In a recent New Scientist column, sci-fi reviewer Emily H. Wilson gives a thumbs-up to two new books that take very different paths. One is a time-travel romance; the other is an alien encounter told from a microbe's perspective.
Claire North's As We Fall Through Time follows a time traveller whose romantic fate is at stake. Annalee Newitz's A Wall Is Also a Road, meanwhile, features a single-celled alien that struggles to understand the biology of Earth. Wilson highlights both premises as imaginative and successful.
Because the column is a single review, it offers no conflicting opinions to compare. Wilson's stance is straightforward: both novels impressed her and are worth readers' attention.