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[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Science Fiction]]==Science fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter HellerAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Dog Stars|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We are in North America in a near but post-Apocalyptic future. Those few humans to survive a pandemic have to be treated as carriers, and/or armed and desperate, and so are particularly of note to military-minded survivalist Bangley. And climate and eco-problems have killed off many common species, something closer to narrator Hig's heart, as heAll Tomorrow's a more placid, huntin', shootin' and fishin' guy. These two solitary men are an unlikely partnership, but both look out for each other in complementary ways. Bangley has his watch-tower, while Hig takes off in his Cessna to get away from it all, and his flights act as a first line of defense. But is it all life could be, for Hig and his dog and Bangley? What is Hig still to make of the last inviting contact he heard on his plane's radio - even if Futures: Fictions that was three years ago? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755392590</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisrupt|author=Sam Thompson|title=Communion TownBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|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
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=4.5
|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
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dan WellsM R Carey|title=PartialsInfinity Gate
|rating=5
|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Since I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the Break, no baby has lived longer than three dayssort. Scientists have studied every baby My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to try get right – and find a curewhen it's bad, but with no luckit's often terrible. The human race is on But the verge premise 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 populationInfinity Gate had me hooked. For those lucky to surviveA concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, they now spend their time trying to cure the virus it'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that kills every babypremise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>000746522X</amazonuk>0356518043
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Michael Grothaus
|title=Beautiful Shining People
|rating=4
|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= ''But fearing something and having it come to pass are two different things. And I'm willing to bet most of what we fear will never happen, or we can take steps to change it.''
{{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 Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the 70s, so with funding question of identity and public support limited, they need an angle. A drawacceptance. Something Of what it means to get people all over the world buzzingbe human. Their answer Of what is real and what is a worldwide lottery to select three teens who can accompany artificial, and whether the NASA team on their week long jaunt into space. The chance development of a lifetime! An unforgettable, unrepeatable experience! An adventure that truly technology is out of this world!exciting or frightening.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907411518</amazonuk>191458564X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt Kindt1739593901|title=Revolver22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|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 callOur future will be more complex than we expected. Instead the number falls into the hands of the mysterious and sinister Jez Whiteflying cars, initiating a disturbing game of cat we got night-vision killer drones and mouse, where the line between stalker and victim becomes blurred as Rachel finally decides automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to take control of her lifetrack grandma.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908434120</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Ken MacLeod|title=Intrusion|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Pregnant Hope doesnI't want ve got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to take the Fix, book. There's got to be a genetic cure-all pill that corrects the DNA of an unborn child and protects it from all sorts of diseasesvery compelling hook to keep me engaged. Hope Then there's husband Hugh doesnscience fiction: far too often it't really understand her objections to s the technology which takes centre stage along with the Fix world- in factbuilding. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, Hope never really articulates them at all what did I think of a book of twenty- but supports her right to choosetwo science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499390</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=David KowalskiMark Lingane|title=The Company of the DeadGalaxy
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=A man stands on Spark, who is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, barely makes it through a ship checking battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a coma that an iceberg has been missed. The year is 1912lasted years, the ship is the Titanic he remembers little and the man is a time-traveller hoping in no physical shape to change historyresume his duties. History But Earth is in fact changed as under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the space station, he finds himself amid a result of his meddlinglast ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the alien threats against it, but not in a good wayalso from its own sins against itself.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857686666</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=SD CrockettTade Thompson|title=After Far From the SnowLight of Heaven
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=On a near future EarthMichelle '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, Willo lives with his family in an isolated community without technology. His parents remember she will essentially be a time when there were machines but all this has changed. Now therebabysitter for the ship's only enough petrol for the sinister government trucksAI captain. One day Willo finds himself totally aloneHowever, his parents missing, presumed taken. Armed with his fatherwhen she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ragtime's cryptic sayings and his only friendAI almost non-responsive, (a dogshe begins to realise that her first mission won's skull that speaks through t be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his imagination) Willo leaves all that's familiar in order android partner Salvo are sent up to find his loved onesdiscover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. The unknown is a ruthless place filled with Stealers Meanwhile, former astronaut and starvation but therefriend of Shell's escape from what he needs father Lawrence Biz takes a shuttle to Bloodroot, half-alien daughter in tow, to dosee why the Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the politicking and bureaucracy of Space Station Lagos.What the five of them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, but potentially the entirety of human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230759351</amazonuk>0356514323
