Strange new books

If you're an inveterate science fiction reader you will find this book neither strange nor new. But good science fiction isn't about space opera ray guns and planetary travel. Good science fiction is just fiction about people but gives you an otherworldly perspective on the strangeness of human civilisation and puts your perception of the here and now in a totally different light.

Michel Faber's The Book of Strange New Things does exactly that.

It takes a fairly routine one dimensional story about a Christian missionary and makes it poignant by wrapping it around a story of isolation from your species and your family. It preaches tolerance and acceptance of all that is foreign and alien at a time when we need to be firmly reminded of what it means to be a citizen of somewhere and everywhere. It's not about Scottish independence by an adopted Scottish author. It's not about Brexit. It's about the practicalities of helping fellow creatures not to die.