Something Coming Through

Critics Review

• 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

• McAuley writes intelligent hardcore SF, and this should win him countless new readers

  The Guardian

• Something Coming Through is science fiction at it’s peak, its modern, clever, involving. It’s got more ideas than a science fair and more mystery than Miss Marple. Wrap that all up in an original first contact story with some enigmatic aliens, even stranger ancient technology and some great characters and you have one hell of a book

  SF Book

• brilliantly splits the difference between James A. Corey’s frenetic science fiction and the more considered catastrophes of McAuley’s own Quiet War novels. It’s fun; it’s fascinating; it’s fantastic

  Tor.com