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[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marissa MeyerAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=This Cinderella does not have to sweep the grate and clean the dishes - she has to mend maglev vehicle tracks. This Cinders does not leave her shoe behind when invited to the ball, she has her entire foot fall off. This Cinder does not live in a realm of fairy queens and pumpkin carriages, but New Beijing, a massive city of just two and a half million, due to the Fourth World War. SheAll Tomorrow's a cyborg - hence the foot, but she's still owned by a crotchety bigot of a step-mother, with two step-sisters. And this is a very different world, where a global plague is going to be brought too close to home...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141340134</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Philip Palmer|title=Hell ShipBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=45

|summary=Some time ago, I read Philip Palmer's debut novel [[Debatable Space by Philip Palmer|Debatable Space]]. Whilst there were aspects 'Opening up new ways of that novel I didn't feel entirely worked, it was a well paced read for thinking about the most part and I marked Palmer as a writer shape of things to watchcome. His subsequent novels, [[Red Claw by Philip Palmer|Red Claw]] and [[Version 43 by Philip Palmer|Version 43]], have been well received here at The Bookbag and his fourth, ''Hell Ship'', isn't bad either.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499447</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Ira Levin|title=The Stepford Wives|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I've heard it said that 'It cantechnology't be a coincidence that Stepford women are all the way they areis what happens after you' says Bobbiere 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

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon MordenM R Carey|title=Equations of LifeInfinity Gate|rating=35

|summary=ItI'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a book that is certainly not short genre I dislike – nothing of actionthe sort. We My standards are not told what the Armageddon event washigh precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and when it's bad, although aspects of it are hinted at's often terrible. Perhaps that will become explained later in But the seriespremise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. What we do know is that A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it has wiped out Japanwas done well, and one of the first victims of the event in London appears to have been the Congestion Charge as it 'd be fantastic. So this is now a heaving metropolis with gridlock traffic (although this and the masses of people seem to mysteriously evaporate as the story unfolds)where I sum up that premise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184149948X</amazonuk>0356518043

 {{newreview|author=Paolo Bacigalupi|title=The Windup Girl|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Although only recently released in paperback in the UK, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl has been gaining considerable critical acclaim across 'the pond'. Set in a future version of Thailand, it's an interesting take on the environmental meltdown scenario that has garnered 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 magazine. No less than three of the review extracts used by the publishers in this edition liken Bacigalupi to William Gibson. High praise indeed. Does it rise to these expectations?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500535</amazonuk>}} {{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>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tricia SullivanMichael Grothaus|title=LightbornBeautiful Shining People

|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=In an alternate but contemporary United States, everyone uses Lightborn technology, or shine, as it's nicknamed. Providing entertainment, education 'But fearing something and self-knowledge, people live in the ultimate plugged-in societyhaving it come to pass are two different things. And then the Fall comes. Rogue AIs in the shine field around the city I'm willing to bet most of Los Sombres start sending out bad shine and the adults all go loco - becoming violent and murderouswhat we fear will never happen, or broken down and reduced we can take steps to performing repetitive tasks over and overchange it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841494070</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Philip Palmer|title=Version 43|rating=4|genre=Science 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 ''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the distant planet question of Belladonnaidentity and acceptance. He gets sidetracked from his original objective and decides Of what it means to rid the planet of its evil gang bosses while he's therebe human. A huge war ensues in which all the bosses (Of what is real and thousands of others) are killedwhat is artificial, but it soon becomes apparent that and whether the true rulers development of the planet are the dead eyed 'children' he has seen dining in the most expensive restaurants, the sinister 'ancien régime' technology is exciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499218</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Atwood1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Handmaid's TaleFuture|rating=4.5|genreauthor=General Fiction|summary=In the near-future USA that they call Gilead, society has changed. For the worse, of course. The population is dying out, 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 Benjamin Greenaway and what is practically a walking womb. Other women get drudge work, or run horrid finishing schools for the Handmaids, or are packed off to what are reported to be polluted hellholes abroad, for laborious work for life. Men are restricted too - Handmaids are off-limits to everybody but their Commander, 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 the status of Handmaid feels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099511665</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Iain M Banks|title=Surface DetailStephen 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'Our future will be more complex than we expected. At first, I worried that this put me at a significant disadvantage as for the first 100 or so pages, I spend most Instead of the time being completely confused about what was going on. Howeverflying cars, as the strands started we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to come together, it became apparent that this is partly Bankstrack grandma.' 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=4I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It I's almost obligatory when writing anything about William Gibson m not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to recall that in an earlier short story, he invented the term 'cyberspacebook. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Gibson remains at the cutting edge of what is Then there'cools science fiction: far too often it'. Like most of his books, Zero History is a thriller, but at its core are issues surrounding s the technology, how we interact which takes centre stage along with it, branding and marketingthe world-building. It would be easy to criticise much of his content as being too shallow and concerned with 'nothing' - but then that's part human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of his pointtwenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919527</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles StrossMark Lingane|title=The Fuller MemorandumGalaxy

