MELANCHOLY FUTURE NOIR set in a virtual-reality archive of a destroyed Pittsburgh. Evocative, Chandleresque. B PLUS

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW
Putnam Adult
2014

AN OFF-THE-GRID CHILDHOOD RECALLED as a writer reconciles with her mountain-man father. Quirky, oddly moving. B PLUS

GONE FERAL
Penguin Press HC
2014

LIVELY STEAMPUNK ADVENTURE in an alternate 1830s England has a feisty heroine, a clockwork dinosaur, romance. SOLID B

OBSIDIAN EYES
Curiosity Quills Press
2014

THERE’S GREAT WRITING in Megan Abbott’s latest; alas, the ripped-from-the-headlines plot doesn’t deserve it. B MINUS

THE FEVER
Little Brown and Company
2014

A GRIM DYSTOPIA, GORGEOUSLY imagined in a haunting future tale of a young woman’s resistance to power. A MINUS

MEMORY OF WATER
Voyager
2014

BLEAK YET TENDER memoir chronicles a son’s quest to understand his complicated mother during her final days. B PLUS

NOBODY KNEW SHE WAS THERE: THE TRUE STORY OF A MOTHER WHO LOST HER WAY
AuthorHouse
2014

BREAKTHROUGHS IN CONSCIOUSNESS RESEARCH, described with clarity, verve by a leading scientist. Fascinating! A MINUS

CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN
Viking Adult
2014

BLISTERINGLY FUNNY SATIRE from the last decades of the Soviet Union, recently translated. Bitter and timely. B PLUS

PUSHKIN HILLS
Counterpoint Press
2014

FAST-PACED LAS VEGAS thriller has a colorful cast of characters, adds a touch of the supernatural. SOLID B

LUCKY SEVENS
Original Cyn Advertising
2014

A HIGH-TECH CARIBBEAN THRILLER with lots of action, set in a near future shaped by climate change. Exciting! B PLUS

HURRICANE FEVER
Tor Books
2014