Reviews with titles starting C
Australian authors of dark fiction often remain scarcely known outside their country and that’s a shame because the quality of their work is usually very good.
The present volume is the debut collection by Rebecca Fraser, a mix of short stories, flash fiction and dark poems....
Computer Games used to be a child’s plaything, but as gamers grow older and are still playing this is no longer the case (if it ever was). As many gamers mature their reflexes deaden and will they one day even be able to pick up a conventional controller? Something like Virtual Reality may...
Witches have a bad reputation, green skinned, covered in warts and prone to stealing children so that they can use their bones for broth. People feared the idea of witches so much that they would place innocent people on trial. Don’t they realise that if witches were as powerful as they...
Caesars Bicycle is a science fiction novel by the American author John Barnes. Mark Strang is a Crux Ops, which means that he hops around in timelines fighting the Closers (your basic timeline hopping bunch of slave drivers). This is the third book in the Timeline Wars series (the first two...
A 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...
The politicians in Mexico seriously need to have a word with whoever is in charge with promoting their country. This vast and gorgeous nation is increasingly being known more for its hideous crimes. With drug cartels running rife and corrupt police it seems that a fresh murder happens every few...
Call of Cthulhu is the original short story by HP Lovecraft that has since spawned the whole Cthulhu mythos, with films, video games, roleplay games and many novels by authors in the shared Cthulhu universe (known as the Cthulhu Mythos or the Lovecraft Mythos), which was the intent of Lovecraft....
This is the second book in The Bookman Histories, the first being The Bookman and I would suggest you start with that first. Although Camera Obscura would stand alone you may find a few references confusing. Once again Tidhar has constructed a masterpiece of a novel. His steampunk world where...
Candle is the third volume in the Century Next Door series by the author John Barnes. Barnes, just keeps on getting better and better. Candle is clearly his best book to date, which says a lot. Currie is an old man, when the global controlling super mind, called One True, asks him to take on...
Cantata 140 (also known as "the crack in space") is a science fiction novel by Philip K Dick. The name comes from Bach's Cantata BWV 140 which is also known as "Sleepers, Wake". The year is 2080 and overpopulation has become such an issue that millions of people have voluntarily become...
There is an inherent problem with superheroes. Sometimes they are just too super. How is any mortal person meant to take down a being that can fly into the sun or bounce bullets off their bracelets? It is up to the comic creators to come up with an enemy that will match the super heroics with...
Graphic Novels have an advantage over prose in terms of kinetic visuals. You can show in a panel the action taking place and all the colours, in a book you need to describe this. This advantage can be too tempting for some and the book becomes all action and not enough depth. The best comics are...
Any fan of the Marvelverse will understand there are various aspects to it. You have your traditional superhero tales, but also those set-in space, or ones that feature magic. Captain Marvel has always been a character who spans them all. Captain Carol Danvers has seen it all in her adventures...
It is not hard to see where Marvel Studios get all their ideas from as they sit upon a rich heritage of characters and storylines that will take decades to exhaust. I am somewhat of an old school Marvel fan and know the classic runs. Therefore, the newer creations flummox me. Captain Marvel is...
I have known a few archaeologists and historians in my time, and I can tell you that adventure is not always in their blood. I have found that they have chosen those professions as they seek the opposite of adventure. Perhaps a nice library or a quiet dig site. Given the choice between a cup of...
There are many things that I want to be in life, but I don’t want to be the relation of a famous Star Trek character. You are only there to be killed off at some point e.g. Kirk’s Son or Father depending on what Universe you are in. Now in Star Trek:...
Translating the title take a bit better knowledge of Latin than I have (which is close to non). I can understand the Carpe part, but Jugulum? It turns out to mean something like "Go for the Throat" (that's Nanny Ogg's translation, not mine), which could be quite a hint towards the topic of this...
Carrion Comfort is a Dan Simmons horror novel, best known for the Hyperion and Endymoin series. Except for the stories in Dark Visions this is the first horror by Dan Simmons that I've read. I'm not sure what kind of expectations I had for this book before I started on it, but I can't say that...
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...
Cat's Cradle is my first foray into the world of Kurt Vonnegut, I have heard his name mentioned over the years but for one reason or another I have never actually picked up one of his novels. My youngest brother recommended his works (specifically siting Slaughterhouse five) and I have been...
There are many roads to enlightenment. You can spend decades mastering the art of meditation, becoming one with the universe. You can seek to achieve the divine through the depraved, in acts so vial that you push through what is acceptable into the other. Any of the routes take commitment and...
It was not until I browsed my sister’s bookshelves that I realised that vampire fiction is its own genre. She is a prolific reader and seems to exclusively read vampire books. I asked her to lend me some and I realised why you can read so many ‘similar’...
