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Fahrenheit 451 by  by Ray Bradbury
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Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury which depicts a dystopian future society where books that have any intellectual value are banned and destroyed where-ever they are found. With a Hedonistic and lawless society, the highest achievement for any individual is happiness and...

Article by Ant on 8th July 2010
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Fake Chronicles: Fakrilias is a young adult fantasy novel and the first in a series by Ulysses Gerdes. Around every corner, behind every person, underneath every stone, lies a dark past in Zeibesia. War, greed, and murder are but few of the troubles many have faced. In Fake World, the worst...

Article by Ant on 4th January 2011
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Fallen Dragon by  by Peter F Hamilton
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Fallen Dragon is a science fiction novel by the British author Peter F Hamilton. There is a unrecognised Science Fiction genre, that deals with the transition from a society of limits and into one of plenty (an utopia or nirvana, if you want). Or maybe not the transition itself but the events...

Article by TC on 1st September 2001
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Falling Dark by  by Tom Lloyd
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It should not matter what format you ingest a novel – on paper, on the screen or even via audio, but it does. I do not always get on with audio as I am such a fast reader, even on speed up the narrator cannot keep up with my awful lack of attention. However, the right book works as an...

Article by Sam Tyler on 20th December 2022
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Falling Free by  by Lois McMaster Bujold
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Falling Free is a science fiction novel by the award winning American author Lois McMaster Bujold and takes place within the Vorkosigan Saga. Taking place in the same universe as the Vorkosigan adventures, but not featuring any of our beloved characters, for the simple reason that Falling Free...

Article by TC on 1st September 1999
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The locked room scenario is a classic tool in crime fiction that most great authors in that genre have tried at least once. The premise is that someone has apparently been murdered in a room that no one else can get in or out of. This may mean that the killing should have been...

Article by Sam Tyler on 4th November 2021
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Faraway and Forever by  by Nancy Joie Wilkie
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Science Fiction has been inspired by religion ever since it started being written, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus even has the Greek Gods in the title. The word science may be in the title of the genre, but it is also a genre about wonder, about questioning the things around us. Science...

Article by Sam Tyler on 20th July 2023
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Fardwor, Russia by  by Olec Kashin
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Oleg Kashin’s debut novel ‘Fardwor, Russia’ takes its reader on a surreal journey through the political landscape of Russia’s seedy underbelly. Drawing on his experience as an award-winning journalist and polemicist, Kashin skilfully blends fact and fiction, shining a light on some of...

Article by Abbie on 9th December 2016
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I love Fantasy, I believe it creates a sense of the epic better than any other genre. Not only do big events happen but you often get a manifest destiny. The issue can be that too much might happen. Our heroes come across so many...

Article by Sam Tyler on 12th February 2021
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Fearless by  by Allen Stroud
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It's 2118 and humanity has not only got over the coronavirus, but have reached out into space - colonising the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. It's still early days of mankind's expansion though and the ship Khidr is part of a small fleet who travel between the different colonies, assisting the...

Article by Ant on 27th October 2020
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Feersum Endjinn by  by Iain M Banks
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Feersum Endjinn is a science fiction novel by Iain M Banks. I don't really feel that I can do a fair review of this book, as I only read about 3/4 of it. The reason for this is that about a quarter of it is written in a kind of phonetics, that I just couldn't read. I'm not sure why I couldn't...

Article by TC on 1st November 1999
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Fictional Alignment by  by Mike French
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Mike 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...

Article by Allen Stroud on 30th May 2018
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Fiefdom by  by Dan Abnett
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Dan Abnett and Nik Vincent have come together to tell a tale of a future that feels and sounds not like what one would envision, resembling more our distant past then our near future. Many readers will know of Dan Abnett and his prolific work with Marvel, Abaddon, Games Workshop, and his most...

Article by D. L. Denham on 25th July 2014
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Field of Blood by  by Markus Heitz
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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 book must be like standing...

