Difference between revisions of "Newest Science Fiction Reviews"

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[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
 
[[Category:Science Fiction|*]]
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Philip Martin
+
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos
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|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|rating=4
+
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=If only those critiquing ''Doctor Who'' had access to a time machine, they would be able to temper all their responsesWhen Mary Whitehouse found the likes of [[Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks|Genesis of the Daleks]] to be too violent, she and her coterie had no idea the series would soon turn to a prison world, where soon-to-be victims of snuff movies are trapped in a reality-show styled existence, and a hard-done-by populous are sat at home doing nothing other than watching the feeds from the executions, the morgues and worseIf those watching ''Doctor Who'' had the benefit of foresight they might have responded to ''Vengeance on Varos'' differently. They were quite vocal in complaining about a horrific character being a trade delegate who is half-man, half-slug and wholly stupid evil laugh, and such an artificial premiseLittle did they know the series would soon lumber people with Bonnie Langford, and aliens looking like liquorice bleeding allsorts…
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|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940406</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteenWell, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetimeI've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening.  Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theoristI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Eric Saward
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|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=Doctor Who: The Visitation
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|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=3
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Have you ever given your children a time machine?  No?  Are you sure?  What about that thing in the corner upstairs called a dressing-up box – have they never been transported bodily to the 1970s by some orange cords and wide-collared shirts or whatnot?  Have they never been in a museum and put on a mediaeval smock and told they're now in the middle ages?  Well adults can get involved in that, too, of course – the cast of this ''Doctor Who'' adventure had to put on 17th Century garb, and that was pretty much it as far as looks go.  Yes, there is an evil-seeming alien, yes there are some control bands he makes us poor humans wear, and yes there is a giant android dressed as Death, but on the whole it was one of the more simple episodes. Still, who's to say the novel isn't much more substantial, rich and varied?
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|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940392</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= 0356522776
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Terrance Dicks
+
|isbn=1803816759
|title=Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
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|title=The Unravelling
|rating=5
+
|author=Will Gibson
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=If you were to randomly travel in time and space, where would you end up?  Well, if our own battle-torn history was anything to go by, you'd like as not end up in a time and place of war. The thing is, however, the Doctor is not, for once, travelling randomly – he's been charged with carrying out errands for the Time Lords. And the most tricky of those is to go the planet Skaro, deeply enmeshed in a thousand year war, and put paid to one of the most heinous plans that could risk the universe – that of Davros to create his Dalek race.
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|summary=It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the 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 aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Joe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940384</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Malcolm Hulke
+
|isbn=B0CP95J1CG
|title=Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
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|title=Of Ghosts & Broken Promises
 +
|author=Mark Lingane
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=What effect do you think you'd have if you were to time travel?  I dare say it depends who or what you were to begin with, and when you went and what you did.  The creatures in this story only seem to stay in the same place, and do just what comes natural – but as they're giant rampaging dinosaurs and they suddenly appear in the middle of modern-day Central London they do kind of get noticed. As a result the entire place has been evacuated, all ten million people shipped out, and the Government resettled in that hotbed of politics, Harrogate. As a result, when the Doctor and Sarah Jane turn up they immediately get accused of being looters – and UNIT are just a touch too much out of contact. What is causing time to leave the dinosaurs moving around London, and what is a mediaeval man, complaining of witchcraft under King John, doing there too?
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|summary= Ronan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to the party but his interest is piqued by the way it arrived. And it seems like a good opportunity to get out of his room and away from the online activities he makes a living at. So he makes his way there, dodging the buses that make up most of the traffic and watching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940376</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Terrance Dicks
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|author=K P O'Donnell
|title=Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
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|title=The Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes)
|rating=4
+
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=What do you look like if you time travel?  Perhaps like a lunk-headed Austrian, naked and with fizzy blue stuff all over you. Or perhaps, to the confusion of Professor Travers, you look exactly as you did when he met you in Tibet forty years ago. That escapade has had a legacy, as he has brought back a deactivated robot Yeti – and has mistakenly managed to reactivate it. Or perhaps, you look very much like yourself if you're a time traveller, for just by reading this book you won't change your appearance, but you'll be sent back to 1968, by way of 1975, when this book-of-the-series was first published.
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|summary=VL-15, a prototype robot, is desperate to understand who she is. Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and Renada. Over half-a-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 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 slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785940368</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B0CKRYFRZM
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Bill Strutton
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|author=Emily Tesh
|title=Doctor Who and the Zarbi
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|title=Some Desperate Glory
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Consider the time machine.  You probably know of it as looking like either some fancy Edwardian sit-upon machine that the Morlocks nick, or perhaps a battered old English police call box.  I would suggest it can also look like a small paperback book pretty much like the subject at hand.  This reprint of a ''Doctor Who'' novel, first presented in 1973 from the series shown in 1965, certainly has the ability to take you back.  I grew up with the series on TV and the books in a Target imprint, but this predates that – it was, apparently, the second ever Who book-of-the-series. In it, the good Doctor and his three companions arrive on a certain quarry-like planet.  One stays in the TARDIS, only to find it and her nicked by aliens; another needs rescuing from alien mind control by a different species of aliens; and the third with our irascible hero work out what actually took control of their ship and stranded them there in the first place…
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|summary=''While Earth's children live, the enemy shall fear us''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178594035X</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
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.
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|isbn=0356521834
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= David Wingrove
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|author=M R Carey
|title= The Ocean of Time
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|title=Infinity Gate
|rating= 3.5
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|rating=5
|genre= Science Fiction
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= The War for Time continues. From the frozen tundra of 13th Century Russia to the battle of Paltava in 1709 and beyond, Otto Behr has waged an unquestioning, unending war across time for his people. But now a third unidentified power has joined the game across the ocean of time, and everything Otto holds dear could be unmade…
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|summary= I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and when it's bad, it's often terrible. But the premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009195617X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356518043
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Holly Jennings
+
|author= Michael Grothaus
|title= Arena
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|title=Beautiful Shining People
|rating= 3.5
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|rating=4
|genre= Science Fiction
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|genre= Literary Fiction
|summary= Kali Ling competes in the RAGE tournaments – a competition of Virtual Gaming, where the world's best gamers compete in a fight to the digital death. Every fights is broadcast to millions, and each player leads lives of fame. Although the weapons are digital, the players feel every blow… Kali Ling – the first female captain in tournament history, is famed for her prowess – but has her world shaken when her teammate and lover overdoses. Now, she must win the tournament and uncover the truth about the tournament, for the Virtual Gaming League has dark secrets. And the only way to change the rules is to fight from the inside…
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|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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1101988762</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
''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
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Michael Cobley
+
|isbn=1739593901
|title= Ancestral Machines
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|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|rating= 3
+
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|genre= Science Fiction
+
|rating=5
|summary=Having completed the Humanity's Fire trilogy with the Ascendant Stars, I expected to go off and do something completely differentHe didn't.   In Ancestral Machines, we're back in the same universeThe Construct (an ancient AI on a mission) is still doing its best to protect sentient species, and the drone Rensik is still one of its key agents.
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|genre=Science Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356501779</amazonuk>
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|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected.  Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
 +
 
 +
I'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 the bookThere's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-buildingIt'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 short stories?  Well, I loved it.  
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Jo Walton
+
|author=Mark Lingane
|title= The Philosopher Kings
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|title=Galaxy
|rating= 3.5
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|rating=4
|genre= Science Fiction
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary= Twenty years have passed since the Goddess Athene founded the Just City. The god Apollo is still living there, albeit in human form. Now married, and the father of several children, the man/god struggles to cope when tragedy befalls his family. Beset by grief and a need for revenge, Apollo sets sail to find the man who caused him such pain, but discovers something that may change everything…
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|summary=Spark, who is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a coma that lasted years, he remembers little and is in no physical shape to resume his duties. But Earth is under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the space station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the alien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150791</amazonuk>
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|isbn=B09X3NZ76W
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Mike Brooks
+
|author=Tade Thompson
|title=Dark Sky
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|title=Far From the Light of Heaven
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Making money is not easy, especially if you live life on the edges of known space scraping a living doing odd jobs with your crew; some legal, some not so legal.  You may not have much money, a good ship or even adequate washing facilities, but what you do have is the friendship and comradery of your fellow crewmates.  That is unless you have all just discovered that the captain used to be a space pirate who once suffocated his entire crew so that he could escape. Welcome to the jolly ship Keiko.
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|summary=Michelle '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, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. However, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ragtime's AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of Shell'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 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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009195665X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356514323
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Samuel R Delany
+
|author=Claire North
|title= Nova
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|title=Notes from the Burning Age
|rating= 5
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|rating=4
|genre= Science Fiction
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=In the 31st century the rare element Illyrion is a crucial energy source, and naturally enough a whole lot of politics and power are bound up with whoever controls the supply. Lorq Von Ray, daring spaceship captain, has this mad idea that flying into an imploding star will – as long as he can get out again – allow him to gather Illyrion in unimaginable quantities. Luckily his rag-bag crew don't know about this when they sign on.
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|summary=At its core ''Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a spy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, as with the best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a new and timely genre, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and live alongside nature without any of the modern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and one group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the cost to the Earth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211913</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0356514757
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Emma Newman
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|author= Adrian Tchaikovsky
|title= Planetfall
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|title= Shards of Earth
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|summary= Ren believed in Lee Suh-Mi's vision of a world far beyond our one, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, and untainted by overpopulation, pollution and war. Ren believed in that vision enough to give up everything, and followed the pathfinder Suh-Mi into the unknown. Twenty two years later, the new colony still functions – based around a mysterious alien structure into which Suh-Mi has resided in isolation. Ren works hard alone, generating the tools needed for survival – and harbouring a secret that could destroy everything they have worked to build. When a stranger appears, bearing a strong resemblance to the hidden Suh-Mi, secrets can no longer be hidden – secrets that may just destroy the colony…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425282392</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Stephen Hickman
 
|title= The Art of Stephen Hickman
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Fantasy
 
|summary= Stephen Hickman has been a well known artist in the Fantasy and Science Fiction worlds for a number of years now, having created covers for authors such as Harlan Ellison, Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, and Larry Niven. His paintings are vibrant, kinetic, sometimes scary, often sensual, traditional, and yet modern. ''The Art of Stephen Hickman'' collects hundreds of these paintings, and the artist himself provides an intriguing commentary alongside which offers a fascinating glimpse into the artistic process.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298456</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Ursula K Le Guin
 
|title= The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Compass Rose
 
 
|rating= 4
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary=I'll start by saying that I think the SF Masterworks series are pretty much always and without fail a really interesting read. I've bought quite a few from this publisher now and I find they will always pick interesting titles from the science fiction genre, making them a great place to start if you are either just dipping your toe into science fiction for the first time or if you're looking to build up your collection.
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|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…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147320576X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1529051886
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jason M Hough
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|author=Terry Miles
|title=Zero World
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|title=Rabbits
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Memory is an important element of making us who we are. Do we avoid certain courses of action knowing that the memory of it would haunt us for the rest of our lives?  Most of us would not kill, but what if you could forget that you just ended someone's life?  Then you may be a sociopath, but a useful sociopath that can be trained to be an assassin who kills, forgets and kills again. This type of person may even forget that they have visited new worlds.
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|summary=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 then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295252</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1529016932
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Philip K Dick
+
|author=C J Carey
|title=Nick and the Glimmung
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|title=Widowland
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Nick.  He lives on a future Earth, where multiple large classrooms are taught by just one holographic teacher, which might sound impractical but can actually help with advice when you declare to the class that you are breaking the law.  Nick, you see, has a pet cat, and in this massively over-populated and under-resourced world, pets are illegalThere's a simple solution wait for the ''anti-pet man'' to turn up with his weaponry and armour and dispose of it, but the family have decided to take the other way out – emigrate to an entirely different worldHence they embark on the trip to be pioneer farmers on Plowman's Planet, even when they're forewarned of a host of different and most unusual animals already resident there.  That advice still doesn't really prepare them for the battle whose crossfire in which they immediately get caught…
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|summary=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 WallisFor 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 different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has 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 the childless, the husbandless and the widows.  Female literacy is actively discouragedAnd in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose 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 every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint.  That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057513299X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=152941198X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Paul McAuley
+
|author=Everina Maxwell
|title= Confluence
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|title=Winter's Orbit
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=Yama is a foundling orphan adopted as a baby by the Aedile (chief civil servant) of a small city downriver of the mighty, ancient city of Ys, capital of the man-made world of Confluence. Longing to become a soldier and take his late brother's place in the long-running war against the heretics, the restless seventeen year old is about to be taken as an apprentice clerk despite his young age, to keep him out of trouble. Destiny, however, has other plans for him.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057511942X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Walter M Miller Jr
 
