Books tagged with: ancient artifact

There are some books that arrive into your life early and never quite leave it. Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of those for me. I read it as a teenager, watched the Kubrick film not long afterwards, and have been turning both of them over in my head, in one way or another, ever sinc...

Nine years after the disastrous Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, a joint U.S.-Soviet expedition sets out to rendezvous with the derelict spacecraft to search the memory banks of the mutinous computer HAL 9000 for clues to what went wrong and what became of Commander Dave Bowman. Without warning...

2061: Odyssey Three is the third installment in Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey sequence, published by Del Rey in December 1987, five years after 2010 and nineteen years after the original 2001. By the late 1980s, the Space Odyssey books had become a firm fixture of mainstream science fiction, and...

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post apocalyptic science fiction novel by Walter M Miller. It is a strange story of a post apocalyptic monastery, which tries to save information about the time before the great destruction. The idea is good enough, but I can't say that I like what Miller has done with...

Against A Dark Background is a novel by the noted author of science fiction Iain M Banks. Yes, more Banks - Since Crow Road and Use Of Weapons he has definetly become one of my favorite authors. Against a Dark Background is Science Fiction at its best. Suspence, love, action and high-tech gadgets ar...

Aktiya The Ignition Sequence is a science fiction novel by JS Cooper. Julien suffers from raging nightmare's that leave him emotionally and physically drained, however when these turn into head splitting visions that seem to cause wierd things to happen nearby Julien seeks the help of a local Hypnot...

I’m always guilty of making snap judgements of books and their covers. Sci-fi covers don’t tend to help. Andrew Bannister’s The Creation Machine is not going to draw you in with its generic spaceship framed by a generic planet, and the woefully reductive, sensationalist logline of ‘It helped create...

Divine Fanaticism is the fourth novel in the Jim Long series by Robin G Howard. Long ago on the planet Thraeot a religous order was created that was shrouded in miraculous mythology, now the political environment of the planet has become unbalanced and mass scale war appears imminent. To make matter...

Nathan Brazil had been the guardian of the Well of Souls, where the Well World's master control lay. But now the universe faced a threat more grave than mere destruction: an unnamed and utterly alien entity had somehow been released from its ancient prison and was bent on the corruption of the Well...

Above our planet hangs a hollow stone, vast as the imagination of Man. The inner dimensions are at odds with the outer: there are different chambers to be breached, some containing deserted cities; the furthest chamber contains the greatest mystery ever to confront the Stones scientists... But the S...

Escape from Bagdad! is a novel riding the wave of modern, alternative fiction that provides a fresh and marked difference to the over-subscribed European / American setting. As the title implies the story is set in Bagdad during the US invasion. With the American military, Religious fanatics, Mercen...

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 hallucinat...

Gateway is a classic science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl. Rereading classics or old favourites is something that I've done all to seldom the last couple of years, which is both a testimony to the high quality of the book published today and the fact that I actually have the money to buy new books...

Hyperion is a science fiction novel by the author Dan Simmons. This is the first book that I've read by Dan Simmons, but definitely not the last - actually I've already started on the sequel. Hyperion is the tale of a bunch of pilgrims, on their way to the Time Tombs on remote planet of Hyperion. Al...

I first read one of Paul J McAuley's novels over 20 years ago, picked up completely at random for reason's that are shrouded in the midst of time. The book was Secret Harmonies and it became one of the most memorable novel's I have read before or since, managing to evoke a powerful feeling of travel...

If you thought a book written on a plane might be a bit rough around the edges - a few plot holes, perhaps, or precious little scene setting - think again, because when Brandon Sanderson does it, the result is nothing less than first class. The celebrated author’s 2011 novella Legion (reprinted this...

Antarctic research scientist Evelyn Edwards always knew that the bleak land of snow and ice held deep secrets locked within it's frozen grasp but when her team finds a 40000 year old body the discovery surpasses even her wildest dreams. This dream soon turns into a nightmare however as they become t...

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 technology is no...

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 a se...

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 a ship,...

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 though pa...

Ringworld is a science fiction novel by the award winning author Larry Niven. I'm sure that I have already read this book once a long time ago - probably about ten to twelve years ago, and that was probably in danish - anyway I had forgotten most of the important stuff and everything that would have...

