SCI-FI/FANTASY

THE TESTAMENT OF LOKI by Joanne M. Harris (Gollancz £14.99)

Loki’s back! The god we most love to hate returns from oblivion to delight us with his low cunning and high regard — for himself, if no one else.

Ragnarok has laid Asgard waste, but centuries of oblivion, chained to a rock, mean nothing to this nordic Flashman.

he has a plan which, in timehonoured fashion, involves looking after no. 1 even if that means escaping into the body of a computer-gaming teenage girl suffering from low self-esteem.

The way Loki negotiates a world of teenage angst, worried parents and cake shops is one of the delights of this clever and intricate sequel to 2014’s The Gospel of Loki.

And how the trickster finds a sort of redemption through his growing regard for his human host is warm, witty and moving.

THE GREY BASTARDS by Jonathan French (Orbit £8.99)

WeLcoMe world of orcs, to a humans, elves, halflings and grey-skinned, halforc bastards who are the bloodiest, bawdiest and bravest of the lot. Tolkien territory this is emphatically not.

our mongrel heroes are former slaves, tasked with maintaining a tense peace between orc-hordes and humankind, mostly by slaughter.

But base politics and high courage collide when Jackal, the fiercest of the fierce, takes the rap for the death of a repellent human and is exiled from his band of hog riders.

his adventures take in wizards, centaurs, sludge monsters, elf maidens in distress and, finally, the horrifying truth about his race.

so, saddle up the war boar and set off on a wild, gory thrillride that ends in an awesome climax and begs for a sequel.