Accolades

Selected as one of the magazine’s notable end-of-year science and culture picks.

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Logic dictates that the universe should contain loads of planets capable of supporting life, so why have no aliens dropped by to say hello? That’s the basic gist of Fermi’s Paradox, the real-life scientific conundrum that provides an intriguing throughline for this gripping near-future thriller. Recently bereaved computer scientist Mitch Daniels is stationed on the Sentinel defence platform as a chaperone for Amie, the state-of-the-art quantum computer he created. But when he starts to experience vivid premonitions of the Earth’s annihilation – is it war, aliens or something else entirely? – he must work out if he can trust his superiors back home, while convincing them he’s in a fit state to continue his mission. Author Kirk Weddell (who adapted the book from his own unmade screenplay) crams a lot of ideas into a tight 248 pages, shifting the narrative between Mitch’s present-day predicament and flashbacks to his late wife, an expert in extraterrestrial life. But while Edge Of Oblivion belongs in the same “lonely guy in space” subgenre as James Smythe’s The Explorer and Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary – and the book’s paranoia over AI is so 2025 – this is very much its own beast. The story frequently spins off in satisfyingly unexpected directions and, best of all, wraps up with a clever, thought-provoking ending.

Richard Edwards