Books tagged with: spaceship

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

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

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

A Deepness in the Sky is the prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Long awaited prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. The stories are taking place in the same universe, but are otherwise not connected. I don't think that it matter what order you read them in – the important thing is that you r...

A Fire Upon the Deep is a science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge. This is the first book, by Vinge that I've read and it couldn't have started much worse than it did or end much better. aFud starts off with a family crash-landing their space ship on an uncharted planet, the parents get killed nearly...

Agustin de Rojas was a Cuban author of science fiction. Within that country he is thought of as a legend and has even been described as "Patron Saint of Cuban science fiction". Agustin wrote A Legend of the future back in 1985, following his award winning novel Espiral (Spiral). El año 200 (The Year...

Alien: It’s more than just a novelization of the movie. Alan Dean Foster’s ALIEN is fantastic. That having been said, you can easily guess the direction of this book review. Normally, I do a formal review but this one just seemed to be stifled by a synopsis and straightforward critique. Instead, I w...

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...

The second installment in the new Alien series by Titan books is quiet different from the first and doesn’t quiet fit in the way I expected. Yet, it delivers what any fan of the Alien franchise craves: insane amounts of Xenomorph action. Alien: Sea of Sorrows takes place on LV178, which is what conn...

Novelizations of movies are often jutted to the back of the bookshelf after one reading. Reviewers are critical, normally arguing that it is just an attempt to make money off a popular film franchise, and at times they do so justly. Yet, some novelizations often tell the story in a way film simply c...

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...

Ancillary Justice has won more awards this year than any book before it. Not only that but the awards it has won are most of the major ones in science fiction. The Hugo, the Nebula, the BSFA, the Arthur C Clarke and the Locus award (for first novel). It's clear to see that the science fiction genre...

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...

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...

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...

The partnership of Benford and Niven is a coming together of two icons of science fiction. Both have won Nebula awards for their work and are contemporaries of each other - an unusual collaboration as many partnerships tend to be of an older established writer and a young talent, but in this case we...

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...

Desperate to find a new home amongst the stars, the last remnants of the human race are cast out into deep space. Thousands upon thousands asleep aboard a colossal colony ship, hibernating until a habitable planet is located. Eventually they discover a world which was terraformed by humanity long ag...

Cosmonaut Keep is the first volume in the Engines of Light trilogy by Ken Mcleod. This is the first book in a brand new universe, called "Engines of Light", and as that the first book that MacLeod has written outside the universe of Star Fraction and Cassini Division. As I've understood it the unive...

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...

I've been collecting Neal Asher novels for ages however until now I've not had chance to read much of his work. Luckily Dark Intelligence has been sent in for review and so I've finally had chance to discover the delight that is the Polity Universe. Dark Intelligence is all about transformation. Phy...

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...

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...

Every so often a book lands on the review pile that is interesting less for what it is than for the curious circumstances of its existence, and Doomsday Planet is very much one of those. It is, on the face of it, a slim and unassuming piece of 1960s space adventure, the sort of thing that filled the...

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...

Elite - Reclamation is the third book in our ongoing review of the Elite: Dangerous novels. 10% of the proceeds of this book are being donated to the Ashford Dyslexia Centre. Elite - Reclamation is quite different to the previous stories, it feels much more of a slow burn - a political thriller set...

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...

The last book in the series was, unfortunately, this reader’s least favorite, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a real gem. The reality of the series ending was saddening and expectations tend to be very high as a story culminates to its final chapters. Regardless, every series must conclude and writer...

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...

Fallen Dragon is a science fiction novel by the British author Peter F Hamilton. There is a unrecognised Science Fiction genre, that deals with the transition from a society of limits and into one of plenty (an utopia or nirvana, if you want). Or maybe not the transition itself but the events that l...

