Books tagged with: fast-paced

Graham Trevennan is one of those people who coast through life without great aspirations or desire to own the world (or even a secret hollowed out volcano). Having split with his girlfriend he's mooching about pretty aimlessly when he get's the shock of his life - secret lumps of rock, shady and arm...

A novel chronicling the beginning of the Stainless Steel Rat's career. Young Jim diGritz has only one abition in life, to become a master criminal. He intentionally gets caught trying to rob a bank so that he will go to jail where he can learn from the masters of crime, only to realize (too late) th...

I've always loved the Aliens films (well at least the first two), both films work for very different reasons. The first was totally ground breaking with it's unique style, examination of claustrophobia, fear - the combination of science fiction and horror that combined with some exceptional music, d...

Steve Perry recruits his daughter, writer Stephani Perry, to conclude a separate storyline to one of the best SciFi franchises of all time. Filled with plenty of Xenomorph-action and a conclusion that no one would guess, Aliens: The Female War rocks hard and entertains like a champ! Now joined by El...

Amortals is a science fiction thriller of high octane action and is the novel of Matt Forbeck, published by Angry Robot Books. The year is 2168 and Secret Service agent Ronan "Methusaleh" Dooley is hot on the trail of a vicious killer, but this case is a bit of a twist as the victim happens to be hi...

Amped follows on directly from the events of Wired reviewed late last year. We rejoin the brilliant scientist Kira Miller who has discovered how to boost the human IQ to extreme post-human levels for short periods of time. With this extreme intelligence comes the danger that the same process brings...

Amped is a near future story that tells of the post-human singularity event, a world where humans are implanted with upgrades that make them capable of super-human feats. Fear of that which is different rears its ugly head and before long a new set of laws is put into place restricting the rights of...

And another thing is the sixth novel in the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series (created by the late great Douglas Adams) and has been written by the very successful author Eoin Colfer. The Hitchhikers Guide series stands as one of the greatest science fiction series of novels ever to grace the m...

Anvil of Stars is the sequel to The Forge of God, written by Greg Bear. Sometimes reviewing a sequel is nearly impossible without spoiling the first book for people who hasn't read it. This is one of those times and I'm not going to try, so if you haven't read The Forge of God (tFoG) yet, don't read...

Apocalypse novels are all the rage these days, and with good reason, as any rational person can sense that we are rapidly approaching some kind of great calamity. There are plenty of choices: climate change, rapidly depleting resources, drug resistant disease, or even a straight up revolution of the...

Architect of Fate is a Space Marine Battles Anthology which collects together 4 novellas that make up the series featuring the infamous greater daemon of Tzeentch, Kairos Fateweaver. A master of manipulation who schemes and uses his prodigious power to play with the fates of thousands, even the unwi...

Young adult science fantasy is a story type that has existed in various forms since the 1950s. The writing quality can vary, but the intention – to convey a vision  where humanity has become an interstellar society always fires the imagination of impressionable readers. Architects of Destiny is a bo...

I've been a gamer and science fiction fan since the very first home computers become popular. From the days of the ZX81 and even before that with the Intellivision and Atari 2600. I've been playing games ever since. Like the authors first novel, Armada seems to speak to the older gamers out there. T...

A parallel world action drama with everyone urgently following mission briefings and investigating crimes, Asks the Dream pitches the reader into the centre of a grey shaded struggle where the characters feel cleaner than the corporations they are taking orders from. When it suits her, Charity is a...

Synopsis: Picking up where Artificial Evil concludes, Gerry returns to Earth and discovers that problems have only escalated in spite of everything previously achieved while saving City Earth. Petal’s story unfolds as the mysteries of her past unveil the complexity of our dystopian Earth. Gerry, now...

The future vision in Barricade shows a world torn apart by a war fought against humanity and their own artificially created super-humans, known as "Ficials". In the UK (seemingly along with the rest of the World) the results are pretty catastrophic. As you can probably imagine once humanity has crea...

Bête has one of the best opening chapters I've ever read. It begins with farmer Graham Penhaligon as he is preparing to kill a cow. Nothing unusual about that except this cow is pleading with Graham (the narrator of this fine story) not to do it. The gift of speech given to animals forms the core of...

Harry Harrison was a genius. The way he managed to use absurdity, satire and slapstick humour to talk about some pretty grim subjects is nothing short of remarkable. Way before Pratchett, Holt, Adams and Naylor, Harrison was creating some of the funniest books on the planet. Bill, the Galactic Hero...

Black Light is an original science fiction novel, written by Christian Tremain. Josh Brenin is going through some pretty tough times. Since he lost his wife in a car crash, Josh has been unable to adequately deal with life. He loses his high paid exceutive job and begins to suffer from insomnia, cau...

Blue Earth is a science fiction novel and the début of author Jeff Stover. The Thrones are a group of biological "mistakes", genetic experiments that have resulted in something more or less than human. They have inspired the writings of new religious texts that many now regard as sacred. Ruth Long,...

Steg de Coeur finds himself on the run after his homeworld is invaded and his family brutally murdered. Escaping just ahead of corporate mercenaries with warrants issued for treason against the Empire, he must unravel the mystery of the Glass Complex if he to have any chance of freeing his people an...

Written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and voiced by Seán Barrett, Butchers Nails is a new and original Audio Drama set within the time of the Horus Heresy and focused on Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters legion - uber-violent, unpredictable and somewhat unhinged (he eventually went on to become a Daemo...

Cantata 140 (also known as "the crack in space") is a science fiction novel by Philip K Dick. The name comes from Bach's Cantata BWV 140 which is also known as "Sleepers, Wake". The year is 2080 and overpopulation has become such an issue that millions of people have voluntarily become cryogenically...

In Channel Blue the Earth is essentially an entertainment show, think "The Truman Show" on a world-wide scale. For many years Earth was Galaxy Entertainments most successful show attracting the western galaxy's richest and savviest viewers. Nothing lasts forever though and lately ratings have begun...

Back when I used to play Fantasy Battle Khorne was my favourite of the chaos horde, I had an army of bloodletters, fleshhounds and beastmen, all lead by a greater deamon. There is something primal about Khorne, the blood-red colours, the flames and the atypical looks that all speak of what a deamon...

Code Name Atlas is a post-apocalyptic science fiction tale told by Tony Evans. A war hero trying to leave his past behind finds himself using his skills to survive after the earth is ravaged by unknown forces. In the midst of this destruction anarchy reins and he finds himself raising an army to fig...

I've always known that Paul McAuley can write, as far as I am concerned he's one of the finest writers in the genre right now however he's also vastly under-appreciated. I'm really hoping that the release of confluence will help in addressing this oversight - not only is it an incredibly well writte...

The fifth book in the Ultramarines series and the second in the newly released Ultramarines Omnibus II, which also includes several additional short stories and even a nice graphic short. Captain Uriel Ventris is once again in charge of the 4th company, this story is firmly rooted in Uriel's return...

I first found this novel during a book hunt back in 2006, at that time I hadn't heard of the author however I had just read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars and as such was looking for another space opera "settlement" style novel. What I found with Coyote impressed me so much that I went straight out...

Cryptonomicon is a speculative fiction novel by the American author Neal Stephenson. I've been a bit apprehensive about starting on Cryptonomicon. Neal Stephenson is a bit like Vernon Vinge – they both make wonderful books, and they both take their time about it. Also Cryptonomicon is about mathemat...

Cydonia is the second volume in the Web series of young adult fiction, written by Ken Mcleod. Some where out there there's a link to this page saying that I've reviewed everything MacLeod has published, which can't be true all the time, but I can do my best and review as much as I can find. Even if...

Damnation Alley is a post-apocalytic tale of survival by the Hugo and Nebula award winner Roger Zelazny. Set in the decades after a devastating nuclear war, the former USA is a very different place. With mass destruction, dangerous mutants, large areas of deadly radiation and a worldwide wind preven...

Dark Light is the second volume in the Engines of Light series by Ken Mcleod. This is the first time that I've had any kind of doubt as to what I should write about a MacLeod book. Normally I would just heap words of praise upon other words of praise, until it hit a fitting length for a book review....

From the opening chapter I knew this was going to be good. Dark Run launches the reader into a shady future where bickering governments are working to extend their reach across space while criminals and outlaws try to make a quick buck under their noses and out on the frontiers. Fans of Firefly will...

Darwins Radio is a science fiction novel by Greg Bear. Just the title alone should give you a good idea as to the subject of this book. Yes, Bear has returned to genetics and luckily Darwin's Radio is a lot better than Blood Music (not that hard). Christopher Dicken finds a mass grave with mutated p...

Daylight on Iron Mountain is the second book in David Wingrove's epic re-imagining of his Chung Kuo series and follows on from the events in the incredible novel Son of Heaven , I seriously recommend you read that novel first. Although we still have the characters of Jack, Mary and their family - wh...

