Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Ian McDonald|title=The Dervish House|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=The reader is plunged straight away into the busy, bustling centre of Istanbul. And climate change appears to have arrived. In 2022 thousands of Istanbul's citizens died in a heatwave and now, only three years later it's 'Thirty-three degrees in April, at seven in the morning. Unthinkable.' You can almost hear the collective thrum of all those air-conditioning units trying to make life bearable for the local people.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575080531</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeff Somers|title=The Terminal State|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In this future, desolate, post!-apocalyptic world, the last thing Avery Cates wants to do is choose a side. The police are androids, artificial cases for clones of people who die in the making, and the other source of power is not much better. But it's them that pressgang him into joining their army. What little freedom and power he had as a lone gunman is lost, as he's given nanotech augments to make him a super-soldier. Which is bad news Remove - as is the fact the two most powerful and hated people in Cates's universe are the very people who buy him from the army to do one last job - and they can be very persuasive about him accepting it...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498750</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Terry DehartAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Unit|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We all know about the nuclear family, well now meet the post-nuclear family in Terry De HartAll Tomorrow's brutal vision of a post apocalyptic America. We know the score; terrorists attack key US cities with nuclear devices, US retaliates on the nations supporting the terrorist. There is only one possible outcome, mass casualties and the breakdown of civil society leading to the rise of barbarism in a devastated landscape in the grip of a nuclear winter. Within this madness a family survives not knowing how much of the country or the world has been destroyed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499331</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Ken MacLeod|title=The Restoration GameBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|summary=Lucy Stone works for a videogame company in Edinburgh. She enjoys the job - particularly being one of the boys - and it's given her a sense of belonging that she'd craved but never had. And then her mother calls. A CIA spook, Amanda wants Lucy's firm to rewrite their upcoming game to feature the mythology Opening up new ways of a small ex-Soviet republic. Krassnia is where Lucy was born, where she lived for her first seven years, and where she spent thinking about the scariest day shape of her life. Amanda wrote a seminal work on Krassnian mythology and Lucy uses this to reshape the game, knowing that it's likely things to be used as a tool in a hoped-for colour revolutioncome. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496472</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Wooding|title=Black Lung Captain: Tales of the Ketty Jay|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Things on board the Ketty Jay have never been as low. Darian Frey and his crew are even having trouble thieving from defenceless orphanages. So when the next token job-they-can't-refuse comes along, they fall under it's spell. An explorer has returned with tales of untold riches, courtesy of the most mysterious artefacts and treasures of an unknown civilization. The fact that the remains are those of an aircraft crashed in the most Arctic of rainforests, inhabited by the most evil beast-men monsters, is neither here nor there. The problems start with what they find there, which is worse than anyone could have expected - or indeed years ago, with a mysterious connection between the remains and the more unusual crewmember...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575085177</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Beckett|title=The Holy Machine|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In the near future, only Illyria city stands for science, technology and progress in a world dominated by religious fundamentalism of every faith (and then some). The city was founded as a haven for those intellectuals not possessing any such religious convictions, who advocated reason and logic instead, and were persecuted for their 'blasphemies' in the early stages of the upheaval. George Simling, the introvert protagonist and second generation Illyrian, falls in love with a beautiful woman called Lucy. Unfortunately however, Lucy is actually a syntec, a robot ASPU: Advanced Sensory Pleasure Unit, a prostitute. As George obsessively visits her, he realises that she is starting to develop a level of consciousness and self-awareness outside of her programming. Lucy is due for a routine mind-wipe so George decides to flee with her to the technophobic outlands in order to save this newly discovered consciousness. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874626</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Pittacus Lore|title=I am Number Four|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Meet John Smith've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. By all appearances he is the usual fifteen year old American kidWell, except for the fact he and his 'father' shift location every I must confess that there have been more than a few monthsdecades of technology in my lifetime. John is certainly not his real name, but has to face I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to reality me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - school bullies, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestylequite frightening. 'Dad' stays at homeOf course, scanning I could research the internet possibilities and all news sources, in order to protect the pair - for probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they are among 're talking about or the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in hidden exile on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien racea way I could understand. Can the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141332476</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael CobleySylvie Cathrall|title=The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity's Fire)|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=The planet Darien, once a lost outpost where earth colonists co-existed with the native Uvovo, is now the focal point of an intergalactic struggle. Hegemony forces are in occupation mode, Earth is standing back reined in by inter-planetary politics, whilst planet-side local alliances are fighting back guerrilla-style. This is the least of the galaxy's concerns, however. It might even get air-brushed out as a little minor difficulty in A Letter to the history-books-to-come. There is a much bigger problem to worry about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496332</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mira Grant|title=FeedLuminous Deep

