"Staybehind's body was moving before he woke up, driven by fear and algorithms." After the civil war, the newly seceded California declared that sentient robots had full citizen rights - well, at least the not-inconvenient ones...! They are pretty much indentured slaves, sellable to new 'owners' while they pay off their contracts. So when the … Continue reading Automatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz
"The first deep chill of winter had fallen over Tibbet's Brook." Once, the town of Tibbet's Brook was an epicentre for demon attacks from the Core, but those days have thankfully passed. Selia Barren's years of fighting demons have been exchanged for sorting out the arguments among her fellow residents, as the town speaker. That … Continue reading Butter Cookies and Demon Claws – Peter V Brett
"The neon signs glowed sullenly, sending sickly tendrils of light slithering down the rain-soaked streets like so many diseased serpents." Synthetics: vat-grown to perform all of the menial and unpleasant jobs that humans don't want, they look human - but are treated as objects. Killing a synth isn't murder, it's property destruction. But for Detective … Continue reading SINthetic – JT Nicholas
"My life fell apart when I was sixteen." It shouldn't be a surprise that the apocalypse happening makes things worse in the world, but here we are. Africa, and racial genocide (still?) drives everything. The 'holy book' says that one tribe is predestined to be slaves, but it doesn't stop the other side (who I … Continue reading Who Fears Death – Nnedi Okorafor
"It was early morning on the banks of the Elkinslough River." Mangled bodies with drastic and inexplicable injuries have started to show up in the city's river. Earstripe, a gnole (sort of a talking badger) and local constable (although there's tension in the inter-species attempts at inclusion), wants to investigate more than his superiors think … Continue reading Paladin’s Hope – T Kingfisher
"'Fake sun again today, I'm afraid.'" It's Sci-Fi Month - what better time to look back at the rather daunting backlog of NetGalley ARCs I never quite got to, and see what fits? And even better if it's something short to pad out those yearly reading stats 😉 We seem to be at something of … Continue reading Existence Augmented – Channing Whitaker
"Were it not for the rut, and Master Guillaume's bladder, we would never have met the knight." When a travelling band of players happens across an injured knight, his final wish is for them to take the box he is carrying to the ruling Imperator in his stead. But they must not open it... yeah, … Continue reading The Dagger in Vichy – Alastair Reynolds
"Selena picked her new home for no better reason than the dog laid down on the porch." As much as I love T Kingfisher's writing, I'm always a little cautious approaching one of her horror novels - I have this annoying habit of liking my sleep undisturbed 😉 So let me start off by saying … Continue reading Snake-Eater – T Kingfisher
"The bell tolls, but the rain mutes it to almost nothing." The Tyrant Philosophers series, starting with City of Last Chances, tells loosely-connected tales of the Palleseen Sway - an empire in the making, intent on bring 'Perfection', order, and their version of common sense to whichever lands they can force it upon. Days of Shattered … Continue reading Lives of Bitter Rain – Adrian Tchaikovsky
"So this was America." We first met Alex Easton in the reimagining of The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead. It seems like Easton's luck has not changed, as they receive a telegram with plea for help from Dr Denton, and know that anyone who could survive the mycelial nightmare of … Continue reading What Stalks the Deep – T Kingfisher
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