Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
Orbit, £15.99 Buy the book here

Flood by Stephen Baxter
Gollancz, £12.99 Buy the book here

Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn
Gollancz, £12.99 Buy the book here

Since Isaac Asimov first spelled out his Three Laws of Robotics in a 1941 short story, they've been widely used by other science fiction writers to explain why creations much stronger and smarter than humans might remain our slaves rather than rising in rebellion against us.

The narrator of Saturn's Children was designed to be the perfect sex-toy and companion. As soon as she sets eyes on her male, human owner, Freya Nakamachi-47 will fall madly, slavishly in love with him. Unfortunately for her, the last human being of any kind died shortly before she emerged from the factory. The entire solar system is now inhabited and run by intelligent machines that continue to do what they were designed to do. Only some of them, like Freya, understand that there is no point to their existence, and (prohibited by the Third Law from self-destruction) are driven to try to create one.

Charles Stross's latest novel is a smart and playful romp, full of clever ideas and jokes that Asimov himself surely would have enjoyed.

Disaster novels have been a popular subset of science fiction since the genre began, and, as Stephen Baxter remarks in his Afterword, “The flood is an ur-myth of our culture.” In Flood, he presents a terrifying scenario in which the sea rises not just the few metres likely to be caused by global warming, but unstoppably, to cover all the land within a few decades, as water long trapped deep beneath the earth's mantle is released.

Baxter's viewpoint characters have the sort of jobs, money or connections that means they escape disaster areas at a moment's notice by helicopter or submarine, while less fortunate folk die in their millions. Although this allows the author a way of presenting the bigger picture, rather than concentrating on the immediate small details of personal survival, it's at the cost of emotional engagement.

The scientific lectures and speculation are interesting, if cool. By contrast, the narrative occasionally bogs down in unconvincing soap opera dynamics, presumably meant to make the sketchily-presented characters seem like real people. Despite this weakness, Baxter's vision of a drowning earth is powerfully compelling.

The angels in Principles of Angels are licensed assassins in a floating city where nothing is forbidden and anything can be bought, if you're rich. For the poor, there's a grim existence in the Undertow, for ever one step away from death.

In her first novel, Jaine Fenn has created a vivid and unusual world, populated by an interesting array of characters. The plot is perhaps overly complicated and creaks under the weight of authorial determination, but it's a promising start.

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