|summary=In 2014 the common cold was cured. So was cancer. But in their wake something terrible came – the two viruses used to cure the ailments combined There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to form a terrifying plague that turned humans and large animals into the living deadcompelling premise. Now what's left And this is one of the human race lives every day with the fear that the virus they hold dormant in their bodies could go into amplification, causing them to turn. People stay indoors, stop meeting in crowds, and conduct most of their lives online. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184149898X</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Edric1803816759|title=SalvageThe Unravelling|author=Will Gibson

|summary=Some time about It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a hundred years hence bit of adventure and the predictions have come to passget stuck into some really gritty crime detection. The sea levels have risen; But then something goes horribly wrong with the Gulf Stream has shifted its pathAI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Climate change has hit Britain with a vengeanceFinally, Joe gets to do some real policing. Global Warming is In the misnomer; aftermath of course the temperatures are, on balance, warmerrioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Snow is something most people Joe isn't the only hear or read about. The real changeone trying to save Suki - Dylan, howevera British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the wetcase.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617623</amazonuk>What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom HoltB0CP95J1CG|title=Blonde BombshellOf Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mark Lingane

|summary=The blonde bombshell in question in Tom Holt's latest book of that name is Lucy Pavlov. If you are reading this review in 2017 of course you will know who Lucy Pavlov is. SheRonan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to the beautiful, talented, wealthy, CEO of PaySoft Industries - the revolutionary operating system that party but his interest is running on every computer in piqued by the world. Of course, if that is indeed the case, then we've got a problem. A very big problem. Because what Lucy doesn't know is that she is literally a blonde bombshell - well she knows she's blonde, just not that her body is a shell for a bomb. A very big and a very smart bomb, but nevertheless a bombway it arrived. And she's been sent to destroy the planet. It kind of makes Bill Gates seem OK for the time being.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497789</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Extras|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In the future city of this book, many people live with what is called it seems like a reputation economy. With everybody practically a cyborg, they're online permanently, using optical and brain implants to see everybody's status, output and more. Many people have hovercam companions, to make their own documentaries and film their own lives. They rely on metablogs to interact and keep their popularity up. They continuously spread their opinions and interests in order to become more well-known. A girl called Aya is struggling good opportunity to get any renown, but things change, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but in complete secrecy out of his room and anonymity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Specials|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=In away from the un-named city of the future, all the adults are online activities he makes a living in the delusion that their city is rightat. After a teenage life as an uglySo he makes his way there, they all undergo a welter of medical procedures, to make their minds and bodies conform to dodging the bland, but gorgeous, society norm. But one young woman is not like buses that. She is going to a party, looking ugly, and she knows it is not what we look like, but how special we feel inside, that is of make up most importance. The good news is that this woman is our returning heroine, Tally. The bad news is that her ugliness is a temporary disguise, and worse than that - she knows how to feel special inside, because she IS A Special.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389082</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Pretties|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In the unnamed city of the future, all the adults are pretty. They've had mental and physical surgery to make them calm, placid traffic and perfectly aesthetic human beings. If they have any trouble as young adults it is watching the problem of what to wear at parties, or how to get rid of their hangovers when they wake up at 5pmlocal energy storage indicator lights. Unfortunately, one of these bright young things is our heroine, Tally, one of the few people in the world to have learnt how damnably horrid and sapping the life of Riley can Should beenough power. Hopefully.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389074</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersK P O'Donnell|title=The Eternal PrisonVital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)

|summary=This book stands out in the highVL-energy15, hard-edged sci-fi adventure/thriller genrea prototype robot, in that it covers two stories at the same timeis desperate to understand who she is. In one chapter we have Avery CatesUnfortunately, practically the best gun-for-hire in his post-apocalyptic North Americabefore she could find any answers, being told to kill one of the most protected and important people left in the worldended, by other, almost as important people, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the cruel mix nations of powerplays that make up the current politicsDrexel and Renada. Over half-a-century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. In the other corner Dr Amelia Wong is Catesdetermined to continue her father's legacy, being thrown building a world where machines and humans can live together in prison - one of those basicharmony, hell-on-earthbut internal frictions and external enemies might bring it all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, surrounded by miles leader of a group of desertsalvagers called the Exhumers, prisonshas his entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herself. HereEven after being buried for 65 years, tooher determination hasn't diminished in the slightest, and no errant machine, he no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will be told to do jobs stop her on her quest for other people...answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497053</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Orson Scott CardEmily Tesh|title=Ender in ExileSome Desperate Glory|rating=34.5

|summary='Ender in Exile' is the most recently published in the series set in the universe of 'Ender's Game', a long standing and one of the best known series of science-fiction by Orson Scott Card. It's been defined as an 'interquel', fitting chronologically between 'Ender's Game' and the 'Speaker for the Dead', the first two (and probably the best two) novels in the sequence. Technically speaking, 'Ender in Exile' actually fits in-between the last chapters of 'Ender's Game' and describes in more detail events outlined in the resolving sections of 'EnderWhile Earth's Game'. Confusingly for the uninitiated, 'Ender in Exile' is also a sequel to the 'Shadow of the Giant'children live, a parallel sub-series from the universe of the enemy shall fear us'Ender's Game'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841492272</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=John Dickinson|title=WE|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Paul Munro Following the destruction of the Earth, amongst a rare number of survivors, Kyr has been disconnected from raised on Gaea Station – the home of the World Ear in readiness for a mission that will last a lifetime. Sent scraps of humanity – and trained relentlessly to man a tiny station built at enormous effort avenge her people and expense on a desolate moon in the outer reaches of our solar systemworld that should have been hers. All her life, he will never be able she has been conditioned to return. Gravity is one-tenth that of Earth and his flesh has wastedfall in line, his bones enbrittled without the strength of calcium. 'If he stood on the Earth now... his skeleton would splinter under his weight.' It took eight years to get there fulfil her duty and the rest of his life stretches before him fearfullyensure that humanity perseveres. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385617895</amazonuk>0356521834

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ursula K Le GuinM R Carey|title=The Left Hand of DarknessInfinity Gate

|summary=ItI'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to believe that get right – and when it's bad, it'The Left Hand s often terrible. But the premise of Darkness'' dates back to 1969Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: forty years on, if it reads as was done well, or even better, then when it was originally written, and - deservedly - enjoys a classic status in the science-fiction canon, as well as being perhaps the best known sci-fi novel by Ursula LeGuin'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>0356518043

{{newreview|author=Eoin Colfer|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the Galaxy: Part Six question of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) |rating=3identity and acceptance.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Of all the big books announced for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than manywhat it means to be human. Why try Of what is real and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy bookwhat is artificial, when way before the end, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task? And why approach an Irishman, Eoin Colfer, when and whether the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and with their cups development of tea and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer technology is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a storyexciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Law 1739593901|title=Bringing Forth the End of Days22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45

|summary=Imagine the hell of a dying world, less ''Our future will be more complex than a generation from nowwe expected. World War Three has been and gone - ended with conventional bombs galore but started by a plague on all plant-lifeInstead of flying cars, that removed all the oxygen from the planet's atmosphere. As a result, the few survivors must live in airwe got night-tight houses vision killer drones and automated elderly care with special oxygenating equipment - the ultimate in air conditioning - or, they must have got in early with a special biomechanical adaptation that allows them mobility and independence, but at a freakish costgeolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. Worse, religion has mutated - the Jehovah's Witnesses are now the most violent gang, rushing to nudge what's left of humanity towards its final judgment. Worse still - even worse than all of that - you're living in Crawley.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1608602036</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Peter Salisbury |title=Passengers I've got a couple of confessions to Sentience|rating=3make.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Human beings are spread across I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the galaxybook. The technology that allowed this There's got to be a very compelling hook to happen? Not faster than light travel, suspended animation or matter transfer but cloningkeep me engaged. Want to start a new life elsewhere? Your mind and personality can be mapped as information Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. Unmanned ships are sent to inhabitable planets across It's human beings who fascinate me: the furthest reaches of space technology and upon arrivalthe world scape are purely incidental. So, the automated cloning vats begin rewhat did I think of a book of twenty-creating your body and entering your stored mind and personality datatwo science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755211596</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Palmer Mark Lingane|title=Red ClawGalaxy

