Readers, this is an odd book. It's very entertaining, certainly, but even so, The Archers Anarchists' Survival Guide is strange indeed. Written by Ian Sanderson—who has already penned The Archers Anarchists' A-Z—this guide is aimed at a distinct sub grouping of the BBC radio 4 audience (ie not many folks at all). This is a shame because the writing is actually very good. Not only must readers be fans of the long-running radio soap, they should also have a sense of humour, a dislike of green wellies and an unflinching belief that Ambridge is in fact real life. Rather like a particularly bitter Terry Wogan phone-in, or a vitriolic Tony Hawks (Round Ireland With A Fridge, etc) appearance on I'm Sorry, I Haven't A Clue, Sanderson rails against his beloved home from home with abandon, sneering at its chinless residents, laughing at its production shortfalls (twigs underfoot? It must be winter!), and basically performing a thorough assassination of the whole shebang (it's probably even funnier if you know who he's talking about).

Slapped in to fill up the pages are various quizzes and crosswords, as well as investigations into the Sausage war, and all sorts of murder and mayhem including research into the mysterious ranks of The Ambridge Disappeared. There are uneatable recipes and a few scoffing paragraphs about the official fanclub and its members, The Ambridge Anoraks, alternative endings to key Archers scenes, plus abuse for people called Trevor. Of course, Sanderson would not stand to hear such an attack from anyone else. Like many a fan, he'll criticise happily, until someone does it for real. So instead, safe in his public schoolboy's club 'in-jokes' he invites other true fans to poke fun at the little things, safe in the knowledge that the big world of Ambridge is keeping its fans. At the back of the book there is actually an address to join the club! Who knows? If you didn't listen to the Archers before, perhaps you will now. Of course, you'll only ever know the characters by their irreverent Anarchist names... —Helen Lamont.

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.

The main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout she remains a hugely likeable young woman.

Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. —Robert Burrow

The Terminal Experiment has propelled Robert J. Sawyer into the limelight as one of science fiction's hot new writers, earning him the prestigious Nebula Award in the process. In this fast- paced thriller, Dr Peter Hobson's investigations into death and afterlife lead him to create three separate electronic versions of himself: one has no memory of physical existence and represents life after death; one has no knowledge of death or ageing and represents immortality; and the third is left unaltered as a control. But all three have escaped into the worldwide matrix ... and one of them is a killer.