Near Future
Near Future are books that are set not too far into the earths future, and most are set on the planet. In time (sometimes very little time) near future novels do in fact become near past in reality, however the best of these still remaining excellent stories regardless and can offer insight into what people considered "futuristic" and how close they predicted future technology.
Books Reviewed
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![Antartica StationA G Riddle]()
Science FictionWhat 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...
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![New Model ArmyAdam Roberts]()
Science FictionNew Model Army is a science fiction novel by Adam Roberts. Pantegral is a giant, a democratic gestalt entity whose thoughts are populated from the thousands of minds that make up a New Model Army, it's intelligence is born from the almost limitless knowledge available on the internet. Stalking throu...
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![The Real-Town MurdersAdam Roberts]()
Science FictionOne 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...
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![The ThisAdam Roberts]()
Science FictionSocial Media has changed the world we live in today by accelerating the polarisation of opinion. No longer is a debate a two-way conversation between people discussing their own point of view, but a slanging match in which neither side can see the others’ point of view. Until the last couple of year...
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![Shovel ReadyAdam Sternbergh]()
Science FictionI 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...
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![The Doors of EdenAdrian Tchaikovsky]()
Science FictionAdrian 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...
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![World Running DownAl Hess]()
Science FictionIf Science Fiction is to be believed the only bright thing about the future will be the burning rays of the sun beaming down to burn our skin. The futures grim, the futures dystopian. However, sci fi also tells us that humans will do what it takes to survive. Despite inescapable heat and roving band...
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![Alien Covenant - OriginsAlan Dean Foster]()
Science FictionAlien 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...
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![The Shiva SyndromeAlan Joshua]()
Science FictionA secret Russian mind research laboratory in Podol'sk is destroyed in a freak accident involving one of its patients. The resulting devastation leaves thousands dead and a mile wide crater where the ground has quite literally been pulverized. Plucked from discredited obscurity, parapsychologist Beau...
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![X-Men: Days of Future PastAlex Irvine]()
Science FictionWhen embarking on a new work based on a beloved IP the creator must have a haunting voice whispering in their ear…. “Fear the fan.” The most ardent supporters of a property can also be the most adamant to tear it all down if something is not to their liking. How many times have you read an uproar ov...
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![CTRL+SAndy Briggs]()
Science FictionComputer Games used to be a child’s plaything, but as gamers grow older and are still playing this is no longer the case (if it ever was). As many gamers mature their reflexes deaden and will they one day even be able to pick up a conventional controller? Something like Virtual Reality may be the so...
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![ArtemisAndy Weir]()
Science FictionThe global success of The Martian and its subsequent film adaptation, catapulted Andy Weir into the public eye. Whatever he chose to write next was always going to draw attention. Set in our near future, Artemis is the story of Jazz Bashara, a young girl living on the moon. Struggling to make a life...
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![The Ghost from the Grand BanksArthur C Clarke]()
Science FictionIt's been too long since I read an Arthur C Clarke book, before I even started reviewing in fact and so when the opportunity presented itself to review The Ghost from the Grand Banks I jumped at the chance. This is one of Clarkes later novels, published in 1990 and the story revolves around the reco...
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![Bang Bang BodhisattvaAubrey Wood]()
Science FictionWhat 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...
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![In a Right StateBen Ellis]()
Science FictionIt's a fact that following the explosion of technology we now give away vast amounts of information freely and often unknowingly. Big companies have got smart at figuring out just how best to get such information. Many sell that data on without compunction. Fast forward to the year 2066 and big corp...
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![Broken BranchesBen Ellis]()
Science FictionIn the not too distant future, your social standing is based on the "purity" of your genes and the ability to trace your family through the "national family tree" genetic database. All men are sterile and fertility drugs are only given to state-sponsored couples whose genetic match are approved. Tho...
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![UpgradeBlake Crouch]()
Science FictionIt 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...
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![The Somebody PeopleBob Proehl]()
Science FictionWho are the goodies and who are the baddies? In most media, the baddies are normally some form of massive entity that is squashing the smaller rebels. These rebels become the de facto good guys as they fight against repression. However, what happens when the power shifts? If the rebels take control,...
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![The Shadow of HeavenBob Shaw]()
Science FictionThe Shadow of Heaven is a science fiction novel by Bob Shaw. First copyrighted 1969, this "terrifying novel of the future" is surprisingly unjaded by time. In The Shadow of Heaven, World War III isn't the nuclear inferno as must feared at the time, but something a lot closer to what we fear today. A...
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![SnapshotBrandon Sanderson]()
Science FictionWe are told to live in the moment; don’t worry about the past or the future, it is now that you should care about, but how many of us really do? We spend endless hours checking our phones or having meaningless arguments online. If someone walked in on you right now and said that you are not actually...
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![The Perfect StrangerBrian Pinkerton]()
Science FictionI have come across the argument that people do not read science fiction as they cannot connect it to their own lives. Most sci fi fans know that even a book set in deep space or thousands of years in the future is often just using images of tomorrow to discuss the issues of today. However, if a read...
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![A Good Old Fashioned FutureBruce Sterling]()
Science FictionA Good Old Fashioned Future is a collection of science fiction short stories written by Bruce Sterling. Seven stories and 250 pages by Bruce Sterling. I once started on Heavy Weather, but couldn't get into it, but I can easily say that that wasn't a problem with this one. Maneki Neko Strange little...
