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Gollancz, 529 pages, $34.99

By the year 2057 the Earth has already been through a lot. The effects of climate change have even forced the relocation of the British Parliament to Newcastle and the American government to Alaska. But then the Blink occurs 鈥� a name given to the sudden disappearance of the Sun. This truly does seem like the end of things. But then, just as quickly as the Sun left, it comes back.

Obviously some very powerful forces are at work, which the global brain trusts take to calling Galaxias. It seems the removal of the Sun is a message that鈥檚 been sent to us, though the meaning of that message is obscure and the nature of Earth鈥檚 response much debated by the scientific bureaucracies in China and the West.

This makes Stephen Baxter鈥檚 new novel a bit talky in places, but the focus on a trio of friends and the backdrop of speculative 鈥渉ard鈥� SF on a grand scale combine to make 鈥淕alaxias鈥� an engaging enough cosmic mystery story, with an ending that opens up in a big way.

Lost in Time

By A.G. Riddle

Head of Zeus, 416 pages, $33.95

Even for veteran SF readers used to creative new ways of dealing with crime 鈥� like convicts having their memories wiped, or transported to penal colonies on other planets 鈥� the idea of criminals being sent back in time hundreds of millions of years so that they can fight it out with dinosaurs in an alternative Earth timeline may seem a bit of a stretch.

Nevertheless, that鈥檚 the premise here as Sam Anderson, one of the scientists who developed the patented Absolom time-travel technology, is convicted of the murder of a colleague he鈥檇 been dating and then jettisoned to dinosaur-land. As he struggles to survive Triassic Park, his daughter Adeline tries to figure out who framed him back here on Earth Prime, while also working with the other Absolom scientists to develop a machine that can bring her dad back.

鈥淟ost in Time鈥� is obviously high-concept Hollywood fluff, but if you鈥檙e looking for a bubble-gum page-turner with lots of silly action, cliff-hangers, and plot twists it鈥檚 hard to beat a time-travel murder mystery with dinosaurs.

Station Eternity

By Mur Lafferty

Ace, 464 pages, $23.00

Mallory Viridian isn鈥檛 the kind of person you want to get too close to. She鈥檚 the carrier of a weird kind of 鈥渕urder virus,鈥� which means that wherever she goes someone nearby ends up being killed.

Such a fatal penumbra leads Mallory to become a mystery writer. She鈥檚 also the perfect host for a new series by Mur Lafferty (鈥淭he Midsolar Murders鈥�), of which 鈥淪tation Eternity鈥� is the first volume.

Aware of her dangerous condition, Mallory takes a lonely, and lowly, job at the sentient space station Eternity, where she is one of only a few humans on board. She figures this should keep the death rate manageable, but her plans for self-quarantine go out the window when a shuttle of visitors arrives at Eternity, with many of its passengers already dead. It seems murder has followed Mallory into space. Now, as the bodies start to pile up, she鈥檚 in charge of finding out what鈥檚 going on.

It鈥檚 a good mystery, presented in a lighthearted way, but the real treats here are the fascinating aliens, including a swarm of wasp-like creatures called the Sundry and a race of rock creatures known as Gneiss. Luckily for Mallory they seem to like her, as she鈥檒l need all the help she can get.

Tomorrow鈥檚 Parties: Life in the Anthropocene

Ed. by Jonathan Strahan

MIT Press, 215 pages, $25.95

In recent years, perhaps feeling that established literary genres aren鈥檛 already vague enough, some people have adopted the term 鈥渟peculative fiction鈥� as an alternative to 鈥渟cience fiction.鈥� Whatever the new label鈥檚 merits, it鈥檚 fair to say that some SF is more geared toward an imaginative sort of forecasting of what the future might actually have in store, which is the direction taken by the stories collected in the series of anthologies put out by MIT Press that started out as Twelve Tomorrows and of which Tomorrow鈥檚 Parties is the latest instalment.

Despite the subtitle here, Tomorrow鈥檚 Parties isn鈥檛 just what鈥檚 come to be called CliFi (climate-change SF). The effects of climate disaster are included, and an introductory interview with CliFi master Kim Stanley Robinson addresses the real challenge of the Anthropocene, but otherwise what we get is just a great lineup of stories that survey the wide range of concerns that today鈥檚 SF writers have about the future. It鈥檚 hard to pick a favourite, but Dylan Gregory鈥檚 鈥淥nce Upon a Future in the West鈥� is certainly one of the highlights. A possibly cannibal Tom Hanks giving a lift to a refugee from a California forest fire is a truly magical vision of the end of the world.

Alex Good is a frequent contributor to the Star鈥檚 books pages