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Walter Jon WilliamsClaire North|title=The Fourth WallNotes from the Burning Age
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Sean Makin was At its core ''Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a cutespy thriller, with as many double crosses, much demanded child actorinterrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. Then he grew up and the cute became creepy However, as with the baby face best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that had made him famous remained (due to of a physical condition) but was unsuited to an adultnew and timely genre, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's body. So 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 demand dried up modern and Sean tries to come to terms with his change corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of fortunes by writing mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a 'how to act' bloggrowing unhappiness with this limiting world, intoxicating substances and appearances on a reality celebrity martial arts fight show. One dayone group, whilst being beaten up for the cameras in a wrestling ring full of cottage cheeseBrotherhood, he realises aims to master these processes no matter the depths to which he's sunk. Something has cost to change! Luckily change soon arrives in the form of 'Alternate Reality' magnate, Dagmar ShawEarth.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841498254</amazonuk>0356514757
}}
{{Frontpage|author= Adrian Tchaikovsky|title= Shards of Earth|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the 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 humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. Idris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to be remembered. But, when he and the crew of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, he slowly begins to realise that the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=1529051886}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip PalmerTerry Miles|title=ArtemisRabbits
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=With every novelWelcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, Philip Palmer is going from strength for while it ought to be capitalised to strengthhigh heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. IIt've not always enjoyed his writing styles also called Rabbits, but his eye although only as a slangy term for a story is wonderful it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and his imagination to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is seemingly endless. Every time I open one the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of his novelsthe conspiracy, the computer game, I wonder when he will find the limits hack from the darkest of his inventiveness and it's never that timewebs. ''Artemis'' is no exception to People like our hero, K, named like that rulein the least Kafkaesque manner possible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marissa Meyer|title=The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=This Cinderella does not have K and his bezzies are trying to sweep be historians of the grate game, and clean have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the dishes - she lists of who has to mend maglev vehicle trackssuccessfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This Cinders does not leave her shoe behind when invited to time the game seems the ballmost dangerous, she has her entire foot fall offnay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. This Cinder does not live Unfortunately for K, in a realm of fairy queens and pumpkin carriagestrying to sort out what the game is doing, but New Beijingif it's even being played, a massive city of just two and a half millionhow his loved ones might be kept safe, due he is only to find out that the Fourth World War. She's a cyborg - hence line between observing and learning about the footgame, but she's still owned by a crotchety bigot of a step-motherand playing it, with two step-sisters. And this is a very different world, where a global plague is going to be brought too close to homethin one indeed...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141340134</amazonuk>1529016932
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip PalmerC J Carey|title=Hell ShipWidowland
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Some time ago, I read Philip Palmer's debut novel [[Debatable Space by Philip Palmer|Debatable Space]]. Whilst there were aspects of that novel I didn't feel entirely worked, it was a well paced read for the most part and I marked Palmer as a writer to watch. 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=It'It cans April 1953, and Adolf Hitler't be s schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a coincidence bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that Stepford women certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are all now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the way they aremainland' says Bobbie, Joanna Eberhart's only friend in Stepford. Joanna But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has recently come put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to live the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the idyllic suburban town task of Stepford with her husband bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and two childrenso they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. She That is an independent woman with her own part-time career as a photographerjob, at least, is intelligentuntil the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, liberated and has a keen interest in feminismwith their potential to spoil Hitler's visit. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015899</amazonuk>152941198X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=James S A CoreyEverina Maxwell|title=Leviathan WakesWinter's Orbit|rating=45
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Humanity Prince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has managed to venture gotten into many drunken scandals over the solar system and colonise Mars, various moons and some asteroids and stations in the (asteroid) Belt between Mars and Jupiterpast few years. Those inhabiting the Belt have evolved So when an important political alliance is to be significantly thinner and elongated compared arranged – one that is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to Earthers and Martians, due be chosen for the low gravity in which they live; their difference in appearance and a difference in attitude form the basis for a lot role. Least of the tension and uneasy relationships in the novelall him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499889</amazonuk>0356515885
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeff SomersRob Winters|title=The Final EvolutionHis Name Was Wren
|rating=4
