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Painkillers by  by Simon Ings
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Painkillers is a thought provoking read. I completed it in less than three days, which is something I haven’t done with a book for nearly fifteen years. During that time, I tried to work out what was keeping me absorbed as it is a very atypical Science Fiction novel, but perhaps that’s it....

Article by Allen Stroud on 16th October 2014
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Pandemic by  by A G Riddle
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As the name suggests, Pandemic explores what happens when a deadly infection takes the leap from epidemic to pandemic. A sobering passage on the cover aknowledges, it's not a question of if but when.

There are many things that endanger the human race but with the exception of the...

Article by Ant on 27th July 2018
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Pandora's Star by  by Peter F Hamilton
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Pandora's Star is the first volume in the The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. "Part one of the Commonwealth Saga" it says on page five. "Main characters" it says on page seven and then it goes on to list 44 characters. Then follows nearly nine hundred page of story which ends with the...

Article by TC on 17th February 2004
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Passengers to Sentience is a science fiction novel and is the debut of the author Peter Salisbury. The Human race has reached the corners of the galaxy, colonising many worlds and enjoying advanced technology such as blindingly fast Data Transmission, organic metal alloys and the succesful...

Article by Ant on 20th August 2009
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Passengers to Zeta Nine is a science fiction novel by Peter Salisbury, set within the same universe as Passengers to Sentience. Travelling for one hundred and twenty years, the minds of Raife and Nancy are electronically stored along with six hundred other couples aboard the ship Explorer,...

Article by Ant on 7th April 2011
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Passengers: Revelations is the third novel in the series and brings together characters from the first two novels while expanding the story. The media are in a frenzy over imagined "man-eating" aliens while Symch and Goster are incarcerated following their previous escapades.

Spider...

Article by Ant on 25th July 2012
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Path of the Renegade by  by Andy Chambers
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Asdrubael Vect has ruled the dark city of Commorragh for millennia, ruthlessly disposing of any who would dare cross him. His reach is long and his position unassailable... or so he thinks. The ambitious Archon (highest ranking member of a Dark Eldar Kabal) Yllithian thinks otherwise and joins...

Article by Ant on 10th April 2012
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Pattern Seeker by  by L Keith Wheeler
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Pattern Seeker is the first volume in the Random Happenings series of novels by L Keith Wheeler. Set in the near future, Pattern Seeker follows the privileged life of Jason Armond who possesses the rare talent of being able to see patterns where others just see chaos. This talent has led him to...

Article by Ant on 11th October 2010
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There are many unique and diverse names in horror making it, for me, one of the most interesting genres out there, but to the layperson they may only know a few names. Stephen King, maybe Dean Koontz. In film they may have heard of Wes Craven, or one of the newer horror auteurs. Zombie fans...

Article by Sam Tyler on 3rd September 2024
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Pelquin's Comet by  by Ian Whates
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There is always much to like about Ian Whates’ stories. He writes accessible science fiction with a thought provoking edge. In this case, the thought provoking is toned down a bit in a venture into space opera. Pelquin’s Comet is an adventure story with an appealing and varied cast. We have...

Article by Allen Stroud on 19th April 2015
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Penitent by  by Mark Leggatt
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Telling a story in the first person means that you are going to want a protagonist that the reader can connect with, but what if that character struggles with relationships? In Mark Leggatt’s Penitent, Hector is a brilliant lawyer, but has far more interest in the process than the people....

Article by Sam Tyler on 23rd June 2023
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Pennyblade by  by J L Worrad
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The days of High Elves and spiffing adventures being the only choice in fantasy are long over. This is a vast genre that still has books of High Fantasy, but it also has Low Fantasy. This gritty version of the genre is more prevalent than ever with some of the best being made into TVs shows and...

Article by Sam Tyler on 29th March 2022
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Perchance to Dream by  by Howard Weinstein
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I have been a fan of Star Trek for a long time and am happy to overlook many of the contradictions and technobabble that it has a habit of spouting but one thing I can never get my head around is why. Why are they on these ships? Why risk their lives? For...

