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[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ira LevinAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Stepford WivesAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=General Science Fiction|summary='It can't be a coincidence Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that Stepford women are all the way they are' says Bobbietechnology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, Joanna Eberhart's only friend I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in Stepfordmy lifetime. Joanna has recently come I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to live in me but I'm left with the idyllic suburban town feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of Stepford with her husband it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and two childrenend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. She is an independent woman with her own part-time career as a photographer, is intelligent, liberated I needed people I knew I could trust and has who could deliver information in a keen interest in feminismway I could understand. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015899</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=James S A CoreySylvie Cathrall|title=Leviathan WakesA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45

|summary=Humanity has managed There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to venture into the solar system and colonise Mars, various moons and some asteroids and stations in the (asteroid) Belt between Mars and Jupitera compelling premise. Those inhabiting the Belt have evolved to be significantly thinner and elongated compared to Earthers and Martians, due the low gravity in which they live; their difference in appearance and a difference in attitude form the basis for a lot And this is one of the tension and uneasy relationships in the novelthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499889</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Somers1803816759|title=The Final EvolutionUnravelling|author=Will Gibson

|summary=DonIt't assume too much when starting this books 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Certainly, do not assume you can jump straight Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into this series at this, part five - start much nearer [[The Electric Church by Jeff Somers|the beginning]], as I didsome really gritty crime detection. Don't assume But then something goes horribly wrong with the first person narrative means the narrator survivesAI system that now runs everything, making life easier for this is a world of cyborgsmany, and psychic human intelligences stored in robot hardwareriots start to spread. Finally, and moreJoe gets to do some real policing. Don't assume In the lulling opening chapters herald a simple revenge actioner, as Avery Cates lives in a tangled web aftermath of vengeful villains, the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and nothing Joe is very straightforwardassigned to bring her home. And donJoe isn't assume the unremarkable opening is from an author low on ideas, for when Cates is proven to be the only one man trying to save the world, we find it suitably meatySuki - Dylan, a British superfan and grippingtech nerd, despite that old saw - and is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was ithacked? And how is Suki's a rich nightmare of post-apocalypse for him to be saving, as well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499439</amazonuk>kidnapping connected?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel H WilsonB0CP95J1CG|title=RobopocalypseOf Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mark Lingane|rating=34.5

|summary=Rob is out Ronan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to kill us all, and the party but his interest is going piqued by the way it arrived. And it seems like a good opportunity to take some beating. He already has many advantages, get out of his room and can adapt easily where away from the online activities he finds makes a fault in living at. So he makes his plans. He already has way there, dodging the buses that make up most of us dead, or in concentration campsthe traffic and watching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Rob is the generic nickname for all robot-kind, all controlled by one supreme Artificial Intelligence, who is set on eradication of our speciesHopefully.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857204122</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Back DatedK P O'Donnell|authortitle=Chris NiblockThe Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)

|summary=SciVL-fi writer Ray Flaxman returns home from 15, a weekend away with his fiancee with a dealine prototype robot, is desperate to meetunderstand who she is. But he finds his flat broken to into Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and trashedRenada. Nothing of value has been takenOver half-a-century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. So Ray suspects his stalker Dr Amelia Wong is determined to blame. Serena has been calling continue her father's legacy, building a world where machines and writinghumans can live together in harmony, declaring her love for Ray but internal frictions and her urgent desire to have his childexternal enemies might bring it all crashing down again. But Ray Craig Anderson, leader of a group of salvagers called the Exhumers, has never met herhis entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herself. Even soafter being buried for 65 years, he is keen to keep this mystery girl a secret because his fianceeher determination hasn't diminished in the slightest, Frankieand no errant machine, has huge jealousy issues. no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B004W0JR7G</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John TrevillianEmily Tesh|title=The A-Men ReturnSome Desperate Glory|rating=34.5

|summary=It''While Earth's been several years since children live, the Phoenix Tower came down and the A-Men split. Dead City is a shadow of its former self: an urban wasteland and the centre of the sort of gang warfare that finds and exploits drugs and hopelessness with a ruthless talent. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184876619X</amazonuk>}}enemy shall fear us''

