The Coffin of Honey

This dense and poetic novel of first contact from Morrison (Falling Hour) submerges readers in a future that is both collective and fractured. Forty-four years after a worldwide revolution established money-free communes, large alien ovoids descend and transport random people to other worlds. Many explanations are floated: perhaps they intend to give humanity a new home, or perhaps, like ravens, they simply like to play with shiny objects. Government agents tail the abductees upon their return to Earth even as their bizarre extraterrestrial experiences produce a new sense of community, including the ability to understand each other’s disparate languages. Morrison peppers his nuanced narrative with song lyrics, typewritten manifestos, and excerpts from mysteriously mobile notebooks, and it can be challenging to keep track of the connections between the large cast and their individual dreams. Still, readers who stick with it will be rewarded with much food for thought. (May)