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===[[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]
What happens when Utopia is achieved? When everyone is linked neurologically to everyone else and people vote on each minor decision so every aspect of life is truly democratic? Everyone knows everything and everyone decides everything so what can possibly go wrong? Except people are dying, melting to be precise, and no one knows how, or why, or who could be next. In such a circumstance who can be trusted to solve this crime and do so without spreading panic? What if the only people who can be trusted have already let you down once before? [[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds|Full Review]]
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===[[The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
Meet Jaymi. He's a world-class video games designer, and fresh to a new mansion in the Hollywood Hills on the basis of some recent success. But he's seen the future and he doesn't like it. His current employers, able to bring any amount of class, skill and culture to the world of gameplay, are beset on appealing to the most lunkheaded and lowest common denominators instead. Indeed, their next big thing will change the world for the worse – it will be a massively disturbing environment, where people progress through the world of the entity by spreading fake news about anyone and everyone else on the planet, whether they're playing along or not, and by getting kind of prestige points on spoiling and shaming anything beyond a user-accepted, algorithm-designed, status quo. With a much more Reithian approach, Jaymi goes freelance, and sets up a way of restoring the balance with a launch of his own, where aspects of his more humanitarian mind are played out by avatars of him in the game. He sees this as a way to improve society and get his own back – but the chance of getting revenge more quickly comes about when those avatars leave their encoded background, and become fully playable characters in reality… [[The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine|Full Review]]
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===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
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… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]]
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===[[Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Living in 2017 has me longing to live in some sort of futuristic Utopia, in a world of free thinking and no major crime. Perhaps in a Space Station high above the Earth were the greatest minds have travelled so that they can build a vessel that will send the next generations of humans to populate new planets. You know that as soon as you arrive it will be the same old problems. You can't really have a Utopia with people in it, can you? [[Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre|Full Review]]
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===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue.
It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]]
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===[[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick]]===
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[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
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. [[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick|Full Review]]
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===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]
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. [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]]
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{{newreview
|author= Alec BirriGeorge Mann|title= Condition: Book One - A Medical Miracle?Ghosts of Empire|rating= 54|genre= ThrillersScience Fiction|summary= It's 1966Taking 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 RAF Pilot Dan Stewart isn't celebrating London is one of them. Surely, a nice visit to England's win in , far from the hustle and bustle of the World Cup – instead he's awakening from a coma following an aircraft accident. Waking in a world where nothing makes senseBig Apple, he's unable will help you to recall relax. It is not as if Russian Tsarists are on the loose with magical powers or the crash – but struggles events are conspiring to remember raise the rest sleeping power of his life…And what's stopping him Albion from taking his medication? its slumber. Is it brain damage causing paranoia about the red pill, or is he right to think there's something more sinister going on…And, having suffered almost 100% burns, how is he alive? Are his hallucinations trying to tell him something?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17858996861783294183</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Charlie LaidlawAndy Weir|title= The Things We Learn When We're DeadArtemis|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|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 Welcome to Artemis, the first city on the moon. A powerhouse for the turns he'd taken rich and the corners he cut a once in Night Citya lifetime trip for earth tourists, and healso 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'd still see s the matrix in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colourless voidonly place she's ever known but she wouldn't say she' Neuromancer follows Cases flourishing. In fact, who the phrase most often used to be describe Jazz is 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 