Time To Read

Science fiction

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. Day after day, Piranesi makes a careful record of the House’s wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases … Mostly, he is alone. Then messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want?

Mr Gormley says : “ Piranesi is one of my favourite novels of all time: a work of stunning imagination that will take your breath away.”

The Long Earth by Terry Prachett & Stephen Baxter

The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag

In an alternative 1997, the U.S. is littered with the carcasses of battle drones and the detritus of a society addicted to a sophisticated virtual-reality system. Moving across this strange landscape is a girl and her toy robot. Outside the car window, society seems to be collapsing faster by the minute. A truly unique graphic novel with an uncanny ability to conjure up a nostalgic past that, though it never existed, feels weirdly familiar.

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive scientist when she finds a curious gadget: a box containing some wiring, a three way switch… and a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humanity views the world for ever. A brilliantly inventive collaborative sci-fi novel about infinite universes and an extraordinary teenager who can jump between them.