Reviews of titles starting with B.
On occasion I see adverts on TV encouraging me to visit America. A collection of Hollywood and TV stars will speak the sights, sounds, tastes and smells that are distinctly American. It seems glamourous, it seems fun. However, when I read crime books set in America or sit down to watch the...
Bag of Bones is a horror novel by the master of the genre Stephen King. After having been a bit disappointed with the last few King books and having read nothing about this new one, I felt rather brave, when I brought it last friday. Luckily Bag of Bones is one of the best King books that...
Cixin Lui writes incredibly imaginative fiction, exploring vast ideas and bringing them down to a human level. His Remembrance of Earth's Past series has won awards and brought much deserved recognition, with the first in the series The Three Body Problem even becoming a favourite of Barack...
What is the near future going to be like, utopian, dystopian, a bit of both. Chances are that it will be just as messed up as the past and the present. The future may be a little grim, but that does not mean it cannot be fun. Aubrey Wood’s future is as bright as neon, but also as dark as...
The Witcher series is something quite special and Baptism of Fire is no exception. Written by the talented Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and translated by the equally talented liguist David French (who translated the previous book in the series Time of Contempt).
The people behind the...
Six years have passed since the greatest storm the planet of Stritonoly has ever seen, six years since that night of treachery. The Princess Becki has not been idle during that time, learning all she can about her powers and how they could be used against her captives, something that she has...
The future vision in Barricade shows a world torn apart by a war fought against humanity and their own artificially created super-humans, known as "Ficials". In the UK (seemingly along with the rest of the World) the results are pretty catastrophic.
As you can probably imagine once...
I have read thousands of books, and they normally follow the same structural rules, but on occasion an author likes to experiment with the format. Perhaps they will forgo the need for speech marks and instead write people speaking as part of a sentence. No thanks. What about telling the story as...
Batman stalks the villains of Gotham and for many he is their worst nightmare. Bats may be inherently scary to some, but in nature they are not the top of the food chain and several animals like to eat them for a snack. One such animal is the Owl, a natural enemy of the Bat. This being Gotham...
The Batman Universe comes in all shades as long as they are dark blue, dark grey or black. You have your lighter fare such as LEGO Batman or the 60s incarnation and you also have your darker versions. Tim Burton’s Batman was dark, Christopher Nolan’s was...
The Beginning of the Axis Trilogy by Australian fantasy author Sara Douglass, Battleaxe is also the first novel of The Wayfarer Redemption in the USA. This first book revolves around Axis, Battleaxe of the Axe-Wielders, and Faraday, daughter of Earl Isend of Skarabost. The story begins with in...
When we colonise the planets will they send out the best and the brightest? I’m not so sure as many of the best and the brightest will be quite happy on Earth leading a successful life. Converting the likes of Mars into a liveable environment will be dirty, cold and...
Beautiful Dead: Arizona is the second volume in the Beautiful Dead series of novels by Eden Maguire. Following on from the events in "Jonas", Darina has seen no sign of the Beautiful Dead for weeks and is missing Phoenix all over again. With so much still to resolve, surely they will...
Beautiful Dead: Jonas is the first volume in a new series by Eden Maguire. A young adult novel, Jonas follows the events surrounding the pupils of Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to died within the space of a year, the victim of a knife attack. The three previous deaths, Jonas in...
A 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...
Before Mars is the third book set within the authors Planetfall Universe. As the name suggests it's actually set before the events of Planetfall and After Atlas.
After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on the Red Planet to begin her job as geologist and in-residence...
There seems to be a bit of an explosion of time travel novels in the last few years, some even flying under the radar of being labelled "science fiction" - so that people who only read "serious fiction" can be entertained too I guess. Before the coffee gets cold, the first in a series, initially...
To relate to this novel you need to understand the reason for the book, memories. Those snapshots of time stored in our own personal biological computer situated in our noggin.
In many ways it's these recordings of our travels through time (and if we are very lucky, space) that make us...
Behold the Man was originally written as a novella in 1966 and won the Nebula award for best novella. It was later expanded into a very slim novel in 1969 — although at 128 pages it could still be considered novella length. Gollancz has quite rightly chosen to include it in their SF...
Given a time machine where would you travel? Reading a lot of Historic Fiction as taught me that the Roman Empire would not be my choice. Life was hard and short for many people and that included many of the emperors. It could be a challenging time to survive in. Becoming a...
You do not have to delve onto the fiction shelves to find horror, you can just watch the news. Wars breaking out, people starving. Closer to home there are murders and violence. Most of us are cocooned from these horrors, living in bubbles of our own creation, but some horrors we cannot escape;...
Sadly this will be the final volume of a successful, long lasting series of anthologies compiled by distinguished British editor Stephen Jones. Once again he has collected the “best” short horror stories appeared in collections and genre magazines during the previous year. Actually,...
