The Essence

Dave Hutchinson: "Do you believe in miracles?"

Me: "I do now!"

2025 was a year filled with plenty of mediocrity when it comes to new genre SF released within the calendar year -- with a scant couple of exceptions - that I got a chance to read, anyway. There was Tchaikovsky's SHROUD with its crazy world-building and Nayler's award-worthy WHERE THE AXE IS BURRIED that come to mind. One under-the-radar small press release left them all in the dust; in fact, it blew away everything SF that I read all year, and that includes some heavy hitters from the likes of Ballard, Wolfe, Vance, PKD, Zelazny, Banks, Lafferty, etc.. What I'm really trying to say is that THE ESSENCE by Dave Hutchinson is an absolute banger that is inexplicably absent from bookshops and best-of lists, despite its greatness.

Michael is confused. He knows that he's had some sort of accident that precipitated memory loss, but he's not quite sure how to start putting the pieces back together despite the hospital's best rehabilitation efforts in the form of medications, psychiatry and gentle nudges. When he's unceremoniously released back into the wild and returns to his job as an economist at a small outstation of MI6, things start to come back in fits and starts. His employer wants him to take baby steps, starting with a seemingly simple task on the continent. Cue jet engine firing up noise. Get your seatbelt nice and snug because you're about to take a ride in a whirlwind of a spy thriller, or is that just an illusory tactic of the author's to draw the reader into an increasingly baffling world that makes ROADSIDE PICNIC feel... well, like a picnic? Riding a razor's edge between a catatonic relapse and finding the answers to his life's missing pieces, Michael must navigate a jigsaw puzzle of conspiracy theorists, governmental special agents and religious crazies in order to save himself, and maybe the world.

This book features some of the coolest science fiction elements and a writing style that is silky smooth. It's a sure-fire hit for anyone from the mainstreamiest Mary Sue to the trekiest Trekkie dude. Utterly readable, with a pace-car tempo and a mic-drop ending that left me smiling and laughing and shaking my head long after I set it down. Miracles do exist, Mr. Hutchinson. Thank you for reminding me!