Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The concept of the multiverse — an infinite number of parallel, coexistent realities, each divergent to a greater or lesser degree from the rest — has rarely been more popular in popular culture. The Marvel films have mined the idea for storylines, likewise another superhero movie, The Flash; it was also central to 2022’s mind-bendingly unique Oscar-winner Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Veteran author Paul Di Filippo has explored multiverses throughout his career, in novels as well as numerous short stories. His skill has always been to find new and extravagant variations on the theme, as is amply proved by his latest offering, Vangie’s Ghosts (Blackstone $16.99). Here, a child with profound autism — Evangeline, or Vangie for short — has access to her different multiversal selves and can shift to other timelines whenever suits.
Nemesis appears in the form of Durant Le Massif, nicknamed The Massive, who possesses similar powers and, unlike the largely benevolent Vangie, wishes to remake the multiverse in his own image. The conflict between the pair stretches from the recent past into the far future, spiralling outward to encompass the entire solar system. Di Filippo orchestrates the escalating ramifications beautifully.
Speaking of alternate worlds, High Vaultage (Gollancz £22), by husband-and-wife duo Chris and Jen Sugden, presents an 1887 that historians would not recognise. In it, London has grown to become Even Greater London, a teeming industrial sprawl that covers most of southern England. Automata carry out menial tasks and cog-filled computers churn data, while Queen Victoria is part-robot, kept alive by mechanical organ replacements. The oppressively named “Tower”, a vast structure that transmits electricity wirelessly across the city, has siphoned all heat from the Thames, leaving the river frozen solid.
Plying their trade in this megalopolitan pandemonium are the mismatched private detective duo Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle — he a stolid former policeman, she a sparky young journalist. Their latest case involves a kidnapping and a series of curious bank robberies; the clues point to corruption in the ranks of the elite, quasi-military class of engineers known as the Brunel Corps. The novel, derived from the Sugdens’ comedy drama podcast Victoriocity, is a joyously funny and absurd steampunk frolic that satirises both the era in which it is set and our own age.
From late 19th-century Britain to early 20th-century China, and more detective work, via Yangsze Choo’s The Fox Wife (Quercus £20). We’re in Manchuria, 1908, and ageing Bao, an amateur sleuth gifted with the ability to know instinctively when someone is lying, sets about investigating the death of a courtesan found frozen on a wintry night. Meanwhile Snow, a fox spirit who has adopted human form, is on a mission of vengeance, pursuing the man who killed her daughter. The two protagonists’ intertwining narrative strands converge.
The mystery isn’t too intricate, and the human-polygraph conceit is not that original, having been central to two TV series of recent memory, Lie to Me and Poker Face. Nor is the novel’s revenge aspect especially compelling. Yet the Malaysia-born Choo dives deep into Chinese folklore, history and tradition, which garnishes her tale with plenty of vividness and interest, and this, along with some elegantly modulated prose, compensates for the thin plot and slow pace.
There are twists and turns galore in Gareth Brown’s debut, The Book of Doors (Bantam £16.99) — and this story, for one, moves at breakneck speed. One day, New York bookseller Cassie is handed a leatherbound notebook by her favourite customer just before he dies, the titular Book of Doors, which allows the user to travel instantly to anywhere they want in the world. It’s just one of many such magical books, and there are ruthless people, among them a nightmarish sadist known only as the Woman, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on them. Brown’s novel zigzags back and forth across the globe, and into and out of the recent past; it’s the work of an author who shows considerable promise and has a sure grasp of how contemporary fantasy works.
Finally a quick mention for Hannah Kaner’s Sunbringer (Harper Voyager £16.99). Kaner’s Godkiller, which came out last year, was an impressively bloody — and bloody impressive — debut that deservedly became a bestseller. The second volume in what will be a trilogy called Fallen Gods, Sunbringer picks up straight where that book left off. Heroine Kissen is seemingly dead, and her found family of misfits and outcasts lie scattered and demoralised. But she isn’t; they regroup; and there are still rogue gods to be defied and defeated. It’s a very worthy follow-up.
Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast Life & Art wherever you listen
