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[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Channel BlueAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Jay MartelBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=3.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=What if the planet you called home wasn’t just a random blob in the universe, orbiting a far off star. What if the things that happened on it weren’t entirely down to chance or fate or whatever you want to call it. What if, actually, life on Earth was less random and more, well, scheduled than you might like to admit. Someone ''Opening up there, calling new ways of thinking about the shots, deciding when to send in ‘natural’ disasters, influencing how shape of things work, people behave, countries are run. Not a God, mind, but something far crazier: a television executive. Earth is the reality show to end all reality shows, and while its inhabitants have no clue every second of their lives is being watched and edited, that doesn’t stop them behaving in a way that keeps the viewers highly entertainedcome.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781855803</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|title=Plastic Jesus|author=Wayne Simmons|rating=3|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Johnny Lyon I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a computer coding expert spiralling out few decades of control following technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the death feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of his loverit is - frankly - quite frightening. Johnny’s colleague Sarah convinces their boss Garcon that he needs Johnny for a project that is perfect for him (creating a virtual reality Jesus) Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and just might help him to concentrate on something other than his lossend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. They embark on a project with potentially monumental impact within a world of degradation I needed people I knew I could trust and violence who could deliver information in a city ruled over by organised crime king pin Paul McBride. Many storylines collide as the project effects more people than Johnny realisesway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773630</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 StoriesSylvie Cathrall|authortitle=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and othersA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=It's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed There are few greater joys than 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 of ways. So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our ears, and leaving people pressing a red button book which lives up to see a programme about three Doctors, er, pressing a red button, we turn to other aspects of the birthday bonanzacompelling premise. Such as And this book, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespan, from being a loose collection of eleven short e-book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writing, to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within is one set of coversthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
 {{newreview|title=Rags and Bones|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)Frontpage|ratingisbn=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>}} {{newreview1803816759|title=The Time Traveller's AlmanacUnravelling|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeerWill Gibson
|rating=4
|genre=AnthologiesScience Fiction|summary=From H.G Wells to It''Doctor Who'', there s 2038 and Joe is something about a good time-travel story that has bored cop policing the power wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to ignite get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the imagination in a way unique AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and riots start to the genrespread. Perhaps it is due Finally, Joe gets to do some real policing. In the fact that when dealing with aftermath of the subject of time travel, literally ''anything rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is possibleassigned to bring her home. Joe isn''. Wellt the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, almost anything...apart from going back in time a British superfan and killing your Grandfathertech nerd, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy is also on the universecase.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0CP95J1CG|title=ParasiteOf Ghosts & Broken Promises|author=Mira GrantMark Lingane|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Ronan''Parasite'' is the first part of the Parasitology series and if s not entirely sure why he decides to go to the quality of this book party but his interest is anything to go piqued by the next is going to be highly sought afterway it arrived. It puts us several years into the future, in And it seems like a time where medicine has made massive leaps forward good opportunity to get out of his room and where humans no longer take medication, suffer away from allergies, or even catch the common coldonline activities he makes a living at. These medical advancements are all thanks to SymboGen and So he makes his way there, dodging the invention buses that make up most of their intestinal shield, which is a genetically engineered tapeworm designed to monitor your body’s functions the traffic and correct abnormalitieswatching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501922</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=ConquestK P O'Donnell|authortitle=John Connolly and Jennifer RidyardThe Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)|rating=3.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=The Earth has been invaded by the IllyriVL-15, a vaguely humanoid race far in advance of humankindprototype robot, is desperate to understand who were able to conquer the planet gently by proving how futile it would be to resistshe is. They are keen to ensure Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the human race remains compliantworld ended, but are mostly keen to avoid bloodshedconsumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and Renada. Humankind, howeverOver half-a-century later, civilisation is not a race starting to take conquest lying downrebuild. There Dr Amelia Wong is determined to continue her father's legacy, building a very active resistanceworld where machines and humans can live together in harmony, particularly in Scotlandbut internal frictions and external enemies might bring it all crashing down again. Craig Anderson, where the Scots come out leader of a group of salvagers called the Highlands to strike on Exhumers, 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't diminished in the Illyri garrisons slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and power bases in cities like Edinburgh.not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147220963X</amazonuk>B0CKRYFRZM