mycotoxinwaste of talent. No longer able to enter Jazz lives in the Matrixlow end of town, Case enters sleeping on a dark depression having suicidal thoughts and developing bunk, using a drug addictionshared bathroom, which is where the reader first meets our troubled protagonist all she can afford through her job as a porter. However, Jazz dreams above all else of being rich and antihero. Waiting for someone to help him escape his miserythis end, she has set up a mysterious stranger proposes a deal to restore Caseside business of illegal smuggling activity. When one of Jazz's ability regular clients wants her to connect step up from petty criminal to cyberspace in exchange major criminal for working for him. Surrounded by secrecya handsome reward, Case joins the recruits on their mission it is just too tempting to uncover artificial intelligence and start life afreshrefuse. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473217385</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Brandon Sanderson|title= Arcanum Unbounded|rating= 4|genre= Fantasy |summary= Brandon Sanderson What Jazz doesn't know 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 togetherfacts behind what she is being asked to do.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14732180390091956943</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= James YoungWes Stuart|title= Rise of the Dust ChildMy Name is Sam
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Invisible Planets Who is an eclectic collectionthe real enemy? This is the question which confronts Sam, translated beautifullythe champion of the Sereia in their cosmos-spanning war with the Gibbus, and Ken Liu’s opening essay provides a welcome introduction 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 those salvation from the Gibbus who aren’t familiar with , in seven days, will destroy the planet and everyone on it. This is not his choice however: that is the decision of the genrealien Sereia, his mentors and guides, as he is forced to confront this hazardous task. The stories They have their own reasons for wanting Earth to be saved, but are dreamlike too weak to challenge the Gibbus themselves. In their search for a human champion they find the unlikely and hypnoticill-prepared young boy, evocative and inspiring.Sam – but this child is not quite as he appears…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17849788091540504506</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= James GossC Robert Cargill|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 Sea 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: JoyrideRust
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=Poppy is a quiet girl, right up until she steals a car Have you ever watched the ''Terminator'' movies or some similar 'Robo-geddon' franchise 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 wondered what would have happened if the school roofrobots had actually ''won? Some of the students of Coal Hill School are not themselves. Some '' Well wonder no more, because ''Sea of them are dying. Ram has just woken up in a body he doesnRust't recognise, and if he doesn't figure hinges on that exact premise; a world where the robots have wiped out why, he may well be nextevery living thing from planet earth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941860</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Stephen Baxter|title=The Massacre Only artificial life remains; there is no trace of Mankind|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=An intellectual property no longer dies with the author. After a certain period organic matter anywhere, since the copyright is lifted so robot uprising that an independent author can tackle the characters, hence devastated the proliferation of Sherlock Holmes booksplanet. For many fans of the original, these books feel like cover versions Now two huge mainframes compete for world domination: CISSUS and are best avoidedVIRGIL. It is only when the estate of the author gets involved that They capture robots and turn them into drones; uploading their interest is piqued. H. Gminds into a hive consciousness. Wells' ''The War of the Worldsfew remaining bots are called 'freebots,' left enough of a door open to explore further and when you hire as an experienced inhabit a science fiction author as Stephen Baxter desert called the Sea of Rust, where they do what they can to pick up the official storysurvive, it may just be worth a readincluding cannibalising other bots for spare parts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14732050931473212782</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert DickinsonPaul McAuley|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 MessageAustral
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=The Message follows 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 official Inquiry into egg. I was customised by a suite of targeted genes…'' She was, as the wanton destruction jargon of her world has it ''edited''. She is, as a result, a Protected Nature ReserveHusky. The first witnesses give evidence of A human modified to withstand the extent cold temperatures of the damage and later witnesses identify those responsibleAntarctic continent. Those temperatures are still hard for un-modified humans to survive in, but maybe not for much longer. As This is a world in which the inquiry unfolds it becomes apparent that threats of global warming went unheeded…a world in which the Nature Reserve is Earth, ice has retreated and that continues to retreat…a world in which the Inquiry harshest of environments is being undertaken by regulators from other Galaxies who have responsibility opened up for the protection of Reserves throughout the Cosmos. Science Fiction? A love story? A study of human civilisation? A warning message..exploitation.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B019NDIP1A1473217318</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian J WalkerGeoffrey Arnold|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 RaceHunted