{{newreview|author=Stephen Mark Norman|title=Meklyan and Following the Fourth Piece destruction of the Artefact|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Four billion years after our Sun Earth, amongst a rare number of survivors, Kyr has become a red giant been raised on Gaea Station – the home of the last scraps of humanity – and trained relentlessly to avenge her people and died, taking all the world that should have been hers. All her life with it, there are still humans she has been conditioned to fall in the universe. How so? By man-made panspermia. When Earth's civilisation realised it couldn't master long distance space travel in sufficient time to avoid annihilation, it sent out DNA probes filled with bacteria far out into spaceline, to planets in the temperate zones of solar systems; planets fulfil her duty and ensure that could potentially sustain life. And on eight planets, sustain life they didhumanity perseveres. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956202713</amazonuk>0356521834

 {{newreview|author=Simon Morden|title=Equations of Life|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's a book that is certainly not short of action. We are not told what the Armageddon event was, although aspects of it are hinted at. Perhaps that will become explained later in the series. What we do know is that it has wiped out Japan, and one of the first victims 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 the masses of people seem to mysteriously evaporate as the story unfolds).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184149948X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paolo BacigalupiM R Carey|title=The Windup GirlInfinity Gate|rating=3.5

|summary=Although only recently released in paperback in the UK, Paolo BacigalupiI'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's The Windup Girl has been gaining considerable critical acclaim across 'a genre I dislike – nothing of the pondsort. My standards are high precisely because it'. Set in s a future version of Thailandhard genre to get right – and when it's bad, it's an interesting take on often terrible. But the environmental meltdown scenario that has garnered premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it a couple of science fiction awards (the Hugo and Nebula awards) and was named as the ninth best fiction book of 2009 by Time magazinedone well, it'd be fantastic. No less than three of the review extracts used by the publishers in So this edition liken Bacigalupi to William Gibson. High praise indeedis where I sum up that premise. Does it rise to these expectations?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356500535</amazonuk>0356518043

 {{newreview|author=K S Turner|title=Chronicles 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]], a debut novel lauded for bringing a breath of fresh air to the world of speculative fiction and one of Bookbag's [[Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2009|top picks of 2009]]. Tumultus is the second of the planned trilogy and I was looking forward to seeing how the author would really cut loose now that readers were already familiar with the Shaa-kutu and the story of their link to the origin of the human race.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956224210</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tricia Sullivan|title=Lightborn|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=In an alternate but contemporary United States, everyone uses Lightborn technology, or shine, as it's nicknamed. Providing entertainment, education and self-knowledge, people live in the ultimate plugged-in society. And then the Fall comes. Rogue AIs in the shine field around the city of Los Sombres start sending out bad shine and the adults all go loco - becoming violent and murderous, or broken down and reduced to performing repetitive tasks over and over.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841494070</amazonuk>}} {{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'. Gibson remains at the cutting edge of what is 'cool'Our future will be more complex than we expected. Like most Instead of his books, Zero History is a thriller, but at its core are issues surrounding technologyflying cars, how we interact got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with it, branding and marketinggeolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. It would be easy to criticise much of his content as being too shallow and concerned 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 I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it seems. We share it with aliens, zombies, demonic spirits, with ancient god-like entities that are all keen easy to eat our bodies read a few stories and devour our soulsthen forget to return to the book. It There's lucky, then, that we have the British secret service got to protect us, more specifically be a top secret branch of the secret service called The Laundryvery compelling hook to keep me engaged. This organisation is so secret that even the bosses at MI6 don Then there's science fiction: far too often it't know of its existence. The point of s the Laundry is to keep all technology which takes centre stage along with the myriad of terrors endangering the Earth at bay by world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the careful use of science, technology and magicthe world scape are purely incidental. So, magic being what did I think of a little known branch book of applied mathstwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497703</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian McDonaldMark Lingane|title=The Dervish HouseGalaxy

