A Dance With Dragons George RR Martin (Harper Voyager, £25) The TV channel HBO’s adaptation of A Game Of Thrones has introduced thousands of newcomers to George RR Martin’s brutal fantasy vision. Four books further into his epic Song Of Ice And Fire series comes this much-delayed instalment; mercifully, it justifies the wait. Plot specifics would be unfair on those following the TV series, or inspired by it to catch up with the books; much has changed in the intervening volumes. What remains constant is Martin’s deft characterisation, evocative description, and compelling plotting. Even as multiple plot strands interweave and twist, no development feels forced; everything unfolds with the terrible inevitability of history. Mystical and fantastical elements have gradually played a larger part as the series has unfolded, from the dragons of the title to the walking dead beyond the great Wall in the north, but the lands of Martin’s imagination have always retained a sense of realness and solidity rarely found in fantasy — or any fiction.

Supergods: Our World In The Age Of The Superhero Grant Morrison (Jonathan Cape, £17.99) Perfectly timed for a summer of superhero blockbusters, the best superhero writer in comics presents a non-fiction survey of his field. Tracing superheroes from Superman’s arrival in 1938’s first scrappy issue of Action Comics, to multimillion-dollar ubiquity, Morrison’s critical history is authoritative yet often hilariously personal. It is interwoven with a memoir of his own life as reader, and later creator. The key incident is a moment of contact with higher-dimensional beings, which Morrison freely admits may have been a mental breakdown — while observing that, if so, it was a lucrative one. This moment left him with the realisation that treating superhumans as an aspiration would do humanity more favours than obsessing over our failings. He says technological advances mean we are already, without appreciating it, living in a world of comic-book supergadgets. A unique, inspirational work.

I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions Of Google Employee Number 59 Douglas Edwards (Allen Lane, £20) As employee number 59 of Google, Edwards has a great story to tell. An ex-journalist who took a pay cut to do marketing for a relatively unknown Silicon Valley start-up, he became involved in one of technology’s greatest success stories. Written from a non-technical point of view, this book is accessible to anyone interested in business and culture.