Veteran sci-fi trailblazer M John Harrison is about to blow the lid off the genre with his 13th novel, 'The End of Everything'. This time, he's going nuclear on our perceptions of alien life, dropping us into a Britain teetering on the brink, under the enigmatic rule of the gargantuan iGhetti. These extraterrestrial behemoths are as unknowable as they are unstoppable, and Harrison's approach is to rip away the familiar sci-fi tropes, plunging us headfirst into the abyss of true alien intelligence.
In a riverside pub in Barnes, south-west London, Harrison made it clear that if we were ever to encounter an actual alien, our understanding would be as empty as a vacuum: "We'd have no clue whatsoever what they quote 'thought', or why they did anything, or even if they thought they were doing something." This is the disconnect he aims to bridge in his new work – where others often pay lip service to this concept but fail to deliver the goods.
The iGhetti themselves are a sight to behold: "powdery, slow-motion explosions" that could be colonisers or, as Harrison mused, on some cosmic shopping spree of spiritual tourism and gentrification. The man's not afraid to push boundaries, even when it means rewriting the rules.
Harrison's journey as a writer has been far from smooth sailing. Back in 1998, after 'Signs of Life', fellow author Iain Banks served up some tough love: "Don't have enough fun on the page." Harrison admits this stung at first but proved to be just what he needed – it sparked notes for 'Light', the first volume of his 'Kefahuchi Tract' trilogy, which was initially conceived as a tongue-in-cheek response to Banks' suggestion.
Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, in 1945, Harrison's formative years were marked by a rocky relationship with his engineer father and frequent truancy – he spent those hours exploring local libraries, devouring anti-novels and J.G. Ballard's surrealist masterpieces alike. This eclectic mix of influences has defined his unique voice within British science fiction.
'The End of Everything' is the latest instalment in Harrison's career, which has been marked by a refusal to play it safe – he's consistently pushed the boundaries of what we expect from science fiction. And if his work often challenges reader expectations and refuses easy answers, that's exactly as it should be.