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![A Boy and his Dog at the End of the WorldC A Fletcher]()
Science FictionAs 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...
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![The OffsetCalder Szewczak]()
Science FictionThere is one solution that would benefit our climate massively, but it is a bitter pill to swallow. Less humans. We are the cause of pretty much all the issues that the Earth is currently having and when we are gone, it will happily float around the solar system without us. A little bit grubbier, bu...
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![Composite CreaturesCaroline Hardaker]()
Science FictionAlmost everything that we see daily would feel strange and alien to someone out of time. Show an Ancient Roman a modern carrot and they would ask why it was so large and orange. In Caroline Hardake r ’s Composite Cr eatures the world has changed a lot. The sky is constantly covered with thi...
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![Sunrise AlleyCatherine Asaro]()
Science FictionSunrise Alley is a science fiction novel by the author Catherine Asaro. By 2033, biomech research scientist Samantha Bryton tasted success with the development of "forma" androids, but has fled to Northern California to reconsider her values as the wealth and fame she has accrued feels wrong. A badl...
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![All the Birds in the SkyCharlie Jane Anders]()
Science FictionJust a month into the New Year and already I've found a must read book. All the Birds in the Sky is the debut novel of Charlie Jane Anders who has been editor-in-chief of the popular SF site IO9.com for quite some time. All the Birds in the Sky follows the paths of two very different people who find...
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![The PhlebotomistChris Panatier]()
FantasyI find that a lot of my favourite science fiction starts off as a simple What If scenario. A talented author can take a seemingly simple idea and extrapolate from there. A simple difference to our current way of life can have huge implications. Before long an entire new world has been built from...
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![Black LightChristian Tremain]()
Science FictionBlack 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...
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![Tin MenChristopher Golden]()
Science FictionIn 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...
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![ScalesChristopher Hinz]()
Science FictionWar, 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...
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![The AdjacentChristopher Priest]()
Science FictionChristopher Priest is without a doubt one of the finest writers alive today. Rather than compromise his stories for the sake of easy understanding Priest writes undiluted and it's up to the reader to pay attention; to digest and to consider what the story really means, or at the very least what it m...
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![Expect Me TomorrowChristopher Priest]()
Science FictionI am at an age where I genuinely believe that Science Fiction is the best genre there is and I have read enough books of all types to have developed this opinion. I love it because it can be so many different things. Space opera to speculative fiction. A Sci Fi book can also be a riddle wrapped in a...
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![WanderersChuck Wendig]()
Science FictionThere seem to be a worryingly large number of ways we, as a species, could become extinct. From huge extra terrestrial rocks hurtling through space or climate change making our world uninhabitable to Trump pressing the wrong button at the wrong time. A virus that seems to strike at random, causing t...
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![84KClaire North]()
Science FictionDespite repeated and continued efforts by the UK government (amongst others) of turning it into a reality, I still enjoy the odd dystopian fiction. More and more often though it does feel like things that will be rather than things that may . 84K is a good example. Set in a future where the inevitab...
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![Our Childrens ChildrenClifford D Simak]()
Science FictionOur Childrens Children is a science fiction novel by the award winning author Clifford D Simak. It must have been three or four years since I read this book last - enough time for my rotten brain to forget the most of it. Our Children's Children is a small master piece from one of the old masters of...
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![CrosstalkConnie Willis]()
Science FictionYou 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...
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![The Peachy ParadoxCornelius Moon]()
Science FictionA science fiction story that describes the gradual development of artificial intelligence and demonstrates the inadequacies of human beings as they try to train it and interact with it, The Peachy Paradox begins with a lightness and humour, but as it continues, the humour is satirical, sporadic and...
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![Little BrotherCory Doctorow]()
Science FictionLittle brother is a young adult science fiction novel written by Cory Doctorow. The novel has debuted at no 9 on the new york times bestseller list, spending 6 weeks in the top 10. The book has also won the 2009 White Pine award, is a finalist for both the Hugo Award and the 2009 Prometheus Award. S...
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![MakersCory Doctorow]()
Science FictionMakers 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...
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![Pirate CinemaCory Doctorow]()
Science FictionCory 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...
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![Attack SurfaceCory Doctorow]()
Science FictionI 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...
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![The Lost CauseCory Doctorow]()
Science FictionAs a long-term science fiction fan, it sometimes feels like we are living the books that I grew up reading. Not the flying cars and cure for cancer stories, but the ones that warned about humankind’s tendency to destroy itself. It feels like only a matter of years until Gort rocks up to give us one...
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![Gemini GambitD Scott Johnson]()
Science FictionA 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,...
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![IsolationDan Coxon]()
HorrorPlacing a restriction on yourself should not be a freeing experience, but the opposite can be true, especially in the arts. Making films under strict rules can lead to innovation as film makers struggle to achieve their vision under restraints. Creating an anthology about one subject matter limits m...
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![FlashbackDan Simmons]()
Science FictionAmerica of 2036 is a wasteland in economic ruin, plagued by Terrorism and extreme acts of violence. Society escapes from this harsh reality by numbing itself on the drug Flashback - a euphoric yet cripplingly addictive drug that allows its users to re-visit their happier, past experiences. It's also...
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![New PompeiiDaniel Godfrey]()
Science FictionFor 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...
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![AmpedDaniel H Wilson]()
Science FictionAmped 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...
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![RobopocalypseDaniel H Wilson]()
Science FictionIn 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...