Bête has one of the best opening chapters I've ever read. It begins with farmer Graham Penhaligon as he is preparing to kill a cow. Nothing unusual about that except this cow is pleading with Graham (the narrator of this fine story) not to do it.
The gift of speech given to animals...
We Brits have somewhat of a reputation on the international stage as stirring up trouble from behind the curtain. We were accused of it during the lead up to the World Wars and even today regimes will cite the UK as instigating unrest. Us, never! The likes of James Bond and David Gilman’s...
Betrayal at Falador is the first novel set within the Runescape universe, written by T S Church. The Knights of Falador are the beacons of order and chivalry throughout the lands of Asgarnia but their very order is being threatened by the forces of chaos which plot to shatter the peace of the...
Science fiction is a brilliant tool for pondering what happens after the inevitable fall of humans. There is only so long that the Earth can sustain us, but that does not mean that other civilisations may not develop after. Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley is a Sci Fi mystery told from the...
Beyond This Horizon is a classic science fiction novel by Robert A Heinlein. Another one of RAH's looks into the future with a little twist. The story is about a man named Hamilton and the society he lives in. It is set in the distant future were people still have babies together BUT their...
Phineas (Finn) Gramayare has an unusual occupation. He's a part-trained necromancer, returned to the mortal world after being exiled to the Fairy realm for 25 years for a crime he didn't commit. Along with his Necromancy ability, Finn has decided to use his connections to offer a match-making...
Harry Harrison was a genius. The way he managed to use absurdity, satire and slapstick humour to talk about some pretty grim subjects is nothing short of remarkable. Way before Pratchett, Holt, Adams and Naylor, Harrison was creating some of the funniest books on the planet.
Bill, the...
The mind is a powerful tool. It can make a person do spectacular things but can also be their undoing. A trauma earlier in life can impact your day to day living. Perhaps talking to someone would help, be it a friend or a professional? Neviah is a counsellor who has a unique way of unpicking...
Bitterblue is the third novel in the Seven Kingdoms series, following on from the events of Fire and Graceling. The story begins eight years after the events of Graceling and is more a direct follow up to this novel with only the occasional crossover from the Fire storyline.
The focus is...
Tome of the Undergates was a fun, bloodthirsty and action packed novel with a young and yet confident voice and Black Halo promises more of the same, picking up where the first book ended. These mismatched and grumpy souls that make up Lenk's rag-tag band manage to get themselves shipwrecked on...
Black Light is an original science fiction novel, written by Christian Tremain. Josh Brenin is going through some pretty tough times. Since he lost his wife in a car crash, Josh has been unable to adequately deal with life. He loses his high paid exceutive job and begins to suffer from...
Black Market Memories is a science fiction novel by David A Schramm. From the third millenium the human race have spread to the stars and intergalactic space explorers have settled on worlds in distant solar systems. 250 light years from earth, the newly settled colony of Jamestown is still...
A group of adults tormented by their past when a carnival worker changed their lives forever. Sound familiar? No not It, but Ronald Malfi’s Black Mouth, the author’s own take on how the memories of youth haunt the present. This is dark horror with glimpses of the supernatural, but...
With the new Black Panther film arriving soon in cinemas, Marvel fans are extremely excited to see what is next for the people of Wakanda. The first film was excellent, but even with all its colour and strength it could only scratch the surface of the comic book. There is a rich history to...
Cade Sura finds himself in the unenviable postion of having within his hands the galaxies ultimate weapon. A weapon that promises to bring about peace from the Evil Praxis Kingdom and it's fantatic overlord Ga Halle.
Cade never wanted such responsibility and would do anything he...
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War did not stop immediately. Perestroika was a messy business with elements of the former Soviet Union flaking away at separate times. The fracturing of a once great Superpower brought with it opportunities. Opportunities for the West to invest in new...
It’s New Year’s Eve when the beloved and popular Olivia goes missing on the Orkney island that was her home. Of all her friends and family, it’s her little sister Alex, who takes it the hardest.
Blackbird is the claustrophobic account of Alex’s life immediately following her...
Blackbirds follows the life of Miriam Black who has a singular gift (or curse) that means each time she touches someone she knows when and how they will die - vividly reliving their final moments. Still in her early twenties she's seen sights most people couldn't even imagine along with...
One of the many hats I wear is that of a professional software engineer. As a junior professional software engineer, I experienced acute imposter syndrome. It didn’t help that I was surrounded by people who had been engineering software for years, even decades, longer than I had.
I...
One of the wonderful things about genre fiction is that an author can take their imagination anywhere and run with it. I can imagine a lot of things, but an alternative urban fantasy that has Knights on motorbikes. That is a new on me. Laure...
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...
