Summerland

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What to expect

An awe-inspiring account of the afterlife and what happens when it spills over into the world of the living. The new novel from the most exciting new voice in the genre since Neal Stephenson.

Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning.

In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased.

Yet Britain isn't the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god.

When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk. The spy has friends in high places, and she will have to go rogue to bring him in.

But how do you catch a man who's already dead?

Read by Antonia Beamish

(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018

Critics Review

He's switched subgenres while retaining his trademark conceptual high jinks and impressive world-building... an impressive plot reminiscent of John le Carré.
GUARDIAN
Calls to mind John Le Carre . . . clever, subtle and . . . has a rich emotional centre
SFX MAGAZINE
Eerily plausible, beautifully pitched on the cusp between wonder and horror, and thoroughly engrossing from the first page to the last
Alastair Reynolds
Summerland: As if Alfred Hitchcock had made a movie with HP Lovecraft . . . A vision so original it deserves its own subgenre. And all worked out with the diamond-hard logic of a great SF writer. After Summerland, the thriller has a new geometry
Stephen Baxter
An excellent slice of genre-bending fiction that thrills and intrigues in equal measure.
SCIFINOW
I burned through it in two days. Great book: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spook. [on SUMMERLAND]
Ian McDonald
One of SF's leading lights.
SFX MAGAZINE
A beautifully written, well realised supernatural spy thriller, John le Carré as a ghost story.
Gavin G Smith, author of The Bastard Legion
Engaging writing, tight plotting and fantastic imagination.
Ed McDonald, author of Blackwing
An intricate and vivid world of technological and spiritual wonder.
KIRKUS
A jaw-dropping, knowing, hyperintelligent yarn
Locus Magazine
With boundless imagination, Rajaniemi invents a mortal realm with a steampunk flair... Sci-fi and fantasy readers longing to immerse themselves in a fascinating new world will love exploring Summerland.
SHELF AWARENESS
A tense and twisting tale full of delightful allusions and ingenious
Ken MacLeod
Clever, subtle and... has a rich emotional centre.
SFX MAGAZINE
Summerland is in its own way as persuasive as example of Rajaniemi's disciplined inventiveness as his better-known hard SF.
LOCUS
A solid and enjoyable book and does much to demonstrate Hannu Rajaniemi's versatility and potential.
SF CROWSNEST
It reads like John Le Carré if Le Carré ate a ton of acid before writing Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
NPR
This is not a run of the mill tale of rogue agents, secrets and danger but instead uses this narrative framework as a guide to explore the deeper secrets of the human heart and the power of our own mortality
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