[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|author=Chris Brookmyre
|title=Places in the Darkness
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= 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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>035650624X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Abi Curtis
|title= Water & Glass
|rating= 5
|genre= General Fiction
|summary= 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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0995465754</amazonuk>
}}
{{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
|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| style="vertical-align: a river of alternate spacetop; text-time which makes travel across align: left;"|===[[The War in the Interdependency possibleDark by Nick Setchfield]]=== [[image:4. Dependent on trade, the Holy Empire's survival is all thanks to the Flow… which is now collapsing5star.jpg|amazonuklink=<amazonuk>1509835075</amazonuk>Category:{{{rating}}}{{newreviewStar Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|author= Geoff Gaywood|title= OmnipotenceFantasy]], [[:Category: Odyssey Book IScience Fiction|rating= 4.5Science Fiction]]|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Against a backdrop of relentless global warming Europe – 1963. The world is used to the constant tensions between the West and deepening social conflict on EarthRussia, an expedition sets out to secure a foothold on a distant planet thought suitable for human habitationwith the Cold War a seemingly never ending threat in the lives of everyday people. Almost immediatelyWhat they don't know however, is that the crew are sorely tested by a violent internal conspiracy, alien aggression and simmering emotional tensionsreal cold war is fought on the borders of this world, far from prying eyes at the edges of the light. They complete a spectacular transition British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter is forced to a remote solar system where they find that their goalflee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, as dangerous as it and is exotic, already has forced into a tense, unwelcome alliance with the ominous attention of another civilisationlethal Karina Lazarova. MoreoverAs the threats rise, Christopher finds himself caught in a series of perplexing events suggest quest for centuries old hidden knowledge – an occult secret that their mission may be subordinate will give instant supremacy to a much greater power with its own strategic agendawhichever nation possesses it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178589918X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewRacing against the enemy, Christopher is taken from ruins in Bavaria through to the haunted Hungarian border, all in search of something unholy – born of the power of white fire and black glass. It's a world of treachery, blood and magic. A world at war in the dark. [[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield|author= Kim Stanley RobinsonFull Review]]|title= New York 2140<!-- Dixen -->|rating= 5-|genrestyle= Science Fiction"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471406849.jpg|summarylink=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 leavehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471406849/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ascension by Victor Dixen]]=== [[image:5star. 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 tradersjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], local politicians[[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girls, celebrities, street urchins (albeit known as water rats) sharing six boys. Each in the city two separate bays of a single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and getting by. It seems like New York has stabilised into a newto make their choices, watery normal but when a couple under the unblinking eye of programmers go missing from a building the on Madison Square and some of -board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programme, the other residents start looking into itworld's craziest speed-dating show ever, a question begins to be asked: Does it have to be this way?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356508757</amazonuk>aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars. Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, is one of the chosen ones. She has signed up for glory. She has signed up for love. She has signed up for a one-way ticket. Even if the dream turns to a nightmare, it is too late for regrets. [[Ascension by Victor Dixen|Full Review]]}}{{newreview<!-- Ruocchio-->|author= Stefan Mohamed-|titlestyle= Stanly's Ghost"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: Book 3 (The Bitter Sixteen Trilogy)center;"|rating= 5[[image:0756413001.jpg|genrelink= Science Fiction|summaryhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0756413001/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style= 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"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio]]=== [[image:5star. And the super powered allies. And the mysterious enemies. And jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Hadrian Marlowe sits in the terrifying monsters. And distant future writing the stunning revelations. And true account of his life to add context to a tale everyone in the apocalypseEmpire knows already. Now he''Empire of Silence'' is a hero's quest but it is made clear from the start that it will not sure what he isend that way. Or where he is. Or how exactly one We are millennia in the future, Earth has been lost and great houses rule portions of a vast empire. Hadrian Marlowe is supposed set to proceed after saving inherit one of the world. All great houses but following some terrible news he knows is that his story isn't finisheddecides upon a new path instead. Not quite yet …[[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio|Full Review]] |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630764</amazonuk!