Article by Sam Tyler on 5th March 2021
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Fiend by  by Peter Stenson
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It’s a book about drugs. No it’s a book about zombies. Wrong again, it’s a book about love, hope and the desire we have to be better people. It is all of these and so much more. Peter’s creations of zombies being referred to as Chucks due to the fact that they are always chuckling and...

Article by Arron on 2nd August 2013
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Final Girls by  by Riley Sager
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Final Girls asks the question what happens after the horror film has ended. How does the fastest and smartest girl cope after the horror ends?

Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with her student friends 10 years ago. She was the only one to return, surviving a horror film level...

Article by Ant on 26th March 2018
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Finders Keepers by  by Russ Colchamiro
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Finders Keepers is a comedy scifi novel and the debut of Russ Colchamiro. On a backpacking trip through Europe, Jason Medley and Theo Barnes stumble through hash bars and hangovers; religious zealots and stalkers; food poisoning and thunderstorms; cute girls; overnight trains; fever pitch...

Article by Ant on 30th January 2011
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Finders Keepers by  by Stephen King
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Stephen King is rightly one of the bestselling genre writers of all time as he is not only prolific, but also the writer of some classics. Like many fans of horror, I read his back catalogue as a teenager and read terrific...

Article by Sam Tyler on 16th March 2021
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Finding Katarina M by  by Elizabeth Elo
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I have read a few novels recently that have protagonists that seemingly have little control over their destiny, instead stepping into the stream of the narrative and being carried along. On occasion this is a flood and the character flails around with no impact on the wider story, but there is...

Article by Sam Tyler on 6th January 2025
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Fingers and other Fantastic Stories is an anthology by the talented Romanian author Marian Coman, current editor in chief of the newspaper "Obiectiv - Vocea Br'ilei" and a very talented writer. Fingers is his first work to be translated from his own language and includes four short stories that...

Article by Ant on 5th December 2011
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Finity by  by John Barnes
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Finity is a science fiction novel by the author John Barnes. The writing of a Science Fiction story that takes place in an infinite-multiple-universe setting often runs into the basic problem of stopping the main character from just finding the best possible universe and then staying there....

Article by TC on 1st March 2000
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Fire by  by Kristin Cashore
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Fire is a fantasy novel from the new voice in fantasy, Kristin Cashore, author of Graceling.

A sort of prequel to Graceling, Fire is set in a stunningly detailed, beautiful world, filled with very dangerous monsters. Fire is the name of one of the most dangerous of all, a human.

...

Article by Ant on 20th October 2010
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Fire Sea by  by Weis and Hickman
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Abarrach, the World of Stone is just that: lava, stone, poisonous fumes, and precious little food that can be grown. The peoples of Abarrach rely on giant rune-inscribed stone pillars called colossi to provide warmth and breathable atmosphere, but the colossi have been failing slowly for many...

Article by Ant on 2nd September 2008
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Fire Study by  by Maria V Snyder
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In the sensational sequel to Poison Study and Magic Study, Yelena's apprenticeship is over - now her real test has begun. When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder - able to capture and release souls - spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set...

Article by Ant on 10th January 2009
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Firefall by  by Peter Watts
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Firefall is a collected duology and includes the previously released novel Blindsight along with the new sequel Echopraxia. Firefall is hard science fiction which places a firm grip on high-concept science.

While many hard-science fiction novels can tend to exclude the casual reader,...

Article by Ant on 7th November 2014
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Brandon Sanderson needs little introduction: wantonly imaginative; rollicking action scenes; well thought-out magic systems. Firefight, the second book in his YA Reckoners series is perhaps less well known, and centres on a group of humans in post-apocalyptic American cities hunting evil X-Men -...

Article by Danny on 1st February 2016
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First and Only by  by Dan Abnett
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It has been nearly 20 years since I first read a Warhammer 40K novel, way before Games Workshops publishing company Black Library was formed. I was and always will be a big fan of anything Games Workshop related, spending a vast amount of my formative years playing a myriad number of games and...