A near future that sees an altered world, changed by flooding, climate change and terrorism. The biggest change however is by the arrival of the aliens who call themselves the Jackaroo. The Jackaroo seem to be Earths hope and salvation, saving it from itself. At last the question of whether we are a...

Startide Rising is a science fiction novel by the acclaimed author David Brin. Finally I have some luck with a Brin book. SR has its good sides even if parts of it make me kind of sick. Sorry, but intelligent dolphins not my cup of tea. I'm not sure why, but I think its because I really loath the ki...

A near future premise that quickly transforms into a Lovecraftian space opera, as you may guess, Static Push is full of surprises. The title, whilst directly relevant to the story really doesn’t do the ideas contained in the novel justice. A science team at Dennison Industries are investigating a me...

Talus is a science fiction novel by Erol Ozan. Deep in the wild and dangerous forests of Madagascar, Rylan and his anthropologist partner Ursula Deiss find a population of cryptic man-like primates. This discovery quickly escalates and draws them into the vortex of an ancient conspiracy that could u...

Tangerine is a science fiction novel by PJ Hawkinson and K Wodke collectively known as Wodke Hawkinson. Set in a future time where long distance space travel is commonplace and aliens are a natural part of society, Tangerine is a story of the interstellar biologist Ava who explores the wild orange b...

When I first started to read this book I was anticipating a plot involving Atlanteans and genetics. This is exactly what you get. Tenfold. The story itself is fairly straightforward at a high level but the pace is a little too quick in parts. I had to re-read the first few chapters to make sure I’d...

The Blood Red City, the second novel in the   Never War Series, following the dramatic alternative history novel Suicide Exhibition . The story picks up not long after the events of the first novel and it's advisable you read this book before reading The Blood Red City . Where the first laid the gro...

Gene Wolfe is perhaps one of the most under-rated and criminally overlooked writers in genre fiction. The New Yorker recently called him Sci-Fi's Difficult Genius . Authors Michael Swanwick and Patrick O'Leary have gone so far as to say he is: The best writer alive today. Ursula K LeGuin is frequent...

It's the 23rd Century and Earth is changed forever following the arrival in Darwin, Australia of the alien "builder" technology that provides a "tether" out into space; humanity finally has a space elevator. No-one knows why, or even if these elusive aliens will return. Some time later the planet is...

The Fountains of Paradise was originally intended to be Arthur C Clarkes last novel and this is clearly reflected within both the backdrop - a fictional version of his home of Sri Lanka called Taprobane - and the narrative structure itself which feels very personal, much more so than any other of hi...

The Giant Novels are a series of science fiction novels by James P Hogan. I'm usually not a man that believe in miracles, but something fairly fantastic must have happened at Del Ray Books, the day they came up with the idea for this book. To put three classics, Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants...

Another novel being published by those good people at Scifi Cafe, The Inosculation Syndrome is something of a surprise. The book tells the story of the astronaut Kal who becomes stranded on an alien planet due to a series of errors after losing touch with his star ship while charting regions of spac...

The year is 2175 and the Earth is a very different place with radiation from the long depleted ozone layer now reaching dangerous levels. A co-operation exists between the previously warring factions of humanity and their creation - the Cyborgs. An unexpected find on one of Jupiter's moons leads to...

Anyone who has been following the Long Earth series will be eagerly awaiting this fourth and penultimate novel in Stephen Baxter's and Terry Pratchett's series. The Long Mars was the strongest novel in the series so far and so The Long Utopia has a lot to live up to. The Long Utopia is set some time...

There is a particular category of book that exists only because of another, more famous work, hovering in its orbit like a small moon, and The Lost Worlds of 2001 is one of the most fascinating examples I know. It is not a novel, not quite a memoir, not really a making-of in the modern sense; it is...

The Man Who Never Was begins in 1986 with the discovery of human bones during the demolition of the old Coke works in Derwenthaugh. The find also includes a strange artefact, one that suggests that the death of the bones owner goes back to 1945 and a set of strange circumstances. The author has rele...

The Nano Flower is the third volume in the Greg Mandel Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Greg Mandel is back, Julia is back and, well actually a hole bunch for people from Mindstar Rising is back in this book. Ready for more post-warming big corporate dealings and mercenary action. This book is the third...

