Is it an asteroid or an alien in Van Jensen’s Godfall?

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Welcome to January, a month when many of us are keen to escape from the world into the pages of a book. Thankfully, science fiction is here to help, whether that’s with a story set on a generation ship where things aren’t as they seem, courtesy of Peter F. Hamilton, or journeying to an alternate version of this world where the Roman Empire is still in charge, in Solitaire Townsend’s Godstorm. Add to the mix a time-loop murder, a UFO romance and some eco-horror, and there’s plenty of choice for sci-fi fans this month.

A generation ship is in search of a new home in Peter F. Hamilton’s latest sci-fi novel

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A Hole in the Sky by Peter F. Hamilton

Big hitter Peter F. Hamilton sets his latest outing on a generation ship in search of a new world, where people are only allowed to live for 65 years so they don’t deplete the ship’s resources. When a teenager Hazel’s brother has an accident that means he is no longer productive, he is set to be killed off. She discovers that much of what the ship’s passengers have been told for the past 500 years is untrue. This is the first in a trilogy, all three of which will be published this year.

Vigil by George Saunders

Our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson admits that this isn’t sci-fi, but says “it has a claim to being climate fiction… because it centres on the death of a powerful oil tycoon”, so I’m including it here. As Emily says, this novel from the Booker prize-winning author takes place at the deathbed of oil company CEO K. J. Boone, as he is ushered towards the afterlife and faces a reckoning.

The world’s last zoo is on Alcatraz in The Island of Last Things

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The Island of Last Things by Emma Sloley

What a haunting thought: the last zoo in the world is on Alcatraz island and outside its walls, nature is falling apart. Zookeeper Camille cares for chimps and jaguars, until new arrival Sailor tells her about a secret sanctuary where wild animals can roam free. This was published earlier in the US and Australia, but is available this month in the UK.

Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart

Cop Ryan Crane is given the chance to join the first crewed mission to Titan. The two-year expedition will bring him a huge pay cheque, guaranteeing care for his son, who is disabled. But when he and the team return to Earth, they discover it isn’t the place they left behind – and mysterious figures are following them.

Godstorm by Solitaire Townsend

In this alternate history, environmentalist Solitaire Townsend imagine an oil-fuelled version of the Roman Empire, which never fell and where fossil fuels have extended the Romans’ conquest of the world. I’m not sure quite how much this will swerve into fantasy, but none other than Kim Stanley Robinson calls it a “vivid, ferocious adventure, as the heroine struggles against a world even more violent than our own— or so it seems until you consider matters of scale, and realize this novel is a kind of allegory for our fight too”. I will definitely be giving it a try.

Godfall by Van Jensen

Is that a massive asteroid hurtling towards Earth, or is it a three-mile-tall alien figure that lands outside Little Springs, Nebraska, and quickly becomes known as the Giant? It’s the latter, and Little Springs sheriff David Blunt finds himself dealing with a town that has morphed into a top-secret government research site, surrounded by crowds of conspiracy theorists. He’s also on the trail of a killer and is troubled by dreams of a cosmos in chaos… he has a lot going on, basically.

The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe

As smuggler Rosi and her crew drive through the Romanian mountains, they find a radio signal that hints at impending doom. The world goes completely dark – but transmissions start trickling in from amateur radio enthusiasts and other isolated people. Rosi and her crew set out to rescue them in a world turned apocalyptic. Is this horror or science fiction? I’m not sure from this synopsis, but I’m intrigued.

Seven by Joanna Kavenna

We are promised a journey through time and space in this literary dystopia, in which a young philosopher sets out for Greece to find the head of the Society of Lost Things, and ends up on a quest that moves from the earliest human societies to the arrival of artificial intelligence.

Love at First Sighting by Mallory Marlowe

El is a social media influencer in Los Angeles who captures footage of an unidentified flying object, drawing the attention of Agent Carter Brody – who just happens to have had his own extraterrestrial sighting. Romance and UFOs? What a January treat!

Allison Mick’s eco-horror novel is set in northern California’s redwood forests

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Humboldt Cut by Allison Mick

This eco-horror novel is described as “Jordan Peele and Jeff Vandermeer meet The Overstory” by its publisher. Set in northern California’s redwood forests, mental health nurse Jasmine is returning home to the logging town where her grandfather made a living deforesting the countryside. Buried in the woods are dark secrets, and entities made of human flesh and petrified bark who are out for revenge…

Vivian Dies Again by C. E. Hulse

I’m going to include this murder mystery in this month’s round-up because it has a time loop in it (time loop = physics), and because it sounds like fun. Vivian is forced to go to a family gathering where everyone hates her – and where she is murdered by being pushed off a balcony. But then she wakes up, and is murdered again, and again… With her sole ally a waiter who only wants to finish his shift, will she work out what’s going on?

The Hope by Paul E. Hardisty

It is 2082 and the world is in ruins, thanks to climate change, famine and war. In this final book of the Forcing trilogy, a 16-year-old girl and her uncle are trying to hide the last surviving books in a secret library, in a future where the architects of climate collapse are in charge.

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