Falling Free is a science fiction novel by the award winning American author Lois McMaster Bujold and takes place within the Vorkosigan Saga. Taking place in the same universe as the Vorkosigan adventures, but not featuring any of our beloved characters, for the simple reason that Falling Free takes...

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...

First things first, Forever Peace is not a sequel to Forever War, for that you need to look for the later novel Forever Free (expect a review at some point when time permits). Forever Peace does however share a few of the same ideologies as it's predecessor and it also won both the Hugo and Nebula a...

A companion volume to the collection Stainless Steel Visions, this volume collects several of Harrison's best stories, such as Space Rats of the CCC; At Last, the True Story of Frankenstein; and Bill, the Gallactic Hero's Happy Holiday. Includes a hilarious new adventure of Bill, the Galactic Hero....

These books are the third and fourth in the Rama series (number one being Rendezvous with Rama and number two being Rama II). I have decided to review them together - as they should be read together and right after each other. If you haven't read the first two Rama books, do not read these books and...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Lost Fleet: Victorious is the sixth and final volume in the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. Captain "Black Jack" Geary was cryogenically frozen for a hundred years before this final conflict gathered. Upon awakening he finds himself sucked back into a war he thought would long be over, leading a...

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...

First Impressions: Odyssey took some getting used to in order to plow through it! My only other introduction to the author Jack McDevitt is through his excellent novel, "Time Travelers Never Die" so I was hoping this book was going to be a continuation of the excellent style I was used to. "Not so"...

At 75 years old, John Perry takes stock of his remaining life, with his wife dead and buried and a retirement of increasing dotage to look forward to he does the only sensible thing possible - he joins the army. Now known as the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) the war of the 22nd century is fought out...

With On the Steel Breeze Alastair Reynolds has managed a little slice of futurism, how? Elephants. It seems we've been vastly under-estimating the intelligence of these gentle giants, at least most of us have - Reynolds hasn't. Recent research now suggests that Elephants are at least as intelligent...

Oxygen is the first novel in a Christian science fiction series written by John B Olson and co-Written with Randall Ingermanson. This is a review by the previous owner of SFBook.com - TC. What intrigued me about Oxygen was the fact that it was labelled as "Christian science fiction" - never having m...

Pandora's Star is the first volume in the The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. "Part one of the Commonwealth Saga" it says on page five. "Main characters" it says on page seven and then it goes on to list 44 characters. Then follows nearly nine hundred page of story which ends with the text "...

Passengers to Zeta Nine is a science fiction novel by Peter Salisbury, set within the same universe as Passengers to Sentience. Travelling for one hundred and twenty years, the minds of Raife and Nancy are electronically stored along with six hundred other couples aboard the ship Explorer, bound for...

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,...

Scott is going to Terranova to begin a new life. Most of the trip is supposed to be done in biostasis, so Scott is rather surprised to be awoken in the middle of nowhere, just to be told that their ship has been thrown five hundred years into the future and far away from their intended target. Soon...

Planet Janitor Custodian of the Stars is a science fiction novel by Chris Stevenson. The Planet Janitor Corporation are experts in the handling of environmental clean-ups and close system jumps to pick up precious ores and space trash, led by Captain Zachary Crowe they have won a number of accolades...

Poseidon's Wake is set in the same universe as Reynolds previous two Poseidon's Children novels ( Blue Rembered Earth and On the Steel Breeze ) but is written as an informal conclusion to the trilogy, a book that works equally well as a stand-alone story. The story begins on Crucible, a distant plan...

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...

The front page of this book has a quote from Arthur C. Clarke saying "[Red Mars]...It should be required reading for the colonists of the next century" – not sure about making it required reading, maybe it can be used as a test. If you can read this book without falling asleep, you will probably be...

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...

First published in 1972, Rendezvous with Rama is set in the 22nd century, and the story involves a cylindrical thirty-mile-long alien starship that passes through Earth's solar system. This story is told from the perspective of a group of human explorers, who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlo...

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...