The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance, written by Sean Williams. A novel in The Star Wars series, the story is set 3650 years before A New Hope. It is a novelisation based on the new Bioware and LucasArts massively multiplayer online role-playing game. I must confess that I am a big fan of Star Wars, and...

The Plague Forge is the dramatic conclusion to the Dire Earth Cycle. With the Builders plans still hidden and time running out, can Skyler and his team recover the four remaining relics before the final Builder event takes place? No-one really knows what will happen when the five artifacts are retur...

Truth and Fear is the second novel in the Wolfhound Century series by the talented author Peter Higgins. The first book in the series Wolfhound Century was a seriously impressive novel. So much so that it won Book of the year on SFBook for 2013. The story continues right where we (quite abruptly) le...

Alastair Reynolds has the kind of scientific imagination that few can match, his stories often explored on a grand scale. While the Universe in Revenger is certainly grand and gloriously imagined, the story itself it much more personal. The far future Galaxy of Revenger has seen vast Empires rise an...

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 daughte...

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 conti...

Cade Sura finds himself in the unenviable postion of having within his hands the galaxies ultimate weapon. A weapon that promises to bring about peace from the Evil Praxis Kingdom and it's fantatic overlord Ga Halle. Cade never wanted such responsibility and would do anything he can to get away from...

I missed reviewing Sleeping Giants when it first came out. I've finally got round to picking up a copy to find out it's now been out long enough that there are two further novels in the series: Waking Gods and Only Human. Back in 2016 It was one of those break-out novels such as The Martian and Wool...

The original USS Enterprise was sent out on a five year mission to explore Space, but even the biggest Star Trek fan would not want to know about every single detail that happened on the voyage. We can forgo the times that they slept or went to the loo. Perhaps even skip a few lengthy sessions betwe...

Haimey is the engineer aboard the Singer, an interstellar salvage vessel named after its shipboard Intelligence. Haimey is genetically modified for zero-G, and she has brain-enhancing implants that connect her to the rest of the crew and chemically manage her emotional state. Haimey, Singer, and the...

Science documentary producer Greg Chivers’ first novel is a delightful combination of sci-fi, politics, and the three strange characters ensconced within them. Chivers’ future Jerusalem is a city all but ignored as irrelevant by the world’s leaders, and in its anonymity the Holy City has become a ha...

Bone Silence is the third book in Alastair Reynolds Revenger series and follows on from the events of Shadow Captain and Revenger . First off, if you haven't read the first two books in the series, I suggest you do before starting Bone Silence. You could read it stand alone but it wouldn't make as m...

Time is relative. We use this term in our everyday lives to explain why boring tasks seem to last an age, but the day flies by when we are having fun. Sounds good, but it is not what Einstein had in mind. His thought process was far more interested in physics and what happens as we approach the spee...

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 a  scientific  vessel the turnover is...

The Target imprint of Doctor Who novels is like nectar to any fan as they offer a punchy adaptation of almost every episode of the series up to the mid-90s, but there were a few missing. Fear not, as BBC Books are not only releasing adaptations of newer episodes but are also looking to fill in the g...

Science fiction is a brilliant tool for pondering what happens after the inevitable fall of humans. There is only so long that the Earth can sustain us, but that does not mean that other civilisations may not develop after. Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley is a Sci Fi mystery told from the persp...

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 audio experien...

There are many roads to enlightenment. You can spend decades mastering the art of meditation, becoming one with the universe. You can seek to achieve the divine through the depraved, in acts so vial that you push through what is acceptable into the other. Any of the routes take commitment and none o...

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 lif...

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 if...

There is no doubt that Tchaikovsky is a prolific author - I'm counting at least 38 novels and many novellas and short stories. Every few months, there seems to be a new book on the horizon. But that regularity of releases doesn't seem to impact the quality of his writing or the sharpness of his visi...

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 author’s la...

One of the aspects of Star Wars that I love is that it is an IP that keeps evolving, as do I. As a child I saw The New Hope as a simple action adventure between good and evil. The Emperor was omnipotent. As the series progressed, we see that the Empire was far too vast for one man to control, no mat...