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Tor Nightfire, 304 pages, $38.99

S.A. Barnes has become the go-to name for creepy SF-horror, and 鈥淐old Eternity鈥� follows previous books like 鈥淒ead Silence鈥� and 鈥淕host Station鈥� in going off-planet to tell a techno-ghost story.

The main character is a young woman named Halley who is on the run from the political powers-that-be, who are also her former employers. Desperate, she takes a job as a sort of security guard on board the Elysian Fields, an ancient spaceship filled with cryo-chambers. It鈥檚 a lousy gig, but the ship makes a good place to hide from the authorities 鈥� at least until things start taking a turn for the weird and Halley finds herself facing off against a next-generation evil.

Barnes does this kind of thing very well, and there are parts of 鈥淐old Eternity鈥� that are genuinely suspenseful and scary. Halley鈥檚 backstory is complicated, though, and there are too many pages devoted to a romance angle with an AI. It鈥檚 a chillingly effective read, but one that also makes you wish there was a little less of it.

Rose/House

Arkady Martine

Tordotcom, 128 pages, $27.99

Rose House is the name of a structure built out in the Mojave Desert by a famous architect who designed it as both his masterpiece and the final repository of his crystallized remains. As things kick off, the resident AI that runs Rose House, and that 鈥渋s鈥� Rose House in a deeper sense, calls the local police to let them know that there鈥檚 a dead body inside, which is something that should be impossible since there鈥檚 only one person who has been given access to the building and she鈥檚 out of the country.

What follows is a spin on the classic 鈥渓ocked room鈥� murder mystery. It鈥檚 also a ghost story, as the AI (which is 鈥渘ot sane鈥� in the best Hill House tradition) haunts Rose House in complicated ways. Multiple layers of what happened are revealed to the pair of women allowed inside: the detective investigating and the building鈥檚 legal heir. This all makes for a great buildup, and if the payoff isn鈥檛 quite on the same level, it鈥檚 at least something different and unexpected.

Where the Axe Is Buried

Ray Nayler

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 336 pages, $37

Though this is only his third novel, Ray Nayler has already established himself as a must-read for intelligent, near-future speculative fiction.

鈥淲here the Axe Is Buried鈥� is a political thriller set in a New Cold War version of Europe where Russia is ruled by a president who can live forever in a series of new bodies into which his consciousness can be ported, and artificial intelligence programs called prime ministers run a 鈥渞ationalized鈥� Western Europe.

Unfortunately, technology has not set us free, and both sides are post-ideological authoritarian surveillance states聽鈥� places where insect-sized drones carry messages of hope or death, and when you look out into the streets, the street is always looking back at you. There are underground resistance movements, though, and scientists, spies and politicians trying to tear down the system and build something better.

It鈥檚 a complicated story that hops around a lot among many characters in many places, but Nayler鈥檚 world-building is top notch, creating a plausible and deeply realized vision of the future that also feels scarily close to home.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

John Scalzi

Tor, 336 pages, $39.99

The premise is everything: suddenly, and all at once, the moon turns into cheese.

Indeed, not only the moon itself, but all the moon rocks on display in museums and in private collections here on Earth.

Of course, Luna鈥檚 transformation into Caseus (Latin for 鈥渃heese鈥�) is ridiculous. At first, none of the characters in John Scalzi鈥檚 latest can believe it鈥檚 happened. But the novel works by taking the great cheesification event literally, though not seriously. If the moon were to turn into cheese, we鈥檙e led to ask, what would happen next?

Each chapter tells the story of a different character, progressing daily until the book has covered a full lunar cycle. The question each section asks is how politicians, scientists, business leaders, the media and the broader public are affected, and how they might respond to such a bizarre event.

This is just an entertainment, with little hard science and not a lot of deep thinking behind it, but it鈥檚 all good fun in Scalzi鈥檚 typically playful hands.