Dissolution
(Nicholas Binge (UK, 27 March); (US, 25 March))
Time travel is, of course, a staple of science fiction. The means of travelling through time may differ 鈥� from a 1960s police box to a set of ancient standing stones 鈥� but time shifting generally leads to all kinds of problems with 鈥渢imelines鈥� and important things being erased from or added to them. Our heroes can also get stuck in loops, doomed to repeat themselves endlessly for our pleasure unless they can work out how to escape. Think Groundhog Day, Palm Springs, Edge of Tomorrow and so on.
Memory problems are another great sci-fi standby. Why can鈥檛 our hero remember anything? It is an instant mystery. Or perhaps they have selective memory gaps. Even more mysterious. Then there is the added benefit of reducing the hero to the same information level as the reader. Exposition can be extremely tedious when you are the only one in the dark, but very welcome when the hero has no idea what is happening either. Playing with amnesia storylines can also serve up big questions about what is left if we forget who we are and what we have done.
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In Dissolution, Nicholas Binge cleverly weaves together time travel and memory games into a hard-to-put-down thriller. It鈥檚 an expertly crafted puzzle of a story that reminded me of the films Memento and Inception, so I can see why the book is already being adapted for the big screen.
Memory problems are another sci-fi standby...they reduce the hero to the same information level as the reader
In Dissolution, our hero is, quite refreshingly, an elderly woman. Maggie鈥檚 situation at first seems ordinary. Her only child doesn鈥檛 speak to her and her husband Stanley is in a care home and has started to forget who she is. She is terribly lonely, but she slogs on. What else can she do?
Then a man, Hassan, turns up at her front door and claims that her husband is having his memories stolen. But we only learn this from a transcript of Hassan interviewing Maggie under bafflingly strange circumstances.
This is an ornately constructed book, full to the brim with plot and consisting of lengthy interview transcripts of pure dialogue, mixed up with glimpses into the past. In lesser hands, all this would be leaden and lumpish, but Binge is an excellent writer and more than up to the challenge of laying out the puzzle pieces for us. I won鈥檛 say more about the plot for fear of ruining it, but if you like mysteries involving memory loss and time travel, this one is for you.
This brings me to another (very different) book about memory that is also out this month.
, by the talented Olivia Waite, is a novella, and I am generally enraged by novellas. What is the point of a book that ends just as you are getting into it? However, if 100 pages is your ideal length and you also like the idea of cosy crime set on an interstellar starship, then this is definitely one for you.
The (delightful) hero is ship鈥檚 detective Dorothy Gentleman, who wakes up in a body that isn鈥檛 her own to find that someone has not only killed people on board, but is also destroying their stored memories, which means the victims are actually, really, murdered. Once she is sure that her own memories have been made safe, Dorothy sets out to track down the dastardly murderer.
The book is the first instalment in a new series, so perhaps at some point the stories will be collected into omnibus form (as has just happened with Martha Wells鈥檚 The Murderbot Diaries) to stop people like me whining about how short they are.
Emily also recommends鈥�
Doug Liman
Streaming on various platforms
A war against alien invaders is raging. Every time our hero, played by Tom Cruise, is killed, he wakes up alive鈥� only to find himself shipped out to face the aliens once more. This is a superb example of a Groundhog Day-style time-loop story, and I don鈥檛 know why it isn鈥檛 more beloved. Plus, you get Emily Blunt as the ultimate alien hunter.
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of 快猫短视频 and聽the author of the Sumerians trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The聽second book in the series, Gilgamesh, is out now.聽You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1
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