The Essence

by Dave Hutchinson

There is a phenomenon – a force, a spirit, a flaw in Reality – known as the Essence, which can manifest at random, often with dire effect.

Michael Brookes, an economist working for a small outstation of MI6 attached to the Treasury, is sent to the Netherlands by his department, where he narrowly escapes being kidnapped; and that’s just the start of his problems. Michael has never heard of the Essence, but some very powerful people believe otherwise. Despite his protestations, they will stop at nothing to discover what he knows.

The problem is that Michael, who is recovering from a catastrophic breakdown, has large gaps in his memory... So he can’t rule out the possibility that they might be right.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

344 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2025

About the author

UK writer who published four volumes of stories by the age of twenty-one – Thumbprints, which is mostly fantasy, Fools' Gold, Torn Air and The Paradise Equation, all as David Hutchinson – and then moved into journalism. The deftness and quiet humaneness of his work was better than precocious, though the deracinatedness of the worlds depicted in the later stories may have derived in part from the author's apparent isolation from normal publishing channels.

After a decade of nonfiction, Hutchinson returned to the field as Dave Hutchinson, assembling later work in As the Crow Flies; tales like "The Pavement Artist" use sf devices to represent, far more fully than in his early work, a sense of the world as inherently and tragically not a platform for Transcendence. His first novel, The Villages, is Fantasy; The Push, an sf tale set in the Human Space sector of the home galaxy, describes the inception of Faster Than Light travel and some consequent complications when expanding humanity settles on a planet full of Alien life. Europe in Autumn (2014), an sf thriller involving espionage, takes place in a highly fragmented and still fragmenting Near-Future Europe, one of whose sovereign mini-nations is a transcontinental railway line; over the course of the central plot – which seems to reflect some aspects of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 – the protagonist becomes involved in the Paranoia-inducing Les Coureurs des Bois, a mysterious postal service which also delivers humans across innumerable borders.

- See more at: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hutc...

Works
* The Villages (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Cosmos Books, 2001)
* Europe in Autumn (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion/Solaris, 2014)

Collections and Stories
* Thumbprints (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Fools' Gold (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Torn Air (London: Abelard, 1980)
* The Paradise Equation (London: Abelard, 1981)
* As the Crow Flies (Wigan, Lancashire: BeWrite Books, 2004)
* The Push (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2009)

Reviews

[Dominic Audy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Hutchinson returns with another espionage/science-fiction hybrid, a genre he mastered with his excellent Fractured Europe series.

The Essence is a simpler more focused thriller with nonetheless a very recognizable vibe that resonated very positively with this enthusiastic reader of the Coureurs stories.

The plot is best left as vague as possible. I wouldn't advise even reading the blurb: go into it blind. One of the pleasures of reading Hutchinson is his great ability at throwing us at the deep end of the pool and let us keep our head above the water, like his character(s). Everything appears deceptively straightforward at first, but soon become intriguing, and then a bit baffling and finally it all starts to make sense.

Suffice to say this story is not near future like Fractured Europe but contemporary, and opens as the protagonist Michael is in some kind of mental institution. Who is he? What is he doing there and why? That's just the start of many questions arising as a lot of things happens to Michael, with answers playing hide and seek, both for the very relatable character himself and for the reader.

Fast paced, suspenseful and captivating without relying on action gimmicks, The Essence is also clever and timely, with its exploration of our perception of reality, our propension to spot patterns and to assemble them to create meaning where maybe there's only chaos too frightening to accept.

I'm really at heart a "journey before destination" reader, and this journey was great, but I need to point out how great the finale of this novel is. Again it's a case of the least revealed the better, but it's a really clever, fun and unexpected ending.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid 4 stars. Hutchinson’s prose is refreshingly clean and effortless. The story moves quickly without ever feeling thin, and there’s a subtle confidence in how much it leaves unsaid. A quietly effective slipstream novel that read a bit like a spy novel. In terms of the storytelling, it occasionally reminded me of Christopher Priest, which is always a good thing in my book. As someone living in the Netherlands, I also enjoyed seeing it used as a setting—it’s unusual for British SF and adds a slightly off-kilter charm. A smart, very readable book that doesn’t overreach.

[Mike Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Fastnbulbous · Rating 4 out of 5]

British writer Hutchinson established himself as a talented writer with his Europe series in 2014-18, a hybrid SF/spy thriller. His brand new book, just published on Dec 9, is bracingly original, with the closest comparison I can think of being Christopher Priest's The Glamour (1984) which I read earlier this year. Like that book, our hero Michael Brookes is in a hospital with a large gap in his memory. He's an economist working for MI6, and though he's unsure he's fully recovered, let along restored his memory, they give him a sensitive assignment to the Netherlands. There, it turns out multiple groups from France, Denmark and the United States very badly want to kidnap him and extract information about a phenomenon referred to as the Essence -- seemingly supernatural events that have occurred throughout history, but are becoming documented more frequently as more people have access to cameras. He has no idea how they found him, or why they want him, which suggests that someone know more about himself than he does. The book ends up with more metaphysical and philosophical questions than answers, along the lines of Philip K. Dick. It definitely has me eager to check out his previous work to see if I might have a new favorite author.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book of 2026 and likely to be one of my favourites. I loved the Fractured Europe series and this has a similar vibe, although it's set in the present day. The premise made me think Sapphire and Steel - a mysterious otherworldly force that can alter or damage reality - and the main character, Michael, is a confused innocent you can't help rooting for.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it

I’m a huge Dave Hutchinson fan and this book, whilst quite different than his Coureurs series, echos it in the best ways. The last 25 pages or so shocked me. Quite a good read and I hope it turns into a series.

