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Newest Science Fiction Reviews (view source)

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[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author= Philip K Dick
|title= Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams
|rating= 3
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Philip K Dick's stories were originally published in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the big screen ''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories for TV. Startlingly, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's news. It is as if half a century after their inception, Dick's electric dreams are becoming reality.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473223288</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=George Mann
|title=Ghosts of Empire
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Taking on a band of undead Mummies will take it out of the best of us and a holiday may be needed. If you are from New York there are not many other cities worldwide that could impress you, but London is one of them. Surely, a nice visit to England, far from the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, will help you to relax. It is not as if Russian Tsarists are on the loose with magical powers or the events are conspiring to raise the sleeping power of Albion from its slumber. Is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783294183</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Doescher
|title=William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>159474985X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Goss and Russell T Davies
|title=Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Rhymes and Verse
|summary=Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785942719</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Andy Weir
|title= Artemis
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Welcome to Artemis, the first city on the moon. A powerhouse for the rich and a once in a lifetime trip for earth tourists, and also a place a small community of citizens call home. Jazz Bashara is one such citizen. She came to Artemis with her father aged six, it's the only place she's ever known but she wouldn't say she's flourishing. In fact, the phrase most often used to describe Jazz is a waste of talent. Jazz lives in the low end of town, sleeping on a bunk, using a shared bathroom, which is all she can afford through her job as a porter. However, Jazz dreams above all else of being rich and to this end, she has set up a side business of illegal smuggling activity. When one of Jazz's regular clients wants her to step up from petty criminal to major criminal for a handsome reward, it is just too tempting to refuse. What Jazz doesn't know is all the facts behind what she is being asked to do.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956943</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Wes Stuart
|title= My Name is Sam
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Who is the real enemy? This is the question which confronts Sam, the champion of the Sereia in their cosmos-spanning war with the Gibbus, and the main character in this story. Sam is an unimposing boy who has no past and no memory of who he is, yet he possesses extraordinary abilities. He is also Earth's last hope for salvation from the Gibbus who, in seven days, will destroy the planet and everyone on it. This is not his choice however: that is the decision of the alien Sereia, his mentors and guides, as he is forced to confront this hazardous task. They have their own reasons for wanting Earth to be saved, but are too weak to challenge the Gibbus themselves. In their search for a human champion they find the unlikely and ill-prepared young boy, Sam – but this child is not quite as he appears…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1540504506</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= C Robert Cargill
|title= Sea of Rust
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Have you ever watched the ''Terminator'' movies or some similar 'Robo-geddon' franchise and wondered what would have happened if the robots had actually ''won?'' Well wonder no more, because ''Sea of Rust'' hinges on that exact premise; a world where the robots have wiped out every living thing from planet earth. Only artificial life remains; there is no trace of organic matter anywhere, since the robot uprising that devastated the planet. Now two huge mainframes compete for world domination: CISSUS and VIRGIL. They capture robots and turn them into drones; uploading their minds into a hive consciousness. The few remaining bots are called 'freebots,' and inhabit a desert called the Sea of Rust, where they do what they can to survive, including cannibalising other bots for spare parts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473212782</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Paul McAuley
|title= Austral
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Austral has no doubts about who she is. Her birth was, as she puts it, ''a political act. Conceived in a laboratory dish by direct injection of sperm into an egg. I was customised by a suite of targeted genes…'' She was, as the jargon of her world has it ''edited''. She is, as a result, a Husky. A human modified to withstand the cold temperatures of the Antarctic continent. Those temperatures are still hard for un-modified humans to survive in, but maybe not for much longer. This is a world in which the threats of global warming went unheeded…a world in which the ice has retreated and continues to retreat…a world in which the harshest of environments is being opened up for exploitation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473217318</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Geoffrey Arnold
|title= Hunted