Alex Lamb's Roboteer paints a picture of a future, that in the political climate of today, feels far too possible.  In this book, a war rages between two sides of humanity, two different and opposing ideologies and lifestyles.  One side, combining genetic and induced mutation with advanced technolog...

Schild's Ladder is a science fiction novel by the Australian author Greg Egan. Egans latest hard physics thriller Schilds Ladder, presents his yet hardest to understand story. This time I'm actually unsure whether it's worth the effort, to try to understand what he’s saying. I normally find great pl...

Selected Shorts and other methods of time travel is a collection of short stories especially created for Young Adults, written by David Goodberg. The Year is 2051 and time travel has become a commercial success. Opportunities abounded for curious history buffs, futurists, and corrupt entrepreneurs....

Set within the same universe as the authors previous novel Tribes , Shades of Empire follows the ex-soldier Alexander Napier, merchant starship captain Madeline Pallestrino and a host of other colourful characters. Alexander still reluctantly wears the marks of his servitude to the Emperor but it's...

The second part of the story begun with Bowl of Heaven, Benford and Niven bring us the conclusion to their mysterious 'big smart object' story. Shipstar is less of a sequel than a continuation. The fitful nature of the story which caused problems in the first book is not smoothed as much as it might...

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,...

Spaceship Earth is a science fiction novel by Tom Schwartz. Scientists have discovered that the universe is a "closed system" and that the rate of expansion is slowing. This means that eventually the universe will stop expanding and begin collapsing upon itself, ultimately resulting in the opposite...

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...

Star King is a classic science fiction novel by Jack Vance. Scifi mystery novels are strange creatures. Quite honestly, I have not come across many, and I haven't enjoyed most that I have come across. One exception is Peter Hamilton's Quantum Murder series (at least I think that's its name). But eve...

Lieutenant Callum (called California, Cal or Harper) Harper punches his Captain, Laurence Decker for being incompetent and letting soldiers die on a mission we (initially) don’t learn much about. Cal has time and the option to finish things off but backs down and so gets re-assigned back to Earth. O...

Star Wars was a huge part of my childhood, the original was the first film I ever saw at the Cinema and for a period I watched the film (and the two proceeding) pretty much every day - at one point I could recite the whole script if you'd asked me to. Must have driven my poor mother to distraction....

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

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

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...

Terminal Earth is a collection of original short stories that all feature the end of the world in some way, edited by Michael Stewart and Neil Thomas. With 23 tales of the apocalypse, Terminal Earth offers a great deal of compelling tales from talented authors. Despite the common theme there are som...

Terra is a very different novel. It doesn't take itself too seriously and on the surface appears very light-hearted, a safe novel with prose full of soft curves rather than sharp edges. This is after all a young-adult novel and yet there is much more to this book than meets the eye. The story follow...

The genuine autobiography of one of the bravest, most dashing and heroic starship captains to ever bodly-go into the depths of space. You may be pleased to know that this Kirk is the real one, not the imposter who has more recently been seen in the latest films. This Kirk doesn't get command of the...

The Big Time won the coveted Hugo award for best novel in 1958 - the fourth novel to win such award; a science fiction story written by an author best known for his fantasy stories. It's unique in style and form, reading as much as a play as it does a novel. This feeling is re-enforced by the fact t...

Seen as how BOB has been hanging around the website for some time now (he's the robot at the top left) I thought it was about time that I reviewed The Black Hole, the book (and film) that features BOB. The book is a direct novelisation of the 1979 Disney film of the same name, written by Alan Dean F...

Defeatism. Fatalism. These are universal, recurrent maladies that everyone experiences at points throughout their lives. Even if one moves forward - how do we find meaning in such a vast, uncaring universe? Only here, the universe isn’t uncaring, it’s quite pointedly predatory. These are the central...

