Holiday Reading: Ten Tips to Cool You Down on Hot Days

Just like every year, several book titles have been released that deserve extra attention. Since it's the season of holidays and vacations, I'd like to highlight a few of them. The first half of the year is behind us, and time off is a great reason to catch up on your reading list. Especially if you enjoy train travel like I do, or if you like lounging by the water—which, for the record, has never been my thing. I’d much rather sit in the shade with a cold beer.

Regardless, we all have our own personal taste and prefer certain genres or authors. I’m basing this on my own preferences, so don't expect humorous sagas about amateur wizards, fire-breathing dragons, or journeys there and back again. I like dark stuff that sends shivers down your spine on sweltering days or leaves you with a lingering thought long after you finish.

And I’m not a fan of variations on things already said and written a million times over. But judge for yourself:

Kazuo Ishiguro – Klara and the Sun (Argo)

I’m generally not of the opinion that an award-winning author automatically suits my taste. Honestly, some of those things are quite boring, where intellect triumphs over the story itself. But there are exceptions. One of them is the British author of Japanese descent Kazuo Ishiguro, who has a Nobel Prize in Literature under his belt, but more importantly, likes to dabble in speculative fiction, with hits like The Buried Giant or Never Let Me Go. I highly recommend the film adaptation of the latter. Now, a fresh new release has hit the shelves: Klara and the Sun, a testimony from a decommissioned robot named Klara, gifted with keen observation skills and advanced AI. Her difficult task is to care for an incurably ill child while trying to understand how humans actually work. I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to this one.

R. F. Kuang – The Poppy War (Host)

I have something for fantasy fans, too. This is the first book of the three-part saga The Poppy War. Its author is Chinese immigrant Rebecca F. Kuang, currently living in America. The main character is a girl named Rin, of whom the blurb says: "They trained her for war. She intends to end it."

Believe me, there’s no room for romantic subplots here. This is dark military fantasy full of weapons, suffering, bloodshed, and supernatural phenomena. Much like with Liu Cixin, you can see that the Chinese mentality is worlds apart from ours. That makes The Poppy War an attractive, readable piece, as you’ll hardly sink into landscapes of clichés and overused tropes. Moreover, much of what is written here is a paraphrase of the history of this great country. If you’re into Asian culture, you won't go wrong here.

This likable author is slowly starting to collect literary awards. For instance, she won a Hugo for the The Poppy War trilogy as the best young author.

Štěpán Kopřiva – 101 Minutes (Crew)

Štěpán Kopřiva has moved away from fantasy in his work, but we still consider him "our" author. And that’s a good thing. After two excellent detective novels, he released a book this year that can be described as a disaster thriller set in the Prague metro. Plus, it takes place in a tight timeframe – 101 Minutes. I definitely don't recommend it to those who suffer from claustrophobia and have a vivid imagination. Everyone else will devour every letter of this tense story about rescuers and the rescued.

Štěpán Kopřiva still knows how to captivate, and it really doesn't matter what genre or setting he chooses. For me, a hot candidate for book of the year.

Marko Hautala – The Architect of Darkness (Golden Dog)

Finnish author Marko Hautala has already introduced himself to our market with two novels, but he eventually turned his back on his original publisher. From my perspective, the publisher was to blame, as they promoted Hautala as the "Finnish King." Sure, both write horror, but they are also very different. However, if you enjoyed the old "King" books from the eighties, when King could truly be called a master of horror, then remember the darkest atmosphere of his books. And that is exactly Hautala’s specialty. Dark, horrific, terrifying.

The Architect of Darkness takes you to a haunted house, but it’s not part of a remote estate somewhere on a hill; it’s an apartment building in the city center. That makes it all the more terrifying. This Finn is literarily and thematically modern and, most importantly, a hell of a creator of dense atmosphere. And The Architect of Darkness is his best book published here so far.

Jeff VanderMeer – Hummingbird Salamander (Argo)

Let’s lighten things up a bit. But only seemingly, because the new book by the popular Jeff VanderMeer, the first book in the Strange Troubles series, Hummingbird Salamander, is also a real kick. While it contains a few horror elements, it’s more of a modern and bolder paraphrase of Alice in Wonderland.

Those who like VanderMeer know that the author likes to effortlessly flow between genres, just as he creates visually rich patterns from his flowery words. It’s not for nothing that he was considered one of the main figures of the New Weird literary movement, which, after a proper explosion, consumed itself like the mythical Ouroboros. Since then, the American author has been showcasing various craft styles in his works and breaking genre boundaries. And he’s doing it brilliantly!

