The New 女生小视频 Book Club has been reading Claire North’s space opera Slow Gods, in which a civilisation has to work out how to deal with a supernova that will kill everyone on a planet 鈥� but not for 100 years. Claire joined us to dig into the details of the book, chatting about everything from how their hero 鈥渋s the protagonist you write when you are an adult diagnosed with autism late in your life鈥� to the parallels between the climate crisis and the book’s world-ending supernova (鈥渟ubtle metaphor it is not鈥�). We also get into their terrifying version of faster-than-light travel 鈥� and how even the “science-iest” science fiction can need a little magic.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 acquire Homer; Homer acquires you.鈥� So writes Adam Nicolson in , his paean to that indispensable pair of ancient epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Christopher Nolan鈥檚 of the latter makes Nicolson鈥檚 book essential reading now for anyone interested in the story鈥檚 greater significance.

Nicolson鈥檚 work follows three trains of thought. In the first, he waxes philosophical about what Homer 鈥� always referred to in the singular, but acknowledged to have been multiple people, spanning generations 鈥� has to say about the meaning of life and the clash between civilisation and depravity. He delves into the fascination literary giants have had with Homer, including John Keats, whose poem Endymion gives the book its title, and Alexander Pope, whose translations leave much to be desired.

The other two strands are more rooted in the tangible world. Nicolson digs into the text of the Iliad and the Odyssey and parses out variations in the Greek, tracing the language鈥檚 structure back to the Linear B of the Mycenaean era and beyond, and uses this linguistic examination to attempt to pin down exactly when the poems were first composed 鈥� much earlier than we鈥檇 previously thought, he argues. The standardised, written Homer that we know came down from a much older oral tradition, says Nicolson, as far back as even 2000-1800 BC.

Finally, he finds traces of Homer鈥檚 writing in archaeological treasures from around the ancient Mediterranean, from a papyrus found at the Hawara site in Egypt to a pottery shard discovered in a tomb on the island of Ischia, one of the oldest surviving examples of written Greek. The papyrus dates to about AD 150; the pottery, to the 8th century BC. Much attention is also paid to the shaft graves of Mycenae, and what they can tell us about the world before the Bronze Age collapse.

Nicolson isn鈥檛 interested in the historicity of the poems themselves 鈥� they are myths, after all 鈥� as much as he is in the world that produced them. He draws a compelling portrait of a complex ancient realm, and of people for whom these stories provided a link to their nomadic, warrior-centred past.

Rereading The Mighty Dead, with its focus on relics and remnants, reminded me of my honeymoon to Crete. My husband and I visited the archaeological museum in Heraklion and saw a boar-tusk helmet on display; in book 10 of the Iliad, you will find Odysseus described wearing one, too. It is a reminder, as Nicolson鈥檚 book impressively contends, that the world of Homer is still very much all around us, if we know where to look.

Who were the enigmatic Sea Peoples blamed for the Bronze Age collapse?

Around 3000 years ago, several empires and kingdoms in the Mediterranean collapsed, with a group of sea-faring warriors implicated as the culprit. But new evidence shows that many of our ideas about this turbulent time need completely rethinking

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It鈥檚 a hot month in London 鈥� in oh so many ways. Life, being alive and death are big themes in the new popular science books out in July, not to mention that small thing of being a human and all the messy feelings and sensory stuff that goes with it. Then there鈥檚 also AI filling the future 听鈥� in ways that worry one of the world鈥檚 leading forensic scientists, as well as ethicists who are paid to think about this sort of thing. I鈥檓 looking forward to delving into the worlds of volcanoes and pharmacology, which look positively safe and stable in comparison鈥�

by Valerie Tiberius

Can friendship with a chatbot ever be as good as friendship with a gang of flesh-and-blood besties? Is there still and will there 鈥� can there听 鈥� always be something about human friendships that will elude the smartest of simulations? Ethicist and University of Minnesota professor of philosophy Valerie Tiberius sets out to argue the human case. She defines the ideal friendship as an enjoyable, close relationship built on shared activities between people who care about each other for their own sake. It will be interesting to see where her book goes with this 鈥� especially since Shannon Vallor, author of听The AI Mirror: How to reclaim our humanity in an age of machine thinking, thinks it 鈥減rovides a nuanced philosophical survey of the possibilities for human-AI relationships by highlighting their considerable risks and benefits鈥�.

