Science Fiction Book Reviews

The Slant by Robert Gibson

It's funny how you can read books as far afield as China and Australia and not realise there are talented authors on your own doorstep. I  discovered the author Robert Gibson in Morecambe bay, only a few miles from my home. Robert has been writing science fiction stories for a number of years, The Slant was his first novel and is the beginning of The Kroth series.

The Slant tells the story of young Duncan Wemyss who finds himself transported to a strange world after witnessing ...

Dune by Frank Herbert

It's hard to believe that Dune is over 50 years old. Originally released in 1965 it won the inaugral Nebula award for best novel and tied with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal for the Hugo Award.

It's sold well in excess of 12 million copies around the world and is one of the world's best-selling science fiction novels. Some critics have gone so far as to call it the best science fiction book ever written. Robert Heinlein said of it:

Powerful, convincing, a...

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

The War of the Worlds was originally written in 1897 and it's never been out of print. It's one of the earliest stories to depict conflict with an alien race and has been influential in film, radio, TV, music and even science. The Guardian has gone as far as to say:

A true classic that has pointed the way not just for science-fiction writers, but for how we as a civilisation might think of ourselves

To celebrate this wonderful story, The Folio Society have cre...

Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill

While many stories depict the fight between man and machine, Sea of Rust shows a future where the machines have already won.

Humankind has been wiped off the face of the Earth by the very robots that were built to serve them. Now the planet is controlled by vast intelligences (known as One World Intelligencies or OWI) that have assimilated the minds of millions of robots across the globe.

Not all robots want to be assimilated and lose their individuality. The scavenger ...

The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts

One of the (many) things I like about Adam Robert's stories is that they are always full of big ideas and The Real-Town Murders is no exception. This time the author has written a future-noir crime story which revolves around the "locked room mystery".

A popular subgenre in it's own right, "locked room" mysteries explore a crime (usually a murder) which has been committed without any visible means of detectable entry or exit.

In The Real-Town Murders this involv...

The Ion Raider by Ian Whates

The Ion Raiders is book two of Ian Whate’s Dark Angels series, however despite featuring some if the same characters as book one, Pelquin’s Comet, it is not a direct continuation of the same story so can be read without knowledge of the first.  Not to give to many spoilers, but the story does continue into the next novel making book three high on my 'need to read' list. 

Whates uses the wider description of the first scene to sharpen the readers foc...

Alien: Covenant by Alan Dean Foster

I've been a big fan of the Aliens series ever since I saw the first film back in the 1980's. I've read all the books, including the expanded universe (non-canonical) ones from Bantam, and more recently from Titan books. I've watched and read the Aliens vs Predator crossover media, some which is great, some not so great. 

I've watched all the films of course (the first two many times), including the dreadful Prometheus which promised much but delivered nothing. A...

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

Karin Tidbeck has written a number of short-stories, her first english Language collection (firmly rooted in Weird Fiction), Jagannath, was nominated for the World Fantasy award and short-listed for the James Tiptree Junior award. It also received wide-spread critical acclaim. Amatka is her first novel length story.

Set in a world where the fabric of reality is shaped by language, Amatka tells the story of information assistant Vanja who is sent from her home city of Essre to the au...

Skitter by Ezekiel Boone

A few weeks ago we reviewed the spider-infested book The Hatching. This was preperation for the launch of the much anticipated sequel Skitter.

Skitter follows on directly from the dramatic events of the previous book and once more we are thrown into the middle of spidergeddon.

The first wave of spiders have died out, leaving countle...

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Spiders (or arachnids if you are being posh) provoke strong reactions in some. One of my brothers, who still considers himself tough (even though he's now over 40) will move astonishingly fast in the opposite direction when encountering such a beast - usually with the result that his teenage daughter has to wrestle the creature into submission.

To be fair, I dislike all insects (and yes I know spiders aren't really Insects) with an equal vigor and only tolerate spiders becau...

From Darkest Skies by Sam Peters

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 weeks later the monumental car-crash that is Brexit reached it's Article 50 moment and Gibraltar hit the news. Not least as Spain took the opportunity to suggest they should claim it back - it's...

Haunted Futures by Salome Jones

Haunted Futures is a collection presenting the uncertain future in many guises. Originally funded as part of a kickstarter campaign and edited by Salome Jones it features short stories from authors including Warren Ellis, Jeff Noon, Tricia Sullivan and SL Huang (amongst others).

The brief these authors we given was simply "interpret the phrase Haunted Futures as a story". From over four hundred submissions, fifteen of the best were chosen. The style of each story varies greatly, as ...