Newest Science Fiction Reviews
Replica by Jack Heath
There is a tendency for adults to feel embarrassed about reading young adult fiction, but this book demonstrates that a focus on a younger character shouldn’t prevent a wider audience from enjoying a good story. Replica is a strange and compelling combination of action, mystery, thriller and science-fiction. Heath has even included a hint of a romance. There is something for everyone and although the book raises some challenging and thought-provoking problems, the text is easy-to-read, immersive and unpretentious. Full review...
Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
People have been taking pills and seeing God for years, but in Afterparty Daryl Gregory is taking the idea of smart drugs one step further. What happens if after a particularly bad trip you have an omnipresent God with you? Is this a sense of wellbeing, or are you now just schizophrenic? In the near future people take drugs not only for their cures, but also their side effects and seeing deities may be the worst side effect of all. Full review...
The Dark Between the Stars by Kevin J Anderson
From my experience Opera should be left to fans of the art form, or BBC4. However, there is one sort of opera that I will take notice of, the Space Opera – a term that encompasses science fiction on an epic scale e.g. Dune. Starting an all-new Space Opera is a daunting task for both reader and writer. In ‘The Dark Between the Stars’, Kevin J Anderson not only had to create new worlds full of interesting characters, but we the reader have to get our head around all the concepts at once. Therefore, having the story told from the point of view of up to twenty different people is probably not the wisest thing to do. Full review...
Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieran Shea
Pulp science fiction is not as easy a genre to carry off as you may think; it takes more than just a voluptuous catsuit-wearing alien firing off laser cannons (but that can only help). Pulp is often just that; pulp. It should be shredded and used to soak up the juices in landfill, but when it is done right, it can be excellent. When someone writes a book that is darkly funny, intelligent and a little ultraviolent, you may just have the perfect mix. A perfect mix called ‘Koko Takes a Holiday’, by Kieran Shea. Full review...
Theatre of the Gods by M Suddain
M Francisco Fabrigas – unfortunate Arsenal FC connection aside – is worthy of your attention. For not only has he proven to be one of the longer-lasting humans in this universe, he has also been in other universes. And at the same, other universe's Fabrigas's have come to visit us – or is it the other way round? Either way, he has been engaged in an epic adventure where he ends up on a moon full of toxic plants, and inside dread behemoths, and fought to make his way through various universes against galactic popes and worse, all in the company of two unfortunate young people – a vicious and caring deaf lad who is more or less a kung-fu-powered computer chip, and a caring but blind young female saviour. Both are needed to save the universe – or was it fewer of them, but more universes? This book is the much-sought-after, long-lost, often-censored account of his derring-do, as close to being from the horse's mouth as is possible, and with the sheer complexity of the circumstances and contrivances on every page, we should be grateful. Full review...
The Forever Watch by David Ramirez
Great science fiction is made up of many parts, but three things are vital for it to become a classic; world building, story and character. If one of these three elements is slightly below the others, a great novel can be punished. In ‘The Forever Watch’ by Daniel Ramirez we have a fantastic world in the form of the spaceship Noah, a great character in the form of Hana, but does the story quite match up to the rest? Full review...
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Three people walk along a Lagos beach as the world changes. Adaora is strolling to clear her head and try to understand why her husband hit her earlier tonight. Rap artist Anthony (known to his parents as Edgar) is having a post-gig wander. The third, Agu, is covered in blood. The fact that he's on the beach is immaterial; he just needs help. Then it happens. A boom, a bat falls stunned from the sky and then nothing is the same again. The strangers' futures all become one and the creature arrives; the creature they call Ayodele. Full review...
The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher
In space, no one can hear you scream and for the skeleton crew of the U-Star Coast City this is redundant anyway as no one cares if they do. Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland is about to start early retirement, but he is given one last job overseeing the dismantling of this space station that orbits a forbidding star that gives off an eerie radiation. With only a couple of hundred people left on the massive station, it is pretty quiet. This makes it easier to hear the things going bump in the night – a night that continues 24 hours. Full review...
Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines
A book in the Science fiction genre can easily get wrapped up inside itself if it not careful e.g. a dream on top of a vision, set in a future alternative world. Juggling all these concepts and creating a novel that is entertaining and at least in some way believable is not easy. This is proven in Peter Clines’ Ex-Purgatory, the fourth outing in the Ex series. Our heroes are used to being surrounded by the undead, but at the start of this novel they wake up in their old lives. What is a dream and what is a reality? Full review...
Libriomancer by Jim C Hines
Pulp fantasy may be frowned upon by some who believe that novels should be about emotions, inner journeys and despair. Fantasy and science fiction can have all these things as well, but they can also be fun, entertaining and laser pistols. ‘Libriomancer’ by Jim C Hines is a great example. It is a book that follows Isaac Vainio, a Libriomancer who has the power to draw magic from books. He must use this gift to good effect when one day, whilst sitting comfortably cataloguing, he is attacked by three vampires. Does that sound fun to you? If so, read on; if not, this may not be the book for you. Full review...
