The Testimony by James Smythe (Blue Door, £12.99)
The Testimony is a literary post-apocalyptic novel built around a clever conceit: what might happen to life on Earth following a short, enigmatic message from either God or aliens? Smythe tells the story of consequent global collapse through more than 20 "testimonies" of survivors from all around the world, charting humanity's reaction to the message and describing a world ravaged by terrorism. So many scattered viewpoints might easily have led to a diffused, fractured read, but Smythe gives each voice equal interest and poignancy as they describe their own compelling, often tragic stories. The novel ends enigmatically, with few neat resolutions, but intriguingly compels the reader to consider their own potential response to events. And the message from on high? "My children, do not be afraid."

alt.human by Keith Brooke (Solaris, £7.99)
This quietly dedicated writer  he's been publishing for 20 years and this is his eighth SF novel  has never received the recognition he deserves. Previous novels have tackled themes of warfare, genetic engineering and virtual reality; in alt.human Brooke considers aliens, colonialism and the plight of a desperate, subjugated humanity. For millennia aliens have ruled Earth for their own enigmatic ends, reducing humans to the status of slaves and pets, genetically tagging individuals and killing them at will. Dodge is a pid-runner  someone who trades in ID tags allowing citizens to evade the alien surveillance  and when he saves the life of a girl called Hope he sets in motion a series of events that might bring about humanity's long-awaited salvation. Brooke excels at depicting unknowable and scarily arbitrary extraterrestrials and a human race crushed by endless cruelty and domination. Recommended.

Armageddon Rag by George RR Martin (Gollancz, £18.99)
It's the early 1980s and failed novelist and washed-up 60s radical Sandy Blair is wondering how the good old days turned into the materialistic 80s. Then the editor of a rock magazine asks him to write about the killing of promoter Jamie Lynch, the man behind the 60s' biggest rock phenomenon, Nazgûl. Lynch has been messily murdered, with Nazgûl's last album providing musical accompaniment. Blair begins an investigation that takes him from Maine to Albuquerque, and back to the 60s and his own troubled past. The novel, first published in 1983, operates successfully on a number of levels: it's a compelling mystery, a chilling horror story and a brilliant evocation of the hope and turmoil of the 60s. Martin uses Blair's character  how his dreams turned to despair under the onslaught of materialism and compromise  as an effective metaphor for the America of the 1980s.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (Harper Collins, £12.99)
In Jordan's second novel, America is ruled by the fundamentalist Christian Trinity Party and abortion is punishable by "melachroming"  tinting criminals various colours according to their crimes. When Hannah Payne is convicted of aborting her child, she's daubed red and left to fend for herself in a ruthless, dog-eat-dog near-future USA ravaged by nuclear fallout and plague. What follows is a horrific road trip to Canada where Payne hopes to be "dechromed". When She Woke examines a number of issues  women's rights, abortion, the rise of the Christian Right  and takes a blunderbuss to several holy cows: what it lacks in subtlety it compensates for in pace.

 Eric Brown's latest novel is The Devil's Nebula (Abaddon).