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![Europe at MidnightDave Hutchinson]()
Science FictionEurope in Autumn was my first experience of Dave Hutchinson's unique and astonishing voice. It is simply sublime fiction, a deep and intelligent story and one of my favourite reads of recent times. It was impressive enough to win SFBook Book of the Year in 2014. Europe at Midnight is the much sought...
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![Europe in AutumnDave Hutchinson]()
Science FictionEurope in Autumn is an alternative history near future story that could be considered Kafkaesque in more than one sense of the word. Its part of new style of novel that mixes European settings with a gritty noir feeling such as seen in those quite brilliant novels Osama and Wolfhound Century. In Hut...
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![AuroraDavid Koepp]()
Science FictionReading about a dystopia is not as farfetched as it was once as we are living through a couple of ongoing ones as I write, but there is always space for a little more terror to add to the reality. What about a situation that is eerily possible? The sun belches out radiation daily and according to Da...
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![Night TrainDavid Quantick]()
Science FictionI am not a big fan of train travel. The route I take is usually into London on a packed train. I have been made to suffer by standing all the way and having no access to the t oilets. I have considered putting this into prose form in a science fiction thriller but needing the loo and having sore f...
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![WhistleblowerDavid Smith]()
Science FictionA near future Science Fiction story packed full of action, when it starts, Whistleblower by David Smith has all the punch of a Hollywood blockbuster. Jake Redwood is part of a special police task force ordered to apprehend suspect alien children and subject them to a set of rigorous tests before the...
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![After the FlareDeji Bryce Olukotun]()
Science FictionAfter 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 ...
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![Radio LifeDerek B Miller]()
Science FictionWhat do we expect from the future? I consider myself a half glass full type of person, but even my positivity has taken a battering in the past few years. A world buried under a sea of sand sounds like it may be better in some circumstances. If we do find ourselves roaming a desolate future what w...
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![WiredDouglas E Richards]()
Science FictionKira 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...
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![A Strange and Brilliant LightEli Lee]()
Science FictionArtificial intelligence is an exciting field that could help enrich the lives of most people on the planet from simple things like shopping to making life more inclusive for those with disabilities. AI will also come with a human cost. Many of the jobs that we do today could be redundant in twenty y...
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![After AtlasEmma Newman]()
Science FictionAfter 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...
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![WormholeEric Brown]()
Science FictionImagine the sacrifice required to sign up for a long-term mission into the depth of space. You are to be cryogenically frozen for 80 years and will awake to a new world. It could be that this is what you wanted all along. A chance at a new life free from the Old Earth, but they have only gone and br...
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![CrossedEvelyn Blackwell]()
Science FictionCrossed is riding the heights of topical subjects, that of environment, ecology and global warming. In the very near future a cartoon is created that will ultimately change the world. It follows the adventures of a sea turtle who crosses the ocean and encounters other marine life struggling within a...
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![The RoamersFrancesco Verso]()
Science FictionWhat if your physical body were no longer a lifelong commitment? What if we could, instead, free ourselves from that mortal constraint and simply inhabit the hardware you happened to be running at the time? This is the central question at the heart of Francesco Verso’s The Roamers , a novel of ideas...
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![Man PlusFrederik Pohl]()
Science FictionMan Plus is a classic science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl. In the near future things will start to go bad. Really bad - international tension will rise, numerous smaller and not so small wars will flare. Resources will be scarce. Chaos will rule around the globe - even in the good old U.S. of A....
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![The Other End Of TimeFrederik Pohl]()
Science FictionThe 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...
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![The Years of the CityFrederik Pohl]()
Science FictionThe Years of the City is a science fiction novel by Frederik Pohl. Subtitled A Chronicle of New York in the next Century, this book is about actually not as much about the big city as about the people in it and how they interact or rather doesn't. The book is split in to five different stories telli...
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![Dark DwellerGareth Worthington]()
Science FictionThe 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...
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![EonGreg Bear]()
Science FictionAbove our planet hangs a hollow stone, vast as the imagination of Man. The inner dimensions are at odds with the outer: there are different chambers to be breached, some containing deserted cities; the furthest chamber contains the greatest mystery ever to confront the Stones scientists... But the S...
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![The Crying MachineGreg Chivers]()
Science FictionScience 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...
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![DistressGreg Egan]()
Science FictionDistress 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...
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![Permutation CityGreg Egan]()
Science FictionPermutation City is a science fiction novel by the Australian author Greg Egan. Having liked Egans Quarantine, I was looking forward to reading this one and I was not disappointed. Again Egan has written a fantastic story by grabbing an idea and taking it to the limit. This time we are in a world wh...
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![JumpnautsHao Jingfang]()
Science FictionWriting 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...
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![The Miracle InspectorHelen Smith]()
Science FictionThe Miracle Inspector is a science fiction novel by Helen Smith. England is now a partitioned country with the capital an oppressive place where poetry has been banned, schools are shut and women no longer allowed to work outside of the home. Lucas and Angela decide to try and escape the confining r...
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![The Memory ChamberHolly Cave]()
Science FictionWith 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...
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![Divine ExtinctionHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionDivine Extinction is the second volume in the Evilution series, a near future series set in an alternative history, written by Hylton H Smith. Four years after the narrow escape from a cataclymic disaster humanity thought itself safe and sound, recovered and with a stronger, safer SACRED system. But...