Cetaganda is a science fiction novel in the Miles Vorkosigan Adventures series by Lois McMaster Bujold. This time Miles go to Cetaganda to attend the funeral of the Empress and ends up in a lot of trouble (now where have I heard that before?). The Cetagandan empire is build on a power division...
Changes continues the story of Herald trainee Mags, following on from the events of Foundation and Intrigues - all set within the long running Valdemar series.
As with the previous two books, Changes manages to disarm the reader and surround them in a warm, soothing embrace - yes we are...
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...
In Channel Blue the Earth is essentially an entertainment show, think "The Truman Show" on a world-wide scale. For many years Earth was Galaxy Entertainments most successful show attracting the western galaxy's richest and savviest viewers.
Nothing lasts forever though and lately ratings...
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling is a unique offering that manages to create a Victorian gothic-esque supernatural adventure that manages to create a tangible feeling of suspense.
Set within an ancient, remote manor house, the story begins with the murder of Nanny Prum -...
Charm is the second in Sarah Pinborough's series of novels which rewrite the traditional fairy tale for an intelligent, adult audience. This time it's the story of Cinderella that is re-created into an erotic, adult and charged story with a touch of brothers grimm darkness. I love how the author...
Cheap Complex Devices is a science fiction novel by John Sundman. Sundmans novel 'Acts of the Apostles' was a kind of a weird techno thriller - this one is just weird. The premiss is that once upon a time (about five years ago), there was a computer generated novel contest, where two winners...
I find most comfy crime novels an oxymoron as they usually deal with a hideous murder. The cosiness comes in the telling and the setting. I blame Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books with that inquisitive pensioner solving crimes that were hideous, gruesome, committed for money, revenge, or...
In short, this is a story set in a fantasy version of European renaissance including trade, religion and politics. You can draw parallels between different countries and religions in the book to real world versions of the same.
But simply describing a book in this way is somewhat...
The 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...
Desperate to find a new home amongst the stars, the last remnants of the human race are cast out into deep space. Thousands upon thousands asleep aboard a colossal colony ship, hibernating until a habitable planet is located. Eventually they discover a world which was terraformed by humanity...
Children of the Thunder is a science fiction novel by John Brunner. John Brunner has written a really wonderful book 'THE SHEEP LOOK UP' that I should probably re-read. This book came close but not quite to the despondancy that Earth is supposed to face in the present/near future. There is...
Alex is a grumpy daydreamer who spends his life working in an office, commuting via trains and spending time with his family. He has a strong sense of detachment about the world around him and tends to float through life, that is until he finds a tunnel in the basement at work which leads to a...
Back when I used to play Fantasy Battle Khorne was my favourite of the chaos horde, I had an army of bloodletters, fleshhounds and beastmen, all lead by a greater deamon. There is something primal about Khorne, the blood-red colours, the flames and the atypical looks that all speak of what a...
The Festive Period evolves over time and where you celebrate it has a major impact. Even in my lifetime we have gone from lording a jolly red man called Father Christmas to worshipping a strange soda drinking fellow on the side of a big van called Santa. He will always be the big FC in my house....
City is set sometime in the future at a time when mankind's acheivements are immense with intelligent robots, genetic modifications, commonplace space travel and genetically uplifted animals. This technical progress comes at a cost, humanity itself has become tired and society has broken down...
City of Dreams & Nightmare is the debut novel from Ian Whates and published by Angry Robot Books. The first in a new series of novels, the story is set against the vertical city of Thaiburley. Thaiburley, known as the "City of a Hundred Rows" is an incredible creation of towering majestic...
City of Golden Shadow is the first volume in Tad Williams Otherland series. Eight hundred pages in a rather small font and only the first in a series. This somewhat ups the stakes when one has to decide whether to recommend a book or not. It's so easy when a series is so clearly good (like...
I have read more than my fair share of fantasy novels and I love them. As a rule, they fall into a couple of camps on how they are narrated – from a single point of view, or through the eyes of several people, normally 3-7. Leaping from one character and back again works in the genre as it...
City of Stairs is a masterpiece of world-building. Mr Bennett is clearly a gifted writer and his greatest talents lie in creating a vibrant, rich, detailed world. It's also a masterclass on how the dogmatic, blind following of religious doctrines can lead to very real problems.
In City...
By the end of the eighteenth century, our world had become fully charted, catalogued, mapped and explored. No longer could it be imagined that beyond some distant horizon there lay a land of extraordinary wonders—a hidden utopia, for example, nestled away somewhere safe from the corrupting...
Apocalyptic fiction has been growing in popularity for years, with most stories following some big cataclysmic event such as a zombie uprising, sweeping plague, nuclear war or the rise of artificial intelligence.
Recently though novels have started to appear that seem much closer...
The fantasy genre has the reputation of producing books big enough that you could use as a casual seat, trilogies that you could line up, throw some cushions on top and make into a settee. It does not have to be this way and T Kingfisher has certainly bucked the trend with Clockwork Boys, which...