The 17 best popular science books of 2026 so far

The first six months of the year have brought us popular science reads on everything from consciousness to cosmology. Liz Else rounds up her favourites

by Richard Coker

It may sound a bit gloomy, but Timor Mortis (literally 鈥渇ear of death鈥�) could hardly be more timely as we increasingly worry about the quality of end-of-life care for everyone we care about (including ourselves). Then there鈥檚 what we mean by 鈥渁 good death鈥� 鈥� and perhaps the biggest question of all, how do we live in the hyperteched 21st century in the visceral shadow of our own death? Public health doctor Richard Coker probes death鈥檚 complexities from different perspectives: biological, psychological, moral and historical. Coker has certainly done the rounds, latterly as a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and earlier as a doctor working with people who had TB or HIV/AIDS.

by Tamie Jovanelly

This is one of the latest in the redoubtable What Everyone Needs to Know series from Oxford University Press, covering everything from gender to robots. And how could you go wrong with the subject of volcanoes? Geology professor Tamie Jovanelly has over 20 years of global research experience in volcanism, climate change, water systems and natural hazards to guide her as she answers those simple questions we might be too embarrassed to ask anyone else. Where do we find volcanoes? Can we predict when and where they will erupt? Can we harness their energy? 听With 1350 active volcanoes on Earth, between 50 and 70 erupting annually, not to mention climate change in the mix, explaining what makes one of nature鈥檚 most powerful forces work isn鈥檛 a simple task. Jovanelly also gives us GPS coordinates for locating volcanoes, high-definition photographs for identifying volcanic minerals and rocks 鈥� and there鈥檚 an appendix featuring 100 of the world鈥檚 most active volcanoes.

by Rod Flower

This book sounds like it might be a great companion to a title we featured in May: Nick Barber鈥檚 How to Take Drugs: A new approach to medication for better results and fewer side effects. And given the staggering 1 billion-plus prescriptions written in the UK every year 鈥� and, even more staggeringly, over five billion in the US 鈥� members of the prescribed-to public can stand all the help they can get to understand why they take the drugs they do, and what those drugs do. This is more of a history and context-builder, as Rod Flower, emeritus professor of biochemical pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London (with a big interest in inflammation and anti-inflammatories) takes us through the astonishingly fast evolution of our drug use, from healing plants and herbs to a global market just under $2 trillion 鈥� and the rise of pharmacology as a discipline. Flower also shows us how drugs really work in detail, the process of medicine development and what makes scientists think that their therapies will work as, er, advertised.

by Roopika Risam

鈥淕roundbreaking and provocative鈥� is how its publishers describe Data Empire. This exploration of data as power tracks back millennia to the first clay tablets of Mesopotamia, through knotted strings keeping account to the algorithmic modern state. Their purpose sounds oddly familiar: helping states govern people/empires, and helping institutions to decide who appears on the official record and who doesn鈥檛. As we stare, often helplessly, at the plethora of hyperconnected, pervasive, personally extractive tech heading at us, shaping the future needs the insights of people like Risam, working from her multiple perspectives, including a digital humanities and social engagement professorship at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Any writer would be thrilled to have the kind of applause she has attracted, with Lewis Dartnell (author of The Knowledge: How to rebuild our world from scratch) calling the book 鈥淏reathtaking in its scope鈥� and one of the founders of VR, Jaron Lanier, describing it as the 鈥渘ew history of mankind demanded by our times鈥� This book asks what we will do about data now that we have no choice but to do something.鈥�

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by Ian Bogost

In a time of excess consumption, enforced efficiency and fear of missing out, it sounds distinctly quixotic to be pursuing a more gratifying life. But Atlantic columnist and computer academic/designer Ian Bogost鈥檚 The Small Stuff is pitched as just that. From digital tickets to automated taps, say its publishers, life鈥檚 simple pleasures have been stripped away, replaced by sleek, soulless design. Bogost 鈥渦ncovers how modern conveniences not only fail to deliver on their promises but also rob us of small, satisfying tasks and moments that keep us grounded and human鈥�. So it isn鈥檛 just a matter of smelling the roses, and sitting under more trees, but reinvesting in your interactions with the material world and more labour-creating devices. Small pleasures instead of flat giant screens鈥� can鈥檛 wait!

