GLORIOUS ANGELS
By Justina Robson. Gollancz. $29 99.
British author Justina Robson says that Glorious Angels is not about "if women ruled the world", although, in her novel, females are "by nature the top of the social hierarchies". The city state of Glimshard is ruled by the young Empress Toradan, one of eight mind-linked Empresses. Robson's central character, Tralane, a Professor of Engineering and single mother, is the key figure as conflict erupts after a significant archaeological discovery is made in the lands of the primitive but dangerous Karoo. Glorious Angels is a complex narrative, interweaving sexual politics with science and mage tradition, the whole echoing the SF novels of Margaret Atwood and Gene Wolfe.
THE DEADLANDS
By Benjamin Percy. Hachette. $29.99.
Award-winning American author, Benjamin Percy enters familiar SF territory in The Deadlands. Set years after nuclear "missiles scorched the sky" to destroy a global pandemic, the remnants of American civilisation eke out a medieval type existence in a St. Louis "Sanctuary". Dangers beyond the walls, not least mutants, inhibits travel until a stranger arrives with promise of a new start beyond the Cascade Range. Lewis Meriwether, the feared curator of the Sanctuary's museum, decides to escape authoritarian rule with the Ranger, Mina Clark. In the process, they recreate the epic historical journey of Lewis and Clark, but this time through a post-apocalyptic landscape.
THE SHIP
By Antonia Honeywell. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. $29.99.
Sixteen-year-old Lalla lives with her parents in a high-security flat in the centre of London in another post- apocalyptic world, brought about by a mix of climate change, global pandemics and financial collapse. Lalla's father fits out an ocean going ship for 500 people to escape the land-based anarchy. In the now familiar YA teenage angst novel framework, Lalla, however, questions her fate and increasingly rows with her father over the ship's destiny. Honeywell's discussions on the ills of society, and whether a privileged few should survive while many die, are largely broadbrush. Ultimately, The Ship, through the character of Lalla, questions the personal price of salvation.
