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Shadowpaw Press, $19.95, 192 pages

The Rip Van Winkle story has often been adapted by science-fiction authors as a way of transporting present-day characters far into the future. And in Robert J. Sawyer鈥檚 鈥淭he Downloaded,鈥� it comes in handy again.

In 2059 a crew of scientists have their bodies frozen and their minds uploaded into virtual reality programs before being sent to a new planet. At the same time, a pilot prison project has dangerous offenders spending their sentences in VR. Both these plans go awry when civilization is destroyed while colonists and criminals are in cold storage at the Quantum Cryonics Institute in Waterloo. When they wake up 500 years later, the scientists haven鈥檛 arrived at Proxima Centauri but are on a wrecked Earth with only a few Mennonites (the low-tech 鈥渂ack-up plan for humanity鈥�) left minding the store, and an even bigger planetary catastrophe looming.

Even though it鈥檚 a quick read, 鈥淭he Downloaded鈥� manages to work in a number of current hot-button political matters, like the anti-vaccine movement and trans rights, while also asking bigger questions about what the final cost of some of our beliefs might be.

Mal Goes to War

By Edward Ashton

St. Martin鈥檚 Press, $39, 296 pages

Edward Ashton is best known for hard-driving action, and fans are already looking forward to the film version of his smash-mouth bestseller 鈥淢ickey7.鈥� In the meantime, they can enjoy 鈥淢al Goes to War,鈥� a standalone novel that鈥檚 written in the same frantic mode, with some added humour in the vein of Martha Wells鈥� popular 鈥淢urderbot Diaries鈥� series.

The Mal in the title is short for Malware, an independent AI program that has the ability to leave its native 鈥淚nfospace鈥� and inhabit the bodies of specially adapted humans.

Despite his name, Mal isn鈥檛 a bad guy. In fact, after being stranded in the real world among the 鈥渕onkeys鈥� (that is, humans), he takes on the mission of shepherding an augmented girl through a deadly combat zone in the civil war being fought between techno-human hybrids known as Federals and unmodified, puritanical Humanists. Along the way, there鈥檚 lots of body-hopping adventure, accompanied by observations on humanity made from a point of view that鈥檚 both intimate and alien.

Mania

By Lionel Shriver

Harper, $37, 288 pages

鈥淔acial Justice鈥� is a celebrated 1960 dystopian novel by L. P. Hartley about a future state where beauty has been outlawed and good-looking people must be made to look less attractive through cosmetic surgery, all in the name of equality.

鈥淢ania鈥� has a very similar message, which tells you something about how old some of the battle cries in today鈥檚 political squabbles are.

Lionel Shriver is an outspoken critic of political correctness, and 鈥淢ania鈥� is her satire of cancel culture and 鈥渨okeness.鈥� It鈥檚 set in an alternative present dominated by the ideology of 鈥淢ental Parity,鈥� which means that 鈥渁ll human brains are the same鈥� and nobody can be seen as more intelligent than anyone else. You can鈥檛 even use the word 鈥渟martphone,鈥� because, of course, that would be 鈥渟martism.鈥�

As satires go, 鈥淢ania鈥� can be heavy-handed, and the idea might have worked better as a short story or novella. But it鈥檚 a telling look at where we鈥檙e at in the culture wars and how high some of those engaged in such battles feel the stakes have been raised.

Alien Clay

By Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tor, $33.99, 388 pages

Prolific British author Adrian Tchaikovsky, best known for his 鈥淐hildren of Time鈥� series, stakes out some challenging new territory in 鈥淎lien Clay.鈥�

Having gotten himself in trouble with the repressive Earth government known as the Mandate, xenobiologist Arton Daghdev is transported, in the roughest way imaginable, to the prison planet of Kiln, where he will be worked to death in a labour camp and then have his body recycled. It seems a grim fate, until Kiln shows signs of having been inhabited with intelligent life at some point in the past. Might someone or something still be out there? Professor Daghdev is just the guy to find out.

鈥淎lien Clay鈥� is several different books in one. It鈥檚 a horror story in which the horror isn鈥檛 evil, only something dangerously non-human, a form of life with its own predatory mechanisms for survival and reproduction. It鈥檚 also a parable that draws a link between evolution and revolutionary politics. But at the most basic level, it鈥檚 more first-rate world-building from Tchaikovsky, an expert at introducing new ways to think about our place in the cosmos.