Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 12 issues for just £12!
Subscribe today
Books

Radio Life by Derek B Miller: A return to form, with knobs on

Derek B Miller's first foray into science-fiction is a witty expedition into a post-apocalyptic future, writes Chris Deerin.

Image credit: Robert Ashworth/Flickr

Derek B Miller’s place in the firmament is as yet undecided. His 2012 debut novel Norwegian By Night was an under-appreciated wonder, mixing poignancy, humour and deft, quirky characterisation. Its follow-up, American By Day, was almost as good, but his last book, the Iraq-set The Girl in Green, didn’t work at all for me.

Radio Life is a first foray into science-fiction, and tells of a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic planet which has descended into tribal warfare. At the heart of the dispute is whether the knowledge of the ancients (ie, us), which is stored in a secret Central Archive, should be used to reconstruct society or whether this technology would only destroy the world all over again.

Strong, central women drive the story, which is often witty and which always pulls you on to the next page. Radio Life is a return to form with (pun intended) knobs on.

Radio Life by Derek B Miller is out on January 21 (Quercus, £16.99)

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
Top 5 books set in theatres, chosen by playwright Edward Carey
Books

Top 5 books set in theatres, chosen by playwright Edward Carey

Vince Cable: 'Power is gradually shifting away from the western world'
Politics

Vince Cable: 'Power is gradually shifting away from the western world'

Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde review – a radical, gorgeous queer novel
Books

Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde review – a radical, gorgeous queer novel

Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal review – connections across the Indian diaspora
Books

Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal review – connections across the Indian diaspora

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue