REISSUES

So, what’s new in paperback this month? The biggie is undoubtedly WORLD ENGINES: DESTROYER ( , 28 May, Gollancz), the first part of a new duology by Stephen Baxter. It sees intrepid space-jock Reid Malenfant (protagonist of Baxter’s Manifold sequence) reawakening from cryosleep in the 26th century to find a world where humankind is trying to undo ecological catastrophe, and space travel is a thing of the past. But an artefact from the outer edges of the Solar System is on a trajectory that spells doom for Earth… We said: “A paean to redemption and human endeavour that wears its Clarkesian hard-SF science smarts on its sleeve, yet is great fun too.” Our reviewer loved Alix Harrow’s debut THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY ( , out now, Orbit). It centres on 16-yearold January, who unearths a strange book named The Ten Thousand Doors, and with it a long-buried memory of a mysterious city she once visited, briefly, by venturing through an apparently ordinary door. Naturally, she has to explore… We said: “A story in which words have flavour… Imaginative, gripping, and beautifully written.” Finally, EPISODES

( , out now, Gollancz) collects 11 short stories by Christopher Priest, from the ’70s to the present day. Each tale is bookended by a pair of essays elaborating on its genesis and themes. We said: “His Ballardian knack for making the everyday uncanny shines through.”