American Gods by Neil Gaiman

As a science fiction fan it has to be said that we are becoming increasingly lucky. Film and TV companies seem to have finally grasped that the genre is a gold mine for stories, and that when done right, these stories can attract a big audience.

American Gods is one of the more recent stories to become a colourful, imaginative and clever TV series. It's not before time either, the book being released some 16 years ago.

The Folio Society have created a superb version ...

Dune by Frank Herbert

It's hard to believe that Dune is over 50 years old. Originally released in 1965 it won the inaugral Nebula award for best novel and tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award.

It's sold well in excess of 12 million copies around the world and is one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels. Some critics have gone so far as to call it the best science fiction book ever written. Robert Heinlein said of it:

Powerful, convincing, a...

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

The War of the Worlds was originally written in 1897 and it's never been out of print. It's one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an alien race and has been influential in film, radio, TV, music and even science. The Guardian has gone as far as to say:

A true classic that has pointed the way not just for science-fiction writers, but for how we as a civilisation might think of ourselves

To celebrate this wonderful story, The Folio Society have cre...

Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill

While many stories depict the fight between man and machine, Sea of Rust shows a future where the machines have already won.

Humankind has been wiped off the face of the Earth by the very robots that were built to serve them. Now the planet is controlled by vast intelligences (known as One World Intelligencies or OWI) that have assimilated the minds of millions of robots across the globe.

Not all robots want to be assimilated and lose their individuality. The scavenger ...

The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft

To many, HP Lovecraft is seen as the father of modern horror and The Call of Cthulhu is undoubtedly his most famous work. Like many artists Lovecraft wasn't appreciated during his lifetime and his work only achieved success and literary recognition after his death. Collectively these weird tales (and others) have had a lasting influence on 20th century horror literature while also influencing popular culture and film to this day. 

Thankfully The Folio Society have created a b...

The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts

One of the (many) things I like about Adam Robert's stories is that they are always full of big ideas and The Real-Town Murders is no exception. This time the author has written a future-noir crime story which revolves around the "locked room mystery".

A popular subgenre in it's own right, "locked room" mysteries explore a crime (usually a murder) which has been committed without any visible means of detectable entry or exit.

In The Real-Town Murders this involv...

London Falling by Paul Cornell

London Falling is the first in Paul Cornell's Shadow Police series. For those who don't know, Paul Cornell is an award winning author who writes across a variety of media and one of only two people to have been Hugo nominated for prose, TV and comics. He's also written a number of Doctor Who stories including the Tenth Doctor two-parter "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" which was nominated for a Hugo award in 2008. 

London Falling begins with Detective James Qui...

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

I've been trying to expand my range of reading for a while now, crime fiction especially. I hadn't realised that the talented Warren Ellis had written a crime novel.

For those who haven't heard of Ellis he's a renown British writer best known for his comic book writing. He's won seven Eagle awards and has had his work adapted into films on a number of occasions - perhaps his most famous being the film Red featuring Bruce Willis, Karl Urban, Morgan Freeman and Hel...

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory hasn't even been released at the time of writing and it's already been picked up by Paramount TV. It's the authors first foray into literary speculative fiction and follows the Amazing Telemachus Family.

Back in the 1970's they acheived widespread fame for their magic and mind reading talents. Their fame however ended one night on live television as magic seemed to fail them. The story begins twenty years later as teenager Matty, grandso...

The Ion Raider by Ian Whates

The Ion Raiders is book two of Ian Whate’s Dark Angels series, however despite featuring some if the same characters as book one, Pelquin’s Comet, it is not a direct continuation of the same story so can be read without knowledge of the first.  Not to give to many spoilers, but the story does continue into the next novel making book three high on my 'need to read' list. 

Whates uses the wider description of the first scene to sharpen the readers foc...

Alien: Covenant by Alan Dean Foster

I've been a big fan of the Aliens series ever since I saw the first film back in the 1980's. I've read all the books, including the expanded universe (non-canonical) ones from Bantam, and more recently from Titan books. I've watched and read the Aliens vs Predator crossover media, some which is great, some not so great. 

I've watched all the films of course (the first two many times), including the dreadful Prometheus which promised much but delivered nothing. A...

Blackwing by Ed McDonald

Blackwing is a book that suprised me more than any other has so far this year. It's the debut of Ed McDonald and boy what a way to make an entrance.

The book follows Galharrow, leader of the mercenary squad known as Blackwing. Galharrow and his band take on jobs most would consider too dangerous, especially when tasked with going into the wastelands of the Misery.

Some eighty years past the Republic was at war with the powerful, immortal Deep Kings. It ended not in any...

Changes by Jim Butcher

After the tremendous Turn Coat, I was expecting big things from Changes and boy does this book live up to the promises.

It's impossible to write about Changes without giving away a few spoilers - however I'm not going to mention anything you can't read on the back of the book itself.

So the big news right at the start is that Harry has a daughter - Maggie, a child that ex-girlfriend and half-vampire Susan Rodriguez has been hiding from him for years. Susan has...

The White City by Simon Morden

Simon Morden, Philip K. Dick award-winning author, satisfies fans of his debut novel Down Station with his long-anticipated sequel The White City. Resurrecting some of his most-loved characters, Morden’s latest offering marks a continuation of Dalip and Mary’s journey through ‘Down’ - a quasi-apocalyptic Garden of Eden - as they attempt to navigate the web of lies and betrayals spun by the series’ antagonist Crows.

The quest marks a broader search...