Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where I’m delighted to be joined by author Nicholas Binge for a look both back at 2022 and ahead to 2023. Author of Professor Everywhere and the upcoming Ascension (coming in April from Harper Voyager), Nicholas has kindly curated a whole host of recommendations for brilliant SFF books, so if you’re on the lookout for a great book released this year, or something coming next year to look forward to, look no further than this article. I’ve read and can happily endorse a few of these recommendations too, but there’s loads here that I’m now really looking forward to getting hold of!
Without further ado, over to Nicholas…
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In celebration of the festive season, I’ve teamed up with Track Of Words to give you my 12 Days of Christmas Books! Here’s a summary of the six best SFF books I read that came out in 2022, and the six SFF books I’m most looking forward to in 2023! Every one of these is (or will be!) a stellar read.
Looking Back: Six SFF Books I Loved From 2022
36 Streets by T.R. Napper (Titan)
Being born in Singapore and having lived for years in Hong Kong, I’ve always had an affinity with southeast Asia – there’s a vibrancy to the cities there that is entirely unmatched by anywhere else on the planet. It’s no surprise that they gave rise to an entire aesthetic: the cyberpunk mixture of gritty markets and neon lights popularised by Blade Runner and prevalent across modern SF is directly drawn from those streets. It is appropriate then that T.R. Napper’s thrilling 36 Streets, set in the Hanoi underworld, embraces that aesthetic so completely. It has everything you might want from a cyberpunk thriller: fight-scenes with drug and tech enhanced baddies, hackers and simulated worlds, seedy underworld crime lords and a gloriously satisfying revenge arc.
What made this book stand out to me particularly though was how incontestably modern it is. I’m a sucker for books that manage to embrace their literary and genre roots to say something new, and this book has a lot to say about Vietnam’s relationship with its own bloody history as well as the impending threat of Chinese hegemony. It was those timely political elements that elevated this from a decent SF yarn with an electric atmosphere to an overall cracking read I was thinking about some time after.
[Check out my review of 36 Streets too – ToW]
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan (Orbit)
I credit this book with reigniting my love for medieval fantasy. I was an absolute fantasy fanatic when I was a young, devouring anything with even a hint of swords and sorcery. As I’ve aged, my tastes have trended a little more literary and experimental – I’m always on the lookout for something weird and something that pushes boundaries. I’d picked up a few proper knights and castles fantasy, but I’d never really felt that same excitement I had when reading Joe Abercrombie or GRRM for the first time. Then in walked The Justice of Kings, which I picked up mainly because it had been recommended to me so many times. I don’t know what it was specifically: there’s tension baked into the very world of the novel in a way I haven’t seen done in some time, both political and religious, and the entire thing feels like a powder-keg about to explode; the characters – particularly Sir Konrad Vonvalt – are so memorable and well-painted; there are a large number of just extremely cool scenes. Whatever it was, I devoured it. I couldn’t put it down.
The Way The Light Bends by Lorraine Wilson (Luna Press Publishing)
The second novel by British Fantasy Award-winning Lorraine Wilson, this is one of those wonderful pieces of speculative fiction where the fantastical stuff slowly creeps up on you. It’s a deliberate counterpoint to many of the other big swords and magic or futuristic books I’ve included here – it’s a quieter, slower and more contemplative exploration of grief and the impact it has on individuals and families. Framed as a missing person story told from the perspective of two sisters, I found myself falling in love with the gorgeous prose in this book and the complex characterisation. By the time the magical and fantastical stuff kicks in about halfway through, I was already fully invested and thoroughly in for the ride. A recommendation for someone looking for something a little darker, a little different, but still magical in more ways than one.
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless (Head of Zeus)
Genre-mashups are all the rage these days, but I don’t think I’ve ever read one more natural than Lawless’ stellar debut. Set in the year 981 AD in medieval Ireland, we are thrown into the midst of historical fiction, with Irish kings and Vikings and real figures from history battling it out for supremacy. But Lawless also weaves the rich tapestry of Irish mythology into this, with mythological races like the Fomorians and the Tuatha De Danann also vying for power and control. There’s something about the setting that makes the merging of these two genres feel so natural – Irish history is so steeped in mythology anyway, that at times I found myself forgetting that Tuatha De Danann weren’t actually real. As for the narrative, it clips along with great characters, fun twists and big battles. Shout out in particular for a standout image goes to a crazy warrior double-wielding swords chopping down foes on the battlefield. If nothing else, this book is a lot of fun.
Leech by Hiron Ennes (Tor)
I’ve already talked about my love for books that pay homage to their roots while doing something new, and Leech is another perfect example of this. Ennes’ premise is classic Gothic horror – a distant castle in the wilderness, an antagonistic baron, creatures lurking in the night – but he drags the narrative kicking and screaming (often literally) into the world of body-swapping alien science-fiction. What impressed me most here was Ennes’ prose, finding myself often re-reading passages just for the sheer enjoyment of them dancing across my brain. I really don’t want to say too much to avoid spoilers, but the last act gets so bonkers that you’ll barely believe it even as you’re reading it. An ambitious, powerful, and often deeply horrifying book.