|title= Dark Benediction
 
|rating= 5
 
|genre= Science Fiction
 
|summary= Walter M. Miller Jr is rightly placed among the science fiction giants H.G. Wells, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick in the ''Masterworks'' series, a large selection of genre-defining writers and works at the centre of what is now such a popular and diverse range of literatures, films, and television productions. Miller is considered one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1950s, and in ''Dark Benediction'', fourteen of this author's best short stories are brought together in one collection.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473211948</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby and Kevin Moffett
 
|title=The Silent History
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=Well, they kept this quiet – for reasons that will become obvious.  A couple of years ago people in America were giving birth to problematic kids.  They (the children) were soon found to be unnaturally quiet – perhaps crying with hunger or pain, but never even trying to 'ooga-wooga' their way into their parents' hearts.  They were later found to be completely unable to speak, they could not read and indeed they could not understand anything said to them, or shown them, as an instruction.  They were physically unable to parse anything as language, and were in a silent world of their own.  But right about now they and we are combining worlds – schools are being set up, and funds are being made available, and people are coming down on the endless divide as to whether they are just problematic, disabled – or even the blessed.  In a couple of years, however, the problems the virus that is causing these people to be born with will be shown to be a major problem – and that is before the kids themselves change.  For they will be able to switch their mental abilities much like a blind man can hear more than the average, and will be able to comprehend body and facial language much more coherently than anyone else.  Throughout this timeline, however, people will be working hard to try and study the problem, and put it right – if indeed 'right' is the correct word…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959286X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kieran Shea
 
|title=Koko the Mighty
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Many people have dreamed of packing up their old jobs and opening a B&B or hotel with their partner somewhere in a picturesque holiday destination. You may just deserve this new life, but running a hotel is not easy, especially when it is on a pleasure island known for its indiscriminate violence and hedonism.  Koko Martsteller had her last hotel/brothel blown up, but after a series of extraordinary events she has a new hostelry and a new partner. It's a shame then that nothing is ever easy for Koko.
+
|summary= Prince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the past few years. So when an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the role. Least of all him.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781168628</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0356515885
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Rob Boffard
+
|author=Rob Winters
|title=Tracer
+
|title=His Name Was Wren
|rating=3
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=Just because the Earth has been destroyed does not mean that humans are now extinct.  As a bunch, humans are resourceful, so rather than sit on a dying Earth we all pack our bags and get a place on the orbiting station called New Earth.  However, after a couple of hundred years the old space station is starting to feel a little cramped and appears to be falling to pieces.  What is the common link to both Earth and New Earth being destroyed?  Perhaps it is time someone did something about these pesky humans who ruin everything.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356505138</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lev Rosen
 