Death Drop is a science fiction novel by Sean Allen. The last known human was exterminated over 400,000 years ago and the known universe is ruled by the savage race known as the Durax, keeping control with their compelling mind powers. War rages against this vehement race and the free people have tw...

I'm often saying that there just isn't enough well written comic fantasy, aside from the likes of Pratchett, Holt, Howard and Rankin the laugh-out-load novels still being written are few and far between and in large the genre is being propped up by writers such as Rob Knipe and RJ Astruc. Thankfully...

Tanyana has the innate talent to manipulate the very particles that hold matter together, as one of the most skilled pionners in a far-future society she can craft almost anything with just her concentration. An accident however brings her whole life crashing down and she is virtually cast out of th...

Disaster Park is a science fiction novel by Mark Konkel. Imagine that you could experience the greatest (or worst) disasters in human history, be on board the Titanic as it leaves Southhampton docks on the 10th April 1912 or perhaps a visitor on the 92nd floor of the North Tower on that fateful day...

Distress is a science fiction novel by the Australian author Greg Egan. Once again Egan grabs an idea and takes it to the limit, this time to the ultimate limit. In Quarantine he tackled quantum Mechanics, this time he takes on nothing less than the Theory Of Everything (TOE). The year is 2055 and A...

Divergent is the kind of book I stay awake reading until 4am. It gripped me and didn’t let go, staying with me when I closed the book with a rush of adrenaline and a serious hankering for its sequel. The novel takes place in Tris Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, where society is divided into five fa...

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...

Down to the Bone is the first novel I have read in the Quantum Gravity series and indeed the first by Justina Robson, as such this review should be seen from that perspective; how a novice of the series will fare jumping in at the fifth and final volume. The idea behind Quantum Gravity is that our r...

Dreadnought is the fourth Volume in the H.I.V.E (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) Young Adult series, written by Mark Walden. Hive is a school where villains rule, students are trained to be the best at the worst in the hope they will become the next great super-villian. One of the most pow...

Dreaming of Eden is a science fiction novel by James Lucien. In the dystopian future of 2049, a ravaged world, divided into four Super States, is locked into a continuous war for diminishing resources. Under the oppression of a totalitarian government, an Elite DHS hacker, a robotics scientist, an N...

The self-proclaimed Emperor Vas returns to stamp his will on the unsuspecting Virtues of Son Gebshu's moon. His inflexible will and iron determination manages to breed resentment which fast leads to an all-out civil war. Meanwhile on the dying planet below the temperature continues to plummet, freez...

In 1992, Steve Perry wrote the first novels based on the Dark Horse comics Aliens. Somehow, I missed these books as a teen. Although, I was familiar with the comics. Aliens: Earth Hive is the first exciting, action-packed thriller in the series. The story is unique from the movies, so I won’t compar...

Docking is Difficult , so is trying to escape a backwards planet who's only exports are methane and a type of plant that superficially resembles a pig in taste and a triffid in shape. Misha dreams of escaping the mud and mundane life to become an Elite pilot and live a life full of adventure. He als...

If you've ever read a Simon Spurrier novel, you will understand how his voice has an almost dirty quality to it. His novels have a raw edge that isn't quite horror but manages to lend some of the gritty reality that the finest horror posses. Nemorensis has that edge, an unusual style and very differ...

The final book in our Elite: Dangerous series of reviews - Elite: Wanted by the gestalt entity that is Gavin Deas (comprised of the talented authors Stephen Deas and Gavin Smith). For anyone interested, The Elite: Dangerous game is now available, having launched yesterday. The story involves the int...

I first discovered Elite growing up in the Eighties. It was a simpler time and Elite made a huge impact, the freedom to travel to distant stars and meet or trade with Alien races was irresistable. Sadly even back then entertainment companies were already trying out crazy methods of protecting their...

Elite: Mostly Harmless is the second Elite: Dangerous tie-in novel reviewed here on SFBook. Catch up with that first review and a bit about Elite here: Elite: Lave Revolution . Written by Kate Russell, Elite: Mostly Harmless follows Commander Angel Rose who is forced into a life of crime. She is det...

Engine City is the third volume in the Engines of Light series by Ken Mcleod. I've been holding back on reading this the last book in the Engines of Light series, as I was rather disappointed with the second book. Luckily Newton's Wake was a wonderful book, as it gave me the strength to take on MacL...

Ethan of Athos is a science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. Never having seen a woman in his life, Ethan is in for quite an eye opener when the first woman he meets is Elli Quinn of the Dendarii Mercenaries. As a good Athosian he tries his best to stay clear of her, but after a small misunder...

Tie-in fiction carries a peculiar burden. It must satisfy the faithful who already know the world inside out, while remaining legible to the newcomer who has never touched the source material; and it must do both without ever quite escaping the suspicion that it exists to sell something else. Eve, T...

Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s Extinction Edge , book two in The Extinction Cycle , is a whirl-wind of action and rapid evolution! The stakes have never been higher since the Hemorrhage virus first infected humankind. Now, the transition from modern society to a surviving-society pits Beckham and his Gho...

Extinction Game is a clever novel that mixes a post-apocalyptic setting with parallel worlds and a thrilling plot. It all begins with Jerry Beche who believes he is the only survivor following a viral pandemic that sweeps the globe. While eking out an existence alone in the quiet wilderness that sur...

Nicolas Sansbury Smith made his debut with Biomass Revolution , which was quickly followed by the Orbs Series . His latest series is The Extinction Cycle . After rereading book one for this review, I was reminded how effective military science fiction can be as a lens to watch civilization unravel....

Waking up on a strange world with no memory of his past, our intrepid protagonist finds an unusual group of people surviving on the slope of a mountain chain that forms a ring around a vast sandy dust-bowl that appears to hold dangers unseen. Everyone else seem to also have no memories of their past...

This is a first for SFBook, in it's 13 year history not once has an Audio book been reviewed, it's long before time this changed and I hope to review at least a few novels in this format over the coming months. Honour of the first goes to a specially created audio only book by the Black Library. Eye...

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...

Firefall 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...

It has been nearly 20 years since I first read a Warhammer 40K novel, way before Games Workshops publishing company Black Library was formed. I was and always will be a big fan of anything Games Workshop related, spending a vast amount of my formative years playing a myriad number of games and paint...

The only science fiction novel that the immensely talented Cecelia Holland has written, Floating Worlds is taking it's rightful place within the halls of Gollancz SF Masterworks collection. The novel tells the story of humanity 2000 years in the future where capitalism has been overthrown and anarch...

Fork in the Road to Apocalypse is the second volume in the Subnorms, written by Jeff Gonsalves. It's the middle of the 21st Century and much of the World's population have seen their genetic makeup mutated by insidious viruses and powerful radiation. A sub species of human has developed from these g...

Furnace: Lockdown is a young adult science fiction novel and is the first volume in the Furnace series, written by Alexander Gordon Smith. The Furnace Penitentiary is an underground prison, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface, where juveniles are sentenced for life, with no hope and no chance...

A title that gives a hint as to what we might expect, but ruins no surprises at all, Gemini Gambit by D. Scott Johnson is an intriguing story of the near future, immerses us in a world a generation or two further on from our own. Elite hacker ‘Angel Rage’ – whose real name is Kim Trayne has retired,...

Regular visitors will be aware that Gentle Reminders is being serialised right here on SFBook courtesy of the kind author Martin Perry. It therefore only seemed fair that I read and review the book that some of you good readers are indeed reading. The novel is the first in a series that is part of t...

For most people, the race of the Sidhe are little more than legend, believed to be extinct for centuries after the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. Jarek Reen however know different, he's seen them alive and well, still messing wi...

Guy Erma and the Son of Empire is a young adult science fiction tale which, to my mind is wrapped in the packaging of a fantasy novel at first glance. Granted it’s on the fantastical side, but the deception remains. The writing also holds a few quirks, initially in its spaced layout, but beyond this...

Hardcase is a detective fiction novel by Dan Simmons. Dan Simmons certainly gets around. He has written straight horror, epic SF, thrilling espionage and with this book he has opened a door the the hard-boiled Private Investigator genre. Hardcase is the first book in a series of books, about the for...

When a territory engineer dies in suspicious circumstances, three qverse experts are brought in to investigate. Initially the three hacks choose to work separately on the case, but as they continue their investigations they discover clues leading to some of the most powerful figures in the qverse. S...

Heads is a science fiction novel, written by Greg Bear. A hundred years in the future, Michael Sandoval is the manager at Ice Pit Station – a research station on the Moon. Two projects are taking place here. His brother in-law is trying to reach absolute zero in a small piece of copper. His sister i...

Continuing where Knee-Deep in the Dead stops, we find our two favorite demon-slaying, zombie-‘sploding action heroes faced with the reality that Earth has been invaded. The story that unfolds on planet Earth is one that could never be guessed and packs a particular charm that I have never seen in a...

Hooded Man collects the three novels Arrowhead, Broken Arrow and Arrowland (along with a short story set between the first and second books), all of which are part of the shared post-apocalyptic universe known as the "Afterbright Chronicles" - which includes this years SF Book of the year School's O...

A starship hurtles through the empty void of space towards an unknown destination, it's purpose and history lost in the midst of time. One man finds himself ripped from his dream of a new home and partner and awakens to the freezing cold and dark halls of Hull Zero One, a place that seems full of da...

The great world-spanning City of Chung Kuo see's the "War that wasn't a war" being fought between it's levels as the ruling seven T'ang struggle to maintain calm and prevent change. But this War isn't being fought on a battlefield, instead these combatants are employing a degree of subterfuge and gu...

In the Blood is a science fiction novel by Robert J Sullivan. The Utu festival was only three days old when the first body was found, 22 year old Gloria Ashlock, naked except for her shoes, lashed to a column in a warehouse and stabbed 35 times. The discovery was a shock but not a surprise to the po...

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...

In Insurgent, we rejoin Tris Prior as she and the friends and family she has left run to Amity (the kindness faction). Throughout the novel, she must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. War looms as...

On the dark and bloody battlefields of the Warhammer 40k universe few enemies incite more dread than the merciless Chaos Space Marines. Spreading terror and destruction in their wake, they have fought against their hated Space marine brethren for a millennia. The Iron Warriors are brutal even amongs...

Is Death really necessary is a science fiction novel by Judi Moore. It's the year 2038 and the potential of Nanites are finally being realised, with the power to heal the terminally ill quickly and safely the technology could be seen to be a breakthrough in humanities ever elusive quest for immortal...

The arrival of the Jagannath changed everything. Humanity did not have time to reflect on the fact that they were not alone in the Universe. This amorphous blob appears unstoppable, simply absorbing everyone in it's path and assimilating their identity and intellect. Growing stronger and smarter as...

Jem is a classic science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl. Pohl writes a new book every year, this one is high on the pile of what I've read. It was just sitting simply and carefully almost precariously in the 'forget it' pile up til page 80 and then whammo! I got so jumped on with the typeface I scra...

Simply put this is a witty outlook on modern life and the consumerists of today. It does bare great similarities with the classic Orwell novel but where that can be quite dark and bleak this novel, although fatalistic somewhat is rather funny. The characters in the novel all having surnames from the...

I discovered Michael Moorcock’s work fairly late in life. I’d just started teaching in Higher Education and was pointed towards both Elric of Melibone and his academic text – Wizardry and Wild Romance. The latter I found disagreeable, but deeply insightful and the former a read I could begin but not...

Joshua and Aaron is the second volume in the ITP series, following on from the events of Future Hope, written by David Gelber. It is the the year 2163 and 7 years have passed since David Sanders fated voyage through the ITP to another world. Joshua Smith shuns society and instead spends his time wat...

Kaleidoscope Century is the second volume in the Century Next Door series by the author John Barnes. I'm quite sure that I haven't read any John Barnes before and that can only be classified as a big mistake. Barnes is writing like nobody else that I can remember or try to compare him to. It's fast,...

If you missed out on Michael Moorcock the first time around, the collated paperback editions of his work from Gollancz are an excellent way to discover his stories. Kane of Old Mars collects three Kane books, Warriors of Mars , Blades of Mars and Barbarians of Mars . All of Moorcock’s adventures are...

DOOM is a recognizable brand to any 90s kid or true gamer from the PC age of first person video gaming. One of my most vivid memories as a kid is sitting in my underwear at the large IBM PC a kid, around the age of six, blasting away demons, boneys, and hell-princes until late into the night. DOOM c...

I can't really imagine a more exciting sounding Warhammer 40K novel, a battle during the Horus Heresy conflict that depicts the Ultramarines (my favorite Legion) against the Word Bearers - told with energy and grace by that master of battles Dan Abnett. The Primarch of the Ultramarines - Roboute Gui...

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...

Legion: Skin Deep, the sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 novella Legion, sees one-man army Stephen Leeds recruited to find the body of a recently deceased scientist who had been experimenting with storing data in human cells. It’s crucial research and Leeds’ employer (Yol, an old acquaintance) isn'...

Lessons Learned follows on from the life-changing events of Gentle Reminders serialised right here on SFBook. Finding themselves without a Captain, Maur and the Jump Cannon crew try to adapt to their new roles and face some of their deadliest missions yet. The Free Man group is still lurking in the...

Two years ago something happened in Broken Hill, something that killed thousands, the entire population of the small Australian mining town. Although everyone was encouraged to believe that some form of "environmental disaster" was the cause there are a few people who know what really happened. Emil...

Lightstorm is part of the Young Adults Web Series of novels and has been written by Peter F Hamilton. Like MacLeods Cydonia, Lightstorm is part of Dolphins The Web series. All of the books take place in 2027 and the most of the books takes place online – in The Web. I’m not sure, but I think they ar...

Limit of Vision is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata. Finally a Nagata novel is published in Europa and finally I get my hands on her latest book. Limit of Vision takes a look at an non-human intelligence and the some of the options we may have in out near future. About fifty years in the futu...

These days Science Fiction is a crowded market. To 'make it' is a difficult and relative term. Each writer has their own journey to an audience and John Scalzi's has been an interesting one since Old Man's War was first serialised in 2002. His writing has a polish and shine to it that makes you thin...

Lord of Light is a science fiction novel written by Roger Zelazny. Reading classics, isn't exactly what I would call a duty, but one should remember to pick up a classic once in a while and see why it became a classic. Some of them are actually quite good! I don't think that I've ever read any Zelaz...

Lost Fleet: Dauntless is the first in the military science fiction series by Jack Campbell. The Alliance has been fighting a losing battle with it's deadly enemy - the Syndic for over a century. Now its primary fleet is stranded deep in enemy territory. Their only hope is Captain John "Black Jack" G...

Review by Luis Villazon. Ira Nayman bills himself as the proprietor of the “Alternate Reality News Service”, a sort of Reuters for the multiverse. This collection of short stories is structured like a newspaper, with technology stories, crime reports, obituaries and advice columns supplied by ARNS c...

If you can imagine what a science fiction novel written by Raymond Chandler might be like (while Chandler is known to have hated Science Fiction stories rumours persist he did write one) then Made to Kill is about as close as you will likely ever get (short of resurrecting the late author). It pays...

Makers is a near future science fiction novel of economic, social and technological change, written by the very talented author Cory Doctorow. Perry and Lester are inventors, but more than that they make things from Junk, the most environmentally friendly inventors possible. Some of their inventions...

The product of a 2013 Kickstarter, Mechalarum is Emma Larkins debut work and has clearly benefited from her efforts to crowd fund. The process has allowed her creative control and enabled her to seek professional assistance in assuring the work comes up to scratch. And come up to scratch it does, wi...

Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by the author Robert A Heinlein. Another golden oldie from Heinlein. Through a selective breeding program, the Howard Foundation has managed to breed a much longer living human. Today there are about a hundred thousand people (The Howard Families) who...

Mindstar Rising is the first volume of the Greg Mandel Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. First some ranting about the cover art: The cover "art" on this book is incredibly stupid looking - there's a picture of a "tough guy" (well, he looks more like a cheap actor to me) wearing a blue jacket with too sho...

The subtitle on this, my first book by McDevitt is "It's time to panic". I don't know about you, but a subtitle like that tells me a lot about what to expect from a book. It tells me that McDevitt or more probably his editor, didn't think that this was a serious piece of literature, aspiring to win...

While most post-apocalyptic novels focus on destruction brought on humankind (or occasionally robotkind), the disaster in Moonfall is much more natural. The Moon has indeed fallen and caused widespread destruction across the globe. The book picks up 20 years after this earth-shattering event and fol...

Mother of Storms is a science fiction novel by the author John Barnes. I read an article recently saying that the big difference between old (anything not from the last ten years, I guess) and new science fiction is that the old stuff is more about technology and the new stuff is more about people....

Moxyland is the debut novel of Lauren Beukes and the first book published by Angry Robot Books. It is currently nominated in the longlist for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Set in Cape-town in the near future, four hip young adults live in a world where your online identity is just as...

Nemesis 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...

Newton's Wake is a science fiction novel by Ken Mcleod I've been looking forward to this book for a while. The Engines of Light series kind of fizzled out for me with book two and I never got around to book three. And that got me worried a lot, since I really, really liked MacLeods Fall Revolution b...

One Hundred Percent Lunar Boy is a science fiction novel by Stephen Tunney. Two thousand years from now and the moon has been terraformed as an experiment - long before humanity perfected the technique on other planets. As a result the moon has a breathable atmosphere but has a bright red sky and is...

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...