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Box of Red Brocade (Chronoptika)Emily Tesh|authortitle=Catherine FisherSome Desperate Glory
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Ok. Let's catch you up. Jake's father is still lost in time. VennWhile Earth's wife is still dead. Summer, the Queen of the Sheechildren live, still hasn't made Venn her husband. Sarah still hasn't prevented the destruction of the future by Janus. And the Scarred Man still hasnenemy shall fear us'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=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Is there a greater change in Following the life destruction of the Earth, amongst a middle-aged woman than the death rare number of her teenage son? Elisa might have thought notsurvivors, having Kyr has been forced to bury fifteen year old Silas, and try and move raised on with her husband Derek and Gaea Station – the year-older son, Sam. But a greater change occurs on home of the way back from her annual, solo pilgrimage to his grave last scraps of humanity something very weird happens and trained relentlessly to avenge her people and the universeworld that should have been hers. She pops from one car to another, from under a cloudless sky to a slightly greyer one – and from All her self as Elisa to a world where people call her Lisalife, where she is plumper, has been conditioned to fall in a different jobline, stiil married to Derek in the same home – but still the mother of two young men…fulfil her duty and ensure that humanity perseveres.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846689473</amazonuk>0356521834
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=PhoenixM R Carey|authortitle=SF SaidInfinity Gate|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersScience Fiction|summary=Lucky thinks he is I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a normal Human boygenre I dislike – nothing of the sort. But one night, he dreams that the stars My standards are singing high precisely because it's a hard genre to him get right – and he can feel a mysterious power rising within him. When he wakes, his bedclothes are scorched. And when his mother finds outit's bad, Luckyit's world is turned upside down and he finds himself on an alien spaceship, on often terrible. But the run, and in the middle premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a warzonehigh-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. Everything Lucky has been brought So this is where I sum up to believe is being testedthat premise. 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? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>038561814X</amazonuk>0356518043
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen P KiernanMichael Grothaus|title=The CuriosityBeautiful Shining People
|rating=4
|genre=Science Literary Fiction|summary=Microbiologist Kate Philo is a member of an Arctic expedition sent to locate life forms frozen in ice flows. Striking ''But fearing something and having it lucky, she and the team find a human whom they reanimate once they get him back come to their American lab. However new life brings new challenges. The man died over a century earlier and much has changedpass are two different things. The press is now omnipotent, his And I'resurrection' offends religious fundamentalists and scientific ethics m willing to bet most of what we fear will never saw this problem cominghappen, or we can take steps to change it. To Kate, though, he's not a problem. He's Jeremiah, afraid, bewildered and in need of an ally.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548753</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|title=All Our Yesterdays|author=Cristin Terrill|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Em ''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the question of identity and Finn are being held prisoner by the Doctoracceptance. They never see each other but are able Of what it means to communicate through the cell wallbe human. This Of what is real and what is a blessing but also a curse: they can each hear the interrogations artificial, and torture meted out to whether 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 development 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 lovestechnology is exciting or frightening. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408835193</amazonuk>191458564X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mitch Benn1739593901|title=Terra22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Terra is different from everyone else on Fnrr and not only because she has vowels in her name''Our future will be more complex than we expected. You seeInstead of flying cars, Terra isn’t actually from Fnrrwe got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma. Her adoptive father (Lbbp, a Fnrrn scientist) rescued her from her parents, the Bradshaws, on the planet Rrth in a moment of unthinking philanthropy. If only he'd done a little more thinking and little less philanthropy…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575132086</amazonuk>}}'
{{newreview|author=Marie Harbon|title=Seven Point Eight: The First Chronicle|rating=3I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Following several main characters - scientist Paul, businessman Max, remote viewer Tahra I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and mystery woman Ava - across two time frames spanning the 1940s then forget to return to the present day, book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there'Seven Point Eights science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It' blends s human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction and fantasy in a sprawlingshort stories? Well, absorbing, diffuse novel that will attract fans of both genresI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005IBYKC0</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ioanna Bourazopoulou and Yannis Panas (Translator)Mark Lingane|title=What Lot's Wife SawGalaxy
