Science fiction: nine lab-life novels for your holiday reading

Katabasis R. F. Kuang Harper Voyager (2025) Graduate studies can be hell — metaphorically. In Katabasis , it’s the literal truth. Katabasis is Greek for a descent to the underworld — think Dante’s Inferno . But in R. F. Kuang’s hands, these works are not literature but travel guides. Alice Law and Peter Murdoch are PhD students at the University of Cambridge, UK, the top institution in their field of analytical magick. …