[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{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
|title= The Space Between The Stars
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= 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 miscarriage of their baby. She'd just had to get away, so took a job on a distant planet. Then the virus 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. If someone from her past is still alive – perhaps Daniel – she knows she must find a way to return. She meets others seeking Earth, and their ill-matched group will travel across space to achieve their dream. But they'll clash with survivors intent on repeating humanity's past mistakes, threatening their precious fresh start. Jamie will also get a second chance at happiness. But can she escape her troubled past, to embrace a hopeful future?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509833528</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Elizabeth Moon
|title= Cold Welcome: Vatta's Peace
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=''I'm convinced we can survive anything''
After saving the empire, Admiral Kylara Vatta wants nothing less than to return to her home planet. But after her cousin's request, that's exactly where Ky finds herself, enroute to tie up some family business. Promised a hero's welcome, Ky plans to stay as little time as possible back in the place filled with such horrible memories. But as soon as she arrives, Ky finds herself in perilous danger, caught in the middle of an assassination attempt. Now stranded at sea and without communication links with the outside world, Ky must use every ounce of skill she possesses to battle for survival. But with an unfamiliar crew who don't trust her, sabotaged equipment and a traitor in the midst, the odds aren't in her favour. While the survivors hunt for land, Ky's family members are doing everything possible to ensure her rescue. Old friends are called in and new alliances are made, but will it be enough? Will they get to Ky before it's too late?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356506282</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sam Peters
|title=From Darkest Skies
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=No one likes to see a loved one die, but when they do we can reflect on how they lived and eventually move on with a piece of them inside us. However, what would happen if we could take all the memories we have saved on the internet and combine them into an Artificial Intelligence that represented them? Would this work to keep them close, or just give you a false facsimile that prevents you from moving on?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473214750</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=M R Carey
|title=The Boy on the Bridge
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=It's ten years since mankind was almost wiped out by a virus that turned the great majority of it into the hungries – zombies by any other name. A lone, heavily armoured vehicle is travelling from the British redoubt on the south coast the length of the Kingdom, tracing a previous expedition that failed to return, and hoping to find evidence somewhere, somehow, of something that can either counter the virus or rid the survivors of their enemy. As a result the vehicle is divided in personnel between scientists and the military, and as neither side is completely cohesive it's no surprise to see the crew split along partisan lines. That's not helped by one of the scientists, Samrina Khan, being heavily pregnant. But she's also rubbed people up by insisting on an intriguing character being on board – a teenaged savant, no less, called Stephen Greaves. But that source of the unusual is nothing perhaps to the bizarre the team will find on their explorations…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356503534</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= John Scalzi
|title= The Collapsing Empire
|rating= 5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary='' ''Just out of curiosity if this is the smaller problem, what is the bigger problem?'' ''
'' ''The complete collapse of the Flow, the end of the interdependency, and the possible extinction of the human race{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Setchfield -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785657097.'' ''jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785657097/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
In the distant future, mankind has been forced to leave Earth behind and has subsequently built an impressive empire compromising of 47 human colonies all connected by The Flow: a river of alternate space-time which makes travel across the Interdependency possible. Dependent on trade, the Holy Empire's survival is all thanks to the Flow… which is now collapsing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509835075</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Geoff Gaywood
|title= Omnipotence: Odyssey Book I
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Against a backdrop of relentless global warming and deepening social conflict on Earth, an expedition sets out to secure a foothold on a distant planet thought suitable for human habitation. Almost immediately, the crew are sorely tested by a violent internal conspiracy, alien aggression and simmering emotional tensions. They complete a spectacular transition to a remote solar system where they find that their goal, as dangerous as it is exotic, already has the ominous attention of another civilisation. Moreover, a series of perplexing events suggest that their mission may be subordinate to a much greater power with its own strategic agenda.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178589918X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Kim Stanley Robinson
|title= New York 2140
|rating= 5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=By 2140 sea level has risen by around fifty feet, leaving coastal cities the world over with major problems. Some places will always be desirable, however, and when you've invested a lot of time and money somewhere you're reluctant to leave. Consequently New York remains a thriving, popular place even though half of Manhattan is under water and the streets are now canals. There are still financial traders, local politicians, celebrities, street urchins (albeit known as water rats) sharing the city and getting by. It seems like New York has stabilised into a new, watery normal but when a couple of programmers go missing from a building on Madison Square and some of the other residents start looking into it, a question begins to be asked: Does it have to be this way?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508757</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Stefan Mohamed
|title= Stanly's Ghost: Book 3 (The Bitter Sixteen Trilogy)