The Darwinian Extension: Initiation, is the first volume in a trilogy of novels from author Hylton H Smith. The Darwinian Extension begins in 2033, with a planned mission to populate Mars. The mission is not one of simple habitation however, but one of true colonisation including terraforming, resea...

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...

Journalist Cormac Easton is chosen to join a group of elite astronauts as they take part in the very first manned mission into the furthest reaches of the solar system. Documenting the greatest journey of human-kind should secure his place in history as one of the outstanding explorers of the age. I...

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 Forever War is the Hugo and Nebula award winning military science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman. Originally written in 1974, the novel begins in the relative future of 1997 where thanks to the discovery of the collapsars - wormhole type gates that allow faster than light travel between the stars...

This Omnibus Edition Includes the First 4 books in the "Hitchhikers guide Trilogy" 5 book set. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is also the title of the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the f...

The Honour of the Knights is the first volume in the space opera series The Battle for the Solar System by Stephen Sweeney. The Honour of the Knights is quite an accomplished novel, a grand story on a fairly epic scale with some good dialog and well rounded, engaging characters. The author has a ver...

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...

The Long Mars is the third novel in the Long Earth series and is set in the years following the events of the cataclysmic finale of The Long War. The world has now been changed not just by the continued expansion of humanity into the Long Earths but also by recent events. Populations begin to migrat...

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was originally funded as a small kickstarter project and self-published as a result. It was such a hit that it found a big publisher, got nominated for a ton of awards and has been raved about by many, many people. What struck me in particular wasn't just what ev...

The Mote In God's Eye is a classic science fiction novel by Larry Niven with Jerry Pournelle. I not sure how I have managed to put off reading this classic for so long - but better late than never. The Mote takes place in 3017 when the human empire makes its first contact with an alien species. Two...

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...

The Nexus Odyssey is an omnibus featuring the Darwinian Extension series along with the follow-on novel "Renewal", a series that presents a bold vision for the human race. It begins in 2033 with a planned mission to populate the red planet, Mars. But rather than a simple plan to create a settlement...

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...

It is a time of legends, the entire galaxy is one mighty battleground which see the indomitable space marines locked in a bitter civil war, divided by the heresy of Horus. Some chapters remain loyal to humanities greatest leader; the Emperor, while others have chosen the chaos tainted promises of th...

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...

In a future where fossil fuels have dried up, global warming has decimated ecosystems, and governments are culling populations, Antonia Honeywell’s debut sees teenager Lalla escape the ruins of London to live on her father's utopian Ship with 500 others keen to enjoy a 'happy death'. Their destinati...

The State of The Art is an anthology collection by Iain M Banks. The State of The Art is a collection of eight stories with the story The State of The Art making up one hundred of the two hundred pages. As can be expected with Banks all of the stories are well written and interesting, but I will sti...

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 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...

This Alien Shore is sort of a corporate mystery novel set in the far future, written by C S Friedman. The reader knows about as much of what is going on as the main character. She learns something new, you learn something new. Despite not having any big fire-works ending, this book is good. Very goo...

Trader to the Stars is a collection of science fiction short stories, written by Poul William Anderson. Three stories copyrighted from 1956 to 1962 from one of the old masters. All three stories have the space merchant Nicolas Van Rijn as the main character and what a character! He's the kind of cha...

As the name would suggest, Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea takes on the classic Jules Verne 19th century novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea as inspiration to create a remarkably clever and entertaining novel that is in parts as thought provoking as the original must have been when it...

Buying Bank's Use of Weapons was a long shot - a friend had recommended the danish translation of Player of Games, but the (American) bookstore where I mail order most of my books didn't have PoG stocked, so I decided to try another Banks book (I have been wanting to read something by him, for quite...

Vast is a science fiction novel by Linda Nagata. Taking off where Deception Well ends, this book tells the story of Lot and friends as they fly around in the good ship Null Boundary. They are of to find the truth about the Chenzeme, the strange robot starcrafts/alien race that is trying to destroy h...

