Groundbreaking New Science Fiction and Fantasy Releases
This month's science fiction and fantasy roundup brings five extraordinary novels that push the boundaries of imagination, from terrifying cosmic entities to dystopian technologies that could reshape humanity itself. These compelling new releases explore themes of consciousness, memory, love and sacrifice through richly imagined worlds that will linger in your mind long after you've turned the final page.
There Is No Antimemetics Division: A Mind-Bending Debut
Sam Hughes, writing under the pen name qntm, delivers an unforgettable debut novel that takes the concept of hidden alien entities to terrifying new extremes. In There Is No Antimemetics Division (Del Rey, £18.99), we encounter the antimeme - the polar opposite of familiar memes. While memes spread easily as infectious ideas, antimemes represent literally unthinkable concepts, described as self-keeping secrets that prove impossible to record or remember.
The story follows a secret government organisation with bases deep underground in the English countryside, where the Antimemetics Division battles entities that feed on human memories. The central challenge becomes: how can you possibly fight a war when you cannot identify your enemy and immediately forget every attack? This brilliantly conceived novel pushes the boundaries of cosmic horror while exploring the very nature of memory and perception.
The Merge: A Mother-Daughter Dystopian Dilemma
Grace Walker's The Merge (Magpie, £12.99) presents a chilling vision of near-future Britain where population pressures on scarce resources have led to drastic technological solutions. The government offers a radical procedure called the Merge, where any two people can combine by transferring one consciousness into the other's body. Participants receive significant benefits including lower taxes and improved living standards, with the promise that both minds will gradually meld into a single new person preserving the best qualities of each.
The emotional core of the story follows Laurie, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, and her daughter Amelia who signs them up for a trial group hoping to preserve her mother's mind. They have three months to learn about the process and can still withdraw, though apparently nobody ever does. Moving between both women's perspectives, this compelling narrative explores difficult questions about love, sacrifice, control and resistance in a society willing to sacrifice individuality for survival.
Lightbreakers: Quantum Physics and Heartbreaking Regret
Aja Gabel's Lightbreakers (Fleet, £16.99) follows Noah, who early in his career proposed that human consciousness stemmed from quantum physics. Years later, a billionaire recruits him for a secret project exploring consciousness, memory and time. What makes Noah particularly suitable isn't just his theoretical work, but his personal experience of losing his infant daughter Serena.
When offered the chance to test an experimental time machine, Noah's obsession with seeing Serena again threatens both his health and his second marriage. His wife Maya responds by visiting her parents in Japan, where she reconnects with a former lover and reflects on their youth as struggling artists. This rich, compassionate novel examines how love, regret and memory shape our lives across different timelines and relationships.
Black Flame: Queer Horror in 1980s New York
Gretchen Felker-Martin's Black Flame (Titan, £11.99) delivers queasily compelling horror set in 1980s New York. Ellen, a deeply depressed and repressed lesbian working in a film archive, receives an assignment to restore damaged prints of a legendary German pornographic film long believed destroyed by the Nazis. As she works, Ellen begins seeing figures from the film in her daily life, struggling to distinguish between nightmares, fantasies and reality.
The novel's explicit violence and sexual content serve a deeper psychological horror as Ellen's reality unravels. This unsettling narrative explores themes of repression, desire and the terrifying power of art to breach the boundaries between fiction and reality.
The Strength of the Few: Epic Fantasy Adventure
James Islington continues his Hierarchy series with The Strength of the Few (Text, £20), the sequel to The Will of the Many. The story continues following Vis Telimus in a world modelled on Imperial Rome, where society operates through a spiritual pyramid scheme. Each social class cedes part of their life force to the class above, resulting in godlike powers for the ruling Princeps and diminished lives for the base-level Octavii.
Vis has become synchronous - split into three identical selves living parallel lives. One continues in the Republic, another finds himself in Ancient Egyptian-inspired Obiteum, while a third exists in a Celtic world of druids and warring tribes. The novel's first-person narration creates immediate reader engagement amidst the high-action epic fantasy, delivering excitement, danger and mystery that will leave readers eagerly anticipating the next instalment.
These five remarkable novels demonstrate the continuing vitality and innovation within science fiction and fantasy, offering readers profound explorations of human experience through extraordinary circumstances and imagined worlds.
