Reissues

Coming to paperback this month: China Miéville’s second collection of short stories, THREE MOMENTS OF AN EXPLOSION ( , 2 June, Picador). It features 28 tales (some published previously), ranging from body-horror vignettes and eerie metamorphoses to reflections on revolutions. We said: “A volume that suggests Miéville exploring the unsettling possibilities of short fiction to describe our unsettled lives, rather as JG Ballard did in the last century.” The first shiny-new-integrated continuity novel set between Return Of The Jedi and The Force Awakens, STAR WARS: AFTERMATH ( , 26 May, Arrow) sees what’s left of the Empire’s officers getting together to draw their plans for the future… Boo! Hiss! We said: “Chuck Wendig does a decent enough job, crafting a fun adventure… but the short scenes try too hard to be cinematic, the metaphors are clunky, and nods to the movies are a bit too on the nose.” Incidentally, second book of the trilogy Aftermath: Life Debt is due out on 12 July. Finally, swift on the heels of Jenny Colgan’s new Doctor Who novel comes the reissue of RESISTANCE IS FUTILE ( , 2 June, Orbit), a bittersweet love story with added maths, aliens and geekery. It follows Connie, a mathematician recruited to a top-secret project to crack the code on a signal from space, resulting in a mad – and not entirely convincing – adventure. We said: “Never less than entertaining, as well as wonderfully funny at times.”