18-07-2025
Jamie Buxton picks July's sci fi and fantasy: Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch, The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa, A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid
Stone and Sky is available now from the Mail Bookshop
Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch (Orion £20, 416pp)
One of the plates Aaronovitch keeps spinning is Detective Peter Grant's jazz-loving parents.
In this umpteenth addition to the Rivers Of London series, it's clear there's something jazzy in what he does: revisiting much loved tropes, yet always coming up with new and wonderful ideas.
Peter and River Goddess Bev are in Scotland for a seaside holiday but then a black panther appears, then a dead man with gills and, effortlessly, we're off with a story that packs in oil rigs – sorry – platforms, psycho seagulls, greedy multinationals and sapphic mermaids.
The gang assembles once again, and we put the book down a little bit happier than when we started.
The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa (Pushkin Vertigo £14.99, 288pp)
Detective fiction runs to strict timetables – not so much why-whodunit as when- whodunit. It takes a deliciously tricksy mind to turn that idea inside out and add a time-travel element. From the title onwards, this brilliantly intricate mystery has it all: a family gathering, a country house, the murder of a patriarch and a fortune to inherit.
Teenager Hisataro has not done badly from his habit of living occasional days multiple times – exam retakes for one thing. But his grandfather's murder, replayed seven-fold, forces him to unpick the causes of an old family feud and work out who did the old man in.
Hugely entertaining and satisfyingly twisty.
A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid (Del Rey £18.99, 416pp)
Effy and Preston are both outsiders in the prestigious University of Llyr. Preston's people are at war with the Llyrians and it's only his brilliance that has secured him a place. Effy, meanwhile, is the first woman to be admitted to her course but she can't stop rocking the boat.
Literature matters in Llyr – its founding myths are enshrined in epic poems, and the authors enshrined in glass tombs. So when Effy starts asking questions . . .
This emotional conclusion to A Study In Drowning centres on exclusion and bigotry but is fuelled by passion and determination. An academic treat, gowned in gothic darkness.