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= It's been over 20 years since The Overflow cameSpark, flooding half of Europe. Around who is an elite pilot with the same time Violet SaltSpace Academy, barely makes it through a new multibattle alive. His co-functional mineral, appeared, its production now governed globally by the mysterious, all-powerful Consortiumpilot was not so fortunate. Meanwhile back in Europe The ColonyWaking from a coma that lasted years, a haven for those escaping floods he remembers little and indeed justice, is ruled by Governor Bera and six officials, the 'Purple Stars'. All seems to be well in a despotic, lawless way until the six wake up no physical shape to the realisation that the Governor has died mysteriously in the nightresume his duties. The Consortium needs answers so choose the greatest crossword compiler of the age, Phileas Book, to investigate, whether But Earth is under threat and he wants to or notmust.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845025474</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dan Wells|title=Fragments|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=I didn't have much hope for this book - the middle book in a series tends to be filler, and as [[Partials Returned by Dan Wells|Partials]] was so brilliant, I though it was going to be hard to top. 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 to a world in which she appears his superiors to be the sole living human inhabitant. A mysterious transparent wall has been erected around a large area in the Austrian mountains where our narrator has been holidayingspace station, he finds himself amid a wall that is unbreakable last ditch attempt to save humanity - and through which she can see that not just from the world outside has come to a complete standstill. Our narrator is faced with living in total isolation and forced to learn how to survivealien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704373114</amazonuk>B09X3NZ76W
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=R J AndersonTade Thompson|title=Quicksilver|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Before I say anything else, I ''must'' warn you. ''Quicksilver'' is billed as a companion novel to [[Ultraviolet by R J Anderson|Ultraviolet]] with the implication that you could read either first. You can't. You mustn't. So if you haven't read ''Ultraviolet'', go no further. ''Quicksilver'' picks up where [[Ultraviolet by R J Anderson|Ultraviolet]] left off. But this time, synaesthete Alison is left behind and the story is told from Far From the point Light of view of Tori|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408316285</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Tregillis|title=Necessary Evil: The Milkweed Triptych: Book ThreeHeaven
|rating=4.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=4
|genre=Dystopian Fiction
|summary=Sorcha Blades and her four closest friends do the best they can with what they have. Living in a post-apocalyptic world, they are from the wrong side of the tracks. Unable to live easy and glittering lives like the elite, they scam and forage and hack their way to some degree of comfort and still manage to avoid the - very unpleasant - state security apparatus for the most part. Not that there's much state left for the security apparatus to protect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00904MC30</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Janine Southard
|title=Queen & Commander (A Hive Queen Novel)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Joshua Richards isn't the most successful PI; clients aren't exactly lining up around the block but he lives in hope that one day his luck will change… and it does. Within a couple of weeks he has a sudden plethora of enquirers; the bad news is that none of them seem to live long enough to pay him. Meanwhile elsewhere, the Engine powering the world (literally) is dying, although the populous is blissfully oblivious. Is there a connection? Joshua Richards doesn't know, but there seems to be a huge part of himself he's not acquainted with either… at least not yet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0987478605</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio
|title=Girl genius: Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|rating=4
|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
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|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
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Communion Town I looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year I know, yet another one. It won't be one city of the major numbers, but it may the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a few of the big 0-numbers, and if all goes well , I'll be many as each personan OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's perception the extent of it is coloured by their experiences within itmy mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Each chapter introduces us Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to a different story, a different viewpoint and therefore, practically a different citybe living one. Starting 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 ominousassistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, creepy story which is at least a way of Nicolas, through stories encapsulating such themes as recaptured friendship, murder and an enigmatic take on continuing the life of his genes, and a private investigator, we start motive to keep on going. But how can he get to piece together not flick the nature of Communion Town... or do we'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007454767</amazonuk>1642860670
}}
{{newreview|author=Simon Denman|title=Connected|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Doug, a maths and computing undergraduate at Essex University, has just pulled the most amazing girl. So he'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 Move on, something has gone horribly wrong for Kal and Doug emerges from afternoon delight to the horrific discovery that his friend has committed suicide. Miles away in the countryside, Peter is attending his brother's funeral. Martin was a musician but not a tortured artist and it seems inconceivable that he too would take his own life. But the trip, for Peter, is more than a family obligation - it's the chance of a break from a stale marriage and an opportunity to indulge in some guilty proximity to his newly-bereaved sister-in-law. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0089YQPI0</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Short Story Reviews]]

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