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Tullia learns about survival in the bush when she is taken hostage and later saves a youth's life during a hunt. Adopted into a Bushman family and the tribe, her presence stirs disparate feelings amongst the young men and women, a mixture of awe, desire, fear and hate. Living a very different life, Qwelby, Tullia's twin, is deeply shocked by the violence on Earth. As he is rescued by his four best friends from the Pit of Despair, he experiences his first feelings for Tamina, a girl he has known for years. Feelings which become much stronger for another girl he tries to help during a violent attack from his own world as he and Tullia seek to restore their telepathic link. Forming a connection with the twins during the attack, the girl, Xaala, is charged by her master with monitoring their attempts to mentally reconnect – and to prevent them. Xaala is torn between her mixed feelings for the twins and obeying her orders. Meanwhile, on the planet Vertazia and in secret, Quelby's family and friends build what they hope will be the first ever inter-dimensional transport. On a short test run, the village where he is staying is discovered. When Quelby finds out he is being watched, he flees from the village...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785891855</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Suarez
|title=Change Agent
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I had blue eyes, I wish, I wish, I wish. In the genetic lottery that is our lives we are given a selection from our mother and our father to work with. However, although they may be over six foot, you could still end up being shorter. You can't currently choose what coding you get, but what if you could cherry pick the best aspects of your family traits? It would be a great way to save people from hereditary disease, but would we end up with a world full of identikit humans all following the latest genetic fashions? In the future someone would need to be in charge of stopping science going too far.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>110198466X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Stephen Baxter
|title= Xeelee: Vengeance
|rating= 2
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Michael Poole, Earth's greatest living engineer, changed the galaxy when he opened a worm hole to allow for quick and easy transportation across the solar system. However, such a thing was created with a degree of naivety and a lack of foresight because out of the worm hole flew an unknown vessel of alien origin. Unlike anything seen by human eyes before, it is unstoppable and unfathomable. Bent on an unknown path, the vessel is unresponsive to the human life around it. It ignores hails and even direct attacks. Nothing affects it, not even the surface of the sun. All it seems to want is energy, and Earth has plenty of that to be absorbed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473217172</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Godfrey
|title=Empire of Time (New Pompeii)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Warning: Spoilers for [[New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey|Book 1]] from the beginning.
The experiment to study Ancient Romans by transporting them through time to a new Pompeii just before the disaster hits the old one sounded great in theory. The practice has been going on for years now, but the modern and old worlds living alongside each other in an uneasy peace. Scientist Nick Houghton only ever wanted to live within the experiment out of curiosity but it's more dangerous than he ever dreamt. Since he arrived, he's watched the Romans kill the inventors of the machine that saved them. Nick, or Decimus Horatius Pullus to give him his Roman name, is the only non-Roman living in New Pompeii and that's not a safe position or location in which to live.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785653156</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Cixin Liu
|title=The Wandering Earth
|rating= 5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= If anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of women's magazines (no disrespect) – think again. One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter and encourager of the short form is Sci-fi. So when you pick up a collection of Sci-fi shorts, you know that it will have just as much depth and thought-provoking philosophy as any similar novel. Add to that the intrigue of seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in many ways to much of the rest of the planet…and add to that an author who is not only a best-seller in his home country but has the distinction of having produced the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be good!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978493</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Jack Campbell
|title= The Genesis Fleet: Vanguard
|rating= 5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=The human adventure continues! As humanity spreads to the stars it takes with it both the best and the worst examples of itself. The isolation and edginess of a Spaghetti Western meets hard Sci-Fi in this tale of far-flung colonies and bullying neighbours. We follow our protagonists, each failures in their own careers (crisis management, space navy, politics and marines) as they become heroes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785650408</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Anne Corlett
|summary= On the way to a dinner party, Lorna Love steps into the path of an oncoming car. Waking up in what appears to be a hospital, but a hospital in which wine is served for supper, everyone avoids her questions, and her nurse looks suspiciously like Sean Connery, it soon transpires that Lorna is in Heaven, or, at least, on HVN. Because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional spaceship, and God the aging hippy captain. At first Lorna can remember nothing, but as her memories return – some good, some bad, she realises that she has a decision to make, and that maybe, she needs to find a way home…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786150352</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= William Gibson
|title= Neuromancer
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=''He still dreamed of cyberspace…all the turns he'd taken and the corners he cut in Night City, and he'd still see the matrix in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colourless void''
 
