REISSUES

ur pick of the paperbacks this month: Clarke Award winner Chris Beckett’s latest, (, 5 March, Corvus). Set in 1990, it follows a London in technothriller (, out now, The Borough Press). A dead billionaire is digitally reanimated years later in “Bitworld”; meanwhile, in the post-truth “Meatworld” of physical reality, the US heartland has morphed into the semi-lawless “Ameristan”. We said: “Makes for sometimes dizzying reading, even a sense that you’re reading several novels at once… but you’re carried through by Stephenson’s sheer ambition.” Finally, Temi Oh’s (, out now, Simon & Schuster) is set in an alternative 2013 where Britain has a space programme. It follows novice astronauts at a space academy as they’re trained for the lifelong voyage to a distant world. We said: “We explore their fears, romances and secrets… a poignant, gripping novel of loss and obsession.