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[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel H WilsonAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=RobopocalypseAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=3.5

|summary=Rob is out to kill us all, and is going to take some beating. He already has many advantages, and can adapt easily where he finds a fault in his plans. He already has most ''Opening up new ways of us dead, or in concentration camps. Rob is thinking about the generic nickname for all robot-kind, all controlled by one supreme Artificial Intelligence, who is set on eradication shape of our speciesthings to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857204122</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=Back Dated|author=Chris Niblock|rating=3I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Sci-fi writer Ray Flaxman returns home from Well, I must confess that there have been more than a weekend away few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with his fiancee what's advantageous to me but I'm left with a dealine to meet. But he finds his flat broken to into and trashedthe feeling that it's all getting away from me. Nothing Some of value has been taken. So Ray suspects his stalker it is to blame- frankly - quite frightening. Serena has been calling Of course, I could research the possibilities and writing, declaring her love for Ray the probabilities and her urgent desire to have his childend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. But Ray has never met her. Even so, he is keen to keep this mystery girl I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a secret because his fiancee, Frankie, has huge jealousy issuesway I could understand. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004W0JR7G</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John TrevillianSylvie Cathrall|title=The A-Men ReturnLetter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5

|summary=It's been several years since the Phoenix Tower came down and the A-Men splitThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. Dead City And this is a shadow of its former self: an urban wasteland and the centre one of the sort of gang warfare that finds and exploits drugs and hopelessness with a ruthless talentthem. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184876619X</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Mark Norman1803816759|title=Meklyan and the Fourth Piece of the ArtefactThe Unravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=34

|summary=Four billion years after our Sun has become It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a red giant bit of adventure and diedto get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system that now runs everything, taking all making life with iteasier for many, and riots start to spread. Finally, there are still humans in Joe gets to do some real policing. In the aftermath of the universerioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. How so? By man-made panspermia. When Earth's civilisation realised it couldnJoe isn't master long distance space travel in sufficient time the only one trying to avoid annihilationsave Suki - Dylan, it sent out DNA probes filled with bacteria far out into spacea British superfan and tech nerd, to planets in is also on the temperate zones of solar systems; planets that could potentially sustain lifecase. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And on eight planets, sustain life they did. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956202713</amazonuk>how is Suki's kidnapping connected?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon MordenB0CP95J1CG|title=Equations of LifeOf Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mark Lingane|rating=34.5

|summary=ItRonan's a book that not entirely sure why he decides to go to the party but his interest is certainly not short of action. We are not told what piqued by the Armageddon event was, although aspects of way it are hinted atarrived. Perhaps that will become explained later in And it seems like a good opportunity to get out of his room and away from the seriesonline activities he makes a living at. What we do know is that it has wiped out JapanSo he makes his way there, and one of dodging the first victims buses that make up most of the event in London appears to have been the Congestion Charge as it is now a heaving metropolis with gridlock traffic (although this and watching the masses of people seem to mysteriously evaporate as the story unfolds)local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149948X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paolo BacigalupiK P O'Donnell|title=The Windup GirlVital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)

|summary=Although only recently released in paperback in VL-15, a prototype robot, is desperate to understand who she is. Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the UKworld ended, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl has been gaining considerable critical acclaim across 'consumed in an apocalyptic war between the pond'nations of Drexel and Renada. Set in Over half-a future version of Thailand-century later, itcivilisation is starting to rebuild. Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her father's an interesting take on the environmental meltdown scenario that has garnered it legacy, building a couple of science fiction awards (the Hugo world where machines and Nebula awards) humans can live together in harmony, but internal frictions and was named as the ninth best fiction book external enemies might bring it all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, leader of 2009 by Time magazine. No less than three a group of salvagers called the review extracts used by Exhumers, has his entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herself. Even after being buried for 65 years, her determination hasn't diminished in the publishers in this edition liken Bacigalupi to William Gibson. High praise indeed. Does it rise to these expectations?slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356500535</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM

{{newreview|author=K S Turner|title=Chronicles Following the destruction of Fate and Choice: Tumultus|rating=3|genre=Fantasy|summary=This is the follow up to [[Before the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice) by K S Turner|Before The Gods]]Earth, amongst a debut novel lauded for bringing a breath rare number of fresh air to survivors, Kyr has been raised on Gaea Station – the world of speculative fiction and one of Bookbag's [[Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2009|top picks home of 2009]]. Tumultus is the second last scraps of the planned trilogy humanity – and I was looking forward trained relentlessly to seeing how avenge her people and the author would really cut loose now world that readers were already familiar with the Shaa-kutu should have been hers. All her life, she has been conditioned to fall in line, to fulfil her duty and the story of their link to the origin of the human raceensure that humanity perseveres.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956224210</amazonuk>0356521834

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tricia SullivanM R Carey|title=LightbornInfinity Gate|rating=45

|summary=In an alternate but contemporary United States, everyone uses Lightborn technology, or shine, as I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's nicknameda genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. Providing entertainment, education My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and self-knowledgewhen it's bad, people live in the ultimate plugged-in societyit's often terrible. And then But the Fall comespremise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. Rogue AIs in the shine field around the city of Los Sombres start sending out bad shine and the adults all go loco A concept this intriguing felt like a high- becoming violent and murderousstakes gamble: if it was done well, or broken down and reduced to performing repetitive tasks over and overit'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841494070</amazonuk>0356518043

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip PalmerMichael Grothaus|title=Version 43Beautiful Shining People

|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=Version 43 is a Galactic Cop, a cyborg law enforcement officer sent from Earth to tackle an unusual murder case in Lawless City, a sort of sci-fi Baltimore on the distant planet of Belladonna. He gets sidetracked from his original objective and decides to rid the planet of its evil gang bosses while he's there. A huge war ensues in which all the bosses ('But fearing something and thousands of others) are killed, but having it soon becomes apparent that the true rulers of the planet come to pass are the dead eyed two different things. And I'children' he has seen dining in the m willing to bet most expensive restaurantsof what we fear will never happen, the sinister or we can take steps to change it.'ancien régime' .|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499218</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Margaret Atwood|title=The Handmaid's Tale|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=In the near-future USA that they call Gilead, society has changed. For 'Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the worse, question of course. The population is dying out, identity and people who are capable of breeding the next generation are given a cherished status of Handmaid - gifted to any male of enough esteem, called a Commander, who balances the household with his wife and what is practically a walking wombacceptance. Other women get drudge work, or run horrid finishing schools for the Handmaids, or are packed off to Of what are reported it means to be polluted hellholes abroad, for laborious work for lifehuman. Men are restricted too - Handmaids are off-limits to everybody but their CommanderOf what is real and what is artificial, and those households are patrolled carefully by other eunuch types. It's up to our nameless narrator and main character, however, to show us just how cherished whether the status development of Handmaid feelstechnology is exciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099511665</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain M Banks1739593901|title=Surface Detail22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|summary=It is perhaps appropriate for a book that centres around the battle for the afterlife to begin this review with a confession: this was my first encounter with Iain M Banks' Culture series of science fiction novels. At first, I worried that this put me at a significant disadvantage as for the first 100 or so pages, I spend most of the time being completely confused about what was going on. However, as the strands started to come together, it became apparent that this is partly Banks' style and indeed it's one he uses in his non-science fiction books too. Keep going, it does come together.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498939</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=William Gibson|title=Zero History|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It's almost obligatory when writing anything about William Gibson to recall that in an earlier short story, he invented the term 'cyberspace'Our future will be more complex than we expected. Gibson remains at the cutting edge Instead of what is 'cool'. Like most of his booksflying cars, Zero History is a thriller, but at its core are issues surrounding technology, how we interact with it, branding and marketing. It would be easy to criticise much of his content as being too shallow got night-vision killer drones and concerned automated elderly care with 'nothing' - but then that's part of his point.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919527</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charles Stross|title=The Fuller Memorandum|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Our world is not as it seems. We share it with aliens, zombies, demonic spirits, with ancient god-like entities that are all keen geolocation surveillance bracelets to eat our bodies and devour our soulstrack grandma. It's lucky, then, that we have the British secret service to protect us, more specifically a top secret branch of the secret service called The Laundry. This organisation is so secret that even the bosses at MI6 don't know of its existence. The point of the Laundry is to keep all the myriad of terrors endangering the Earth at bay by the careful use of science, technology and magic, magic being a little known branch of applied maths.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497703</amazonuk>}}

