Roundup: 4 science fiction books for a brave new year

Wormhole

By Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

(Angry Robot, $18.99, 393 pages)

“Wormhole” is a solid example of what has proven to be one of the most durable genre hybrids: the science fiction-detective story.

The year is 2189 and Gordon Kemp is an unprepossessing, middle-aged cop who has been banished to the cold cases squad of the London police. As unhappy as he is with his job it’s about to get a lot worse when he’s partnered up with a keen young detective named Danni Bellini and tasked with a very cold case indeed: a murder that took place 80 years earlier.

Normally this would make it a dead case, but a newly identified prime suspect has just come out of deep sleep after journeying to another solar system along with a shipload of passengers sent to colonize a planet named Carrasco. When a wormhole is opened between Carrasco and Earth, Kemp is sent out, reluctantly, to investigate.

There’s a formula being followed here, down to the odd-couple of buddy cops and the conspiracy of powerful interests working behind the scenes, but there’s a reason why SF mysteries have remained so popular. The elements work so well together that it won’t be any surprise to see more of Kemp and Bellini coming soon.

The Best of World SF, Volume 2

Ed. by Lavie Tidhar

(Head of Zeus, $53.95, 608 pages)

You’d be forgiven for thinking that expanding the boundaries of science fiction away from a predominantly “white, male and American” point of view is all about going woke, for good or ill. But an alertness to prejudice and calls for social justice are not primarily what editor Lavie Tidhar is about in this second of his “Best of World SF” volumes.

In opening the genre up to new voices from around the world we get a rich blend of stories that mix traditional SF concerns within different cultural matrixes. To take just one example, there’s a fruitful intersection of contemporary political issues and the threat of machine takeover in the rebellion of human slaves against an elite of robot/cyborg overlords in China.

We’re also left with the feeling that in ranging further abroad SF has come closer to home in stories dealing with domestic and personally intimate concerns such as medical science, food and family. Global SF is a paradoxically local phenomenon, making the world’s future feel more universal in a human sense.

The Future is Female! Volume Two: The 1970s

Ed. by Lisa Yaszek

(Library of America, $36.95, 490 pages)

This book is a followup to a previous anthology published by the prestigious Library of America that showcased classic science fiction stories by women from SF’s pulp era through the golden age. You can now get both volumes together as an attractive boxed set, though they’re also great as standalones.

Chronologically, we pick up here where the first book left off, with names including Ursula K. Le Guin and James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon) carrying over. But much in the literary landscape has changed. In the first book, SF was in the process of being fashioned into its modern form and the writers were pioneers breaking new genre ground. In this collection, we’re deeper into SF’s new wave and the stories have become more overtly political, drawing on the politics and cultural energy of second-wave feminism in its heyday.

In general, the longer pieces tend to be the best because they allow for more ambiguity in the messaging, while the shorter ones involve more obvious sloganeering. Overall, however, editor Yaszek has come up with a great mix and, as is the case with most such historical anthologies, the real treat is in discovering some terrific but less well-known works by authors now largely forgotten.

Extinction

By Bradley Somer

(Blackstone, $36.95, 350 pages)

“Extinction” begins in an odd way for an SF novel, with lots of lovely nature writing as we’re introduced to a park ranger named Ben out on his own in the great outdoors. But little by little things open up, only to reveal how they are closing down at the same time.

Specifically, what’s closing down is planet Earth. Overcome by environmental collapse and pandemics, humanity is heading for the door. Meaning they’re getting on spaceships and colonizing other planets. Meanwhile, Ben is staying behind to guard the last bear standing, a mission that gets difficult when a team of hunters enters the picture.

“Extinction” reads like a fable in the form of a survivalist adventure story, with the fate of the bear evoking the experience of our own end times. This is particularly so given the pervading sense of isolation and alienation that Bradley Somer cultivates. The wilderness has become a place and inner space, where, as one character puts it, one learns “what alone really feels like.” It’s a depressing fate we’ve brought upon ourselves.

SHARE: