The Ferryman review: A profound new take on a sci-fi staple

The Ferryman
Justin Cronin (Orion Books)

IN THE canon of latest science fiction, actuality is a shaky idea. Books and films have probed, pummelled and pulled aside the material of the fabric world to disclose numerous deceits.

Such revelations are the supply of paranoid nightmares in works like The Matrix, The Truman Present or William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Then there are the extra lucid deceit-fantasies within the vein of Complete Recall, Inception and Westworld. Elsewhere there are tales wherein utopian filters obscure harrowing truths.

On this latter class you will discover equal room for the gleaming pulp of …