by Dan Werb

Brown rats, raccoons, and urban foxes; house flies and cockroaches; even dandelions and kudzu vines; they are wild creatures living alongside humans, hence the lovely Greek noun that describes them: synanthrope (syn meaning 鈥渨ith鈥�; anthropos 鈥渕an鈥�). These and more exotic creatures, such as the tiger quoll or the collared delma, are at the heart of what looks like a really fascinating book. Writer and epidemiologist Dan Werb goes beyond examining the everyday roles these wild animals play in our lives: from annoyance at the activities of houseflies and urban foxes, to replacing lids in raccoon country or watching out for disease vectors from brown rats and others. He鈥檚 also interested in how we are reaching a key moment as these creatures are 鈥渁rbiters of our planet鈥檚 future鈥�, and 鈥渁 key influence on the continuing evolution of our species鈥�. Environmental destruction means that their urban habitats will increase and their numbers soar. We are going to have to stop resisting them and learn how to live in harmony. By the way, the collared delma is a tiny legless lizard, but the tiger quoll is a metre-long carnivore 鈥� a cross between a cat and a rat. Interesting futures ahead then.

听by Sue Black

This is the third book in a trilogy by Sue Black, one of the UK鈥檚 most eminent forensic scientists with 40 years of experience working on the evidence used in criminal cases. This time she鈥檚 putting science in the dock as she uses landmark cases to unpick what went wrong, where justice was served, what we should fight to preserve 鈥� and asks how AI and other forms of automation will work in court. And while there have been huge leaps forward 鈥� the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, and Black鈥檚 own vein-pattern identification work 鈥� cases like that of Andrew Malkinson, wrongly convicted and jailed for 17 years, show what happens when things go wrong. She asks if we鈥檒l be able to cope with the future coming at us fast. 鈥淎re we prepared for AI to redact police files before they are sent to the CPS? Are we ready to accept instant interview translations? If they are incorrect, who will correct them? Who will notice? We will certainly all care,鈥� she writes. We will indeed.

New 女生小视频 recommends an unsettling deep dive into forensic science

Esteemed forensic anthropologist Sue Black gives a candid insight into the UK criminal justice system and how it really works in her book An Expert Witness, finds Linda Geddes

by Eleanor Drage

Confusion and fear around the fast encroachment of AI and where it may lead is completely understandable. But ethicist Eleanor Drage is exploring, as her book鈥檚 subtitle puts it, 鈥淗ow to stop catastrophising and build an ethical future鈥�. She reckons we need a whole new language and some fresh ideas to determine what AI is and how we should use it. That translates into adding feminism, reparative justice and climate politics into the debate. Early endorsements include broadcaster Sandi Toksvig (鈥淎 wise and purpose-driven book to steer us out of AI doom鈥�) and N. Katherine Hayles, author of From Bacteria to AI (鈥淓leanor Drage dismantles prophecies of both apocalypse and transcendence to show how we can achieve liveable futures with AI鈥�).

The best new popular science books of June 2026

The most exciting popular science reads this month explore everything from symbiosis to hormones, while Alice Roberts takes on an editor-in-chief role in her latest book

by Melanie Challenger

This is one of our biggest conceptual problems: what does it mean to be alive? Researcher and natural philosopher Melanie Challengerprobes the latest discoveries in biology and physics 鈥渢o reveal a radical truth: to be alive is first and foremost a way of being a body鈥�, say the book鈥檚 publicists. This sounds great and it will be interesting to see how the argument plays out 鈥� how far Alive lives up the claims and restores 鈥渁gency, purpose and meaning to organisms in an age of artificial intelligence and biodiversity loss鈥�.

听

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I am on holiday later this month, so I鈥檓 pleased to find there鈥檚 a really wide range of intriguing new science fiction to take with me. I鈥檓 particularly keen to get cracking on a tale by Sheila Armstrong about strange ancient things found in a bog, but I鈥檓 also excited to read a new book by one of my favourite authors, Paul Tremblay (even if it does sound very disturbing). And I鈥檓 looking forward to the high-concept thrillers and classic space-set sci-fi on offer, too 鈥� not forgetting the first new Red Dwarf novel released in 30 years.

by Ruth Newton

This sounds a little Severance-like and ideal summer reading for those of us who enjoy a good high-concept thriller. It鈥檚 set in a near future where you can outsource your emotional pain thanks to a biotech company, Eudaimonia. Sounds good, right? You can get rid of your unwanted negative emotions. But the price is paid by a 鈥淐arrier鈥� 鈥� a woman who is paid to take on your pain. When Viv goes to work for Eudaimonia, she discovers even darker secrets.