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= The Race alternates between our world Tullia learns about survival in the bush when she is taken hostage and that of one set in later saves a youth's life during a hunt. Adopted into a future Earth scarred by fracking Bushman family and ecological collapse. In our worldthe tribe, her presence stirs disparate feelings amongst the story follows Christyyoung men and women, a young aspiring writer whose mother left when she was only 15 mixture of awe, desire, fear and whose hate. Living a very different life , Qwelby, Tullia's twin, is deeply shocked by the violence on Earth. As he is dominated rescued by fear his four best friends from the Pit of her brotherDespair, he experiences his first feelings for Tamina, a man capable of monstrous actsgirl he has known for years. Meanwhile, in Sapphire Feelings which become much stronger for another girl he tries to help during a violent attack from his own world similar as he and Tullia seek to our own yet very differentrestore their telepathic link. Forming a connection with the twins during the attack, with the entire economy funded girl, Xaala, is charged by illegal smart dog racing, we encounter Jenna Hoolman whose young niece her master with monitoring their attempts to mentally reconnect – and to prevent them. Xaala is kidnapped at torn between her mixed feelings for the tender age of 4twins and obeying her orders. We also learn about AlexMeanwhile, 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 man who can help Christy uncover short test run, the truth behind her past as well as Mareevillage where he is staying is discovered. When Quelby finds out he is being watched, an intelligent young woman who has he flees from the power to change the world forevervillage...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565036X1785891855</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Geoffrey ArnoldDaniel Suarez|title= Ripped ApartChange Agent|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=''HelloI wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I had blue eyes, I wish, I wish, sweetieI wish.'' And with those words we know where In the genetic lottery that is our lives we are – in the company of River Songgiven a selection from our mother and our father to work with. However, although they may be over six foot, one of modern TV's more infuriating charactersyou could still end up being shorter. Now sheYou can's likeable enought currently choose what coding you get, it was just but what if you could cherry pick the timey wimey stuff she was lumbered with that made her hard to live with. best aspects of your family traits? I It would say this was be a return great way to her sidesave people from hereditary disease, but have would we had that pleasure yet – isn't it in our future, which is her past, and vice versa at end up with a world full of identikit humans all following the same, er, timelatest genetic fashions? Either way, five tales here bring a selection of her escapades In the future someone would need to a YA audience. The results can be bordering on the written ''Who'' as seen elsewhere, but can certainly frustrate as usualin charge of stopping science going too far.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940880110198466X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alex LambStephen Baxter |title= NemesisXeelee: Vengeance |rating= 3.52
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= IMichael Poole, Earth'm not a great lover of back-cover blurbs greatest living engineer, but every now and again it tells you everything you need to know…if you read between changed the lines. ''Hugely promising'' said SFX. ''Hits the ground running'' said the Guardian. I can't disagree with either of those two statements. Unfortunately for this particular reader, it ran very quickly into galaxy when he opened a swamp of dense pseudo-scientific-explicatory-strangle-weed. And didn't live up worm hole to allow for quick and easy transportation across the promisesolar system.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473206111</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Emma Geen|title=The Many Selves of Katherine North|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=As However, such a Bristol-area 'phenomenaut', nineteen-year-old Kit projects herself into the lab-grown bodies of all sorts of creatures. She's recently spent thing was created with a lot degree of time as a fox (appropriate given her nickname) naivety and got particularly close with a vixen named Tomoko. It's becoming much harder for her to leave lack of foresight because out of the animal world behind at the end worm hole flew an unknown vessel of her 'jumps'alien origin. Even after BuckleyUnlike anything seen by human eyes before, her neuroengineer, signals her to 'Come home' it is unstoppable and she resumes her original body, she has trouble giving up animal tendencies like territorialism, toileting outdoors and raiding binsunfathomable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858436</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Philip Martin|title=Doctor Who: Vengeance Bent on