Some books what I done read recently and one book that doesn’t exist but I wish it did.

The Tainted Cup/A Drop of Corruption/A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett

Verdict: Strongly recommend

Incredible murder mysteries, cool biopunk worlds. Din makes terrible decisions but titan’s taint I love him. This is one of those rare books where worldbuilding, character, and narrative are all equally strong.

My wife and I read these books together as part of what we call “Husband and Wife Book Club”. We try to read them at roughly the same speed. When we get to a point where Din makes a bad choice (usually in his romantic life) we both make exasperated sounds together.

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Verdict: Recommend

Tchaikovsky’s gift to science fiction is his ability to imagine aliens who are truly alien. And the aliens in Shroud are as far from human as it gets. Do not go into this expecting a simple translation algorithm so humans and aliens can start communicating and working together.

There’s little more I can say without spoiling this, so maybe I’ll just say this: this book is shortlisted for the Hugo this year and it’s my personal pick.

Children of Time/Ruin/Memory/Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Verdict: Recommend

Human society collapsed thousands of years ago. Now the remnants of the species set out into the galaxy for the second time, only to discover that the galaxy moved on without humans.

I love how every book is almost in a different genre. Time is about cute little alien bros, Ruin is horror, Memory is mindfuck, and Strife is something else entirely.

I also love how oddly hopeful these books are. I could get away with calling this feel-good sci-fi. And we need feel-good sci-fi, because the real world is a wreck.

If I had one request for Mr. Tchaikovsky it would be this: more birds, please.

The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes

Verdict: Recommend

Art, perfume, and monstrous bugs dominate life in a city built into a giant tree atop a fetid river.

Twisted and weird if you go for books like that, and I most certainly do. If your favourite character in Miéville books is the setting, this is for you. Everything is so grotesquely detailed.

I’m surprised and disappointed that this didn’t make the Hugo shortlist. It’s a phenomenal piece of fiction and it’s one of 2025’s best.

Radiant Star by Ann Leckie

Verdict: Recommend

When I read the Imperial Radch trilogy I immediately read it again. This series is that good.

This time we’re on Aaa, a planet on the edge of the Radch empire, and thirty years into annexation when the events of the original trilogy go down. Cut off from the rest of the Radch and running out of food.

While the original trilogy focused on galactically important characters and big events, this book is smaller in scope. We see what happens to the outskirts of an empire when that empire collapses. We’re able to dig a bit more into politics, religion, and culture that would otherwise be lost in the grandness of the main trilogy. The smaller scale just worked for me.

Platform Decay (Murderbot #8) by Martha Wells

Verdict: Recommend

It’s Murderbot, and Murderbot is fantastic.

Look. The first Murderbot novella is like, 140 pages. Just go read it. Find out why everyone identifies with a part-flesh part-metal killing machine who just wants to watch its soap operas and not feel feelings.

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Verdict: Don’t recommend

Sapient robots in a future, war-ravaged California awake to find their humans gone, and decide to open up a restaurant in violation of anti-robot laws.

Let me preface this by saying that I have no problem when politics and art are combined. But the key word is “combined”, and that just isn’t what’s happening in Automatic Noodle. The story is interrupted by political essays that don’t mesh well with the narrative. You can see the cracks. It’s as if during The Handmaid’s Tale one of the characters were to abruptly deliver a soliloquy about how bad patriarchy is.

I will say that I loved the idea of sentient contracts who want to continue existing, and will alter their own terms to do so. Incredible idea. That could be a book in and of itself.

The Emperor’s Twin by Honey Watson

Verdict: Recommend

The new sequel to Lessons in Birdwatching. Traitors to the empire have successfully captured the palace (which is also a space ship) using divine power. But now they’ve lost control of their deity and gods threaten everyone on board.

This book ticks my boxes, but my boxes are specific here. “Divinity as corruption” is a niche theme that I just happen to appreciate.

But I can see this just not working with some. It’s dark, there’s a lot of body horror, some weird sex stuff, and every character is awful.

Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance/Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

Verdict: Recommend Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance. Don’t recommend Absolution.

Area X is an expansive landscape walled off from the rest of the world, where weird things happen and the laws of physics are mere suggestions. The first book follows an expedition into the bizarre realm, and other books tackle it from different perspectives.

I love weirdlit, and this is the prototypical modern example of it. But these books insist on not being understood. If you simply must understand all of a book to consider it complete, then stay away from these.

Absolution did not land for me. It was going great until the last third of the book, where the narrator changes to a protagonist who drops at least one “fuck” per sentence. This is mildly amusing for one page, but then I realised, “Oh no it’s not going to stop”. And that’s when I stopped reading.

The Fisherman by John Langan

Verdict: Don’t recommend

Nice mix of cosmic horror and unexplained mysteries. It’s a slow build of incomprehensible monstrosities, and the kind of “you don’t need to understand this” attitude that appeals to me. However…

Throughout this book, six wives die in order to motivate their widowers to action. To lose one wife to justify male motivation may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose six looks like poor writing.

A book I want to read but I can’t find it

One of my favourite video games is Bloodborne. It starts off as straightforward gothic horror: you’re a hunter stalking through a city reminiscent of Victorian London, killing beasts that are terrifying but at least you understand them. And then things get weird. You start to see the cosmic beings (have they always been there?). The church is involved and knows more than they let on. The gods exist and they are far beyond the ken of mere humans.

The vibe is immaculate and I want that vibe in book form. It should be a novel that gracefully transitions from gothic horror to cosmic horror. It should start off as comprehensible horror and end in incomprehensible madness. It should have corrupt churches and indifferent gods. It should have big swords.

Please let me know if such a book exists.