The best sci-fi novel in 2026 so far 鈥� plus 6 other great reads

Sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson rounds up her favourite reads of the year to date 鈥� and highlights one particular book as her top pick

by Paul Tremblay

I鈥檓 super excited about this one. I鈥檝e loved Paul Tremblay ever since I read the absolutely terrifying Shirley Jackson-inflected A Head Full of Ghosts. This time Tremblay has written a piece of AI horror, set in a near future where former professional gamer Julia is offered a temporary job escorting a man in a vegetative state from California to the East Coast. Why is the man in this state? Because he has an AI mind implanted in his head 鈥� and he is trapped in a strange and morphing hellscape he can鈥檛 escape. Loved the great riff on Philip K. Dick in the title.

by Deb Olin Unferth

Set at 鈥渢he end of the world as we know it鈥�, as its publisher writes, this follows two women who fall in love 鈥� one of them raised in a research pod deep in the ocean, and the other who works in a luxury resort as a bartender (but who may also be a robot). Together, they try to 鈥渟alvage some trace of planet Earth鈥� as it slowly disappears.

by Riley August

Ellis feels something is missing from his seemingly perfect life, so he sets out for the hedonistic world of Planet Happy. Nara is the attendant tasked with ensuring that Ellis will indeed find happiness on his trip, but activists disrupt the visit, and they set out on an adventure together.

by Sheila Armstrong

I have this on my bedside table ready to read when I get a minute 鈥� it鈥檚 the book I鈥檓 most looking forward to in July. It follows a dog鈥檚 uncovering of a strange antler in a restored bog, which leads to the discovery that the peat is an ancient dying ground of the Great Irish Elk. These aren鈥檛 the first things to be found in the bog. Archaeologists have already discovered prehistoric settlements and the mutilated body of a woman, 2,000 years old. And the deep time of the bog seems to have a sinister influence over the lives of those who have been touched by it.

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by Nadia Afifi

Azad is a fugitive, hunted by the Vitruvian Authorities after he exposed his home planet鈥檚 dark secrets. If he really wants to spark rebellion, Azad needs the help of a space pirate with her own agenda 鈥� and they must revisit the past.

by Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall

The first new Red Dwarf novel in 30 years is a prequel, written by co-creator Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall, creator of the sitcom 2point4Children. It sees the mining ship Red Dwarf orbiting Saturn鈥檚 moon Titan, with the crew 鈥� including Lister and Rimmer 鈥� all planning their latest shore leave. (Lister, interestingly, is planning to find a cat to smuggle back on board鈥�). But everyone鈥檚 plans go awry when a cryptic message from the future arrives.

by Gregory Bastianelli

A blend of science fiction and horror, this follows a doctor, Monica Cucinotta, working in an Italian hospital on the frontlines of a deadly virus which causes thorns to erupt on the bodies of its victims. When she is infected , she has to leave the hospital and travel across a devastated world to get back to her loved ones.

The best new science fiction books of May 2026

New science fiction from big names including Ann Leckie, Alan Moore and Martha Wells are just some of the exciting crop of titles out this month

by Claire McGowan

This sounds terrifying 鈥� and pleasingly Handmaid鈥檚 Tale-ish. It鈥檚 set in a version of Great Britain ruled by the Hope Party, where a series of new laws have made a swathe of changes, including a rewilding of the countryside, and a prioritisation of children鈥檚 rights. But fertility is constantly monitored, and abortion and contraception are banned. Kate is is too scared to say anything against these new norms, but is forced to take action when her daughter becomes pregnant.

by Rebecca Thorne

I like the look of this piece of cosy science fiction, in which Torian acquires an ancient and abandoned starship covered in moss. But when Torian sets out on board, keen to get away from her overbearing ex-captain (and ex) Amelia, she discovers that the moss is in fact Moss, the ship鈥檚 organic computer, and it has a mind of its own.