Closer to the Heart is listed as The Herald Spy book 2, it is worth noting, however , that while the characters do appear in Closer to Home (The Herald Spy book 1) the book is itself a complete story, rather than a continuation of the existing story arc. In fact, the characters life before these...
Code Name Atlas is a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale told by Tony Evans. A war hero trying to leave his past behind finds himself using his skills to survive after the earth is ravaged by unknown forces. In the midst of this destruction anarchy reins and he finds himself raising an army...
Code of the Lifemaker is a science fiction novel by James P Hogan. I can hardly believe that this is the same author, which wrote Realtime Interrupt. Okay, it's not exactly a character driven story, but it's much better than RI and Hogan has a lot of interesting things to tell here. Code of the...
Artificial Intelligence is currently the big hope across most industries as a way of increasing productivity on the cheap. It is being used already in the field of medicine as it is ideal at coping with enormous amounts of data and highlighting anomalies. It aids in finding cancers early, but...
Dresden’s time as a spirit-on-a-mission in Chicago was a lot more draining then he was prepared for. Waking up from a coma, Harry realizes that his body has been preserved by the guardian spirit, Demon Reach and his new employer, the Queen of Air and Darkness.
Mab, the Fairy Queen of...
Cold Light of Day is a contemporary horror novel by Paul Cave. Student Josh Sawyer's passionate encounter with Anna, a beautiful and mysterious young woman, was one that would change his life forever. He must come to terms with Anna's deep, dark and terrifying secrets - that thrust him into a...
We are only one mutation away from an organism that could wipe out humans. Sound all dystopian and farfetched? This is what I was reading in the paper this very morning as super bugs are becoming increasingly prevalent and our conventional medicines are having no effect. David Koepp is an...
Now I am a self-professed fan of horror books and have been since I was a teenager, reading hundreds of horror books along the way. Most have been good, a few not so good. I have collected loads of authors along my journey, possessing all the King novels, Herbert novels and quite a few Barker...
Over the next three days, three reviews will stand before you. Read them in any order, some elements will be the same, others quite different. If you would like to go straight to the segment unique to this review, please start with paragraph 4.
Drafting a...
Science 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...
Almost everything that we see daily would feel strange and alien to someone out of time. Show an Ancient Roman a modern carrot and they would ask why it was so large and orange. In Caroline Hardaker’s Composite Creatures the world has changed a lot....
What makes a good Conan novel? It seems like a simple calculation, a brawny barbarian, a massive sword, wine, woman, and violence. Mix the lot into a pot and you have a Conan adventure to be proud of, except it is not that easy. Conan lives in a vibrant and complex world that can be stodgy to...
Joining a band is a rite of passage that everyone should try at least once. I got as far as forming a fake band with my mates at university, but then we had no commitment. To really make it you will need to buckle down and learn an instrument and write some songs – or just be a punk band....
I've always known that Paul McAuley can write, as far as I am concerned he's one of the finest writers in the genre right now however he's also vastly under-appreciated. I'm really hoping that the release of confluence will help in addressing this oversight - not only is it an...
Connors Folly is the second volume in the Trance Warriors fantasy series by Robert C Auty, following on from the Siege of Scarn. The epic siege is finally at an end the new Grynn King is tasked with taking the fight to the enemy, to do so he must first find the white palace and finish his...
By this, her third outing, Constance Verity has saved the world countless times and the Universe itself just as many. Fighting off otherworldly threats is an everyday occurrence. It is the more mundane things in life that worry Constance like assuring her best friend’s wedding is not...
Constance Verity is anything but normal, blessed as a child to live an adventurous life, this may sound exciting, but the reality is much different. Now in her 30s, she is fed up with having to save the world all the time and just wants some normal downtime. By Constance Verity Saves the World,...
Contact is the first I have read by Carl Sagan and (shame on me) I don't know anything about him, so I do a search on his name on the web and it takes me about two minutes to find that he has just died, this December (1996)! I find myself in a very strange situation, thanks to the free flow of...
Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone who had military experience wrote urban fantasy? The result is Control Point, a quite brilliant blend of other-worldly fantasy and gritty combat.
The novel follows the US Army Lieutenant Oscar Britton who finds himself working alongside...
Corax Lord of Shadows is the tenth book in the pre-Horus Heresy Primarch series, featuring the leader of the Raven Guard. Set During the great Crusade, the immense void-cities of the Carinae must be brought under the control of the Imperium. Corax joins his Legion with an Imperial War Host...
The latest collection by John Langan assembles eleven stories (but considering their lengths I’d rather call them novelettes or, in some instances, novellas), ten of which previously appeared in various anthologies.
The overall impression I’ve got from the book confirms my...