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![Frankenstein.comHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionFrankenstein.com follows the sleuth DCI Jack Renton who we were first introduced to earlier this year in Resident Fear . Another murderer is on the loose in the northeast of England and this time it's a much more macabre, chilling murder scene that the detectives are drawn to. A horrific picture tha...
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![Resident FearHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionIt's the year 2018 and Britain has been expelled from the European Union. Over in the Northeast of the country the body of a wealthy Industrialist is found, draped at the base of the iconic sculpture - The Angel of the North. D.C.I. Jack Renton soon begins to understand that this isn't a simple murd...
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![The Darwinian Extension: InitiationHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionThe 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...
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![The Darwinian Extension: TransitionHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionThe Darwinian Extension: Transition is the second volume in the science fiction trilogy from author Hylton H Smith, and follows on from the events in Initiation. Transition begins in the year 2038, 2 years have passed since the return of the Copernicus, the ship carrying the first Mars colonisation...
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![The Sacred ProtocolHylton H Smith]()
Science FictionThe Sacred Protocol is a near future novel of an alternative history, written by Hylton H Smith. After the Spanish Armada defeat the English fleet in 1588 the great British Empire is overthrown and Spain control most of Europe. Moving forward to 2016 and the Internet collapses causing mass chaos as...
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![ExtremophileIan Green]()
Science FictionCyberpunk 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...
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![The Dervish HouseIan McDonald]()
Science FictionThe world of The Dervish house is a reflection of it's parent city of Istanbul which is itself a reflection of the nation of Turkey; ancient, paradoxical and divided like the brain of a human being. In the year 2027 on a swealteringly hot summers day there is a small explosion in Enginsoy Square, a...
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![The Glass BoxJ Michael Straczynski]()
General FictionSome of the best speculative fiction starts with an idea that is not far removed from the normal, a simple nudge to reality can lead to many places. In the case of J. Michael Straczynski’s The Glass Box , this place is a psychiatric hospital. The reason for being sent there? New government legislati...
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![Aktiya The Ignition SequenceJS Cooper]()
Science FictionAktiya The Ignition Sequence is a science fiction novel by JS Cooper. Julien suffers from raging nightmare's that leave him emotionally and physically drained, however when these turn into head splitting visions that seem to cause wierd things to happen nearby Julien seeks the help of a local Hypnot...
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![The Drowning EarthJack D Mclean]()
Science FictionI think the pessimistic among us see a future of raised water levels and the UK losing plenty of its coastal land and anything close to our rivers. However, even the most resigned will not have imagined the world that Martin Mulligan and Jack D. McLean have created in The Drowning Earth . Not only a...
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![MoonfallJack McDevitt]()
Science FictionThe 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...
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![Dreaming of EdenJames Lucien]()
Science FictionDreaming 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...
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![Realtime InterruptJames P Hogan]()
Science FictionRealtime Interrupt is a science fiction novel by James P Hogan. This book has a theme somewhat similar to Permutation City by Greg Egan - Again it's about VR and how far it can be taken. Hogan does a nice job of it, but I wasn't as fascinated by Realtime Interrupt as I was with Permutation City. The...
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![The Genesis MachineJames P Hogan]()
Science FictionThe Genesis Machine is a science fiction novel by James P Hogan. (take a look at the clothes the guys are wearing on the cover - wow!) Written in 1978 and taking place a few of years from now, The Geneses Machine pretty much read as an alternative history story, even if it wasn't intended as such. I...
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![The Giant NovelsJames P Hogan]()
Science FictionThe Giant Novels are a series of science fiction novels by James P Hogan. I'm usually not a man that believe in miracles, but something fairly fantastic must have happened at Del Ray Books, the day they came up with the idea for this book. To put three classics, Inherit the Stars, The Gentle Giants...
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![Kings of a Dead WorldJamie Mollart]()
Science FictionThere are two ways that you can view the future. We are all doomed, or we will somehow save ourselves. The optimistic The Day the Earth Stood Still way of thinking is that humans will only get around to do something when we are really in a pickle. World ending disaster will be averted at the last...
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![War StoriesJaym Gates & Andrew Liptak]()
Science FictionWhen I received this anthology to review I hadn't delved into the background behind its journey to publication. It was interesting to see its crowd-sourced origins and development. There are some misconceptions people have with crowd source funded books, firstly that the quality of the writing might...
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![Blue EarthJeff Stover]()
Science FictionBlue 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,...
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![Hummingbird SalamanderJeff Vandermeer]()
General FictionFollowing the news, it feels like the world is going to hell in a handcart. Put aside any politics and there is enough going on environmentally to worry most people. The idea of the oceans rising, smog filling the skies and animals dying out whilst the infrastructure of countries collapse, all have...
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![FluxJinwoo Chong]()
Science FictionTime travel is one of the most complex and difficult concepts to write in fiction. On the screen you can use visuals as shorthand to try and explain what on Earth is going on, but in fiction you are required to explain it all, or not. There is a choice. Do you go down the route of hard science and t...
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![Forever PeaceJoe Haldeman]()
Science FictionFirst 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...
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![The Night AlphabetJoelle Taylor]()
Science FictionThere are books in a person’s life that helps to define their taste in genres. I was lucky enough in my teenage years to work my way through some of the classics of science fiction instilling a lifelong love of the genre. One novel that stands out among the best was Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Ma...
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![Mother of StormsJohn Barnes]()
Science FictionMother 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....
