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As a long-term science fiction fan, it sometimes feels like we are living the books that I grew up reading. Not the flying cars and cure for cancer stories, but the ones that warned about humankind’s tendency to destroy itself. It feels like only a matter of years until Gort rocks up to...
The term Graphic Novel is a grandiose one, but well deserved in some cases. A collection of comics in one place helps to reveal the arc, but often I read Graphic Novels that were too short and did not contain enough to be seen as a novel, a short story or novelette perhaps. Inside the Mind...
Any story of colonial rescue, involving cryosleep spaceships and small crews operating to solve a crisis far from Earth has all the ingredients to be an exciting read. However, the way in which a writer organises these elements and makes them palatable as a story remains an issue at hand.
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I have read a lot of Fantasy fiction over the years and have picked up trends as time passes from the classic High Fantasy epics of the 80s to the gritty Low Fantasy of more recent times. A new trend is in town, and I see Travis Baldree at the vanguard of Cosy Fantasy. Legends & Lattes was a...
The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not
One of those books I missed the first time around, The stone man is the first in a series of science fiction thrillers. It looks like it's already become a bit of a self-published success story and the second in the series, The empty men is out now.
The story begins on one July afternoon...
Being a short story lover I’m delighted that dark fiction anthologies are so popular today, but since anthologies are, by definition, mixed bags I’m also aware that in any collection there are stories which are able to enchant and others which simply do not work, even if penned by...
There are two ways of writing fiction set in the Victorian era; set a fictional book in the real era or write within the Victorian multiverse. This is a playground that I have read many books in, a world where Sherlock Holmes can investigate new cases, but also one in which he can work...
Editing a collection of short stories must be a task. Whittling down all the possibilities to just a few that represent a vision. The key is to make the subject matter attainable; stories about monsters in pubs or griffons on an aeroplane. Taking on all Asian Ghost Short Stories is an...
Love is love and that is truer in science fiction than any other genre as you can fall in love with anyone or anything. Someone of the same species, an alien or even a spaceship. With AI advancing who is to say that one day their personality will not appeal, couple that to an avatar they...
Artificial Condition is the second book in The Murderbot Diaries, and the follow up to All Systems Red. It won the 2019 Hugo and Locus awards for best novella, and like the others in the series, has received a great deal of praise. It is highly recommended (but not imperative) you read All...
Any Doctor Who fan knows that this year is a big anniversary for the series and there is so much content coming that even the wider community may be aware that the Doc is turning 60. How do you stand out from the new books, audio series and episodes all incoming around the festive period?...
What happens when the world ends? Do we as a species rally together to save the day at the last possible moment, or do we fiddle whilst Rome burns? If recent history has shown us nothing else, the rich will party, and the poor will die. Nothing new there then. Stephanie Feldman does not see the...
I read a lot of spooky and downright horrific books in the run up to Halloween this year, but the horror books that work well stick in the mind all year round. The Pale House Devil by Richard Kadrey is not your typical horror novel, nor is it your typical comedy book, or buddy story. This is a...
Having watched plenty of True Crime documentaries I am often struck how loyal some friends and family are to the criminal. They have been convicted of the crime, but sometimes family just will not accept the outcome. Injustice is one reason, people do get sent down for something they never did,...
The modern superstition is that we're free of superstition.
I love time travel stories, but the entire concept is a paradox. It just cannot happen. What happens to the version of you that was in the past/present once you have travelled? It can be hard to even think about it, but what happens if you live this paradox? The Farrow woman have all been cursed...
It is important to choose the place of Higher Education that suits you. You may want to go to one of the old Universities of learning, taking with you high grades and a love of academia. You may want to go somewhere more relaxed or vocational. Where do you go if you are interested in creative...
The stories that the Brontë sisters wrote have an extreme gothic appeal and you only need to visit their old home in Haworth to know what inspired them. There did not seem much else to do than walk the moors and avoid dying. Whilst the town may be picturesque now, full of cobbled...
Any fan of the Marvelverse will understand there are various aspects to it. You have your traditional superhero tales, but also those set-in space, or ones that feature magic. Captain Marvel has always been a character who spans them all. Captain Carol Danvers has seen it all in her adventures...
They say that you should never meet your heroes, lest they disappoint, but I have met several of my favourite authors over the years and have always had a pleasant experience. I never had the chance to meet Sir Terry Pratchett which was a shame as he was, like for many readers of genre fiction,...
You are probably a fantasy fan if you are reading a review of this fantasy book. As fans we love the genre, but even we can admit that plenty of the tropes are well trodden and to standout a new fantasy series is going to have to be something different. Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare opens...
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