Pile By the Bed's Top five fantasy books for 2023 including Bad Cree, The Saint of Bright Doors, Gods of the Wyrdwood, The City of Last Chances and The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

Pile by the Bed's Top five science fiction books of 2023 - In The Lives of Puppets, Titanium Noir, Translation State, The Blighted Stars and Ymir, plus five honourable mentions.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends House of Open Wounds by Adrian Tchaikovsky, follow up to City of Last Chances but a very different book with mostly new characters set in a military field hospital that riffs heavily on MASH.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a rich prose poem and meditation on the Earth and humanity set on the international space station.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Wolves of Winter, the second book in Dan Jones' historical series set on the battlefields of Northern France in the opening years of the hundred years war

Pile by the Bed reviews Kill Your Husbands by Jack Heath, the puzzlebox thriller follow up to Kill your Brother.

Pile by the Bed reviews Geneva a debut technothriller by Richard Armitage but finds that it too contrived and muddled to be the page turner that it wants to be.

Pile by the Bed reviews So Close to Home by Mick Cummins an important, compassionate and heartbreaking look at teen homelessness and drug addiction in Australia.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Future by Naomi Alderman, a techo-thriller with the heart of a heist novel that explores how technology might drive different possible futures.

Pile by the Bed reviews Conquest by Nina Allan a metanarrative involving consipracies, programmers and Bach held together by the work of a flawed private detective

Pile by the Bed reviews Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, a novel that explores the impacts of colonialism and the Senegalese slave trade in the 18th Century through the eyes of a real life French botanist.

Pile by the Bed reviews Red River Seven by AJ Ryan a post-apocalyptic horror-tinged puzzlebox novel full of guns and explostions that reads like the outline of a video game.

Pile by the Bed reviews Calico by Lee Goldberg, an engaging speculative fiction novel that deftly incorporates Western and crime fiction tropes.

Pile by the bed reviews Baumgartner by Paul Auster a character study that considers issues of memory, art, ageing and relationships.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Exchange by John Grisham, a sequel to his breakout hit The Firm. Set fifteen years later, this is a sequel in name only and instead is a not particularly thrilling kidnap thriller with the same protagonist.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends The Well of Saint Nobody by Neil Jordan, set in a small Irish village and engagingly exploring the relationship of two damaged characters searching for connection.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Ritual of Fire, the third book in DV Bishop's engaging historical crime series set in Renaissance Florence.

Pile by the Bed reviews Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, the comic golden-age crime mystery follow up to Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone.

Pile by the Bed reviews Prom Mom by Laura Lippman, a novel set during Covid in Baltimore but which explores the long term aftermath of a high school tragedy.

Pile by the Bed reviews Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton, the story of a homeless girl living on the streets of Brisbane told in a naive, optimistic style.