Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon Publications)
John Scalzi (Macmillan 21 September, UK; 19 September, US)
DANIEL CHASE, a dealer of rare books, is sitting at his aunt鈥檚 deathbed. 鈥淪he sighed in the way distant members of my family, who never otherwise took much interest鈥� always sighed when my name came up in conversation: 鈥業 feel that you鈥檒l need all the help you can get in life.'鈥�
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Charlie Fitzer has also been written off as a struggling middle-school teacher with a failed marriage. But both lives are kicked into gear by unexpected gifts from dying relatives who turn out to be more surprising in death than they ever were in life.
This pair from two excellent new books take on the biggest question: what exactly are we doing here? It is a question science fiction is uniquely placed to explore. Both Daniel, in Lavie Tidhar鈥檚 The Circumference of the World, and Charlie, in John Scalzi鈥檚 Starter Villain, are stuck in the same existential misery. Their very different stories converge on the same truth.
As is typical of Scalzi, his entire premise is larded with absurdist humour. Charlie has drifted aimlessly through life until his distant uncle dies and leaves him the volcanic island lair in which he engaged in supervillainy. But not of the traditional kind. 鈥淎 stupid villain threatens, Charlie,鈥� a new mentor advises. 鈥淎 smarter villain offers a service.鈥� Amid classic Scalzi set pieces like a class of managerial cats or dolphins on strike 鈥� and moments when you will laugh so loudly you will wish you weren鈥檛 reading in public 鈥� Charlie discovers meaning, as he transitions from someone who doesn鈥檛 know what to do with his life to being instructed in the finer points of supervillainy-as-service.
Tidhar鈥檚 melancholy, beautiful and yet improbably light-touch narrative, meanwhile, is structured like a nesting doll. In it, a mathematician chases proof of the anthropic principle (astronomer Robert Dicke鈥檚 1957 conjecture that the universe evolved to be hospitable to intelligent observers so we could evolve to be those intelligent observers). After he finds a manuscript that could help crack the code, he disappears, and his wife, Delia, hires Daniel to find him. Then cosmic forces intervene and things get weird (maybe don鈥檛 start this book on a Sunday night).
Scalzi is concerned with what we do with our one life, drawing a straight line between the hot pursuit of leaving your mark on the world and the emergence of supervillain traits. Tidhar is more concerned with how we shy away from wondering why we are here. Walls, artificial lighting and mindless TV all conspire to hide the universe so you could pretend 鈥測ou were not a passenger on a planetary starship travelling through the visible universe at a speed of forty three thousand miles per hour around the galactic centre of the Milky Way鈥�, Delia muses. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know why we鈥檙e here.鈥�
These books may be fun, short and tightly plotted, but their philosophical power is more typical of much longer texts. We all struggle with the mystery of existence and what we are meant to do with these lives. In the absence of unexpected legacies from benevolent relatives, the rest of us are left to navigate the existential shoals alone. Science fiction鈥檚 star has risen, both books seem to suggest, because the guidance encoded in its stories can fill that void, helping us chart a path in the unfathomable order.
In the end, we need all the help we can get.
Sally also recommends鈥�
Djuna (Pantheon)
Anonymous sci-fi novelist Djuna has created a world in which AI-mediated neurotechnology lets your personality live in someone else鈥檚 head. There are also space elevators, murders and Succession-style corporate family scandals.
Sally Adee is a technology and聽science writer based in聽London. Follow her on聽Twitter @sally_adee
