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Ball Lightning by  by Liu Cixin
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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...

Article by Ant on 3rd September 2018
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Bang Bang Bodhisattva by  by Aubrey Wood
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 10th May 2023
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Barok's Exodus by  by William L.K
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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...

Article by Ant on 31st August 2011
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Barricade by  by Jon Wallace
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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...

Article by Ant on 23rd June 2014
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Batman: The Court of Owls by  by Greg Cox
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 5th February 2019
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 23rd February 2019
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Bear Head by  by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 7th January 2021
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Before Mars by  by Emma Newman
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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...

Article by Ant on 7th September 2018
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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...

Article by Ant on 9th January 2024
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Behind the Sofa by  by Steve Berry
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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...

Article by Ant on 22nd November 2013
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Behold the Man by  by Michael Moorcock
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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...

Article by Ant on 10th February 2016
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Bête by  by Adam Roberts
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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...

Article by Ant on 20th October 2014
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Beyond the Burn Line by  by Paul McAuley
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 26th September 2022
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Beyond This Horizon by  by Robert A Heinlein
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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...

Article by TC on 6th February 2002
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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...

Article by Ant on 8th May 2015
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Black Light by  by Christian Tremain
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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...

Article by Ant on 1st August 2009
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Black Market Memories by  by David A Schramm
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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...

Article by Ant on 12th November 2010
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 14th October 2022
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Black Star Renegades by  by Michael Moreci
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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...

Article by Ant on 23rd March 2018
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Blackfish City by  by Sam Miller
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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...

Article by Matt Buscemi on 25th February 2019
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Blood Music by  by Greg Bear
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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...

Article by TC on 1st January 1999
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Blope by  by Sean Benham
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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 &...

Article by Vanessa on 28th June 2013
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Blue Earth by  by Jeff Stover
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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...

Article by Ant on 26th October 2010
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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...

Article by Ant on 1st February 2012
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Bluebird by  by Ciel Pierlot
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 8th February 2022
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Bone Silence by  by Alastair Reynolds
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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...

Article by Ant on 13th April 2020
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Borne by  by Jeff Vandermeer
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‘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...

Article by Alice Wybrew on 20th February 2017
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Bowl of Heaven by  by Gregory Benford
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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...

Article by Allen Stroud on 6th October 2014
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Braking Day by  by Adam Oyebanji
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 5th April 2022
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Brave New World by  by Aldous Huxley
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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...

Article by Ant on 3rd January 2014
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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....

Article by Ant on 1st July 2009
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Broken by  by Susan J Bigelow
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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...

Article by Ant on 7th March 2011
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Broken Branches by  by Ben Ellis
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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....

Article by Ant on 15th May 2019
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Broken Glass by  by John Hindmarsh
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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...

Article by Ant on 23rd September 2011
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Brothers in Arms by  by Lois McMaster Bujold
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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...

Article by TC on 1st May 2002
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Burrowed by  by Mary Baader Kaley
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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...

Article by Sam Tyler on 16th January 2023
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Butchers Nails by  by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
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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...

Article by Ant on 18th May 2012
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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...

Article by Ant on 22nd October 2018
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