Steven Erikson, better known for his high fantasy, tackles the well-worn SF trope of first contact in Rejoice: A Knife to the Heart (Gollancz, £18.99). When a trinity of alien races sends an AI emissary to Earth, the fabric of reality is altered. Force fields manifest to protect flora, fauna and vast areas of wilderness from human depredation: they also make it impossible to despoil the planet or slaughter animals, and humans can no longer harm each other. At a stroke, violence is a thing of the past. Meanwhile, an SF author named Samantha August is abducted by the aliens and spends much of the novel aboard a starship in orbit above the Earth, as an AI persuades her to act as the trinity’s spokesperson. What follows is a leisurely, philosophical disquisition on the nature of the alien intervention and the post-capitalist future of the human race. Rejoice rejoices in satirising capitalism, dumb US presidents, greedy media moguls, impotent military high-ups and much more.
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