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[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam ThompsonAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Communion TownAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Communion Town – one city but it may as well be many as each person's perception of it is coloured by their experiences within it. Each chapter introduces us to a different story, a different viewpoint and therefore, practically a different city. Starting with the ominous, creepy story 'Opening up new ways of Nicolas, through stories encapsulating such themes as recaptured friendship, murder and an enigmatic take on thinking about the life shape of a private investigator, we start things to piece together the nature of Communion Towncome... or do we?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007454767</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Simon Denman|title=Connected|rating=3I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Doug Well, I must confess that there have been more than a maths and computing undergraduate at Essex University, has just pulled the most amazing girlfew decades of technology in my lifetime. So he I've kept up reasonably well with what's not really that interested in the file of fractals research best friend Kal has just sent him. But while Doug and Cindy are busily getting it on, something has gone horribly wrong for Kal and Doug emerges from afternoon delight advantageous to me but I'm left with the horrific discovery feeling that his friend has committed suicide. Miles away in the countryside, Peter is attending his brotherit's funeralall getting away from me. Martin was a musician but not a tortured artist and Some of it seems inconceivable that he too would take his own lifeis - frankly - quite frightening. But Of course, I could research the possibilities and the trip, for Peter, is more than a family obligation - itprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's re talking about or the chance of a break from a stale marriage latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and an opportunity to indulge who could deliver information in some guilty proximity to his newly-bereaved sister-in-lawa way I could understand. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0089YQPI0</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ted KosmatkaSylvie Cathrall|title=The GamesA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5

|summary=It's the near future and the Olympics go on, but not without changes. A new event has been added There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to those that we'd recognise: genetically engineered gladiatorial combata compelling premise. This And this is no holds barred competition, with one rule: each country's gladiator must be devoid of any human DNA. Indeed, America is so good that their team has won all the last three games' golds, thanks to geneticist Dr Silas Williams, but this year is different. This year he has nothing to do with the design; someone sent a single design criterion to an experimental intelligence computer. (You just know that was a bad idea day don't you?) The design criteria is just one sentence, just words, but words can be misunderstood and misunderstanding can be devastating for more than just genetically manufactured gladiatorsthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781164142</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Brin1803816759|title=ExistenceThe Unravelling|author=Will Gibson

|summary=We are It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a few decades further bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the 21st Century at AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to spread. Finally, Joe gets to do some real policing. In the start aftermath of this sci-fi novel. The world the rioting global pop star Suki is buckling under climate change, kidnapped and over-populationJoe is assigned to bring her home. Those with enough funds are completely wired into a virtual world, but wherever they live out their existence things are going Joe isn't the only one trying to be changedsave Suki - Dylan, when a space-based labourerBritish superfan and tech nerd, clearing space junk from orbit, finds an alien artifact containing contact with various races in a sort of memory bank cum virtual realityis also on the case. Where are the aliens that had previously been so silent while we sought for them with our Search for ExtraTerrestrial IntelligenceWhat went wrong? What is Did the purpose and message behind this capsulesystem fail or was it hacked? And who can be sure that this alleged First Contact was actually the firsthow is Suki's kidnapping connected?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501728</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kim Stanley RobinsonB0CP95J1CG|title=2312Of Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mark Lingane|rating=4.5

|summary=Ronan'Intellectually engaged…intensely humane… exuberantly speculative' was Iain M Banks' blurb for ''2312''. So who am I s not entirely sure why he decides to go to disagree with one of the current masters of party but his interest is piqued by the genre? No-one. Just an ordinary readerway it arrived. And actually, the more I think about the less I do – actually – as such – disagree. Banks' phrases are true it seems like a good opportunity to get out of his room and accurate. They're just not away from the whole storyonline activities he makes a living at. Not for me anyway. For a reader, as opposed to another writerSo he makes his way there, dodging the book is much more difficult than buses that. ''Publishers Weekly'' called it ''challenging'' make up most of the traffic and that's much nearer watching the marklocal energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499978</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Garth NixK P O'Donnell|title=The Vital Link (A Confusion of Princes|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Meet Khemri. One of the universe's chosen, he has been selected as a Prince, giving him biological enhancements, mental connection to priests to aid his psychic ability, and so much more. It has also probably led to the death of his parents, and meant he is alone except for a very close bodyguard, but - at least he is Spark in the running to become Emperor, and thus almost godlike. But in a world where you can have everything - including more than one chance at living - it might still be wise to think more about what you wish for...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007298358</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paolo Bacigalupi|title=The Drowned CitiesAshes)|rating=3.5

|summary=The best thing about Paolo Bacigalupi's latest young adult novel VL-15, a prototype robot, is that you almost certainly wouldn't realise it was intended for a younger audience unless someone pointed it out desperate to youunderstand who she is. ''The Drowned Cities'' may lack Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the sexworld ended, swearing consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and amoral protagonists of his awardRenada. Over half-a-winning adult novel century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her father'[[The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi|The Windup Girl]]s legacy, building a world where machines and humans can live together in harmony, but internal frictions and external enemies might bring it has all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, leader of a group of salvagers called the needleExhumers, has his entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-sharp description15 herself. Even after being buried for 65 years, complex world-building her determination hasn't diminished in the slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and brilliant characters that have rapidly made a name not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for Bacigalupi as one of this centuries preeminent science-fiction writers.answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907411119</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mike LancasterEmily Tesh|title=1.4Some Desperate Glory

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Peter Vincent lives a privileged life. His father is a world-renowned scientist and fully expects his son to follow in his footsteps. But Peter has other ideas. He wants to study literature. Although he enjoys gaming and social networking, he''While Earth's uncomfortable about spending too much time on The Linkchildren live, a system which connects the minds of every individual on the planet. So when he meets Strakerite Alpha, he is immediately attracted to her. Peterenemy shall fear us''s father hates the Strakerites, who believe that human evolution depends on regular upgrades from alien aggressors.

So when Alpha contacts Peter Following the destruction of the Earth, amongst a rare number of survivors, Kyr has been raised on Gaea Station – the home of the last scraps of humanity – and trained relentlessly to tell him avenge her people and the world that people are disappearingshould have been hers. All her life, he is more than willing she has been conditioned to help. Togetherfall in line, they will uncover a conspiracy to hide the clock ticking down to the next upgrade..fulfil her duty and ensure that humanity perseveres. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405258187</amazonuk>0356521834

 {{newreview|author=Dan Wells|title=Partials|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Since the Break, no baby has lived longer than three days. Scientists have studied every baby to try and find a cure, but with no luck. The human race is on the verge of extinction after the Partials (genetically engineered soldiers who were made to fight for humans) turned on their makers and released the deadly virus that has wiped out most of the population. For those lucky to survive, they now spend their time trying to cure the virus that kills every baby.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000746522X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Johan Harstad|title=172 Hours On The Moon|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=It's 2018 and people at NASA want to go back to the moon. But no one's been there since the 70s, so with funding and public support limited, they need an angle. A draw. Something to get people all over the world buzzing. Their answer is a worldwide lottery to select three teens who can accompany the NASA team on their week long jaunt into space. The chance of a lifetime! An unforgettable, unrepeatable experience! An adventure that truly is out of this world!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907411518</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matt Kindt|title=Revolver|rating=5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Meet Sam. He has a rather dull life, with a materialistic girlfriend, and a job in the arse-end of celebrity journalism and a boss he can't stand. All of which is preferential to waking up and finding his home city under attack - munitions going off, skyscrapers burning and people falling from them. He ends up fleeing with said editor, only to wake the next day back in this world. He will indeed fall to being snatched from each reality in turn, at set times of day, forced to suffer consumerism in one, looting in another, basic pay raises here, producing Samizdat bare-bones journalism for survivors there. But always with enough time to ask the important questions - how, and why?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1401222412</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martine McDonagh|title=I Have Waited, and You Have Come|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Rachel's world is in a state of decay. Her house is falling apart, her boyfriend has left her and civilization has crumbled in the wake of plague and extreme climate change. Her only friend, Stephanie, is separated from Rachel by the now insurmountable barrier of the Atlantic Ocean, their communication dependent on an increasingly unreliable satellite connecting their phones. At Stephanie's prompting Rachel gives her number to local trader Noah, who promises to call. Instead the number falls into the hands of the mysterious and sinister Jez White, initiating a disturbing game of cat and mouse, where the line between stalker and victim becomes blurred as Rachel finally decides to take control of her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908434120</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken MacLeodM R Carey|title=IntrusionInfinity Gate

|summary=Pregnant Hope doesnI't want m annoyingly picky when it comes to take science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the Fix, sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a genetic cure-all pill that corrects the DNA of an unborn child hard genre to get right – and protects when it from all sorts of diseases. Hope's husband Hugh doesnbad, it't really understand her objections to s often terrible. But the Fix premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high- in factstakes gamble: if it was done well, Hope never really articulates them at all - but supports her right to chooseit'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499390</amazonuk>0356518043

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David KowalskiMichael Grothaus|title=The Company of the DeadBeautiful Shining People

|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=A man stands on a ship checking that an iceberg has been missed. The year is 1912, the ship is the Titanic ''But fearing something and the man is a time-traveller hoping having it come to change historypass are two different things. History is in fact changed as a result And I'm willing to bet most of his meddlingwhat we fear will never happen, but not in a good wayor we can take steps to change it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857686666</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=SD Crockett|title=After the Snow|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=On a near future Earth, Willo lives with his family in an isolated community without technology. His parents remember a time when there were machines but all this has changed. Now there's only enough petrol for the sinister government trucks. One day Willo finds himself totally alone, his parents missing, presumed taken. Armed with his father's cryptic sayings and his only friend, (a dogBeautiful Shining People's skull that speaks through his imagination) Willo leaves all that's familiar in order revolves around the question of identity and acceptance. Of what it means to find his loved onesbe human. The unknown Of what is a ruthless place filled with Stealers real and starvation but there's escape from what he needs to dois artificial, and whether the development of technology is exciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230759351</amazonuk>191458564X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Walter Jon Williams1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Fourth WallFuture|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summaryauthor=Sean Makin was a cute, much demanded child actor. Then he grew up Benjamin Greenaway and the cute became creepy as the baby face that had made him famous remained Stephen Oram (due to a physical conditionEditors) but was unsuited to an adult's body. So the demand dried up and Sean tries to come to terms with his change of fortunes by writing a 'how to act' blog, intoxicating substances and appearances on a reality celebrity martial arts fight show. One day, whilst being beaten up for the cameras in a wrestling ring full of cottage cheese, he realises the depths to which he's sunk. Something has to change! Luckily change soon arrives in the form of 'Alternate Reality' magnate, Dagmar Shaw.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498254</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Palmer|title=Artemis|rating=4.5

|summary=With every novel, Philip Palmer is going from strength to strength. I've not always enjoyed his writing style, but his eye for a story is wonderful and his imagination is seemingly endless'Our future will be more complex than we expected. Every time I open one Instead of his novelsflying cars, I wonder when he will find the limits of his inventiveness we got night-vision killer drones and it's never that timeautomated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. ''Artemis'' is no exception to that rule.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499455</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Marissa Meyer|title=The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder|rating=4I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Teens|summary=This Cinderella does I'm not have keen on short stories as I find it easy to sweep the grate read a few stories and clean the dishes - she has then forget to mend maglev vehicle tracks. This Cinders does not leave her shoe behind when invited return to the ball, she has her entire foot fall offbook. This Cinder does not live in There's got to be a realm of fairy queens and pumpkin carriages, but New Beijing, a massive city of just two and a half million, due very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the Fourth World Wartechnology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. SheIt's a cyborg - hence human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the footworld scape are purely incidental. So, but she's still owned by what did I think of a crotchety bigot book of a steptwenty-mother, with two step-sisters. science fiction short stories? And this is a very different worldWell, where a global plague is going to be brought too close to home..I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141340134</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip PalmerMark Lingane|title=Hell ShipGalaxy

|summary=Some time agoSpark, I read Philip Palmer's debut novel [[Debatable Space by Philip Palmer|Debatable who is an elite pilot with the Space]]. Whilst there were aspects of that novel I didn't feel entirely workedAcademy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a well paced read for the most part coma that lasted years, he remembers little and I marked Palmer as a writer is in no physical shape to watchresume his duties. His subsequent novels, [[Red Claw by Philip Palmer|Red Claw]] But Earth is under threat and [[Version 43 he must. Returned by Philip Palmer|Version 43]]his superiors to the space station, have been well received here at The Bookbag he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and his fourth, ''Hell Ship''not just from the alien threats against it, isn't bad eitherbut also from its own sins against itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499447</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ira LevinTade Thompson|title=The Stepford WivesFar From the Light of Heaven

|summary=Humanity has managed Michelle 'Shell' Campion is fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to venture into space. As first officer aboard the solar system and colonise Marssleeper ship Ragtime, bound for the world of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. However, various moons and some asteroids and stations in when she wakes up at the (asteroid) Belt between Mars end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and Jupiter. Those inhabiting the Belt have evolved Ragtime's AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be significantly thinner going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and elongated compared his android partner Salvo are sent up to Earthers discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, former astronaut and Martiansfriend of Shell's father Lawrence Biz takes a shuttle to Bloodroot, due half-alien daughter in tow, to see why the low gravity in which they live; their difference in appearance Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the politicking and a difference in attitude form bureaucracy of Space Station Lagos. What the basis for a lot five of them discover on the tension and uneasy relationships in Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, but potentially the novel.entirety of human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499889</amazonuk>0356514323

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersClaire North|title=The Final EvolutionNotes from the Burning Age

|summary=DonAt its core 't assume too much when starting this book. Certainly'Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a spy thriller, do not assume you can jump straight into this series at thiswith as many double crosses, part five - start much nearer [[The Electric Church by Jeff Somers|the beginning]]interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, as I did. Don't assume with the first person narrative means the narrator survivesbest novels, for this it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a world of cyborgsnew and timely genre, and psychic human intelligences stored in robot hardwarecli-fi, and moreor climate change fiction. DonNorth't assume s novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and live alongside nature without any of the lulling opening chapters herald a simple revenge actionermodern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, as Avery Cates lives in intensive farming). There is a tangled web of vengeful villainsgrowing unhappiness with this limiting world, and nothing is very straightforward. And don't assume one group, the unremarkable opening is from an author low on ideasBrotherhood, for when Cates is proven aims to be master these processes no matter the one man cost to save the world, we find it suitably meaty, and gripping, despite that old saw - and it's a rich nightmare of post-apocalypse for him to be saving, as well..Earth.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499439</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel H WilsonAdrian Tchaikovsky|title=RobopocalypseShards of Earth|rating=3.54|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Rob Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is out scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to kill us allthe architect's reshaping. Then, just when they had the human race on the run, the Architects vanished. And so, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and is going humanity begins to take some beatingfracture and fight among themselves. He already has many advantagesIdris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered to try and can adapt easily where communicate with the Architects, does not want to be remembered. But, when he finds a fault in his plans. He already has most and the crew of us deadthe salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, or in concentration camps. Rob suddenly he is thrust back into the generic nickname for all robot-kindspotlight. As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, all controlled chased by one supreme Artificial Intelligencealien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, who he slowly begins to realise that the real war is set on eradication of our species.only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857204122</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreview|title=Back Dated|author=Chris Niblock|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Sci-fi writer Ray Flaxman returns home from a weekend away with his fiancee with a dealine to meet. But he finds his flat broken to into and trashed. Nothing of value has been taken. So Ray suspects his stalker is to blame. Serena has been calling and writing, declaring her love for Ray and her urgent desire to have his child. But Ray has never met her. Even so, he is keen to keep this mystery girl a secret because his fiancee, Frankie, has huge jealousy issues. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004W0JR7G</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John TrevillianTerry Miles|title=The A-Men ReturnRabbits|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's been several years since 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>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Mark Norman|title=Meklyan and the Fourth Piece of the Artefact|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Four billion years after our Sun has become a red giant and died, taking all life with it, there are still humans 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 space, to planets in the temperate zones of solar systems; planets that could potentially sustain life. And on eight planets, sustain life they did. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956202713</amazonuk>}} {{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>}} {{newreview|author=Paolo Bacigalupi|title=The Windup Girl|rating=34.5|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>}} {{newreview|author=Tricia Sullivan|title=Lightborn|rating=4

|summary=In an alternate but contemporary United StatesWelcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, everyone uses Lightborn technologyfor while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, or shineit never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it's nicknamed. Providing entertainment– as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, education no hard and self-knowledgefast structure, people live in and to the ultimate plugged-in societyaverage person no obvious entry point. And A bit like the game of life then . Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the Fall comesfan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. Rogue AIs People like our hero, K, named like that in the shine field around least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the city lists of Los Sombres start sending out bad shine who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the adults all go loco - becoming violent game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and murderousotherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, or broken down and reduced how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to performing repetitive tasks over find out that the line between observing and overlearning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841494070</amazonuk>1529016932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip PalmerC J Carey|title=Version 43Widowland

|summary=In It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the near-future USA that they call Gileadstate funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, society has changedQueen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the worseWorld War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of coursethe same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. The population But this is dying outmost certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and people who are capable ideas of female purpose, has put all of breeding the next generation are given that gender into a cherished status of Handmaid caste system, ranging from high- gifted brow office bigwigs to any male of enough esteemthe drudges, and beyond those, called a Commanderright on down to the childless, who balances the household with his wife husbandless and what the widows. Female literacy is practically a walking wombactively discouraged. Other women get drudge workAnd in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, or run horrid finishing schools is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for the Handmaidsfemale emancipation out of it – after all, or are packed off to what are reported to not every book can be polluted hellholes abroadbanned, for laborious work for life. Men are restricted too - Handmaids are off-limits to everybody but their Commanderand not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and those households are patrolled carefully by other eunuch typesso they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. It's up to our nameless narrator and main characterThat is her job, howeverat least, to show us just how cherished until the status first emerging signs of Handmaid feelsfemale protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099511665</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain M BanksEverina Maxwell|title=Surface DetailWinter's Orbit

|summary=It Prince Kiem 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 Banksfamous political disappointment. He' Culture series of science fiction novels. At firsts outgoing, I worried that this put me at a significant disadvantage as for the first 100 or so pagescarefree, I spend most of and has gotten into many drunken scandals over 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=4past few years.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It's almost obligatory So 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 important political alliance is 'cool'. Like most of his books, Zero History is a thriller, but at its core are issues surrounding technology, how we interact with it, branding and marketing. It would to be easy to criticise much of his content as being too shallow and concerned with 'nothing' - but then arranged – one 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 supposed to eat our bodies and devour our souls. It's lucky, then, that we have the British secret service prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to protect us, more specifically a top secret branch of be chosen for the secret service called The Laundryrole. This organisation is so secret that even the bosses at MI6 don't know Least 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 mathshim.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841497703</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian McDonaldRob Winters|title=The Dervish HouseHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=The reader is plunged straight away into In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the busy, bustling centre village of IstanbulHurstwick. And climate change appears to have arrived. In 2022 thousands It came down hard, taking the spire of Istanbul's citizens died in the village church with it, destroying a heatwave stone shack, and nowleaving a wide trail through the wood, only three years later but no trace of what it's 'Thirty-three degrees in April, at seven in the morning. Unthinkableactually was.' You can almost hear German secret weapon was the collective thrum local gossip, but there should have been an explosion and a crater, and there were neither of all those air-conditioning units trying to make life bearable for the local peoplethings.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575080531</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersMark Lingane|title=The Terminal StateNote to Self: An Education

|summary=In this future, desolate, post-apocalyptic Kry's world, the last thing Avery Cates wants to do is choose discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a side. The police are androids, artificial cases for clones cascade of people who die medical "advances": in the making, and the other source of power is not much better. But 2030 it's them found that pressgang him into joining radiation can return cells back to their army. What little freedom and power he had as a lone gunman is lostregeneration state seven years before, as hein 2035 it's given nanotech augments possible to make him a super-soldier. Which is bad news - as is cure cancerous tumours but with the fact side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the two most powerful and hated people in Cates's universe are cosmetics industry is using the very people who buy him from the army same technique to do one last job "de- age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and they can be very persuasive about him accepting it...youth, who needs memories?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498750</amazonuk>B08LY8J4KS}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Terry DehartChristopher Paolini|title=The UnitTo Sleep in a Sea of Stars|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We all know about On the moon of a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the nuclear familyplanet habitable to human life. However, well now meet a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the post-nuclear family in Terry De Hartmoon's brutal vision of surface leaves her bonded with a post apocalyptic Americastrange alien entity. We know After the entity bonded to her loses control and kills half the staff of the score; terrorists attack key US cities with nuclear devicesresearch station, US retaliates on the nations supporting United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the terroristsystem to take Kira in for examination. There Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is only one possible outcomeattacked and destroyed by an alien ship, mass casualties and the breakdown of civil society leading she has to flee to the rise of barbarism in a devastated landscape in 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the grip of freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a nuclear winter. Within this madness a family survives not knowing how much rag-tag bunch of misfits, and the country or the world has been destroyednews is grim.|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 same aliens that destroyed the job - particularly being one Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of the boys human- occupied space, and it's given her only 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 mythical weapon known as the mythology Staff of a small ex-Soviet republicBlue can stop them. Krassnia is where Lucy was born, where she lived for her first seven years, and where she spent As the scariest day of her life. Amanda wrote a seminal work on Krassnian mythology death toll climbs and Lucy uses more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to reshape the game, knowing realise that it's likely to be used as she may have had a tool greater hand in a hoped-for colour revolution. the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496472</amazonuk>1529046505

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris WoodingLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=Black Lung Captain: Tales of the Ketty JaySeven Devils|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Things on board Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the Ketty Jay have never ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been as lowdead for years. Darian Frey and his crew are even having trouble thieving from defenceless orphanages. So when Clo, an ace pilot for the next token job-they-can't-refuse comes alongNovantae, they fall under ithas a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the war effort. Although she's spellless than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. An explorer has returned with tales of untold riches, courtesy of Things get more interesting as the most mysterious artefacts and treasures of an unknown civilization. The fact that mission commences; aboard the remains ship are those of an aircraft crashed in three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the most Arctic of rainforestsEmpire. Eris's brother Damocles, inhabited by the most evil beastrunner-men monstersup heir to the Empire, is neither here nor thereplotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the last of the free alien species. The problems start with what they find there, which is worse than anyone could have expected - or indeed years agoIt's a race against time as the rebels move to put a stop Damocles' plans, with a mysterious connection between millions of lives hanging in the remains and the more unusual crewmember...balance…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0575085177</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris BeckettFrederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=The Holy MachineA Life Without End

|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=In I looked at the calendar the near futureother week, only Illyria city stands for science, technology and progress in disappointedly realised I have a world dominated by religious fundamentalism birthday this year – I know, yet another one. It won't be one of every faith (and the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then some). The city was founded as a haven for those intellectuals not possessing any such religious convictionsfew of the big 0-numbers, who advocated reason and logic insteadif all goes well, and were persecuted I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for their Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that'blasphemies' in s the early stages extent of the upheaval. George Simlingmy mid-life crisis, the introvert protagonist and second generation Illyrian, falls in love with a beautiful woman called LucyI guess I have to be happy. Unfortunately however, Lucy is actually a syntec, a robot ASPU: Advanced Sensory Pleasure Unit, a prostitute. As George obsessively visits her Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he realises that she is starting might be said to develop a level of consciousness and self-awareness outside of her programmingbe living one. Lucy is due Determined to find out how to prolong life for a routine mind-wipe so George decides as long as he wants – he would like to flee see 400 – he hops right into bed with her the assistant 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 first geneticist he is the usual fifteen year old American kidinterviews, except for the fact he and his 'father' shift location every few months. John is certainly not his real name, but has to face they end up to reality - school bullies, hot girls and in fact any friends being unattainable with such a peripatetic lifestyle. 'Dad' stays child, which is at homeleast a way of continuing the life of his genes, scanning the internet and all news sources, in order a motive to protect the pair - for they are among the remaining dozen or so inhabitants of Lorien, living in hidden exile keep on Earth, but hunted by their enemies from yet another alien racegoing. Can But how can he get to not flick the fact they are permanently pursued grant them any peace - 'final way out' switch, especially when 'John' is about to undergo some rather prominent alien-style pubertyfoie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141332476</amazonuk>1642860670

{{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-Move on to-come. There is a much bigger problem to worry about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496332</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]