Article by Ant on 30th September 2011
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First Magyc, by Nicole Dragonbeck, the first book in the Guardians of the Path series is essentially a Young Adult portal fantasy where a girl, Ria, gets drawn into a magical land and it turns out she might be the subject of an ancient prophecy where only she can save the magic.  While the...

Article by Karen Fishwick on 14th September 2016
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Five Decembers by  by James Kestrel
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Noir is not always an easy genre to write, there is a timeless tone to it. You can pick up a book that was written 70 years ago and it still has all the effortless style to make it incredibly readable. If you are going to write a new noir set during the classic noir period you are not only...

Article by Sam Tyler on 19th November 2021
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Adrian sul’Han, known by the nickname Ash, is a powerful healer who wants revenge. After being forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos, Ash went into training for healing. During his...

Article by Vanessa on 11th March 2016
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Flaming Dove is a post apocalyptic dark fantasy novel by Daniel Arenson. Outcast from Hell. Banished from Heaven. Lost on Earth. The battle of Armageddon between the angels of Heaven and the minions of Hell was finally fought... and ended with no clear victor. Upon the mountain, the armies of...

Article by Ant on 28th November 2010
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Flashback by  by Dan Simmons
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America of 2036 is a wasteland in economic ruin, plagued by Terrorism and extreme acts of violence. Society escapes from this harsh reality by numbing itself on the drug Flashback - a euphoric yet cripplingly addictive drug that allows its users to re-visit their happier, past experiences. It's...

Article by Ant on 1st August 2011
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Flatland by  by Edwin Abbott Abbott
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Flatland is a novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott about a two dimensional world. The story tells the tale of a humble square as he guides us through some of the idioms of life in two dimensions. He has a dream about visiting Lineland, a one dimensional world and while there try's to convince the...

Article by Ant on 4th July 2010
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Fleet Landing by  by Wendy Gee
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There are so many angles and directions that you can tackle the crime genre in. Being a police officer is obvious, but you also get Private Investigators, or even the local busybody or vicar solving a crime. I enjoy all these approaches, but if you are drawn to particularly thoughtful and...

Article by Sam Tyler on 17th June 2025
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Floating Worlds by  by Cecelia Holland
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The only science fiction novel that the immensely talented Cecelia Holland has written, Floating Worlds is taking it's rightful place within the halls of Gollancz SF Masterworks collection. The novel tells the story of humanity 2000 years in the future where capitalism has been overthrown and...

Article by Ant on 20th January 2012
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Flow my tears, the policeman said is a science fiction novel by the legendary award winning author Philip K Dick, has been nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards and won the 1975 John W Campbell Award for the best science fiction novel of the year. Jason Taverner is a TV idol, singer and host...

Article by Ant on 25th April 2010
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Flux by  by Jinwoo Chong
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Time travel is one of the most complex and difficult concepts to write in fiction. On the screen you can use visuals as shorthand to try and explain what on Earth is going on, but in fiction you are required to explain it all, or not. There is a choice. Do you go down the route of hard science...

Article by Sam Tyler on 23rd March 2023
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Folk Horror by  by Paul Kane
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There is an art to the short story, and I can say from experience that Flame Tree Press have gotten it down. They have produced many excellent short story collections, and their new venture is the Beyond & Within series. In many ways these books are the same as their larger collections,...

Article by Sam Tyler on 21st August 2024
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Fool Moon by  by Jim Butcher
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Fool Moon is the second book in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and once again we meet up with Chicago's only professional wizard and one of only a dozen of his power in the country. Since we left Harry business has been pretty non-existant and he's been unable to find any kind of work at all...

