Alternate Realities

Scarlett Thomas' protagonist Ariel Manto is a sexually frustrated philosophy post-grad who finds a rare book, The End of Mr. Y, that has the reputation of causing the mysterious death of anyone who reads it. It's safe to guess that Ariel is going to find out how. She does so by discovering the troposphere. This is a different level of existence. It's sort of the operating system to our reality where all thought operates through. Thus, a little like with Being John Malkovich, you can go into the minds of others. It comes at a price, which is the source of the curse, and the troposphere itself can be a dangerous place if others know you're where you shouldn't be.

The End of Mr. Y moves along like a light thriller, but that's the hanger the real clothes of this novel hang on. It's an existential thought experiment, a quest fantasy, a play on the Matrix style of riff, an amusement on academics and their obscure obsessions, on sexual politics and a smart and witty writer's vehicle for insights on coffee, religion, history, quantum physics, mythology, literature, campus life, zeitgeists, hard sex and romantic defrocked priests. It pulled me in and along and shot me out the other side feeling very satisfied. I almost wanted a cigarette when it was over.

Ian McDonald's Brazyl is up for the Warwick Prize worth  £50,000. It already won the British Science Fiction Association award and received a Hugo nomination. It is an ambitious and complex book with three concurrent storylines. The first is a contemporary story about producing bad television and football. The very flawed heroine's world begins to unravel in a P K Dick paranoid kind of way. The second story is set in 2032 about a street hustler who gets involved in some strange and deadly quantum engineering. The third tale is set in 1732 and is a Heart of Darkness style adventure where a Jesuit priest journeys deeper into the jungle in search of a mad missionary.

All three tales are involving in themselves, but how they involve each other is the magic trick of this book. The links don't always work, but most do and well enough to understand the quantum physics, super-computers, psychoactive drugs, football politics, alternate realities and the science voodoo that combines it all. Huge chunks are riveting and the intended confusions tweak your brain towards different ways of seeing. One has to note how effectively Brazyl stages full-bore car chases and epic jungle battles of swords and muskets with lessons in quantum mechanics. There are minor flaws but not enough to take away from my enthusiastic recommendation.