4 Books That Are Worth Your Attention

Radiance by Catherynne M Valente (Corsair, €24, out March 3) Valente’s first adult novel in more than three years, this is an alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood and solar system very different from our own. Despite that, the story is moving and Valente’s writing will capture your interest from the start.

Speak by Louisa Hall (Orbit, €13, out February 25) Exploring the ethics of artificial intelligence, this spans four centuries, with stories told from different times of the lives that have helped shape a single AI: MARY3, who’s on her way to banishment, where she will expire. She speaks for the last time as a warning to us all.

Martin John by Anakana Schofield (& Other Stories, €14, out February 4) Irish-Canadian author Schofield’s second novel takes you into the mind of a paranoid sex offender and reveals the protagonist’s increasing mental instability with a prose that doesn’t trivialise it or judge.

Maestra by LS Hilton (Zaffre, €18.50, out March 10) The first in a planned trilogy, this sexually charged thriller has scored a Hollywood film deal and centres around Judith Rashleigh, an assistant in a London auction house, who ends up on the run in the French Riviera. Rashleigh has been compared to Gone Girl’s Amy mixed with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander.

This article was originally published in the January issue of IMAGE Magazine.