Book reviews and guides

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Together with Sellic Spell

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien's prose translation of Beowulf appears with detailed lecture commentary and Sellic Spell, revealing his reading of the poem's monsters, history, language, and folklore.

Beren and Lúthien

Edited by Christopher Tolkien

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Successive versions trace the mortal Beren and immortal Lúthien as they challenge Morgoth, seek a Silmaril, and transform love into one of the foundational legends of Middle-earth.

Between Two Fires

A Novel

By Christopher Buehlman

A dark historical horror journey through plague era France where faith, monsters, and survival collide.

Beyond the Aquila Rift

The Best of Alastair Reynolds

By Alastair Reynolds

This career-spanning collection brings together Reynolds's major novellas and stories, including Revelation Space histories, deep-time journeys, cosmic horror, machine minds, and intimate speculative tragedies.

Billions and Billions

Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

By Carl Sagan

Sagan's final essay collection connects large numbers, environmental risk, nuclear danger, public ethics, love, illness, and mortality, followed by an epilogue from Ann Druyan.

Binary

A John Lange Novel

By Michael Crichton

Agent John Graves races to stop political radical John Wright from combining two stolen chemicals into a lethal nerve agent during a presidential event in San Diego.

Black House

By Stephen King and Peter Straub

Adult Jack Sawyer leaves retirement to help investigate murders of children in Wisconsin, drawing him toward his forgotten Territories past and a threat from End-World.

Bleak House

A Novel

By Charles Dickens

The endless Jarndyce inheritance case connects Esther Summerson to aristocrats, lawyers, orphans, and investigators in a London where legal delay spreads damage far beyond the courtroom.

Blue Remembered Earth

Poseidon's Children, Book 1

By Alastair Reynolds

After matriarch Eunice Akinya dies, grandchildren Geoffrey and Sunday follow clues across a prosperous African-led solar system, uncovering a secret their powerful family wants contained.

Bone Silence

The Revenger Trilogy, Book 3

By Alastair Reynolds

Hunted for crimes they did not commit, the Ness sisters pursue the truth behind quoins, power, and the ancient machinery of the Congregation in the conclusion to the Revenger trilogy.

Brave New World

Dystopian Classic Review

By Aldous Huxley

Brave New World imagines a future engineered society where comfort, conditioning, and consumer rituals replace freedom.

Brigands & Breadknives

Legends & Lattes, Book 3

By Travis Baldree

Bookseller Fern leaves the comfort of Thune and joins a legendary elven adventurer on the road, discovering that restlessness, friendship, and second chances can lead beyond the coffee shop.

Broca's Brain

Reflections on the Romance of Science

By Carl Sagan

A wide-ranging essay collection in which Sagan moves from Paul Broca's preserved brain to planetary exploration, pseudoscience, extraterrestrial life, scientific responsibility, and the public use of evidence.

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

A Novel

By V. E. Schwab

Across centuries, three women pursue freedom, love, and immortality through a dark lineage of hunger that transforms their bodies and binds their stories together.

Catching Fire

Book 2 of The Hunger Games Trilogy

By Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire expands the unrest across Panem as Katniss and Peeta face a victory tour and a Quarter Quell designed to contain rebellion.

Century Rain

A Novel

By Alastair Reynolds

Future archaeologist Verity Auger enters a hidden version of 1959 Paris, where jazz musician and private investigator Wendell Floyd is pursuing a murder tied to realities neither fully understands.

Chasm City

A Revelation Space Novel

By Alastair Reynolds

Security specialist Tanner Mirabel crosses interstellar space to hunt Argent Reivich through Chasm City, a former technological paradise deformed by plague and divided by extreme inequality.

Check & Mate

A Rivals-to-Lovers Chess Romance

By Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood's YA chess romance follows a retired chess prodigy returning to competition against the sport's reigning champion.