New_Scientist_3_08_2019

32 | New Scientist | 3 August 2019

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WHAT would you do if you could

push a little red button to erase

everyone you don’t agree with

politically? Empty Hearts by

Juli Zeh is set several years in

the future in a Germany where

the political shocks of Trump and

Brexit, exacerbated by a second

financial crisis and the growth

of an ultrapopulist movement,

have undermined the will towards

democracy. Given a choice

between owning a washing

machine or the right to vote, most

people would choose the appliance.

Disillusioned but sheltered

from the fallout of these crises, the

novel’s anti-hero, Britta, has found

a way to profit from nihilism by

cornering the market in domestic

terrorism. She runs The Bridge, a

legal organisation that identifies

the suicidally inclined, and, should

they prove untreatable, pairs them

with terrorist organisations such

as Islamic State, for which they

carry out suicide attacks. But now

a rival organisation, Empty Hearts,

led by a rejected client, threatens

Britta’s market domination.

This year has seen a string of

novels exploring the destabilised

Western political psyche, but

Empty Hearts strikes me as one

of the strongest so far. It asks,

what if the current political

climate led not to catastrophe,

but to stagnation? Its answer is

a riveting thriller and a nuanced

piece of social science fiction.

The novel’s only weakness

is that its tight focus on social

developments assumes stability

in areas such as tech advances and,

most strikingly, climate change,

which is relegated to one more

ideological battleground. On the

whole, though, it is nuanced and

brilliantly executed – a standout.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate

by Becky Chambers seems

spawned from similar concerns:

overexposure to a frantic news

cycle, loss of political efficacy, a

feeling of rootlessness. But this

novella – set in her bestselling

Reflections of a broken world Destabilised times breed very different responses

in two new sci-fi stories: one a thriller about profiting from nihilism, the other a

classic space dilemma – but with human values to the fore, writes Helen Marshall

“ Given a choice between

owning a washing

machine or the right

to vote, most would

choose the appliance”

Books

Empty Hearts

Juli Zeh (trans. John Cullen)

Penguin Random House

To Be Taught,

If Fortunate

Becky Chambers

Hodder & Stoughton

Helen also

recommends...

Books

The Memory Police

Yoko Ogawa (Trans.

Stephen Snyder)

Harvill Secker

A poetic exploration of the

effects of state surveillance.

Episodes

Christopher Priest

Gollancz

Eleven short stories by one

of sci-fi’s most absorbing

and provocative writers.

Wayfarers world – has a very

different take. It is the turn of the

22nd century and Ariadne O’Neill

is part of a crew on an interstellar

mission to survey habitable

exoplanets. Their journey takes

them 15 light years from home,

a distance that only allows them

to maintain intermittent contact

through news packages and

updated mission briefings.

Caught up in the joys and trials

of their expedition, they begin to

disconnect from the increasingly

volatile political situation at

home – until they lose contact

altogether. With fuel enough for a

return to the planet that launched

them or a further foray into the

unknown, the crew must decide

what they owe to those left behind.

Whereas Zeh risks turning news-

weary readers into trolls unmoored

from their compassionate

instincts, Chambers seems to

suggest going offline, tuning out

the noise and refocusing on what

you value most. In this love letter

to science, she weaves together

descriptions of technology with

entertaining characters and a fast-

moving, emotional plot. Her future

is fraught with difficulties, but a

focus on warmth, camaraderie

and teamwork is welcome.

At times, her book wears its

heart too much on its sleeve.

Chambers names the exoplanets

Mirabilis, Opera and Votum (Latin

for miraculous, work and prayer),

which risks giving the novella the

flavour of a spacefaring Eat, Pray,

Love. But this may be unfair. The

effect is magnified, I suspect, by

the lack of similarly optimistic

novels published right now. As

bleakness becomes a stand-in for

realism, To Be Taught, If Fortunate

is still a breath of fresh air. ❚

THOMAS DWORZAK/MAGNUM PHOTOS

A string of novels this year

explore the destabilised

Western political psyche

The science fiction column

Helen Marshall is an editor,
award-winning writer
and senior lecturer at the
University of Queensland,
Australia. Follow her on
Twitter @manuscriptgal