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![Children of the ThunderJohn Brunner]()
Science FictionChildren of the Thunder is a science fiction novel by John Brunner. John Brunner has written a really wonderful book 'THE SHEEP LOOK UP' that I should probably re-read. This book came close but not quite to the despondancy that Earth is supposed to face in the present/near future. There is developin...
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![RingturnJohn C Mawson]()
Science FictionRingturn 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...
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![The PassengersJohn Marrs]()
Science FictionCall me old fashioned, I am a little scared of the future. This is a sentiment that will hit many of us eventually. What is wrong with the way technology works right now? Do I really need to talk to my speakers or plug myself into the Matrix just to order a pizza? The idea of getting behind the whee...
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![Lock InJohn Scalzi]()
Science FictionThese 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...
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![MyriadJoshua David Bellin]()
Science FictionI 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...
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![The DieJude Berman]()
Science FictionThere 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...
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![Is Death really necessaryJudi Moore]()
Science FictionIs 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...
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![NoirK W Jeter]()
Science FictionNoir is a science fiction novel by K W Jeter. NOIR.....Hohoho! What a way to go! Corpses in this book aren't allowed to die, they go into debt and are kept from the grave to hang out on the dead side of what was L.A. (now the Gloss) to wait for some job so they can be buried. X shaped pupils. One gu...
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![The Venom of VipersKC May]()
Science FictionThe Venom of Vipers is a science fiction novel by KC May. A supervirus is threatening to wipe out the human race and the only hope may be a human hybrid created by scientists, treated as sub human, locked away and hated. When a brilliant young scientist learns of this secret she must not only fight...
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![Invisible PlanetsKen Liu]()
Science FictionThere is a much bigger speculative fiction scene within China than most people realise. The main barrier to these stories for the western reader is of course language. It's wonderful to see writers such as Ken Liu translating important Chinese works so that a wider audience can begin to enjoy this r...
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![The Zxap JacketKen Mazur]()
Science Fiction2047 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...
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![Cosmonaut KeepKen Mcleod]()
Science FictionCosmonaut 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...
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![CydoniaKen Mcleod]()
Science FictionCydonia 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...
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![The Star FractionKen Mcleod]()
Science FictionThe Star Fraction is a science fiction novel by Ken Mcleod. This is the first book by MacLeod that I've read but certainly not the last, not just because I've already bought The Stone Canal and The Cassini Diversion, but because MacLeod is a damn good writer. I mostly picked up these books on the ad...
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![If We Cannot Go at the Speed of LightKim Choyeop]()
Science FictionStarting a new book can always be daunting, but I have a special trepidation for short story collections. They can be vast, full of stories that are loosely linked. Trying to find themes and remember all the stories can feel impossible when considering a review. However, you sometimes get a more cur...
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![Double or NothingKim Sherwood]()
General FictionJames Bond has evolved through the decades from the original Ian Fleming books to a world-famous series of films and even classic computer games, but at their heart the best Bonds all hark back to Fleming’s style. Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood is a surprise then as it is a Bond book without Bond...
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![Pattern SeekerL Keith Wheeler]()
Science FictionPattern Seeker is the first volume in the Random Happenings series of novels by L Keith Wheeler. Set in the near future, Pattern Seeker follows the privileged life of Jason Armond who possesses the rare talent of being able to see patterns where others just see chaos. This talent has led him to a se...
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![MoxylandLauren Beukes]()
Science FictionMoxyland 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...
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![The Best of World SF Volume 1Lavie Tidhar]()
Science FictionThe genre of Science Fiction has always been a wide one in terms of ideas. You can set a book on our own Earth with only one or two tweaks to the norm. This Speculative Fiction is Sci Fi, but so are the Space Op eras that span eons and are inhabited by alien races. Although the nature of Sci Fi can...
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![Limit of VisionLinda Nagata]()
Science FictionLimit 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...
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![Tech HeavenLinda Nagata]()
Science FictionTech 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...
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![The Three-body ProblemLiu Cixin]()
Science FictionThe Three-body Problem was originally written in Chinese by Liu Cixin. Launched to great acclaim within China, it became one of the most popular science fiction novels within the country and won the 2006 Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award. Thankfully it has now been translated by the talented auth...
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![A View from the StarsLiu Cixin]()
Science FictionLike many science fiction fans, I have been swept away by the recent influx of Chinese writers that have been translated. Many of these writers are only new to us but have established careers back in China. The most prominent is the Hugo Award winning Cixin Liu. I have enjoyed the style of stories f...
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![Green ValleyLouis Greenberg]()
Science FictionThe average person seems to put a lot of trust in their Government. No way they are spying on me online and even if they are, what am I doing that they would care about? This attitude has shown that ignorance is not bliss, they may just sell your data to the highest bidder and before you know it the...
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![InscapeLouise Carey]()
Science FictionA lot of the political hustle and bustle in today’s world has its roots in how far you think capitalism should go. Some countries are all for state control, others are far more lais s ez faire . Do private companies already have too much power pull ing the strings behind our elected repre...
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![The Year of the FloodMargaret Atwood]()
Science FictionThe Year of the Flood is the second novel in Margaret Atwood's post-apocalyptic series and follows the viewpoints of Toby and Ren, members of a religious cult. The book tells the story of some of the events leading up to the cataclysm mentioned in the previous novel Oryx and Crake and there is a goo...
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![TwilightMarkus Heitz]()
Science FictionOver the next three days, three reviews will stand before you. Read them in any order, some elements will be the same, others quite different. If you would like to go straight to the segment unique to this review, please start with paragraph 4. Drafting a book must be like standing in front of a ser...
