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Newest Science Fiction Reviews (view source)

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[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{Frontpage
|author= Laura Lam and Elizabeth May
|title= Seven Devils
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Novantae, has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the war effort. Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the last of the free alien species. It's a race against time as the rebels move to put a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the balance…
|isbn=1473231140
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)
|title=A Life Without End
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I know, yet another one. It won't be one of the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a few of the big 0-numbers, and if all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a motive to keep on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?
|isbn=1642860670
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Adrian Tchaikovsky
|title= The Doors of Eden
|rating= 4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Wow – this novel is gigantic, in every sense of the word. "Epic" is a word that's thrown around a lot these days, but if a book ever earned the name it's this one. It's a doorstopper full of big ideas, and at times it almost felt too big for my brain.
|isbn=1509865888
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0867X8NW7
|title=Access Point
|author=T R Gabbay
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=When we first meet Ula Mishkin she's having something of a professional success: using a device of her own invention she's helped a man who has been blind for decades to see an image of a hummingbird. She's thirty-six years old and her life is about to change radically as, cycling home, she's involved in an accident with a bus. It's two years before we meet her again and in the meantime, she's spent 392 days in a coma and now walks with a stick. A professional colleague persuades Ula that she should let out a spare bedroom to bring in some income.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= M R Carey
|title= The Book of Koli
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= ''The Book of Koli'' is the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy, titled ''The Rampart Trilogy'', by M.R. Carey. The novel is set in a world where nature has turned against humans. Trees move as fast as animals to crush their prey and then soak up their blood. Humans have eked out a small existence in isolated villages. They are primitive except for their reverence of 'old tech'. This is technology from the old world that seems to only work for certain chosen people. However, Koli, a young woodsmith, uncovers a secret about this technology that will upend his life and take him on a perilous journey.
|isbn=0316477532
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Kirsty Applebaum
|title= Troofriend
|rating= 4.5
|genre= Confident Readers
|summary= Are you tired of your child's classmates constantly being horrible to them? Do you want your child to have some positive experiences with people? Introducing the new Jenson & Jenson Troofriend 560 Mark IV android! These state-of-the-art machines are capable of emulating the full range of human emotions without lying, stealing or bullying. They're the perfect companion for any child! Any mention that these androids are beginning to develop real human feelings are just unsubstantiated rumours and have absolutely no basis in reality…right?
|isbn=1788003470
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= N K Jemisin
|title= The City We Became
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= New York is being born, the city has reached critical mass and has matured into a living almost-breathing entity and is ready to make it's way out into the world. Before it can be established, an ancient evil appears to attempt to destroy it just as it destroyed Atlantis and other forgotten places. The city is not alone through the birthing process, people who embody the values are selected to become the living embodiment of the city, some cities have one, some have twelve and New York has six. Together these human-embodiments must defeat the woman in white and save New York from very real destruction. But these are five different boroughs which don't always see eye to eye, it's a personality clash on an epic scale and unity is both critical and not remotely guaranteed.
|isbn=0356512665
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Cixin Liu
|title=Death's End
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is phenomenal. George R R Martin, who knows a thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and more.
|isbn=1784971650
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Andy Briggs
|title=Ctrl+S
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= In the near future, life's pretty good. Climate change has been brought under control, the bee population has been brought back from near-extinction, and 3D printing has made things cheaper and quicker than ever before. But the biggest triumph has got to be SPACE, a simulated world that has the ability to mimic emotions as well as images. But, as with every technology, there is the potential for it to be abused. Every day, people are being kidnapped, plugged into SPACE and have their emotions and feelings harvested for the richest and sickest members of society. And now Theo's mum has gone missing. As he follows the trail left by her, he uncovers a vast conspiracy that would use any means necessary to stop him from finding out where his mum has gone...
|isbn=1409184641
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen Baxter
|title= World Engines: Destroyer
|rating= 4
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= The last thing Colonel Reid Malenfant remembers is his Space Shuttle crashing - until he wakes up in the mid-24th Century, on an Earth massively depopulated and patiently waiting for the coming apocalypse. Suffering from severe culture shock, he tries to adjust to this new world. But all of this is changed when he receives a message from his wife Emma...who died on a mission to Phobos all the way back in 2004. As it slowly dawns on him that their timelines don't match up, he resolves to find a way to Phobos. But, this new society doesn't believe in space travel and no-one is willing to help him, until he meets a driven young woman who desperately wants to explore as much as he does...