Hummingbird Salamander tells the story of sixteen-year-old Jonathan, who inherits a house from his eccentric grandfather and must inventory his belongings. But these aren't just ordinary things; they are also strange creatures. The main goal of Jonathan's efforts suddenly becomes protecting our world from an invasion of black magic. In any case, you will thoroughly enjoy this VanderMeer fantasy. Whether you’d want to live inside his head, that’s another question…

Livia Llewellyn – Furnace (Medusa)

A bad habit has spread here—renowned translators are starting their own small publishing houses. I’m joking, of course, because this is one of the best things that could have happened to us readers. At least to those who don't crave generic bestsellers that all end up looking suspiciously similar.

Roman Tilcer first served us a great weird novella, Grass, in his publishing house to assure us that the path he chose would be thorny but also juicy and interesting. The second one to arrive is Furnace. The book is in the same spirit (in terms of scope and format) as the previous effort, and the publisher has served us another remarkable female author, Livia Llewellyn. Her novella is a mesmerizing mix of Lovecraftian prose set in times yet to come, as well as a truly Kafkaesque atmosphere where the protagonist is just a cog in a bureaucratic-mysterious machine. Bizarre without borders, a journey to damnation. And it’s damn good!

Aleš Pitzmos – Synchronicity (Carcosa)

Another effort that definitely deserves attention is the new release from the Carcosa publishing house called Synchronicity. The author comes from our neck of the woods and his name is Aleš Pitzmos. You might know him more as a sci-fi or space opera author, but this time he has headed into much darker and more mysterious waters. He tells a story about paradoxes that create an alternative sequence of events at a certain time and place. The plot is set in the town of Lipnice nad Sázavou during the Protectorate, and the main character doesn't really know if he is moving in reality or on the edge of a fever dream. Because events are playing with him to an unprecedented degree. And there’s even a fictional Czech superhero, Pérák.

Synchronicity easily mixes genres of sci-fi, thriller, horror, and alternative history. It is written very readably, and if you succumb to it, you won't regret it.

Queens of Horror (anthology / Fobos)

There are those who prefer novels or long-winded series and turn their noses up at a classic short story. Honestly, I don't understand that at all, because the short story is the foundation of the literary craft. Sure, as everywhere, there are works here that we divide according to personal taste into good and bad, catchy and boring, fascinating and inaccessible, etc. But it’s just about which horse you bet on. Just like with everything else.

And sometimes a person is in the mood for a classic. Of course, you can imagine whatever you want now, but I’m talking about classic scary and horror stories. Moreover, presented by famous and slightly forgotten British and American female authors who were certainly considered oddballs in their time given what they wrote. For some, darker literature was only one part of their writing portfolio. In any case, all these works have stood the test of time, had the cobwebs dusted off, and given rise to a very representative short story anthology Queens of Horror, compiled by British writer and researcher Graeme Davis.

Kristina Haidingerová – In Bloom (Golden Dog)

We’ll stay with female authors for a moment, or rather with one who has already gained a solid reputation in domestic fantastic waters. Kristina Haidingerová is not only a tireless organizer of HorrorCon and an editor of short story anthologies, but above all a great writer.

Besides the vampire saga Violeti, she is also the author of the successful erotic novel Richard’s Living Toys. And it is in this direction that she headed in her current novella In Bloom. Here, however, she let her authorial imagination run wild, creating a story with a neurotic erotic atmosphere that headed somewhere toward the waters of new weird or bizarro fiction. The story is all the more piquant for it, sending the protagonist into a realm hidden behind the pages of a mysterious book. A short and captivating read that attacks more senses than you’d expect.

Philip Fracassi – Sacculina (Gnóm)

Another of the small publishing houses led by an experienced translator is Gnóm by Jakub Němeček. It’s been about four years since Philip Fracassi’s inconspicuous short story collection Behold the Void appeared under his wings. Not only was it a very decent lesson in what modern horror should look like, but we were also introduced to an author whose every effort deserves to be under the microscope of excited genre fans. I, for one, completely fell in love with Fracassi thanks to this short story book.

Now, his novella Sacculina is being released under the same brand, which will let readers sway on some seriously foaming waves. We find ourselves on a fishing boat trip together with a strange captain and four men who are celebrating the return of one of them from prison. That such a voyage will turn into genuine horror is clear from the start…

author Roman Bílek