SHORT STORIES ARE MY favourite holiday reading: espresso jolts, quickly consumed but leaving a lasting buzz and plenty to think about.

Steven Utley’s stories in Where or When (PS, £25) share the common theme of time travel, and bring other times and places vividly to life. But whether witnessing the eruption of Mount Pelée, low-life in New Orleans, or the fall of Berlin, his characters learn that they can’t escape from themselves. Powerful, haunting tales with a bleak view of the human condition.

Dark Alchemy (Bloomsbury, £16.99/offer £15.29), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, is aimed at younger readers, but it contains new stories by such talents as Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, Gene Wolfe, and others of equal stature, making it a book no fantasy fan will want to miss.

Charles Stross is the only British author with a novel on this year’s Hugo Award short-list. The winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention (World-con) in Japan in August. Glasshouse (Orbit, £6.99/£6.29) is set in the 27th century, in an interstellar, posthuman future where even death has been conquered, but people still fight wars for the power to control reality. Robin was a soldier who has had his memory wiped, presumably to escape guilt or erase atrocities he has witnessed, so he doesn’t know why someone is trying to kill him. Needing to hide, he agrees to join an experimental community based on a little-known period from the 20th century, and wakes up as a suburban housewife in a scenario similar to The Stepford Wives. The plot twists and surprises in impressively mind-bending style.

Simon Spurrier’s debut novel can be read free online until mid-July, and for those who want something permanent is available in hardcover. Contract (Headline, £19.99/ £17.99; or www.itsallaboutthemoney.co.uk) is a tour de force that manages to be repellent and engaging at the same time, as the professional hit-man Michael Point explains the tricks of his trade and tries to understand why some of his victims won’t stay dead.

The undead have a powerful hold on the contemporary psyche. Best of the many vampire books around is Scott Westerfeld’s Parasite Positive(Atom, £5.99/£5.69), a clever, fast-paced thriller. The author takes an unromantic, scientific view of vampirism, and seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of parasites, using facts about trematodes, wolbachia, toxoplasma and so on to make his “peeps” and their world utterly plausible.

Those who prefer the more romantic idea of the sexy vampire will like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (Atom, £6.99/£6.64), an old-fashioned love story in modern dress. Bella Swan falls for the mysterious, porcelain-skinned Edward Cullen and won’t give up even when she learns that he is more than 100 years old, and that his awakened desire could kill her.

The queen of erotic vampire thrillers (with respect to Anne Rice) is surely Laurell K. Hamilton. The Harlequin (Orbit, £12.99/ £11.69) is the 14th Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel – increasingly baroque, but still a hardcore guilty pleasure.

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Celebrity choice: Anthony Daniels, C3PO actor

I recommend the delighful and moving novel of ET: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL by William Kotzwinkle. One of the joys is reading ET’s thought processes, which you can’t in the film. And it’s not every hero who has meaningful discussions with the local vegetables. C-3PO’s favourite read is MECHANICAL MONTHLY. R2D2 borrows it but only to look at the pictures. It’s not available in novel format. Visit anthonydaniels.com to find out about Star Wars events

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