I know it’s already February! But I thought it’s never too late for some book recommendations 😉
Favourite fantasy: The Raven Scholar
by Antonia Hodgson
Neema Kraa is a High Scholar of the Empire — an empire with a trial-based system of power transition, where each prospective candidate is nominated by one of the animalistic gods. The trials are on. One of the candidates is murdered, and it’s up to Neema to solve the crime.
Add to the mix: her idiosyncrasy, her entangled relationships with some of the candidates (like her ex-lover, whom she hasn’t seen for years), and the fact that she is a candidate herself — nominated by the all-knowing and magnificent Raven, a collective-mind deity who occasionally breaks the fourth wall.
This book has it all – a lovable but insufferable heroine (to whom I might relate a bit too much), strong worldbuilding, and a good dash of yearning. And really, who doesn’t like a murder mystery that puts the entire empire at stake?
Favourite sci-fi: Shroud
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
This is a first-contact story disguised as space horror: workers on a planet that is about to be stripped for resources by a massive intergalactic communist corporation (yes, it combines the worst and the best of the Soviet-era communism and modern American capitalism) are left stranded in the darkness with strange creatures. To me, AT’s books always shine in how they examine the perspectives and experiences of different characters (not always human!), and how those shape their interactions and communication. If you’d like a taster of his work, I’d recommend Elder Race), a short novella with an unusual blend of fantasy and sci-fi.
Favourite sequel: A Drop of Corruption
by Robert Jackson Bennett
This fantasy crime series follows Din, an assistant to a judge in an analogue of the Roman Empire (with a Lovecraftian twist!), and his boss, Judge Ana Dolabra. Din has perfect memory, with a tiiiiny caveat (spoilers), and Ana might have her own (not entirely human) secrets as well.
They are sent to solve an impossible crime in one of the Empire’s most important outskirts. The main character’s voice is brilliant, and the world is both terrifying and fascinating.
The first novel, The Tainted Cup (also by Robert Jackson Bennett), won a World Fantasy Award and was one of the best books I read in 2024.
Favourite series: Dungeon Crawler Carl
by Matt Dinniman
If I start describing the story, it will sound bonkers and you will think me crazy for liking it as much as I do. Okay, let me try anyway:
Imagine all buildings on Earth collapsing in one instant (thankfully, you were outside!), and a voice from the sky announcing that your planet has now been transformed into a dungeon. You are welcome to enter it and attempt to clear its floors (levels) in order to win. Your life is at stake. Your only companion is your ex-girlfriend’s diva cat. And your and your fellow crawlers’ journey will be televised to the entire galaxy.
This series is the diamond of the LitRPG genre. I went in expecting fun and ridicule — of which it has loads — and ended up hooked on how much heart this story has. Who would have guessed that a silly book about a man and his talking cat would strike so close to how we feel in these turbulent times: fighting oppression at every step, and asking ourselves what the price is of staying ourselves and staying alive as we ascend the floors of our reality, further and further?
Goodreads · StoryGraph (ongoing, the 8th book comes out this May).
Best non-speculative fiction: City of Night Birds
by Juhea Kim
To be transparent, I am not usually drawn to non-speculative fiction. But nothing speaks to the Russian part of my soul quite like a melancholic story about a ballet dancer caught between her past and her present, her art and her love, her homeland and her sense of belonging.
Favourite non-fiction: Empire of AI
by Karen Hao
This book documents the rise of AI as the “it” technology of today — and oh boy, is that history an utter turmoil: a tragedy; a thriller. At the core of the story is OpenAI and its founding team, and how they have shaped the technology — or rather, the roadmap of the technology that almost everyone uses nowadays, for better and for worse.
It paints a picture of the Silicon Valley bubble where this venture was born, a world sometimes far removed from the one we live in — an ivory tower, where size and scaling and profits and visions of grandeur can matter more than real world ethics and compassion. Hao carefully lays out the true price we pay for having access to ChatGPT: data centers draining resources in the Global South; mind-harming content moderation done by underpaid workers in third-world countries; and finally, relentless and unstoppable data harvesting across the globe. All in all, it is akin to the empires of old, colonising our information and our resources, and it begs the question: how far are we willing to go in order to preserve the “convenience” of AI technology?
Honourable mention: Alchemised by SenLinYu
I’m putting this one down as an honourable mention because I first read the fanfiction Alchemised was built on back already in 2021. But it has stayed with me ever since. Yes, I love fanfiction. Yes, I know people have very polarised opinions about traditionally publishing adapted fanfic; I’m well aware that opinions on this book in particular are very divided, too.
But before you ostracise me for loving it, hear me out. I think this book deserved to be published, because even as a fanfic, it completely surpassed the world it was based on in depth and emotion. It is brutal, and ruthless in how it engages with themes of war, the price of heroism, and what heroism even means. Perhaps I relate to these themes because I was raised in a country built in the shadow of a great war, where pure — read: manly — heroism was celebrated, and anything less was forgotten or cast aside. This book captures something deeply visceral and heartbreaking about the nature of women, particularly women caught in the tides of a war they did not want or start.
To me, it is one of the very few books I can call a spiritual descendant of Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War.
Not a book, but an honourable mention: Hazbin Hotel Season 2 came out last year!
I feel not enough people know about it, so I have to give it a special shout-out. This animated series follows Charlie Morningstar, a princess of Hell, on her quest to introduce the concept of redemption to the sinners of her kingdom (and Heaven is skeptical).
It’s basically a musical with absolute banger songs and a star-studded Broadway cast. It’s been a few months since it came out, and the album is still going strong in my playlist!
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15599734/
Streaming (Prime Video): Hazbin Hotel
Not a book, but an honourable mention, Part 2: Interview with the Vampire seasons 1+2 blew my mind.
I read Anne Rice’s classic novel at the height of my vampire obsession in 2008, when I consumed everything even remotely vampiric, and this adaptation rings closest to the source material. Jacob Anderson is phenomenal as Louis, delivering the best vampire performance I’ve seen. Sam Reid as Lestat is electrifying every time he is on screen — exactly as the character should be. Bailey Bass and Delainey Hayles are both perfect Claudias.
The show strikes a perfect balance between portraying the monstrosity and lamenting the tragedy of being a vampire, and ultimately, accepting both the monster and the human inside each of us, vampire or not. And bonus: it is queer AF.
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14921986/
Streaming (Prime Video – AMC+ channel): Interview with the Vampire
Let me know what your favourites were!
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