Chemical Reaction in Space: Fiona Erskine Fires Up the John Jarrold Agency’s Engines (book news).
Right, gather round the plasma hearth, comrades of the speculative frontier. A new engineer has clanked onto the starship roster at John Jarrold Literary Agency, and she arrives armed with enough chemical expertise to frighten entire planetary health and safety departments. Fiona Erskine — yes, that Fiona Erskine, master of blowing things up decorously in crime fiction — has now launched herself into science fiction with the controlled velocity of someone who knows precisely what happens when you mix A with B without proper containment.
Her forthcoming sci-fi debut, The Lye, follows a flying power station on an interplanetary humanitarian dash, which is already a better concept for UK energy policy than anything in Westminster this decade. At the helm is Maya, a chief engineer who finds herself juggling plague, mutiny, sabotage and what sounds suspiciously like the sort of political interference that would make even Starfleet’s admirals wince.
Readers are promised a curious blend: the cosy human warmth of Becky Chambers mixed with the “please strap in and bring a slide rule” rigour of Alastair Reynolds. Throw in the problem-solving gusto familiar to fans of Project Hail Mary and a little televisual stardust for those who enjoy staring at people in jumpsuits while things explode, and you’re looking at quite the recipe. Here at SFcrowsnest magazine, we adore a tale where the crew is described as “dysfunctional” before the mission even starts. Saves time.
This orbital detour from Erskine might surprise those who know her from her earthbound capers: The Chemical Detective, which bagged a Specsavers Debut Crime shortlist, and its sibling instalments The Chemical Reaction, The Chemical Cocktail, and The Chemical Code — all optioned for film and telly, presumably by people who enjoy their protagonists competent, stressed, and near continuous hazard signage.
Her stand-alone novel Phosphate Rocks also charmed the UK Literary Review’s top ten crime novels list, which is the sort of achievement that makes the rest of us wonder whether we should’ve worked harder in school. Most recently she launched a police procedural series with Losing Control (2024), though moving from policing to power stations in space is, frankly, the natural career arc for many of Britain’s professionals these days.
Lest you think she invented all this up in a shed, Erskine is the pen name of Professor Fiona Macleod, a bona fide chemical engineer with decades of industrial experience. She now teaches process safety at the University of Sheffield, meaning she is precisely the sort of person you want writing about engines, reactors, and catastrophic system failures — and absolutely not the sort of person you want examining your workshop’s risk assessment.
Her new agent, John Jarrold, is appropriately enthusiastic, calling The Lye “a remarkable SF debut” full of varied characters, not all of whom are human — which is a relief; it’s been a long year.