|summary=New AmazonSpark, home to some of who is an elite pilot with the most violent Space Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a coma that lasted years, he remembers little and deadly alien life imaginable, is due to be razed to the ground in order no physical shape to make way for human habitationresume his duties. A team of scientists, led by the charismatic Richard Helms, have been stationed on this planet But Earth is under military protection, in order to study and catalogue the flora threat and faunahe must. However, Returned by his superiors to the computer super brain handling all the technology has inconceivably turned on her human chargesspace station, forcing soldier he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and scientist alike to abandon base head quarters. As if not just from the planet's hostile environment (including bouts of acid rain) were not enough of a threatalien threats against it, the characters are but also pursued by legions of killer robots. Life expectancy does not look goodfrom its own sins against itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496243</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=K S Turner Tade Thompson|title=Before Far From the Gods (Chronicles Light of Fate and Choice)Heaven|rating=4.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=''Before The Gods'' is presented as an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle and shrouded in mystery. The front is adorned by a beguiling image created by the author. A glance at the back cover serves only to tantalise rather than reveal what might be in store. ''This is where it all began. Everything. Love, hate, good, evil, us and them. This is before they were gods.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956224202</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Issui Ogawa |title=The Lords of the Sands of Time|rating=3

|summary=WeMichelle 're in Shell' Campion is fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the sleeper ship Ragtime, bound for the third centuryworld of Bloodroot, Japanshe will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. A queen and However, when she wakes up at the end of her young retainer are wandering trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the edge of their territoryRagtime's AI almost non-responsive, when a baddy appears - an alien seeming she begins to realise that her first mission won't be some local creaturegoing as smoothly as she hoped it would. Handily enough a saviour, warrior hero appears too, from way in the future, complete with talking swordDown on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and saves his android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the dayRagtime. This incident is bad news for the queen to take back to court Meanwhile, former astronaut and discuss, but itfriend of Shell's even worse for the messenger - sent on father Lawrence Biz takes a oneshuttle to Bloodroot, half-way ticket from his own lifealien daughter in tow, to advise see why the Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the politicking and bureaucracy of Space Station Lagos. What the five of timelines that need saved - and them discover on the people that might Ragtime has ramifications not just save Earth from this cosmic battle.for Bloodroot, but potentially the entirety of human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1421527626</amazonuk>0356514323

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hiroshi SakurazakaClaire North|title=All You Need Is KillNotes from the Burning Age

|summary=In At its core ''Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a global war between humans spy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and invading aliensnight time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, called Mimicsas with the best novels, Keiji it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a trooper at the beginning of his short career in the army. Despite his highnew and timely genre, cli-tech body armourfi, he's not destined to last long - he's quickly deador climate change fiction. But then heNorth's quickly alive again, as somehow his life is rewound novel tells of a day. It only makes for prolonged horror for the rookie, but it happens again and again. Each time he gets a better intelligence of what his destiny might world devastated by climate change where humans have been - can he learn enough each time round forced to make a difference, start anew and possibly break live alongside nature without any of the loop?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1421527618</amazonuk>}} [[Category:Science Fiction]]{{newreview|author=Jonathan Luna modern and Joshua Luna |title=Girls Volume 1corrupting "luxuries" (read: Conception|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Ethanfossil fuels, we see with a great, broad comic stroke or sixweapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is not the best when it comes to girls. Letting his mouth run away a growing unhappiness with him too oftenthis limiting world, and one group, he is not very successful at relationships. But let us look at what happens when he drives away from an altercation at the local barBrotherhood, and sees a gorgeous - and very naked - young woman standing in aims to master these processes no matter the middle of cost to the roadEarth.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1582405298</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles Stross Adrian Tchaikovsky|title=WirelessShards of Earth|rating=4|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=In his introductionEighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, Stross explains that one of warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the reasons he likes writing shorts stories Architects. Humanity is because scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the architect's reshaping. Then, just when they are had the ideal format in which to focus human race on a particular concept of the future and play around with itrun, the Architects vanished. It doesn't matter And so much if , the idea doesn't ultimately work because neither memories of the reader nor war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. Idris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the author has invested in it the way they would in a novelArchitects, does not want to be remembered. ''Wireless'' thenBut, is something when he and the crew of an experiment. Stross employs many different stylesthe salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, tackles many different subjects and suddenly he is very skilful at creating moodthrust back into the spotlight. His stories are a strange blend of the technical As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, he slowly begins to realise that the archaic.real war is only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497711</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert Buettner Terry Miles|title=Orphan's Triumph (Jason Wander)Rabbits