Article by Ant on 25th June 2012
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Footfall by  by Larry Niven
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Footfall is a classic science fiction novel by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This book handles a subject that H.G. Wells defined in his 'War of the Worlds': hostile first contact. Earth is overrun by aliens that bombard the planet with asteroids and are quickly victorious. The story...

Article by Anonymous on 21st August 2003
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For the Benefit of Mankind by  by Liu Cixin
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The Trolley Problem is an interesting mental exercise that asks you would you let one person die to save many? To do so you would have to divert the trolley from the path of the five and be culpable for it hitting the one. In theory it makes sense, the many not the few, but could you really pull...

Article by Sam Tyler on 17th October 2022
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A 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...

Article by Allen Stroud on 12th February 2016
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Forest of Eden by  by Elizabeth Counhan
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An 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.

...
Article by Allen Stroud on 13th March 2018
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Forever Peace by  by Joe Haldeman
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First things first, Forever Peace is not a sequel to Forever War, for that you need to look for the later novel Forever Free (expect a review at some point when time permits). Forever Peace does however share a few of the same ideologies as it's predecessor and it also won both the Hugo and...

Article by Ant on 24th December 2012
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Fork in the Road to Apocalypse is the second volume in the Subnorms, written by Jeff Gonsalves. It's the middle of the 21st Century and much of the World's population have seen their genetic makeup mutated by insidious viruses and powerful radiation. A sub species of human has developed from...

Article by Ant on 23rd March 2011
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Last year we reviewed Control Point, a contemporary fantasy that managed to blend a strong military style with that of fantastic magical powers. The author managed to create a successful combination with tons of action and tense drama; narrated in a powerful, unique voice. Fortress Frontier is...

Article by Ant on 11th March 2013
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A veteran of the fantasy scene, Mercedes Lackey has enjoyed a great deal of success in the US but until now hasn't really had a great deal of exposure over here in the UK.

This is set to change however thanks to Titan Books with the release of Foundation, the first volume in the...

Article by Ant on 3rd December 2012
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Foundation by  by Isaac Asimov
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The Earth is an all but forgotten planet in the footnotes of mankind's history, a race who are now spread throughout the Milky Way as part of the vast Galactic Empire. An Dominion that looks after a quintillion souls and one that is becoming crippled by it's very size and complexity. A whole...

Article by Ant on 18th July 2012
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Four Past Midnight is a collection of four short stories by the master of horror, Stephen King. I guess that four stories in just under a thousand pages, means that each of the stories deserves their own review and that's just what you are going to get. Before I get to the stories,...

Article by TC on 28th November 1999
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Foxglove Summer in the fifth installment in the stunning Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.

After the stunning climax of Broken Homes, (seriously if you haven't read Broken Homes read it first) Foxglove Summer feels like a fresh summer breeze. Peter Grant escapes the rat race of...

Article by Ant on 5th January 2015
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Fractal Noise by  by Christopher Paolini
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I have never wanted to travel to space. THUD. Not only would it be physically challenging, but also mentally tough. THUD. The knowledge that the only thing between you and the infinite void is a sheet of metal. THUD. The great expanse making you question your tiny existence and the insignificant...

Article by Sam Tyler on 18th May 2023
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Fractured Infinity by  by Nathan Tavares
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Think too long on the multiverse and your mind will explode. Every tiny action you take splits off into another multiverse, then extrapolate that with everything making tiny actions. There will be an infinite number of universes that only differ from the way you tied your shoelace that morning....

Article by Sam Tyler on 3rd November 2022
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Frameshift by  by Robert J Sawyer
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Frameshift is a science fiction novel by Robert J Sawyer. I've waited a bit before I started on this review, in the hope that my feelings for this book would somehow clarify. But the truth is that I still don't really know whether I like it or not. I'm not even sure that I can classify this...

Article by TC on 1st July 1999
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Frankenstein by  by Mary Shelley
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Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus as it is also known, is a very famous novel written by Mary Shelley when she was just 18 years old. By the Age of 19, in 1818 Mary had finished the novel and published it anonymously in London. It wasn't until the revised third edition, published in...

