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The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel

In a world were you can get limbs and organs replaced as easily as car parts, Kobo is addicted to his own transformation. Or he was, until his funds dried up. Now this one-time baseball star spends his days scouting talent, and avoiding a pair of inanely vindictive, but motivated, debt collectors. 

In a cyber punk New York, sports teams represent corporations, not cities, and Kobo’s adopted brother, JJ, is the star of the Monsato Mets, a bioengineering conglomerate. The brothers have drifted apart, but Kobo still watches all the Mets matches, and so sees the day a vacant-eyed JJ drops dead on the home plate.

Intent on finding out the truth behind his brother’s death, Kobo’s investigation takes him into unlikely company, and uncovers some uncomfortable truths about his idolised big brother, and the dark machinations of the companies they both work for.

“Venom was quick, capitalism killed you nice and slow. Then sent you a bill.” The Body Scout

Picked for Esquire’s Top 50 Sci-Fi Books of All Time, and winner of the New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021, this is solid tech noir. The sci-fi elements are fun—neanderthal bodyguards, dinosaur hamburgers, living organ artworks—and the story slaloms along in satisfying hardboiled fashion. I found myself occasionally slowed down by the amount of background, but in general the pacing is good and it definitely kept me entertained to the very end. 

If you’re a fan of baseball, detective fiction and/or sci-fi, you’ll probably get a huge kick out of The Body Scout, and if you’re in the market for a genre-bending page turner, this is an excellent choice.

WANT A FREE BOOK? Drop me a comment below, and I’ll be in touch to send you your free paperback copy of this month’s book: The Body Scout, by Michel Lincoln.

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Paperback from Abe Books £11.16

Follow the author on twitter @TheLincoln

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

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The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin

A homeless kid becomes the human embodiment of New York City, when a terrifying alien force arrives to destroy it (and possibly the universe). 

N.K.Jemisin is undeniably a grand dame of speculative fiction and having gotten two highly-acclaimed, sci-fi trilogies under her belt (Broken Earth and Inheritance), here she tries her hand at something new. 

Set in our world, in our time, we find ourselves in a reality where cities are extra-dimensional organisms that are born and can die. In order to birth themselves, cities must chose a human avatar from among their residents, who they imbue with special powers, drawn from the essence of the city and the people who live there. It’s an entertaining premise, and one with plenty of scope for exciting world-building.

“Come, then, City That Never Sleeps. Let me show you what lurks in the empty spaces where nightmares dare not tread.” The City We Became

The book is immediately immersive; giant cosmic battles, spunky characters and the plot is always moving. There is some space given over to considering the beauty and the violence of the all-too-human (all-too-inhuman) entities that are cities, and some commentary on the divisions we carve around ourselves, even while living on top of each other. The heart of the book however, is undoubtedly the author’s love affair with New York and its boroughs.

Perhaps that is why—as a Londoner—I felt it sometimes fell short; lapsed into all too easy moralising, while taking aim at obvious crowd-pleasing targets (‘Karens’, whiny hipster boys). It seemed to want to say something about gentrification, but it couldn’t quite decide what. 

I was undone by The Broken Earth Trilogy, but The City We Became simply doesn’t have its depths. However, when complaining that a book is not someone’s best work we must remember who we’re talking about. This book won the BSFA Award for Best Novel this year, and was nominated for the Nebula, and Hugo Best Novel Awards. It will also be part of a trilogy, so I will certainly be tuning in to see what the next one has to say.

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Buy on kindle £4.99 

Paperback from Hachette £8.99

Follow the author on twitter @nkjemisin

Want more book recommendations? Follow me on twitter @SLangridgeUK for updates on what I’m reading.

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