{"id":258059,"date":"2024-09-02T15:45:02","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T15:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/02\/the-best-new-sci-fi-this-month-from-michel-houellebecq-to-booker-longlisted-richard-powers\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:11:37","slug":"the-best-new-sci-fi-this-month-from-michel-houellebecq-to-booker-longlisted-richard-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/02\/the-best-new-sci-fi-this-month-from-michel-houellebecq-to-booker-longlisted-richard-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"The best new sci-fi this month from Michel Houellebecq to Booker-longlisted Richard Powers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some of the science fiction out in September 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

There is a smorgasbord of new science fiction on offer in September, whether you are after high-end literary writing from the likes of Booker-longlisted Rachel Kushner and Richard Powers or universe-spanning romps from Yume Kitasei and Riley August. We have new work from the grandmaster Peter F. Hamilton, a glimpse of a near-future France from Michel Houellebecq and an intriguing vision of how we might deal with future plagues from Hannu Rajaniemi. My plan is to start with Kushner\u2019s Creation Lake<\/em>, move on to Kitasei\u2019s The Stardust Grail<\/em> and then dive into Powers\u2019s Playground<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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This is definitely on my reading list: in fact, I am hoping we might choose it for a future New Scientist Book Club read. Longlisted for the Booker already, it has been described<\/a> by our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson as \u201ca thriller, a spy caper, a comedy and also a poetic take on human history all the way back to the time our species,\u00a0Homo sapiens<\/em>, shared Earth with the Neanderthals\u201d, and as \u201csensationally enjoyable\u201d. It follows the adventures of a US spy-for-hire, Sadie Smith, as she tries to infiltrate a commune of radical eco-activists in France \u2013 I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

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New Scientist book club<\/h3>\n
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Love reading? Come and join our friendly group of fellow book lovers. Every six weeks, we delve into an exciting new title, with members given free access to extracts from our books, articles from our authors and video interviews.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Another Booker-longlisted novel here, and one from the astonishingly good Powers (Bewilderment <\/em>is just excellent). He sets his latest on the island of Makatea in French Polynesia, where a disparate cast of characters gather as humanity plans to send floating, autonomous cities out into the sea. \u201cThe writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep and alive,\u201d says Percival Everett of this novel. I\u2019m very much looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

Maya Hoshimoto is an art thief turned anthropology student, but she is lured back to her old ways when she is asked to find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. As she sets off through the universe investigating, she discovers she isn\u2019t the only one looking for it. Described as an \u201canti-colonial space heist\u201d, this sounds excellent.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed (and sometimes controversial) French novelist sets his latest outing in 2027, as France undergoes a series of cyberattacks during a presidential campaign. We follow the story of Paul Raison, an advisor to France\u2019s finance minister, whose father has had a stroke and is in limbo in a medical centre. This has already been a bestseller in France.<\/p>\n

Science fiction authors don\u2019t get much more legendary than Peter F. Hamilton, and this latest sounds intriguing \u2013 it\u2019s a novel set in the universe of new sci-fi role-playing game Exodus<\/em>. Thousands of years after humanity fled a dying Earth in ark ships, the settlers of Centauri have evolved into advanced beings. Finn is one of them, but wants a different future and takes the chance to become a Traveler, exploring the far reaches of space. I\u2019m not a gamer, but I always love an ark-ship story, and I trust Hamilton to pull this one off.<\/p>\n

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Peter F. Hamilton<\/p>\n

Olly Curtis\/SFX Magazine\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Darkome<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by Hannu Rajaniemi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the latest outing from this excellent sci-fi author, pandemics have brought civilisation to a standstill. The only way to survive is wearing an \u201cAspis chip\u201d, which immunises you against any new viruses as they infect you. Not everyone wants it though, with the alternative being an underground community of biohackers, known as Darkome, who modify their bodies. Our protagonist Inara is from a Darkome village, but she needs an Aspis to keep her cancer in check, and this goes against everything the community stands for\u2026 This sounds great and scarily timely.<\/p>\n

The universe is full of dead civilisations, and Scout is an archivist who scours dead worlds for anything interesting that might have been left behind. Now they have found a message from an alien who saw their world end thousands of years ago. I love the quote provided for this novel by writer Nadia El-Fassi: \u201cCome for the space archaeologists and adorably violent Pumpkin the cat, but stay for a science fiction novel that will repair your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe universe is full of dead civilisations\u201d<\/p>\n

Irina Dmitrienko\/NASA\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This sounds pleasingly creepy, just in time for autumn in the northern hemisphere. It\u2019s set in a restored wilderness project in Ireland where five children, three teachers and one ranger are on a sleepover. But strange things have been happening here, from livestock mutilations to the discovery of unidentifiable tracks \u2013 and as the kids trek to the site, they spot animals that haven\u2019t yet been introduced, from wolves and wolverines to things long believed to be extinct.<\/p>\n

Time travel shenanigans abound in this latest from the author of the Time Police<\/em> and The Chronicles of St Mary\u2019s<\/em> series. This time round, Taylor is telling the origin story of bounty hunters Lady Amelia Smallhope and\u00a0Pennyroyal: \u201cNo bad guy they can\u2019t handle. No expense account too flexible. No adventure too outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a reissue of a collection of short stories written by Francis Stevens, the pseudonym of Gertrude Barrows Bennett, an author who wrote most of her work between 1904 and 1919 and has been described as the \u201cwoman who invented dark fantasy\u201d. These stories include one set in an alternate-future version of Philadelphia, now a totalitarian nation-state where citizens are numbered, not named. Just my sort of thing, and I love rediscovering old sci-fi classics.<\/p>\n

This is the fifth in Kawaguchi\u2019s Before the Coffee Gets Cold<\/em> series, set in a Tokyo caf\u00e9 where customers can travel back in time \u2013 provided they come back to the present before their coffee gets cold. This time, those visiting the past include a father who couldn\u2019t allow his daughter to get married and a boy who wants to show his divorced parents his smile.<\/p>\n

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The art and science of writing science fiction<\/h3>\n
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Take your science fiction writing into a new dimension during this weekend devoted to building new worlds and new works of art<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

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