cover image
LATEST ISSUE OF
Kirkus Reviews
Check out our interview with Rick Yancey, author of the wildly entertaining YA thriller The 5th Wave.
Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS



Best Fiction of 2012: Science Fiction & Fantasy (page 2)

Showing
Cover art for THE APOCALYPSE CODEX
FICTION
Released: July 3, 2012
THE APOCALYPSE CODEX
by Charles Stross
"Readers familiar with Stross' dazzling science fiction should relish this change of pace and direction. "
Fourth in the series (The Fuller Memorandum, 2010, etc.) about the Laundry: a weirdly alluring blend of superspy thriller, deadpan comic fantasy and Lovecraftian horror. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE COLDEST WAR
FICTION
Released: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Star THE COLDEST WAR
by Ian Tregillis
"Grim indeed, yet eloquent and utterly compelling."
Independently intelligible sequel to the dark fantasy Bitter Seeds (2010), something like a cross between the devious, character-driven spy fiction of early John le Carré and the mad science fantasy of the X-Men. Read full book review >
Cover art for TARNISHED KNIGHT
FICTION
Released: Oct. 2, 2012
Kirkus Star TARNISHED KNIGHT
by Jack Campbell
"All the more impressive for being a significant departure from previous entries."
Beginning a sort of spinoff series taking place, chronologically, between Campbell's last two outings (Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught, 2011, and Beyond The Frontier: Invincible, 2012) wherein the influence of "Black Jack" Geary is palpable, though he makes no actual appearance. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HYDROGEN SONATA
FICTION
Released: Oct. 9, 2012
Kirkus Star THE HYDROGEN SONATA
by Iain M. Banks
"Sheer delight."
Addition to Banks' wonderful space-opera series (without the middle initial, he also writes impressive mainstream novels) about the far-future galactic Culture (Surface Detail, 2010, etc.), a liberal-anarchic, multispecies civilization guided and sustained, more or less invisibly, by Minds, artificial intelligences that take such physical forms as spaceships and habitats. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE CASSANDRA PROJECT
FICTION
Released: Nov. 6, 2012
Kirkus Star THE CASSANDRA PROJECT
by Jack McDevitt, Mike Resnick
"A top-notch, edge-of-the-seat thriller in which there are no villains, only mysteries."
This first collaboration from McDevitt (Firebird, 2011, etc.) and Resnick (The Doctor and the Kid, 2011, etc.), developed from a 2010 story by McDevitt (spoiler alert: don't read the story first), takes the form of a conspiracy involving the moon landings. And no, Stanley Kubrick didn't fake them. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE HERMETIC MILLENNIA
FICTION
Released: Dec. 24, 2012
THE HERMETIC MILLENNIA
by John C. Wright
"Astonishing stuff that leaves readers with plenty of work to do."
Second installment of Wright's ferociously dense and convoluted far-future space opera involving hyperintelligence, aliens and artificial evolution (Count to a Trillion, 2011). Warning up front: read the first book first. Read full book review >