|summary=The reader Spark, who is plunged straight away into an elite pilot with the busySpace Academy, bustling centre of Istanbulbarely makes it through a battle alive. And climate change appears to have arrivedHis co-pilot was not so fortunate. In 2022 thousands of Istanbul's citizens died in Waking from a heatwave and now, only three coma that lasted years later it's 'Thirty-three degrees in April, at seven he remembers little and is in the morningno physical shape to resume his duties. UnthinkableBut Earth is under threat and he must.' You can almost hear Returned by his superiors to the collective thrum of all those airspace station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity -conditioning units trying to make life bearable for and not just from the local peoplealien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575080531</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{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 - 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|author=Terry DehartTade Thompson|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 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 Far From the breakdown Light 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>}} {{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 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 revolution. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496472</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Wooding|title=Black Lung Captain: Tales 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 this limiting world, and one group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the technophobic outlands in order cost to save this newly discovered consciousnessthe Earth. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848874626</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pittacus LoreAdrian Tchaikovsky|title=I am Number FourShards of Earth|rating=3.54|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Meet John SmithEighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the Architects. By all appearances he Humanity is the usual fifteen year old American kidscattered, except for constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the fact he and his architect'father' shift location every few monthss reshaping. John is certainly not his real nameThen, but has to face up to reality - school bulliesjust when they had the human race on the run, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestylethe Architects vanished. 'Dad' stays at homeAnd so, scanning the internet memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and all news sourcesfight among themselves. Idris Telemmier, in order a man genetically engineered to protect try and communicate with the pair - for they are among Architects, does not want to be remembered. But, when he and the remaining dozen or so inhabitants crew of Lorienthe salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, living in hidden exile on Earthsuddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, but hunted chased by their enemies from yet another alien race. Can crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, he slowly begins to realise that the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' real war is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty?only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141332476</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreview|author=Michael Cobley|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 the history-books-to-come. There is a much bigger problem to worry about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496332</amazonuk>}} {{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 uglybit, they all undergo a welter of medical procedures, to make their minds and bodies conform watching over the sanctioned return to the blandthrone of Edward VIII with his wife, but gorgeous, 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 heroinemost certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, Tally. The bad news is has put all of that her ugliness is gender into a temporary disguisecaste system, and worse than that ranging from high- she knows how brow office bigwigs to feel special insidethe drudges, because she IS A Special.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389082</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Scott Westerfeld|title=Pretties|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=In and beyond those, right on down to the unnamed city of childless, the future, all husbandless and the adults are prettywidows. They've had mental and physical surgery to make them calm, placid and perfectly aesthetic human beingsFemale literacy is actively discouraged. If they have any trouble as young adults it And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the problem task of what bowdlerising classical literature to wear at partiestake 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, or how to and so they just get rid of their hangovers when a hefty tweak towards the party line before they wake up at 5pm're stamped ready for reprint. Unfortunately, one of these bright young things That is our heroineher job, Tallyat least, one until the first emerging signs of the few people in the world female protest come to light, with their potential to have learnt how damnably horrid and sapping the life of Riley can bespoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389074</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreview|author=Jeff Somers|title=The Eternal Prison|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=This book stands out in the high-energy, hard-edged sci-fi adventure/thriller genre, in that it covers two stories at the same time. In one chapter we have Avery Cates, practically the best gun-for-hire in his post-apocalyptic North America, being told to kill one of the most protected and important people left in the world, by other, almost as important people, in the cruel mix of powerplays that make up the current politics. In the other corner is Cates, being thrown in prison - one of those basic, hell-on-earth, surrounded by miles of desert, prisons. Here, too, he will be told to do jobs for other people...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497053</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Orson Scott CardEverina Maxwell|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 of 'EnderWinter'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 'Ender's Game'. Confusingly for the uninitiated, 'Ender in Exile' is also a sequel to the 'Shadow of the Giant', a parallel sub-series from the universe of the 'Ender's Game'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841492272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Dickinson|title=WEOrbit

