Joe Abercrombie returns to the fantasy world of his bestselling First Law series with A Little Hatred (Gollancz, £18.99), the first volume in a new trilogy. The Union is under threat from enemies on its northern border and ravaged by industrial revolution sweeping the land. Abercrombie examines the effects of social upheaval and the use and abuse of power through the viewpoints of a large cast, from kings, princes, warriors and seers to businessmen and women; the characterisation is little short of brilliant. The plot is labyrinthine, with trademark Abercrombie twists and turns and reversals of fortune. He writes of slum life with graphic realism, and his rendering of battle scenes is to die for. The novel culminates in a rousing finale that sets the scene for the second volume. The complex world of A Little Hatred is best appreciated if the reader is acquainted with the First Law books.
The Undoing of Arlo Knott (Orbit, £8.99), Heather Child’s second novel, following the successful Everything About You, combines compassion and a fascinating premise to produce a moving time-slip romance. It opens with 13-year-old Arlo helping his mother in the garden: a moment of inattention leads to the accident that kills her, and which Arlo might have prevented. Stricken with guilt, he develops the peculiar ability to rewind events, sending himself back in time to manipulate reality. As he grows up, he turns into a self-obsessed young man with little empathy for those around him and successful at everything he turns his hand to – until he meets the love of his life and events force him to reassess his ability. Child makes the initially unlikable Arlo the focus of our sympathy as she expertly reveals a character flawed by circumstance, and the novel has a wonderfully poignant ending. The Undoing of Arlo Knott is a triumph.
In Stephen Baxter’s latest 500-page blockbuster World Engines: Destroyer (Gollancz, £20), the astronaut adventurer Reid Malenfant, protagonist of the Manifold series, returns. Malenfant, horribly injured in a 2019 shuttle accident and placed in suspended animation, is revived almost 500 years later. The post-scarcity Earth he wakes to has many surprises in store: the population stands at just 1 billion, space exploration is a thing of the past, and a rogue planet – or alien object – on a long orbit around the sun threatens life on Earth when it returns in 900 years. What follows is a rollicking adventure through the solar system as Malenfant takes to space in a bid to fathom the mystery of the menacing object. This is space opera on a vast scale, backed up by Baxter’s customary impressive research as he seamlessly weaves planetary exploration, genome reconstruction, climate change, artificial intelligence and much more into the compulsively readable narrative. The opening volume of a projected series, it’s Baxter at his very best.
NJ Crosskey follows up her well-received debut Poster Boy with Overdrawn (Legend, £8.99), a sombre dystopia examining a society in which the old and infirm are viewed as disposable commodities. It’s often a harrowing read, though one which offers redemption and a modicum of hope. In a near-future Britain, healthcare has been privatised and the Collective Council actively encourages ill and elderly citizens to “Move On” – a euphemism for euthanasia. We follow a couple in their 60s, Henry and Chloe, battling with increasingly depressing and irrevocable health issues, and Kaitlyn, who is using her hard-earned credits to fund her brother’s prolonged medical treatment. Their lives seem hopeless until Henry and Kaitlyn meet by chance and form an alliance of necessity to help each other beat the system. Without ever resorting to sentimentality, Crosskey tugs at the heart strings with her portrayal of ordinary people pitted against an implacable political system: this study of a washed-out, uncaring society is a salutary warning.
Director and screenwriter David Koepp’s first novel, Cold Storage (HQ, £12.99), is a slick techno-chiller combining moments of gross-out horror, humour and some interesting scientific speculation. Roberto Diaz and Trini Romano, government agents seconded to the US Defense Nuclear Agency, are sent to Western Australia to investigate a rash of deaths caused by bacteria from a piece of Skylab that fell to Earth in the desert. They raze the affected area and isolate a specimen of the bacteria for analysis back in the States – but more than 30 years later Diaz is called out of retirement when the deadly mutated organism escapes from quarantine. It’s a hackneyed premise but handled with a screenwriter’s narrative verve, snappy dialogue and breakneck scene shifting – and refreshingly Diaz, in his late 60s and feeling the pace, is not your average all-action American hero.