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===[[Elysium Fire Lakes of Mars by Alastair ReynoldsMerritt Graves]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] What happens when Utopia After his entire family 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 dyingkilled in a shuttle crash, melting to be precise, and one that he was piloting no one knows howless, or whyAaron Sheridan enlists in the Martian Fleet, or who could be next. In such a circumstance who can be trusted fully expecting to solve this crime and do so without spreading panic? What if die in the only people who can be trusted have already let you down once before? [[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds|Full Review]] <!-- Quine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Quine Beasts.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0992754941/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[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 Jaymiongoing Rim War. He's a world-class video games designerInstead, and fresh to a new mansion in the Hollywood Hills he winds up on Corinth Station, the basis of some recent success. But heFleet's seen the future and he doesn't like itcommand school. His current employersAt first, able to bring any amount of class, skill and culture to the world of gameplay, are beset on appealing to he is apathetic towards the most lunkheaded brutality 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 scheming of the entity by spreading fake news about anyone students and everyone else on the planetstaff, 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 but after standing up a way of restoring the balance with a launch of for his ownonly friend, where aspects of his more humanitarian mind are played out by avatars of him in the game. He sees this as he becomes a way to improve society and get his own back – but target for the chance of getting revenge more quickly comes about when those avatars leave their encoded backgrounddreaded Caelus Erik, and become fully playable characters in reality… [[The Beasts of Electra 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.uk/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'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 sturdyfeared cadet on Corinth. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of Scared that any further actions will put others on his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here flight team at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anewrisk, returning heroes Aaron shuts himself off from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurtseveryone. And if you need further encouragementBut, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here when he discovers that the series is so popular we're staff 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 Corinth have travelled so that they can build a vessel that will send the next generations of humans motive other than training officers, he begins to populate new planets. You know realise that as soon as you arrive it will risking his all might be the same old problemssafest thing he can do... You can't really have a Utopia with people in it, can you? [[Places in the Darkness Lakes of Mars by Chris BrookmyreMerritt Graves|Full Review]]

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===[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]

Something has happenedIn 2031, something very nasty genetic engineering and on robotics is changing the world at an unprecedented rate, with a submarine a pregnant elephant regimen known as Revision making people stronger, faster and smarter than ever before. Baseline humanity is one of only a handful of animals living below slowly being rendered obsolete, with people like 16-year-old Dorian Waters being left by the wayside as these new superhumans dominate the wavesworkforce. We follow Nerissa CraneWithout Revision, Dorian can't go to University and can't get a vetjob. And so begins Dorian's slow spiral of self-destruction, as she remembers recent eventsrobbing houses with his best friend Ethan to pay for his Revision, looks after all the animals time desperately trying to keep this activity secret from his family. But, with his psychopathic brother already suspicious of him and falls into a world of intriguethe police gaining ground, Dorian slowly begins to realise that he's going to have to risk everything to stay ahead...[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves|Full Review]]

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 Peter F Hamilton -->

[[image:Dick_Electric1447281357.jpg|left|link=httpshttp://www.amazon.co.uk/gpdp/product1447281357/1473223288ref=nosim?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473223288]] ===[[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick]]=== 

===[[Salvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton]]=== [[image:3star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

Philip K DickHumanity is at a turning point. After Feriton Kane's investigation uncovers the supposedly benign Olyix's stories were originally published plan to harvest humanity in the 50sname of their god, but they are more present than pastthe entire human race prepares to fight back. On But when the big screen Olyix''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; s harvesting ships appear and on slightly smaller screensstart heading towards Earth, Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories and Olyix-derived technology begins preparing them for TVtransportation, humanity realises that they are vastly outnumbered and outgunned. StartlinglySome people to flee, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into taking to the factual: his topics stars in an effort to hide from intrusive advertising and loss their aggressors, even though only a small percentage of privacy humanity would survive. But others choose to fight them head-on. As humanity comes face-to-face with the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's newslargest ever threat to their existence, old grudges will have to be put aside to focus on obliterating this enemy. It is as Even if half it means planning for a century after their inception, Dick's electric dreams are becoming realityfuture than none of them will ever live to see... [[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams Salvation Lost by Philip K DickPeter F Hamilton|Full Review]]