Corrupting Dr. Nice is a science fiction novel by John Kessel. It has been a couple of years since I last read any John Kessel – not that I didn't like it, I just haven't gotten around to it. I didn't really know what to expect, Good News From Outer Space had been so off beat and different...
Cosmonaut Keep is the first volume in the Engines of Light trilogy by Ken Mcleod. This is the first book in a brand new universe, called "Engines of Light", and as that the first book that MacLeod has written outside the universe of Star Fraction and Cassini Division. As I've understood it the...
My 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...
Philip K Dick first wrote this story as a short called "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" which was published in the August 1966 edition of the Amazing Stories magazine. Counter Clock World is the expanded, novel length version and was published a year later. The novel uses the Big Crunch...
People read for all sorts of reasons. I read to escape and have fun, my preference is for high action and laughs, but I understand that some people like to be challenged by their reading. This could be a complex Space Opera, or a piece of literature that tackles the life of a downtrodden mother...
The fifth book in the Ultramarines series and the second in the newly released Ultramarines Omnibus II, which also includes several additional short stories and even a nice graphic short. Captain Uriel Ventris is once again in charge of the 4th company, this story is firmly rooted in Uriel's...
I first found this novel during a book hunt back in 2006, at that time I hadn't heard of the author however I had just read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and as such was looking for another space opera "settlement" style novel. What I found with Coyote impressed me so much that I went straight...
Today we are all too familiar with the assault of digital information and various forms of media which work hard to blur the definition of reality. Robertson has created a world where that idea is pushed to its disturbing conclusion. On the Station, where the remnants of humanity orbit a toxic...
I’m always guilty of making snap judgements of books and their covers. Sci-fi covers don’t tend to help. Andrew Bannister’s The Creation Machine is not going to draw you in with its generic spaceship framed by a generic planet, and the woefully reductive, sensationalist logline of ‘It...
The Fantasy genre is broader than some people try to make out. I have read Tolkien and there is nothing else quite like that, although many followed the path. Modern Fantasy is often darker and violent, but back in the 80s and 90s there was more of a sense of adventure and magic....
Cronix starts off with the old and rather underplayed question of what happens when we’re able to upload our minds into virtual reality, and everyone wanders off into imaginary fairylands. As I’ve personally spent many days in a gaming induced haze punctuated by sporadic breaks for work or...
Crossed is riding the heights of topical subjects, that of environment, ecology and global warming. In the very near future a cartoon is created that will ultimately change the world. It follows the adventures of a sea turtle who crosses the ocean and encounters other marine life struggling...
Crossed Genres Year 2 is a collection of twelve short stories featured in the Crossed Genres magazine between issues 13 and 24. Crossed Genres has a different theme each month so there is quite a varied mixture on offer here. All have been written to a high standard and each have a distinct...
Crossroads of Twilight is the tenth novel in the incredible epic series, the Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan. Many of the events in Crossroads of twilight run concurrently with the previous volume, Winters Heart. Ewgene is on the outskirts of Tar Valon, laying seige but wary to start a full...
You hear about those couples having the ill-concieved notion of getting matching permanent tattoos shortly after they've met, despite the real probability their relationship may not last. Crossover goes one further with that premise.
Instead of tattoos it's a "simple" medical...
Crow Road is a novel by the noted British author Iain M Banks. Craving for more books by Bank and needing a few books to bring with me on my holiday (mostly consisting of doing nothing but reading and being on the beach) I started by taking a trip to my local library. I didn't really find...
A well respected novelist, Australian writer Alan Baxter is also the author of many short stories, appeared in various venues, but never before assembled in a single volume.
Crow Shine is a massive collection of Baxter's dark tales which will pleasantly surprise the reader not yet...
Crowfall is the third novel in Ed McDonald's Raven's Mark series, following on from Blackwing and Ravencry. If you haven't read the previous two books I recommend you do so before reading this book, or indeed this review.
Some time has passed since the events of Ravencry,...
The locked room scenario is a classic of the crime genre and does not have to mean just a locked room but the idea of a contained place that holds all the victims, suspects, and clues within. A monastery perched atop a remote island only passable when the tide is low would be a perfect place for...
Cryptonomicon is a speculative fiction novel by the American author Neal Stephenson. I've been a bit apprehensive about starting on Cryptonomicon. Neal Stephenson is a bit like Vernon Vinge – they both make wonderful books, and they both take their time about it. Also Cryptonomicon is about...
Your average heist movie ends in one of two ways; a cliffhanger or the job complete. You rarely get to see what happens to the criminals as they make it off with their ill-gotten gains, or when they are thrown into the slammer. Unless you are Oceans 11, then you just get a couple more heists a...
Cydonia is the second volume in the Web series of young adult fiction, written by Ken Mcleod. Some where out there there's a link to this page saying that I've reviewed everything MacLeod has published, which can't be true all the time, but I can do my best and review as much as I can find....
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