FANTASY JAMIE BUXTON
GILDED CAGE by Vic James (Pan £7.99)
A dAzzling addition to the growing genre of alternative historical fiction, James’s first novel has the added bonus of compelling page-turnability.
The big idea is simple and bold: instead of a Cromwellian revolution in the 17th century, Britain has been taken over by a caste of magician aristocrats who demand that every citizen works as a slave for ten years of their life.
Servitude seems bearable when young Abi manages to arrange for her family to serve their term at Kyneston, the stately home of Britain’s poshest magicians. But then her brother is carted off to work in a harsh, factory slave town, and soon all are involved in the ruthless political manoeuvrings of various ruling families.
With a story that switches between grim work camps and glittering palaces, it’s the personal dilemmas that grip and promise much for the next in the series.
EMPIRE GAMES by Charles Stross (Tor £14.99)
HARd science also meets alternative history in this mindboggling, complex and truly brilliant tale of personal loyalty and clashing civilisations.
in empire games, multiple universes, or Timelines, are a given. Thus, in Timeline One, ‘epigenetically hacked’ humans known as world-walkers have learned how to pass between the various worlds. in Timeline Two, the U.S. is a fully fledged, high-tech surveillance state, while in Timeline Three, a mighty eurasian empire threatens a fledging American republic.
But empires will be empires, and nuclear Armageddon can threaten not just from your own timeline, but from all the others as well.
That brings in Rita, a unique, stroppy world-walker from one Timeline, who must be persuaded, and then trained, to snoop on another. But it’s a paranoid multiverse out there and Rita must uncover her own destiny . . . and try to save the world.
CARAVAL by Stephanie Garber (Hodder £12.99)
fOR its invitation-only guests, Caraval is a marvellous, magical, five-day party game on an island.
for years, the prim and proper Scarlett dragna has been begging legend, the event’s creator and Master of Ceremonies, for an invitation, but when it finally arrives, she is torn: her father has just arranged her marriage and by going she will be defying him.
Tricked into attending by her younger sister, donatella, and a mysterious hunk called Julian, Scarlett is plunged into a maelstrom of wonder, peril and terror. donatella is kidnapped and, in the game, nothing is what it seems, so Scarlett must work out what is real and what is an illusion.
like the Carousel of Roses at the heart of the party, the language is colourful, giddy and with the occasional barb.
And like a fairy story, Caraval reveals dark truths behind a playful, glittering surface.