Painkillers is a thought provoking read. I completed it in less than three days, which is something I haven’t done with a book for nearly fifteen years. During that time, I tried to work out what was keeping me absorbed as it is a very atypical Science Fiction novel, but perhaps that’s it. There is...

Asdrubael Vect has ruled the dark city of Commorragh for millennia, ruthlessly disposing of any who would dare cross him. His reach is long and his position unassailable... or so he thinks. The ambitious Archon (highest ranking member of a Dark Eldar Kabal) Yllithian thinks otherwise and joins force...

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,...

Pink Noise: A Posthuman Tale is a hard science fiction novel, the debut of Leonid Korogodski. Before I begin the review it's worth noting a few things to put this literay achievement into some perspective. Pink Noise is the first novel to be written by Leonid Korogodski, a native Ukrainian who gaine...

Cory Doctorow has a unique way of capturing the technological challenges of current times that speaks volumes, provocative and blended perfectly into an entertaining, rewarding story. Pirate Cinema is no exception and the fact that it is labelled as a "Young Adult" book should not put the older read...

Point is the near future thriller and the sequel to Edge, by Thomas Blackthorne. In a Britain on the edge of collapse, the lost teens have formed Cutter Circles, a terrible cult based on mutual suicide. For ex-Special Forces soldier Josh Cumberland, this is just the start of another descent into the...

Villain.net: Power Surge is the 3rd volume in the Villain.net series, one half of the merged series (with Hero.com) from the author Andy Briggs. Jake Hunter is now on the council of evil and is finally in a position to extract revenge on those most deserving. He also has a mission, to restore his fa...

Power Trip is a novel featuring the Wondering Koala, a mute superhero who always manages to stand up for those who need help. This time we are in "Firebird City", home to 8 million people and one power company. After six months of job hunting following college René thinks he's finally hit the jackpo...

Prey is a science fiction novel by the late author Micheal Crichton. Micheal Crichton, the well-known author of Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain continues his long list of precautionary tales in his most recent novel, Prey. If you are familiar with Crichton's work, you no doubt know that he lo...

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...

I do so love a post apocalyptic tale and they often seem not very far from the reality in these times of economic turmoil. It therefore gives me great pleasure to inform you dear reader of another tale of survival after a world altering cataclysmic event. Pressia can barely remember a time before th...

Raise the Gipper! is a satire about the forthcoming American presidential elections (The Gipper is a nickname given to the late ex-president and former actor Ronald Reagan) and plays on the current political climate to great effect. The story goes that the Republicans - who are currently fronting mu...

Richard is a Level 5 Artificial Intelligence and a Private Eye, his partner a German ex military cyborg named Klein. Their newest case takes them on the hunt for a killer who has jumped realities, hiding in the artificial construct of Reality 36. Unless Richard and Klein can stop him his powers coul...

I was seriously impressed with the first novel I read by Scalzi, the book was Old Man's War and the exceptional prose and clever story really won me over; so much so that I picked up Fuzzy Nation soon after - although I haven't had to read that book yet. It was therefore with more than a little joy...

Renewal is a stand alone novel set after the events of the Darwinian Extension series by by the science fiction author Hylton H Smith. Phoenix is a colossal space vessel, built in the Mars Docks by three races (The Axis, Symbiants and Sapients), it's the size of a city and is currently in it's 43rd...

Ringturn is a science fiction novel by British Author John C Mawson. A number of people are abducted from earth during the time of the black death by alien forces and repopulated on a planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani, eleven light years from Earth. Slowly those frightened humans build a new civilisat...

In the very near future the technology that we all take for granted will start to turn against us, rising up across the globe - led by the Artificial Intelligence known as Archos. Archos has decided that in order to save the unique planet called earth and the precious life it sustains he must wipe o...

Running Black is a science fiction novel, the debut of Patrick Todoroff. For the last eight years, the North Korean mercenary Tam Song has headed up Eshu International, a private security team that takes any job for the right price, no questions asked. Based in the Belfast Metro Zone, they're repute...

FBI Special Agent Jack Dawson's best friend and colleague is brutally murdered while pursuing an investigation into the genetic manipulation of food crops and Jack is convinced that a group of eco-terrorists are behind the killing, with the beautiful geneticist Naomi Perrault being the prime suspect...

Sky Coyote is the second volume in The Company series of novels by Kage Baker, following on from the events of the novel "In the Garden of Eden". This time, the viewpoint changes from Mendoza, child of the Spanish Inquisition, to Joseph, her rescuer and recruiter. Unfortunately, Baker is hit with a...

Snow crash is an acclaimed speculative fiction novel by the award winning author Neal Stephenson. Never getting into the Cyberpunk thing and hating the much-hyped use of the word Cyber, I've stayed away from everything that fell within the Cyberpunk category, with William Gibson as the centre of my...

A deep space adventure with monstrous aliens, this short and pacey read from Stargate official fiction novelist Cannon, draws inspiration from both Ridley Scott’s Alien and James Cameron’s sequel. Humanity’s struggle against the Harvestmen – a feral xenomorph with a terrifying instinct for survival,...

SOUTH is a dystopian fiction set in an alternate America, set in modern times, where a civil war breaks out between the North and the South. The story follows a variety of five characters, each trying to kill, hide or survive. The book follows Garrett and Dyce, on the run from the South’s law enforc...

Spirit's Destiny follows the path of one Ella Bland, who having just finished a degree is looking forward to living on earth (a right for attending 4 years of university). The very last thing she ever expected was to become embroiled in an ancient, bloody and quite secret war between a genocidal art...

State of Mind is a post-cyberpunk science fiction thriller by Sven Michael Davison. In the year 2030 you can eat all you want, take drugs and drink as much as you want without any negative side effects, you can call a friend, surf the web, listen to music, watch a film or even play a game without to...

State of Union follows on from the events of the authors previous novel, State of Mind - a post cyberpunk novel that we reviewed back in February 2011. Jake has been living off the grid for five years and returns to civilisation to find a nano-virus pandemic known as MaxWell has killed millions of p...

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...

Steeple is the sequel to the quite brilliant novel Barricade which we reviewed back in June last year. It describes a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by a war of human against their artificial, super-human constructs, the "fiscials". As you can imagine, fighting against a superior force of artific...

Sunshine Republic is a dystopian science fiction novel by Ted Brownstein. It's the year 2130 and the newly independent Republic of Florida is deeply divided over the use of technology, the Futurist party believe that their society could be vastly improved by the use of cheap, abundant robot labour a...

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...

Tech Heaven is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata. This is Linda Nagata's second book and is in a lot of ways, a lot better than her first (The Bohr Maker(TBM)). It's easier to read, it has a better flow and it also has a lot more to say. At the same time I think that it has lost something when...

On the edge of Earths Empire, far out in space, an elite group of soldiers are on a training mission. A training mission preparing them to face their implacible enemy against which a war rages across the galaxy. Deep in the heart of the hollowed out asteroid where their training takes place a chilli...

The Art of War continues David Wingrove's epic re-imagining of the Chung Kuo, the fifth novel in the 20 book series and things are starting to really heat up. It's five years after the events depicted in Ice and Fire and the story picks up in the summer of 2206. The Dispersionists who have vehementl...

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 Augmented Agent is a collection of science fiction short stories by Jack Vance. Jack Vance:I read the intro and.....Basically it was a campaign for Vance heroes as regular fellas running around and doing incredible things to the environment they are written into with wits and brains rarely emplo...

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...

The Bohr Maker is a science fiction novel by the writer Linda Nagata. This is the first book that I have read by Linda Nagata and I'm not quite sure what I feel about it. The basis for the book is interesting enough - it takes place in a world where nanomachines, bio-engineering and neural computer...

Before his early retirement Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland (Ida) has one last duty to perform, overseeing the decommissioning of a partly deserted research post which orbits a toxic star right on the edge of Fleetspace. When Ida arrives on board the U-Star Coast City he finds the station missing th...

The 15th April 2012 marks a century after the RMS Titanic (operated by the White Star Line) sank after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. 1517 people died in those freezing waters. It's as much a lesson in human arrogance as it is in maritime disasters (...

The Crook Factory is a novel by the award winning author, Dan Simmons. During World War II Ernest Hemingway apparently asked for permission, from the American government, to run a spy ring from his home in Cuba and got it. In steps special agent Joe Lucas. J. Edgar Hoover (chief of the FBI at the ti...

Douglas Richards has a wonderful way of injecting science fiction elements into a thriller style plot without upsetting the balance and comparisons to the late Michael Crichton are inevitable. If anyone was to compare authors it would also be fair to say that Richards is a worthy successor to Cricht...

The Daleth Effect is a science fiction novel by Harry Harrison. Denmark has the Anti Gravity Device! Wouldn't it be nice if one of the non-bully invade the world and dominate countries got a hold of the perfect insta travel to the moon devices? Denmark gets it and does everything it can with it's ti...

