PotsandPlots

Running behind for June – but here are the books that caught my eye last month.

Ana Paula Maia – On Earth as it is Beneath

Shortlisted for the International Booker, On Earth as it is Beneath, sounds like a tough read. It involves a Battle Royale-style showdown after a fictional penal colony is closed down. Described as “a searing allegory of power, violence and the failures of the state,” it feels as though this will add searing realism to an oft ploughed dystopian furrow.

Adrian Tchaicovsky – Green City Wars

Adrian Tchaikovsky books are not like buses, in the sense that you never have to wait long before 3 come along at once. Green City Wars sounds like it will be a perfect fit for me.

It returns to a common Tchaikovsky theme, that of “uplifted” animal species, though it’s completely separate from his Dogs of War series (indeed, it’s from an entirely different publisher)

This is pitched as sci-fi noir and features a raccoon PI. Do we even need to know any more? It features a job that’s gone wrong, putting Skotch (great name for a PI) in harm’s way from rat gansters and weasel assassins.

The blurb doesn’t say “Cyberpunk Wind in the Willows” but that doesn’t mean that I can’t believe that’s exactly what it is!

Willy Vlautin – The Left and The Lucky

Somewhat different is Willy Vlautin’s The Left and The Lucky. “Eddie Wilkens runs his own house-painting business. Forty-something and living alone, he just wants to take life one day at a time. When his eight-year-old neighbour, Russell, starts hanging around, Eddie sees that this small kid – with his single mother working nights and his violent older brother – is struggling to keep his head above water, and so tries to help.”

A simple premise that sounds heartwarming and breaking in equal measure. The Big Issue waxed lyrical about this one, and I’ve had “Read a Vlautin novel” on my list for quite some time. – It could be perfect for my book group.

Ryan Collett – George Falls Through Time

The premise for this one sounds delicious. George’s life is imploding. The stress from the fallout somehow catapults him back to the 1300s, where he must learn to live life anew. Sounds absurd and fun, and who doesn’t love a bit of time travel?

Solace House by Will Maclean

Solace House, perhaps unsurprisingly, put me in mind of David Mitchell’s Slade House (and not Jackson Lamb’s Slough House!) The book features a group of students, a mysterious house full of secrets, and perhaps a parallel world adjacent to this one. Sounds like a great read that explores (please forgive me) the liminal spaces that are rife in pop culture right now.

Atlantic Books were kind enough to send me a copy of Solace House, so look out for a review soonish.

The Book of Lost Hours by Haley Gafuso

Another Atlantic Book slid off my list, and I rediscovered it while looking up Solace House. The Book of Lost Hours is the second book this month that invokes The Ministry of Time in its PR blurb – a book that I loved.

The book also has a feel of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, which I was less keen on, but loved the premise. A library, beyond time, that is a repository of everybody’s memories. It’s out in paperback in August, so I may well add it to my summer pile.

The Only Way Out Is Up by Django Wexler

Last year, I read but didn’t review Django Wexler’s Dark Lord Davi series and very much enjoyed them. He’s returning with another tongue-in-cheek premise.

The Only Way Out Is Up is a “progression fantasy” similar (apparently) to Dungeon Crawler Carl. It features Taj, a junk heap scavenger, as he tries to fight his way to the very top of a very violent dungeon to compete in the ascent. It sounds like it will be fun and is available in September. See also in this category Gareth Hanrahan’s The Dungeon Book – a fantasy Jungle Book-inspired tale in the same vein.

The Expansion Project by Ben Pester

Finally, this month we have The Expansion Project, which is a bleak look at modern existence. More liminal spaces (yes, I said it again!), in an ever-expanding business park, this sounds weird and unsettling.

As ever, I find myself despairing of ever reading all of these books. If you had to pick one, which would it be? I guess most likely for me are Solace House, as I already have a copy, and Green City Wars, because it’s Adrian Tchaicovsky.

All links in this post are affiliate links.