Tasha Robinson

The book — which Lynch wrote with journalist Kristine McKenna — is intimate and honest about the filmmaker's quirks and flaws, but doesn't dislodge the air of mystery that's settled around his work.

Jo Walton says her new collection isn't actually a book of short stories — rather, these pieces are jokes, exercises or odd poems. Either way, Starlings proves endlessly fascinating and inventive.

Weir returns to a successful formula in his new book — action and adventure in space, with a snarky voice and plenty of reader-friendly science — though this time the story moves to a moon colony.

Zach and Kelly Weinersmith's accessible, occasionally goofy new book lays out futuristic fantasies (like matter-printed cocktails) and connects them to projects scientists are working on right now.

Jennifer Egan's new novel, set in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, is full of deeply researched period detail and rich, memorable characters — though their motivations don't always add up.

Dana Schwartz is the Twitter whiz behind the @GuyInYourMFA and @DystopianYA accounts, but she stumbles in long form. Her debut novel, And We're Off, is quick and compelling but needs fleshing out.

Beagle has spent his career writing about unicorns — and he returns to that enclosed garden with In Calabria, the tale of a grouchy farmer who finds a pregnant unicorn investigating his fields.

Carolyn Parkhurst's new novel is told entirely from female perspectives; a mother and two troubled daughters. But the book really revolves around what's going on in the head of one man.

V.E. Schwab's follow-up to A Darker Shade of Magic picks up with heroes Kell and Delilah adventuring (and sometimes agonizing) in a magical alternate London while danger lurks in the titular shadows.

Ursula Vernon (writing as T. Kingfisher) delivers a fleet, stripped-down fairy tale with echoes of Bluebeard and Peter Beagle. Critic Tasha Robinson praises Vernon's tough-minded, distinctive women