8) No Present Like Time, by Steph Swainston

Having enjoyed The Year of Our War, I was looking forward to Swainston’s second book; and indeed it was a good read. Here she has put more effort into world-building: the island empire of the previous book is only one of three locales, the other two being Tris, a newly discovered island off to the east, and Epsilon, a parallel dream-city into which Jant, the narrator, escapes when he has taken sufficient drugs. There is less office politics, and more high politics; the humour is a bit more sophisticated (especially the confrontation between the imperial instincts of Jant and his friends and the democrats of Tris). Good stuff.