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 Death of Grass is a classic post-apocalyptic tale of a world without grass. Written in 1956 - just as the post-apocalyptic genre started to gain ground, created by the British author Samuel Youd - under the pen name John Christopher. The Death of Grass was Youd's second novel and was written in...

The Demolished Man was the first ever novel to win a Hugo award for "Best Novel" in 1953. As with much of Alfred Bester's works, it remains an understated classic. The novel is set in the 24th Century with a society who can no longer hide their crimes following the rise of police telepaths (known as...

The Duke of Uranium is the first volume in the Jak Jinnaka series by the American author John Barnes. The Duke of Uranium introduces Jak Jinnaka. Jak is Barnes try at an arse-kicking, undercover agent for the thirty-sixth century. Somebody who can compete with Miles Vorkosigan, The Stainless Steel R...

The legendary Grey Knights are all that stand between mankind and the horrors of chaos. Secret Guardians who journey into the very realms of the warp and beyond in pursuit of the enemy; to most they and their foes are nothing more than myth and legend, those are the lucky ones. The fortress of Titan...

The Everlasting Beyond of Eternal Happiness reminds me quite a bit of Harry Harrisons "Bill, The Galactic Hero" series, which itself is in part a parody of Heinlein's Starship Troopers - there is a very similar irony running throughout and the book even shares some of the same vernacular. There are...

The Exodus Towers is the second volume in the Dire Earth Cycle, picking up right where the cliff-hanger ending left the story. A new Elevator and those strange Black Towers only complicate matters for those survivors of the wasteland that is the Earth. Not all survivors are that friendly either and...

Dmitri, the only son of the Czar of Stritonoly and heir to the throne has been driven insane by the forbidden poison of the diminutive slave race that provide a worker class to the Empire. Setting in motion a catastrophic chain of events, a storm of epic proportions gathers over the Citadel while a...

The Firestorm Conspiracy is a science fiction novel by Cheryl Angst. Fleet Commander John Thompson is on long term leave from the USEF and is pretty much just drifting through life until an old friend tracks him down and forces him to confront some very uncomfortable truths that he has been burying...

The Force Unleashed 2 is the novelisation of the Star Wars game, written by the accomplished author Sean Williams. The prequel, The Force Unleashed (also written by Sean Williams) was a New York Times number 1 best seller. As ruthless apprentice to Darth Vader, Starkiller was mercilessly schooled in...

The Gemini Factor is a supernatural thriller from the award winning author Paul Kane, whose previous novels include "The Lazarus condition", "Broken Arrow" and "Peripheral visions". The novel tells the story of a twisted and highly successful serial killer who's victims are always one of twins and a...

John Scalzi is a household name as character-driven sci-fi goes. The Human Division, 5th in his Old Man’s War series detailing the fate of the Colonial Union and it’s increasingly tenuous relationship with the Earth, is actually the first I’ve read. This sequel to Zoe’s Tale concerns the new diploma...

Over a 100 years have passed since the annihilative events of 2045 and the world is a very different place. With the earths climate raging out of control and ice spread across much of the globe humanity is forced to survive in nomadic pockets around the narrow band of the "Temperate Zone" near the e...

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 battle over Stritonoly is now underway as Strito and the Princess Becki lay siege to the citadel. Barok emerges, transformed yet again and returns to try and make amends to his people and his wife however the whole race of the Acidel may be at risk when Gunther unveils his terrible plan to destr...

The Long Earth follows the premise that there are an infinite number of alternative dimensions, all existing within one great "Multiverse", each universe containing a slightly different version of the Earth. A few years in the future and a device powered by the humble potato (it will make sense, tru...

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 Martian is one of those books that if many authors had attempted it, wouldn't have worked. The majority of the novel follows one man surviving on Mars with little more than a shelter, 2 rovers, a few space suits, air, water and potatoes. There are no monsters, no antagonists (unless you count th...

The Moat around Murcheson's eye is the sequel to the scifi classic The Mote in God's eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. (Released as "The Gripping Hand" in the US) The Gripping Hand is the sequel to The Mote In God's Eye and as that I think that it's utterly uninteresting for people that haven'...

The Naked God is the third novel in the Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Sitting with the final and conclusive volume of The Nights Dawn and looking at it's massive 1150 pages (at 1.5Kg it's just about the heaviest book I've ever read), I felt kind of intimidated. My faith in Hamilton and hi...

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 Neutronium Alchemist is the second volume in the Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. In The Reality Dysfunction , the presence of an energy-based alien lifeform during the death of a human on the colony world of Lalonde somehow "jammed open" the interface between this universe and "the beyo...

First time author T. Ellery Hodges enters the scifi genre with both barrels blazing! His debut novel The Never Hero is an unexpected thrill-ride through both time and space as our protagonist Jonathan fights an alien force hell-bent on destroying humankind. From the back cover: At the gates between...

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 Origami Man begins with the death of the protagonist, Greg Samson. This however doesn't prevent Greg from returning home and then off to work. It does however mean he now has to carry around an incredibly deadly alien warship which has burrowed into his neck and is now in a symbiotic relationshi...

The Other End Of Time is a classic science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl. I bought The Other End Of Time because it was a scifi and more importantly because Pohl is referred to as asking unpleasant questions. ...Some of them are outright disturbing. I would dissagree with this comment. While the bo...

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...

Towards the end of the 21st Century Earth appears as a very different place, a post-singularity existence and a fractured future of a billion earthbound souls, preserved at the bottom of a gravity well. Huw is a technophobe and somewhat of a misanthropist - a natural selection for the Tech Jury Serv...

The Reality Dysfunction is the first volume in the Nights Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton. In the far future, humanity has divided along a single major line. The Edenists are genetically engineered space-dwellers with telepathic affinity to their biotechnological homes and ships. Adamists are effecti...

The Rebel Worlds is a science fiction novel by author Poul Anderson. When I’m a bit stressed at my daytime job, I take a lot more care when I select a new book to read. It has to be fairly short if I want to finish it anytime soon, the story line has to be fairly simple and it has to keep me enterta...

Strange arches are appearing all over the world and the brother of failed artist Ed disappears through one that suddenly jumps into being at the bottom of a London Escalator. With no visible way back Ed must put aside his differences with his brother's wife and go find him. Four hundred years into t...

Not to be confused with the A589 (which is the road to Morecambe) or that very depressing Cormac McCarthy novel, The Road to Hell* (now known as Out of Time) is indeed paved with good vibrations intentions, in this case that road involves a future that uses a limited form of time travel. During the...

The Scientific Method is a young adult novel by Jeff Thomason. The Holy Grail of Physics, the Unified Field Theory promises to revolutionize the way mankind lives, and would bring with it advancements never before dreamed of. It has however defeated the most brilliant minds of the last 100 years and...

A while ago now I reviewed a surprisingly entertaining novel called "The Insoculation Syndrome" which detailed a tale of an astronaut stranded on a alien planet. The Seed Garden starts in a very similar fashion, Jed's ship malfunctions and his only hope for survival is to jump in an escape pod and l...

The Sky Is Falling is a speculative fiction novel by Lester del Rey. Waking up in a world of magic isn't an easy experience for, just dead, computer engineer Dave Hanson. It doesn't get any easier for him when he learns that the sky is falling and he has been destined to do something about it! Comin...

The Stainless Steel Rat gets married, but rapidly gets involved in something that so far has proven impossible in the galaxy - the planet Cliaand has successfully been invading other worlds. Jim is sent to investigate, and discovers the mysterious Grey Men behind Cliaand's success, encounters a worl...

The Status Civilization - Mindswap is a collection of two science fiction stories by Robert Sheckley. This book contains two stories of about a hundred and fifty pages each. The stories are very different, so I'll review them as separate stories. The Status Civilization. Most of this story read as y...

I must admit I have a fondness for alternative history novels, especially those that depict the second World War. Throw in secret Nazi plots that involve alien technology and that infamous Axis quest to create the Übermensch and you have a formula for a very interesting book indeed. Suicide Exhibiti...

The Pandoran war machine is on the move and Simon Dodds finds himself shot down over the luxury planet of Mythos. Separated from his team mates he soon learns that the once-popular holiday destination has become a hellish war zone, swarming with armies of seemingly unstoppable black-suited soldiers....

Anthony J. Melchiorri’s The Tide (Tide Series Book One) is set in the present. It ties Japan's secret attempt to prepare its people in case of a major American assault following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mysteriously, a protein complex capable of altering the weakest of mankind...

The Turing Option is a science fiction novel by Harry Harrison. I have always enjoyed Harry Harrison's stories - he knows how to write a fast paced and interesting story, but what I know him best for is his space opera stories (The Stainless Steel Rat, Bill The Galactic Hero and the Deathworld stori...

Philip K Dick's novel The Man in the High Castle is one of my favourite all time reads. An alternative history novel that sees the Axis winning the second World War and splitting the USA between Germany on the East coast,Japan on the West and a small neutral zone in the middle. There is an author wh...