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===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) Velocity Weapon by James Goss and Russell T DaviesMegan E O'Keefe]]=== [[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 After her gunship is destroyed in a battle, Sanda Greeve expects to wake up in a friendly medical ward, fully healed and ready to get back into the Doctorfight. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each yearHowever, were he to keep in touch with even half instead she wakes up a quarter of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of themmillenia later, saymissing a leg, for exampleaboard an enemy starship called The Light of Berossus (or "Bero", whimsical books of verse as the starship's rather grumpy AI prefers to call himself). Bero tells Sanda that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord war is long over, and that the entire population of some of his friends and enemiesthe system is dead. As luck would have The only option, itseems, he has the space in his TARDIS is to stock up in advance, so my advice travel to him – sorrythe nearest star system. But, her – would be to pop along to his local Earthas the starship makes preparations for its decades-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescalelong voyage across the stars, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice it becomes clear to Sanda that something else is pretty much the samegoing on... [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) Velocity Weapon by James Goss and Russell T DaviesMegan E O'Keefe|Full Review]]

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===[[Ghosts of Empire Across the Void by George MannS K Vaughn]]===

Taking on a band of undead Mummies will take it out of the best of us and a holiday may be neededSea epics? So 20th century. If you are from New York there are not many other cities worldwide that could impress you, but London is one of them. Surely, Try a nice visit to England, far from the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, will help you to relaxspace epic. 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 Across the Void by George MannS K Vaughn|Full Review]]

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===[[Artemis Exhalation by Andy WeirTed Chiang]]===

[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

Welcome to Artemis, Over the first city on the moon. A powerhouse for the rich and a once in a lifetime trip for earth touristspast twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, and also a place these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a small community of citizens call home. Jazz Bashara is one such citizen. She came to Artemis with her father aged six, science fiction fan 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 likely that you have already come across some 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 activitywork by Ted Chiang. 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 doesnIf you haven't know is all the facts behind what she is being asked than take this opportunity to doso now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. [[Artemis Exhalation by Andy WeirTed Chiang|Full Review]]

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[My Name is Sam William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Wes StuartIan Doescher]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]

Who is the real enemy? This is the question which confronts SamA long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the champion story of the Sereia Star Wars in their cosmos-spanning war with the GibbusShakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and styles in such a clever way they seemed perfectly suited. It was then duly repeated for all the other films in the main character in this story. Sam is an unimposing boy who has no past Star Wars cycle, and no memory of who he is, yet he possesses extraordinary abilities. He is also Earthclearly someone's last hope buffing their quills ready for salvation from Episode Nine, the Gibbus who, in seven days, will destroy title of which became public knowledge the planet and everyone on itday before I write. This is not his choice In the hiatus, however: that is , the decision of effort has been made to see if the alien Sereiasame shtick works with other texts, his mentors and guides, as he is forced to confront this hazardous taskriff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. They And could we have their own reasons for wanting Earth anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to be savedthe Future, with its tales of time travel, bullying, 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 parent/child is not quite as he appears… strife like no other? [[My Name is Sam William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Wes StuartIan Doescher|Full Review]]

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===[[Sea of Rust A Memory Called Empire by C Robert CargillArkady Martine]]===

Have you ever watched the Terminator movies or some similar The problem with Martine'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 s fiction debut is no trace of organic matter anywhere, since the robot uprising that devastated she makes 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]] [[commonest errors in SF writing: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 tries 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 be too clever 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, wants her presence stirs disparate feelings amongst the young men fictional languages to be complex and women, a mixture of awe, desire, fear rich and hate. Living a very different life, Qwelby, Tullia's twin, is deeply shocked by the violence errs on Earth. As he is rescued by his four best friends from the Pit side 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 making 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 unpronounceable by Daniel Suarez]]=== [[image:3most readers.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 getsee why she does both, 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, Earthit'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 disappointment 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]] <!-- Godfrey -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Godfrey_Empire.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653156/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Empire of Time (New Pompeii) by Daniel Godfrey]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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, hethey's watched re the Romans kill blocks against which the inventors brilliance 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 livebook stumbles. [[A Memory Called Empire of Time (New Pompeii) by Daniel Godfrey|Full Review]] <!-- Liu -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Liu_Wandering.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784978493/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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! [[The Wandering Earth by Cixin LiuArkady Martine|Full Review]]