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There is no section on antibiotics by qntm (Del Rey, £18.99)
There have been stories before about mysterious alien entities existing, hidden, within our world, and secret government departments tasked with protecting humanity. This debut novel by software engineer Sam Hughes under the pseudonym qntm pushes the idea to its horrifying extreme: antithesis. Memes are ideas that spread easily; Antimes are literally inconceivable, “self-kept secrets”, impossible to record or remember. Some feed on memories and pose an existential threat. But how can a war be won when there is no specific enemy, and every attack is instantly forgotten? Against these odds somehow exists the Department of Antimemetics, part of a secret organization with bases deep underground in the English countryside, as told in this fascinating, unforgettable, and mind-numbing novel.
Merge by Grace Walker (Magpie, £12.99)
In the near future, in dystopian Britain, population pressures on scarce resources have given rise to a new technology that promises to cut the problem in half. Any two people who agree to “merge” by transferring the consciousness of one into the body of the other will be rewarded with lower taxes and a better standard of living. The promise is that the two minds will gradually merge into one new person, preserving the best of both. When Lori is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, her daughter Amelia signs them up to join an experimental group, hoping the combination will preserve Lori’s sanity. They have three months to figure out how the process works, and if they’re still skeptical they can cancel it – but no one ever seems to do that. Switching between the two women’s points of view, this is a compelling and disturbing story of love, sacrifice, control, and resistance.
Breakers of Light by Aja Gable (Fleet, £16.99)
Early in his career, Noah wrote a paper suggesting that human consciousness was a result of quantum physics. Years later, he was invited to participate in a secret billionaire’s project to explore the nature of consciousness, memory and time. It is not his theory so much as Noah’s experience of losing his only child, Serena, who died in infancy, that makes him a suitable test subject for an experimental time machine. For Noah, the chance to see Serena again triggers an obsession that threatens his health and his second marriage. His wife, Maya, responds by returning to visit her parents in Japan, where she also meets her ex-lover and remembers that they were two young artists struggling together. A rich and compassionate study of love, regret, and memory.
Black Flame by Gretchen Felker Martin (Titan, £11.99)
In 1980s New York, Ellen, a deeply depressed and repressed lesbian working for a film archive, is tasked with recovering damaged prints of a legendary pornographic film from Germany, long believed to have been destroyed by the Nazis. Soon she begins to catch glimpses of characters from the film in her own life, and it becomes difficult to distinguish between her nightmares and fantasies and reality. It’s overtly violent and sexual, and it’s strangely compelling horror.
The Power of the Few by James Islington (Text, £20)
The second book in the Hierarchy series, Following the Will of Many, continues the story of Fes Telemus. His world, similar to the Roman Empire, is run on a kind of spiritual pyramid scheme, with each social class ceding a portion of its life force to the higher class, with the result that the ruling princes possess divine powers, while at the base, Octavian’s life is greatly diminished. Vis became “synchronized” – split into three identical selves. While one life continues in the Republic, another Face finds itself in Opetium (which has an ancient Egyptian setting), and there is a third life in a Celtic-flavored world of warring druids and tribes. Unusually for this type of high-action epic fantasy, there is first-person narration by the hero, which works very well to ensure that the reader is closely engaged. Full of action, danger and mystery, this thrilling adventure will leave us gasping in anticipation for the next installment.
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