|rating= 5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Cynical, solitary Stanly Bird used to be a fairly typical teenager – unless you count the fact that his best friend was a talking beagle named Daryl. Then came the superpowers. And the super powered allies. And the mysterious enemies. And the terrifying monsters. And the stunning revelations. And the apocalypse. Now he's not sure what he is. Or where he is. Or how exactly one is supposed to proceed after saving the world. All he knows is that his story isn't finished. Not quite yet …
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630764</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tom Toner
|title= The Weight of the World (The Amaranthine Spectrum)
|rating=4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= One thing great science fiction needs is solid world building. When I pick up a book like this, I need to imagine that the universe has existed before the plot has started and will continue to do so after: it needs a strong sense of history and future. With this book, and series, I feel like I have just had a brief glimpse into something much larger. A great deal happens in the plot, but even more is happening, and has happened, across the Firmament.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211395</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Amanda Hocking
|title= Freeks
|rating= 3.5
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= In the spring of 1987, the carnival comes to small-town Caudry, Louisiana. Then events take a dangerous turn. For Mara Beznik, the carnival is home. It's also a place of secrets, hidden powers and a buried past - making it hard to connect with outsiders. However, sparks fly when she meets local boy Gabe Alvarado. As they become inseparable, Mara realizes Gabe is hiding his own secrets. And his family legacy could destroy Mara's world. They find the word 'freeks' sprayed on trailers, as carnival employees start disappearing. Then workers wind up dead, killed in disturbing ways by someone or something. Mara is determined to unlock the mystery, with Gabe's help. But can they really halt this campaign of fear?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509807659</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alec Birri
|title= Condition: Book Two - The Curing Begins...
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Discovering an infamous Nazi doctor conducted abortions in Argentina after the Second World War may not come as a surprise, but why was the twisted eugenicist not only allowed to continue his evil experiments but encouraged to do so? And what has that got to do with a respected neurologist in 2027? Surely the invention of a cure for nearly all the world's ailments can't possibly have its roots buried in the horrors of Auschwitz? The unacceptable is about to become the disturbingly bizarre. What has the treatment's 'correction' of paedophiles got to do with the President of the United States, the Pope and even the UK's Green Party?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785898779</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alastair Reynolds
|title= Slow Bullets
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=When hundreds of worlds have been at war for a long time, the announcement of a ceasefire takes a while to reach everyone. It's perhaps not surprising that the worst of the soldiers using the war as an excuse for crimes, don't immediately give up. Scur, a conscript who has just been given the hope of returning to her family, has the misfortune to run into one of these war criminals before the peacekeepers arrive. He leaves her to die, but she subsequently wakes up from hibernation on a prison ship, only to discover that he is there too. And that's the least of her worries.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147321842X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Alec Birri
|title= Condition: Book One - A Medical Miracle?
|rating= 5
|genre= Thrillers
|summary= It's 1966, but RAF Pilot Dan Stewart isn't celebrating England's win in the World Cup – instead he's awakening from a coma following an aircraft accident. Waking in a world where nothing makes sense, he's unable to recall the crash – but struggles to remember the rest of his life…And what's stopping him from taking his medication? 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>1785899686</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Charlie Laidlaw
|title= The Things We Learn When We're Dead
|rating= 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 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 | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The War in the Dark by injecting him with a mycotoxinNick Setchfield]]=== [[image:4. 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 antihero5star. Waiting for someone to help him escape his miseryjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], a mysterious stranger proposes a deal to restore Case's ability [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Europe – 1963. The world is used to connect to cyberspace the constant tensions between the West and Russia, with the Cold War a seemingly never ending threat in exchange for working for himthe lives of everyday people. Surrounded by secrecyWhat they don't know however, Case joins is that the recruits real cold war is fought on their mission the borders of this world, far from prying eyes at the edges of the light. British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter is forced to uncover artificial intelligence flee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, and start life afreshis forced into a tense, unwelcome alliance with the lethal Karina Lazarova. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473217385</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Brandon Sanderson|title= Arcanum Unbounded|rating= 4|genre= Fantasy |summary= Brandon Sanderson As the threats rise, Christopher finds himself caught in a quest for centuries old hidden knowledge – an occult secret that will give instant supremacy to whichever nation possesses it. Racing against the enemy, Christopher is more cannon than man. He fires out more works than any other author taken from ruins in Bavaria through to the haunted Hungarian border, all in search of something unholy – born of the power of fantasywhite fire and black glass. Not only does he write an awe inspiring amount It's a world of novelstreachery, but he also writes various short fictions that go alongside themblood and magic. And A world at war in the dark. [[The War in here, for the first time, all the major ones are collected together.Dark by Nick Setchfield|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473218039</amazonuk!-- Dixen -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= James Young"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= Rise of the Dust Child[[image:1471406849.jpg|ratinglink= 4|genrehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471406849/ref= Science Fiction nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |summarystyle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ascension by Victor Dixen]]==An age has passed since the fall of the old world, and the rise of the malignant Dust people= [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girls, six boys. Amongst Each in the terrors two separate bays of this new agea single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choices, humanity still lingers within under the wreckage unblinking eye of civilisation, held together by the promise of a better existence in the next lifeon-board cameras. But not all They are satisfied by this dogma. Within the smoggy city of Fort Palmercontenders in the Genesis programme, the world's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars. Leonor, eight an 18 year old Doran and his friend Alena stand apartorphan, struggling to retain is one of the lost chosen ones. She has signed up for glory of their faith. But the unquiet dead and the forces of faith do not take kindly to those who try to fix She has signed up for love. She has signed up for a broken worldone-way ticket. As Even if the quest dream turns 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 againa nightmare, it is too late for regrets. [[Ascension by Victor Dixen|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524634379</amazonuk!-- Ruocchio-->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Ken Liu"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= Invisible Planets[[image:0756413001.jpg|ratinglink= 4http://www.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 genreamazon. The stories are dreamlike and hypnotic, evocative and inspiringco.uk/dp/0756413001/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] |amazonukstyle=<amazonuk>1784978809</amazonuk>"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|}}===[[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio]]==={{newreview|author= James Goss[[image:5star.jpg|titlelink= ClassCategory: What She Does Next Will Astound You{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|rating= 4Science Fiction]]|genre= Fantasy |summary=At Coal Hill School, things have started Hadrian Marlowe sits in the distant future writing the true account of his life to add context 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, tale everyone's favourite vlogger, wants you to get involved. All in the name Empire knows already. ''Empire of charity. At first people just get hurtSilence'' is a hero's quest but it is made clear from the start that it will not end that way. Then their lives We are ruined. Finallymillennia in the future, they disappearEarth has been lost and great houses rule portions of a vast empire. As April's fragile group Hadrian Marlowe is set to inherit one of friends starts to fracture, she the great houses but following some terrible news he 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 changedupon a new path instead. [[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio|Full Review]] What she does next will astound you. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941887</amazonuk!-- Reynolds -->}}{{newreview|author= A K Benedict-|titlestyle= Class"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: The Stone Housecenter;"|rating= 4[[image:Reynolds_Fire.jpg|genre= Fantasyleft|summarylink=There's an old stone house near Coal Hill Schoolhttp://www. Most people hurry past itamazon. They've heard the storiesco. But, if you stop, and look up, you'll see the face of a girl, pressed up against a windowuk/dp/0575090588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds]]=== [[image:5star. Screaming. Tanya finds herself drawn to the stone house. There's a mystery therejpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], and she's going [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] What happens when Utopia is achieved? When everyone is linked neurologically to solve it. But the more she investigates, the more she realises that there's 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 presence in circumstance who can be trusted to solve this crime and do so without spreading panic? What if 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...only people who can be trusted have already let you down once before? [[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk!-- Quine -->1785941879</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Guy Adams-|titlestyle= Class"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: Joyridecenter;"||rating= 4[[image:Quine Beasts.5jpg|genre= Science Fictionleft|summarylink=Poppy is a quiet girl, right up until she steals a car and drives it through a shop windowhttp://www. Max is a nice guy, but then he kills his whole familyamazon. Just for funco. Amar always seems so happy, so why is he trying to jump to his death from the school roof? Some uk/dp/0992754941/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Beasts of the students of Coal Hill School are not themselvesElectra Drive by Rohan Quine]]=== [[image:3. Some of them are dying5star. Ram has just woken up in a body he doesn't recognise, and if he doesn't figure out whyjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], he may well be next.[[:Category:Fantasy|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785941860</amazonuk>Fantasy]]}}{{newreview|author=Stephen Baxter|title=The Massacre Meet Jaymi. He's a world-class video games designer, and fresh to a new mansion in the Hollywood Hills on the basis of Mankind|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=An intellectual property no longer dies with some recent success. But he's seen the authorfuture and he doesn't like it. After a certain period the copyright is lifted so that an independent author can tackle the charactersHis current employers, able to bring any amount of class, hence skill and culture to the proliferation of Sherlock Holmes books. For many fans world of gameplay, are beset on appealing to the original, these books feel like cover versions most lunkheaded and are best avoidedlowest common denominators instead. It is only when Indeed, their next big thing will change the world for the worse – it will be a massively disturbing environment, where people progress through the estate world of the author gets involved that their interest is piqued. H. G. Wells' ''The War of entity by spreading fake news about anyone and everyone else on the Worldsplanet, whether they'' left enough re playing along or not, and by getting kind of a door open to explore further prestige points on spoiling and when you hire as an experienced shaming anything beyond a science fiction author as Stephen Baxter to pick user-accepted, algorithm-designed, status quo. With a much more Reithian approach, Jaymi goes freelance, and sets up a way of restoring the official storybalance with a launch of his own, it may just be worth a read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473205093</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Robert Dickinson|title=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 TouristBeasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine|rating=3Full Review]]|genre=Science Fiction|summary<!-- Doescher -->|-| style=Time travel in any format is a tricky business"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Will. 