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![WilliamMason Coile]()
HorrorA horror book can be a complex and multilayered epic, but the genre often best as an intimate story told in a closed environment. Countless classic horror films have been set in an abandoned cabin or house, something strange living in the attic that only comes down to seek its victims. In Mason Coil...
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![ExilesMason Coile]()
Science FictionOne of the best things about Science Fiction is that it also works as Science Fact. Much of the science and fantasy in the books are based on real research; taken to the nth level, but with a basis in truth. Exiles by Mason Coile layers this with some fundamentals in philosophy. Occam’s Razor sugges...
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![Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle RockMaud Woolf]()
Science FictionWouldn’t it be great to be in more than one place at once? Rather than having to do all those boring jobs you could make a version of yourself to do it for you, leaving time for you to do what you really want, like playing too many computer games or reading too many books. Before you know it, you ma...
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![Jennifer GovernmentMax Barry]()
Science FictionSimply 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...
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![The Price of SafetyMichael C. Bland]()
Science FictionWhat 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...
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![The Price of RebellionMichael C. Bland]()
Science FictionSome things are bigger than just us. We need to think about more than the individual or even the family unit, think of the bigger picture. The Price of Rebellion by Micheal C. Bland is the second part of a trilogy all about an inventor who would do anything to protect his family, but in doing this h...
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![The Price of FreedomMichael C. Bland]()
Science FictionAfter discovering what The Price of Safety and The Price of Rebellion are in the first two outings in Michael C Bland’s dystopian trilogy, we finally get to see what The Price of Freedom is in this final outing. In a world in which everyone has been rendered blind unless they wear technology, you ca...
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![SymbioteMichael Nayak]()
Science FictionThe thought of travelling to space and living on the International Space Station has no interest to me. Stuck in a metal box, isolated, miles away from civilisation with only the same people as company sound like a one-way ticket to madness. You do not need to go into space to create such a feeling....
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![SentientMichael Nayak]()
Science FictionIf you are like me, you will have an escape plan from the building you work in, just in case there is a zombie attack. My plan is to get to the roof and use one of the ladders up there to simply steer the zombies over the low edge. This might work, but not in the Antarctic, were there are few buildi...
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![Season of the HarvestMichael R Hicks]()
Science FictionFBI 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...
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![The Northern Star: The BeginningMike Gullickson]()
Science FictionFrom the back cover: The oil is gone. That way of life, ended. An invention frees the mind. A cyber-world becomes salvation. A boy, a weapon. A soldier, a titan. While nations thrash into antiquity, And a CEO becomes Queen, A man, brilliant and cunning, Plots to rule it all. Imagine a future where o...
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![Faraway and ForeverNancy Joie Wilkie]()
Science FictionScience Fiction has been inspired by religion ever since it started being written, Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus even has the Greek Gods in the title. The word science may be in the title of the genre, but it is also a genre about wonder, about questioning the things around us. Science fiction a...
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![Fractured InfinityNathan Tavares]()
Science FictionThink too long on the multiverse and your mind will explode. Every tiny action you take splits off into another multiverse, then extrapolate that with everything making tiny actions. There will be an infinite number of universes that only differ from the way you tied your shoelace that morning. Popp...
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![Snow CrashNeal Stephenson]()
Science FictionSnow 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...
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![Alpha OmegaNicholas Bowling]()
Science FictionIf you read enough Near Future fiction you will start to see a trend. The future is not orange at all but bleak and a little depressing. It could be giant robots, aliens or the undead. There always seems to be something around the corner that is more dystopian than utopian. I can take all the UFOs...
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![Azanian BridgesNick Wood]()
Science FictionScience fiction set in the near future, Azanian Bridges is a rough diamond, drawing on a variety of influences to deliver a real and wrenching story. Our setting is an alternative South Africa, where Mandela was never released and Apartheid didn’t end. We follow two characters, Martin and Sibusiso a...
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![Running BlackP Todoroff]()
Science FictionRunning 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...
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![The Windup GirlPaolo Bacigalupi]()
Science FictionThe Windup Girl is the award winning dystopian vision by Paolo Bacigalupi. Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory worker he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the Windup Gir...
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![Echo CyclePatrick Edwards]()
Science FictionAbove all genres, science fiction is my favourite. Why? Because anything can happen. You can have epic space battles between alien races you cannot pronounce or go in the other direction and create a subtle alternative reality where words have the power to kill. Ideas run the entire gamete and they...
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![The ActualityPaul Braddon]()
Science FictionI sometimes like to think about a singular change to the world and how it would affect the future. It says a lot about me that in most cases my thoughts end up at dystopia. Humans are always going to end at some point, I was just hoping that it would be a few years after I had gone. I a...
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![Something Coming ThroughPaul McAuley]()
Science FictionA near future that sees an altered world, changed by flooding, climate change and terrorism. The biggest change however is by the arrival of the aliens who call themselves the Jackaroo. The Jackaroo seem to be Earths hope and salvation, saving it from itself. At last the question of whether we are a...
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![AustralPaul McAuley]()
Science FictionPaul McAuley is a vastly under-appreciated author. His books are inspiring, hypnotic and inventive. Austral is all of these and more, a book set in a plausible, climate-changed future where the planet has a new continent with a partial thawing of the Antarctic. There are still vast vistas of ice but...
