Allen Stroud
Allen is a Senior Lecturer at Coventry University. He is a successful Science Fiction and Fantasy author and professional freelance editor and continues to develop his writing credentials with an array of publications in recent years. He's written articles for Total Film and SFX (Zombies: The Ultimate Celebration), Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction and the British Fantasy Journal, of which he is now the editor.
His published novels - Elite: Lave Revolution (2014), The Lord of Wisimir (2013), The Dragon of Wisimir (2012) and The Sword of Wisimir (2012), A Bag of Bedtime Tales (2011).
Allen has also worked as a content consultant for video game companies – Frontier Developments (Elite: Dangerous) and Snapshot Games (Chaos Reborn). In 2017, he completed a Ph.D in Creative Writing (Practice as Research), at the University of Winchester. He is a regular reviewer of science fiction and fantasy for SFBook.com. He also composes music for audio dramas and helps run the podcast Lave Radio, over at Laveradio.com He can be reached through his website, www.allenstroud.com or at [email protected]
Please Note: Allen gets a lot of requests to review books from independent authors. He tries to reply to as many as he can and review as many as possible, but he can't always do either. The best time to ask is usually the Summer.
Books reviewed by Allen Stroud (95)
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![The Peachy ParadoxCornelius Moon]()
Science FictionA science fiction story that describes the gradual development of artificial intelligence and demonstrates the inadequacies of human beings as they try to train it and interact with it, The Peachy Paradox begins with a lightness and humour, but as it continues, the humour is satirical, sporadic and...
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![RefractionsMel Melcer]()
Science FictionAny 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. Refraction...
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![PomegranatesPriya Sharma]()
Science FictionIn the aftermath of the global pandemic, there is a darkness to the world that has yet to retreat. The way in which writers approach their craft in this moment is crucial. Some are electing to ignore it in the stories that they create, whilst others embrace the context directly in their work. In gen...
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![Complete DarknessMatt Adcock]()
Science FictionScience fiction is a crowded market. There are a variety of ways in which a writer can try to tell a story that gives a sense of a possible future. Some of those ways are close to our reality, some are not. Complete Darkness by Matt Adcock certainly offers a glimpse into something futuristic. A worl...
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![The Lost WarJustin Lee Anderson]()
FantasyThe first in the Eidyn series, The Lost War begins its story part way through, in the aftermath of a ruinous war for the kingdom of Eidyn. The location of the opening scenes, in a tavern no less, and the easy interplay of two of the main characters Aranok the draoidh and Allandria, his bodyguard and...
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![Cage of SoulsAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
Science FictionA change of pace and approach from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Cage of Souls is a first-person past narrative, presented as a journal. This is a collection of writings from Stefan Advani, the chronicler of the last days of the last city of humankind – Shadrapar. Our story begins with Stefan being brought to...
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![Ubik - Folio Society EditionPhilip K Dick]()
Science FictionA surreal science fiction story, ostensibly set in 1992, Ubik tells the story of an alternative Earth where a range of telepathic abilities have manifested amongst all aspects of society and to counter them, a series of anti-talents have emerged that dampen and suppress these new gifts. Philip K. Di...
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![The OutsideAda Hoffman]()
Science FictionThis debut novel from Ada Hoffman comes on the back of a strong catalogue of short story success in Uncanny, Asimov’s and other well-known SF magazines. Onboard the space station, Pride of Jai, autistic scientist Yasira Shien leads a huge science and engineering project in power generation through a...
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![Something Wicked This Way ComesRay Bradbury]()
FantasyIllustration ©2019 Tim McDonagh from The Folio Society edition of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes The bright yellow cover of this Folio Society edition of Bradbury’s classic fantasy novel is inset with a cartoon-like carnival poster, clearly telegraphing what the reader might expect...
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![Children of RuinAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
Science FictionThe sequel to the 2016 Clarke Award winner, Children of Time , the story of the far future human and spider civilisations picks up several generations after the events at the end of the previous novel. A terraforming team, led by Dirsa Senkovi and Yusuf Baltiel discover alien life on a far distant p...
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![Anansi BoysNeil Gaiman]()
FantasyIllustration ©2019 Francis Vallejo from The Folio Society edition of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. The asymmetrical sequel to Gaiman’s American Gods , Anansi Boys makes use of the same dramatic conceit, that Gods exist and walk amongst us. However, this story from Gaiman is more of an urban folk tale,...
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![The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor MoreauHG Wells]()
Science FictionIllustration ©Grahame Baker-Smith from The Folio Society edition of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells The work of H. G. Wells is both seminal and formative to our current interest in Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy. The collection of these two novellas in one volume is a common publication format....