{{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 I've got a couple of Istanbulconfessions to make. And climate change appears I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to have arrivedread a few stories and then forget to return to the book. In 2022 thousands of IstanbulThere's citizens died in got to be a heatwave and now, only three years later very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's 'Thirtythe technology which takes centre stage along with the world-three degrees in April, at seven in the morningbuilding. UnthinkableIt's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental.' You can almost hear the collective thrum So, what did I think of a book of all those airtwenty-conditioning units trying to make life bearable for the local peopletwo science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575080531</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersMark Lingane|title=The Terminal StateGalaxy

|summary=In this futureSpark, desolatewho is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, post-apocalyptic world, the last thing Avery Cates wants to do is choose barely makes it through a sidebattle alive. The police are androids, artificial cases for clones of people who die in the making, and the other source of power is His co-pilot was not much betterso fortunate. But it's them Waking from a coma that pressgang him into joining their army. What lasted years, he remembers little freedom and power he had as a lone gunman is lost, as he's given nanotech augments in no physical shape to make him a super-soldierresume his duties. Which is bad news - as But Earth is the fact the two most powerful under threat and hated people in Cates's universe are the very people who buy him from the army he must. Returned by his superiors to do one last job - and they can be very persuasive about him accepting it...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498750</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Terry Dehart|title=The Unit|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We all know about the nuclear familyspace station, well now meet the posthe finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity -nuclear family in Terry De Hart'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 just from the country or the world has been destroyed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499331</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ken MacLeod|title=The Restoration Game|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Lucy Stone works for a videogame company in Edinburgh. She enjoys the job - particularly being one of the boys - and alien threats against 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 of a small ex-Soviet republic. Krassnia is where Lucy was born, where she lived for her first seven years, and where she spent the scariest day of her life. Amanda wrote a seminal work on Krassnian mythology and Lucy uses this to reshape the game, knowing that it's likely to be used as a tool in a hoped-for colour revolutionalso from its own sins against itself. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496472</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris WoodingTade Thompson|title=Black Lung Captain: Tales Far From the Light of the Ketty JayHeaven

|summary=Things on board Michelle 'Shell' Campion is fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the sleeper ship Ragtime, bound for the world of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. However, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ketty Jay have never been Ragtime's AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as lowshe hoped it would. Darian Frey Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his crew android partner Salvo are even having trouble thieving from defenceless orphanagessent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. So when the next token job-they-canMeanwhile, former astronaut and friend of Shell'ts father Lawrence Biz takes a shuttle to Bloodroot, half-refuse comes alongalien daughter in tow, they fall under it's spell. An explorer to see why the Ragtime has returned with tales of untold richesgone quiet, courtesy of leaving behind the most mysterious artefacts politicking and treasures bureaucracy of an unknown civilizationSpace Station Lagos. The fact that What the remains are those five of an aircraft crashed in them discover on the most Arctic of rainforestsRagtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, inhabited by but potentially 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...entirety of human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575085177</amazonuk>0356514323

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris BeckettClaire North|title=The Holy MachineNotes from the Burning Age

