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[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1803816759|title=The Unravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Finally, Joe gets to do some real policing. In the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Joe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CP95J1CG|title=Of Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mark Lingane|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= Ronan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to the party but his interest is piqued by the way it arrived. And it seems like a good opportunity to get out of his room and away from the online activities he makes a living at. So he makes his way there, dodging the buses that make up most of the traffic and watching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully.}}{{Frontpage|author= Adrian TchaikovskyK P O'Donnell|title= The Doors Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=VL-15, a prototype robot, is desperate to understand who she is. Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and Renada. Over half-a-century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her father's legacy, building a world where machines and humans can live together in harmony, but internal frictions and external enemies might bring it all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, leader of a group of salvagers called the Exhumers, has his entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herself. Even after being buried for 65 years, her determination hasn't diminished in the slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…|isbn=B0CKRYFRZM}}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Tesh|title=Some Desperate Glory|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''While Earth's children live, the enemy shall fear us'' Following the destruction of the Earth, amongst a rare number of survivors, Kyr has been raised on Gaea Station – the home of the last scraps of humanity – and trained relentlessly to avenge her people and the world that should have been hers. All her life, she has been conditioned to fall in line, to fulfil her duty and ensure that humanity perseveres.|isbn=0356521834}}{{Frontpage|author=M R Carey|title=Infinity Gate|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and when it's bad, it's often terrible. But the premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise.|isbn=0356518043}}{{Frontpage|author= Michael Grothaus|title=Beautiful Shining People|rating=4|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= ''But fearing something and having it come to pass are two different things. And I'm willing to bet most of what we fear will never happen, or we can take steps to change it.'' ''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the question of identity and acceptance. Of what it means to be human. Of what is real and what is artificial, and whether the development of technology is exciting or frightening.|isbn=191458564X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{Frontpage|author=Mark Lingane|title=Galaxy|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Spark, who is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a coma that lasted years, he remembers little and is in no physical shape to resume his duties. But Earth is under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the space station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the alien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself. |isbn=B09X3NZ76W}}{{Frontpage|author=Tade Thompson|title=Far From the Light of EdenHeaven|rating= 4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Wow – this novel Michelle 'Shell' Campion is giganticfulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the sleeper ship Ragtime, in every sense bound for the world of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the word. "Epic" is a word thatship's thrown around a lot these daysAI captain. However, but if a book ever earned when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the name itRagtime's this oneAI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. ItDown on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of Shell's father Lawrence Biz takes a doorstopper full of big ideasshuttle to Bloodroot, half-alien daughter in tow, to see why the Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the politicking and at times it almost felt too big bureaucracy of Space Station Lagos. What the five of them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for my brain.Bloodroot, but potentially the entirety of human space…|isbn=15098658880356514323
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{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=B0867X8NW7Claire North|title=Access Point|author=T R GabbayNotes from the Burning Age
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=When we first meet Ula Mishkin sheAt its core 's having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she's helped a man who has been blind for decades to see an image of a hummingbird. SheNotes From the Burning Age''s thirty-six years old and her life by Claire North is about to change radically a spy thriller, with asmany double crosses, cycling homeinterrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, she's involved in an accident as with the best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a busnew and timely genre, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. ItNorth's two years before we meet her again novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and in live alongside nature without any of the meantimemodern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, she's spent 392 days in weapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a coma growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and now walks with a stick. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a spare bedroom one group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the cost to bring in some incomethe Earth.|isbn=0356514757
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{{Frontpage
|author= M R CareyAdrian Tchaikovsky|title= The Book Shards of KoliEarth
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= ''The Book of Koli'' is the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogyEighty years ago, titled ''The Rampart Trilogy''Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by Mthe moon-sized aliens known as the Architects.R. Carey. The novel Humanity is set in a scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world where nature has turned against humansfalls to the architect's reshaping. Trees move as fast as animals Then, just when they had the human race on the run, the Architects vanished. And so, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to crush their prey fracture and then soak up their bloodfight among themselves. Humans have eked out Idris Telemmier, a small existence in isolated villagesman genetically engineered to try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to be remembered. They are primitive except for their reverence But, when he and the crew of 'old tech'the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. This is technology As he and his allies bounce from the old world that seems star system to only work for certain chosen people. Howeverstar system, Kolichased by alien crime syndicates, a young woodsmithhuman secret police and rich slavers, uncovers a secret about this technology he slowly begins to realise that will upend his life and take him on a perilous journey.the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=03164775321529051886
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{{Frontpage
