SUMMERLAND

Tinker, tailor, soldier, spook

RELEASED 28 June 336 pages | Paperback/ebook/ audiobook Author Hannu rajaniemi Publisher Gollancz

What do you after you’ve written a hard SF series that, judging by how much it asked of its readers, asked a lot of its author too? If you’re Hannu Rajaniemi, the answer is you metaphorically let your hair down. Where his Jean le Flambeur trilogy rested on shifting identities and a sense that reality itself could be unreliable, Summerland could be described as a high-concept novel in that it’s about spies – in the afterlife.

It’s 1938 and the British Empire’s domains now encompass Summerland. This is a city where, rather than ascending to some glorious heaven, the recently deceased dwell. However, the British aren’t alone in wanting to control the afterlife. The Soviets too want to extend their influence beyond this mortal realm. And, as Rajaniemi riffs on the idea of the Cambridge spy ring flourishing because nobody in the British security services quite believed that decent chaps could be traitors, there’s a problem. The Soviets have at least one, ahem, spook in Summerland. This puts (very much alive) secret agent Rachel White, already an outsider in her professional life by dint of her sex, in a bit of a pickle, because she’ll have to risk her career to reveal the danger.

If this all calls to mind John le Carré, that’s no bad thing. Rajaniemi handles the narrative switchbacks of spy fiction with aplomb, while he creates a fusty London that’s atmospheric and believable – although some of his supporting cast of posh Brits seem more movie types than fully-rounded characters.

But what really impresses here is the way Rajaniemi’s not content just to serve up an entertaining alternate-historical thriller. While Summerland is not as demanding as, say, The Quantum Thief, it’s clever, subtle and – notably in White’s relationship with her troubled husband – has a rich emotional centre. Jonathan Wright

Calls to mind John le Carré