|genre=Science Fiction |summary=One Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the major problems with science fiction series average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the titles aren't always terribly imaginativeleast Kafkaesque manner possible. At first glanceK and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the cover lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it'Orphans ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's Triumph'' gives away exactly even being played, and how the story his loved ones might be kept safe, he is going only to turn find outthat the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed.. It's great credit to Robert Buettner that what I expected wasn't what happened.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497622</amazonuk>1529016932

 {{newreview|author=Stephen Woodworth |title=Through Violet Eyes (Violet Series)|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction |summary=To every generation, a few souls are born with violet-coloured eyes. These Violets can channel the dead. Viewed by the government as a commodity, they are taken into the care of the School from an early age and taught to use their abilities. While the School does teach them to control the souls constantly trying to invade their bodies from the black of death, it also trains them to serve the government – calling on the victims of murder and horrific accidents to ascertain exactly how they died or who killed them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749941278</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle C J Carey|title=Graphic Classics, Volume 17: Science Fiction ClassicsWidowland

|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction|summary=SoIt's April 1953, an introductionand Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. The Graphic Classics collection is a series whereby For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the best in genre fictionWorld War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, from sources both highly likely and remarkably unexpectedwe are now a protectorate – well, is collected and dressed up for us in graphic novel formwe share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. This seventeenth editionBut this is most certainly a different Britain, a belated bestfor Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of scithat gender into a caste system, ranging from high-fi volumebrow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is their first foray into full colouractively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, and is headlined by a version employed with the task of The War bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the Worldsparty line before they're stamped ready for reprint. The supporting material ranges from a one-page strip That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to thirty-page storiesspoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0978791975</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sean Williams Everina Maxwell|title=Earth Ascendant (Astropolis)Winter's Orbit|rating=45|genre=Science Fiction |summary=Science-fiction has come Prince Kiem is a long way since H G Wells first looked up at the night sky famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and thought how cool it would be to have giant Martian tripod war machines trampling all has gotten into many drunken scandals over the Home Countiespast few years. Now So when an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that the most daring innovations of even quite recent science-fiction can be found readily in your home - from videophones is supposed to genetically modified food - the genre continues prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to evolve and develop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495212</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Samantha Hunt|title=The Invention of Everything Else|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=Nikola Tesla, born in 1856, was a young engineering student in Croatia, a Serb with a ferocious talent be chosen for invention when he sailed to America armed only with a note of introduction from his former employer to Thomas Edison which said: ''I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young manrole.'' Promised prodigious amounts Least of money to reorganise Edison's workshops, he was in the end cheated by Edison, who made a joke about the American sense of humour when Tesla asked to be paidall him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524007</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaine FennRob Winters|title=Consorts of HeavenHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=Fantasy and science fiction are genres that mesh well togetherIn September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the village of Hurstwick. Some authors have written successfully across both genresIt came down hard, but not usually in taking the spire of the same story. village church with it, destroying a stone shack, Jaine Fenn has managed to combine both in one book and leaving a wide trail through the wood, but no trace of what it's actually was. German secret weapon was the local gossip, but there should have been an interesting readexplosion and a crater, and there were neither of those things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575083239</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bernard BeckettMark Lingane|title=GenesisNote to Self: An Education