|author= Kirsty ApplebaumTerry Miles|title= TroofriendRabbits|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary= Are you tired Welcome to the world of your childThe Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's classmates constantly being horrible also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people? Introducing – the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-fan of-the-art machines conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are capable trying to be historians of emulating the full range game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of human emotions without lyinghigh score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, stealing or bullyingand are still very short. TheyHowever this time it're s different. This time the perfect companion game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for any child! Any mention K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours the line between observing and learning about the game, and have absolutely no basis in reality…right?playing it, is a very thin one indeed...|isbn=17880034701529016932
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{{Frontpage
|author= N K JemisinC J Carey|title= The City We BecameWidowland|rating= 4|genre= Science General Fiction|summary= New York is being bornIt's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the city has reached critical mass and has matured into state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a living almost-breathing entity bit, and is ready watching over the sanctioned return to make it's way out into the worldthrone of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. Before it can be established For yes, an ancient evil appears Britain caved in the lead-up to attempt to destroy it just the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it destroyed Atlantis , and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing processwe are now a protectorate – well, people who embody we share enough of the values are selected to become same blood as the living embodiment of Germanic peoples on ''the citymainland''. But this is most certainly a different Britain, some cities have onefor Nazi-styled phrenology, some have twelve and New York ideas of female purpose, has six. Together these humanput all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-embodiments must defeat brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the woman husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in white this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and save New York not every story excised immediately from very real destructionBritish civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to eyelight, itwith their potential to spoil Hitler's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteedvisit.|isbn=0356512665152941198X
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{{Frontpage
|author=Cixin LiuEverina Maxwell|title=DeathWinter's EndOrbit
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= If IPrince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He'd been paying more attention when I picked this book ups outgoing, carefree, I would have put it back on and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the shelfpast few years. Not because I didn't want So when an important political alliance is to read it, but because I'd have figured out be arranged – one that it was is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the final part role. Least of a trilogyall him. Coming |isbn=0356515885}}{{Frontpage|author=Rob Winters|title=His Name Was Wren|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In September 1944 something came down in part way through a saga is never Oban Woods, near the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandvillage of Hurstwick. This latter is particularly true It came down hard, taking the spire of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martinthe village church with it, who knows destroying a thing or two about world-creationstone shack, described it as '' and leaving a unique blend wide trail through the wood, but no trace of scientific what it actually was. German secret weapon was the local gossip, but there should have been an explosion and philosophical speculationa crater, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All there were neither of that and morethose things.|isbn=1784971650B08KGVNVNB
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andy BriggsMark Lingane|title=Ctrl+SNote to Self: An Education|rating=54
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= In Kry's world, the near futurediscovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, lifein 2035 it's pretty goodpossible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. Climate change has been brought under controlIn a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a Sea of Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the bee population has been brought back from near-extinctionmoon of a distant gas giant, and 3D printing has made things cheaper and quicker than ever before. But Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the biggest triumph has got efforts to be SPACE, a simulated world that has make the ability planet habitable to mimic emotions as well as imageshuman life. ButHowever, as a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's surface leaves her bonded with every technologya strange alien entity. After the entity bonded to her loses control and kills half the staff of the research station, there is the potential United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the system to take Kira in for it examination. Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has to flee to be abusedthe 61 Cygnus star system. Every dayShe is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a rag-tag bunch of misfits, people and the news is grim. The same aliens that destroyed the Extenuating Circumstances are being kidnappednow wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, plugged into SPACE and have their emotions and feelings harvested for only a mythical weapon known as the richest and sickest members Staff of society. And now Theo's mum has gone missingBlue can stop them. As he follows the trail left by herdeath toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, he uncovers Kira slowly begins to realise that she may have had a vast conspiracy that would use any means necessary to stop him from finding out where his mum has gone...greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|isbn=14091846411529046505
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen BaxterLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title= World Engines: DestroyerSeven Devils
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= The last thing Colonel Reid Malenfant remembers Eris is his Space Shuttle crashing - until he wakes up one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in the mid-24th Centuryher past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, on an Earth massively depopulated and patiently waiting ace pilot for the coming apocalypse. Suffering from severe culture shockNovantae, he tries has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to adjust gather information vital to this new worldthe war effort. But all of Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this is changed when he receives a message from his wife Emmamission...who died on Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a mission to Phobos all secret that could potentially cripple the way back in 2004Empire. As it slowly dawns on him that their timelines donEris't match s brother Damocles, the runner-upheir to the Empire, he resolves is plotting to find disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the last of the free alien species. It's a way race against time as the rebels move to Phobos. Butput a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the balance…|isbn=1473231140}}{{Frontpage|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=A Life Without End|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this new society doesnyear – I know, yet another one. It won't believe in space travel be one of the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a few of the big 0-numbers, and noif all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the extent of my mid-one is willing life crisis, I guess I have to help himbe happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, until but he meets a driven young woman who desperately wants might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to explore prolong life for as much long as he does..wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a motive to keep on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|isbn=14732231721642860670
}}