In the guise of a mainstream biomedical thriller akin to Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil, or the novels of Robin Coma Cook, Nebula Award-winner Robert Sawyer has crafted a most ambitious tale.

As a teenager, Pierre Tardivel discovers that he has a 50 per cent chance of developing the hereditary Huntington's disease. The knowledge drives him to become a scientist working on the Human Genome Project at Berkley University, where he falls in love with Molly, a psychologist with the genetic "frameshift" for telepathy. A series of murders are traced to local neo-Nazis, someone is conducting an illegal experiment with Neanderthal DNA, and Department of Justice Agent Avi Meyer is hunting Ivan Marchenko, the concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible, The Butcher of Treblinka.

What makes Frameshift remarkable is the sympathetic and realistic portrayal of a progressively disabled hero, together with the interweaving into the story of the hunt for a real Nazi war criminal. Here Sawyer skilfully draws on the scandalous persecution of John Demjanjuk, a man mistakenly tried as Marchenko in the 1980's, a case documented in Yoram Sheftel's powerful Show Trial.

Robert J. Sawyer has woven a labyrinthine novel encompassing sufficient themes and plots for a handful of ordinary thrillers. He offers complex and imaginative scientific speculation, a thoughtful examination of the ethical implications of genetic testing, a slow-burning but dramatic thriller with a blockbuster climax, and a touching love story with a genuinely moving ending. Frameshift is a griping, and ultimately inspiring novel.—Gary S. Dalkin

Receiving a message from another, alien civilisation is not enough; you have then to decode it. Heather and her husband Kyle once tried to make sense of the message's geometric riddles and set it aside. It is when she is torn apart by her daughter's accusations of child abuse—she loses whether Kyle is a monster or Rebecca deluded—that Heather tries again, and has a wacky idea born of desperation. Perhaps she needs to get closer to the problem; perhaps she needs literally to get inside it. And when she does, she finds more riddles—just how to cope with knowing the whole truth about everyone and everything? Is this why an old boyfriend committed suicide? Is this an alien kindness, or a trap? Sawyer's novel has its betraying touches of modishness and melodrama, but it also has the charm that comes from good sense convincingly exhibited. If the fate of humanity is to be decided, it is always better done by someone as likeable as Sawyer's Heather. Science is not necessarily best done in an ivory tower; Sawyer is insightful on the way good work is done in the middle of crisis and the everyday. —Roz Kaveney

JK Rowling takes her enviable ability to turn paper into gold to the next level by cleverly teaming up with Comic Relief 2001 to bring Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a set text during Harry's first year at Hogwarts) and Quidditch Through the Ages (Harry's favourite book), to the masses—and all the money goes to charity. —Susan Harrison

Classic science-fiction: heroine trapped on island...Parahuans, believed wiped out 70 years ago, preparing to take over the planet...heroine and sidekicks, three mutated and intelligent otters, must stay alive long enough to warn the populace and alert the Federation's warships. Great cover art by Bob Andragna.