Stars and Bones by Gareth L Powell: 

Gareth L Powell is a recent discovery.  I've read two of his books so far and I've literally devoured both within days - Stars and Bones is his most recent and it made a dose of the lurgy (not that lurgy) a little more enjoyable and a welcome antidote to the return of war to Europe. 

It's filled with great ideas, well-written characters and a masterful control of the plot that it can make some stunning left turns and barrel rolls and still have you greedily turning the pages.

   

Split across two narratives; the early one sees humanity literally saved at the last minute from environmental/nuclear catastrophe by god-like aliens called The Benevolence.  However, don't cheer just yet.  We're evicted from The Earth and now roam the galaxy in arks made from Saturn's rings and warned not to find another planet; unless we treat it better.

   

Meanwhile, Eryn King searches for her sister, missing presumed dead on a scouting mission for that elusive other Earth.  When she finds something that is less benevolent and more malevolent, the fate of humanity is in her hands between two god-like forces with very different intentions. 

So, a massive novel with big timely ideas.  But Powell has great control here, serving slabs of body-horror as both human beings and spaceships are literally torn apart to find out how they work.  But it's matched with a huge, metaphysical thought experiment: how would humanity cope if greed, hunger and poverty didn't exist?

  

That is a huge concept for a novel... but to tack onto that; all the gore, big spaceships and pulpy characters you could ever wish for shows real skill and an intention to entertain as much as intellectually stimulate.  At one point, we even go within the genre of police procedural - and even that works.

   

And it would be incredibly easy to dismiss all of this as silly, superficial space opera.  But that genre is rarely about the sizzle of lasers against shielding. It's a very human piece of work about loneliness, family, the sacrifice of being a parent (explored more in the metaphysical finale) and our moronic propensity to ruin good things with acquiring more wealth.

 

I also enjoyed the dash of dark and ingenious humour dotted throughout the book.  One of the things granted to us by The Benevolence is that cats and dogs can talk.  Sam, Eryn's cat is a cynical, thoughtful, feline chorus to the action.  This itself, is a call-back to his novel Embers of War, featuring the sentient warship Trouble Dog: a lethal mix of dog/teenage girl DNA; which commits a war crime and then decides to do good.

   

And possibly, in a few years' time we may see Embers of War on TV as it's been optioned for a series.  In the meantime, enjoy this: a bloody, but ultimately beautiful vision of what we could be if we treated each other a little bit better.  And if you don't see that as apposite, watch the news.