Blade Bound is the final instalment of Chloe Neill’s urban fantasy Chicagoland Vampire series. It can be read as a standalone novel, but I recommend you start earlier in the series to get full enjoyment, reading them in reverse order will result in significant plot spoilers.
The...
I have always wondered how people can believe in some things but not others. If you have a world that has vampires roaming at night, what makes bloodsuckers so great that they get to be the only things that bump in the night? Ry Herman already introduced us to the idea of...
Blood and Chocolate’s protagonist Vivian Gandillon loves the change—the sweetly painful way her body moves from human to wolf. At 16, she’s stunningly beautiful and has all the men in her pack running after her. Her pack family, recently driven away from West Virginia where her father lost...
Blood Music is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear. BM is a story about an intelligent micro-organism experiment run amok. As the organism is human hosted, I guess that you could call it a DNA based Frankenstein's fantastic voyage-story for the last quarter of the twentieth century. The story...
Once a noble lord, after a failure on the field of battle, Silas Bershad "The Flawless" was stripped of all titles and forced into the life of a dragonslayer, moving from one perilous hunt to the next. Stalking dragons and collecting their valuable oil, his only escape seems to be death. But...
Fantasy is known as an epic genre; stories can span generations and civilisations rise and fall. As a fan of the genre, you also notice some regular tropes that occur, similar races and similar storylines. Within the pages of Brian McClellan’s Powder...
Blood of the Mantis is the third volume in the Shadows of the Apt series, following on from the events in "Dragonfly Falling" and written by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days...
Bringing back classic character is a wise decision as you already have a built-in fan base and the potential to make new fans. Who does not want to read more Sherlock Holmes? But it is fraught with dangers. Suddenly you have Winnie the Pooh and The Grinch starring in horror films. In some cases,...
Asa, the century old, vindictive and cruel vampire invades the home of single mother and physician Annalice forcing her to strike a bargain for her daughters life as the monster takes control of her own life and home. Caught in a race against a genetic timeline she must rely on her skills as a...
Blood Rites is the sixth book in the series featuring Chicago's wizard private detective, Harry Dresden.
Six books in and the series just gets stronger and stronger. This time we've not only got the usually high standard of writing and wonderfully crafted plot but some inspired...
Raylene Pendle (also known as Cheshire Red) is a renowned thief who steals everything from priceless art and rare jewels to people's dirty secrets. She also happens to be a vampire but apart from an aversion to the sun and not ageing, that doesn't stop her in the slightest. A bit of a loner,...
Bloodstone is the third novel in the Jon Shannow series written by David Gemmell and follows the events in Wolf in Shadow and the Last Guardian. More than 300 years after the world was split by the Apocalypse and the earth is a wasteland with pockets of humanity clinging to survival. The...
Bloodsworn follows on from the events in the previous volumes Bloodborn and Bloodforged as Ulrika the Vampire returns to Nuln, finding her former Lahmian sisters preparing for war. Their arch rivals, the deleterious Von Carsteins meanwhile have begun to attack their strongholds and lead the...
The latest collection by Anna Taborska, a British filmmaker and horror writer, includes fourteen stories, five of which previously unpublished. The volume is graced by a witty introduction by distinguished fellow writer Robert Shearman and enhanced by a number of beautiful illustrations by...
Blope is about segregation, plastic surgery gone wrong, and all sorts of messed up religion. For a little background, it is basically another version of history where the American Southwest becomes part of an extreme Taiwanese empire. Its ruler uses the American Southwest as an experiment &...
Blue Earth is a science fiction novel and the début of author Jeff Stover. The Thrones are a group of biological "mistakes", genetic experiments that have resulted in something more or less than human. They have inspired the writings of new religious texts that many now regard as sacred. Ruth...
There are very few authors alive today that can quite match Alastair Reynolds vision of future space and Blue Remembered Earth is the beginning of possibly his most ambitious future vision yet. At the same time it's also one that also feels much closer to home than any novel he has written...
There is nothing quite like space for great action sci fi. The spaceships, the weapons, the futuristic or alien technology. Massive explosions and body parts flying about the place is great, but it is nothing without characters that you care about. Somone losing a hand means nothing if it is...
Newcon 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...
Bone Silence is the third book in Alastair Reynolds Revenger series and follows on from the events of Shadow Captain and Revenger.
First off, if you haven't read the first two books in the series, I suggest you do before starting Bone Silence. You could read it stand alone but it...
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...
Book of Secrets is a fantasy novel by Chris Roberson. Book of Secrets by Chris Roberson is a weird mix of things you’ll have come across before. Written in the first person it tells the story of Spencer Finch, a journalist down on his luck who is following some leads which could become a good...
‘We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means.’ Jeff VandeMeer’s Rachel summarises the theme of his latest book best. The author’s first novel since his acclaimed Southern Reach Trilogy, Van de Meer’s Borne is a surreal piece of work that examines the idea...
