Sam Tyler
Books reviewed by Sam Tyler (601)
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![EdenvilleSam Rebelein]()
HorrorIt is important to choose the place of Higher Education that suits you. You may want to go to one of the old Universities of learning, taking with you high grades and a love of academia. You may want to go somewhere more relaxed or vocational. Where do you go if you are interested in creative writin...
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![My Brothers KeeperTim Powers]()
HorrorThe stories that the Brontë sisters wrote have an extreme gothic appeal and you only need to visit their old home in Haworth to know what inspired them. There did not seem much else to do than walk the moors and avoid dying. Whilst the town may be picturesque now, full of cobbled streets and Hovis a...
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![Captain Marvel Shadow CodeGilly Segal]()
Science FictionAny 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 acros...
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![A Stroke of the PenTerry Pratchett]()
FantasyThey say that you should never meet your heroes, lest they disappoint, but I have met several of my favourite authors over the years and have always had a pleasant experience. I never had the chance to meet Sir Terry Pratchett which was a shame as he was, like for many readers of genre fiction, one...
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![Sword CatcherCassandra Clare]()
FantasyYou are probably a fantasy fan if you are reading a review of this fantasy book. As fans we love the genre, but even we can admit that plenty of the tropes are well trodden and to standout a new fantasy series is going to have to be something different. Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare opens with a...
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![Silent KeyLaurel Hightower]()
HorrorListen to your kids. It can be hard sometimes as they can speak absolute nonsense, but they also speak the truth, and they may need you to listen. Perhaps they wake at night and tell you that things are not right in the house, you can dismiss this as childish fantasies, but their fears could be base...
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![Maeve FlyC J Leede]()
HorrorIt makes me comfortable to think that we all have small voices in our heads on occasion telling us to do something. The important thing is to only listen to them when they are giving good advice. Ask that person out – sounds scary, but a good plan. Put that spoon in between your teeth and twist – ba...
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![The UndetectablesCourtney Smyth]()
FantasyAdvances in forensic science can feel like magic from the discovery that we all had unique fingerprints to the use of DNA to catch criminals, but what would you do in a world were magic exists? Can science be used to solve crimes committed by magic? The Undetectables believe so, they use their scien...
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![The Graveyard ShiftMaria Lewis]()
HorrorI love listening to the radio, but even I struggle when it gets late at night. Suddenly the airwaves are packed with novelty DJs using all their shtick to ‘entertain’ the few remaining listeners. It is even worse if you live in London, when the light fades the pirate radios stations come out to play...
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![Starter VillainJohn Scalzi]()
Science FictionInheritance should never be something that you look forward to, but when you receive some, it can make a huge change to your life. I may be enough to pay a deposit on a house or pay for a child to go to university. It can also be a real pain in the bureaucracy. Think of the taxes that need paying, t...
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![The Sun and The VoidGabriela Romero Lacruz]()
FantasyFor a long time, the Fantasy genre felt very Western European. So many of the fantasy worlds seemed to be based on a version of Medieval Europe, but that has not been the case for some time now. It does not take much searching to find a book that very much still feels like fantasy but has a differen...
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![The CrashRobert Peston]()
General FictionThe crime genre is huge, and a protagonist can become involved in solving a murder in numerous ways. Being a police officer or PI makes sense, being an elderly lady or vicar less so, but authors still manage somehow – to remarkable success. Another easy option is a journalist. Their job is already t...
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![The Death I Gave HimEm X. Liu]()
Science FictionShakespeare plays have been around for a long time, and you do not need to do a straight adaptation. Many of the terms used in the plays have entered the common vernacular and the storylines can be traced throughout modern film and television. I don’t recall Romeo or Juliet breaking out into song, b...
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![A Market of Dreams and DestinyTrip Galey]()
FantasyThere are two ways to treat fairy folk in a fantasy novel. You can hide them, only the protagonist knowing that there is a secret world in the forest. Or you can embrace them. Make the likes of goblins and fairies' part of everyday life. In A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey, an accord has...
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![PromiseChristi Nogle]()
Science FictionI 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 to cr...
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![The Road to NeverwinterJaleigh Johnson]()
FantasyThe tie in novel can have a bad press, a book churned out to steal some of the glory from a popular TV show or film, but I have a soft spot for them. When done well they can expand the universe; tie in novels for the likes of Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars (twice) and many others have given fans c...
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![The Lonely LandsRamsey Campbell]()
HorrorAs long as someone remembers a loved one, they are never truly gone. This could be done by visiting their final resting place or a special location that you used to go to together. It could even be a keepsake that reminds you of them. Looking at the object you can almost see their smile or hear thei...
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![The Zygon InvasionPeter Harness]()
Science FictionDoctor Who has saved the solar system on countless occasions and planet Earth even more than this, but some of these saves felt a little.... minor. Alien races trying their arm at taking over Earth with nary a plan worth writing on the back of a psychic beermat. Sometimes though the stakes are big,...
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![The Others of EdenwellVerity M Holloway]()
HorrorSocieties’ relationship with death has changed through the ages. With developments in healthcare and longer lifespans the modern world seems to want to forget that death exists, you are dropped into a lonely pit of grief while others continue to live around you. Good health was not always easy and u...
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![Shark HeartEmily Habeck]()
Science FictionIf I have said it once, I have it said a thousand times, science fiction is the best genre as it is so wide reaching. Stories can be grandiose, epic Space Operas with multiple characters on several planets. Or, stories can be personal affairs, titbits of speculative fiction that tweaks our own reali...
