The best recent science fiction and fantasy – review roundup
Carole Stivers’s first novel was originally slated for British publication in May, but postponed because of the lockdown. The Mother Code (Hodder & Stoughton, £20.99) was written well before the current pandemic and yet couldn’t be more timely. After a botched mission by the US military to defeat terrorists with bioweapons, the world is ravaged by an inexorable viral plague. In a bid to save the human race, scientists develop genetically altered children immune to the virus and nurtured by robot AIs known as Mothers. The novel shuttles back and forth in time between the story of the scientists racing against the clock to develop the AIs while the plague devastates civilisation, and the children who are programmed with the Mother Code – a self-awareness with far-reaching and poignant consequences. After some early info-dumping, and characters relaying what they already know for the benefit of the reader, Stivers delivers a gripping techno-thriller which offers hope despite its bleak premise.
Nydia Hetherington’s magical realist debut, A Girl Made of Air (Quercus, £14.99), recounts the life story of Mouse, the greatest funambulist who ever lived. Interviewed by a journalist towards the end of her life, Mouse reviews her secrets and regrets. Born into a famous circus family, she grew up unloved and neglected in postwar Britain, a pathologically shy introvert skulking around the cages and caravans of a travelling circus until tightrope walker Serendipity Wilson takes charge and teaches her the tricks of the trade, lighting her life and imbuing her existence with meaning. In a narrative interspersed with newspaper reports, diary entries and chapters recounting Isle of Man folklore and legends, we follow Mouse from England to Coney Island as she leaves the circus in search of Serendipity’s lost daughter, Bunny. Mouse is a heartbreakingly melancholic character, and her journey is by turns uplifting and tragic as she recounts, and comes to terms with, the often tragic events of her past. A Girl Made of Air is an immensely assured first novel.
The Phoenix Empire, a string of islands sprawling across the Endless Sea, is the evocative Asian-influenced setting of Andrea Stewart’s debut grimdark fantasy, The Bone Shard Daughter (Orbit, £12.99). Par for the course in such epics, the emperor is draconian: he demands from the empire’s children a singular tithe: a sliver of their skulls from which he creates monstrous constructs that assist him in governing his domain. However, unrest and revolution are in the air. Stewart peoples the leisurely narrative with characters including Lin, the emperor’s daughter, who works to subvert her father’s rule through mastery of bone shard magic – the ability to control the constructs which hold the empire in thrall. Well-drawn subsidiary characters include a smuggler, a lesbian couple and an amnesiac prisoner on an outlying island. As the narrative gains pace and change sweeps the islands, Stewart skilfully orchestrates her diverse cast towards a satisfyingly gripping climax. The Bone Shard Daughter is the opening volume in the the Drowning Empire trilogy.
Billed as a novel for young adults, Garth Nix’s latest novel The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Gollancz, £18.99) is sure to be enjoyed by readers of any age with a craving for fast-paced, page-turning fantasy. The setting is an alternative 1980s London where punk sensibility and the ever-present spectre of Margaret Thatcher rub shoulders with supernatural creatures from nether dimensions. Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives to begin her studies while attempting to trace her long-lost father. She soon becomes embroiled with the young, gender-fluid Merlin, one of the eponymous Left-Handed Booksellers, a society of arcane individuals whose duty is to deal with creatures that seep into this reality from ancient myth. What follows, as Susan attempts to find her father, and Merlin tracks down the supernatural being responsible for the killing of his mother, is a madcap chase that is sure to win Nix new fans.
Set in an unnamed city in an unspecified classical age, SE Lister’s powerful third novel Augury (Old Street, £12.99) tells of upheaval and uncertainty in a time of plenty. Following an earthquake, the Augur, an ancient priestess who was once close to the ruling emperor, prophesies imminent doom for the city and its hedonistic inhabitants, though few are willing to listen. Opposing the priestess is the merciless Athraxus of the Dark Temple, who has the favour of the emperor and will stop at nothing to ensure the Augur’s downfall. The novel charts the period leading up to the impending catastrophe, seen through the eyes of a large cast of well-drawn characters, as the priestess attempts to save the city and its citizens. Lister excels at depicting the complexity and consequences of deadly court politics and the misuse of power.
• Eric Brown’s latest novel is The Martian Menace (Titan).