If you are reading this, you have some interest in books, enough to read a review about one. Bound in Blood is not just a book, this is a book about books. Well at least a collection of spooky short stories about books, authors, libraries, and all things bibliophile. For those of us in the know,...
The partnership of Benford and Niven is a coming together of two icons of science fiction. Both have won Nebula awards for their work and are contemporaries of each other - an unusual collaboration as many partnerships tend to be of an older established writer and a young talent, but in this...
Boy's Life is a speculative fiction novel by Robert R McCammon. Boy's Life is a masterpiece of magic and mystery, of splendors of growing up in a small town, and of the wonders beyond. Narrated by one of the most engaging young voices in modern fiction, Boy's Life takes us back to our own...
When we colonise space, I hope that we send out the brightest and the best. These people will represent the absolute best that humanity has to offer, but what happens if the journey is a long one? The bright young things are not going to live to see the destination in 150 years, but their...
Brave new world was written over 80 years ago; back in 1932 and describes London in the year 2540 - or 632 AF as the year is described in the book. The AF stands for "After Ford", meaning the American industrialist Henry Ford who has become something of a messianic figure in Huxley's World. It's...
Breach Zone is the third and final novel in Myke Cole's unique Shadow Ops series that manages to successfully blend a contemporary setting and fantasy elements with a strong military edge.
Cole seems to improve with each book and Breach Zone is undoutably his best yet with a powerful...
Breaking the Devil's Heart continues the ideas presented in the previous novel Logic of Demons. This time we follow the young couple Stewart and Layla as they spy on the Devil and try and figure out how to beat "the formula", bankrupt Satan's underground Company and save Heaven from civil war....
There are odd things happening in a near deserted coastal village. Strangers are appearing, asking questions about the towns recluse while dogs are dissapearing and a local hunter discovers a naked human footprint in the snow.
With the onset of deep winter things are about to get a lot...
Bringing forth the end of days is a science fiction novel of post apocalypse survival, and is the debut novel of Simon Law. The year is 2013 and World War 3 has scorched the earth, on top of a biological attack that has destroyed all plant life, leaving a world without life giving oxygen....
For any author magic is a tricky beast as you can easily paint yourself into the corner. You can make the magic too powerful, or you can develop a whole magic system that is unbalanced. Things become even trickier when you add those tricksy Fae. Fairy magic is all about breaking rules on a...
Broken is a speculative fiction novel by Susan J Bigelow. When Broken lost her ability to fly, she thought she was finished with being an extrahuman, a superhero. Then the world around her started to break apart and the mysterious teenager Michael found her, bringing with him the promise of...
In the not too distant future, your social standing is based on the "purity" of your genes and the ability to trace your family through the "national family tree" genetic database. All men are sterile and fertility drugs are only given to state-sponsored couples whose genetic match are approved....
Steg de Coeur finds himself on the run after his homeworld is invaded and his family brutally murdered. Escaping just ahead of corporate mercenaries with warrants issued for treason against the Empire, he must unravel the mystery of the Glass Complex if he to have any chance of freeing his...
Broken Homes is the fourth novel in Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series and each one gets better and better - this one though has a completely unexpected twist at the end that I guarantee will leave you breathless and have you clambering through the book looking for the clues along the way....
Brothers in Arms is a novel in the Miles Vorkosigan Adventures by Lois McMaster Bujold. Admiral Naismith (aka. Miles Vokosigan) and the Dendarii mercenaries are taking a well-earned rest at Earth. Did I say rest? Ha! There's never any rest for Miles, who's forced to juggle his identities, the...
The world of crime is riddled with the worst vices known to man; murder, kidnapping, estate acquisition. It is also full of the most ruthless people; bank robbers, killers, monks. You may have noticed that a couple of elements snuck in there that are not always synonymous with crime fiction, but...
When the apocalypse happens, science fiction has taught us that some of us will run below and others will be left on the surface. Pick a side. Down below could be a Fallout or Wool situation, better than being on the surface, dead or a mutant. Up above could be The Time Machine or Mary...
Written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and voiced by Seán Barrett, Butchers Nails is a new and original Audio Drama set within the time of the Horus Heresy and focused on Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters legion - uber-violent, unpredictable and somewhat unhinged (he eventually went on to become a...
By the pricking of her thumb follows on from The Real Time Murders published last year, but can be read as a stand-alone novel. Set in a future where almost everyone spends all their time in a virtual world, private investigator Alma is caught up in another impossible murder. She has been...
The past twenty years or so has seen a massive increase in the visibility of Superheroes. The likes of Superman, Batman and Spiderman have been around for decades, but the market is so rich that many niche properties are having their time in the sun. The boom has not only promoted Superheroes,...
Book of the month