Snowpiercer Vol.2 - The Explorers by Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette
All of humankind is living on a single train. Oh sorry, as this is the sequel, make that two trains. Launched on the same tracks as the original Snowpiercer, but clearly at a slight remove, was a second mile-long behemoth of a train, designed with the latest high tech to be completely self-sustaining as it travelled ceaselessly on the tracks encircling a frozen Earth, waiting for the time the world was inhabitable once more. But the high tech on board, complete with lemon farms, and differing qualities of virtual holidays depending on cost and class of customer, has not put paid to one aspect of society – and in fact the sole aspect of society not featured in the first book – religion. Some people are fearing the end time, when the Icebreaker crashes into the original Snowpiercer. Some believe they're duped into the whole train idea, and are in fact on a spacecraft. Some people know something else – the rare few explorers who get to go outside the train into the world beyond, and see glimpses of what came before… Full review...
Tesla 1 by Mark Lingane
Sebastian has lost both his parents. His father died of a mysterious wasting disease whereas his mother is just... well... lost. The only thing he has he has to remember his mother by is a note telling him to go to the mysterious Steam Academy. However, first he has to find his way there in a futuristic Australia without widespread technology but with dangerous cyborg warriors. What's worse, despite fighting humans in general for thousands of years, the cyborgs now seem to have turned their attention and energy to killing Sebastian in particular. What's he done to deserve that? More to the point, whatever he's done, how can he survive? Full review...
Snowpiercer Vol.1 - The Escape by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette
All of humankind is living on a single train. I know British commuters feel that way at times, but this is a much different circumstance – it is a train miles long, running non-stop as a self-contained unit across tracks circling a desolately frozen Earth, moving on endlessly until, perhaps some time in the distant future, the planet can recover from the cataclysm that froze it. It's certainly been going on long enough for it to have a culture – a hierarchical society from the rich and leisured classes near the front, through the orgiasts, past the useful carriages set aside for producing food, to the underclass at the end. It's all set in its routine, set in motion. But there are two fishes out of water – a man from the rear who escaped, and a middle-class woman working with civil rights campaigners. Full review...
God's War by Kameron Hurley
People who do not like the genre love to lump all Science Fiction into the same pile – massive space ships and stuff. That is just not the case. It can range from subtle alternative versions of our own Earth, to Space Sagas set around the orbit of a distant planet. Where sci fi gets its bad reputation from is when complex ideas are not explained clearly enough for the reader. 'God’s War: Bel Dame Apocrypha' by Kameron Hurley is one such book; a novel crammed with some great ideas, but also moments of strange confusion. Full review...
Channel Blue by Jay Martel
What if the planet you called home wasn’t just a random blob in the universe, orbiting a far off star. What if the things that happened on it weren’t entirely down to chance or fate or whatever you want to call it. What if, actually, life on Earth was less random and more, well, scheduled than you might like to admit. Someone up there, calling the shots, deciding when to send in ‘natural’ disasters, influencing how things work, people behave, countries are run. Not a God, mind, but something far crazier: a television executive. Earth is the reality show to end all reality shows, and while its inhabitants have no clue every second of their lives is being watched and edited, that doesn’t stop them behaving in a way that keeps the viewers highly entertained. Full review...
Plastic Jesus by Wayne Simmons
Johnny Lyon is a computer coding expert spiralling out of control following the death of his lover. Johnny’s colleague Sarah convinces their boss Garcon that he needs Johnny for a project that is perfect for him (creating a virtual reality Jesus) and just might help him to concentrate on something other than his loss. They embark on a project with potentially monumental impact within a world of degradation and violence in a city ruled over by organised crime king pin Paul McBride. Many storylines collide as the project effects more people than Johnny realises. Full review...
Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories by Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and others
It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature of the programme. It has gone from black and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner of ways. So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanza. Such as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers. Full review...
Rags and Bones by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)
Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for. Full review...
The Time Traveller's Almanac by Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer
From H.G Wells to Doctor Who, there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject of time travel, literally anything is possible. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy the universe. Full review...
Parasite by Mira Grant
Parasite is the first part of the Parasitology series and if the quality of this book is anything to go by the next is going to be highly sought after. It puts us several years into the future, in a time where medicine has made massive leaps forward and where humans no longer take medication, suffer from allergies, or even catch the common cold. These medical advancements are all thanks to SymboGen and the invention of their intestinal shield, which is a genetically engineered tapeworm designed to monitor your body’s functions and correct abnormalities. Full review...
Conquest by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard
The Earth has been invaded by the Illyri, a vaguely humanoid race far in advance of humankind, who were able to conquer the planet gently by proving how futile it would be to resist. They are keen to ensure the human race remains compliant, but are mostly keen to avoid bloodshed. Humankind, however, is not a race to take conquest lying down. There is a very active resistance, particularly in Scotland, where the Scots come out of the Highlands to strike on the Illyri garrisons and power bases in cities like Edinburgh. Full review...
