Santa Womble - The Fifth Stocking - Science Fiction

Ho Ho Hoooooo

“Silent night, reading night

Please be quiet or I’ll give you fright

Round yon Womble, Bulgaria, Tomsk and Cholet

Runalong so tender and mild

Read in heavenly peace

Read in heavenly peace”

So, if you want to let people know what is good as a gift for you someone else or perhaps just treating yourself too; then join me in my grotto and let’s talk some book ideas.  My favourites of the year come later this month but these listed are all worthy of your consideration.

Stocking 5 - Science Fiction

Quite a good year in SF and I’ve found a few authors for the first time that I intend to keep my eyes peeled for other books. There is a slight theme of taking on the past and working out a better future which I’m sure we should expect but as always here is a bit of everything for everyone

The Near future

Fancy a trip into the world of AI, blockchains and adventure then you ‘ll enjoy Tangle's Game by Stewart Hotston

While Heather child shows us a UK where technology is something you must be able to use to get on with life and then gives us a thriller exploring why is a woman’s advanced AI talking with the voice and personality of her missing sister in the amazing Everything About You

Tade Thompson won the Clarke Award for the first Rosewater tale and over the year the other instalments have been equally as good.  The trilogy of aliens in Nigeria and so so much more to explore is now completed – READ The Wormwood trilogy

Slight cheat as this comes out again next year but I was charmed by the way time travel was explored in Paris Adrift by EJ Swift that gave me a tour of Paris’ troubling past and future but also captured that feeling of learning how to be an adult for the first time unsupervised.

Another time travel tale with a more political focus and more about the reminder that the fight for progress in social rights never ends is the great The Future of Another Time Line by Annalee Newitz

Dave Hutchinson explores the use of science by industrialists in the funny and thoughtful The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man

While MT Hill tells a sobering tale about boomers and how the future can be ruined because they think they do the right things in Zero Bomb

One of the most unsettling reads this year exploring our attitudes to immigrants is the fantastic The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

Another book that starts unsettling and appears horror then becomes so much more is the stunning The Migration by Helen Marshall

And a final unsettling read that examines a whole community that embraced a life in VR is the worrying Green Valley by Louis Greenberg

To finish off the amusing and fun thriller that will make you smile and feel all the feels is The Girl Who Could Move Sh%t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford

Outer space

On a far off mysterious world a woman learns the joys and peril of rebellion in the beautiful The City in The Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

How about Captain Marvel punching a planet run by the patriarchy into little pieces? Then try Captain Marvel - Liberation Run by Tess Sharpe

I was so glad to read the start of a new space opera saga in Embers of War by Gareth L Powell

In novellas I heartily recommend the hopepunkish and smart  Moon-sitting by E M Harding

This book will be on a lot of best of lists because it’s brilliant and full of heart and imagery to die for if you’ve not read it then it’s time for This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone

And another impressive tale was looking at our need to explore and break through our boundaries in the wonderful To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Another debut that caught by attention for all the right reasons exploring empire and how it colonises the conquered is A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Una McCormack provides a tale of growing up and loss if innocence for a reporter finally coming home to face her past in The Undefeated

And for thrills and intelligent points on war and the people who profit from them I can recommend The Bastard Legion - War Criminals by Gavin G Smith

Finally don’t forget the amazing SF anthology New Suns - Original Speculative Fiction by People of Colour edited by Nishi Shawl