The Race

Nina Allan, 2014

(March 2015)

I came into this book almost completely blind, buying it simply on the back of its appearance on this year’s shortlists for both The Kitschies and the BSFA Awards and the reasonable cost of the ebook edition (price-point matters, kids!). I think I lucked out massively in this regard, because the less you know about this going in the better. However, it’s almost impossible to talk about without spoilers, so why don’t you track yourself down a copy and come back once you’ve had a chance to read? There are dogs in it, if that helps.

She Weeps Each Time You’re Born

Quan Barry, 2015

(March 2015)

  

This is very good. The obvious point of comparison is Midnight’s Children, in that it’s also a magical realist novel in which a mystical child offers a prism through which to view the inevitably traumatic business of colonial separation and the ensuing intranational turmoil of independence, but in Vietnam and not India and, well… Better.

Saga, Vol. 1 and 2

Bryan K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, 2012-13

(March 2015)

Yeah, it is that good.

A Cunning Plan

HEY GAIZ! U NO THAT THING THAT COUNTRY DID THAT TURNED IT INTO AN INTERNATIONAL PARIAH? WE NEED A PIECE OF THAT. THAT’S THE GOOD SHIT.

Unexpurgated minutes there from the most recent meeting of Prime Minister Abe’s Senior Advisory Panel.