New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention.<\/em><\/p>\n Robots have become a regular fixture of the workforce, and humans are losing their jobs to AI. Climate change is wreaking havoc on the planet. It\u2019s getting harder and harder for the average person to make ends meet. Facial recognition technology is being used for surveillance. Sound familiar? In her new novel, <\/em><\/a>, author Helen Phillips paints a picture of what our near-future could look like.<\/p>\n Its main character, May, has lost her job after technology made her role obsolete, and, desperate for money to support her family, she agrees to participate in an experiment that alters her face to make her undetectable to facial recognition. With the extra cushion from the payment, she takes her husband and children on a short, technology-free vacation to the Botanical Garden \u2014 but things go dangerously awry. Hum<\/em> is a captivating, unsettling work of dystopian fiction that makes it impossible not to draw parallels with our current reality.<\/p>\n There\u2019s so much we don\u2019t know about the origins of life on Earth, and how it could appear on other worlds. Arizona State University theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker tackles the enduring question, \u201cWhat is life?\u201d and so much more in her book, Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence<\/em><\/a>. It explores assembly theory, which, as Walker explained recently as a guest on the <\/em><\/a> podcast, states that \u201clife is the only mechanism the universe has for generating complexity. So complex objects don\u2019t happen spontaneously, they only happen through evolution and selection.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an endlessly fascinating topic that\u2019s spurred a lot of debate over the years, and Walker\u2019s book presents its case in a way that is compelling and readable even for us non-scientists. It\u2019ll definitely give your brain a bit of exercise, though… and maybe spark some (friendly) arguments. <\/em><\/a> called it, \u201cIngenious, but not for the faint of heart.<\/p>\n EC Comics\u2019 comeback continues with the release of another new series, Cruel Universe<\/em>. The recently resurrected publisher dropped the first issue of the science fiction series this week, featuring stories by Corinna Bechko, Chris Condon, Matt Kindt and Ben H. Winters, with art by Jonathan Case, Kano, Artyom Topilin and Caitlin Yarsky. <\/em><\/a> takes us to an interstellar battle arena, face-to-face with a black hole, on a quest for eternal life and more.<\/p>\nHum<\/em> by Helen Phillips<\/h2>\n
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Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence<\/em> by Sara Imari Walker<\/h2>\n
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Cruel Universe<\/em> #1<\/h2>\n
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