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![A Quantum MurderPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionA Quantum Murder is the second volume in the Greg Mandel Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Greg Mandel on his second case for Julia Evans and the Eventhorizon company. If you have any of the other two Mandel books you'll know what to expect. QM isn't quite as well written as Nanoflower, but it's in the s...
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![LightstormPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionLightstorm 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...
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![Mindstar RisingPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionMindstar 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...
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![Misspent YouthPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionMisspent Youth is a stand alone science fiction novel by the acclaimed British author Peter F Hamilton. Misspent Youth – try saying it to your self – Misspent Youth, not exactly catchy is it?. It sound so much like a story about maladjusted working class youngsters in some large industrial town or t...
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![The Nano FlowerPeter F Hamilton]()
Science FictionThe 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...
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![The Waters of MarsPhil Ford]()
Science FictionI am a massive fan of the Target imprint of Doctor Who books. Recently they have been filling in the gaps from the older series and producing new adaptations based on the past few Doctors. Taking stories out of any given season is a risky business. It could be a standalone monster of the week story,...
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![A Scanner DarklyPhilip K Dick]()
Science FictionA Scanner Darkly is the only Philip K Dick novel that I have been the slightest bit reluctant to read so far - to say I am not a fan of drugs would be a vast understatement and Scanner is PKD's exploration into drugs. My youngest brother has waxed lyrical on a number of occasions about the novel tho...
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![Counter Clock WorldPhilip K Dick]()
Science FictionPhilip K Dick first wrote this story as a short called "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" which was published in the August 1966 edition of the Amazing Stories magazine. Counter Clock World is the expanded, novel length version and was published a year later. The novel uses the Big Crunch theory t...
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![Thin IcePhill Jones]()
Science FictionThin 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...
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![TimeshiftPhillip Ellis Jackson]()
Science FictionTimeshift is a science fiction novel by Philip Ellis Jackson. Sometime in our near future the united states will separate into two different countries, a bit after that we have a small nuclear war and after that some moron releases a new life-form that eats everything in its path and leaves the surf...
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![Dark LullabyPolly Ho-Yen]()
Science FictionThey all tell you that having children is not easy, but nothing prepared us for the first six weeks of having a defenceless little t y ke in the house. You may have read the books, been to a few classes or asked r elatives and friends, but when it comes down to it, this is all on your shoulders al...
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![Twenty Five to LifeR. W. W. Greene]()
Science FictionDystopian fiction has been becoming increasingly popular in recent years, probably because many of us can see the tell-tale signs of it coming along the tracks in real life. This is a depressing thought, but one worth exploring. How will humans continue to survive on a planet they are poisoning? Som...
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![The Mountain in the SeaRay Nayler]()
Science FictionOne 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...
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![The Long WalkRichard Bachman]()
HorrorReview by Arron Clegg. Wow, what a novel. Not my first time for reading it, but I just seemed to enjoy it even more this time around. Now, most of you out there are already aware that Richard Bachman was a pen name for Stephen King. He chose to do this purely because in his early days, even as today...
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![Exit EleonoraRichard R Allan]()
Science FictionOne of the reasons I review books is to find stories that impress me and writers I can learn from and certainly there’s a lot of learning to be had in Exit Eleonora – Richard Allan’s debut novel. The story is first person and set in AD 2047. Earth is re-organising itself after a devastating plague t...
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![TriggersRobert J Sawyer]()
Science FictionAn Assassin's bullet strikes President Seth Jerrison on the eve of a top secret military operation, he is taken to the nearest hospital where doctors fight to save his life. At the very same hospital Dr Ranjip Singh is carrying out experiments with a device that can ease traumatic memories. In the o...
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![WatchRobert J Sawyer]()
Science FictionWatch 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...
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![WonderRobert J Sawyer]()
Science FictionIn 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...
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![The Book of AdamRobert M Hopper]()
Science FictionThe Book of Adam: Autobiography of the first human clone is a science fiction novel and the debut of Robert M Hopper. On February 22, 1997, the world was shocked with the announcement that a lamb named Dolly had been born, the first mammal cloned from adult cells. The reaction was largely one of out...
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![Across the VoidS. K. Vaughn]()
Science FictionOn 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...
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![The Carhullan ArmySarah Hall]()
Science FictionThe Carhullan Army is a dystopian science fiction novel set in an around the cumbrian fells, written by Sarah Hall. With much of Britain underwater due to a biblical level of flooding, the surviving population exist in concentrated pockets and ruled by the rather sinister sounding "Authority". While...
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![A Better WorldSarah Langan]()
HorrorA person brings a piece of themselves with them when they read a book. Your background, beliefs and current situation can all inform the story. There are books where it does not really matter who you are, but some books will hit home harder for those who feel a connection. A Better World by Sarah La...
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![The Chosen SeedSarah Pinborough]()
FantasyFramed for Murder and on the run, Detective Inspector Cass Jones gets unwelcome attention wherever he goes, including being hounded by his former colleagues. As he works desperately to save his kidnapped nephew and gain answers he finds himself going up against The Bank and its sinister employees on...
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![We Are SatellitesSarah Pinsker]()
Science FictionOf the many things that the pandemic has taught us, it is that we can work well online. I have completed projects online with never meeting my team or the stakeholders in person. What it has also taught me us is about Digital Poverty. Although I may have been happy to work in the kitchen, what about...
