The stone gods

This richly textured novel is set in the distant future on the planet Orbus which, according to its rulers, 'isn't dying' but merely 'evolving in a way that is hostile to human life'. Like all the best sci-fi, it is essentially about the present, its vision of a society obsessed with youth, sex and celebrity offering a stark warning to our own. The central love relationship between Billie, a government official, and Spike, a female robot, is played out with subtle variations in the novel's two other strands: the first involving an 18th-century castaway and a half-Dutch islander on Easter Island (hence the novel's title); the second involving a company operative and a prototype robot in post-apocalyptic London. Despite some minor lapses, such as a Wizard Of Oz-style moment where a robot finds her heart, this witty, challenging and thought-provoking novel should be essential reading for anyone concerned with how we live and how we might survive.