|title=Depth
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The private investigator genre is a great oneNot because they all feel pretty similar so that picking one up is like slipping on a pair of comfortable slippers, but because you can put a PI anywhere – even the futureWriting about a New York that is partially underwater could be done in many ways; action, cerebral, but why not use an investigator for hire?  Mixing a solid crime story with an intriguing glance at the future is sure to be a winner, but you better put on your best trench coat as you are going to get wet.
+
|summary=In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the village of HurstwickIt came down hard, taking the spire of the village church with it, destroying a stone shack, and leaving a wide trail through the wood, but no trace of what it actually wasGerman secret weapon was the local gossip, but there should have been an explosion and a crater, and there were neither of those things.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783298634</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B08KGVNVNB
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=A L Kennedy
+
|author=Mark Lingane
|title=Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse
+
|title=Note to Self: An Education
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=If, for some unearthly reason, you should follow the world of golf and hear of a bunker that's 'lethal' or 'a killer trap', point the speaker in the direction of a sand pit on the 13th at the Fetch Brothers Golf Spa Hotel. For it really is lethal – something under it will suck you down, handspan by handspan, anaesthetising you and making you incapable of crying out. David Agnew knows this, and uses it as a handy way to get rid of people he doesn't like.  Elsewhere at Fetch there is a completely inept character – I needn't specify, as he's inept at everything – who's heartily smitten by Bryony, the hard-done-by receptionist. There is a grandma who it would appear is losing all memory, beyond for her beloved octopuses, two young children who are very wrong indeed, in lots of ways, and there's also a strangely metallic taste about the air in the place. A perfect site for the Fourth Doctor to pop up in, then – until a psychic attack leaves him with little opportunity to put the ageless problems to rights…
+
|summary= In Kry's world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, in 2035 it's possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908265</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=B08LY8J4KS
 +
}} 
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author= Christopher Paolini
 +
|title= To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
 +
|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, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's 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 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 news is grim. The same aliens that 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 realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…
 +
|isbn=1529046505
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Robert Brockway
+
|author= Laura Lam and Elizabeth May
|title= The Unnoticeables
+
|title= Seven Devils
|rating= 3.5
+
|rating= 4
|genre= Paranormal
+
|genre= Science Fiction
|summary= Carey is a punk living in New York City, 1977. Sick of watching his friends be abducted and killed, he doesn’t care about the rumours of strange monsters and supernatural happenings – all he wants to do is drink beer and kick ass. In the present day, Kaitlyn is in Hollywood. A stuntwoman, she has a missing best friend, has just escaped an attempt on her life, and an angel is waiting outside her door. The survival of the human race lies in the hands of Carey and Kaitlyn. We are, all of us, well and truly screwed…
+
|summary= Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Novantae, has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the war effort. Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the last of the free alien species. It's a race against time as the rebels move to put a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the balance…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783297972</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1473231140
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Jo Walton
 
|title= The Just City
 
|rating= 3.5
 
|genre= Dystopian Fiction
 
|summary=Urged on by her brother Apollo, goddess Pallas Athene founds the Just City of Atlantis – a city based on Plato’s republic. Filling it with an assortments of adults collected from throughout time, as well as ten thousand ten year olds, (one of whom is a disguised Apollo). Whilst the city flourishes, the arrival of Socrates may prove to be a fly in the ointment…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150767</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mike Brooks
 
|title=Dark Run
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Science Fiction
 
|summary=For any sane person Space is not a place you would want to go. Yes, there is the great unknown, planets to visit and the potential to meet alien life, but all that sits between you and the endless void is a few inches of metal – no thank you. To make things even worse, the future of space travel also appears to have pirates, terrorism and petty bureaucracy. I think I will stick to getting my astronaut-based thrills vicariously through the medium of the novel.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091956641</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Scott K Andrews
+
|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)
|title= Timebomb
+
|title=A Life Without End
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre= Science Fiction
+
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= In 2141, Yojana Patel throws herself off a skyscraper. She never hits the ground. In 1640, Dora Predennick discovers a badly burnt woman. When she reaches out to comfort her, she’s flung through time. And on a rainy day in our time, Kaz Cecka sneaks into the ruins of Sweetclover hall in search of a dry spot to sleep. Instead he finds a frightened housemaid from the time of Charles I, and an angry girl from the future. Thrown into a war that spans millennia, the three must harness powers in order to escape deadly villains, and stay one step ahead of a fanatical army…
+
|summary=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 of the major numbers, but 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 an OBE.  (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.)  Now if that's the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy.  Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. 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 assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a motive to keep on going.  But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444752081</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1642860670
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Short Story Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 17:18, 25 March 2024

AllTomorrowsFutureCover.jpg

Review of

All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.

