20 fantasy and science fiction books to read in February 2024
By Daniel Roman
THE IMPOSITION OF UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES by Malka Older (The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti #2) — February 13
Back to mysteries, next up is The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older. This is the sequel to last year's The Mimicking of Known Successes, and it's a sci-fi mystery set on Jupiter and its moons. These novellas are more like cozy, comforting sorts of mystery rather than the dark and brooding kind, with sapphic romance elements and gaslamp aesthetic vibes.
In The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, the crack detective Mossa and her ex-girlfriend/science-minded partner Pleiti will have to team up once more to solve a string of disappearances at a prestigious university with dark secrets.
Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University—yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io—Mossa’s home—and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity's exodus from Earth.
But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as a scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.
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GOGMAGOG: THE FIRST CHRONICLE OF LUDWICH by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard — February 13
One of the more unique-sounding books on the way in February is Gogmagog by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard. This is a fantasy story, but with a creative twist: washed up steamboat captain Cady Meade is contracted to bring passengers up a river called the Nysis...a river which is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead dragon. The description leaves the dragon's ties to the river somewhat ambiguous, but no matter how you slice it, that's an intriguing setup. What sort of mishaps could a group of clashing personalities get into on a dragon-haunted river? All sorts of entertaining ones, I'll bet.
Gogmagog tells the story of an epic journey through the sixty-mile long ghost of a dragon. We travel by boat, a rickety steam launch captained by Cady Meade, a veteran taxi pilot on the river Nysis. In her heyday she carried people and goods from the thriving seaports of the estuary into Ludwich, the capital city. But that was years ago. Now she’s drunk, holed up in a rundown seaside resort, telling her bawdy tales for shots of rum. All that’s about to change, when two strangers seek her out, asking for transport, one of whom – a young girl – is very ill, and in great danger. The other, an artificial being of singular character, has secrets hidden inside his crystal skull. And so begins the voyage of the Juniper.
The Nysis is unlike any other river. Mysteries unfold with each port of call. Not many can navigate these channels, not many know of its whirlpools and sandbanks, and of the ravenous creatures that lurk beneath the surface. Cady used to have the necessary knowledge, and the powers of spectral navigation. But her glory days are well behind her now.
This might well be her final journey.