Transmentation Transience: Or, an Accession to the People’s Council for Nine Thousand Worlds

This wondrously innovative debut from Lem, the pen name for collaborators Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, Cadwell Turnbull, and M. Darusha Wehm, transports readers to an expansive multiverse in which multiple societies—including Burel Hird, Of Tala, and Withered Stem—jostle for power across galaxies and realities. Things kick off when a Burel Hird training op runs afoul of mercenaries from Of Tala who are protecting Withered Stem researchers on a backwater world. Burel Hird intelligence agent Malculm Kilkaneade survives the ensuing firefight but is disgraced. From there, one plot strand follows Malculm as he attempts to clear his name, eventually coming in contact again with the Of Tala roamers Beini and Shara. Other viewpoint characters include members of the Council at the highest levels of Burel Hird and agents of other multiversal societies. Information readers gather from many narrators across multiple realities eventually points to a conspiracy against the Burel Hird Council. Lem’s masterful worldbuilding is both sweeping and detailed, with believably delineated planets, ecologies, cultures, and governments. Sci-fi readers will be eager for a swift return to this setting. (Mar.)