverse a code to prevent a rock candy robot invasion and rescue the captives. Fail and they might never make it back home…
This dystopian, cli-fi mystery is a quirky adventure featuring a neurodivergent cast and autistic/dyslexic/adhd main characters, for readers 10 years and up. Highly recommended as a family read due to the thought-provoking concepts and subject matter introduced.
Set in the utopian world of post-catastrophe ‘Surrey Isles’, Britain 2054, where neurodivergents live in harmony with nature and technology, and the hidden dystopian ‘Gajoomdom’.
Anyone who has ever felt different or had trouble fitting in will identify with this story about finding the strength to be your true self. A fun, Alice-esque adventure revealing what it means to be neurodivergent, in a way that’s relatable to all.
When her cousin gets kidnapped by a dastardly trickster, Luzia is forced to sell herself in servitude to the Eoi in exchange for his life. But the terms of the deal turn out to be much more complicated than she ever imagined…
Luzia N.E. Drainway never really thought too much about the Astrosi. They lurk above and below Bastion City – a giant multileveled megalopolis she calls her home – and they tend to keep to themselves. On the rare occasions they use their magics to meddle with human affairs, most people with an ounce of sense steer clear of whichever unfortunate soul happens to be their victim. Luzia is far too dedicated to repairing and maintaining the frequently-damaged Bastion to pay them much attention, and prefers to ignore the Astrosi just like everyone else.
That disregard gets blown out of the water when a rogue Astrosi and nefarious trickster named Carrion kidnaps her nephew and sells him to the Eoi, one of the Astrosi courts.
With no other options to save her nephew, Luzia trades her life for his and finds herself in service to the Eoi. Unfortunately for her, Astrosi logic is acrobatic in ways even the most devious human mind can barely comprehend. It’s not until the deal is struck that she realizes she’s trapped in the most abstruse verbal contract imaginable. She is essentially conscripted into their ranks, and her devotion to her city becomes stretched to breaking point by her new masters’ orders.
As she struggles under this weight, she begins to uncover the secrets of the Astrosi people – the internal battles for power between the two kingdoms, the never-ending conflict between them, the trickster Carrion who somehow bridges that gap, and the very nature of the Bastion itself.
From sci-fi visionary and acclaimed author Annalee Newitz comes Automatic Noodle, a cosy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant.
While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone―or something―is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?
My Review
It’s 2064. California has fought a war of Independence from the United States, and has freed robots above a certain level of intelligence. Well, not really free, they can’t own property, reproduce, or have bank accounts. Their licenses can be bought and sold, tying them to contracts and companies that can take them apart for scrap or sell them on saddled with debt. So not free at all.
Staybehind is an ex-military robot, free from contract and working wherever it wants. It happened to be working as manager of a terrible fast food franchise when it was shut down. Hands, the chef bot, Sweetie the front desk bot, and Cayenne, a former search and rescue octobot turned gastronome who likes to taste and smell food, slowly wake up after Staybehind is alerted to an emergency – their store is flooding. Once they work out what’s going on, the group make the decision to run the store for themselves, if they can find a way around the laws. Cayenne is on that.
Together with a human called Robles and an automatic minivan called Sloan, the robots go into business for themselves selling noodles. After a great review they get very busy, but then another review outs them as robots and starts review bombing the food delivery app everyone uses. While Staybehind searches for the culprit and discovers they have an artistic streak, Cayenne and Sweetie come up with other plans.
It’s a novella. I’ve read it in less than 3 hours this afternoon. I’d planned to go swimming but my lungs decided otherwise, so I’ve spent the afternoon on the sofa reading. I’m going back to bed as soon as I’ve written this because I’m sick once again!
I’ve read Annalee Newitz’s books in the past and enjoyed them; the author always seems to find the right tone for the subject and the right themes for the times. This is the case with Automatic Noodle too, with themes of found family, community resilience, and post-war rebuilding. The robots are stand-ins for the groups currently demonised by the right in the U.S. (and the U.K. honestly) – trans people, migrants, minority groups. There’s even a nod to the way African Americans were treated for the century between the end of the U.S. Civil War and the Civil Rights Act, in the way HEEI robots, and all robots, are treated.
The characters of Staybehind, Hands, Cayenne and Sweetie are all rounded, with backstories shared in vignettes. Reading them as they grow as people, and develop a community around them, facing their fears and the past, was sweet.
I think this is the sort of story we need right now. Things are going bad in the U.S., the U.K. government keeps pandering to the Right instead of telling them to go fuck themselves, and it’s scary for a lot of people. Me included. This novella is a story of hope – in community and community building, we can survive and thrive. I would read an expanded version of this novella or a sequel.
Format: 448 pages, Paperback Published: March 26, 2019 by Tor ISBN: 9781529001587
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.
My Review
This is another one from my TBR Pile that I’ve been meaning to read for years. I finally sat down and read it a week or so ago.
Mahit is a 26 year old Stationer, sent to the imperial capital of Teixcalaan as Ambassador. There, she finds her predecessor has been murdered and then her implant with his memory on it breaks, leaving her flailing around without help. Her only ally is her cultural attaché, Seagrass. They are blown up, held prisoner by a friend of the old ambassador, and have to get help from rebels, as the Emperor weakens and several successors fight for the throne. Eventually, Mahit hears from a possible ally on her Station that aliens are attacking human space, and this is enough for the Emperor to bring a halt to the fighting at home by focusing forces on the alien threat, and away from Stationer space.
Mahit and Seagrass go through some terrifying events but the writing is so good that every emotional turn is understandable. Her immersion in a culture that she previously thought she knew so well when she was studying it, but finds so confusing in person, really captures the dislocation of immersion in a new culture. Without her imago to guide her, Mahit doesn’t have the local knowledge that she’d need to fit it, and she is made to feel alien and not quite human because she is not Teicalaanlitzlim. She is an amusing barbarian to her hosts. Mahit does use this to her advantage, and sometimes disadvantage, in the complex court of the Emperor.
I enjoyed the narrative, structure, and tone of this novel. It explores empire from the perspective of an outsider, showing the hypocrisy of imperial states. The descriptions of the city and the people are rich and detailed. There is a hint of both the Byzantine and the Aztec empires in the descriptions of the clothes, culture and architecture, but the living conditions in the out regions of the city feel more Victorian London. The author has clearly drawn on many sources but it feels cohesive and inspired by those sources, rather than direct copying.
I enjoyed this book, and I can see why it’s so lauded. I’ve started book two, so expect a review of A Desolation Called Peace at some point.
Paperback
Everything Is Better With Dragons 