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 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 feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand. Full Review

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Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. Full Review

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Review of

The Unravelling by Will Gibson

4star.jpg Science Fiction

It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the wealthy and peaceful New York City. Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the 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 aftermath of the rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her home. Joe isn't the only one trying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and tech nerd, is also on the case. What went wrong? Did the system fail or was it hacked? And how is Suki's kidnapping connected? Full Review

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Review of

Of Ghosts & Broken Promises by Mark Lingane

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

Ronan's not entirely sure why he decides to go to the party but his interest is piqued by the way it arrived. And it seems like a good opportunity to get out of his room and away from the online activities he makes a living at. So he makes his way there, dodging the buses that make up most of the traffic and watching the local energy storage indicator lights. Should be enough power. Hopefully. Full Review

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Review of

The Vital Link (A Spark in the Ashes) by K P O'Donnell

3.5star.jpg Science Fiction

VL-15, a prototype robot, is desperate to understand who she is. Unfortunately, before she could find any answers, the world ended, consumed in an apocalyptic war between the nations of Drexel and Renada. Over half-a-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 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 slightest, and no errant machine, no savage human tribe and not even Drexel's ravaged ecosystem will stop her on her quest for answers… Full Review

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Review of

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

While Earth's children live, the enemy shall fear us

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. Full Review

0356518043.jpg

Review of

Infinity Gate by M R Carey

5star.jpg Science Fiction

I'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and when it's bad, it's often terrible. But the premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise. Full Review

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Review of

Beautiful Shining People by Michael Grothaus

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

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.

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. Full Review

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Review of

22 Ideas About The Future by Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.

I'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 the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It'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 short stories? Well, I loved it. Full Review

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Review of

Galaxy by Mark Lingane

4star.jpg Science Fiction

Spark, who is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a coma that lasted years, he remembers little and is in no physical shape to resume his duties. But Earth is under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the space station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the alien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself. Full Review

0356514323.jpg

Review of

Far From the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

Michelle '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, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. However, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ragtime's AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of Shell'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 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… Full Review

0356514757.jpg

Review of

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North

4star.jpg Science Fiction

At its core Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North is a spy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, as with the best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a new and timely genre, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and live alongside nature without any of the modern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and one group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the cost to the Earth. Full Review

1529051886.jpg

Review of

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

4star.jpg Science Fiction

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… Full Review

1529016932.jpg

Review of

Rabbits by Terry Miles

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

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 then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed... Full Review

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Review of

Widowland by C J Carey

4star.jpg General Fiction

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 different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has 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 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 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 every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit. Full Review

0356515885.jpg

Review of

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

5star.jpg Science Fiction

Prince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the past few years. So when an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to be chosen for the role. Least of all him. Full Review

B08KGVNVNB.jpg

Review of

His Name Was Wren by Rob Winters

4star.jpg Confident Readers

In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the village of Hurstwick. It came down hard, taking the spire of the village church with it, destroying a stone shack, and leaving a wide trail through the wood, but no trace of what it actually was. German secret weapon was the local gossip, but there should have been an explosion and a crater, and there were neither of those things. Full Review

B08LY8J4KS.jpg

Review of

Note to Self: An Education by Mark Lingane

4star.jpg Science Fiction

In Kry's world, the discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their regeneration state seven years before, in 2035 it's possible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories? Full Review

1529046505.jpg

Review of

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

5star.jpg Science Fiction

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, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's 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 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 news is grim. The same aliens that 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 realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined… Full Review

1473231140.jpg

Review of

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

4star.jpg Science Fiction

Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, a resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Novantae, has a mission: hijack a Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to the war effort. Although she's less than pleased to discover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and the last of the free alien species. It's a race against time as the rebels move to put a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in the balance… Full Review

1642860670.jpg

Review of

A Life Without End by Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)

4star.jpg Literary Fiction

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 of the major numbers, but 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 an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to be happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. 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 assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a motive to keep on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out' switch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice? Full Review

Move on to Newest Short Story Reviews