Something Coming Through

The Spasm devastated the Earth. Water wars, net wars, border wars culminating in a limited nuclear exchange, tactical nukes obliterating the heart of capital cities. Chloe Millar's heart was also obliterated. Her mother was vapourised, together with a square kilometre of central London...

Then the aliens came. The Jackaroo. They are here to help....

Fifteen "gift worlds" provide room for humanity to breathe, expand and recover. Under supervision of course...

In post Spasm London, Chloe seeks alien memes and eidolons which trickle in from the gift worlds infecting the minds of peoples who have encountered artefacts brought through the wormholes. These prizes can make you rich...or they can make you insane. She encounters an orphaned brother and sister who seem to be dreaming of the gift world Mangala. And Chloe is not the only one interested in these children....

On Mangala, Vic Gayle's newbie partner Skip Williams has been landed with the kind of murder case destined to keep him awake at night. Competing criminal gangs are on the trail of alien riches. There is a ray gun involved....

When these strands knot, everything changes.

The narrative zips along, the world building is strong from the familiar (grittily urban post-Spasm London, with it leavening of alien weird) , to the elegiac eeriness bestowed upon the desolate wastes of frontier Mangala. The characters, though cast in the beginning as archetypes, grow through the story. Enough that the sequel will be eagerly anticipated. And in the background, are unknown motives of the Jackaroo.

Eligible for the Best Novel in 2016, and at this time, likely to be on my nomination ballot