by David Arlo

This sounds rather silly but also fun. It follows game developer Hal, who has been working for years on 鈥渢he most anticipated video game of all time鈥�, in which players enter a fully immersive virtual reality where they can live their fantasies. Hal needs to do a final test off the record to see if he can genuinely achieve total immersion, so tries it out on his family 鈥� only to discover they can鈥檛 escape from the game. So, he goes in to save them and bring them back to reality.

by Christian Kracht, translated by Daniel Bowles

Kracht has previously been shortlisted for the International Booker prize; now, his publisher is comparing his latest to Ursula K. Le Guin and Jorge Luis Borges. It tells the story of a designer, Paul, who is walking through the corridors of a server farm in Norway 鈥� until he vanishes in a blackout. Meanwhile, in another time and place, a man wakes up in a forest, and a young girl helps him to an icy settlement. This sounds really intriguing.

The best new science-fiction books of June 2026

There is plenty of intriguing sci-fi on offer this month, whether it鈥檚 solar-powered cities from Adrian Tchaikovsky or a strange future from M. John Harrison

by Meg Smitherman

A gothic sci-fi novella in which interplanetary transporter Midonia is given the job of flying Sister Irena to a planet where the people worship a deity known as Anguish. But when their ship is grounded by a solar flare, Midonia is stuck on the planet, where a strange voice starts invading her mind at night.

by Calvin James

We鈥檙e promised both romance and sci-fi in this tale about junior supply officer Levar, who is called upon to serve as a diplomat in peace talks because he once dated an Imperial baroness. Then he discovers that a former lover, Astrid, is actually the Demon Emperor, and their feelings for each other are still very much present.

When听you make a purchase via the links on this page, we receive a commission.

This is the story of the supernova event known as Lhonoja. By the end of it, several planets will have burned, a couple of civilisations will have fallen, and I will have spoken to an entity some consider a god, and whose theological status will remain in question throughout.

Before then, I must explain how I came to be, and for that, I must take you back several centuries, to Glastya Row.

听

Glastya Row started as a landing strip on the planet Tu-mdo.

Most urban establishments on most colonised worlds begin this way. Tu-mdo had been a prime terraforming candidate 鈥� comfortable gravity, good magnetic shield, not too hot, not too cold, not tidally locked and already possessed of a moon which, once water was thawed out in sufficient volume, would serve to stir the great big mixing bowl of Tu-mdo鈥檚 freshly churning oceans. The first colonists didn鈥檛 even need to spend five centuries in arcologies waiting for atmospheric conditions to settle, but were out and breathing without aid within a couple of pioneering generations. Two millennia later, Glastya Row had been transformed from pioneer鈥檚 outpost to merely another borough of some few million in the great city of Heom, a middling hub of profit and endeavour within the interplanetary-spanning United Social Venture.

They say you can tell a lot about a Venture based on how its employees name their children.

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In Antekeda, the Venture that ran my city, these were the most common middle names given to children at birth:

Chairman 鈥� 15 per cent

Entrepreneur 鈥� 10 per cent

Director 鈥� 9 per cent

Abundant 鈥� 5 per cent

Diligent 鈥� 4 per cent

In Theymann, a Venture specialising in deep space habitation, the distribution skewed towards Pioneers and Engineers, while in Halsect there was an almost sentimental emphasis on children called 鈥淎spiring鈥�.

My parents had all the ambition you might expect of residents of Glastya Row, combined with a grim realism. Thus when I was born, my name was registered as Mawukana 鈥淩espected鈥� na-Vdnaze. I might never achieve dazzling heights or have great Shine, but dammit, my neighbours would at least know that I was respectable.

It would be fair to say that things went downhill from there.

Deep-space sci-fi novel is delightful, profound and not to be missed

A planet is about to be destroyed by the collapse of a binary star system in Slow Gods, Claire North鈥檚 first venture into classic science fiction. Read it! says Emily H. Wilson

I am told that I cried an unhallowed amount when I was born, though no one seems able to clarify what 鈥渦nhallowed鈥� means. I imagine my scream rose a little in volume as they implanted my Chint in the top of my plump left bicep, already embedded with the debts I had accrued to the Venture that ran the hospital that sheltered me 鈥� 400 Glint for a standard birth, plus another 1,873 Glint for basic costs such as bedding, vaccinations, postnatal checkups, vitamin shots, etc. . . .