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![Smoke EatersSean Grigsby]()
Science FictionFire fighter Sean Grigsby’s near future debut sees the world infested with dragons risen from beneath the ground. The wingless wyverns rise up to destroy cities and take lives, leaving only the shadows of people - ‘wraiths’ - behind. It’s up to the ‘smoke. Cole Brannigan, a patriotic, hard-working f...
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![The Killing SpellShay Kauwe]()
FantasySticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, but in Shay Kauwe’s The Killing Spell , words will very much hurt you. In fact, words can be fashioned into spells to kill. Not the best in an everyday family situation where words can fly thick and fast, nor in a society where a fe...
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![Edge of the Known WorldSheri T Joseph]()
Science FictionThe future is uncertain but as long as there are people on the planet, there will be drama. The cities could be crumbling and the seas boiling but a few people gather in the same cave for protection, and it will be mere hours before they are arguing, falling in and out of love and not getting on wit...
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![Annie BotSierra Greer]()
Science FictionI picked this book up after learning about it being short-listed and eventually winning the Arthur C Clarke Award . It's proof of not judging a book by its cover because I'd have completely passed it by sitting on a table, with its shockingly bright pink swirlyness and quote by Sheena Patel that say...
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![Certain Dark ThingsSilvia Moreno-Garcia]()
HorrorIt was not until I browsed my sister’s bookshelves that I realised that vampire fiction is its own genre. She is a prolific reader and seems to exclusively read vampire books. I asked her to lend me some and I realised why you can read so many ‘similar’ books and nothing else, as the books can be va...
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![Bringing forth the end of daysSimon Law]()
Science FictionBringing forth the end of days is a science fiction novel of post apocalypse survival, and is the debut novel of Simon Law. The year is 2013 and World War 3 has scorched the earth, on top of a biological attack that has destroyed all plant life, leaving a world without life giving oxygen. Civilisati...
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![The CulledSimon Spurrier]()
Science FictionThere is something gritty and slightly dirty about Simon Spurrier's writing, making it an acquired taste in science fiction at times. Certainly in The Culled, the first book of the Afterblight Chronicles published by Abaddon Books, we are introduced to our main character in a way that parades his vi...
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![SaturnaliaStephanie Feldman]()
HorrorWhat happens when the world ends? Do we as a species rally together to save the day at the last possible moment, or do we fiddle whilst Rome burns? If recent history has shown us nothing else, the rich will party, and the poor will die. Nothing new there then. Stephanie Feldman does not see the tren...
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![The Book of MarsStuart Clark]()
General FictionI am a student of history. In that I love to learn about history, but I did a degree in the subject. What I find the most fascinating is how history evolves – an event happened and that will never change, but how we precisive it does. The fashions and knowledge of the present day impacts how we look...
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![State of MindSven Michael Davison]()
Science FictionState 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...
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![State of UnionSven Michael Davison]()
Science FictionState 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...
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![The Book of MalachiT C Farren]()
Science FictionThe way that humans treat each other in real life is far darker and harrowing than any science fiction book that you can create, but this does not stop some authors from exploring the depths of the human condi tion. If we are only as good as how we treat the weakest in society, the people who inha...
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![The Escher ManT R Napper]()
Science FictionCalling your book The Escher Man is a bold move, but a move that T. R. Napper made. The name conjures up imagery from the artist of staircases to nowhere that lead back to the start. How does that effect the man eternally made to walk these steps? Throw in some Cyberpunk future and memory manipulati...
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![Ghost of the Neon GodT R Napper]()
Science FictionI 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...
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![EdgeThomas Blackthorne]()
Science FictionEdge is the first volume in an original science fiction story by John Meaney, writing under the name Thomas Blackthorne. Based in a near future britain, carrying knives has been legalised and a system of dueling to settle arguments now exists which is sensationalized with the TV show Knife Edge wher...
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![PointThomas Blackthorne]()
Science FictionPoint 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...
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![Perilous TimesThomas D Lee]()
FantasyI love an Arthurian Legend retelling, Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee is not even the first one that I have read this year, but it shows how flexible authors can be with Old King Arty. Lee does not retell the tales of yore but extrapolates into the present and the future. When Arthur was buried, he w...
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![The Gone WorldTom Sweterlitsch]()
Science FictionThis 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...
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![System PreferenceUgo Bienvenu]()
Science FictionAs a Librarian I deal regularly with some of the topics raised in Ugo Bienvenu’s System Preference . I do not have firsthand experience of a robot bringing up my children, but I do know about data; what needs to be stored and what needs to be deleted. Do we just keep it all in the hopes that we can...
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![The CabinetUn-Su Kim]()
Science FictionI love genre fiction that deals with people who have developed superpowers; X-Men , The 4400 , The Boys . All of them have ordinary people gaining extraordinary powers. Some become superheroes, other supervillains. However, what about those mutations that are a little naff? Do you deserve to be s...
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![The Babel ApocalypseVyvyan Evans]()
Science FictionMost of us have a subject at school that we struggled with more than others and for me that was languages. Maths, English, Science, I was fine, but my brain does not feel designed for languages. So, if someone offered me a chip that would allow me to instantly understand all languages on Earth, I wo...
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![The Dark CourtVyvyan Evans]()
Science FictionI 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...
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![A Planet for RentYoss]()
Science FictionYoss is one of the most controversial and successful of Cuba's science fiction writers. As well known for his rock-and-roll style as he is for his portrait of Cuba under Communism, his work is modern, dynamic and yet deep and thoughtful. A Planet for Rent is set in the near future where Earth, wrack...
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