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![The Bad NeighbourDavid Tallerman]()
HorrorOllie Clay is a supply teacher who inherits fifty thousand pounds and spends it on a house. It turns out the house is next door to a neo Nazi called Chas Walker. Walker’s anti-social behaviour contributes to Clay’s life spiralling downhill, until he tries to take matters into his own hands and force...
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![The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & ClayMichael Chabon]()
General FictionIllustration ©2018 Chris Samnee from The Folio Society edition of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay It is 1939. Forced to live together in a small New York apartment, two young men, Samuel Clay and Joseph Kavalier bond over their shared interest in comic books and cartoon art. Together, they...
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![Starship TroopersRobert A Heinlein]()
Science FictionIllustration ©2018 Stephen Hickman from The Folio Society edition of Starship Troopers The Folio Society has produced a beautiful, limited edition of Robert Heinlein’s classic book, Starship Troopers, first published in 1959. In 1998, aged 22, I went to the cinema to see Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation...
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![Fictional AlignmentMike French]()
Science FictionMike French returns to the world of An Android Awakes with this initially more conventionally presented sequel. Fictional Alignment is not the same animal as its predecessor – an oversized picture story book anthology of the attempts of Android PD121928 to create fiction that can be accepted by its...
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![Embers of WarGareth L Powell]()
Science FictionA new space opera story from an author with a strong legacy in SF is a nice treat. Powell’s work on Ack-Ack Macaque has always intrigued me, but never enough to go out and read it. Whereas this, a more conventionally presented science fiction novel with comparisons to Ann Leckie and Iain M. Banks em...
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![The Seventh DecimateStephen Donaldson]()
Science FictionA new fantasy series from Stephen Donaldson, the author of the Thomas Covenant chronicles and the two Mordant’s Need novels. The first book, The Seventh Decimate tells the story of the war between the nations of Amika and Belleger that has raged for generations. Its roots lie in the distant past, be...
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![Forest of EdenElizabeth Counhan]()
Science FictionAn interstellar expedition, tracing an anomalous signal back to its origin. Three men on board a ship called the Fargo , all returning dead, two hundred years later, but with the cargo hold full of an unknown mineral that makes the fortune of the company that sent them into the unknown. Twenty-five...
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![After AtlasEmma Newman]()
Science FictionAfter Atlas is Newman’s follow up to her science fiction debut, Planetfall . This story is not a sequel, instead it focuses on our future Earth, that has been left behind by the colonists on the Atlas mission. This aftermath is the setting for a murder mystery plot involving a selection of those lef...
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![ArtemisAndy Weir]()
Science FictionThe global success of The Martian and its subsequent film adaptation, catapulted Andy Weir into the public eye. Whatever he chose to write next was always going to draw attention. Set in our near future, Artemis is the story of Jazz Bashara, a young girl living on the moon. Struggling to make a life...
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![Case of the Bedevilled Poet: A Sherlock Holmes EnigmaSimon Clark]()
Newcon Press’ second novella series continues with Simon Clark’s story, set in the middle of the London Blitz. The title gives away the nature of what we are to expect – a Sherlock Holmes story, occurring in the twilight years of Baker Street’s favourite detective. During the 1940s, Jack Crofton, a...
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![Body in the WoodsSarah Lotz]()
HorrorNewcon Press’ second novella series continues with Body in the Woods by Sarah Lotz. This book is perhaps the least fantastical of the set. The story is in first person, our narrator is Claire, a single mother who has recently moved into a remote house that backs on to a swathe of woodland. One night...
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![CottingleyAlison Littlewood]()
FantasyMy second review of the Newcon Press Novella series released in Autumn 2017. This is a set of four stories. The Wind by Jay Caselberg, Cottingley by Alison Littlewood, Body in the Woods by Sarah Lotz and Case of the Bedeviled Poet A Sherlock Holmes Enigma , by Simon Clark. Cottingley by Alison Littl...
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![The WindJay Caselberg]()
Science FictionNewcon Press’ second novella series is a beautiful collection of four books. The Wind by Jay Caselberg launches straight into the kind of folk horror/ weird fiction premise that seems to emerge from a particular sense of British society. There are shades of Mythago Wood and The Wickerman in Caselber...
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![Doorways in the SandRoger Zelazny]()
Science FictionI have always been a fan of Roger Zelazny. When I was a teenager, The Chronicles of Amber were a library book quest to find the whole set, which never quite happened, so it wasn’t until later in adult life that I was able to purchase the bumper edition that contained them all. Doorways in the Sand w...
