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Books to look out for in 2019
No matter what else happens, 2019 sounds like it's going to be a good year for books. While we haven't heard whether George RR Martin or Patrick Rothfuss will actually release their eagerly, long awaited novels, there are plenty of other books to get our teeth into. Some from established legends of the genre such as Alastair Reynolds, Tim Powers, Gregory Benford, Tad Williams, Guy Gavriel Kay, Pat Cadigan, Margaret Atwood (with her long awaited sequel to a Handmaids Tale) Ian McDonald and even Michael Swanwick with a stand-alone new novel set in his Iron Dragon world. Stephen Donaldson will complete his latest trilogy with The War Within.
Then there are the more recent authors who have made a name for themselves, such as Adrian Tchaikovsky, Josiah Bancroft, Ann Leckie (who ...
Happy New Year 2019
SFBook would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
2019 looks to be an important year for science fiction. There are some promising stories on the horizon while we are hoping that the science fiction genre should continue to be accepted more broadly. We may even see some work from George R.R. Martin or Patrick Rothfuss, although I wouldn't count on it. There are a few big films coming out - not least with Star Wars Episode 9, Avengers End Game and Alita Battle Angel.
Blade Runner, The Running Man and Akira are all set in 2019 and although we haven't seen replicants or flying cars we do seem to be drifting towards the world of the Running Man - if it continues we will have to rename our "dystopian" sub-genre area as non-fiction.
2019 also marks 20 years of SFBoo...
New Publisher Launches - Flame Tree Press
A new imprint has recently launched with a an impressive line-up of authors and books. Flame Tree Press is a brand new publisher dedicated to finding the best award-winning and original voices. While it might be new, Flame Tree Press consists of experienced industry professionals, led by Nick Wells, the Founder of Flame Tree Publishing and a former MD of HarperCollins Enterprises.
Nick Wells commented:
After 24 years at Flame Tree Publishing, this imprint’s story really started three years ago, when we began our short story submissions in the US. Since then we’ve built significant communities of readers and writers of genre fiction: SF, Horror, Crime and Fantasy.
He also went on to say:
The launc...
Books to look out for in 2016
2016 looks set to be a big year for science fiction and fantasy, with some highly promising TV series - from Man in the High Castle to new episodes of Black Mirror, films from another Star Wars to JG Ballard's High Rise (with many in between) and of course lots of lovely books.
Some of the most talented authors writing today are publishing books this year including Stephen King, Joe Hill, Tad Williams, Ben Aaronovich, China Miéville, James SA Corey, Dave Hutchinson, Steven Erikson, Paul McAuley and Guy Gavriel Kay — to name just a few. There is also host of new authors and those who are loo...
Happy New Year 2016
SFBook would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2016.
The last 12 months have been a rewarding one for book readers with a number of stand-out novels from some massively talented and diverse authors, despite attempts by small but vocal groups to bash the genre back into the stone age. It's a genre that is becoming increasingly diverse and accepted to a wider audience — 2016 is set to be a big one for genre books with some publishers such as Orbit doubling their intended SF/F output.
We've got a multitude of big books to look foward to on the ...
Twelve Kings Extract
To celebrate the release of the quite excellent Twelve Kings, (click the link to see our review) we've been lucky enough to be provided with an extract of the novel and an introduction by the author.
Throughout the book, I have several other characters interspersed with those of Çeda, the story’s main character. One of those point-of-view characters is King Ihsan, known as the Honey-tongued King. This excerpt contains Ihsan’s first appearance in the novel. I chose it because it sets the tone for the Kings, shows that the Kings are not all the same, and that Ihsan in particular may have more plans than the rest of the Kings ...
Gollancz September 2015 Paperbacks
Gollancz paperback of the Month for September is Richard Morgan's The Dark Defiles, conclusion to the incredible series A land fit for Heroes.
Following on from The Steel Remains and The Cold Commands, The Dark Defiles is epic fantasy in every sense of the word. A fitting conclusion to one of the great "dark" fantasy series of the 21st Century, absolutely not to be missed. Perfect for anyone looking for fantasy with a hard-edge.
Joe Abercrombie praised the series:
Bold, brutal and making no compromises — Morgan doesn't so much twist the clichés of fantasy as take an axe to them....
Hugo Award Winners 2015
As many readers will know, this year there has been a concerted effort by a small but vocal minority to "game" the Hugo awards and try and put science fiction back by a few decades. They don't want to see ethnic and gender diversity in "their" science fiction and many of the Hugo award shortlists for this year were full of this small groups short-sighted, predominantly white male fiction.
Thankfully the larger science fiction community has made their voices heard and have chosen "No Award" for five of the Hugo categories including Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, Best Editor Short Form and Best Editor Long Form.
While this does mean that for those categories many deserving people have missed out on a chance of becoming ...
Gollancz August 2015 Paperbacks
Gollancz Paperback of the Month August 2015 is John Scalzi's novel Lock In which we reviewed back in January. It's not, as you might expect a novel about late night pub drinking, instead it's a science fiction police procedural which describes a pandemic virus which causes 99% of the population to suffer "flu like" symptoms. The other 1% become "locked in" to their own bodies, fully awake, but unable to move or respond to stimulus (a real condition known as "locked-in syndrome"). Those locked in become known as "Haden", named after the most famous locked-in survivor, America's first lady.
A huge scientific endeavour follows and two discoveries are made. The first, the creation of ...
Gollancz July 2015 Paperbacks
Gollancz Paperback of the Month for July 2015 is the impressive novel The Relic Guild by Edward Cox, reviewed by our good man Allen Stroud back in September last year. Allen seemed impressed:
Sometimes a book comes along that reminds you of the pleasure of being a reader and/or a writer, a book that you start at the right time and cannot fail to admire... ...an exciting debut from a writer who plainly loves what he has made and I’m looking forward to the sequel alreadyThe Relic Guild is a blend of Steampunk, horror and adventure, a tale ten years in the making and one that shouldn't be missed.
...On the Origin of Portiids
To celebrate the release of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s SF epic Children of Time, the author has kindly agreed to put some words together in an altogether pleasing arrangement.
Children of Time and Speculative Evolution By Adrian Tchaikovsky
It began with a man named Dougal Dixon.
Probably it began before then, but Dixon was my first introduction to the games you can play with evolution, which led eventually, through twists and turns, to Children of Time.
Children of Time’s premise is that an uplift experiment set up by a human scientist ends up being abandoned (...
Gollancz May 2015 Paperbacks
Gollancz Paperback of the month for May 2015 is Adam Roberts exceptional story of artificial Intelligence, Bête — which we reviewed last October. Roberts is a writer who seems to improve with each book he writes and Bête is quite simply stunning. It's set sometime in the near future and explores our relationship with the natural world and how that is changing with the steady march of technological progress. Witty and clever, it was one of my favourite books of 2014.
Gollancz is also re-releasing the late Harry Harrison's novel Bill, the Galactic Hero which happens to be ...
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.
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