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...

"Who Goes There?" is the novella by John W Campbell on which John Carpenter based the classic film "The Thing", its presented here with another 6 short stories by the same author, mostly published within Astounded magazine in the 1930's. John W Campbell is widely regarded as being highly influential...

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...

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...

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...

A Book that brings you Home: Becky Chambers’ A Close and Common Orbit.  It took me a while to  work up the emotional energy to read Becky Chambers’ A Close and Common Orbit . This is Chambers’ second novel. Her first novel, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet , was a unique self-published sci-fi nove...

I've been a big fan of the Aliens series ever since I saw the first film back in the 1980's. I've read all the books, including the expanded universe (non-canonical) ones from Bantam, and more recently from Titan books. I've watched and read the Aliens vs Predator crossover media, some which is grea...

The Ion Raiders is book two of Ian Whate’s Dark Angels series, however despite featuring some if the same characters as book one, Pelquin’s Comet , it is not a direct continuation of the same story so can be read without knowledge of the first.  Not to give to many spoilers, but the story does conti...

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...

It's great to see Philip K Dick stories continue to be explored and consumed in different forms of media. His writing still popular long after his death. For those who aren't aware, the UK TV station Channel 4 (Broadcast in the US via Amazon Video) has started a new 10 part anthology series called E...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The sassy, media loving AI ‘Murderbot’ returns in Exit Strategy , the fourth entry in The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Murderbot first burst on to the scene in 2017’s All Systems Red . In that first instalment, Murderbot was hired as a security unit (SecUnit) to protect a team of scientists le...

On our first trip to Mars I hope that they send the best equipped, those with the skills and temperament to handle any situation that may occur. If disaster struck I would hope that these men and women would tackle the challenge dispassionately in an attempt to survive the oncoming end with as littl...

Corax Lord of Shadows is the tenth book in the pre-Horus Heresy Primarch series, featuring the leader of the Raven Guard. Set During the great Crusade, the immense void-cities of the Carinae must be brought under the control of the Imperium. Corax joins his Legion with an Imperial War Host to being...

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...

I've been reading Reynolds books since he began writing them and have seen him grow over the years from a seriously talented writer to one of the best in his field. Revenger was one of his finest works to date, Shadow Captain eclipses it easily. It's the second in a planned trilogy but manages to av...

It is feels increasingly complex to be a Star Trek fan. Things started off being about Kirk and co, then Picard, then Sisko etc. By now there are various TV shows that have been and gone, but also films that are set in parallel universes and I have no idea what is happening in Discovery half the tim...

What makes a great trilogy? Three stories that combine to make one, but are themselves also valid. Each book should have a start, middle and end that combine together to make a longer narrative. There are not many things worse for a fantasy or science fiction reader than getting their hands on a ‘fi...

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

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

It is not hard to see where Marvel Studios get all their ideas from as they sit upon a rich heritage of characters and storylines that will take decades to exhaust. I am somewhat of an old school Marvel fan and know the classic runs. Therefore, the newer creations flummox me. Captain Marvel is more...

The sequel to the 2016 Clarke Award winner, Children of Time , the story of the far future human and spider civilisations picks up several generations after the events at the end of the previous novel. A terraforming team, led by Dirsa Senkovi and Yusuf Baltiel discover alien life on a far distant p...

Any show on the US TV network Fox has to realise that its days could be numbered. Fox have the reputation of axing cult shows before their time from Arrested Development to Family Guy . Despite their cancelation these shows are still being made. Firefly was not so lucky. This was a science fiction/w...

A Hopeful Future Review kindly provided by Vanessa Smyth.  Welcome to the third and latest instalment in The Wayfarers series, Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. This current narrative is set within the same captivating universe as the first two books and, despite a few oblique character l...

Many stories end abruptly with our heroes achieving their goal. The girl marries the Prince, the good guys win the fight. We all know that in real life stories don’t actually end, they carry on regardless whether you got married or now sport a medal. At the end of The Return of the Jedi you would be...

