GRACEFULLY CYNICAL FANTASY set in antiquity, on a Mediterranean island ravaged by a vast monster.

FRESH, POWERFUL RETELLING of four vivid Chinese-American stories, from the Gold Rush to the present day.

MAGIC, MAYHEM, AND MYTHOLOGY abound in a fiercely inventive fantasy adventure set in ancient Iran.

MYSTERIES OF THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS haunt this grandly constructed historical novel (with a touch of magic). B PLUS

TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD
Little Brown and Company
2016

EXCITING FANTASY THRILLER set in World War I with spiritualist mediums and ghost soldiers hunting traitors. A MINUS

GHOST TALKERS
Tor Books
2016

A VERY ENGLISH FANTASY blends the world of 1920s Oxford with the oldest legends of pre-Roman Britain. Wow! B PLUS

THE WOLF IN THE ATTIC
Solaris
2016

NEW YORK’S ART scene in 1980 is the setting for this richly textured novel (with a touch of magic realism). SOLID B

TUESDAY NIGHTS IN 1980
Gallery/Scout Press
2016

MARVELOUS FAUX-VICTORIAN THRILLER mashes up the Brontës and Dickens with a fierce, unconventional heroine. A MINUS

JANE STEELE
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
2016

SHOCKING YET GENTLY elegiac novel captures late-60s disaffection through the eyes of a cult hanger-on.

A GLORIOUSLY RAMSHACKLE EPIC about time travel, but also about love and family secrets and war crimes.