Changes

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Doctor WhoAll Tomorrow's Futures: 11 Doctors, 11 StoriesFictions that Disrupt|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott Benjamin Greenaway and othersStephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – and I don't mean the title character, but the nature of the programme. It has gone from black and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed in all manner Opening up new ways of ways. So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button to see a programme thinking about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanza. Such as this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection shape of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, things to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of covers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Rags and Bones|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472210522</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Time Traveller's Almanac|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer|rating=4|genre=Anthologies|summary=From H.G Wells to ''Doctor Who'', there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in a way unique to the genre. Perhaps it is due to the fact that when dealing with the subject of time travel, literally ''anything is possible''. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy the universe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Parasite|author=Mira Grant|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=I've heard it said that 'Parasitetechnology'is what happens after you' is the first part re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the Parasitology series and if the quality feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of this book it is anything to go by - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the next is going to be highly sought after. It puts us several years into possibilities and the future, in a time where medicine has made massive leaps forward probabilities and where humans no longer take medication, suffer from allergies, end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or even catch the common coldlatest conspiracy theorist. These medical advancements are all thanks to SymboGen I needed people I knew I could trust and the invention of their intestinal shield, which is who could deliver information in a genetically engineered tapeworm designed to monitor your body’s functions and correct abnormalitiesway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501922</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=ConquestSylvie Cathrall|authortitle=John Connolly and Jennifer RidyardA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|summary=The Earth has been invaded by the Illyri, There are few greater joys than a vaguely humanoid race far in advance of humankind, who were able to conquer the planet gently by proving how futile it would be to resist. They are keen book which lives up to ensure the human race remains compliant, but are mostly keen to avoid bloodshed. Humankind, however, is not a race to take conquest lying downcompelling premise. There And this is a very active resistance, particularly in Scotland, where the Scots come out one of the Highlands to strike on the Illyri garrisons and power bases in cities like Edinburghthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147220963X</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreview|title=The Box of Red Brocade (Chronoptika)|author=Catherine Fisher|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Ok. Let's catch you up. Jake's father is still lost in time. Venn's wife is still dead. Summer, the Queen of the Shee, still hasn't made Venn her husband. Sarah still hasn't prevented the destruction of the future by Janus. And the Scarred Man still hasn't done, well, whatever it is that he's trying to do. The Chronoptika, a mirror made of black obsidian and a time travel device, connects Jake, Venn, Sarah and the rest, but they all want different things from it. Can they all be satisfied? It doesn't look likely.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444912631</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Familiar|author=J Robert Lennon|rating=4.5Frontpage|genreisbn=General Fiction|summary=Is there a greater change in the life of a middle-aged woman than the death of her teenage son? Elisa might have thought not, having been forced to bury fifteen year old Silas, and try and move on with her husband Derek and the year-older son, Sam. But a greater change occurs on the way back from her annual, solo pilgrimage to his grave – something very weird happens to the universe. She pops from one car to another, from under a cloudless sky to a slightly greyer one – and from her self as Elisa to a world where people call her Lisa, where she is plumper, in a different job, stiil married to Derek in the same home – but still the mother of two young men…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689473</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1803816759|title=Phoenix|author=SF Said|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucky thinks he is a normal Human boy. But one night, he dreams that the stars are singing to him and he can feel a mysterious power rising within him. When he wakes, his bedclothes are scorched. And when his mother finds out, Lucky's world is turned upside down and he finds himself on an alien spaceship, on the run, and in the middle of a warzone. Everything Lucky has been brought up to believe is being tested. The war between Human and Axxa is raging, so why does Lucky's mother trust alien renegades more than she does humans? Where is his father? What are the secrets his mother has kept from him all his life? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561814X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewUnravelling|author=Stephen P Kiernan|title=The CuriosityWill Gibson

