Ken Liu is one of science fiction’s most popular short story writers, and he also translated one of China’s biggest sci-fi novels, The Three Body Problem, into English. His first novel, The Grace of Kings, is inspired by historical legends that he first heard as a boy growing up in China.

“I do remember those were my favorite stories growing up,” Liu says in Episode 148 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “And I said, ‘I’m going to take this period of history [and] I’m going to try to re-imagine the story as a Western epic fantasy.'”

We are pleased to announce that Perfect Daughter by Amanda Prowse has been selected as one of the books that will be handed out on World Book Night 2016. 

‘Has the enemy’s front line been Captured?’ asked the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion of the Newfound- land Regiment, Lt.-Col. Arthur Hadow. The reply he received from his 88th Brigade headquarters was terse: ‘The situation is not cleared up.’ It was 8.45 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, 1 July 1916—a beautiful summer’s morning with a clear blue sky—and Hadow had been given orders by his immediate supe- rior, Brig. Douglas E. Cayley, to advance ‘as soon as possible’ to support the attack of the 87th Brigade on the German trenches situated in front of ‘Y’ Ravine at Beaumont Hamel north of the river Ancre in Picardy. He inquired whether ‘as soon as possible’ meant that he was expected to attack without the support of the 1st Battalion of the Essex Regiment on his right flank, and was told that it did.1 The Newfoundlanders were going to have to attack alone.

Acclaimed, Glasgow-based writer Louise Welsh has curated a collection of 100 Ghost Stories To Read With The Lights On. We are understandably as obsessed with our dead and death as we are with life and while we may yearn for the return of our loved ones, we are terrified what form that return might take. She has chosen authors both dead and alive (ghostwriters!) from Edgar Allan Poe to Hilary Mantel and includes ghosts and hauntings of many descriptions. Happy Haunting!

Max Adams takes us on a long-distance walk through the wilds, from Northumberland to Paisley, in this two week audio travel diary.