Reviews with titles beginning with V.
Science Fiction is one of the best genres because you can explore subjects via a prism of the future. Writing a book about how we treat others does not have to be told via a historic story, or the present, you can look far to the future and draw parallels between that world and ours. What would...
Valentine Pontifex is the third volume in the Marjipoor series by Robert Silverberg. I’m afraid that there’s no nice way of saying this so I’ll just get over with it: This is probably the most boring book Silverberg has ever written. Valentine Pontifex is divided into five parts and I can...
Award winning novelist and academic Gwyneth Jones asserts that ‘a typical science fiction novel has little space for deep and studied characterisation, not because writers lack the skill (though they may) but because in the final analysis the characters are not people, they are pieces of...
Valis is a science fiction novel by the legendary author Philip K Dick. VALIS is an intelligence system in space somewhere that is beaming pink rays of intelligence to Horselover Fat, Philip K Dick's split personality half. He knows to get his kid to the hospital to avoid death, the Valis ray...
There are seminal books aplenty in genre fiction. These books are giants and other fiction stands on their shoulders to reach greater heights. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the biggest influences on the horror genre bringing with it a folklore and character that still resonates today....
Vast is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata. Taking off where Deception Well ends, this book tells the story of Lot and friends as they fly around in the good ship Null Boundary. They are of to find the truth about the Chenzeme, the strange robot starcrafts/alien race that is trying to...
Vegas Knights is an urban fantasy novel by Matt Forbeck. Set in Las Vegas (Nevada) the story tells the tale of two college guys Jackson and Bill at the University of Michigan who also happen to be students of magic (or "trans-quantum postulating" in scientific terminology). Having learnt such...
When I picked this book up, read the front and back covers, I thought wow! It sounded like an amazing story to tell, one that would keep the heart pumping with every page turned, keep you hooked until despairingly you came upon the last page and wanted to go back for more. This wasn’t the book...
I love to read as books transport me to places and worlds that I have never been and can never go. In most cases these are fantasy or science fiction worlds, but there are a lot of places in our own history that seem just as exciting and different. 1970s Mexico is nothing like the country I...
Three hundred years in the future and the world is a vastly different place with humanity fighting a seemingly endless war against an implacable alien enemy. The planet is in constant danger from alien infiltrators and religious hackers while orbital elevators allow easy access to space, a huge...
V.E Schwab’s Vicious is a superhero novel, but perhaps not the one you’d expect. There’s no comic action, no explosions, no duels in the sky before frightened citizens. Those with powers work in the background, still regarded as a myth or urban legends. Vicious is about what...
Back in his heyday Shaun Hutson was a prolific writer of horror novels. When people ask what defines a horror novel, depending on who you ask, you will get a plethora of answers. The horror genre has changed so much over the years as also the number and type of things people are frightened of...
Vigilance is the third book in the Fractal series from Allen Stroud, following Fearless and Resilient. You know how it is with series; by the time you hit book three, you've got a pretty good idea of what you're getting into. The big question is whether the author can keep the momentum going, or...
Viking Dead is a dark fantasy novel by Toby Venables, part of the "Tomb of the Dead" collection published by Abaddon Books. Bjolf, son of Earling is the captain and leader of the Viking raiding ship "Raven" who after reluctantly fleeing from a raid gone wrong find themselves sailing into very...
Vivisepulture is an ebook collection of weird tales from some seriously talented authors, edited by the singular Andy Remic. (According to the online dictionary Vivisepulture is the act of burying someone alive by the way and you get some odd articles looking that one up on Google I can tell...
The Night Lords are being relentlessly hunted by the Eldar of the Craftworld Ulthwé, fleeing to the dark fringes of the Imperium in an attempt to escape their pursuers. The fickle hand of fate delivers them to the carrion world of Tsagualsa, a world where their Primarch died and the legion...
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