|summary=Microbiologist Kate Philo It's 2038 and Joe is a member bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of an Arctic expedition sent adventure and to locate get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the AI system that now runs everything, making life forms frozen in ice flows. Striking it luckyeasier for many, she and the team find a human whom they reanimate once they get him back riots start to their American labspread. However new life brings new challengesFinally, Joe gets to do some real policing. The man died over a century earlier In the aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and much has changedJoe is assigned to bring her home. The press is now omnipotentJoe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, his 'resurrection' offends religious fundamentalists a British superfan and scientific ethics never saw this problem coming. To Katetech nerd, though, he's not a problemis also on the case. HeWhat went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's Jeremiah, afraid, bewildered and in need of an ally.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548753</amazonuk>kidnapping connected?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=All Our YesterdaysB0CP95J1CG|authortitle=Cristin Terrill|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Em and Finn are being held prisoner by the Doctor. They never see each other but are able to communicate through the cell wall. This is a blessing but also a curse: they can each hear the interrogations and torture meted out to the other. Neither talks but how much can they take? And then Em finds a note hidden in her cell. It's from her future self and it tells of fourteen escapes. And fourteen failed trips back to the past to try to put things right. There's only one way left. Em must kill someone she loves. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408835193</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewOf Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mitch Benn|title=TerraMark Lingane

|summary=Terra Ronan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to the party but his interest is different from everyone else on Fnrr and not only because she has vowels in her namepiqued by the way it arrived. You see, Terra isn’t actually from Fnrr. Her adoptive father (Lbbp, And it seems like a Fnrrn scientist) rescued her good opportunity to get out of his room and away from her parents, the Bradshawsonline activities he makes a living at. So he makes his way there, on dodging the planet Rrth in a moment buses that make up most of unthinking philanthropythe traffic and watching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully. If only he'd done a little more thinking and little less philanthropy…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575132086</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marie HarbonK P O'Donnell|title=Seven Point Eight: The First ChronicleVital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)

|summary=Following several main characters VL- scientist Paul15, businessman Maxa prototype robot, is desperate to understand who she is. Unfortunately, remote viewer Tahra before she could find any answers, the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and mystery woman Ava Renada. Over half-a- across two time frames spanning the 1940s century later, civilisation is starting to rebuild. Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her father's legacy, building a world where machines and humans can live together in harmony, but internal frictions and external enemies might bring it all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, leader of a group of salvagers called the present dayExhumers, has his entire life turned upside down when he unearths a prototype combat robot: none other than VL-15 herself. Even after being buried for 65 years, her determination hasn''Seven Point Eight'' blends science fiction and fantasy t diminished in a sprawlingthe slightest, absorbingand no errant machine, diffuse novel that no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will attract fans of both genres.stop her on her quest for answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005IBYKC0</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM

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 avenge her people and the world that should have been hers. All her life, she has been conditioned to fall in line, to fulfil her duty and ensure that humanity perseveres.|isbn=0356521834}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ioanna Bourazopoulou and Yannis Panas (Translator)M R Carey|title=What Lot's Wife SawInfinity Gate|rating=45

|summary= ItI'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's been over 20 years since The Overflow came, flooding half a genre I dislike – nothing of Europethe sort. Around the same time Violet Salt, My standards are high precisely because it's a new multi-functional mineralhard genre to get right – and when it's bad, appeared, its production now governed globally by it's often terrible. But the mysterious, all-powerful Consortiumpremise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. Meanwhile back in Europe The Colony, A concept this intriguing felt like a haven for those escaping floods and indeed justice, is ruled by Governor Bera and six officialshigh-stakes gamble: if it was done well, the 'Purple Starsit'd be fantastic. All seems to be well in a despotic, lawless way until the six wake So this is where I sum up to the realisation that the Governor has died mysteriously in the night. The Consortium needs answers so choose the greatest crossword compiler of the age, Phileas Book, to investigate, whether he wants to or notpremise.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845025474</amazonuk>0356518043

''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the question of identity and acceptance. Of what it means to be human. Of what is real and what is artificial, and whether the development of technology is exciting or frightening.|isbn=191458564X}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dan Wells1739593901|title=Fragments22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=I didn't have much hope for this book - the middle book in a series tends to 'Our future will be fillermore complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and as [[Partials by Dan Wells|Partials]] was so brilliant, I though it was going to be hard automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to toptrack grandma. I was very wrong. This book is mind-blowing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007465238</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Marlen Haushofer|title=The Wall|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=One morning our protagonist awakens I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a world in which she appears few stories and then forget to return to be the sole living human inhabitantbook. A mysterious transparent wall has been erected around There's got to be a large area in very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the Austrian mountains where our narrator has been holidaying, a wall that is unbreakable and through technology which she can see that takes centre stage along with the world outside has come to a complete standstill-building. Our narrator is faced with living in total isolation It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and forced to learn how to survivethe world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373114</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=R J AndersonMark Lingane|title=QuicksilverGalaxy