|summary=Of all the big books announced for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than manyPrince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. Why try and write a new HitchhikerHe's Guide to the Galaxy bookoutgoing, 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 Pratchettcarefree, and with their cups of tea and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well has gotten into many drunken scandals over the answer past few years. So when an important political alliance is most evident - Colfer to be arranged – one that is a world-beater when it comes supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to knocking up a storybe chosen for the role. Least of all him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreview|author=Simon Law |title=Bringing Forth the End of Days|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Imagine the hell of a dying world, less than a generation from now. World War Three has been and gone - ended with conventional bombs galore but started by a plague on all plant-life, that removed all the oxygen from the planet's atmosphere. As a result, the few survivors must live in air-tight houses 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 cost. 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 to Sentience|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Human beings are spread across the galaxy. The technology that allowed this to happen? Not faster than light travel, suspended animation or matter transfer but cloning. Want to start a new life elsewhere? Your mind and personality can be mapped as information. Unmanned ships are sent to inhabitable planets across the furthest reaches of space and upon arrival, the automated cloning vats begin re-creating your body and entering your stored mind and personality data.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755211596</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Palmer Rob Winters|title=Red ClawHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=New AmazonIn September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, home to some of near the most violent and deadly alien life imaginable, is due to be razed to the ground in order to make way for human habitation. A team village of scientists, led by the charismatic Richard Helms, have been stationed on this planet under military protection, in order to study and catalogue the flora and faunaHurstwick. However It came down hard, taking the computer super brain handling all spire of the technology has inconceivably turned on her human chargesvillage church with it, forcing soldier and scientist alike to abandon base head quarters. As if the planet's hostile environment (including bouts of acid rain) were not enough of destroying a threatstone shack, the characters are also pursued by legions of killer robots. Life expectancy does not look good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496243</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=K S Turner |title=Before the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice)|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=''Before The Gods'' is presented as an enigma, wrapped in leaving a puzzle and shrouded in mystery. The front is adorned by a beguiling image created by wide trail through the author. A glance at the back cover serves only to tantalise rather than reveal wood, but no trace of 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|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We're in the third century, Japanactually was. A queen and her young retainer are wandering to German secret weapon was the edge of their territorylocal gossip, when a baddy appears - but there should have been an alien seeming to be some local creature. Handily enough explosion and a saviour, warrior hero appears too, from way in the future, complete with talking swordcrater, 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 there were neither of timelines that need saved - and the people that might just save Earth from this cosmic battlethose things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1421527626</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hiroshi SakurazakaMark Lingane|title=All You Need Is KillNote to Self: An Education

|summary=In Kry's world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a global war between humans and invading alienscascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, called Mimicsin 2035 it's possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, Keiji by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a trooper at Sea of Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the beginning moon of his short career in a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the armyplanet habitable to human life. Despite his high-tech body armourHowever, hea discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's not destined 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 the system to last long - he's quickly deadtake Kira in for examination. But then he's quickly alive againThings go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, as somehow his life and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is rewound revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a dayrag-tag bunch of misfits, and the news is grim. It only makes for prolonged horror for The same aliens that destroyed the rookieExtenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, but it happens again and again. Each time he gets only a better intelligence mythical weapon known as the Staff of what his destiny might have been - Blue can he learn enough each time round stop them. As the death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to make realise that she may have had a difference, and greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly break the loop?imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1421527618</amazonuk>1529046505

 [[Category:Science Fiction]]{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan Luna Laura Lam and Joshua Luna Elizabeth May|title=Girls Volume 1: ConceptionSeven Devils|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsScience Fiction|summary=EthanEris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, we see with a greatresistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, broad comic stroke or sixwhom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, is not an ace pilot for the best when it comes Novantae, has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to girlsgather information vital to the war effort. Letting his mouth run away with him too often, he Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is not very successful at relationshipsher partner on this mission. But let us look at what happens when he drives away from an altercation at Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the local barEmpire. Eris's brother Damocles, and sees a gorgeous the runner- up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and very naked - young woman standing in the middle last of the roadfree 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>1582405298</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles Stross Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=WirelessA Life Without End

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=In his introductionI looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I know, Stross explains that yet another one. It won't be one of the reasons he likes writing shorts stories is because they are major numbers, but the time when I have the ideal format in which to focus same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a particular concept few of the future big 0-numbers, and play around with itif all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty. It doesn) Now if that't matter so much if s the idea extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't ultimately work because neither 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 reader nor assistant to the author has invested in it the way first geneticist he interviews, and they would in end up with a novel. ''Wireless'' thenchild, which is something of an experiment. Stross employs many different styles, tackles many different subjects and is very skilful at creating mood. His stories are least a strange blend way of continuing the technical life of his genes, and a motive to keep on going. But how can he get to not flick the archaic.'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497711</amazonuk>1642860670

{{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 Move on to turn out. It's great credit to Robert Buettner that what I expected wasn't what happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497622</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]