Article by Ant on 12th March 2009
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Frankenstein Unbound by  by Brian Aldiss
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Frankenstein Unbound is a science fiction novel by the British author Brian Aldiss. Time is starting to break up, when Joseph Bodenland, a citizen of the year 2020, gets thrown back through time and space to Lake Geneva around the time when Mary Shelly was writing the original Frankenstein...

Article by TC on 1st December 2001
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Frankenstein.com by  by Hylton H Smith
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Frankenstein.com follows the sleuth DCI Jack Renton who we were first introduced to earlier this year in Resident Fear. Another murderer is on the loose in the northeast of England and this time it's a much more macabre, chilling murder scene that the detectives are drawn to. A horrific picture...

Article by Ant on 1st January 1970
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From a Watery Grave is the 6th novel in the Jason Dark series of dime novels by Guido Henkel. A quaint seaside town seems the ideal place for an English summer holiday. Little do its inhabitants suspect, that a century-old curse is about to throw their idyllic existence into turmoil and terror....

Article by Ant on 19th December 2010
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From Darkest Skies by  by Sam Peters
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It's funny how life seems to throw co-incidences at you. Until recently I'd never given the small island of Gibraltar any real thought. Then the company I work for expanded their services there which meant I needed to learn about this unusual British overseas territory.

A few...

Article by Ant on 18th April 2017
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From Distant Stars by  by Sam Peters
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From Distant Stars is the follow-up to Sam Peter's impressive debut From Darkest Skies. Detective Keon Rause has mostly come to terms with the death of his wife five years previously and his illegally created AI Liss has gone - presumably destroyed.

He's tasked with...

Article by Ant on 1st June 2018
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From Divergent Suns by  by Sam Peters
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Science fiction is a minefield for any author. So many others genres are available that have a set of rules that you can follow. Crime has it, even most fantasy books follow a pattern, but science fiction can be almost anything. It can be set in an alternative today with only a tiny tweak to our...

Article by Sam Tyler on 7th May 2019
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Full Dark House is the first novel in the long running series that follows the enigmatic detectives Bryant and May as they attempt to solves crimes that few would dare to touch. The novel begins in a very unexpected and quite brilliant manner, by one of the main characters dying in a large...

Article by Ant on 7th August 2012
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Furnace: Death Sentence is the third volume in the Furnace series, a young adult science fiction series of books, written by Alexander Gordon Smith. The Furnace is a juvenile prison located one mile beneath the surface of the earth, where kids are sentenced to life imprisonment and where dying...

Article by Ant on 1st October 2009
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Furnace: Lockdown is a young adult science fiction novel and is the first volume in the Furnace series, written by Alexander Gordon Smith. The Furnace Penitentiary is an underground prison, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface, where juveniles are sentenced for life, with no hope and no...

Article by Ant on 1st April 2009
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Furnace: Solitary is a young adult science fiction novel, the second volume in the Furnace series by Alexander Gordon Smith. Furnace Prison is located a mile beneath the surface of the planet, a place where juveniles are sentenced to life imprisonment with no hope of release, a place where...

Article by Ant on 1st July 2009
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Future Hope by  by David Gelber
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Future Hope is a science fiction novel written by David Gelber. The novel is set in the year 2156 and the Earth is getting a pretty crowded place. While many of the social and economic problems have been eradicated - along with most illnesses, new problems have taken their place. Principal...

Article by Ant on 1st December 2008
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Future's Edge by  by Gareth L Powell
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The Earth has exploded killing all the inhabitants, the only survivors are those humans that happened to be off planet at the time. Does not sound like the start of a fun Science Fiction novel, does it? Douglas Adams would beg to differ and so would Gareth L. Powell. Future’s Edge is the...

Article by Sam Tyler on 28th February 2025
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