Friday Reads: Empty Space

This Friday we’re kicking off the first of our weekly Friday Reads promotions. Wherein, once a week a member of Team Gollancz will share with you a book we can’t stop talking about. Whether its an upcoming new release, an old favorite or a hot genre title this is the place for to find your perfect weekend reading selection. This week Simon tells you why you should pre-order Empty Space. 

Whether writing about insane starships or surburban gardens Mike’s writing dances with invention, with images that hit you and leave a mark on your emotions. He hints at things and twists language. He sometimes leaves you wondering, sometimes leaves you in wonder. This is a short extract but, my word, there is a LOT of writing and, crucially, a LOT of story in these few words.

This is why I think you might love reading M. John Harrison’s EMPTY SPACE:

‘A mere two hundred feet long yet ten thousand tonnes unloaded, its matt-grey hull profuse with power bulges and ram intakes, Uptown Six dipped its blunt nose into the square. Reeking of stealth coatings, strange physics and the exotically dense matter laid in wafers between the poisonous composites of its hull, it hung outside the cafe door in a nose-down attitude, like a bad dream, full of the intelligence of its captain, a thirteen-year-old self-harmer called Carlo who would live the rest of his life in a tank of fluid somewhere near the stern.

“Here’s your boyfriend,” Alyssia said.’

EMPTY SPACE is coming soon. But you could also try VIRICONIUM or, on the Masterworks list, THE CENTAURI DEVICE.

Or maybe you should check-in for a night or two at the Ambient Hotel, where, amongst other diversions, you can find a longer extract from EMPTY SPACE.