Varos|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=If only those critiquing ''Doctor Who'' had access to a time machinean unknown path, they would be able the vessel is unresponsive to temper all their responsesthe human life around it. When Mary Whitehouse found the likes of [[Doctor Who It ignores hails and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks|Genesis of the Daleks]] to be too violenteven direct attacks. Nothing affects it, she and her coterie had no idea not even the series would soon turn to a prison world, where soon-to-be victims surface of snuff movies are trapped in a reality-show styled existence, and a hard-done-by populous are sat at home doing nothing other than watching the feeds from the executions, the morgues and worsesun. If those watching ''Doctor Who'' had the benefit of foresight they might have responded All it seems to ''Vengeance on Varos'' differently. They were quite vocal in complaining about a horrific character being a trade delegate who want is half-manenergy, half-slug and wholly stupid evil laugh, and such an artificial premiseEarth has plenty of that to be absorbed. Little did they know the series would soon lumber people with Bonnie Langford, and aliens looking like liquorice bleeding allsorts…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17859404061473217172</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Eric SawardDaniel Godfrey|title=Doctor Who: The Visitation|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Have you ever given your children a time machine? No? Are you sure? What about that thing in the corner upstairs called a dressing-up box – have they never been transported bodily to the 1970s by some orange cords and wide-collared shirts or whatnot? Have they never been in a museum and put on a mediaeval smock and told they're now in the middle ages? Well adults can get involved in that, too, of course – the cast of this ''Doctor Who'' adventure had to put on 17th Century garb, and that was pretty much it as far as looks go. Yes, there is an evil-seeming alien, yes there are some control bands he makes us poor humans wear, and yes there is a giant android dressed as Death, but on the whole it was one of the more simple episodes. Still, who's to say the novel isn't much more substantial, rich and varied?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940392</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Terrance Dicks|title=Doctor Who and the Genesis Empire of the DaleksTime (New Pompeii)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=If you were Warning: Spoilers for [[New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey|Book 1]] from the beginning.The experiment to randomly travel in study Ancient Romans by transporting them through time and space, where would you end up? Well, if our own battle-torn history was anything to go by, you'd like as not end up a new Pompeii just before the disaster hits the old one sounded great in a time and place of wartheory. The thing is, howeverpractice 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 Doctor is notexperiment out of curiosity but it's more dangerous than he ever dreamt. Since he arrived, for once, travelling randomly – he's been charged with carrying out errands for watched the Romans kill the inventors of the Time Lordsmachine that saved them. And the most tricky of those Nick, or Decimus Horatius Pullus to give him his Roman name, is to go the planet Skaro, deeply enmeshed only non-Roman living in a thousand year war, New Pompeii and put paid to one of the most heinous plans that could risk the universe – that of Davros 's not a safe position or location in which to create his Dalek racelive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>17859403841785653156</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Malcolm Hulke|title=Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=What effect do you think you'd have if you were to time travel? I dare say it depends who or what you were to begin with, and when you went and what you did. The creatures in this story only seem to stay in the same place, and do just what comes natural – but as they're giant rampaging dinosaurs and they suddenly appear in the middle of modern-day Central London they do kind of get noticed. As a result the entire place has been evacuated, all ten million people shipped out, and the Government resettled in that hotbed of politics, Harrogate. As a result, when the Doctor and Sarah Jane turn up they immediately get accused of being looters – and UNIT are just a touch too much out of contact. What is causing time to leave the dinosaurs moving around London, and what is a mediaeval man, complaining of witchcraft under King John, doing there too?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940376</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Terrance Dicks|title=Doctor Who and the Web of Fear|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=What do you look like if you time travel? Perhaps like a lunk-headed Austrian, naked and with fizzy blue stuff all over you. Or perhaps, to the confusion of Professor Travers, you look exactly as you did when he met you in Tibet forty years ago. That escapade has had a legacy, as he has brought back a deactivated robot Yeti – and has mistakenly managed to reactivate it. Or perhaps, you look very much like yourself if you're a time traveller, for just by reading this book you won't change your appearance, but you'll be sent back to 1968, by way of 1975, when this book-of-the-series was first published.