Thus, before I was placed upon my mother鈥檚 breast, I was marked with the overriding feature of life on Glastya Row 鈥� the debt I owed.

As befits two individuals who named their child 鈥淩espected鈥�, my parents were not irresponsible. They had carefully saved for this moment, and were between them able to bring my initial debt down to a mere 700 Glint, and keep on top of the 1.5 per cent child-rate interest payments my existence accrued. Moreover, to welcome me into the world, Antekeda gifted me with fifty shares, my ownership marking me as a citizen of the Venture. By the time I turned fifteen and sat my assignment exams, those shares were worth nearly 600 Glint 鈥� though my educational and civic debts were well in excess of 92,000.

This system, we were taught, was about fairness. We were pioneers and our world was a place of scarcity, hardship and struggle. Everything the Venture gave us 鈥� the air we breathed, the roads we walked down, the schools we learned in 鈥� had been sweated for, bled for, and our debts were a marker of the needful labour we would give back in return.

All are born equal, and by their labours shall they rise.

This philosophy was the underlying constitution of the United Social Venture. Both it and the more anthropologically engaging qualities of social and economic status that arose from it were known as Shine.

听

We were not a high-Shine family. My parents ran a small restaurant that served cold-broth dumplings to hot middle Managers too tired and busy to cook. They did their best to improve their Shine, constantly cooing over difficult, well-dressed customers and putting themselves forward to run catering events in Shiny houses or at Shiny events, but nothing could really wipe the smell of Glastya Row off their grease-stained aprons and soap-scoured fingers. Every six months, an Antekeda representative would come by and offer them another course or long-distance learning diploma in business growth and radical enterprise, and sometimes my mother, always the more energetic of the two, would sign up and do her coursework and pay her fees, and talk at the table about how this was it. This was the change we needed to get out, move up. It never came to anything.

During my 鈥渃ute鈥� years, which I was told were seven to eleven years old, I worked as a waiter in the shop in the hope someone would give me that most wondrous of miracles, a 鈥渢ip鈥� for my services. By the time I was twelve, you could see the shape of the adult I was going to be. My father鈥檚 thick, straight black hair was overgrown around my mother鈥檚 sunset-through-smog face. I was always a little short, with green-grey eyes that narrowed to almost impossible lines when I squinted in confusion (as I did a lot) and pale lips that didn鈥檛 smile enough, or smiled wrong, or just didn鈥檛 quite get the smiling business right, whenever I tried to move them.

鈥淪mile with your eyes,鈥� my mother commanded, during one of her we-shall-advance phases. So I stood in front of the mirror in the grubby upstairs bathroom and squeezed my eyelids tight and waggled my eyebrows and tried to inventory every tiny muscle about my growing grubby dishcloth of a face, until I could at least achieve something that didn鈥檛 seem to upset people too badly.

Despite, or perhaps owing to, these efforts, I was relegated to the back of the kitchen so that my mother could stay out front, charming and occasionally bamboozling the customers. By the time I was fourteen and my schooling was getting unfeasibly expensive, it was already apparent that I would not have a Shiny life. Most of my classmates were starting to drop out into the menial labour that was the heart of every Venture, and those who remained were preparing for adulthood with an endless dance of alliances, enmities, petty acts of cruelty and theft, out-daring each other in who could game the system. Bullies thrived 鈥� so long as they were not caught. Being caught was far worse a sin than being a thief, a liar or simply cruel.

Many economists, observing the Shine, have marvelled at the low levels of educational obtainment common across its population. The circular economies of most other worlds, powered by the sunlight or atomic reactors and fed by agricultural systems whose architects can sit in their pantries dispatching drones to the harvest, consider education not merely of primary importance to the success of their systems, but as frankly the most interesting thing the population can do with their expansive time.

However, education breeds curiosity. And curiosity is one of the very first qualities that the leaders of the Shine seek to eliminate from the population.

This is an extract from by Claire North (Orbit), the New 女生小视频 Book Club鈥檚 pick for July. Sign up for the Book Club here, and join the discussion on Discord .

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When I decided to write a space opera, I wanted to start with a supernova. There is no force in the universe like it, either in scale or destructive power 鈥� but though it is irrefutably dramatic, it鈥檚 also something you can see coming. As a writer, I find this fascinating. What does it mean to look into the heavens and know the exact date when a star will die and with it, your world? What choices do you make, and what price would you pay to save yourself 鈥� or your civilisation?