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Before I say anything elseSpark, I ''must'' warn you. ''Quicksilver'' who is billed as a companion novel to [[Ultraviolet by R J Anderson|Ultraviolet]] an elite pilot with the implication that you could read either firstSpace Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. You can'tHis co-pilot was not so fortunate. You mustn't. So if you haven't read ''Ultraviolet''Waking from a coma that lasted years, go he remembers little and is in no further. ''Quicksilver'' picks up where [[Ultraviolet by R J Anderson|Ultraviolet]] left offphysical shape to resume his duties. But this time, synaesthete Alison Earth is left behind under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the story is told space station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the point of view of Torialien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408316285</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian TregillisTade Thompson|title=Necessary Evil: The Milkweed Triptych: Book ThreeFar From the Light of Heaven

|summary=Raybould Marsh has been sent back from Michelle 'Shell' Campion is fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the 1960s to sleeper ship Ragtime, bound for the Second World War to avert end world of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the world while saving ship's AI captain. However, when she wakes up at the life end of her trip to find dozens of baby Agnes. At least thather passengers butchered and the Ragtime's what he thinks heAI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won's doing t be going as smoothly as she hoped it forwould. He's armed with a plan butDown on Bloodroot, even if his friend and warlock Sir William Beauclerk disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his own younger self help, there android partner Salvo are unforeseen disadvantages in dabbling with timesent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. And then Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of course thereShell's father Lawrence Biz takes a shuttle to Bloodroot, half-alien daughter in tow, to see why the Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the seer politicking and ex-Nazi experiment, Gretelbureaucracy of Space Station Lagos. Is she madWhat the five of them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, bad or just has a funny way but potentially the entirety of showing her philanthropic side? We're all about to find out…human space…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>035650171X</amazonuk>0356514323

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=SJ GriffinClaire North|title=The VanguardNotes from the Burning Age

|summary=In RhiannonAt its core 's world, your entire future depends on your final school test results. Everyone is classified according to personality type and entry to any career or university depends upon your personality type. It's impossible to cheat Notes From the test... unless youBurning Age''re Rhiannon. Rhiannon should really be by Claire North is a Perceiver. But all her life she has wanted her own hivespy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. And to achieve thisHowever, she must test as with the best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a Queen new and timely genre, cli-fi, or Commanderclimate change fiction. And this she does. The only person North's novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to ever have manipulated start anew and live alongside nature without any of the test. Rhiannon's future is setmodern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: leadership trainingfossil fuels, followed by a choice weapons of Devoted to serve hermass destruction, followed by command of intensive farming). There is a prestigious space ship growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and hiveone group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the cost to the Earth. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00BRM30SE</amazonuk>0356514757

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian TregillisAdrian Tchaikovsky|title=The Coldest War (Milkweed Triptych)Shards of Earth|rating=54|genre=Science Fiction|summary= England 1963: The war Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-sized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is overscattered, Hitler defeated and constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the Russians (Britainarchitect's ally) retain most of mainland Europereshaping. The Briton in Then, just when they had the street believes that it was Dunkirk and human race on the Battle of Britain that saved run, the nation but ex-naval intelligence officer Raybould 'Pip' Marsh and his former friend Lord William Beauclerk know differentlyArchitects vanished. The nation was saved by warlocks like Lord WillAnd so, the same warlocks that memories of the war fades, heroes are now being murderedforgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. HoweverIdris Telemmier, fighting overa man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the Architects, Pip and Will are both war-weary and does not want to be left alone but remembered. But, when he and the Secret Intelligence Service has other ideas. For crew of the Nazi experimental 'willpower' children are now adult and assembling in Englandsalvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, still equipped with suddenly he is thrust back into the super powers of their childhoodspotlight. This means Will As he and Pip have old scores his allies bounce from star system to settle star system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and greater evils waiting rich slavers, he slowly begins to be faced… Yes… ''those'' greater evils are back.realise that the real war is only just getting started…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356501701</amazonuk>1529051886