|summary=In At its core ''Notes From the near future, only Illyria city stands for science, technology and progress in a world dominated Burning Age'' by religious fundamentalism of every faith (and then some). The city was founded as Claire North is a haven for those intellectuals not possessing any such religious convictionsspy thriller, who advocated reason and logic insteadwith as many double crosses, interrogations and were persecuted for their 'blasphemies' in the early stages of the upheavalnight time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. George SimlingHowever, as with the introvert protagonist best novels, it wears many masks and second generation Illyrian, falls in love with a beautiful woman called Lucy. Unfortunately however, Lucy its most affecting one is actually that of a syntecnew and timely genre, a robot ASPU: Advanced Sensory Pleasure Unitcli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's novel tells of a prostitute. As George obsessively visits her, he realises that she is starting world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to develop a level start anew and live alongside nature without any of consciousness the modern and self-awareness outside corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of her programmingmass destruction, intensive farming). Lucy There is due for a routine mind-wipe so George decides to flee growing unhappiness 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. By all appearances he is the usual fifteen year old American kid, except for the fact he and his 'father' shift location every few months. John is certainly not his real name, but has to face up to reality - school bullieslimiting world, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestyle. 'Dad' stays at homeone group, scanning the internet and all news sourcesBrotherhood, in order aims to protect master these processes no matter the pair - for they are among cost to the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living in hidden exile on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien race. Can the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141332476</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael CobleyAdrian Tchaikovsky|title=The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity's Fire)Shards of Earth|rating=3.54|genre=Science Fiction|summary=The planet DarienEighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, once a lost outpost where earth colonists cowarped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-existed with sized aliens known as the native UvovoArchitects. Humanity is scattered, is now constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the focal point of an intergalactic strugglearchitect's reshaping. Hegemony forces are in occupation modeThen, Earth is standing back reined in by inter-planetary politicsjust when they had the human race on the run, whilst planet-side local alliances are fighting back guerrilla-stylethe Architects vanished. This is And so, the least memories of the galaxy's concernswar fades, heroes are forgotten, howeverand humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. It might even get air-brushed out as Idris Telemmier, a little minor difficulty in man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the history-books-Architects, does not want to-comebe remembered. There But, when he and the crew of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is a much bigger problem thrust back into the spotlight. 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 worry about.realise that the real war is only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496332</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreview|author=Mira Grant|title=Feed|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|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 to form a terrifying plague that turned humans and large animals into the living dead. Now what's left 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. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149898X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Edric|title=Salvage|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Some time about a hundred years hence and the predictions have come to pass. The sea levels have risen; the Gulf Stream has shifted its path. Climate change has hit Britain with a vengeance. Global Warming is the misnomer; of course the temperatures are, on balance, warmer. Snow is something most people only hear or read about. The real change, however, is the wet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617623</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom HoltTerry Miles|title=Blonde BombshellRabbits

|summary=Welcome to the world of The blonde bombshell in question in Tom Holt's latest book of Game. Or should that name is Lucy Pavlov. If you are reading be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this review in 2017 of course you will know who Lucy Pavlov isbook. SheIt's the beautifulalso called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, talentedno official source, wealthyno hard and fast structure, CEO of PaySoft Industries - and to the revolutionary operating system that is running on every computer in average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the worldgame of life then. Of courseYes, if that this is indeed the casegame of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, then we've got a problemthe hack from the darkest of webs. A very big problem. Because what Lucy doesn't know is that she is literally a blonde bombshell - well she knows she's blondePeople like our hero, K, just not named like that her body is a shell for a bombin the least Kafkaesque manner possible. A very big K and a very smart bombhis bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, but nevertheless a bomb. And she's been sent to destroy and have studied amongst many things the planet. It kind most unique of makes Bill Gates seem OK high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time beingit's different.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497789</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Extras|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In This time the game seems the future city of this bookmost dangerous, many people live with what is called a reputation economy. With everybody practically a cyborgnay lethal, theythe most broken it're online permanentlys ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, using optical and brain implants in trying to see everybodysort out what the game is doing, if it's statuseven being played, output and more. Many people have hovercam companionshow his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to make their own documentaries find out that the line between observing and film their own lives. They rely on metablogs to interact learning about the game, and keep their popularity upplaying it, is a very thin one indeed. They continuously spread their opinions and interests in order to become more well-known. A girl called Aya is struggling to get any renown, but things change, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but in complete secrecy and anonymity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>1529016932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldC J Carey|title=SpecialsWidowland