|summary=Our world Spark, who is not as it seems. We share it with aliens, zombies, demonic spirits, an elite pilot with ancient god-like entities that are all keen to eat our bodies and devour our souls. It's lucky, then, that we have the British secret service to protect usSpace Academy, more specifically barely makes it through a top secret branch of the secret service called The Laundrybattle alive. This organisation is His co-pilot was not so secret fortunate. Waking from a coma that even the bosses at MI6 don't know of its existence. The point of the Laundry lasted years, he remembers little and is in no physical shape to keep all the myriad of terrors endangering the resume his duties. But Earth at bay is under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the careful use of sciencespace station, technology he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and magicnot just from the alien threats against it, magic being a little known branch of applied mathsbut also from its own sins against itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497703</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian McDonaldTade Thompson|title=The Dervish HouseFar From the Light of Heaven|rating=4.5

|summary=The reader Michelle 'Shell' Campion is plunged straight away into fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the busysleeper ship Ragtime, bustling centre bound for the world of IstanbulBloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. And climate change appears However, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to have arrived. In 2022 thousands find dozens of Istanbulher passengers butchered and the Ragtime's citizens died in a heatwave AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and nowhis android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, only three years later itformer astronaut and friend of Shell's 'Thirtyfather Lawrence Biz takes a shuttle to Bloodroot, half-three degrees alien daughter in Apriltow, to see why the Ragtime has gone quiet, at seven in leaving behind the morningpoliticking and bureaucracy of Space Station Lagos. Unthinkable.' You can almost hear What the collective thrum five of all those air-conditioning units trying to make life bearable them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, but potentially the local people.entirety of human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575080531</amazonuk>0356514323

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersClaire North|title=The Terminal StateNotes from the Burning Age

|summary=In this future, desolate, post-apocalyptic world, At its core ''Notes From the last thing Avery Cates wants to do Burning Age'' by Claire North is choose a sidespy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. The police are androidsHowever, artificial cases for clones of people who die in as with the makingbest novels, it wears many masks and the other source of power its most affecting one is not much better. But it's them that pressgang him into joining their army. What little freedom of a new and power he had as a lone gunman is losttimely genre, as he's given nanotech augments to make him a supercli-soldierfi, or climate change fiction. Which is bad news - as is the fact the two most powerful and hated people in CatesNorth's universe are the very people who buy him from the army novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to do one last job - start anew 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 live alongside nature without any of the nuclear familymodern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, well now meet the post-nuclear family in Terry De Hart's brutal vision weapons of a post apocalyptic America. We know the score; terrorists attack key US cities with nuclear devicesmass destruction, US retaliates on the nations supporting the terroristintensive farming). There is only a growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and one possible outcomegroup, mass casualties and the breakdown of civil society leading Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter 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 cost to the world has been destroyedEarth.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499331</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken MacLeodAdrian Tchaikovsky|title=The Restoration GameShards of Earth|rating=54|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Lucy Stone works for a videogame company in Edinburgh. She enjoys Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the job moon- particularly being one of sized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the boys - and itarchitect's given her a sense of belonging that she'd craved but never reshaping. Then, just when they hadthe human race on the run, the Architects vanished. And then her mother callsso, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. A CIA spookIdris Telemmier, Amanda wants Lucy's firm a man genetically engineered to rewrite their upcoming game try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to feature the mythology of a small ex-Soviet republicbe remembered. Krassnia is where Lucy was born, where she lived for her first seven yearsBut, when he and where she spent the scariest day crew of her lifethe salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. Amanda wrote a seminal work on Krassnian mythology As he and Lucy uses this his allies bounce from star system to reshape the gamestar system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, knowing he slowly begins to realise that it's likely to be used as a tool in a hoped-for colour revolution. the real war is only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496472</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris WoodingTerry Miles|title=Black Lung Captain: Tales of the Ketty JayRabbits