Article by Sam Tyler on 1st December 2020
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Perdido Street Station is the second novel published by China Miéville, after the quite brilliant King Rat and again we are within the urban / weird fantasy world. However where King Rat was set within our own fair city of London, Perdido Street Station takes place within an alternate universe...

Article by Ant on 12th September 2011
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Perfection by  by Nick Kyme
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Perfection, an audio drama from those wonderful people at Black Library; this time we are welcomed with the words of Nick Kyme who writes about those colourful, chaotic characters of the Slaaneshi Space Marines. The warped warriors of chaos have beseiged the world of Vardask and things look...

Article by Ant on 24th September 2012
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I love an Arthurian Legend retelling, Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee is not even the first one that I have read this year, but it shows how flexible authors can be with Old King Arty. Lee does not retell the tales of yore but extrapolates into the present and the future. When Arthur was...

Article by Sam Tyler on 1st June 2023
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Corwin Menivie and Nika Sanitvan are decorated veterans of the Imperial Enforcement Coalition, and they solve cases the old fashioned way. However, when they are paired up with Westley Tavera and Gavin Hale, a powerful...

Article by Vanessa on 5th June 2015
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Permutation City by  by Greg Egan
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Permutation City is a science fiction novel by the Australian author Greg Egan. Having liked Egans Quarantine, I was looking forward to reading this one and I was not disappointed. Again Egan has written a fantastic story by grabbing an idea and taking it to the limit. This time we are in a...

Article by TC on 1st June 1999
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Phalanx by  by Ben Counter
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The gargantuan star fort of the Imperial Fists, the Phalanx is to be the host for half a dozen Space Marine Chapters. Along with Inquisitors, Sisters of Battle and agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus they will witness a darkly historic event - the end of a Space Marine chapter. After the events of...

Article by Ant on 30th March 2012
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Picus is one of those people who act as a magnet for trouble, disowned by his parents (or at least his quite scary mother) for not being blood-thirsty enough, hunted by the violent vampire Raben for the theft of an item that wasn't really his and wanted by the leader of the faie Queen Mab (the...

Article by Ant on 14th November 2011
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Pig Island by  by Mo Hayder
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Traditionally Mo is a thriller writer; she certainly does love a good mystery yarn. However I was sold this novel on the pretext that this novel contains enough horror overtones to be able to put this book firmly in the horror section.

They weren’t wrong. I’d go so far as to say...

Article by Arron on 30th August 2013
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Pilgrims' Moon by  by Stacey S Thompson
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Scott is going to Terranova to begin a new life. Most of the trip is supposed to be done in biostasis, so Scott is rather surprised to be awoken in the middle of nowhere, just to be told that their ship has been thrown five hundred years into the future and far away from their intended target....

Article by TC on 8th October 2003
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Pink Noise by  by Leonid Korogodski
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Pink Noise: A Posthuman Tale is a hard science fiction novel, the debut of Leonid Korogodski. Before I begin the review it's worth noting a few things to put this literay achievement into some perspective. Pink Noise is the first novel to be written by Leonid Korogodski, a native Ukrainian who...

Article by Ant on 19th November 2010
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Pirate Cinema by  by Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow has a unique way of capturing the technological challenges of current times that speaks volumes, provocative and blended perfectly into an entertaining, rewarding story. Pirate Cinema is no exception and the fact that it is labelled as a "Young Adult" book should not put the older...

Article by Ant on 6th August 2013
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Planet Janitor by  by Chris Stevenson
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Planet Janitor Custodian of the Stars is a science fiction novel by Chris Stevenson. The Planet Janitor Corporation are experts in the handling of environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to pick up precious ores and space trash, led by Captain Zachary Crowe they have won a number of...

Article by Ant on 21st December 2010
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Planet of the Ood by  by Keith Temple
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It can be hard for the casual Doctor Who viewer to see the character as alien. They may have two hearts, regenerate once in a while, but fundamentally the Doctor looks human. It does not help that they are obsessed with human culture and like to hang around on Earth a lot (cheap sets). But...