Neuromancer follows Case, who used to be a cyber cowboy with exceptional hacking skills, before attempting to steal from his former employer, who as a result severed his connection to cyberspace by injecting him with a mycotoxin. No longer able to enter the Matrix, Case enters a dark depression having suicidal thoughts and developing a drug addiction, which is where the reader first meets our troubled protagonist and antihero. Waiting for someone to help him escape his misery, a mysterious stranger proposes a deal to restore Case's ability to connect to cyberspace in exchange for working for him. Surrounded by secrecy, Case joins the recruits on their mission to uncover artificial intelligence and start life afresh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473217385</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Brandon Sanderson
|title= Arcanum Unbounded
|rating= 4
|genre= Fantasy
|summary= Brandon Sanderson is more cannon than man. He fires out more works than any other author of fantasy. Not only does he write an awe inspiring amount of novels, but he also writes various short fictions that go alongside them. And in here, for the first time, all the major ones are collected together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473218039</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= James Young
|title= Rise of the Dust Child
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=An age has passed since the fall of the old world, and the rise of the malignant Dust people. Amongst the terrors of this new age, humanity still lingers within the wreckage of civilisation, held together by the promise of a better existence in the next life. But not all are satisfied by this dogma. Within the smoggy city of Fort Palmer, eight year old Doran and his friend Alena stand apart, struggling to retain the lost glory of their faith. But the unquiet dead and the forces of faith do not take kindly to those who try to fix a broken world. As the quest to save the future leads each of them down a dark path, they are cast apart - struggling to overcome the monstrous dusters and the fear within themselves, desperate to see each other again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634379</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Ken Liu
|title= Invisible Planets
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Invisible Planets is an eclectic collection, translated beautifully, and Ken Liu’s opening essay provides a welcome introduction for those who aren’t familiar with the genre. The stories are dreamlike and hypnotic, evocative and inspiring.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784978809</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= James Goss
|title= Class: What She Does Next Will Astound You
|rating= 4
|genre= Fantasy
|summary=At Coal Hill School, things have started to get public. Kids have become obsessed with a website that demands you perform risky stunts, or tell it your most painful secrets. And Seraphin, everyone's favourite vlogger, wants you to get involved. All in the name of charity. At first people just get hurt. Then their lives are ruined. Finally, they disappear. As April's fragile group of friends starts to fracture, she decides she's going to uncover the truth behind thie site herself. Whatever it takes, whoever she hurts, April's going to win. But then, to her horror, she wakes up and finds her whole world's changed.
What she does next will astound you.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941887</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= A K Benedict
|title= Class: The Stone House
|rating= 4
|genre= Fantasy
|summary=There's an old stone house near Coal Hill School. Most people hurry past it. They've heard the stories. But, if you stop, and look up, you'll see the face of a girl, pressed up against a window. Screaming. Tanya finds herself drawn to the stone house. There's a mystery there, and she's going to solve it. But the more she investigates, the more she realises that there's a presence in the house. One that wants her. Something is waiting for Tanya in the stone house. Something that has been trapping others in its web over the years. Something that is far worse than any ghost...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941879</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Guy Adams
|title= Class: Joyride
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Poppy is a quiet girl, right up until she steals a car and drives it through a shop window. Max is a nice guy, but then he kills his whole family. Just for fun. Amar always seems so happy, so why is he trying to jump to his death from the school roof? Some of the students of Coal Hill School are not themselves. Some of them are dying. Ram has just woken up in a body he doesn't recognise, and if he doesn't figure out why, he may well be next.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941860</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stephen Baxter
|title=The Massacre of Mankind
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=An intellectual property no longer dies with the author. After a certain period the copyright is lifted so that an independent author can tackle the characters, hence the proliferation of Sherlock Holmes books. For many fans of the original, these books feel like cover versions and are best avoided. It is only when the estate of the author gets involved that their interest is piqued. H. G. Wells' ''The War of the Worlds'' left enough of a door open to explore further and when you hire as an experienced a science fiction author as Stephen Baxter to pick up the official story, it may just be worth a read.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473205093</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Dickinson
|title=The Tourist
|rating=3
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Time travel in any format is a tricky business. In the real world it is pretty much impossible, or we would all be reading about how people from the future kept trying to assassinate Hitler, but he managed to avoid them. In film, time travel can be super cool and lead to some mind bending adventures, but spend a few moments unbending your mind and you discover more plot holes than an entire Terminator Tetralogy. In the written form this is even worse as you don't have the visual splendour to distract the eye. The key to time travel in science fiction is to keep it simple. Or you could just ignore this advice and write ''The Tourist''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508153</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Luke Rhinehart
