July 13, 2020
Tchaikovsky (Children of Ruin) examines alternate dimensions and speculative evolution in this tropey, entertaining sci-fi adventure that’s both outrageously bizarre and utterly convincing. Cryptid hunter Lee Pryor receives a call from her girlfriend, Elsinore “Mal” Mallory, four years after Mal disappeared without a trace on Bodmin moor. Meanwhile, MI5 agent Julian Sabreur receives word that theoretical mathematician Kay Amal Khan has been attacked in her flat. The last thing Julian expects to discover when he reaches the scene are Kay’s would-be abductors beaten senseless and camera footage of a woman who disappeared four years ago fleeing the building. Lee and Julian’s intricate story lines crisscross, building steady momentum and layered suspense. Things come to a head when Lee is kidnapped by a dodgy private security firm and then rescued by unknown allies who transport her through the multiverse, bringing her to join Kay, who has been recruited to save the world from a growing threat. Edifying and entertaining evolutionary histories of alternate versions of Earth are interspersed throughout, granting the reader insight into the multiverse as the cracks between dimensions widen. Thrilling action punctuates the intrigue on the way to an ending that, though convoluted, satisfies. Sci-fi readers will be pleased. Agent: Simon Kavanagh, Mic Cheetham Agency
September 1, 2020
Cryptid hunters Lee and Mal follow a lead from a sketchy YouTube video of a birdman seen near the Bodmir Moors, but only one of them returns. Heartbroken, Lee spends the next four years writing and attending cons. Then she receives contact from Mal on her smartphone, though it shows no record of the call. She crosses paths with MI5 agents who are shadowing a transgender math genius, Kay Khan, when an attempt to to kidnap the savant goes monstrously wrong. Lee then meets briefly with Mal?along with the monster. Khan turns out to be a key player in a multiple-timeline mission to rescue the source of all the variations of Earth from dying?and taking the timelines with it. Tchaikovsky (Made Things, 2019) weaves a masterful tale about how each version of Earth diverged during the various Epochs of its billion-year history. A frozen world computer mind, peaceful brilliant Neanderthals, family-friendly weasels out of a steampunk nightmare, gargantuan spacefaring trilobites, and even feathered dinosaurs combine for a suspenseful joyride through the multiverse.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