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=In It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the un-named city state funeral of the futureJoseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, all the adults are living in the delusion that their city is right. After parading around a teenage life as an ugly, they all undergo a welter of medical proceduresbit, to make their minds and bodies conform watching over the sanctioned return to the bland, but gorgeousthrone of Edward VIII with his wife, society normQueen Wallis. But one young woman is not like For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that. She is going to a party, looking uglycertainly didn't happen as we know it, and she knows it is not what we look likeare now a protectorate – well, but how special we feel inside, that is share enough of most importancethe same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. The good news is that But this woman is our returning heroine, Tally. The bad news is that her ugliness is most certainly a temporary disguisedifferent Britain, and worse than that for Nazi- she knows how to feel special insidestyled phrenology, 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 and ideas of the futurefemale purpose, has put all the adults are pretty. They've had mental and physical surgery to make them calm, placid and perfectly aesthetic human beings. If they have any trouble as young adults it is the problem of what to wear at partiesthat gender into a caste system, or how to get rid of their hangovers when they wake up at 5pm. 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 be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389074</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeff Somers|title=The Eternal Prison|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=This book stands out in the ranging from high-energy, hard-edged sci-fi adventure/thriller genre, in that it covers two stories at brow office bigwigs to the same time. In one chapter we have Avery Catesdrudges, practically the best gun-for-hire in his post-apocalyptic North Americaand beyond those, being told right on down to kill one of the most protected and important people left in the world, by other, almost as important peoplechildless, in the cruel mix of powerplays that make up husbandless and the current politicswidows. In the other corner Female literacy is Catesactively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, being thrown in prison - one of those basicour heroine, hell-on-earthRose Ransom, surrounded by miles is employed with the task of desert, prisons. Here, too, he will be told bowdlerising classical literature to do jobs take all encouragement for other people...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497053</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Orson Scott Card|title=Ender in Exile|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary='Ender in Exile' is the most recently published in the series set in the universe female emancipation out of 'Ender's Game'it – after all, not every book can be banned, a long standing and one of the best known series of science-fiction by Orson Scott Card. It's been defined as an 'interquel'not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, fitting chronologically between 'Ender's Game' and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they'Speaker re stamped ready for the Dead'reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first two (and probably the best two) novels in the sequence. Technically speaking, 'Ender in Exile' actually fits in-between the last chapters emerging signs of 'Ender's Game' and describes in more detail events outlined in the resolving sections of 'Ender's Game'. Confusingly for the uninitiatedfemale protest come to light, 'Ender in Exile' is also a sequel with their potential to the 'Shadow of the Giant', a parallel sub-series from the universe of the 'Enderspoil Hitler's Game'visit. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841492272</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John DickinsonEverina Maxwell|title=WE|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Paul Munro has been disconnected from the World Ear in readiness for a mission that will last a lifetime. Sent to man a tiny station built at enormous effort and expense on a desolate moon in the outer reaches of our solar system, he will never be able to return. Gravity is one-tenth that of Earth and his flesh has wasted, his bones enbrittled without the strength of calcium. Winter'If he stood on the Earth now... his skeleton would splinter under his weight.' It took eight years to get there and the rest of his life stretches before him fearfully. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617895</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ursula K Le Guin|title=The Left Hand of Darknesss Orbit

|summary=ItPrince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's hard to believe that ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' dates back to 1969: forty years onoutgoing, it reads as well, or even better, then when it was originally writtencarefree, and - deservedly - enjoys a classic status in has gotten into many drunken scandals over the science-fiction canon, as well as being perhaps past few years. So when an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the best known sci-fi novel by Ursula LeGuinrole. Least of all him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreview|author=Eoin Colfer|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) |rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Of all the big books announced for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than many. Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, 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 the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and with their cups of tea and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon Law Rob Winters|title=Bringing Forth the End of DaysHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=Imagine In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the hell village of a dying world, less than a generation from nowHurstwick. World War Three has been and gone - ended with conventional bombs galore but started by a plague on all plant-lifeIt came down hard, that removed all taking the oxygen from spire of the planet's atmosphere. As a result, the few survivors must live in air-tight houses village church with special oxygenating equipment - the ultimate in air conditioning - orit, they must have got in early with destroying a special biomechanical adaptation that allows them mobility stone shack, and independence, but at leaving a freakish cost. Worse, religion has mutated - wide trail through the Jehovah's Witnesses are now the most violent gangwood, rushing to nudge but no trace of what's left of humanity towards its final judgmentit actually was. Worse still - even worse than all of that - you're living in Crawley.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1608602036</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Salisbury |title=Passengers to Sentience|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Human beings are spread across German secret weapon was the galaxy. The technology that allowed this to happen? Not faster than light travellocal gossip, suspended animation or matter transfer but cloning. Want to start there should have been an explosion and a new life elsewhere? Your mind crater, and personality can be mapped as information. Unmanned ships are sent to inhabitable planets across the furthest reaches there were neither of space and upon arrival, the automated cloning vats begin re-creating your body and entering your stored mind and personality datathose things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755211596</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Palmer Mark Lingane|title=Red ClawNote to Self: An Education