Article by Sam Tyler on 14th July 2023
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Plutoshine by  by Lucy Kissick
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The concept of humankind travelling to other planets to colonise has been a staple of science fiction for decades and as the world in which we inhabit becomes increasingly tricky for humans to live on, the novels are set to keep on rolling. Some are action pieces, some concentrate on the...

Article by Sam Tyler on 21st March 2022
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Pod by  by Laline Paull
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Nature, red in claw and tooth. It is a world of the strong surviving the weak dying. Therefore, fiction that tells a story from the animal perspective can be full on. Watership Down and The Animals of Farthing Wood have managed to traumatise many a youth and even the jolly Redwall books I used...

Article by Sam Tyler on 7th April 2022
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Podkayne of Mars by  by Robert A Heinlein
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Podkayne of Mars is a science fiction novel by the legendary author Robert A Heinlein. One of the good old stories from the golden age of SF. One that I for some strange reason hadn't read before. I've always had strange feelings about Heinlein - I love most of his stories, but almost all of...

Article by TC on 1st August 1999
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Poe by  by J Lincoln Fenn
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23-year-old Dimitri Petrov makes a living writing obituaries, but on Halloween he gets a last-minute assignment to cover a séance at the haunted Aspinwall Mansion. There he meets Lisa, a punk-rock drummer who works at the local nursing home, and promptly falls for her. But right as he’s...

Article by Vanessa on 25th September 2014
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Point by  by Thomas Blackthorne
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Point is the near future thriller and the sequel to Edge, by Thomas Blackthorne. In a Britain on the edge of collapse, the lost teens have formed Cutter Circles, a terrible cult based on mutual suicide. For ex-Special Forces soldier Josh Cumberland, this is just the start of another descent...

Article by Ant on 26th January 2011
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Poison by  by Chris Wooding
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I stumbled across Poison early in high school, and I loved it so much I went on to read whatever other works of Chris Wooding that I could get my hands on. For years I remembered Poison to be this incredible, fascinating novel, so when I picked it up again as an adult I was a little...

Article by Vanessa on 4th January 2013
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Poison by  by Sarah Pinborough
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Poison is an enchanting adult take on the classic fairy tale Snow White. With an appealing freshness and confident, unique voice of the author its a tale that will leave you eager for more.

Everyone knows the story of Snow White and Poison is instantly recognisable from that childhood...

Article by Ant on 16th July 2013
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There are times in history that don’t seem very funny and if you lived through them you would find it hard to laugh. The 1970/80s in Northern Ireland may just be one such era as sectarian violence means that you are always wary of your surroundings. This is exemplified for Detective...

Article by Sam Tyler on 23rd January 2019
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Pomegranates by  by Priya Sharma
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In the aftermath of the global pandemic, there is a darkness to the world that has yet to retreat. The way in which writers approach their craft in this moment is crucial. Some are electing to ignore it in the stories that they create, whilst others embrace the context directly in their...

Article by Allen Stroud on 1st May 2023
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Poseidon's Wake by  by Alastair Reynolds
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Poseidon's Wake is set in the same universe as Reynolds previous two Poseidon's Children novels (Blue Rembered Earth and On the Steel Breeze) but is written as an informal conclusion to the trilogy, a book that works equally well as a stand-alone story.

The story begins on Crucible, a...

Article by Ant on 1st October 2015
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Power Surge by  by Andy Briggs
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Villain.net: Power Surge is the 3rd volume in the Villain.net series, one half of the merged series (with Hero.com) from the author Andy Briggs. Jake Hunter is now on the council of evil and is finally in a position to extract revenge on those most deserving. He also has a mission, to restore...

Article by Ant on 1st July 2009
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Power Trip by  by Jeff Thomason
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Power Trip is a novel featuring the Wondering Koala, a mute superhero who always manages to stand up for those who need help. This time we are in "Firebird City", home to 8 million people and one power company. After six months of job hunting following college René thinks he's finally hit the...

Article by Ant on 19th December 2011
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A continuation of the story from the comic books, Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim is a standalone novel, that links into the comic book story arc. Fans of the Playstation Network TV series may notice a few inconsistencies in terms of the background of its principle character, Deena...

