The End of Everything is new.
It just hit shelves.
By M. John Harrison. Half the size of a normal novel. None of that slouch.
I ate it in one sitting. Greedy. Woke up feeling full.
The plot? Post-apocalyptic. Alien invasion aftermath. England’s south coast. Phillip and his grandma, Marnie.
Europe? Gone. Vanished. Since the “iGhetti” arrived, geography is a liar.
Artifacts wash ashore. Dangerous ones. Then there’s the “bad patch.” Hits random people. Makes them see things. Act strange. Maybe real. Maybe not. Ambiguity is the point.
Phillip hunts gear. Wants cash. Marnie paints.
Seems straightforward. Until it isn’t. These two do not follow the script.
Shadows of the classics linger here.
Arkady and Boris Strugatski’s Roadside Picnic (1972). Aliens visit Earth. Don’t care about us. Leave trash that kills.
John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos (1957). Invasion via pregnancy. No ships.
But Harrison? This isn’t pastiche. It’s original. Genius, honestly.
June’s Other Bets
Two more June releases deserve a look.
The Traveler by Joseph Eckert comes first.
Protagonist: Scott Treder.
His problem: He leaps forward in time. Daily. At 7:52 AM.
First jump: One day.
Second: Two.
Then four.
It doubles every time.
Scott’s son, Lyle—now a physicist—did the math early on.
“Dad? If it keeps doubling, by jump fifteen, you’ll skip forty-five years?”
Lyle spends his life trying to save Scott. Noble. Sad. He disappears fast. Literally. Into the future fog.
The book starts as a thriller. Turns into pure sci-fi. Not high art like Harrison. But compelling. Why is this happening? Who is pulling Scott forward?
Adrian Tchaikovsky drops Green City Wars too.
Tchaikovsky already nailed one of 2026’s best with Children of Strife (part of his Children of Time series). Terraforming gone wrong. Far future. Brilliant.
So expectations for Book #2 of the year? Low. Jealousy talks.
Green City Wars is different. “Cosy.” A specific vibe.
The hero? A raccoon. IQ-boosted. Private eye. Looking for a mouse.
Sounds like Zootopia. Feels less Disney.
Here, augmented animals scrub the streets for humans living upstairs.
The “Green City” runs on animal labor. They stay boosted by an elixir. Political undertones exist. The tone? Joyful. Comic. Whimsical. If you like weird and light, give it a shot.
The Rest of the Stack
Looking back at earlier reads.
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie stands out. Part of her Imperial Radch saga. Not her peak for me, but fantastic nonetheless.
Silvia Park’s Luminous. Uneven pacing. Full heart. Big ideas about AI future. Worth the read.
George Saunders’ Vigil. Sticks with me.
Ghostly protagonist Jill Blaine charms you. The mark? An oil tycoon she’s helping toward his death. Irredeemable man. Unredeemable situation.
Emily H. Wilson wrote this. Author of the Sumerians series, former New Scientist editor, currently writing her first sci-fi novel.
When you click the links above, we get a cut. 📉
