Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (Orbit, £18.99)
The debut novel from a World Fantasy award winner opens on Gaea Station, where a few thousand human survivors continue a desperate war against the alien empire that destroyed planet Earth. When her brother disappears, 17-year-old Kyr learns he’s been sent on a secret mission that will mean his death. Always the toughest, smartest fighter in her class, she risks everything to go after him. What begins as classic military space opera blossoms into something far more complex and interesting as Kyr discovers what life is like for the rest of Earth’s refugees on the planet Chrysothemis, meets a friendly alien and encounters the omnipotent intelligence known as the Wisdom. The well-told story combines thrilling action with more thoughtful content, touching on such hot topics as AI, fascism and gender politics, and looks like another award winner.
The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Rebellion, £16.99)
Short stories and character sketches come together as a mosaic novel depicting a satirical yet horribly believable future world starkly divided between enclosed cities where the Twenty Percent live in luxury, supported by the aspirational Seventy Percent, and a hot, barren, depleted landscape outside where the bottom Ten Percent are outcasts, denied access to the virtual world, electricity, clean water and respect. Certainly no one could imagine such “useless” people mounting a successful revolution … Previously published as Analog/Virtual in India, this is a smart, vivid, engaging debut from a talented writer.
Not Alone by Sarah K Jackson (Picador, £14.99)
Storm winds laden with toxic dust from microplastics have destroyed human and animal populations in near-future Britain. Katie is a survivor; she has given birth alone and is raising her son Harry in isolation, venturing outside heavily masked to forage for anything edible and fetch water to filter and boil. After five years, she fears the state of her lungs has become critical, and when she learns that her fiance, Jack, might still be alive in Scotland, she determines to make the long, arduous journey north, staking everything on the chance of finding someone to care for Harry after her death. The story is driven by the debut author’s passionate concern for the environment, and is not just a warning of horrors to come but also a stark depiction of how difficult it is for one person to raise a child alone, without support.
With hauntingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, this challenging novel is tough and memorable.
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling (John Murray, £14.99)
Another debut in the field of climate fiction imagines the United States in 2049, when many parts of the country have become unbearably hot. Only the wealthy can live in comfort and safety. One haven is the Floating City in Boston Harbour; another is being built in the cleaner, cooler climate around Dominion Lake in northern Canada, where Rose has been sent to join a small group of sex workers billeted in an abandoned shopping mall. Her secret agenda is to get close to Meyer, the American who owns the land, and report back to the wealthy client who promised her a home in the Floating City if she can find out what Meyer is really doing behind his cover story of creating a new, eco-friendly community. Another narrative strand follows Grant, a recent graduate who was offered a job teaching English literature at Dominion College but arrives to find the college does not exist. A third section is set farther north, where an all-female team is conducting climate surveillance on the edge of the Arctic Circle. A previous all-male mission ended badly, but the women form a cohesive, almost utopian society. The different narratives come together in a surprising and satisfying way in this absorbing novel.
