The Guardian's regular science fiction, fantasy and horror column rounds up five recently published books, offering brief critical assessments of each. The selection spans literary speculative fiction, ghost stories, horror and time-travel thrillers, with several debut novels featured alongside work from established authors.

The books covered are Isabel J Kim's *Sublimation* (Picador, £18.99), a debut using the idea of duplicate "instances" to reimagine the immigrant experience; Andrés Barba's *Last Day of a Prior Life* (Scribe, £10.99), a subtle ghost story translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman; Paul Tremblay's *Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep* (Bloomsbury, £18.99), a dark tale of a brain implant that reanimates the dead; Ruth Newton's debut *The Carrier* (Bantam, £18.99), a thriller about women paid to absorb others' painful emotions; and Ellery Lloyd's *Time to Burn* (Macmillan, £16.99), a twist-filled thriller about commercial time travel for the super-rich. Each review notes the book's central premise and the reviewer's largely positive verdict.