Books tagged with: duology
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![Bowl of HeavenGregory Benford]()
Science FictionThe partnership of Benford and Niven is a coming together of two icons of science fiction. Both have won Nebula awards for their work and are contemporaries of each other - an unusual collaboration as many partnerships tend to be of an older established writer and a young talent, but in this case we...
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![Divine Endurance - Flowerdust editionGwyneth Jones]()
Science FictionDivine Endurance and Flowerdust, - two novels collected together for the first time exclusively as an e-book and known as "The Last Days Of Ranaganar" - are set within a far-future south-east Asia, a future that is hardly recognizable from the present and one that seems both medieval and futuristic...
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![FirefallPeter Watts]()
Science FictionFirefall is a collected duology and includes the previously released novel Blindsight along with the new sequel Echopraxia . Firefall is hard science fiction which places a firm grip on high-concept science. While many hard-science fiction novels can tend to exclude the casual reader, Watt's writes...
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![Nemesis ex nihiloWilliam Pascoe]()
Science FictionNemesis ex nihilo is an apocalyptic science fiction novel and is the first in a two part series (dilogy), written by William Pascoe. Barry Edwards is a fairly average guy who is working on his PhD in astrophysics at the University of Longminster, England. In 1995, while still working on his PhD he m...
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![Pandora's StarPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionPandora'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 text "...
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![RestorationGuy Adams]()
FantasyRestoration is the second part of the duology that began with the quite brilliant The World House , written by Guy Adams. None who enter the World House leave it unchanged. The purpose behind the reality bending dimension has finally become clear but in the same way that you can't observe an event w...
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![WysardCarolyn Kephart]()
FantasyWysard is part 1 of a fantasy story by Carolyn Kephart. I felt rather brave when I started on this book. One of the characters is described as "wicked" on the back of the book, which is never a good thing unless it's meant as a joke. I'm counting the title as bad omen number two (yes, it means wizar...
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![The FungusHarry Adam Knight]()
HorrorWhen I was given this book I must admit I had my doubts. The front cover didn’t appeal, the title seemed rather dated and the type of book I was expecting seemed very much planted in the 80’s. Reading through the first few pages and I wasn’t disappointed. It was exactly as I feared. Cheesy. Cliché r...
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![ExileMartin Owton]()
FantasyBook one of a proposed fantasy two-parter, Exile introduces us to a patch-work world of territories ruled over by the High King from his sacred city. The earldom of Darien is betrayed and overrun. Its exiles scatter throughout the land, determined to reclaim their ancestral rights. Aron son of Eamon...
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![The Nobody PeopleBob Proehl]()
Science FictionModern life has highlighted the plight of The Other. People are marginalised for all sorts of reasons and from what I can tell it is more noticeable than ever. If you are different but can blend in with everybody else, would you keep it a secret or not? The Nobody People are hidden from view for now...
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![The Somebody PeopleBob Proehl]()
Science FictionWho are the goodies and who are the baddies? In most media, the baddies are normally some form of massive entity that is squashing the smaller rebels. These rebels become the de facto good guys as they fight against repression. However, what happens when the power shifts? If the rebels take control,...
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![Critical Role: Vox Machina - Kith and KinMarieke Nijkamp]()
The Fantasy genre is broader than some people try to make out. I have read Tolkien and there is nothing else quite like that, although many followed the path. Modern Fantasy is often darker and violent, but back in the 80s and 90s there was more of a sense of adventure and magic. The likes of the D...
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![MaliceHeather Walter]()
FantasyAre villains made or are they born? I believe more in nurture over nature, that someone is not born inherently evil but is made so by their experiences. Alyce is not a bad person, but her heritage as half-Vila makes her a pariah in the Kingdom of Briar. The people hate her, but her elixirs are usefu...
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![MisruleHeather Walter]()
FantasyEveryone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty, or do they? Malice by Heather Walter retold the story leading up to Aurora falling asleep, but with far more detail on Aurora and her relationship with Alyce, the person responsible for her curse. Misrule opens 100 years later and tells the second part of...
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![The WarriorStephen Aryan]()
FantasyNo matter how many books are in a series and how long the journey, fantasy stories do end. But we all know that they never do. There is always an itch to discover what happened next, or what happened before, a rich lore and world to explore further. In Stephen Aryan’s The Coward we already followed...
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![Infinity GateM R Carey]()
Science FictionThere is a reason that you should avoid tackling the multiverse in a story as the very nature of them means that the possibilities are infinite. Every decision ever made split off to make two different pathways and so on. A story that spans multiple Earths will have to pick which ones to visit. Do y...
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![BellatrixSimon Turney]()
General FictionGiven a time machine where would you travel? Reading a lot of Historic Fiction as taught me that the Roman Empire would not be my choice. Life was hard and short for many people and that included many of the emperors. It could be a challenging time to survive in. Becoming a legionary promised a bett...
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![The Dead Take the A TrainCassandra Khaw]()
Science FictionCertain jobs can change you, the things that you see, the things that you must do. You may become closed off, hard, brittle, or just a little bit over the edge. Julie Crews has become all these things and more as a local Psychic Operative. Living off a diet of cocaine, regret and apprentices who onl...
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![The BrandedJo Riccioni]()
FantasyThere are all types of fantasy from the high to the low, but for some fans it can be tricky to enjoy one type or the other. For someone interested in starting to read low fantasy they may be turned off by the violence and darkness that this part of the genre emits. On the other hand, high fantasy ca...
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![Clockwork BoysT Kingfisher]()
FantasyThe fantasy genre has the reputation of producing books big enough that you could use as a casual seat, trilogies that you could line up, throw some cushions on top and make into a settee. It does not have to be this way and T Kingfisher has certainly bucked the trend with Clockwork Boys, which come...
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