This is the story of Slow Gods.

Let鈥檚 imagine for a moment that you are one of these astronomers, watching the stars that will soon destroy your world. For millennia, you鈥檝e known the supernova is coming, and for millennia your people have ignored it. It鈥檚 a difficult sell: 鈥淟et鈥檚 fundamentally transform our entire society to save the lives of billions of people鈥� in about 500 years鈥� time.鈥� Everyone agrees in a 鈥渞hubarb-rhubarb鈥� sort of way that fine, yes, this is a good idea. For someone else. Later.

Well shucks. Suddenly millennia became centuries, became decades. Time is running out. Perhaps you are looking at your newborn grandchild when you realise: you know how, and when, this babe will die. Perhaps they suffocate as the oceans boil, burn alive as the atmosphere ignites or simply die from radiation sickness, skin and organs slowly liquefying. All the incremental changes you made down the years 鈥� a distant colony here, a bit of a space elevator there? Not enough. It鈥檚 time for your entire civilisation to re-tool around the grim but inescapable premise of saving what you can in the time that remains.

Deep-space sci-fi novel is delightful, profound and not to be missed

A planet is about to be destroyed by the collapse of a binary star system in Slow Gods, Claire North鈥檚 first venture into classic science fiction. Read it! says Emily H. Wilson

Some hasty maths ensues. You鈥檝e got a century to rescue a population of 5 billion before your planet burns. You build space elevators and vast motherships to carry people across the stars, and at the height of the project can evacuate almost 50 million people a year. (You are going to ignore the perpetual danger of the things lurking in the monstrous dark, infesting the crew with madness, playing tricks with biology or simply gobbling a ship whole. Such creatures defy computation, after all.)

In 100 years you can maybe, in a pinch, get everyone off-planet 鈥� but of course it鈥檚 never that simple.听 Children are still being born, the population renewing itself faster than you can evacuate. Perhaps you try to limit population growth? But no 鈥� a childless century is as sure a death for your civilisation as fire itself. Life must continue, even if you know that for every child saved, another will die when the planet burns.

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Perhaps you are selective about who鈥檚 evacuated, and in what order. Do you prioritise the educated, the most fertile, the famous? And by implication, are you going to leave the disabled, the vulnerable, the marginalised behind? This is a genocide by omission, civilisational eugenics 鈥� is that who you are?

Fine 鈥� a lottery system. At least people can agree it鈥檚 fairer, even if no one wants to accept their own powerlessness. You hope and hope that your number will be called, but as the years tick by, that hope begins to slip away. Your people expect you to die quietly, all because of a simple bit of bad luck. Do you?

Even if you escape, where do you go? Some worlds straight up reject your people, leaving millions stranded in the endless dark. Others are more willing to accept you, but only a few hundred thousand at a time, shoved into the most desolate corners of an unwelcoming planet that your biology simply isn鈥檛 adapted to. Your people are being scattered into tiny enclaves across the stars, cut off from each other, forgetting their own customs, languages, ideas. You have saved lives, certainly 鈥� but you haven鈥檛 saved your civilisation. Historians leap into action, bickering over what songs and stories are most quintessentially you. You watch as your society is put into a museum, history sold to the highest bidder, and know that whatever is displayed is only a fraction of who you are.

Or maybe you don鈥檛. This is after all just one story in the galaxy of Slow Gods.

Maybe instead you downplayed the crisis and said 鈥渟omeone else will sort it out鈥�, as if anyone can out-bluff a supernova, and now you鈥檝e got less than a decade before your seas boil, and there are billions of people with nothing to do except die. The richest and most powerful have saved themselves, but they still need income, and for that they need people. Desperate, terrified people who will do anything to survive.

You eye up your gunships. You eye up other worlds 鈥� vulnerable worlds, outside the blast radius. And you maybe make a choice to save your own children, even if that means someone else鈥檚 child will die, because what parent will do less? Choosing between guaranteed annihilation or violence without end, perhaps you choose a war that will burn the galaxy, having decided that this is no choice at all.

Claire North鈥檚 听(Orbit) is the July read for the New 女生小视频 Book Club. Sign up here, and come and discuss the book on our Discord channel .

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