|isbn=1473223172
}}
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===[[Exhalation by Ted Chiang]]===
 
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
 
Over the past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't than take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful. [[Exhalation by Ted Chiang|Full Review]]
<!-- Doescher -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:168369094X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/168369094X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the story of Star Wars in Shakespearean 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 Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their quills ready for Episode Nine, the title of which became public knowledge the day before I write. In the hiatus, however, the effort has been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. And could we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the Future, with its tales of time travel, bullying, and parent/child strife like no other? [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Martine Graves -->
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===[[A Memory Called Empire Lakes of Mars by Arkady MartineMerritt Graves]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
After his entire family is killed in a shuttle crash, one that he was piloting no less, Aaron Sheridan enlists in the Martian Fleet, fully expecting to die in the ongoing Rim War. Instead, he winds up on Corinth Station, the Fleet's command school. At first, he is apathetic towards the brutality and scheming of the students and staff, but after standing up for his only friend, he becomes a target for the dreaded Caelus Erik, the most feared cadet on Corinth. Scared that any further actions will put others on his flight team at risk, Aaron shuts himself off from everyone. But, when he discovers that the staff on Corinth have a motive other than training officers, he begins to realise that risking his all might be the safest thing he can do... [[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves|Full Review]]
The problem with Martine's fiction debut is that she makes the two commonest errors in SF writing: she tries to be too clever and she wants her fictional languages to be complex and rich and errs on the side of making them unpronounceable by most readers. I can see why she does both, but it's a disappointment because they're the blocks against which the brilliance of the book stumbles. [[A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine|Full Review]] <!-- Lingane Merritt Graves -->
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===[[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror Sunlight 24 by Mark LinganeMerritt Graves]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]  Julian's family are getting pretty fed up with his perma-student status. They feel that the maths PHD candidate should start earning some money. To that end, they have managed to find him a job tutoring the children of a highly regarded politician. Julian bowls up at their strange, austere mansion with little in the way of expectation. Victor, the politician is not at home. But Esis, his wife, is. A beautiful but isolated woman, Esis shows little interest in her children and not much more in Julian. She directs him towards his room, the library in which he will teach the children, and the kitchen, whose chefbot will provide him with food. [[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane|Full Review]]  <!-- Arnold -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1789016525.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016525/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
In an extension of the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold in ''Ripped Apart''2031, he continues to tell genetic engineering and robotics is changing the story of the Quantum twins. Born on a parallel worldat an unprecedented rate, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment a regimen known as Revision making people stronger, faster and were hurtled through spacesmarter than ever before. Baseline humanity is slowly being rendered obsolete, with people like 16-time to our earth year- and a series of adventures ensued in old Dorian Waters being left by the wayside as these new superhumans dominate the following booksworkforce. When we rejoin them in Without Revision, Dorian can't go to University and can'Betrayedt get a job. And so begins Dorian'' we find Tullia struggling s slow spiral of self-destruction, robbing houses with his best friend Ethan to adapt pay for his Revision, all the time desperately trying to life in the bush - adopted by a Bushman keep this activity secret from his family and made part of a tribe. Twin Qwelby howeverBut, is not doing so well - shocked by with his psychopathic brother already suspicious of him and the violence on the earth. Rescued by an old friendpolice gaining ground, Dorian slowly begins to realise that he then tries 's going to help a girl called Xaala - but her ulterior motives may well prove have to drive a wedge between the twins as they try risk everything to reconnectstay ahead... [[Betrayed Sunlight 24 by Geoffrey ArnoldMerritt Graves|Full Review]]
<!-- Marrs -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1785038885.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785038885/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Passengers by John Marrs]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In the near future, self-drive cars are the norm - a convenient and easy way of transport. However, when someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. As everyday commutes turn into terror-filled journeys, the public have to judge who should survive. But with every aspect of these passangers being examined by the public - will they turn out to be what they seem? [[The Passengers by John Marrs|Full Review]] <!-- Beckett Peter F Hamilton -->
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===[[Beneath the World, A Sea Salvation Lost by Chris BeckettPeter F Hamilton]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction]]
[[image:3Humanity is at a turning point. After Feriton Kane's investigation uncovers the supposedly benign Olyix's plan to harvest humanity in the name of their god, the entire human race prepares to fight back. But when the Olyix's harvesting ships appear and start heading towards Earth, and Olyix-derived technology begins preparing them for transportation, humanity realises that they are vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Some people to flee, taking to the stars in an effort to hide from their aggressors, even though only a small percentage of humanity would survive. But others choose to fight them head-on. As humanity comes face-to-face with the largest ever threat to their existence, old grudges will have to be put aside to focus on obliterating this enemy. Even if it means planning for a future than none of them will ever live to see..5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionSalvation Lost by Peter F Hamilton|Science FictionFull Review]]
South America, 1990. Ben Ronson, a British police officer, arrives in a mysterious forest to investigate a spate of killings of Duendes. These silent, vaguely humanoid creatures - with long limbs and black button eyes - have a strange psychic effect on people, unleashing the subconscious and exposing their innermost thoughts and fears. Ben becomes fascinated by the Duendes, but the closer he gets, the more he begins to unravel, with terrifying results... [[Beneath the World, A Sea by Chris Beckett|Full Review]] <!-- Hill Megan E O'Keefe -->
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===[[Zero Bomb Velocity Weapon by M T HillMegan E O'Keefe]]=== [[image:34.5star.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 starship makes preparations for its decades-long voyage across the stars, it becomes clear to Sanda that something else is going on... [[Velocity Weapon by Megan E O'Keefe|Science FictionFull Review]]
