Sally Adee

From a new Adrian Tchaikovsky novel to pandemic echoes in Haruki Murakami’s The City and its Uncertain Walls (fingers crossed we get an English translation), there is loads of excellent science fiction reading ahead next year, says Sally Adee

From a dystopian future with Naomi Alderman to climate fiction with Christopher Priest, this is New Scientist’s guide to the best science fiction of the year

This science fiction novel shows that its author, Naomi Alderman, is well up to the tough job of satirising end-stage capitalism – and swerving an obvious ending, says Sally Adee

Sandra Newman’s sequel to the classic dystopian novel, told from the perspective of the woman at the original’s heart, is doubleplusgood – not least because it reminds us how relevant George Orwell’s dark vision of the future still is, says Sally Adee

The protagonist of John Scalzi’s excellent new sci-fi novel is trying to find his way out of existential misery. So is the hero of Lavie Tidhar’s The Circumference of the World. But at their hearts, both books are setting out to explore what on earth we are doing here, finds Sally Adee

Lauren Beukes’s new science fiction novel, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, demonstrates the one crucial flaw in the entire multiverse fantasy: human nature

Stunning sci-fi novel by Vajra Chandrasekera uses magical realism to weave a multi-layered, dreamlike story where the nature of memory and how it can be abused is its deepest theme

Suppose the megarich can rejuvenate – but it makes them grow to titanic proportions? Nick Harkaway’s novel draws on Greek myth and noir in a fabulous thought experiment that reflects our own fixation with “making it big”, says Sally Adee

People who reported feeling the most disgusted or frightened after watching a series of videos had a more acidic stomach pH compared with other study participants. It is unclear if these emotions cause the acidity or if an acidic pH makes people feel emotions more intensely

Your cells crackle with electric signals that guide embryonic development and heal wounds. If we can learn to tweak this “bioelectric code”, we might be able to prevent cancer and even grow new limbs