|summary=Things on board Welcome to the Ketty Jay have never been as lowworld of The Game. Darian Frey and his crew are even having trouble thieving from defenceless orphanages. So when Or should that be the next token job-they-can't-refuse comes alonggame, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, they fall under itnever leaves lower case throughout this book. It's spellalso 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 average person no obvious entry point. An explorer has returned with tales A bit like the game of untold richeslife then. Yes, courtesy this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the most mysterious artefacts and treasures darkest of an unknown civilizationwebs. The fact People like our hero, K, named like that in the remains least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are those trying to be historians of an aircraft crashed the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most Arctic of rainforestspeculiar places, inhabited by and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most evil beast-men monstersdangerous, nay lethal, is neither here nor therethe most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. The problems start with Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what they find therethe game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, which he is worse than anyone could have expected - or indeed years ago, with a mysterious connection only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the remains game, and the more unusual crewmemberplaying it, is a very thin one indeed...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575085177</amazonuk>1529016932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris BeckettC J Carey|title=The Holy MachineWidowland

|genre=Science General Fiction|summary=In the near futureIt's April 1953, only Illyria city stands for science, technology and progress in a world dominated by religious fundamentalism Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of every faith (and Joseph Stalin then some). The city was founded as within weeks coming to London, parading around a haven for those intellectuals not possessing any such religious convictionsbit, who advocated reason and logic insteadwatching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, and were persecuted for their 'blasphemies' Britain caved in the early stages of lead-up to the upheaval. George SimlingWorld War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, the introvert protagonist and second generation Illyrian, falls in love with we are now a beautiful woman called Lucy. Unfortunately howeverprotectorate – well, 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 we share enough 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. By all appearances he is same blood as the usual fifteen year old American kid, except for Germanic peoples on ''the fact he and his mainland'father' shift location every few months. John But this is most certainly not his real namea different Britain, but has to face up to reality for Nazi- school bulliesstyled phrenology, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a peripatetic lifestyle. 'Dad' stays at homecaste system, scanning ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the internet drudges, and all news sourcesbeyond those, in order right on down to protect the pair - for they are among childless, the husbandless and the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living in hidden exile on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien racewidows. Can the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - especially when 'John' Female literacy is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style puberty?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141332476</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Cobley|title=The Orphaned Worlds (Humanity's Fire)|rating=3actively discouraged.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=The planet Darien And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, once a lost outpost where earth colonists co-existed with the native UvovoRose Ransom, is now employed with the focal point task of an intergalactic struggle. Hegemony forces are in occupation modebowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, Earth is standing back reined in by inter-planetary politicsnot every book can be banned, whilst planet-side local alliances are fighting back guerrilla-style. This is the least of the galaxy's concernsand not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, however. It might even and so they just get air-brushed out as a little minor difficulty in hefty tweak towards the history-books-to-comeparty line before they're stamped ready for reprint. There That is a much bigger problem her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to worry aboutspoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496332</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mira GrantEverina Maxwell|title=FeedWinter's Orbit

|summary=In 2014 Prince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the common cold was curedpast few years. So was cancer. But in their wake something terrible came when an important political alliance is to be arranged – the two viruses used one that is supposed to cure the ailments combined prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him 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 be chosen for the virus they hold dormant in their bodies could go into amplification, causing them to turnrole. People stay indoors, stop meeting in crowds, and conduct most Least of their lives onlineall him. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184149898X</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert EdricRob Winters|title=SalvageHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=Some time about a hundred years hence and In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the predictions have come to passvillage of Hurstwick. The sea levels have risen; It came down hard, taking the spire of the Gulf Stream has shifted its path. Climate change has hit Britain village church with it, destroying a vengeance. stone shack, Global Warming is and leaving a wide trail through the misnomer; wood, but no trace of course the temperatures are, on balance, warmerwhat it actually was. Snow is something most people only hear or read about. The real changeGerman secret weapon was the local gossip, howeverbut there should have been an explosion and a crater, is the wetand there were neither of those things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385617623</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom HoltMark Lingane|title=Blonde BombshellNote to Self: An Education|rating=4.5

