{"id":238496,"date":"2024-07-01T16:21:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T16:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/the-best-new-science-fiction-books-of-july-2024-include-a-debut-from-keanu-reeves\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:15:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:15:44","slug":"the-best-new-science-fiction-books-of-july-2024-include-a-debut-from-keanu-reeves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/01\/the-best-new-science-fiction-books-of-july-2024-include-a-debut-from-keanu-reeves\/","title":{"rendered":"The best new science fiction books of July 2024 include a debut from Keanu Reeves"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Keanu Reeves: a \u2018genre-bending pioneer\u2019<\/p>\n

See Li\/Picture Capital\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The world of science fiction sees some major celebrity input this month, as Keanu Reeves\u2019s debut novel hits the shelves. We can also look forward to the latest book from one of the UK\u2019s top sci-fi writers, Adam Roberts, and to some quantum fun from Peng Shepherd.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m most excited about Mateo Askaripour\u2019s This Great Hemisphere<\/em>, though. It\u2019s a mix of sci-fi and political thriller, and comes highly recommended \u2013 just what I need for my holiday reading later in July. I might also pack MJ Wassmer\u2019s Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend<\/em>, which sees a bunch of holiday-makers going a bit Lord of the Flies<\/em> when the sun explodes while they are at a luxury resort. Just the ticket to relax with.<\/p>\n

This is a collaboration between \u201ctwo genre-bending pioneers\u201d, according to its publisher, inspired by Keanu Reeves\u2019s BRZRKR <\/em>comic books. It follows an immortal soldier who wants to be able to die, a \u201ctall lean man \u2026 looking at them from below a long fringe of black hair\u201d, who clearly is meant to look exactly like Reeves. A US black-ops group says it can help him with that death wish \u2013 if he helps the team out first.<\/p>\n

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Now, I have read some of this already, because I am a big fan of China Mi\u00e9ville (if you haven\u2019t read Embassytown<\/em> then rush to get a copy \u2013 it\u2019s such a clever and mind-bending piece of sci-fi). And obviously, I\u2019m a big fan of Reeves too, because\u2026 Keanu Reeves.<\/p>\n

But I had to put the book aside because I found it so flowery that I couldn\u2019t keep going. I may well dip back in, though, because if you can\u2019t have faith in Neo, who can you have faith in? Maybe I just need to get into the zone.<\/p>\n

OK, this one I am definitely up for. Not only does it sound like tons of fun, but Roberts is reliably excellent. This time round, he gives us two starships orbiting a black hole. Both ships\u2019 crews are killed in a single afternoon by Captain Alpha Raine, who says he was commanded to do so by a voice emanating from the black hole. This voice is named, rather enticingly, Mr Modo. Nobody believes Raine, of course, but something seems to be spreading from inside that black hole.<\/p>\n

Set in the future, this novel follows a young woman relegated to second-class citizenship who sets out to find her older brother \u2013 someone she had thought was dead, but is now the main suspect in a high-profile murder. Its publisher is comparing it to the work of N. K. Jemisin and Naomi Alderman, and an early review from the book industry site Kirkus called it \u201ca page-turning vision of a future made all too plausible by our volatile present\u201d. I think it sounds really interesting and will definitely be tracking it down.<\/p>\n

This looks super intriguing. It\u2019s set in a near-future world where cancer is being eradicated by a new technological therapy, in which the body\u2019s cells are entirely replaced with \u201cnanites\u201d, robot cells that cure the sick \u2013 and, in fact, leave the person almost immortal.<\/p>\n

We follow literary researcher Yonghun, who has a lot going on: not only does he create a machine that can think, but he also receives the new nanotherapy. This book promises that it will explore \u201cthe nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future\u201d \u2013 a lot, for one novel, but I\u2019m willing to give it a go.<\/p>\n

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The Edge of Solitude is set on a ship heading for Antarctica<\/p>\n

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This eco-thriller is set during \u201ca time of acute climate crisis\u201d, on a ship heading for Antarctica to hopefully save the region. On board is a disgraced environmental activist, Ivy Cunningham, who is trying to rescue her reputation \u2013 but is also starting to question the motives of her fellow passengers, and of the project as a whole.<\/p>\n

Dan Foster, a \u201cprofessional underachiever\u201d, is taking a holiday on an island resort when the sun explodes. He then has to choose whether to save himself or help his fellow guests as the temperature drops and revolution brews. Apocalypse in paradise? I\u2019m there!<\/p>\n

At 45, Marsh isn\u2019t pleased with where her life has ended up, from her career to her marriage to her relationship with her teenage daughter. So when she gets the chance to be the star of the TV game show All This and More<\/em>, which uses \u201cquantum technology\u201d to let contestants revisit their pasts, she seizes it. But \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 even when she gets everything she wants, it all seems a little off, and Marsh starts to ask if it is worth it. Another one for my holiday reading, I think \u2013 I love a good \u201clooking for happy ever after\u201d story, and the addition of time travel and a sprinkle of quantum fairy dust sounds great.<\/p>\n

This new novella from the author of\u00a0The Red Scholar\u2019s Wake<\/em>\u00a0is a space opera with added martial arts. It is set in an area of space known as the Hollows, which is populated by the mysterious, deadly Tanglers. When a Tangler escapes, it must be captured before it can destroy a civilian city. Two juniors from rival clans, both on missions to stop the Tangler, find their feelings for each other growing.<\/p>\n

This short story collection will give us a \u201ckaleidoscopic view of the climate crisis\u201d, promises its publisher, moving from a boy trying to bring the natural world back to his urban life to a ballet dancer trying to inhabit the consciousness of a rat (at this stage, it isn\u2019t clear why \u2013 but I\u2019m keen to find out).<\/p>\n

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Gravity Lost is the second in the space-set Ambit\u2019s Run series<\/p>\n

Shutterstock\/Corona Borealis Studio<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This is the second in the Ambit\u2019s Run series from Sagas, following Cascade Failure<\/em>. It sees the crew of the Ambit, fresh from thwarting the destruction of a planet, trying to jailbreak the man they had just handed over to one of the major powers in the Spiral.<\/p>\n

Agent Gregory Roarke has been tasked with finding a teleportation portal on a far-flung colony world. But the former bounty hunter finds himself up against some better-equipped rivals \u2013 and then the murders begin\u2026 This is the latest in the series.<\/p>\n

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