|summary=The reviewer sat down with In Kry's world, the fancy hardback review copy discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, in 2035 it'Genesis'' s possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by Bernard Beckett and turned 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the pages, not knowing at all what same technique to expect"de-age" their customers by seven years.In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} * What did he find?{{Frontpage |author= Christopher Paolini* He found a science fiction tale set |title= To Sleep in a futuristic New Zealand. The setting Sea of Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the book is based on current concerns - environmental problemsmoon of a distant gas giant, global oil wars and animosity, and so on, and a plague war has meant NZ Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is cordoned off helping with the efforts to make the planet habitable to human life. However, a Great Sea Fence. It is living discovery of an ancient alien bunker under a strange Platothe moon's Republic, based on surface leaves her bonded with a mix of ancient Greek life (naked wrestling strange alien entity. After the entity bonded to her loses control and so on) with kills half the modern (relationships arbitrated by rampant gene testing). One staff of the soldiers defending itresearch station, Adam, takes it upon himself, howeverthe United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the system to take Kira in for examination. Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has to flee to betray his statethe 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and let a young girl alone on a raft through the cordonrag-tag bunch of misfits, and befriend herthe news is grim. But it is not her The same aliens that will provide destroyed the crux Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, and only a mythical weapon known as the bookStaff of Blue can stop them.As the death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247296</amazonuk>1529046505

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neal AsherLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=Shadow of the Scorpion (Novel of the Polity) Seven Devils|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Shadow of the Scorpion'' Eris is a better book than either the title or the cover (a cartoon-ish mechanical scorpion) might at first suggest. It's an engaging espionage-type thriller one of course, but the emotional repercussions are sensitively dealt with.  The body foremost operatives of the novel is set during Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the aftermath of ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an interplanetary war between the Polity, humans Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as governed by benign AIsPrincess Discordia, and a vicious alien race named the Pradorwhom everyone believed has been dead for years. CormacClo, an ace pilot for the protagonistNovantae, is has a mission: hijack a 22 year old recruit for Earth Central Security (ECS), Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the military arm of the Politywar effort. He Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is assigned to guard a crash-landed Prador spaceship her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a remote planet and prevent some alien weaponry from falling into secret that could potentially cripple the wrong handsEmpire. Due Eris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to circumstances outside of his Controlthe Empire, Cormac is required plotting to infiltrate an underground network of Separatists, disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the Terrorists last of the future, who rebel free alien species. It's a race against time as the AI rule: rebels move to put a perfect set-up for some gripping interrogation and torture scenes stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the technologically advanced type. But, there is more to the novel than that.balance…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230738591</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=D J MacHaleFrederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=Quillan Games (Pendragon)A Life Without End

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=I would like to start with an admission. I know by now, having read three earlier books in this series, looked at the calendar the set-up. We have a demonic entity creating chaos and destroying life itself, territory by territoryother week, and disappointedly realised I have a young teen and his friendsbirthday this year – I know, originally scattered across said territories yet another one by . It won't be oneof the major numbers, combatting but the nasty and putting each and every world to rights. What time when I don't know is to what extent this is a religious allegoryhave the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. I saw And then a lot few of sloth in book four (or, if you prefer, the first commandment)big 0-numbers, and gluttony and covetousness in books five and sixif all goes well, which had similar plotsI'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty. ) But I wasnNow if that't helped by s the ending extent of book sixmy mid-life crisis, in wondering if this is a straightforward Christian tale, disguised as teen fantasyI guess I have to be happy. Does acolyte equate Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to apostle? be living one. How messianic are the characters going Determined to turn find out how to be? Do prolong life for as long as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the ten planets and ten adventures here point us assistant to the Decalogue?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385060</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip K Dick|title=Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=World War Terminus is overfirst geneticist he interviews, and Earth they end up with a child, which is in ruins. While most people have emigrated to Marsat least a way of continuing the life of his genes, some continue and a motive to live their lives keep on Earth while radioactivity slowly impairs their brain and reproductive functiongoing.  Upon emigrating to Mars, all citizens were given a highly sophisticated android servant, and now six have escaped from captivity and fled But how can he get to Earth, killing all in their path. Rick Deckard is not flick the bounty hunter commissioned to track down and destroy these androids'final way out' switch, almost indiscernible from humans, in return for a fee.especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575079932</amazonuk>1642860670

{{newreview|author=Chris Wooding|title=Retribution Falls|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Things are never quiet when it comes to life Move on the Ketty Jay. For Captain Frey and his mismatched band of friends, colleagues, call them what you will, that make the raggle-taggle crew of the craft, will always find a dodgy scrape, a damsel in distress or some risky cargo to transport – and up til now have survived the consequences.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575085142</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]