Saga: Volume 11

"Yes, this is the second Hugo for the Saga series – the first went to Volume 1 in 2013, so if you’re new to the series, you can start with another award winner. I’ve included it here with sci fi, but it’s regularly filed as science fantasy or fantasy too – and that’s indicative of the general playful richness of this world. Think space opera, with robots, but also with magic. It’s a very appealing world unconstrained by genre. It straddles the epic and the personal with the same flexible ease. In this volume, you’ll move between the politics of a planet and a moon at war with each other, the machinations of assassins trying to find their victims, and the daily struggles of a single mother and her two pre-teen children trying to make ends meet. These threads all belong together – the mother is among those hiding from the assassins, and connected to the war effort – and the telling of all three levels is cleverly spliced together, sometimes flicking back and forth at speed. The result is a satisfying sense of moving parts seen from above, the narrative pieces clicking into place as you read."