> SCIENCE FICTION

ALEX GOOD

WALKAWAY By Cory Doctorow (Tor, $34.99, 379 pages)

In the near-future, Toronto’s social and political fabric is coming apart.

“Default” is the name given to the prevailing system, a security state with an entrenched uber-class of superrich known as “zottas.”

Those who reject default are called walkaways. They are mostly young people who have chosen to abandon capitalism in order to build a new communal society based on free love, respect for the environment and the ability of 3D printers to provide for all of life’s needs.

Natalie, a zotta heiress, is one such walkaway, and the story focuses on her adventures among her new adopted family and the efforts made by her zotta dad to get her back.

You see, default can’t tolerate alternative paradigms, and then there are these stories that the walkaways have found the secret of eternal life . . .

The label most often attached to Doctorow’s brand of science fiction is “optimistic,” and in Walkaway he’s that and then some. In his vision of the future, not only are people basically good but there are no limits to what they can accomplish. We will live in a post-scarcity world where we are able to fashion our own reality and even literally create a new heaven and earth.

You can criticize Doctorow’s vision on a lot of different grounds — and I would — but you can’t knock its imaginative boldness or the energy and conviction with which he puts it forward. Walkaway is his fullest, most important book so far, and a lot of fun even to disagree with.

ALL SYSTEMS RED By Martha Wells (Tor, $20.99, 152 pages)

The post- but still part-human cyborg has proven to be one of the most enduring figures in science fiction. And as our tools and technology lead to further extensions and augmentations in the best McLuhanesque fashion, it keeps getting easier to identify with these evolving human-machine hybrids.

The narrator of All Systems Red is a corporate cyborg unit named Murderbot. Despite having a bad-ass name, Murderbot actually has a shy, retiring personality, well-suited for the task of providing security for a team of scientists investigating a remote planet. This should be a simple task, giving Murderbot lots of free time to watch cable dramas while ignoring the annoying humans. But then things go crazy. Satellite communications are disrupted and contact is lost with a neighbouring research station.

Murderbot will have to rise to the occasion if the team is going to survive.

All Systems Red is a quick read, the length of a novella, and Wells’s storytelling is light on its feet, making for a thrilling action yarn with a catchy plot and a downbeat, conflicted narrator many readers will be able to relate to.

THE LAST IOTA By Robert Kroese (Thomas Dunne, $37.99, 302 pages)

The Last Iota is the action-packed sequel to Robert Kroese’s hit neonoir mystery The Big Sheep, returning us to a mid-21st-century, postCollapse Los Angeles and the team of brainy private investigator Erasmus Keane and his brawny partner Blake Fowler.

The iota of the title is a type of virtual currency, much like today’s Bitcoin. When the iota was launched, there were a handful of physical iota coins produced and now, for some reason, they are in high demand, with people literally dying to get their hands on them. Finding the last iota, and figuring out why it’s so important, will force Keane and Fowler to navigate an urban war zone while trying to untangle a complex web of highlevel financial chicanery and blackmail.

NEBULA AWARDS SHOWCASE 2017 Ed. by Julie E. Czerneda (Pyr, $19.00, 336 pages)

The Nebula Awards debuted in 1966, with Frank Herbert’s Dune taking the prize for best novel, and since their inception, a companion volume has been produced showcasing the nominees.

This year’s edition, the 51st, is drawn from the 2015 Nebulas (there’s quite a lag between the awards and the winner’s showcase) and comes to us edited and intro- duced by Canadian author Julie Czerneda.

It contains all of the nominees for Best Short Story as well as winners of the Best Novella, Best Novelette, Best Short Poem and Best Long Poem prizes.

In addition, there are excerpts from all of the books nominated for Best Novel, and brief intros by the authors.

While not as big a book as most Year’s Best anthologies (of which there are many), its sampling of different forms does make it something a little different.

There has been controversy in recent years over the lack of women represented in SF awards, so it’s worth noting that, in 2015, all of the major Nebula Awards, for poetry and fiction, were won by women, from Alyssa Wong for best short story to Naomi Novik for best novel. Did the voters get it right? The Showcase lets you be the judge.