|summary=New AmazonIn Kry's world, the 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, home in 2035 it's possible to some cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the most violent cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and deadly alien life imaginableyouth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a Sea of Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the moon of a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is due helping with the efforts to be razed make the planet habitable to human life. However, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the ground moon's surface leaves her bonded with a strange alien entity. After the entity bonded to her loses control and kills half the staff of the research station, the United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in order the system to make way take Kira in for human habitationexamination. A team of scientistsThings go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, led by and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the charismatic Richard Helmsfreighter Wallfish, have been stationed on this planet under military protectioncrewed by Captain Falconi and a rag-tag bunch of misfits, in order to study and catalogue the flora and faunanews is grim. However, The same aliens that destroyed the computer super brain handling Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all the technology has inconceivably turned on her of human charges-occupied space, forcing soldier and scientist alike to abandon base head quartersonly a mythical weapon known as the Staff of Blue can stop them. As if the planet's hostile environment (including bouts of acid rain) were not enough of death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to realise that she may have had a threat, greater hand in the characters are also pursued by legions of killer robots. Life expectancy does not look good.conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496243</amazonuk>1529046505

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=K S Turner Laura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=Before the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice)Seven Devils|rating=54|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=''Before The Gods'' Eris is presented 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 enigmaace pilot for the Novantae, wrapped in has a puzzle and shrouded in mystery. The front is adorned by mission: hijack a beguiling image created by Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the authorwar effort. A glance at the back cover serves only Although she's less than pleased to tantalise rather than reveal what might be in store. ''This discover that her former friend Eris is where it all beganher partner on this mission. EverythingThings get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. LoveEris's brother Damocles, hatethe runner-up heir to the Empire, good, evil, us is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and them. This is before they were godsthe 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…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956224202</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Issui Ogawa Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=The Lords of the Sands of Time|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We're in the third century, Japan. A queen and her young retainer are wandering to the edge of their territory, when a baddy appears - an alien seeming to be some local creature. Handily enough a saviour, warrior hero appears too, from way in the future, complete with talking sword, and saves the day. This incident is bad news for the queen to take back to court and discuss, but it's even worse for the messenger - sent on a one-way ticket from his own life, to advise of timelines that need saved - and the people that might just save Earth from this cosmic battle.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1421527626</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Hiroshi Sakurazaka|title=All You Need Is KillLife Without End

|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=In I looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a global war between humans and invading aliensbirthday this year – I know, called Mimicsyet another one. It won't be one of the major numbers, Keiji is a trooper at but the time when I have the beginning of his short career in same number as Heinz varieties looms on the armyhorizon. Despite his highAnd then a few of the big 0-tech body armournumbers, and if all goes well, heI'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's not destined the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to last long - he's quickly deadbe happy. But then heOur author here doesn's quickly alive againt use that exact phrase, as somehow his life is rewound a daybut he might be said to be living one. It only makes for prolonged horror 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 rookiefirst geneticist he interviews, but it happens again and again. Each time he gets they end up with a child, which is at least a better intelligence way of continuing the life of what his destiny might have been - genes, and a motive to keep on going. But how can he learn enough each time round get to make a differencenot flick the 'final way out' switch, and possibly break the loopespecially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1421527618</amazonuk>1642860670

Move on to [[Category:Science FictionNewest Short Story Reviews]]{{newreview|author=Jonathan Luna and Joshua Luna |title=Girls Volume 1: Conception|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Ethan, we see with a great, broad comic stroke or six, is not the best when it comes to girls. Letting his mouth run away with him too often, he is not very successful at relationships. But let us look at what happens when he drives away from an altercation at the local bar, and sees a gorgeous - and very naked - young woman standing in the middle of the road.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1582405298</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charles Stross |title=Wireless|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=In his introduction, Stross explains that one of the reasons he likes writing shorts stories is because they are the ideal format in which to focus on a particular concept of the future and play around with it. It doesn't matter so much if the idea doesn't ultimately work because neither the reader nor the author has invested in it the way they would in a novel. ''Wireless'' then, is something of an experiment. Stross employs many different styles, tackles many different subjects and is very skilful at creating mood. His stories are a strange blend of the technical and the archaic.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497711</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Buettner |title=Orphan's Triumph (Jason Wander)|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction |summary=One of the major problems with science fiction series is that the titles aren't always terribly imaginative. At first glance, the cover of ''Orphan's Triumph'' gives away exactly how the story is going to turn out. It's great credit to Robert Buettner that what I expected wasn't what happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497622</amazonuk>}}