|title= Invasion
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Humour
|summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and his family quickly come to love the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer to hack into government and corporate networks, stealing millions from banks to give to others, they realise that Louie and his friends mean trouble. As Billy and his family begin a roller coaster ride of fame and fortune, as well as a ranking high on the FBI's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst the aliens are playing games they hope will help humans to see the insanity of the American political, economic and military systems, they soon come to realise that the Powers that Be don't play games: they make war. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 12/9 -->
|author= Yan Vana
|title= The Message
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=The Message follows an official Inquiry into the wanton destruction of a Protected Nature Reserve. The first witnesses give evidence of the extent of the damage and later witnesses identify those responsible. As the inquiry unfolds it becomes apparent that the Nature Reserve is Earth, and that the Inquiry is being undertaken by regulators from other Galaxies who have responsibility for the protection of Reserves throughout the Cosmos. Science Fiction? A love story? A study of human civilisation? A warning message...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B019NDIP1A</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian J Walker
|title=The End of the World Running Club
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=When the end of the world as we know it comes, Edgar is totally unprepared. Still slightly drunk from drowning his sorrows, and in a panic, he throws random items, including his daughter, down into his cellar, and then he and his family eke out a nightmarish existence in the dark until their supplies run out. Fortunately they are lucky, and they are rescued from the cellar. As they emerge back into the world they see the ruin and disaster around them, caused by hundreds of large asteroids hitting the earth. Large areas of the country have been destroyed. Groups of people left alive scavenge houses and towns, turning feral, trying to find what's left to help them to survive. Edgar's family are rescued by a small remaining army unit, but he and his wife and children become separated, and so begins Edgar's desperate race to reach his loved ones, who are hundreds of miles away, before they leave on an evacuation ship for another country.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032666</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Nina Allan
|title= The Race
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= The Race alternates between our world and that of one set in a future Earth scarred by fracking and ecological collapse. In our world, the story follows Christy, a young aspiring writer whose mother left when she was only 15 and whose life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man capable of monstrous acts. Meanwhile, in Sapphire a world similar to our own yet very different, with the entire economy funded by illegal smart dog racing, we encounter Jenna Hoolman whose young niece is kidnapped at the tender age of 4. We also learn about Alex, a man who can help Christy uncover the truth behind her past as well as Maree, an intelligent young woman who has the power to change the world forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565036X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Geoffrey Arnold
|title= Ripped Apart
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Qwelby and Tulia are teenage aliens, growing up in a world and environment far removed from our own. When the twins interfere with a forbidden experiment, they find themselves transported to opposite ends of our Earth – Qwelby in Finland and Tulia in Africa. To survive, they must re-establish their telepathic connection, find each other, avoid capture, and return home. They say that their people arrived on Earth 75,000 years ago, were the cause of the development of the human race, and now need the help of those humans if their race is to survive.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784624756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=George Mann
|title=Ghosts of Karnak
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=The superhero market is crowded and sometimes a little boring. Who cares about what a God-like person can do when the rest of us are scrambling around trying to avoid papercuts, never mind trying to repel a rogue asteroid. The best heroes are those that are just normal blokes or ladies dressed up in some fancy outfit. When it comes down to it Batman or The Shadow are just men, but it is their vulnerability that makes them ace to read about. Add to this list George Mann's 'The Ghost', a World War One veteran who returns to New York no longer willing to watch the criminals taking over his home town.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783294167</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jenny T Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Lyons, Guy Adams and Andrew Lane
|title=Doctor Who: The Legends of River Song
|rating=3
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Hello, sweetie.'' And with those words we know where we are – in the company of River Song, one of modern TV's more infuriating characters. Now she's likeable enough, it was just the timey wimey stuff she was lumbered with that made her hard to live with. I would say this was a return to her side, but have we had that pleasure yet – isn't it in our future, which is her past, and vice versa at the same, er, time? Either way, five tales here bring a selection of her escapades to a YA audience. The results can be bordering on the written ''Who'' as seen elsewhere, but can certainly frustrate as usual.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940880</amazonuk>
}}
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