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 themjpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co. 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 donuk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=159474985X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[William Shakespeare't have s the visual splendour to distract Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the eye. The key to time travel in science fiction is to keep it simpleSeventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4. Or you could just ignore this advice and write ''The Tourist''5star.jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>0356508153</amazonuk>Category:{{{rating}}}{{newreviewStar Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|author= Luke RhinehartHumour]]|title= Invasion|rating= 4A 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.5|genre= Humour |summary=Super-intelligent furry aliens suddenly appear from another universe. And they've come to earth to You may or may not have fun. Alien Louie follows fisherman Billy Morton home one day, and he and noticed the cinematic version of his family quickly come to love original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the playful alien. But when Louie starts using their computer actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to hack into government and corporate networks-before droids anew, stealing millions returning heroes from banks to give to otherselsewhere in his oeuvre, they realise that Louie and his friends mean troublepeople keeping it in the family til it hurts. As Billy and And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his family begin a roller coaster ride audience only demanded three parts of fame and fortune, as well Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as a ranking high on the FBIgood… [[William Shakespeare's most wanted list, the Government soon decides that these aliens are terrorists, and must be eliminated. Whilst Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part 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=Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <amazonuk>1785651757</amazonuk>}}{{newreview <!!-- remove 12/9 Brookmyre -->|author= Yan Vana-|titlestyle= The Message"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Brookmyre_Places.jpg|rating= 3.5left|genrelink= Science Fictionhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/035650624X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=035650624X]] |summarystyle=The Message follows an official Inquiry into the wanton destruction of a Protected Nature Reserve. The first witnesses give evidence of "vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Places in the extent of the damage and later witnesses identify those responsibleDarkness by Chris Brookmyre]]=== [[image:4star. As the inquiry unfolds it becomes apparent that the Nature Reserve is Earthjpg|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 that the Inquiry is being undertaken 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 regulators Chris Brookmyre|Full Review]] <!-- Curtis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0995465754?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0995465754]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[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 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...the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]] <!-- Dick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dick_Electric.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473223288?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473223288]] ===[[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick]]=== | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|[[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]] <!-- Goss -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Goss_600.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[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]] <!-- Mann -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Mann_Ghosts.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783294183/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ghosts of Empire by George Mann]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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? [[Ghosts of Empire by George Mann|Full Review]] <!-- Weir -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Weir_Artemis.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0091956943/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Artemis by Andy Weir]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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. [[Artemis by Andy Weir|Full Review]] <!-- Stuart -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Stuart_Name.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1540504506/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[My Name is Sam by Wes Stuart]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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… [[My Name is Sam by Wes Stuart|Full Review]] <!-- Cargill -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Cargill_Sea.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473212782/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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. [[Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill|Full Review]] <!-- McAuley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Mcauley_Austral.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473217318/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Austral by Paul McAuley]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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. [[Austral by Paul McAuley|Full Review]] <!-- Arnold -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Arnold_Hunted.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785891855/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hunted by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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... [[Hunted by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]] <!-- Suarez -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Suarez_Change.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/110198466X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Change Agent by Daniel Suarez]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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. [[Change Agent by Daniel Suarez|Full Review]] <!-- Baxter -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Baxter_Xeelee.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473217172/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Xeelee: Vengeance by Stephen Baxter]]=== [[image:2star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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. [[Xeelee: Vengeance by Stephen Baxter|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B019NDIP1A</amazonuk>}}