Meet Remi. He's a fan of running, and indeed has been – from the wife and life he abandoned when they buried their seven year old daughter. Now working in London as a courier, he's taking a routine piece of samizdat literature across town when he's seemingly attacked by a driverless car. Struggling to keep to his schedule, he takes to the Tube, where mysterious people sit with him – and regale him with cryptic clues that mention his dead child. Slowly, woozily, he's drawn into a completely surreal scenario, as he tries to find out what is wanted of him, and by whom – and indeed, who he himself even is. [[Zero Bomb by M T Hill|Full Review]] <!-- Jason Boggs Vaughn -->
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===[[The Dragon's Harvest Across the Void by Jason F BoggsS K Vaughn]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Young Nelson Jones was a young and gifted military cadet in the fascist new world order called the 'New Era'. As his experiences led him on a path of conflict and self-discovery, he became a changed man. Picking up 20 months after the events of ''The Devil's Dragon'', Nelson is on an expedition to uncover the mystery of the sungates, when a terrible secret leads to horrifying discoveries for all involvedSea epics? So 20th century. Meanwhile, the humans and the Aesini fight for their very existence, as Nelson's nemesis, Major Ira Billis, finds Try a terrifying new ally in a quest to restore the New Era to gloryspace epic. As Nelson and his friends race against the clock in order to defeat this new threat, they find themselves facing a power beyond imagination… [[The Dragon's Harvest Across the Void by Jason F BoggsS K Vaughn|Full Review]]
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===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night Exhalation by Charlie Jane AndersTed Chiang]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]
January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlightOver the past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle science fiction fan it is a brief twilight likely that is barely survivableyou have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side If you die, to close haven't than take this opportunity to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for lifedo so now. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, Trust me; your imagination will anything ever change? be grateful. [[The City In The Middle Of The Night Exhalation by Charlie Jane AndersTed Chiang|Full Review]]
<!-- Hamilton -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1447281322.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1447281322/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Salvation by Peter F Hamilton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Apparently the term ''space opera'' was coined in 1941 as a pejorative. It was borrowed not from the high-brow musical art form, but from the common or garden 'soap opera'. It related to a particular kind of science fiction which the coiner (one Wilson Tucker) described as a ''hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn". It would be fifty years later before the term started to be re-appropriated to cover – if still the same themes of distant futures, military conflict, heroism and a simplistic set of values – more literary, more expansive works. The term is now taken as compliment. [[Salvation by Peter F Hamilton|Full Review]] <!-- Chadwick Doescher -->
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===[[XX William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Angela ChadwickIan Doescher]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT FictionHumour|LGBT FictionHumour]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Angela Chadwick's debut novel explores A long time ago, in a publishing house far away, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite the possibility story of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameter, colliding two women being able to produce a baby girl through entirely different genres and styles in such a process called Ovum-to-Ovum fertilisationclever way they seemed perfectly suited. It centres around Rosie and Jules who take part was then duly repeated for all the other films in the first ever clinical trial that would allow them to have a child of main Star Wars cycle, and clearly someone's buffing their own without the need quills ready for a sperm donor or any other male intervention. What follows is a story that shows Episode Nine, the harshness and at times disgraceful behaviour title of which became public knowledge the mediaday before I write. In the hiatus, however, and the general publiceffort has been made to see if the same shtick works with other texts, when faced with a controversial technique that and to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambs. And could lead we have anything more suitably unsuitable-seeming than Back to the demise Future, with its tales of men. time travel, bullying, and parent/child strife like no other? [[XX William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Angela ChadwickIan Doescher|Full Review]]
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===[[Rosewater A Memory Called Empire by Tade ThompsonArkady Martine]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless - people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumoured healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent The problem with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesnMartine't care to again - but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realisation about a horrifying future. [[Rosewater by Tade Thompson|Full Review]] <!-- Rajaniemi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473203287.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473203287/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire s fiction debut is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much that she is willing to risk to uncover makes the truth. [[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi|Full Review]] <!-- 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]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The War two commonest errors in the Dark by Nick Setchfield]]=== [[imageSF writing:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Europe – 1963. The world is used she tries to the constant tensions between the West be too clever 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 she wants her fictional languages to flee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, be complex 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 rich 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 -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471406849.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471406849/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ascension by Victor Dixen]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girls, six boys. Each in the two separate bays of a single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choices, under the unblinking eye of the errs on-board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programme, the world's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars. Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, is one side of the chosen onesmaking them unpronounceable by most readers. 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 I can see why she does both, but it is too late for regrets. [[Ascension by Victor Dixen|Full Review]] <!-- Ruocchio-->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0756413001.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0756413001/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] 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 s a herodisappointment because they's quest but it is made clear from re the start that it will not end that way. We are millennia in blocks against which the future, Earth has been lost and great houses rule portions of a vast empire. Hadrian Marlowe is set to inherit one brilliance of the great houses but following some terrible news he decides upon a new path insteadbook stumbles. [[A Memory Called Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio|Full Review]]  <!-- Reynolds -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Reynolds_Fire.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 ReynoldsArkady Martine|Full Review]]
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