Article by Allen Stroud on 20th June 2016
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It’s the kind of heist Karyn Ames has dreamed of—enough to set her crew up pretty well and enough to keep her safely stocked on a very rare, very expensive black market drug. Without it, Karyn hallucinates slices of the future overlapped with her present until she’s incapacitated and...

Article by Vanessa on 20th November 2014
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Pretty Little Dead Things is a urban horror novel by the author Gary McMahon. Thomas Usher used to be a fairly normal guy, a family man with a wife and child, all this changed when a tragic accident took his family away from him. He began to see the dead, and they him, all the lost and lonely...

Article by Ant on 21st October 2010
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Prey by  by Michael Crichton
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Prey is a science fiction novel by the late author Micheal Crichton. Micheal Crichton, the well-known author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain continues his long list of precautionary tales in his most recent novel, Prey. If you are familiar with Crichton's work, you no doubt know...

Article by TC on 4th March 2004
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Primeval: Extinction Event is an original story set within the Primeval universe and featuring the cast of the hit TV series, written by Dan Abnett and published by Titan Books. Strange anomalies are ripping holes in the very fabric of time, creating rifts that allow creatures from the distant...

Article by Ant on 1st January 2011
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Prince of Fools is the first in a new series (called the Red Queen's War) set within the same world as the authors acclaimed Prince of Thorns series. It is a slight departure in style and yet retains the wit and light-heartedness that those who have read the authors work will be familiar...

Article by Ant on 28th August 2015
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Prison of Sleep by  by Tim Pratt
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I love sleep and have a deeper appreciation of it since having a family. I find myself able to drop off in a second as I snatch any five minutes I can before being woken up again at 5 am. The number of naps that I have would not be advisable in the world of Zaxony Delatree as I may end up waking...

Article by Sam Tyler on 30th April 2022
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Promise by  by Christi Nogle
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I set a high bar set for science fiction short story collections that is in no way the fault of any modern author. Unfortunately for them I read The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury at an influential age. I rate a collection against the creepy science fiction/horror tones that Bradbury was able...

Article by Sam Tyler on 8th September 2023
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Prophets of the Ghost Ants is about as different a story as you are ever going to read (and given the sheer breadth of works around nowadays that is saying something). It's already been optioned for a film trilogy and has been lauded by such people as Lawrence Bender - the Oscar winning film...

Article by Ant on 7th June 2013
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Prospero Burns by  by Dan Abnett
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This is the third audio book to be reviewed within the pages of SFBook and again we are firmly within the realms of Warhammer 40k, this time during that tremulous period of the Horus Heresy. Dan Abnett is the author and Prospero Burns the novel, narrated by Gareth Armstrong on eleven CD's...

Article by Ant on 6th August 2012
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Proven Guilty by  by Jim Butcher
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Harry Dresden is once again thrown into magical conflict in Proven Guilty. As always, our wise cracking wizard-for-hire is up to the challenge!

Proven Guilty smoothly picks up where Dead Beat leaves off. Harry Dresden, now named a Warden of the White Council, struggles to fulfill his...

Article by Alicia Snell on 12th August 2015
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Providence by  by Max Barry
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Luddites are a group that used to destroy the machines that were taking their jobs. The term is now used as a derivative way to talk about someone who does not get technology but, did they have it right? All us smug computer literate people may have the best...

Article by Sam Tyler on 29th April 2020
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Proxima by  by Stephen Baxter
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Proxima is more than a bit of a surprise. There is no doubt that Stephen Baxter is a talented and imaginative author and has worked with some of the finest people to put pen to paper however I find some of his novels quite dry and lacking in empathy / effective characterisation. To be fair...

Article by Ant on 8th November 2013
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Pure by  by Julianna Baggott
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I do so love a post apocalyptic tale and they often seem not very far from the reality in these times of economic turmoil. It therefore gives me great pleasure to inform you dear reader of another tale of survival after a world altering cataclysmic event. Pressia can barely remember a time...

Article by Ant on 2nd January 2012
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