-- Reynolds -->}}{{newreview|author=Tom Toner-|titlestyle= The Weight of the World (The Amaranthine Spectrum)"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|rating=4[[image:Reynolds_Fire.jpg|genre= Science Fictionleft|summarylink= One thing great science fiction needs is solid world buildinghttp://www.amazon.co. 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 afteruk/dp/0575090588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds]]=== [[image: it needs a strong sense of history and future5star. With this bookjpg|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 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 people vote on each minor decision so every aspect of life is happening, truly democratic? Everyone knows everything and has happenedeveryone decides everything so what can possibly go wrong? Except people are dying, melting to be precise, and no one knows how, across the Firmamentor why, or who could be next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211395In 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]] </amazonuk!-- Quine -->}}{{newreview|-|authorstyle= Amanda Hocking"width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|title= Freeks|rating= 3[[image:Quine Beasts.5jpg|genre= Science Fictionleft|summarylink= In the spring of 1987, the carnival comes to smallhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0992754941/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-town Caudry, Louisiana. Then events take a dangerous turnalign: left;"|===[[The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine]]=== [[image:3. For Mara Beznik, the carnival is home5star. It's also a place of secretsjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], hidden powers and [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Meet Jaymi. He's a buried past world- making it hard class video games designer, and fresh to connect with outsidersa new mansion in the Hollywood Hills on the basis of some recent success. However, sparks fly when she meets local boy Gabe AlvaradoBut he's seen the future and he doesn't like it. As they become inseparableHis current employers, Mara realizes Gabe is hiding his own secrets. And his family legacy could destroy Mara's able to bring any amount of class, skill and culture to the world. They find of gameplay, are beset on appealing to the word 'freeks' sprayed on trailers, as carnival employees start disappearingmost lunkheaded and lowest common denominators instead. Then workers wind up deadIndeed, killed in their next big thing will change the world for the worse – it will be a massively disturbing ways environment, where people progress through the world of the entity by someone or something. Mara is determined to unlock spreading fake news about anyone and everyone else on the mysteryplanet, with Gabewhether they's helpre playing along or not, and by getting kind of prestige points on spoiling and shaming anything beyond a user-accepted, algorithm-designed, status quo. But can they really halt this campaign of fear?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509807659</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Alec Birri|title= Condition: Book Two - The Curing BeginsWith 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...|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Discovering an infamous Nazi doctor conducted abortions in Argentina after He sees this as a way to improve society and get his own back – but the Second World War may not come as a surprisechance of getting revenge more quickly comes about when those avatars leave their encoded background, 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 and become fully playable characters in 2027? Surely the invention reality… [[The Beasts 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 bizarreElectra Drive by Rohan Quine|Full Review]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co. 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 Partyuk/gp/product/159474985X? |amazonukie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=<amazonuk>1785898779</amazonuk>159474985X]]}}{{newreview|authorstyle= Alastair Reynolds"vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"||title= Slow Bullets|rating= 4=[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]===|genre= Science Fiction[[image:4.5star.jpg|summarylink=When hundreds of worlds have been at war for a Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long timeago, the announcement of in a ceasefire takes galaxy far away, there was a while man called William Shakespeare, who was able to reach everyonecreate a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. It's perhaps You may or may not surprising that have noticed the worst cinematic version of the soldiers using the war as an excuse his original stage play for crimes, don't immediately give up. Scur'The Force Doth Awaken'', a conscript who has just been given but here at last we get the hope of returning to her familyactual script, has the misfortune complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to run into one of these war criminals -before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the peacekeepers arrivefamily til it hurts. He leaves her to die And if you need further encouragement, 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.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]] <!-- Brookmyre -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Brookmyre_Places.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/035650624X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=035650624X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[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]] <!-- 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 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>147321842X</amazonuk>}}
