Review by Booklist Review
This disquieting collection from British author and screenwriter Newland follows closely on the heels of his first speculative-fiction novel, A River Called Time (2021). The book's title and dedication hint at a musical inspiration, referencing Flying Lotus's 2010 jazz-influenced electronica album of the same name. The collection's 15 stories interweave an unsettling familiarity with the strange, tackling themes such as the technological arms race, addiction, racism, state-sanctioned violence, and xenophobia, holding up a mirror to contemporary society and forbidding the reader to look away and take comfort in escapism. Standout stories include "Scarecrow," a tense and devastating take on zombies that pits a woman against her husband in deciding what to do about her infected brother; "Seed," in which mysterious seeds appear around the world and sprout malevolent doppelgängers; and "Link," about a young man who can control minds who ultimately discovers that he is also being controlled. These visions of largely grim alternate realities and bleak futures will be appreciated by those who prize speculative fiction's ability to tell uncomfortable truths about our present.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Newland (A River Called Time) delivers a powerful collection of 15 speculative shorts that traverse time and space. He immerses readers in dystopian worlds in stories like "You Meets You," in which newly developed narcotics engineered to be stronger than ever keep humanity in a tight grip of addiction, and "Percipi," in which the creation of hyper-intelligent robots by a capitalist powerhouse brings catastrophic violence to the world. Other tales take on more mystical rather than scientific elements, among them "Seed," which sees mysterious seeds crop up across the planet overnight, eventually sprouting into fully grown human beings. Newland easily engages readers with complex worldbuilding, well-shaded characters, and stories as entertaining as they are meaningful. It's no small feat to so immediately and repeatedly appeal to readers' hearts and minds, and Newland's mastery of short-format storytelling is sure to impress. Speculative fiction fans won't be able to put this down. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A grab bag of speculative stories by British author Newland that stress themes of freedom, oppression, and obligation. These 15 deeply imagined (if sometimes knotty) stories generally turn on humanity at risk of being undermined, either by technology or its own worst instincts. The title story is rich with imagery of children who can produce colors when they sing, until the story's ending suggests how that talent is ripe for dystopian exploitation. In "Percipi," the makers of humanoids that are "more human than humankind" hubristically lose their grip on their creation, prompting both a civil war and ethical debate over who counts as a homo sapien. In "Seed," the Earth is overwhelmed by giant plants, stoking violent responses that backfire. In the strongest stories, Newland wrestles at length with the moral consequences of these predicaments. "Nommo" centers on a couple on a relaxed island vacation who are summoned to help save a failing mutant underwater species, if they're not too self-interested for the task. ("We do not make decrees or threats," they're told. "We are not human.") And in "The Sankofa Principle," a spaceship goes through a time warp that sends it to Earth in 1794, opening the question of what its crew can do to eliminate slavery. Newland's writing is in league with a host of SF subgenres, from pulpy space opera to N.K. Jemisin--style Afrofuturism to Jeff VanderMeer--esque eco-fiction. But his chief skill is weaving those tropes into stories that are both wildly speculative and on the news, as in the Brexit allegory "The Difference Between Me and You" or the harrowing "Control," which shows the grim endgame of anti-immigrant law enforcement policies. Wide-ranging and deeply imaginative; Newland is equally at home in council flats and deep space. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