[John Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible! A very unique story told well.

[Abe Ziesing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Hutchinson: “Do you believe in miracles?”
Me: “I do now!”

2025 was a year filled with plenty of mediocrity when it comes to new genre SF released within the calendar year – with a scant couple of exceptions - that I got a chance to read, anyway. There was Tchaikovsky’s SHROUD with its crazy world-building and Nayler’s award-worthy WHERE THE AXE IS BURRIED that come to mind. One under-the-radar small press release left them all in the dust; in fact, it blew away everything SF that I read all year, and that includes some heavy hitters from the likes of Ballard, Wolfe, Vance, PKD, Zelazny, Banks, Lafferty, etc.. What I’m really trying to say is that THE ESSENCE by Dave Hutchinson is an absolute banger that is inexplicably absent from bookshops and best-of lists, despite its greatness.

Michael is confused. He knows that he’s had some sort of accident that precipitated memory loss, but he’s not quite sure how to start putting the pieces back together despite the hospital’s best rehabilitation efforts in the form of medications, psychiatry and gentle nudges. When he’s unceremoniously released back into the wild and returns to his job as an economist at a small outstation of MI6, things start to come back in fits and starts. His employer wants him to take baby steps, starting with a seemingly simple task on the continent. Cue jet engine firing up noise. Get your seatbelt nice and snug because you’re about to take a ride in a whirlwind of a spy thriller, or is that just an illusory tactic of the author’s to draw the reader into an increasingly baffling world that makes ROADSIDE PICNIC feel… well, like a picnic? Riding a razor’s edge between a catatonic relapse and finding the answers to his life’s missing pieces, Michael must navigate a jigsaw puzzle of conspiracy theorists, governmental special agents and religious crazies in order to save himself, and maybe the world.

This book features some of the coolest science fiction elements and a writing style that is silky smooth. It’s a sure-fire hit for anyone from the mainstreamiest Mary Sue to the trekiest Trekkie dude. Utterly readable, with a pace-car tempo and a mic-drop ending that left me smiling and laughing and shaking my head long after I set it down. Miracles do exist, Mr. Hutchinson. Thank you for reminding me!

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. I'm a huge fan of Hutchinson's Fractured Europe books, so a different kind of espionage/sci-fi novel from him was an immediate attraction.

The weirdness of the book takes a while to set in, especially because it's (deliberately enough) written in a very matter-of-fact way from the only-sometimes-unreliable POV of a rather confused 60-odd-year-old.
There are a number of reveals through the book, and believe me when I tell you that's right up to the last few pages. Hutchinson doesn't make the mistake of explaining everything by the end, but he brings the story to a nicely effective ending, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions about the higher-level mysteries (while giving us enough hints to form our own picture).

Our narrator is, for most of the novel, one of those fairly-ineffectual male nobody narrators that are littered through genre fiction - but in this story there's a reason for that, or a few reasons, starting with the fact that Michael is recovering from some kind of traumatic mental health episode and has large gaps in his memory.

But really it's not worth folding anything into spoiler tags or anything. It's a great story with some lovely commentaries on the state of the world, particularly on how faith and conspiratorial thinking might mirror each other, and be mirrored in the world of espionage and politics, especially in the post-truth world we now live in. But mostly it doesn't lean on this either - it just tells a windy, intricate story of various people in various communities using each other, some of whom tend towards kindness, and some of whom don't.

Hutchinson's writing is a delight, and he pushes the plot along really well, after a necessarily-sedate beginning.
Yeah, I loved this.

[Mark Nuzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man walks into a bar—we all have a different line after this one don't we.
Well, many things happen after the bar visit to our protagonist Michael Brookes...but alas, he cannot remember any of it. But isn't that what every person says in reality anyway after a few drinks. I swear—I don't remember—or I don't know what you're talking about.
Moving on.
As Michael accepts a section of his memory is lost, he is sent on a mission for British intelligence and makes contact with the essenceheads. The essence is something beyond explanation, a thing that needs to be witnessed. Seeing is believing and all that.
The first 100 pages of this novel I was all in. Diving deeper into what is the essence. And why are these events happening to Michael. And the absurdity of it all from the readers POV...that's you and me.
The next 150 pages, I admit, was drawn out....and frankly just one long travel scene with just enough intrigue to keep me turning the pages.
The last 25 pages were solid...very Christopher Priest like. And that's a win for me.

3.75 Stars

[Gary Meades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave Hutchinson is the author of just about my favourite ever series, the Fractured Europe sequence, so I had great hopes for this. I wasn't disappointed.

Michael Brookes, an economist working for SIS is in hospital with large gaps in his memory. Slowly recovering he is discharged and sent on a sensitive assignment to the Netherlands. So far, so spy novel, but the trip to the Netherlands opens up a whole new vista. There are groups who want him for his knowledge of the Essence, a phenomena that causes events that are impossible.

What follows is a game of cat and mouse, slow reveals about the history of Essence appearances and a mindboggling twist that I really didn't see coming.

The ending leaves more questions than answers, and I really hope there will be a sequel soon. Loved it.

[K.V. Johansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great -- Hutchinson at his best! Interesting characters, a hero one cares about, twisty mysteries unfolding, strange and bizarre happenings taken in stride, a wry look at the way groups form and fracture, and Archie, who is charming. The landscape of Europe becomes a very present factor in the story, too, which I enjoyed.

[Steve Mepham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine tale from the imagination of Mr Hutchinson.
Although standalone, this has the feel of the Fractured Europe books about it with seemingly ordinary people caught up in events that they only slowly come to understand.
No spoilers, but do go and read this.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Was the world so awful that it was more comforting to abandon rationality and embrace superstition instead?”