|summary=The blonde bombshell In Kry's world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in question a cascade of medical "advances": in Tom Holt2030 it's latest book of found that name is Lucy Pavlov. If you are reading this review radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, in 2017 of course you will know who Lucy Pavlov is. She2035 it's possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the beautifulside effect of erasing seven years of memory, talentedby 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, wealthy, CEO who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a Sea of PaySoft Industries - Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the revolutionary operating system that moon of a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is running on every computer in helping with the efforts to make the worldplanet habitable to human life. Of courseHowever, if that is indeed a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the case, then wemoon've got s surface leaves her bonded with a problemstrange alien entity. A very big problemAfter 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 take Kira in for examination. Because what Lucy doesn't know Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is that attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is literally revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a blonde bombshell rag- well she knows she's blondetag bunch of misfits, just not and the news is grim. The same aliens that her body is destroyed the Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, and only a shell for a bombmythical weapon known as the Staff of Blue can stop them. A very big As the death toll climbs and a very smart bombmore players are introduced into this war, but nevertheless Kira slowly begins to realise that she may have had a bomb. And greater hand in the conflict than shecould's been sent to destroy the planet. It kind of makes Bill Gates seem OK for the time being.ve possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497789</amazonuk>1529046505

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=ExtrasSeven Devils|rating=4.5|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=In Eris is one of the future city foremost operatives of this bookthe Novantae, many people live with what is called a reputation economyresistance 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. With everybody practically a cyborgClo, they're online permanentlyan ace pilot for the Novantae, using optical and brain implants has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to see everybodythe war effort. Although she's status, output and less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get moreinteresting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Many people have hovercam companionsEris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to make their own documentaries and film their own lives. They rely on metablogs the Empire, is plotting to interact disrupt peace talks between Tholos and keep their popularity upthe last of the free alien species. They continuously spread their opinions and interests in order It's a race against time as the rebels move to become more well-known. A girl called Aya is struggling to get any renownput a stop Damocles' plans, but things change, when she meets other people doing incredibly notorious things, but with millions of lives hanging in complete secrecy and anonymity.the balance…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389228</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldFrederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=SpecialsA Life Without End

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=In I looked at the un-named city of calendar the futureother week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I know, all the adults are living in the delusion that their city is rightyet another one. After a teenage life as an ugly, they all undergo a welter It won't be one of medical procedures, to make their minds and bodies conform to the blandmajor numbers, but gorgeous, society normthe time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. But one young woman is not like that. She is going to And then a party, looking uglyfew of the big 0-numbers, and she knows it is not what we look likeif all goes well, but how special we feel inside, that is of most importanceI'll be an OBE. The good news is that this woman is our returning heroine, Tally(Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty. ) The bad news is Now if 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 's the unnamed city extent of the futuremy mid-life crisis, all the adults are prettyI guess I have to be happy. TheyOur author here doesn've had mental and physical surgery t use that exact phrase, but he might be said to make them calm, placid and perfectly aesthetic human beingsbe living one. If they have any trouble Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as young adults it is he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the problem of what assistant to wear at partiesthe first geneticist he interviews, or how to get rid of their hangovers when and they wake end up at 5pm. Unfortunatelywith a child, one of these bright young things which is our heroine, Tally, one at least a way of continuing the few people in the world life of his genes, and a motive to have learnt keep on going. But how damnably horrid and sapping can he get to not flick the life of Riley can be.'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389074</amazonuk>1642860670

{{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>}} {{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 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 '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=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. 'If he stood Move 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 Darkness|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's hard to believe that ''The Left Hand of Darkness'' dates back to 1969: forty years on, it reads as 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496065</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]