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 | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Europe – 1963. The world is used to the constant tensions between the West and Russia, with the Cold War a seemingly never ending threat in the lives of everyday people. What they don't know however, is that the real cold war is fought on the borders of this world, far from prying eyes at the edges of the light. British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter is forced to flee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, and is forced into a tense, unwelcome alliance with the lethal Karina Lazarova. 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 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|Full Review]] <!-- Dixen Graves -->

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===[[Ascension Lakes of Mars by Victor DixenMerritt Graves]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girlsAfter his entire family is killed in a shuttle crash, one that he was piloting no less, Aaron Sheridan enlists in the Martian Fleet, six boys. Each fully expecting to die in the two separate bays of a single spaceshipongoing Rim War. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choicesInstead, under the unblinking eye of the he winds up on-board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programmeCorinth Station, the worldFleet's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the command school. At first human colony on Mars. Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, he is one apathetic towards the brutality and scheming of the chosen ones. She has signed students and staff, but after standing up for glory. She has signed up his only friend, he becomes a target for lovethe dreaded Caelus Erik, the most feared cadet on Corinth. She has signed up for a one-way ticketScared that any further actions will put others on his flight team at risk, Aaron shuts himself off from everyone. Even if But, when he discovers that the dream turns to staff on Corinth have a nightmaremotive other than training officers, it is too late for regretshe begins to realise that risking his all might be the safest thing he can do... [[Ascension Lakes of Mars by Victor DixenMerritt Graves|Full Review]]

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Hadrian Marlowe sits in the distant future writing the true account of his life to add context to a tale everyone in the Empire knows already. ''Empire of Silence'' is a hero's quest but it is made clear from the start that it will not end that way. We are millennia in the future, Earth has been lost and great houses rule portions of a vast empire. Hadrian Marlowe is set to inherit one of the great houses but following some terrible news he decides upon a new path instead===[[Sunlight 24 by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio:Category: Science Fiction|Full ReviewScience Fiction]]

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[[image:Reynolds_Fire1447281357.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575090588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] What happens when Utopia is achieved? When everyone is linked neurologically to everyone else and people vote on each minor decision so every aspect of life is truly democratic? Everyone knows everything and everyone decides everything so what can possibly go wrong? Except people are dying, melting to be precise, and no one knows how, or why, or who could be next. In such a circumstance who can be trusted to solve this crime and do so without spreading panic? What if the only people who can be trusted have already let you down once before? [[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds|Full Review]] <!-- Quine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Quine Beasts.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/09927549411447281357/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]

===[[The Beasts of Electra Drive Salvation Lost by Rohan QuinePeter F Hamilton]]=== [[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]

Meet JaymiHumanity is at a turning point. HeAfter Feriton Kane's investigation uncovers the supposedly benign Olyix's a world-class video games designer, and fresh plan to a new mansion harvest humanity in the Hollywood Hills on name of their god, the basis of some recent successentire human race prepares to fight back. But hewhen the Olyix's seen the future harvesting ships appear and he doesn't like it. His current employersstart heading towards Earth, able to bring any amount of classand Olyix-derived technology begins preparing them for transportation, skill humanity realises that they are vastly outnumbered and culture outgunned. Some people to the world of gameplayflee, are beset on appealing taking to the most lunkheaded and lowest common denominators instead. Indeedstars in an effort to hide from their aggressors, their next big thing will change the world for the worse – it will be even though only a massively disturbing environment, where people progress through the world small percentage of the entity by spreading fake news about anyone and everyone else humanity would survive. But others choose to fight them head-on . As humanity comes face-to-face with the planetlargest ever threat to their existence, whether they're playing along or not, and by getting kind of prestige points old grudges will have to be put aside to focus on spoiling and shaming anything beyond a user-accepted, algorithm-designed, status quoobliterating this enemy. With Even if it means planning for a much more Reithian approach, Jaymi goes freelance, and sets up a way future than none 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 gamethem will ever live to see... He sees this as a way to improve society and get his own back – but the chance of getting revenge more quickly comes about when those avatars leave their encoded background, and become fully playable characters in reality… [[The Beasts of Electra Drive Salvation Lost by Rohan QuinePeter F Hamilton|Full Review]]

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===[[William ShakespeareVelocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction]] 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 fight. However, instead she wakes up a quarter of a millenia later, missing a leg, aboard an enemy starship called The Light of Berossus (or "Bero", as the starship's rather grumpy AI prefers to call himself). Bero tells Sanda that the war is long over, and that the entire population of the system is dead. The only option, it seems, is to travel to the nearest star system. But, as the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part starship makes preparations for its decades-long voyage across the Seventh stars, it becomes clear to Sanda that something else is going on... [[Velocity Weapon by Ian DoescherMegan E O'Keefe|Full Review]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Brookmyre Vaughn -->

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===[[Places in Across the Darkness Void by Chris BrookmyreS K Vaughn]]===

Living in 2017 has me longing to live in some sort of futuristic Utopia, in a world of free thinking and no major crimeSea epics? So 20th century. Perhaps in a Space Station high above the Earth were the greatest minds have travelled so that they can build Try a vessel that will send the next generations of humans to populate new planetsspace epic. 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 Across the Darkness Void by Chris BrookmyreS K Vaughn|Full Review]]

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===[[Water & Glass Exhalation by Abi CurtisTed Chiang]]===

[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Science Fiction|General Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian FictionShort Stories|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science FictionShort Stories]]

Something Over the past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has happenedpublished fifteen science fiction short stories, something very nasty and on these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a submarine a pregnant elephant science fiction fan it is one of only a handful likely that you have already come across some of animals living below the waveswork by Ted Chiang. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigueIf you haven't than take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.[[Exhalation by Ted Chiang|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 -->|-| 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 Doescher -->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by James Goss and Russell T DaviesIan Doescher]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and VerseHumour|Children's Rhymes and VerseHumour]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]]

Consider A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the Doctor. Just how many birthday story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two entirely different genres and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep styles in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need such a few novelty gifts clever way they seemed perfectly suited. It was then duly repeated for some of them, sayall the other films in the main Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for exampleEpisode Nine, whimsical books the title of verse that pithily encapsulate which became public knowledge the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemiesday before I write. As luck would have it In the hiatus, however, he the effort has been made to see if the space in his TARDIS same shtick works with other texts, and to stock up riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself readyiambs. And if you're working on a shorter timescalecould we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the Future, with a shorter lifespanits tales of time travel, bullying, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. parent/child strife like no other? [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by James Goss and Russell T DaviesIan Doescher|Full Review]]

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===[[Ghosts of A Memory Called 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 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 dominationcommonest errors in SF writing: 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 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 unpronounceable by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]] <!-- Suarez -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Suarez_Changemost readers.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 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 they're 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 blocks against which the surface brilliance of the sun. All it seems to want is energy, and Earth has plenty of that to be absorbedbook stumbles. [[Xeelee: Vengeance A Memory Called Empire by Stephen BaxterArkady Martine|Full Review]]