It’s official – it really does seem as if lab lit, the genre, is finally going mainstream. In our latest upgrade, I’m pleased to introduce a whopping 83 new additions to the List: 76 lab lit novels, two novels in the “crossover” science fiction category, three movies and two plays. While some are older works we’ve rediscovered, there is an encouragingly large number of new titles too. Gone are the days when we might see one a year – now we have handfuls.
The variety of our latest additions is compelling – there really is something for everyone. We’ve got taut thrillers, historical dramas based on real-life events, romantic beach reads, soul-searching meditations, whodunnits, and what some might call ‘literary fiction’ (a category I confess I don’t quite see as very different from many other novels not so graced by critical opinion). We have examples from both debut and established authors, from under-represented voices, and translations from Chinese, Russian, Norwegian, French and Danish writers.
We are very grateful as always to Dom Stiles, our intrepid “lab lit whisperer”, who sourced the majority of these gems. But thanks are also due to reader nominations and efforts by the rest of the LabLiterati (members of our wonderful monthly Fiction Lab book group at London’s Royal Institution, where many of our titles get a thorough grilling). We would love to hear your suggestions too, if there’s anything we’ve missed.
If you haven’t visited the List for a while, head on over and take a look. (We add new additions onto the bottom of each category.) We hope you enjoy it!