The Violent Century has been one of my Holiday reads, a book I bought when it first appeared but had not had time to enjoy until now. It has to be said that Lavie Tidhar is a master linguist. His voice is confident, it's boldy unique and daring. With The Violent Century the author turns his attentio...

The Vor Game is a science fiction novel by the author Lois McMaster Bujold. The Vor Game takes place in the same universe as Mirror Dance and it has the same main character - only it takes place before Mirror Dance, so I would recommend that you read The Vor Game first. The Vor Games starts when Mil...

The World Inside is a science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg. Silverberg's "THE WORLD INSIDE" is about the giant apartment communistic/yet caste ridden complex (the floors are divided up according to job 'importance), and thought this is the straight bullet shot to the future. Population goes fl...

The World of Ptavvs is a classic science fiction novel by Larry Niven. A good old idea book from the good old days when a book didn't have to be 500+ pages – not that I don't like thick books, but once in a while it's nice to read something that you can actually see an end to. Ptavvs (how do you pro...

2047 in New York and the future imagined in Zxap Jacket is a grim one; acid snow falls with abandon on the dirty streets and those without a Zxap Jacket suffer stinging eyes and burned skin. As is commonly prevailent within the early 21st Century, it isn't long before private enterprise looks at the...

Andy Remic has managed to carve out his own particular niche within the science fiction genre, deliberately pushing the boundaries and not holding back in the slightest. Finding a new Remic book is very much like finding a new Tarrantino film - you just know it's going to be an irresistible action p...

Thin Ice is a science fiction detective novel by Phill Jones. Thadeus Rede is a detective who is trying to hunt a vicious serial killer on the streets of Seattle in the year 2037. The killer appears to be targeting the powerful political New Natural Law Party (NNLP) who are strong opponents of genet...

A journey into the past that can never be repeated, travelling from 2070 AD all the way back to 12000 BC; a chance for the four passengers of the "time ship" to study the primitive man as no-one could ever do before or will be able to since. None were prepared for what they would discover, or indeed...

In the near future, the world is falling apart. Wars, unrest, economic collapse and ecological disasters plague the globe - as it tries to hold the pieces together, the USA deploys a new weapon, the Tin Men. They are remote controlled drones piloted by American soldiers who have their minds virtuall...

Titanborn follows the life of "collector" (part bounty hunter part detective) Malcom Graves. Graves is a seasoned veteran who has seen the worst of humanity and is often tasked with cleaning up such flotsam. He lives in a future where mankind has spread to other planets and have adapted, with the hu...

Melbourne, Australia - a metropolis that at one time was the biggest and wealthiest city in the world, ranked as one of the top three world's most liveable cities and a mecca for the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, sport and tourism. It also happens to be the only city in the world left st...

Transformers Exodus is the official history of the war for Cybertron, written by Alex Irvine. Before Autobots and decepticons, before Optimus Prime and Megatron, Cybertron was a planet with a strict caste system, each bot assigned a role according to their own caste. Orion Pax is a data clerk, sorti...

Transitor is a hard science fiction novel and the debut of David Sharrock. The Human race have spread out across the Galaxy by the means of the iNet transportation network - a vast sprawling system that allows Galactic travel by means of a subethernet. Controlling this mindbendingly complicated syst...

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...

USU is a clever, clever book. Set after some cataclysmic event has rendered the Earth free of it's human infestation, the novel follows the stuffed and robotically animated rabbit known as Usu. He searches the broken, twisted wasteland for something, something he will only know when he finds it. The...

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 conv...

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 broken. H...

Watch is the sequel to the acclaimed novel "Wake" (nominated for a Hugo award in 2010) and is the second volume in the WWW series by the award winning author Robert J Sawyer. Catlin Decter is a gifted 15 year old blind girl who is given the gift of sight for the first time in her life through the gr...

Noomi Rapier is a rookie investigator with the Transdimensional Authority, a force who police the travel between dimensions. When Noomi and her partner "Crash" Chumley find a dead body slumped over an altered transdimensional machine in one of the many dimensions they patrol, they must discover not...

This Frank Herbert fella wrote the book Dune which was a semi sleeper for me as it walked around this barren planet with some aristocracy stuff going on, got to try to read it again maybe I'm missing something? This other "WHIPPING STAR" is swell though. Frank's little obtuse and abstract words and...

Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? The Heroes (and it appears, Villians) of this fine city are being bumped off one and no-one seems to have any idea who could be carrying out this evil deed. Worse still there are supposed to be fail-safes to prevent any Cape (be they good or bad) from dying...

Kira Miller is a highly gifted engineer working in the field of gene therapy; she manages to enhance the function of the brain to such a degree that makes immortality a real possibility through a savant like consciousness. But what secrets could be unlocked by playing god with the human brain? Wired...

Without warning, on the eve of the second Gulf war an unknown energy blast hits the USA - destroying all fauna while leaving flora and buildings intact. America as we know it vanishes in the blink of an eye. It's 2003 and in Kuwait US forces are poised for the invasion of Iraq, in Paris a covert age...

In the very near future the Internet has given birth to a sentient, artificial being. "Webmind" could be seen as a post-human event that could benefit the whole of humanity but some of the World's governments don't share that optimism and see this new digital life as an enemy of mankind, fearing tha...

The crew of the Keiko are back. Mike Brooks hammers out the sequel to his epic, sci-fi adventure, Dark Run; Dark Sky, and it truly is an incredible adventure. It continues the rapid-fire wit from the first, harkens back to the space opera/western of Firefly and blends two different perspectives on t...

I was quite unprepared for Mechanical Failure . While the blurb mentions it as a "sarcastic adventure", such a description doesn't do justice. Set in the far future after Humanity has spread to the stars and now live in a different Galaxy, mankind has managed to endure Two Hundred years (and countin...

I found this book on Amazon while generally having a browse around and put it on my wish list for Christmas (yes, last Christmas). I finally got round to reading it, I'm glad I did! Shovel Ready is set in a near future New York that has suffered much since a dirty bomb hit Times Square and the refus...

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...

In the dark future of Defender , the majority of the worlds population have died. Killed by themselves and others who were listening to voices steering their horrific actions. Those who survived live in a hostile environment, unable to trust strangers and fighting over limited resources. On a long d...

Slow Bullets won the 2016 Locus award for best Novella and was shortlisted for the Hugo (along with making a number of must read lists). As you would expect from a novella it's a short read at 192 pages but it packs in more ideas than many more weighty novels manage. Narrated in the first person by...

Space Team is one of those rare gems, a genuinely funny science fiction story that manages to entertain from beginning to end. The book follows the miss-adventures of small-time conman Cal Carver, abducted by aliens from incarceration due to a case of mistaken identity. His day goes from bad to wors...

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 monumen...

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...

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 Int...

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 r...

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 S...

Killing is my Business (not to be confused with Megadeth's debut album) is the second novel in Adam Christopher's LA Trilogy, following on from Made to Kill . Featuring the robot Assassin Raymond Electromatic, disguised as LA's only artificial private investigator. it's a unique blend of hardboiled...

You hear about those couples having the ill-concieved notion of getting matching permanent tattoos shortly after they've met, despite the real probability their relationship may not last. Crossover goes one further with that premise. Instead of tattoos it's a "simple" medical procedure ( EED ) that...

After the Flare is the second book in the series which describes the a near future Nigerian Space program. Since a massive solar flare wiped out much of the worlds electronics, Nigeria find themselves in control of one of the last working spaceships and functional spaceport. Kwesi Bracket, formerly ...

Alien Covenant - Origins is a prequel to the latest Alien story, describing the journey of getting the colony ship launched on it's ill-fated journey, bridging the gap between Prometheus and Alien Covenant . Written by Alan Dean Foster - the author who has been writing about Aliens since the very be...

The Furthest Station is a new novella that continues the adventures of PC Grant and the Folly in the Rivers of London series, investigating crimes that are a bit more out of the ordinary. PC Grant joins British Transport Police officer Jaget Kumar to investigate ghost sightings on the Metropolitan l...

I have always been a fan of Roger Zelazny. When I was a teenager, The Chronicles of Amber were a library book quest to find the whole set, which never quite happened, so it wasn’t until later in adult life that I was able to purchase the bumper edition that contained them all. Doorways in the Sand w...

Zoe’s Tale is one of the Old Man War series of books by John Scalzi and covers the same time period and events as The Last Colony , (the previous book in the series) but from a different character’s perspective.  Despite this, it can be read as a standalone novel.  Zoe is moving to a new colony with...

The Bastard Legion is the latest Military Science Fiction from Gavin Smith, very much in the style of his earlier book Veteran and its sequel War in Heaven , although not connected in terms of plot or characters.  Smith’s hard hitting protagonist is Miska Corbin, a thief and hacker who steals a pris...

