ALSO OUT
As ever, there’s lots more books we couldn’t fit in. Ed McDonald’s medieval fantasy DAUGHTER OF REDWINTER (out now, Gollancz) has a Scottish flavour. It follows an on-the-run 17-year-old able to see ghosts, who ends up inside the fortress-monastery of warrior magicians – where she’ll be put to death if her ability is discovered. Fans of Octavia Butler and Emily St John Mandel are the target market for Emmi Itäranta’s THE MOONDAY LETTERS (out now, Titan). Told in epistolary form, it sees an Earth-born healer searching for their Mars-born spouse after the latter’s disappearance on a work trip – a search which takes her from the affluent colonies of Mars to an Earth devastated by climate change. An alternate Bronze Age is the backdrop for Miles Cameron’s blood-soaked, monster-filled AGAINST ALL GODS (out now, Gollancz). It involves self-absorbed gods, the “Godborn” (half-human offspring of the gods) and humans scheming to overthrow their divine rulers using weapons fashioned from star-metal – the one thing that can kill them. The history of British animation studio Smallfilms is the subject of academic Chris Pallant’s BEYOND BAGPUSS (14 July, BFI), which draws on interviews with key collaborators. As the title suggests, it’s not all about the old, saggy cloth cat, delving into the likes of Ivor The Engine, Noggin The Nog, Pogles Wood and The Clangers too. Finally, this issue’s Ronseal Award goes to UNOFFICIAL HOCUS POCUS CROSS-STITCH (out now, Ulysses Press) It includes 25 patterns paying homage to the fantasy-comedy about a trio of soul-sucking witches.