The Box of Red Brocade (Chronoptika) by Catherine Fisher
Ok. Let's catch you up. Jake's father is still lost in time. Venn's wife is still dead. Summer, the Queen of the Shee, still hasn't made Venn her husband. Sarah still hasn't prevented the destruction of the future by Janus. And the Scarred Man still hasn't done, well, whatever it is that he's trying to do. The Chronoptika, a mirror made of black obsidian and a time travel device, connects Jake, Venn, Sarah and the rest, but they all want different things from it. Can they all be satisfied? It doesn't look likely. Full review...
Familiar by J Robert Lennon
Is there a greater change in the life of a middle-aged woman than the death of her teenage son? Elisa might have thought not, having been forced to bury fifteen year old Silas, and try and move on with her husband Derek and the year-older son, Sam. But a greater change occurs on the way back from her annual, solo pilgrimage to his grave – something very weird happens to the universe. She pops from one car to another, from under a cloudless sky to a slightly greyer one – and from her self as Elisa to a world where people call her Lisa, where she is plumper, in a different job, stiil married to Derek in the same home – but still the mother of two young men… Full review...
Phoenix by SF Said
Lucky thinks he is a normal Human boy. But one night, he dreams that the stars are singing to him and he can feel a mysterious power rising within him. When he wakes, his bedclothes are scorched. And when his mother finds out, Lucky's world is turned upside down and he finds himself on an alien spaceship, on the run, and in the middle of a warzone. Everything Lucky has been brought up to believe is being tested. The war between Human and Axxa is raging, so why does Lucky's mother trust alien renegades more than she does humans? Where is his father? What are the secrets his mother has kept from him all his life? Full review...
The Curiosity by Stephen P Kiernan
Microbiologist Kate Philo is a member of an Arctic expedition sent to locate life forms frozen in ice flows. Striking it lucky, she and the team find a human whom they reanimate once they get him back to their American lab. However new life brings new challenges. The man died over a century earlier and much has changed. The press is now omnipotent, his 'resurrection' offends religious fundamentalists and scientific ethics never saw this problem coming. To Kate, though, he's not a problem. He's Jeremiah, afraid, bewildered and in need of an ally. Full review...
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
Em and Finn are being held prisoner by the Doctor. They never see each other but are able to communicate through the cell wall. This is a blessing but also a curse: they can each hear the interrogations and torture meted out to the other. Neither talks but how much can they take? And then Em finds a note hidden in her cell. It's from her future self and it tells of fourteen escapes. And fourteen failed trips back to the past to try to put things right. There's only one way left. Em must kill someone she loves. Full review...
Terra by Mitch Benn
Terra is different from everyone else on Fnrr and not only because she has vowels in her name. You see, Terra isn’t actually from Fnrr. Her adoptive father (Lbbp, a Fnrrn scientist) rescued her from her parents, the Bradshaws, on the planet Rrth in a moment of unthinking philanthropy. If only he'd done a little more thinking and little less philanthropy… Full review...
Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle by Marie Harbon
Following several main characters - scientist Paul, businessman Max, remote viewer Tahra and mystery woman Ava - across two time frames spanning the 1940s to the present day, Seven Point Eight blends science fiction and fantasy in a sprawling, absorbing, diffuse novel that will attract fans of both genres. Full review...
What Lot's Wife Saw by Ioanna Bourazopoulou and Yannis Panas (Translator)
It's been over 20 years since The Overflow came, flooding half of Europe. Around the same time Violet Salt, a new multi-functional mineral, appeared, its production now governed globally by the mysterious, all-powerful Consortium. Meanwhile back in Europe The Colony, a haven for those escaping floods and indeed justice, is ruled by Governor Bera and six officials, the 'Purple Stars'. All seems to be well in a despotic, lawless way until the six wake up to the realisation that the Governor has died mysteriously in the night. The Consortium needs answers so choose the greatest crossword compiler of the age, Phileas Book, to investigate, whether he wants to or not. Full review...
Fragments by Dan Wells
I didn't have much hope for this book - the middle book in a series tends to be filler, and as Partials was so brilliant, I though it was going to be hard to top. I was very wrong. This book is mind-blowing. Full review...
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
One morning our protagonist awakens to a world in which she appears to be the sole living human inhabitant. A mysterious transparent wall has been erected around a large area in the Austrian mountains where our narrator has been holidaying, a wall that is unbreakable and through which she can see that the world outside has come to a complete standstill. Our narrator is faced with living in total isolation and forced to learn how to survive. Full review...
Quicksilver by R J Anderson
Before I say anything else, I must warn you. Quicksilver is billed as a companion novel to Ultraviolet with the implication that you could read either first. You can't. You mustn't. So if you haven't read Ultraviolet, go no further.
Quicksilver picks up where Ultraviolet left off. But this time, synaesthete Alison is left behind and the story is told from the point of view of Tori Full review...