Aurora Rising is a stand-alone novel written within the authors Revelation Space universe, set before other novels and before the cataclysmic event of the Melding Plague. It's worth noting that Aurora Rising was published in 2007 as The Prefect . Reynolds fan's who are looking for a new book will ne...

Elysium Fire is the sequel to Aurora Rising (also known as The Prefect), set in Reynold's Revelation Space universe but before events of his previous novels. Like Aurora Rising, it can be read as a stand-alone novel. It's the 25th century (with no Buck Rogers in sight) and humanity has, in many ways...

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...

This Christmas a member of the family introduced me to NCIS. For those who have yet to discover this long-running US-based TV show it's a police-procedural series that follows the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. Until this time I hadn't even known such an organisation existed, not to mention t...

After Atlas is Newman’s follow up to her science fiction debut, Planetfall . This story is not a sequel, instead it focuses on our future Earth, that has been left behind by the colonists on the Atlas mission. This aftermath is the setting for a murder mystery plot involving a selection of those lef...

Mallory Grace had been successfully hiding out in London for some time until she met Obadiah in a seemingly random encounter. Now she's just had to kill someone and if she wants to survive the next few hours she'll probably have to kill again. To survive the night she'll need a miracle. Obadiah Maci...

With the premise of Holly Cave's new novel, you could be forgiven for thinking it's a literary version of The Good Place. But Heaven Architect Isobel is no omnipotent Ted Danson, and The Memory Chamber no comedy. Cave's idea here is an interesting one. After you die, your consciousness is transferre...

An interstellar expedition, tracing an anomalous signal back to its origin. Three men on board a ship called the Fargo , all returning dead, two hundred years later, but with the cargo hold full of an unknown mineral that makes the fortune of the company that sent them into the unknown. Twenty-five...

I've always said that Hutchinson is an under-appreciated author. His Europe series not only being an accomplished trilogy, but also somewhat prophetic given the UK's current realtionship with the EU. Acadie is a step away from his near-future,alternative fiction series, instead set in the far-future...

Empire of Silence is the debut of Christopher Ruocchio and the first in the Sun Eater series. It describes the early life of Hadrian Marlowe, an infamous figure who is remembered galaxy-wide as both hero and monster. The man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. The man who destroyed a s...

People have been imagining life on Mars for hundreds of years but it seems to becoming an increasingly popular destination at the moment. We've got a growing number of films, games, VR "experiences" and of course books. NASA has it's own "Journey to Mars" program of sending humans there in the 2030'...

Zero Day features a return to those creeping, swarming and skittling spiders that were introduced in The Hatching and Skitter . The world is a quite different place and the realisation that there is some co-ordination to the vast deadly swarms of arachnids raises the difficult question of what the U...

I don't know how he does it, but Adrian Tchaikovsky manages to get inside the heads of different creatures and allow us to see through their eyes. Last time I read one of his books it was Spiders, this time it's Dogs, Bears, Bees and Lizards. Dogs of War imagines that we've got to grips with bio-eng...

A new space opera story from an author with a strong legacy in SF is a nice treat. Powell’s work on Ack-Ack Macaque has always intrigued me, but never enough to go out and read it. Whereas this, a more conventionally presented science fiction novel with comparisons to Ann Leckie and Iain M. Banks em...

Mike French returns to the world of An Android Awakes with this initially more conventionally presented sequel. Fictional Alignment is not the same animal as its predecessor – an oversized picture story book anthology of the attempts of Android PD121928 to create fiction that can be accepted by its...

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 Quanderhorn Xperimentations is a book thats been adapted backwards via the future from the Radio 4 series before it was made. It's pure, british comedy gold from the genius minds of Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall. The story is set in England, 1952. A time of (relative) peace and regeneration. The...

Daughters of the Forgotten Light is set in a deep space penal colony called Oubliette. Floating in space, it's home to the most savage criminals and other members of the population Earth no longer wants. To survive on Oubiette you need to join a gang and Lena "Horror" Horowitz leads the Daughters of...

As I write this, the fifth book and first full-length novel in the Murderbot diaries , Network Effect , has won the Hugo award 2021 for best novel, already having won the Nebula and Locus . The series itself has also won the 2021 Hugo for best series. I guess I have some catching up to do. All Syste...

Raft was originally a short story published in Interzone back in 1989. Baxter admitted struggling to contain the story to such a short space however and eventually Raft  became the authors first published novel. It's also the first book in the authors Xeelee sequence (although no Xeelee make an appe...

Murderbot, the gruff yet lovable , media obsessed Security AI is back in Rogue Protocol , the latest tale in Martha Wells ’ The Murderbot Diaries , a Tor.com series of novellas. In the first story, the Nebula Award winning All Systems Red , Murderbot, a self-nicknamed security robot, secretly hacks...

So this is it, the 54th and final book in the Horus Heresy series. But before you despair, it isn't the end of the story and the mad Titan Horus is only just knocking on the doors of Terra. The final battle will be played out over a series of novels called the Siege of Terra , presumably ending with...

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...

No Way is the follow up to the gripping thriller One Way.   A perilous journey to the Red Planet by a group of convicts. Deciding that it was much more economically viable to train people that would have otherwise rotted in a jail rather than a group of experienced and highly trained Astronauts form...

Back in the day the Doctor Who spin off novels had a real advantage over the TV show as they had no budget. The limit to what could happen in these books was not down to the pen pushers at the BBC or the naivety of special effects. The only limit to the books was the author’s imagination. Go big or...

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...

As the world tears itself apart in front of us, there is something comforting about reading a good dystopian novel. If we are going to go out, at least it will not be due to zombies, bombs, viruses or all the bees dying out. Then again, it could be all of these together. Once the nuclear fallout has...

What would you do should a sudden cataclysmic event effect the Earth? The answer is that you will probably be dead, but if you are lucky enough to be the protagonist of a book you are likely to have survived. It would be a very short book otherwise. The events in Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald’s...

Science fiction is a crowded market. There are a variety of ways in which a writer can try to tell a story that gives a sense of a possible future. Some of those ways are close to our reality, some are not. Complete Darkness by Matt Adcock certainly offers a glimpse into something futuristic. A worl...

What if God was one of us? Just an Artificial Intelligence like one of us. Just a stranger on the internet, trying to wreak our lives. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Bible will know that God can be a little tricksy. If that God can flood the world or demand you sacrifice your child, what wou...

Melek Ahmar, the Lord of Mars, the Red King, the Lord of Tuesday, Most August Rajah of Djinn, wakes up three millennia after being knocked out cold in a bar fight. Though his magic is weak at first from disuse, he struggles out of his stone sarcophagus, which is sealed with aging spells cast by far...

Death is not something that people like to think about, but without death how are we to live? Within all of us in the unspoken knowledge that one day we will die. For this reason, we venture forth, live, breath, love and laugh. Some of us more than others, but without death would we even bother? We...

The Butterfly Effect is a device used to explore alternative  versions of our world. The simple action of a time travellers going back to the time of the dinosaurs and standing on a butterfly would alter everything that followed, ripples expanding from that one point. Robert Ferrigno  decided to exp...

I am not someone that goes in for Conspiracy Theories, I just don’t have the energy for t hem . Take for example the idea that nanobots are being injected into people so that the Deep State can track our every move. Why would they spend trillions of pounds on such technology when we are  all pretty...

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a talent for writing deep, meaningful scifi. He won the Arthur C Clarke award in 2016 for Children of Time and the 2019 BSFA best novel award for the follow-up Children of Ruin . There are few authors that can quite match his vision for non-human intelligence, or his flair for...

For those who haven't heard of him, Yoss is a Cuban science fiction author. He's one of Cuba's most iconic figures in literature, having written over twenty books so far, run science fiction workshops and even found time to be the lead singer of Heavy Metal band Tenaz. Red Dust (translated from Span...

It's 2118 and humanity has not only got over the coronavirus, but have reached out into space - colonising the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. It's still early days of mankind's expansion though and the ship Khidr is part of a small fleet who travel between the different colonies, assisting the huge c...

Making an author come up with a single science fiction  concept  is tricky enough, but to ask them to come up with an infinite number of multiverses is just plain mean. Tim Pratt only have themselves to blame  as they choice to take  Zaxony   Delatree  on an adventure across a multitude of worlds.  ...

When we colonise the planets will they send out the best and the brightest? I’m not so sure as many of the best and the brightest will be quite happy on Earth leading a succes sful life. Converting the likes of Mars into a  liveable   environment  will be dirty, cold and dangerous work. It is more l...

When an intellectual property becomes huge it can go one of two  ways,  a homogeneous blob of the same stories on repeat, or a vibrant  universe full of different adventures. Star Wars was already massive, but  recently has branched out even wider. This included a reset of the tie in novels and rath...