What is war good for? Not much, but it does advance some technologies faster than they might have been. Microwave technology, nuclear, plastic surgery – all have benefitted from being pushed by necessity. What about a war on a distant planet? Like here on Earth, any opposing armies will be looking f...

When the Star Wars sequels were announced a world of fandom got very excited. What happened to Han Solo, Luke and Leia et al? Many Star Wars fans already had an inkling having read the many Star Wars tie in book that released from the early 90s onwards. However, like many a Star Wars film, there was...

Wars can go on for years. Not just the moments of action in which thousands of people die, but the cold wars between. Different factions may have an uneasy peace, but is this peace just an excuse to build for the next conflict? You may not imagine that Star Trek: The Next Generation is the best plac...

The Star Wars tie in novels have a rich and varied galaxy to explore. An author can reach into the distant past or take on the history of an obscure character. Sometimes you just want to read about the big hitters. What happens between those massive blockbuster movies? Whilst we are waiting for the...

There are many things that I want to be in life, but I don’t want to be the relation of a famous Star Trek character. You are only there to be killed off at some point  e.g.  Kirk’s Son or  Father depending on what Universe you are in. Now in  Star Trek : The  Captain ’s  Daughter  by Peter David it...

Humans always think we are special when it comes to science fiction. Somehow, we are better than the multitude of other alien races out there. How many times has Kirk used “this human emotion called love,” to win the day, or how often has an invading alien army been conquered by “the common cold”? I...

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

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...

  Having read more than a few  S tarship  loads of science fiction in my time I am  particular about  what type of aliens I like. I have a fondness for the  Star Trek  tactic o f gluing some plasticine to the forehead of a humanoid but in today’s fiction I like something truly alien. What  does that...

The movie tie in novel is much maligned but I have always had a soft spot for them. I have spent many a pleasurable hour with the works of tie in master Alan Dean Foster who was able to improve several mediocre films with his prose. Films are great at bombastic action, but they often fail to convey...

Luddites are a group that used to destroy the machines that were taking their jobs. The term is now used as a derivative  way to  talk about someone who does not get  technology but ,   did  they have it right ?  All us smug computer literate people may have the best jobs  now , but how lo ng until...

The idea of a virtual reality  being  superior to  the real thing reoccurs  often  in  science fiction. Why live in the slums  of   Ready Player  One   or  the battleship grey halls of  Red Dwarf , when things can be Better Than Life? The issues arise  because  these  simulated  utopias always seem...

If you look at the Star Wars timeline from afar it can seem a little depressing. An Old Republic falls only for an Empire to rise. That goes and you get The New Order. It seems that the rebels are always having to rebel against something.  However, for the Sith to rise, there  must  be moments when...

As a football fan it is sometimes hard to understand that some people just don’t care about it. They see it as a  frivolous  game of kicking a pig’s stomach around a patch of grass.  In the context of life and death, it is just something to keep you busy on a Saturday afternoon. That is unless you a...

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...

I have been a fan of  Star Trek  for a long time and am happy to overlook many of the  contradictions   and technobabble that it has a habit of spouting but one thing I can never get my head around is why. Why are they on these ships? Why  risk  their lives? For a  scientific  vessel the turnover is...

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...

I remember being a young science fiction reader and scouring the shelves of my local library looking for works designed for my age group. The only one I ever remember getting my hands on was  Batteries Not Included  by Seth McCoy. The modern 8–14-year-old reader has so much more choice, from differe...

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...

The locked room scenario is a classic tool in crime fiction that most great authors in that genre have tried at least once. The premise is that someone has apparently been murdered in a room that no one else can get in or out of. This may mean that the killing should have been impossible, or that th...

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...

I have a love hate relationship with time travel stories. I love the mind-bending physics and puzzles that they create but hate the fact that most of them just could not work. How can people from the past learn what they need to from those in the future if they have not lived their own futures yet?...

