SCI-FI & FANTASY
A LITTLE HATRED by Joe Abercrombie
(Gollancz £18.99, 480 pp) CHANGE is afoot in the Union. Slummy f actories breed i nsurrection down south, while bloody broadswords clash up north.
There are extremes of good and evil, but, as ever in the world of Joe Abercrombie, the really i nteresting stuff happens in between.
In this new story cycle, four tyros — a prince and a lordl i ng, a princess and a queen of industry — are about to discover all that. By turns hot- headed, sybaritic, i cily calculating and passionate, they are splendidly poised to bring out the best and worst in each other.
Although crammed with characters and detail, the intricately woven story never slackens i ts merciless grip as we follow our heroes and heroines through battlefields, boardrooms and bedrooms to their destinies — deserved and undeserved alike.
AFTER THE FLOOD by Kassandra Montag
(Borough Press £12.99, 432 pp) THE world is underwater, and America has been reduced to isolated communities living on mountain peaks.
With her ei ght- year- ol d daughter, a boat and a certain skill in fishing, Myra has a sort of life as she drifts from settlement to settlement, trading fish while searching for the older daughter her worthless husband has stolen.
It’s a searing, deeply moving story, especially when Myra finally finds out where her daughter is. The physical risks — whether from storms or pirates — are palpable.
Harder still i s the moral jeopardy brought on by human contact, and, when the solitary Myra joins a new ship, choices become even starker: how can she fulfil her quest as a mother without losing her humanity?
THE SOLAR WAR by A.G. Riddle
(Head of Zeus £18.99, 400 pp) EARTH is up against it. An alien force known as the Grid want our sunlight and don’t care who freezes. They have reduced our population to a few million and bombarded us with giant meteorites, and, just as our hero, Dr Sinclair, thinks he has a plan, up pops his nemesis to make trouble.
This is apocalyptic sci-fi at its best. Plot and character are masterfully woven together and the action — which is anything but frozen — slingshots from stage to stage like an intergalactic spaceship.
Theme-wise, it’s right on the money, with a world of strong men, disruptors and sarcastic commentators, in the form of an alien emissary.
As ever, the biggest threat comes from within.