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940368</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Bill Strutton|title=Doctor Who and the Zarbi|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Consider the time machine. You probably know of it as looking like either some fancy Edwardian sit-upon machine that the Morlocks nick, or perhaps a battered old English police call box. I would suggest it can also look like a small paperback book – pretty much like the subject at hand. This reprint of a ''Doctor Who'' novel, first presented in 1973 from the series shown in 1965, certainly has the ability to take you back. I grew up with the series on TV and the books in a Target imprint, but this predates that – it was, apparently, the second ever Who book-of-the-series. In it, the good Doctor and his three companions arrive on a certain quarry-like planet. One stays in the TARDIS, only to find it and her nicked by aliens; another needs rescuing from alien mind control by a different species of aliens; and the third with our irascible hero work out what actually took control of their ship and stranded them there in the first place…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178594035X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= David WingroveCixin Liu|title= The Ocean of TimeWandering Earth|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= The War for Time continuesIf anyone thought that the short story as a form had been relegated to the pages of women's magazines (no disrespect) – think again. From One genre that has always been a stalwart supporter and encourager of the frozen tundra short form is Sci-fi. So when you pick up a collection of 13th Century Russia 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 battle intrigue of Paltava seeing how the concepts are approached by someone from China which – to be polite – has a somewhat different world-view in 1709 and beyond, Otto Behr has waged many ways to much of the rest of the planet…and add to that an unquestioning, unending war across time for author who is not only a best-seller in his people. But now a third unidentified power home country but has joined the game across distinction of having produced the ocean first translated work of time, and everything Otto holds dear could SF ever to win the Hugo Award…this has got to be unmade…good!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009195617X1784978493</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Holly JenningsJack Campbell|title= ArenaThe Genesis Fleet: Vanguard|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Kali Ling competes in The human adventure continues! As humanity spreads to the RAGE tournaments – a competition of Virtual Gaming, where stars it takes with it both the world's best gamers compete in a fight to and the digital deathworst examples of itself. Every fights is broadcast to millions, The isolation and each player leads lives edginess of a Spaghetti Western meets hard Sci-Fi in this tale of famefar-flung colonies and bullying neighbours. Although the weapons are digitalWe follow our protagonists, the players feel every blow… Kali Ling – the first female captain each failures in tournament historytheir own careers (crisis management, is famed for her prowess – but has her world shaken when her teammate and lover overdoses. Nowspace navy, she must win the tournament politics and uncover the truth about the tournament, for the Virtual Gaming League has dark secretsmarines) as they become heroes. And the only way to change the rules is to fight from the inside…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>11019887621785650408</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author= Michael CobleyAnne Corlett|title= Ancestral Machines|rating= 3|genre= Science Fiction|summary=Having completed the Humanity's Fire trilogy with the Ascendant Stars, I expected to go off and do something completely different. He didn't. In Ancestral Machines, we're back in the same universe. The Construct (an ancient AI on a mission) is still doing its best to protect sentient species, and the drone Rensik is still one of its key agents. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501779</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Jo Walton|title= Space Between The Philosopher KingsStars|rating= 3.54
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Twenty years have passed since Jamie Allenby wakes, alone, and realises her fever has broken. But could everyone she knows be dead? Months earlier, Jamie had left her partner Daniel, mourning the Goddess Athene founded miscarriage of their baby. She'd just had to get away, so took a job on a distant planet. Then the Just Cityvirus hit. Jamie survived as it swept through our far-flung colonies. Now she feels desperate and isolated, until she receives a garbled message from Earth. The god Apollo If someone from her past is still living there, albeit in human formalive – perhaps Daniel – she knows she must find a way to return. Now marriedShe meets others seeking Earth, and the father of several childrentheir ill-matched group will travel across space to achieve their dream. But they'll clash with survivors intent on repeating humanity's past mistakes, the man/god struggles to cope when tragedy befalls his familythreatening their precious fresh start. Beset by grief and Jamie will also get a need for revengesecond chance at happiness. But can she escape her troubled past, Apollo sets sail to find the man who caused him such pain, but discovers something that may change everything…embrace a hopeful future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>14721507911509833528</amazonuk>
}}