|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=Don't assume too much when starting this book. CertainlyIn September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, do not assume you can jump straight into this series at this, part five - start much nearer [[The Electric Church by Jeff Somers|near the beginning]], as I didvillage of Hurstwick. Don't assume It came down hard, taking the first person narrative means spire of the narrator survivesvillage church with it, for this is destroying a world of cyborgsstone shack, and psychic human intelligences stored in robot hardware, and more. Don't assume leaving a wide trail through the lulling opening chapters herald a simple revenge actionerwood, as Avery Cates lives in a tangled web but no trace of vengeful villains, and nothing is very straightforwardwhat it actually was. And don't assume German secret weapon was the unremarkable opening is from local gossip, but there should have been an author low on ideas, for when Cates is proven to be the one man to save the world, we find it suitably meaty, explosion and grippinga crater, despite that old saw - and it's a rich nightmare there were neither of post-apocalypse for him to be saving, as well..those things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841499439</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel H Wilson|title=Robopocalypse|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Rob is out to kill us all, and is going to take some beating. He already has many advantages, and can adapt easily where he finds a fault in his plans. He already has most of us dead, or in concentration camps. Rob is the generic nickname for all robot-kind, all controlled by one supreme Artificial Intelligence, who is set on eradication of our species.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857204122</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMark Lingane|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 Note to keep this mystery girl a secret because his fiancee, Frankie, has huge jealousy issues. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004W0JR7G</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Trevillian|title=The A-Men Return|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 selfSelf: 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 GirlAn Education|rating=3.54
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Although only recently released In Kry's world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in paperback a cascade of medical "advances": in the UK2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, Paolo Bacigalupiin 2035 it's The Windup Girl has been gaining considerable critical acclaim across 'possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the pond'same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. Set In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a future version Sea of ThailandStars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the moon of a distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the planet habitable to human life. However, ita discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's an interesting 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 take on Kira in for examination. Things go from bad to worse when the environmental meltdown scenario that Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has garnered it to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a couple rag-tag bunch of science fiction awards (misfits, and the news is grim. The same aliens that destroyed the Hugo Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, and Nebula awards) and was named only a mythical weapon known as the ninth best fiction book Staff of 2009 by Time magazineBlue can stop them. No less than three of As the review extracts used by the publishers in death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this edition liken Bacigalupi war, Kira slowly begins to William Gibson. High praise indeed. Does it rise to these expectations?realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356500535</amazonuk>1529046505
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=K S TurnerLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=Chronicles of Fate and Choice: TumultusSeven Devils|rating=34|genre=FantasyScience Fiction|summary=This Eris is one of the follow up foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to [[Before inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Gods (Chronicles of Fate and Choice) by K S Turner|Before The Gods]]Novantae, has a debut novel lauded for bringing mission: hijack a breath of fresh air Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the world of speculative fiction and one of Bookbagwar effort. Although she's [[Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2009|top picks of 2009]]less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Tumultus is Things get more interesting as the second of mission commences; aboard the planned trilogy and I was looking forward to seeing how ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the author would really cut loose now that readers were already familiar with Empire. Eris's brother Damocles, the Shaarunner-kutu up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the story last of their link the free alien species. It's a race against time as the rebels move to the origin put a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the human race.balance…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956224210</amazonuk>1473231140
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tricia SullivanFrederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=LightbornA Life Without End
|rating=4
|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=In an alternate but contemporary United StatesI looked at the calendar the other week, everyone uses Lightborn technologyand disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I know, or shineyet another one. It won't be one of the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as it's nicknamedHeinz varieties looms on the horizon. Providing entertainment And then a few of the big 0-numbers, education and self-knowledgeif all goes well, people live in I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the ultimate pluggedextent of my mid-in societylife crisis, I guess I have to be happy. And then the Fall comes Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. Rogue AIs in 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 shine field around assistant to the city first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of Los Sombres start sending out bad shine and continuing the adults all go loco - becoming violent and murderouslife of his genes, or broken down and reduced a motive to performing repetitive tasks over and overkeep on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841494070</amazonuk>1642860670
}}
{{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 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 (and thousands of others) are killed, but it soon becomes apparent that the true rulers of the planet are the dead eyed 'children' he has seen dining in the most expensive restaurants, the sinister '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 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 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 Detail|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|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 Move 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>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]

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