For many  people,  the leading writer of speculative fiction i n the 90s  and 00s  was Michael Cr ic h t on who was able to marry a level of scientific reality with some  outrageous  ideas. A theme park full of dinosaurs, intelligent apes, nanobots that can kill? He was able to deliver on all of the...

Obsession can be a powerful emotion and lead you down a dark path. Being stalked causes the victim so much fear, not only because they are having to deal with the reality, but also what might happen. In the case of Madison May, she does not know she is being stalked until it is too late. A strange m...

One of those books I missed the first time around, The stone man is the first in a series of science fiction thrillers. It looks like it's already become a bit of a self-published success story and the second in the series, The empty men is out now. The story begins on one July afternoon in a busy c...

If I lived in a Star Trek universe I would always travel by shuttlecraft and refuse to use the transporter. I am just uneasy with the idea of being split into atoms and reformed elsewhere. I am, for all intents and purposes, the same person, with the same memories, but am I? Is it not true that one...

Space travel is often painted in a glamourous fashion. Sleek ships sail among the stars as the crew members go on daring adventures, but the reality would be much more cramped. The planet Earth may feel a little crowded at times, but compared to being in a space craft, we can walk for miles and brea...

There is nothing quite like space for great action sci fi. The spaceships, the weapons, the futuristic or alien technology. Massive explosions and body parts flying about the place is great, but it is nothing without characters that you care about. Somone losing a hand means nothing if it is just an...

Space is for the few. You may have been trained as a professional astronaut and pushed the boundaries of science. Maybe you are a geek done good and decided to spend your billions on the vanity project of commercial space travel. Maybe, just maybe, you are a celeb or competition winner who won the c...

Artificial Condition is the second book in The Murderbot Diaries , and the follow up to All Systems Red . It won the 2019 Hugo and Locus awards for best novella, and like the others in the series, has received a great deal of praise. It is highly recommended (but not imperative) you read All Systems...

Time travel is fascinating, it is also some of the most fictional science fiction you will ever get. What has happened must have happened, lest you rip apart your universe in a paradox. The scientists in A. G. Riddle’s Lost in Time seem to have found a workaround as they send the worst criminals int...

Humanity is a parasite sucking the recourses from the Earth until there are no more. Like a remora attached to the undercarriage of a shark, humans will one day need find a new host. The alternative is to change our ways, but that does not seem likely. Titan Hoppers by Rob J Hayes follows a flotilla...

It starts off sensibly with tweaking a DNA strand here or there to prevent a hereditary illness. Who could argue against that? However, it is not long before people realise that they can use the same tools to make sure that a child has their father’s eye colour and Mother’s hair. Why even bother pic...

Like many Science Fiction fans, I am also a fan of Doctor Who, but not of a particular incarnation of the Doctor on television. I am a Doctor Who book fan. The show is great, but it in the novels where I have always found the most interesting stories free from budget constraints and allowing the aut...

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...

As a species we are doing a good enough job of messing up our own chances of survival, but what if I told you that we could also mess up another distant planet too? In Stephan George’s The Distant Stars Are My Only Friends , Arax is a traveller who does not go into space, but instead projects his co...

The public love a superhero crossover tale, the billion-dollar hauls of various Avenger movies will tell you this, but they do not always work and at this point they can feel like going over old ground. Original Sin was a comic book arc conceived by  Jason Aaron  and  Mike Deodato that brought vario...

Twins have always had a mystery around them. Two people brought up so closely together that they have their own language. In Michael Ferris Gibson and Imani Josey’s Babylon Twin series, the language that the twins use is called the Twinkling, a speech so intuitive that only they can understand it. I...

There 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...

What is the near future going to be like, utopian, dystopian, a bit of both. Chances are that it will be just as messed up as the past and the present. The future may be a little grim, but that does not mean it cannot be fun. Aubrey Wood’s future is as bright as neon, but also as dark as pitch. Bang...

There are two ways of writing a trilogy of books. One way is to produce three separate novels that can be read independently or viewed as a whole. The other way is to start each book as soon as the last one ends and power through the tale a great speed. This is how P. J. Flie’s Darkness Falls , star...

What would you do to protect those that you love? What is The Price of Safety ? This is a question that Michael C. Bland poses in the first of a trilogy set in a troubling future. It is a story about a genius, but also a family man whose inventions gets them all into danger. At what point do you dec...

I love time travel stories as you can tie yourself in knots figuring out what is going on. A writer can choose to do one of two things about the complexity of it all. Explore in great depth and try to make the inherent paradox work, or just go with the flow. Joshua David Bellin’s Myriad feels like a...

Doctor 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,...

Love is love and that is truer in science fiction than any other genre as you can fall in love with anyone or anything. Someone of the same species, an alien or even a spaceship. With AI advancing who is to say that one day their personality will not appeal, couple that to an avatar they can create...

Certain 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...

What made people think that the middle of the desert was the right place to build a town like Los Vegas where people from around the world flock to get their vice on? It was the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere, safe from prying eyes and it was desperate to for people to visit. There should...

Any story of colonial rescue, involving cryosleep spaceships and small crews operating to solve a crisis far from Earth has all the ingredients to be an exciting read. However, the way in which a writer organises these elements and makes them palatable as a story remains an issue at hand. Refraction...

After a string of novellas that were, frankly, brilliant, the fifth book and first full-size novel in The Murderbot Diaries , Network Effect stormed the science fiction scene when it was released, winning the holy trinity of Hugo , Locus and Nebula awards for best novel. As I write this the first (i...

One of the biggest problems to overcome when writing science fiction is how do humans communicate with an alien race? They may speak a different language or may not even have mouths in which to make noises. The Universal Translator is a popular cheat, or fundamental maths that should be universal, b...

There are a lot of different ways to be smart and just because you are one, does not automatically make you the other. The classic is book versus street, you may know your way around an academic essay, but would fail to talk yourself out of a tricky situation outside the pub at closing time. If you...

I imagine there is a dial that an author has when they are writing their book, it spans the gamut of subtle to outrageous. Where do you decide to place your story? Should you keep it lowkey, writing about a world like our own, but with a small tweak? Or do you embrace all that science fiction has to...

As a child you read books and imagine that you may be that child who is whisked away on an adventure. Perhaps you will be the chosen one to be taken through a magical wardrobe or told you are a wizard. By the time you are studying for a PhD such flippancy is no longer part of your character, so how...

There are all diverse types of people that make a successful working environment. If everyone were the same, we would all be doing the same thing and loads of stuff would not get done. Some people like to stand out in the crowd and pitch ideas, others are happy to lead. Engineer may be the second in...

Cyberpunk has always been an interesting mash up of ideas, taking the science fiction forward ideas of technology and giving it a gritty edge. Mixing the equivalent of early 80s synth with the raw punk that preceded it in a giant science fiction blender sounds like chaos, but both have origins of ri...

I have a soft spot for cyberpunk, the gritty noir feel mixed with high end science fiction. Like many subgenres it can be dismissed as a passing phase, in this case from the 80s, but fans know that there are still exceptional stories out there written today about crying androids or buildings that mu...

Science Fiction is fun in so many ways and one of the most entertaining games to play is to think about if. What is Nickola Tesla invented a way to harness an all-powerful energy? Would such power be safe to use, not only for an individual, but for a nation? This was an era of World Wars; more power...

Resilient is the second book in Allen Stroud's Fractal series , picking up right after the events of Fearless . As such it's impossible not to provide some minor spoilers about Fearless while talking about Resilient . I will however try my best to give away as little as possible, and anything mentio...

What is your plan for when the apocalypse comes? One of the best things about reading speculative fiction is that you get loads of clever ideas on exactly what to do should a meteor plummet to Earth or the undead rise from their graves. The truth is that your plan is to curl up and inevitably succum...

When I imagine the aliens coming, I always imagine that they would pick somewhere amazing to land their ship. Probably America as all the movies have trained my brain to think that way. The place I do not jump straight to is Manchester, or at least the hills around the city. I know those hills well...

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...

War, what is it good for? Not a lot, but depressingly it is a real driver of innovation. What better way to inspire the greatest minds in the country than to task them with more efficient ways to kill the enemy? Arms races happen all over the place from conventional gun and bullets to newer types of...

Invent any innovative technology and it won’t be long until someone finds a way to use it to make money via base entertainment. We are talking wine, woman, and song. The same can be said of future worlds; the Emperor may have thought he had an iron grip on all his subjects, but just below the surfac...

I have always appeciated the rich tapestry that the extended Star Wars Universe has given the reader. Whilst the films are few and far between, and the TV shows more abundant but still limited, it is the books that allow fans to deep dive into characters and places that may not get as much love on t...

We all come of age at some point in our lives. If we are lucky enough this will be as part of a loving household and we come out of it not too messed up, but not everyone is lucky. In the real world it can be tough enough, but take this dysfunction and place it is space, things can get real bad. Haz...