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mark LinganeTerry Miles|title=Beyond BeliefRabbits

|summary=Nobody said Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also 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. A bit like the game of life on then. Yes, this is the road with game of life for a travelling show would be easycertain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, but Master Payne’s Circus the hack from the darkest of Adventure seems webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to face more hazards than be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most. Firstlyunique of high score boards, there for the lists of who has successfully won the game are those giant battle clanks lurking in the forestmost peculiar places, waiting to reduce unsuspecting travellers to cindersand are still very short. However this time it's different. There are also prowling gangs of eerie GeisterdamenThis time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, or the most broken it'spider riderss ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, with their ghostly glowing eyes and long hair. Nearby towns could how his loved ones might be inhabited by revenants; misshapen zombie humans infected by Slaver Waspskept safe, hungrily on he is only to find out that the lookout for their next victim. But when a mysterious girl called Agatha line between observing and her talking cat join learning about the troupegame, and playing it, that’s when the real danger beginsis a very thin one indeed...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781166498</amazonuk>1529016932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christopher BrookmyreC J Carey|title=BedlamWidowland|rating=3.54|genre=Science General Fiction|summary=Ross Baker It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state 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, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. But this is most certainly a wage slave at Neurospheredifferent Britain, writing computer code for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a new brain scanning caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. His girlfriendAnd in this puritanical existence, our heroine, CarolRose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not happy about every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the hours he puts into his job, thinking heparty line before they's being played re stamped ready for a fool by doing extra work for no recognitionreprint. Ross thinks they're about That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to break uplight, but soon discovers with their relationship is about potential to move to a level he was too busy to anticipate. After a rough morning, he agrees to have his brain scanned in one of the trial machinesspoil Hitler's visit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356502139</amazonuk>152941198X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil Foglio and Kaja FoglioEverina Maxwell|title=Girl Genius: Agatha H and the Airship CityWinter's Orbit

|summary=Agatha Clay has had Prince Kiem is a bad dayfamous political disappointment. Waking up late was just He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the beginningpast few years. She got mugged in a dark alley on her way to university and her precious locket was stolen. Things did not get any better So when she arrived at the university. When demonstrating her latest mechanical design, it malfunctioned and exploded in front of her instructor. Then, without warning, the faculty had an impromptu inspection by Baron Wulfenbach, the ruthless dictator who controls most of the continent. By the time the day was through, the university had been reduced important political alliance is to a pile of rubble and her beloved mentor killed. And then,of course, she had ''those'' blinding headaches be arranged – one that is supposed to deal with. But if today was bad, tomorrow is set prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be even worse.chosen for the role.Least of all him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781166471</amazonuk>0356515885

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Iain M BanksRob Winters|title=The Hydrogen SonataHis Name Was Wren

|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary=It's 25 years since Iain M Banks introduced us to In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the utopian ''Culture'' series village of sci fi adventure books and ''The Hydrogen Sonata'' is the 13th in the seriesHurstwick. One thing Banks does particularly well is to make his books completely accessible as stand alones It came down hard, explaining taking the concept afresh each time without going over old ground for long time fansspire of the village church with it, of which there are many. In many waysdestroying a stone shack, this is and leaving a good introduction for those who have yet to discover wide trail through the joys wood, but no trace of this excellent series because what it's far more linear than someactually was. He sometimes leaves even hardened ''Culture'' addicts struggling to work out what's going on with alternative realities before bringing them together German secret weapon was the local gossip, but there's little should have been an explosion and a crater, and there were neither of that herethose things.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356501507</amazonuk>B08KGVNVNB

 {{newreview|author=Kevin J Anderson|title=The Martian War|rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Suppose H G Wells was not simply a skilled writer with a spectacular imagination, but was in fact centrally involved in a fantastical adventure which formed the basis for several of his most successful novels. Kevin J Anderson has supposed exactly this in his latest novel 'The Martian War'. Real historical figures such as Percival Lowell and T H Huxley share centre stage with famous Wellsian characters like Dr Moreau and Mr Cavor in a story that borrows elements from 'War of the Worlds', 'The First Men in the Moon', 'The Island of Doctor Moreau' and 'The Invisible Man'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161720</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael CobleyMark Lingane|title=The Ascendant StarsNote to Self: An Education

