Five top books that explore the monstrous

Fran Wilde’s novels and short stories have been finalists for three Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, and two Hugo Awards, and include her Andre Norton- and Compton-Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, its sequels Cloudbound, and Horizon, and the Nebula-, Hugo-, and Locus-nominated novelette The Jewel and Her Lapidary. At Tor.com she shared five books that explore the monstrous, including:

Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid — Wendy Williams

This is a gorgeous book that covers so many aspects of cephalopod science, and the stories behind the science, that summing it up would do a disservice to science-journalist Williams’ writing. Exploring intelligence, camouflage, propulsion and fuzzy math, the mundane, and the diaphanous, Kraken takes readers on a journey while it informs.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue