Pile by the Bed reviews Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon – a type of hero’s origin story which grapples with the power to confront a turbulent and violent history.

Pile by the Bed reviews Girl One by Sarah Flannery Murphy a high concept speculative thriller that is clever, thought provoking and engaging.

Pile by the Bed reviews Artifact Space by Miles Cameron – the first of a space opera meets military/ mercantile science fiction series full of engaging characters and anchored by an intriguing mystery.

Pile by the Bed reviews The 22 Murders of Madison May as science fiction thriller involving the pursuit of a killer across multiple realities by Australian author Max Barry

Pile by the Bed reviews The Colours of Death the debut novel by Patricia Marques that effectively mixes in a speculative alternative Lisbon and a crime procedural.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends Chaos Gate the final book in Megan O’Keefe’s space opera Protectorate series.

Pile by the Bed reviews Widowland by CJ Carey a thriller set in an alternative 1950s in which Germany rules Britain and women are second class citizens.

Pile by the Bed reviews Day Zero by C Robert Cargill – a prequel to his robopocalypse novel Sea of Rust.

Pile by the Bed reviews and recommends A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (Texicalaan #2) – a worthy sequel to her 2020 Hugo Award Winning debut A Memory Called Empire.

Pile by the Bed finds Andy Weir back in his comfort zone with Project Hail Mary which finds a lone quippy expert having to save the Earth through science.

Pile by the Bed reviews the new environmentally conscious thriller Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

Pile by the Bed goes to Venus to review The House of Styx, the first book of Venus Ascendant, a new science fiction series by Derek Kunsken

Pile by the Bed reviews A History of What Comes Next, the first in a new series by Sylvain Neuvel which imagines an alien influence behind the space race.

Pile by the Bed reviews Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, a story about what it means to be human that is thematically consistent with his broader body of work.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Fall of Koli – the final ominously named book in MR Carey’s post-apocalyptic Ramparts Trilogy and finds that the long journey was worth the effort

Pile by the Bed reviews Robot Artists and Black Swans a series of Italian Fantascienza short stories by Bruce Sterling written under his European pseudonym Bruno Argento.

Pile by the Bed reviews The Future is Yours by Dan Frey – a time travel driven page-turning takedown of the tech industry

Pile by the Bed reviews The Galaxy, And The Ground Within – the fourth and possibly final book in Becky Chambers’ humanistic science fiction Wayfarer’s series

Pile by the Bed reviews The Last Good Man by Thomas McMullen a post-apocalyptic dystopia that considers the power of crowd-sourced justice.

Pile by the Bed reviews Gallowglass by Simon Morden, a space survival story set in a climate-change affected future.