[Check out my review of Leech too – ToW]
Bewilderment by Richard Powers (Vintage Books)
This book isn’t marketed as SFF, but it definitely falls into the speculative fiction wheelhouse. Richard Powers really exploded in 2018 with The Overstory, a lush expansive love-letter to trees and activism that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Pulitzer. This newer book is shorter and in some ways more focused, but no less powerful. An homage to Daniel Keyes’ tragic sci-fi classic Flowers for Algernon, this book is the tale of a father and his son trying to manage in a world not built for them. Serious explorations of neurodiversity, climate activism, and grief are abound here, with Powers using sci-fi like ‘empathy technology’ to explore what it means to be connected to your fellow humans and the world. This might have been the best book I read in the past year, and if not, it was certainly the most affecting. As a good writer friend of mine told me after she read it, “if I’d read this book as a teenager, it would have changed my life.” Well, I’m no teenager, but it certainly changed the way I look at life. I’ll give it that.
Looking Forward: SFF Books I’m VERY Excited For In 2023
The Sequels: The Tyranny of Faith by Richard swann (14 Feb 2023, Orbit) and The Words of Kings and Prophets by Shauna Lawless (14 September 2023, Head of Zeus)
The obvious books I’m excited for include two sequels to the books I just mentioned. I’ve already talked about their predecessors, so won’t spend long on them here. I will say that I’ve read the start of The Words of Kings and Prophets already (benefits of being an author and having publishing connections) and if you loved the first, it definitely won’t disappoint.
Godkiller by Hannah Kaner (19 Jan 2023, Harper Voyager)
I love a fantasy that explores the ideas of gods, and the way that mortals respond to and interact with gods makes for fascinating reading, so the title of this one stuck out to me as soon as I heard it. I was also drawn in by that amazing cover. Suffice to say, it’s getting a lot of buzz, with talk of beautiful and immersive worldbuiling. I’ve seen comparisons to Laini Taylor (which, after reading the inimitable Strange The Dreamer can only be a good thing). I’ve already got this one on pre-order.
Hopeland by Ian McDonald (16 Feb 2023, Gollancz)
Ian McDonald has been writing SF for decades, winning every award from the Hugo to the Arthur C. Clarke for his various novels, so my ears definitely perked up when I heard that he had a new book out in February. Hopeland looks to be fascinating – a time-travelling futuristic saga dealing with timely issues of climate change, resource wars and technological and economic revolutions. This looks to be the kind of big bold sci-fi story-telling that will really get your brain synapses firing and I can’t wait for it to come out in February.
Descendant Machine by Gareth L. Powell (11 April 2023, Titan)
I’ve got a proof of this lined up to read soon (benefits of sharing an agent with Gareth!) and I’ve got to say I’m very excited. Powell is a much-loved author in the sci-fi world and his space adventures are as thrilling as they are fascinating. In short, I would have been excited anyway. Then I read the description. You can find the full thing yourself online, but suffice to say the first line – ‘The Grand Mechanism, a machine the size of Saturn’s rings, has lain dormant for all recorded history, watched over by the alien Jzat.’ – tickled a part of my brain I’ve been craving since I saw Dune in the cinemas. Bring. It. On.
Witch King by Martha Wells (30 May 2023, Tordotcom)
I find it difficult to explain to you the sadness that overcame me when I finished the most recent book in the Murderbot Diaries. To have no more new Murderbot to accompany my days was a real blow to my general happiness. You can imagine, then, my whoops of joy when I discovered that the inimitable Martha Wells is publishing a new novella next year. Imagine then, if you can, how much more jubilant I got when I found out she’s also publishing a fantasy novel next year about a resurrected ‘Witch King’ dealing with life post-murder. You could hear my screams of joy from the street. If you’ve read any Murderbot, you won’t need me to sell this one to you. If you haven’t read any Murderbot, what the hell are you even doing with your life?
Ascension by Nicholas Binge (27 April 2023, Harper Voyager)
Okay – I’m going to do it, or my friends will shout at me. I’m going to use this blog post to shamelessly plug my own release. If that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to close your computer, but the big release date on your 2023 calendar should of course be Ascension.
It’s being marketed as Interstellar meets The Martian with notes of Jeff VanderMeer and Ted Chiang, but the real inspiration for me has always been Gothic horror, if I’m honest. The book is about a scientific expedition that goes horribly wrong – it’s a survival tale, a horror story, and a thriller, all wrapped up with big bold speculative ideas that pays homage to some of my favourite science fiction novels ever.
If you’ve looked at my recommendations and suggestions and thought, “I like a lot of what this guy likes!”, then hopefully you’ll love Ascension!
Merry Christmas everyone, and happy reading!
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Nicholas Binge is an author of speculative thrillers, literary science-fiction, and horror. His novels include Ascension and Professor Everywhere. Binge has lived in Singapore, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, and is based in Edinburgh, UK, where he teaches literature and works on new novels. He is an active member of ESFF (Edinburgh Science-Fiction & Fantasy).
His most recent novel, Ascension, is being published by Harper Voyager (UK) and Riverhead Books (US) in April. It is also being translated into eight other languages and has been optioned for film.
Binge has a deep love for anything weird, anything that pushes boundaries, and anything that makes him cry. He is never happier than when he is with a book.
Find out more at Nicholas’ website.
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Thanks so much to Nicholas for contributing this great article, and for all the brilliant recommendations! Like I said at the start, I’m really keen to check out a bunch of these (those that I haven’t already read myself), and not least Ascension – I’m lucky enough to have an advance review copy of this, so look out for a review in the not too distant future.
Check out the rest of the 2022 Track of Words Advent Calendar posts here
Ascension is available to pre-order now, ahead of its release in April 2023. Check out the links below if you’d like to pre-order a copy:
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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