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...

When we colonise space, I hope that we send out the brightest and the best. These people will represent the absolute best that humanity has to offer, but what happens if the journey is a long one? The bright young things are not going to live to see the destination in 150 years, but their great-grea...

Comedy combined with Science Fiction is rare because it is so hard to do. When it clicks though it is worthwhile as you get some absolute classics such as Red Dwarf or Hitchhiker's . Those are mighty large shoes to try and fill, but Chris Panatier is giving it a go in Stringers , a book that feels l...

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 should not matter what format you ingest a novel – on paper, on the screen or even via audio, but it does. I do not always get on with audio as I am such a fast reader, even on speed up the narrator cannot keep up with my awful lack of attention. However, the right book works as an audio experien...

The problem with being zipped away by some alien entity and then shown how the Universe works is that no one will believe you on your return. Imagine your friend returning from their lunch break to say that they have just been told that the world is going to end in two days unless we all follow thei...

I have never wanted to travel to space. THUD. Not only would it be physically challenging, but also mentally tough. THUD. The knowledge that the only thing between you and the infinite void is a sheet of metal. THUD. The great expanse making you question your tiny existence and the insignificant lif...

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. For years, the Jedi have been considered a paragon of virtue, everything that is good to the Sith’s bad. But there must be a reason so many Jedi fall. The path to the Dark Side is not pathed with sex, drugs, and rock...

There are space books and then there are Space Operas. What makes a good Space Opera is a sense of scale – the big and the small. Characters making decisions that define the entire Universe, but also their place in the local power struggle. Who will rule, which family? Which sect? Which Goddess? Red...

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...

Who doesn’t love the Alien series? But which subset are you talking about? Like any science fiction property, once you investigate it and expand upon it, the series begins to fragment. You have Alien , Aliens , Aliens vs Predator , Prometheus , and more. They are all the same universe but split off...

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...

Writing a futuristic science fiction novel will allow you to explore strange new worlds but can also be used to explore our past and culture. Reading a wide range of stories from different people, from different parts of the world is a gift that will keep giving your entire life. There has been a lo...

Subgenres come and go and one that I have recently been enjoying is ‘Cosy Fantasy,’ what does that mean? Basically, fantasy with some of the trepidation taken out, a chance to get to know the characters and enjoy a fantasy setting in peace. Riley August’s The Last Gifts of the Universe opens my worl...

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...

Over the years Star Wars has become a complicated beast, even the first film was a Space Opera that had a lot going on. Throw in various timelines and you have an epic on your hands, but some of the simpler stories are the ones that work the best. The Acolyte was series that expanded on The High Rep...

Unto Leviathan was originally released back in 2001, under the title Ship of fools , winning the Philip K Dick award in the process. It's since been re-released by Orbit under the current title. The generational ship Aragonos  travels the galaxy, looking for signs of life and a possible place to cal...

I enjoy it when the publishing community gets together and decides to proclaim there is a new subgenre. These are a collection of books that have already been written but are now herded into a common bracket. Romantasy and Cosy Fantasy are doing great, and I have read a few of these. Low stake conse...

Vigilance is the third book in the Fractal series from Allen Stroud, following Fearless and Resilient . You know how it is with series; by the time you hit book three, you've got a pretty good idea of what you're getting into. The big question is whether the author can keep the momentum going, or if...

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...

The Marvel Universe is jammed packed with famous storylines, but one of the biggest has always been the time that The Fantastic Four took on Galactus. It resonates because it has lasted since the 1960s and appears to be having a reimagining in the latest film. The Coming of Galactus by James Lovegro...

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...

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

Many of us do not really know what is going on in Space, and not everyone really cares. It is all so far away and beyond our control. However, even the layman would think twice if the planets in our Solar System started to disintegrate one after the other and strange new discs appear in Space that b...