Something Coming Through

Name: Something Coming Through
Brand: Hachette UK
Availability: InStock
Author: Paul McAuley
ISBN: 9781409165958

Author: Paul McAuley

Series: Something Coming

Narrator: Rosie Jones

Unabridged: 13 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: 04/21/2016

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis

The aliens are here. And they want to help. The extraordinary new project from one of the country's most acclaimed and consistently brilliant SF novelists of the last 30 years.

The Jackaroo have given humanity fifteen worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroo's previous clients.

Miracles that could reverse the damage caused by war, climate change, and rising sea levels. Nightmares that could forever alter humanity - or even destroy it.

Chloe Millar works in London, mapping changes caused by imported scraps of alien technology. When she stumbles across a pair of orphaned kids possessed by an ancient ghost, she must decide whether to help them or to hand them over to the authorities. Authorities who believe that their visions point towards a new kind of danger.

And on one of the Jackaroo's gift-worlds, the murder of a man who has just arrived from Earth leads policeman Vic Gayle to a war between rival gangs over possession of a remote excavation site.

Something is coming through. Something linked to the visions of Chloe's orphans, and Vic Gayle's murder investigation. Something that will challenge the limits of the Jackaroo's benevolence ...

(p) 2016 Orion Publishing Group

About Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley (Born 1955)Paul James McAuley was born in Gloucestershire on St George's Day, 1955. He has a Ph.D in Botany and worked as a researcher in biology at various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in botany at St Andrews University, before leaving academia to write full time. He started publishing science fiction with the short story "Wagon, Passing" for Asimov's Science Fiction in 1984. His first novel, 400 Billion Stars won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988, and 1995's Fairyland won the Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Awards. He has also won the British Fantasy, Sidewise and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. He lives in London.You can find his blog at: http://www.unlikelyworlds.blogspot.com

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley

This was a surprisingly deep and interesting SF novel that is very rich in worldbuilding. The core plot is very much a traditional Noir mystery, but the inclusion of so many great alien elements including 15 gifted planets, a whole wide slew of problems related to invasive, unintentional cultural an......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

45% DNF I'm sorry, I really tried to like this book, I really really tried! I like the idea of the book, different worlds, but still basically the same script as being on earth because while you may be able to move people you can't change them! This was kind of an alien crime thriller, and again, I lik......more

Quotes

Something Coming Through is as tight and relentlessly paced as an Elmore Leonard thriller, and full of McAuley's customary sharp eye for dialogue and action. What's really impressive, though, is that it achieves a seamless fusion of the day-after-tomorrow SF novel - it's as interested in gritty Earthbound near-futurism as William Gibson or Lauren Beukes - with the cosmological themes of McAuley's galaxy-spanning space operas. It's the freshest take on first contact and interstellar exploration in many years, and almost feels like the seed for an entire new subgenre Alistair Reynolds

Highly recommend everybody buy Something Coming Through because it is great Pat Cadigan

McAuley's latest is smart, it's challenging, and as an exploration of the social consequences of sudden science fictional change, it's very impressive indeed SFX

The action, slow to get going, builds to a dramatic climax of chases and shoot-outs. Crime-tinged SF at its canniest. The Financial Times

What really lifts the book out of the ordinary though, is the Jackaroo...The Jackaroo are an enduring mystery that will get readers back for the next instalment. The Register

It's difficult to find fault with this book - there are a strong cast of characters, enigmatic aliens, a well-woven crime plot and an interesting focus Fantasy Book Review

It's instantly gripping and Paul goes a long way to slowly ease new readers into his strange and wonderful Jackaroo... I already know that "Something Coming Through" will be one of my favourite books of the year. It finds McAuley at the top of his powers - mind-bending, inspiring and very very exciting Upcoming 4 Me

Full of exciting plot twists and an intriguing mix of human and non-human chracters, this murder mystery set up in a dystopian is future history at its very best Starburst Magazine

Packed with ideas, fantastic world-building and enigmas, and combining elements of first contact, alien artifacts, a touch of dystopia and good old fashioned conspiracy, murder and greed. It's a great combination, all handled with a terrific mix of intelligence and accessibility For Winter's Nights

a compelling and realistically imagined piece of speculative fiction anchored be weighty contemporary concerns The Irish Times