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![The KindnessJohn Ajvide Lindqvist]()
HorrorI like to think that the world is built upon small acts of kindness. Whilst nation states and some individuals may be doing their best to destroy the world, the rest of us are just trying to get by. This can be helped with a please or a thank you. If you see someone drop their credit card, you would...
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![Lessons in BirdwatchingHoney Watson]()
Science FictionThe science fiction genre is open to exploring alien worlds and alien ideas, but many times you find it is a very Terran feeling society being all human about things. It may be an android as the main character, but that android is following a classic crime noir style plot you could find on Earth. Wh...
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![The Night FieldDonna Glee Williams]()
FantasyThe relationship that humans have with the land has always been critical for our survival from the hunter gatherers to the farmers, to the post-industrial world we live in today. Living as one with the planet will help it sustain itself and us, but in recent decades it does not take much more than a...
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![Mister MagicKiersten White]()
HorrorChildren’s TV shows will always have an evocative place in your memory, especially those half-remembered tales from when you were young. Your cognitive powers had not yet full formed, so your memory of the show comes in snatches like magic. For me it will always be Wizbit. I picture a strange triang...
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![Oh God, the Sun GoesDavid Connor]()
General FictionGrowing up in Britain it can seem during certain times of the year that the sun has disappeared, but we all know it is still there, just behind many rain clouds in the few daylight hours of the winter. It would be a hugely different thing if the sun did disappear, for one, life on the planet would s...
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![InannaEmily H. Wilson]()
FantasyA lot of what goes on in Fantasy novels is miraculous, magic spells cause havoc on the battlefield, or dragons swoop through the air. Their very nature is that they are fantastical. Some of the characters are like Gods with their powers, but few claim to actually be deities. When Inanna is born, she...
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![Inquisitor: Rise of the Red BladeDelilah S. Dawson]()
Science FictionYou either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. For years, the Jedi have been considered a paragon of virtue, everything that is good to the Sith’s bad. But there must be a reason so many Jedi fall. The path to the Dark Side is not pathed with sex, drugs, and rock...
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![Faraway and ForeverNancy Joie Wilkie]()
Science FictionScience 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 fiction a...
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![The Waters of MarsPhil Ford]()
Science FictionI am a massive fan of the Target imprint of Doctor Who books. Recently they have been filling in the gaps from the older series and producing new adaptations based on the past few Doctors. Taking stories out of any given season is a risky business. It could be a standalone monster of the week story,...
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![Silver NitrateSilvia Moreno-Garcia]()
HorrorThere is something magical about the silver screen. I enjoy watching films at home, but I love going to the cinema. A group of people in a dark room with a large screen and superior sound. I feel like I am immersed in the film, it draws me in, there is a power. But what if that power was real? What...
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![Planet of the OodKeith Temple]()
Science FictionIt 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 fundament...
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![Zero KillM K Hill]()
General FictionI am a genre fan, hence writing reviews for SF Book Reviews. I love the flights of fancy that horror, science fiction and fantasy give an author. Wherever the author leads, I will go. For all my willingness to suspend my disbelief with space battles or Elvish languages, I struggle in more general fi...
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![The Judas BlossomStephen Aryan]()
FantasyHow do you like your fantasy? It comes in so many flavours now that you can pick and choose what type you like. Dragons, magic, and high fantasy – tasty. Violence, political intrigue, low fantasy – a guilty treat. Stephen Aryan has chosen a different route, a book that has its heart in low fantasy,...
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![Sons of DarknessGourav Mohanty]()
FantasyFantasy is a wonderful genre, and it has become more so in recent years as it has grown in diversity. It felt for a while that fantasy was always epic and set in some sort of alternative Europe. There were plenty of alternatives to find if you looked, but today theses are abundant and that is fantas...
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![Mr BreakfastJonathan Carroll]()
FantasyBreakfast is my favourite meal of the day as I can indulge in some food I shouldn’t really be eating from sugary cereal to a full English breakfast. There are other more sensible options; porridge or bran flakes. The wonderful thing is that I can choose each day what I want. What I am unable to do i...
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![ArcaG. R. Macallister]()
FantasyFantasy is one of my favourite genres for a reason. It is a genre that can tell epic storylines through several different characters and span the years. G R Macallister’s Five Queendoms trilogy does just that focussing on the female characters. This is a land dominated by powerful Queendoms and expl...
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![The Price of RebellionMichael C. Bland]()
Science FictionSome things are bigger than just us. We need to think about more than the individual or even the family unit, think of the bigger picture. The Price of Rebellion by Micheal C. Bland is the second part of a trilogy all about an inventor who would do anything to protect his family, but in doing this h...
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![PenitentMark Leggatt]()
General FictionTelling 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. He has ne...
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![The First Bright ThingJ R Dawson]()
FantasyCircuses are magical places; they are also mysterious and occasionally a bit murderous. All the elements that make them perfect for romantic visions of running away and visiting new places each week, are also perfect for someone who likes to snatch victims and not be around when the police start to...
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![The DetectiveAjay Chowdhury]()
General FictionIt is never nice to be the new person at work, getting to know your new workmates and the procedures, whilst trying to look like you know what you are doing. It is even harder if you are joining the police with a reputation and the support of upper management. You will have to add to petty jealousie...
