AMERICA CITY

released OUT NOW! 357 pages | Hardback/ebook

Author Chris Beckett Publisher Corvus Books

It’s a modern cliché that America is really two countries – but what if one of those “countries” found itself taking refugees from the other?

That’s the question Chris Beckett poses in America City, set in a 22nd century where climate change is making the southern states and the coasts uninhabitable. Holly, a liberal British publicist, is drafted onto the team of a right-wing politician (who your reviewer couldn’t help but picture as Rob Lowe) and his ambitious plan to set America back on its feet.

By comparison with Beckett’s acclaimed Eden trilogy, the level of science fiction here is minimal. It could easily have been set in a nearer future (and it often feels like a nearer future in terms of technology – though not in terms of the timescale of climate change). Large parts of the book are about the management of a presidential campaign, using tactics similar to those employed now.

At times the novel feels like a series of ruminations on politics, voiced by whichever characters happen to be wandering through the scene at the time. But the author never loses sight of his story, which is compelling: what other agendas are at play, and will Holly emerge with her ideals intact? Beckett lets these questions hang right until the end. It becomes a grim demonstration of how one person can change history, but not control it Eddie Robson