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![ExileMartin Owton]()
FantasyBook one of a proposed fantasy two-parter, Exile introduces us to a patch-work world of territories ruled over by the High King from his sacred city. The earldom of Darien is betrayed and overrun. Its exiles scatter throughout the land, determined to reclaim their ancestral rights. Aron son of Eamon...
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![MigrationDaniel David]()
Science FictionWhat if our day to day behaviour was recorded, analysed and mapped to create a copy of us in a digital utopia? How would this new reality transact with our own where people need to be born and grow up before they can be absorbed? What would the consequences be for those left behind? Migration tells...
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![Sharp EndsJoe Abercrombie]()
FantasyThere is much to like about Joe Abercrombie, particularly when he returns to his darker writing, as published by Gollancz. One of the founders of the ‘grimdark’ movement, Abercrombie’s gritty brand of fantasy delivers real consequences and hard bitten characters in all the different adventures he ha...
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![Becoming DavidPhil Sloman]()
HorrorA horror novella that sets out its stall early on, Becoming David by Phil Sloman is a carefully constructed novella that investigates the mind of a perfectionist serial killer from both the inside and the outside. To begin, we are introduced to Richard, a self-sufficient serial killer who has worked...
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![WhistleblowerDavid Smith]()
Science FictionA near future Science Fiction story packed full of action, when it starts, Whistleblower by David Smith has all the punch of a Hollywood blockbuster. Jake Redwood is part of a special police task force ordered to apprehend suspect alien children and subject them to a set of rigorous tests before the...
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![PowersBrian Michael Bendis]()
FantasyA continuation of the story from the comic books, Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim is a standalone novel, that links into the comic book story arc. Fans of the Playstation Network TV series may notice a few inconsistencies in terms of the background of its principle character, Deena Pilgr...
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![The Medusa ChroniclesAlastair Reynolds]()
Science FictionA collaboration between Science Fiction greats, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds, The Medusa Chronicles picks up the story of Arthur C. Clarke's A Meeting with Medusa a Nebula Award winning novella published in Playboy in 1971. It takes the story of Howard Falcon, from his shattered aftermath i...
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![When The Heavens FallMarc Turner]()
FantasyAn epic fantasy story that begins The Chronicles of the Exile, there is a lot to like about Turner’s first book in this series. The beginning requires some perseverance. We are introduced to Luker Essendar and his former associate Gill. What follows is a very long exposition as discussion between th...
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![The Guns Of IvreaClifford Beal]()
FantasyThe Guns of Ivrea is a seafaring fantasy adventure that immediately establishes its author, Clifford Beal as eminently knowledgeable in his chosen subject area and a strong storyteller to boot. Our plot revolves around the fortunes of Nicolo Danamis, a pirate in the same vein as Sir Francis Drake, i...
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![Landfall – The Tales of AlbionPeter Newman]()
FantasyFresh from the publication of The Vagrant and all worthy plaudits assigned to this, Peter Newman’s next book, set in the world of the Albion Online MMORPG is a very different affair. We follow the trials and tribulations of Tia, her daughters and her crew as they first arrive in Albion, having had t...
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![The Splintered GodsStephen Deas]()
FantasyBook six of the Memory of Flames series picks up right from the moment book five – Dragon Queen ends. This time we’re in the ruined aftermath of Zafir’s ride to destroy the city of Dhar Thosis and Baros Tsen T’Varr is contemplating the ruination of his plans. This is not a book to read without the r...
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![The Whispering DeathSara Jayne Townsend]()
HorrorLive roleplaying, ritual sacrifice and 14 th century magic. There’s a lot of buttons being pushed right upfront in Sara Townsend’s very English hobby horror. We begin amidst a woodland adventure with our main characters introduced in a blur between real (fictional) life and their fantasy characters...
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![Azanian BridgesNick Wood]()
Science FictionScience fiction set in the near future, Azanian Bridges is a rough diamond, drawing on a variety of influences to deliver a real and wrenching story. Our setting is an alternative South Africa, where Mandela was never released and Apartheid didn’t end. We follow two characters, Martin and Sibusiso a...
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![Foreign DevilsJohn Hornor Jacobs]()
FantasyA steampunk fantasy set in a world that draws some uncomfortable inspiration from our own, Foreign Devils is the sequel to John Hornor Jacobs’ The Incorruptibles and follows the adventures of Fisk and Shoe – two would be mercenaries making their way through a world of demons, feral elves and worse....