|summary=In Kry''Space Opera has never been s world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in more capable hands2030 it'' is the Guardian quote s found that concludes the blurb for thisradiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, Cobleyin 2035 it's wrap up part possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the ''Humanity's Fire'' trilogy that started same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with [[Seeds image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a Sea of Earth (Humanity's Fire) by Michael CobleyStars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|Seeds summary= On the moon of Earth]] and continued through [[The Orphaned Worlds (Humanitya distant gas giant, Xenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the planet habitable to human life. However, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's Fire) by Michael Cobley|The Orphaned Worlds]]surface leaves her bonded with a strange alien entity. It's hard After the entity bonded to disagreeher loses control and kills half the staff of the research station, but it's also hard the United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the system to get away – on this evidence – take Kira in for examination. Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a rag-tag bunch of misfits, and the fact news is grim. The same aliens that Space Opera might be closer destroyed the Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, and only a mythical weapon known as the Staff of Blue can stop them. As the death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to Soap realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than Classical, when it comes to opera classification.she could've possibly imagined…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841496367</amazonuk>1529046505

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter HellerLaura Lam and Elizabeth May|title=The Dog StarsSeven Devils|rating=4.5|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=We are in North America in Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a near but post-Apocalyptic future. Those few humans resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to survive a pandemic have to be treated inherit in her past life as carriersPrincess Discordia, and/or armed and desperatewhom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Novantae, and so are particularly of note has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to military-minded survivalist Bangleythe war effort. And climate and eco-problems have killed off many common species, something closer to narrator HigAlthough she's heart, less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as hethe mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's a more placidbrother Damocles, 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 watchthe runner-towerup heir to the Empire, while Hig takes off in his Cessna is plotting to get away from it all, disrupt peace talks between Tholos and his flights act the last of the free alien species. It's a race against time as the rebels move to put a first line of defense. But is it all life could bestop Damocles' plans, for Hig and his dog and Bangley? What is Hig still to make with millions of lives hanging in the last inviting contact he heard on his plane's radio - even if that was three years ago? balance…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755392590</amazonuk>1473231140

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam ThompsonFrederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=Communion TownA Life Without End|rating=54

|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 storyI looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a different viewpoint and thereforebirthday this year – I know, practically a different cityyet another one. Starting with It won't be one of the ominousmajor numbers, creepy story of Nicolas, through stories encapsulating such themes but the time when I have the same number as recaptured friendship, murder and an enigmatic take Heinz varieties looms on the life horizon. And then a few of a private investigator, we start to piece together the nature of Communion Town... or do we?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007454767</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Simon Denman|title=Connected|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Dougbig 0-numbers, a maths and computing undergraduate at Essex Universityif all goes well, has just pulled the most amazing girlI'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty. So he) Now if that's not really that interested in the file extent of fractals research best friend Kal has just sent him. But while Doug and Cindy are busily getting it onmy mid-life crisis, something has gone horribly wrong for Kal and Doug emerges from afternoon delight I guess I have to the horrific discovery be happy. Our author here doesn't use that his friend has committed suicide. Miles away in the countrysideexact phrase, Peter is attending his brother's funeralbut he might be said to be living one. Martin was a musician but not a tortured artist and it seems inconceivable that Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as he wants – he too would take his own life. But like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the tripfirst geneticist he interviews, for Peterand they end up with a child, which is more than at least a family obligation - it's way of continuing the chance life of his genes, and a break from a stale marriage and an opportunity motive to indulge in some guilty proximity keep on going. But how can he get to his newly-bereaved sister-in-law. not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0089YQPI0</amazonuk>1642860670

{{newreview|author=Ted Kosmatka|title=The Games|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=It's the near future and the Olympics go Move on, but not without changes. A new event has been added to those that we'd recognise: genetically engineered gladiatorial combat. 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 gladiators.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781164142</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Brin|title=Existence|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=We are a few decades further into the 21st Century at the start of this sci-fi novel. The world is buckling under climate change, and over-population. Those with enough funds are completely wired into a virtual world, but wherever they live out their existence things are going to be changed, when a space-based labourer, clearing space junk from orbit, finds an alien artifact containing contact with various races in a sort of memory bank cum virtual reality. Where are the aliens that had previously been so silent while we sought for them with our Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence? What is the purpose and message behind this capsule? And who can be sure that this alleged First Contact was actually the first?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501728</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]