Synopsis Two species of humans — one technologically advanced and one living in nature — have coexisted peacefully on their home planet for over a century. But when an ancient treaty is breached, devastation follows. Balika has always felt like an outsider. When tragedy strikes, she is left without a reason to remain with her […]
Dystopian
Review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky can do no wrong. Service Model is an utter triumph of fun sci-fi with an added edge of things being a liiiiittle too close to home. Told entirely from the perspective of Charles, a personal valet robot who embarks on quite the journey.
Charles at the start of the book is a very unintentionally humorous robot, and his observations of the world around him are so very naive. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book where he’s interacting with other robots who are following their routines, and the lack of human interaction is messing with their systems. A particular favourite was the detective and doctor robots, it was for me the first realisation of just how funny this book can be.
Review: Rememory by Frasier Armitage
Synopsis In the future, memory is currency. Felix is broke, on the run, with nothing in his head but a combination of numbers. Someone robbed him of his mind. Now it’s time he took it back. ★★★★★ “Armitage deftly executes the fresh concept of memory as currency. REMEMORY is part cyberpunk, part thriller, and a […]
Review: Death Warrant by Bryan Johnston
Synopsis Death Makes Great TV. Frankie Percival is cashing in her chips. To save her brother from financial ruin, Frankie—a single stage performer and mentalist who never made it big—agrees to be assassinated on the most popular television show on the planet: Death Warrant. Once she signs her life away, her memory is wiped clean of […]
Review: Mushroom Blues (The Hofmann Report #1) by Adrian M. Gibson
I knew I’d love this book. From the very first page Adrian had me hooked and I carved out reading time so I had to put Mushroom Blues down as little as possible. I was utterly enthralled.
Review: Ninth Life (Book #3 of the Factus Sequence) by Stark Holborn
Synopsis The Ballad of Halo Jones meets Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers by way of 3:10 to Yuma; a clash of law and lawlessness, storytelling and truth in a headlong romp across the stars. After forty years of wreaking havoc across the galaxy, the outlaw Nine Lives – AKA Former General Gabriella Ortiz – has finally run […]
Guest Review: Amazon Prime’s “Fallout” TV Series by C.T Phipps
Premise Based on one of the greatest video games of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly […]
Review: Deliverance (Hell Divers #3) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Synopsis They will dive, but will humanity survive? Left for dead on the nightmarish surface of the planet, Commander Michael Everhart and his team of Hell Divers barely escape with their lives aboard a new airship called Deliverance. After learning that Xavier “X” Rodriguez may still be alive, they mount a rescue mission for the […]
Review: Beyond The Burn Line by Paul McAuley
Synopsis What will become of us? In the deep future beyond the burn line of the Anthropocene and the extinction of humanity, the city states of an intelligent species of bear have fallen to a mind-wrecking plague. The bears’ former slaves, a peaceable, industrious and endlessly curious people, believe that they have inherited the bounty […]
Book Review: Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
TL;DR Review: Engaging, fascinating, and set in a unique and riveting world. Strong characters and a compelling sci-fi detective noir story. A truly stunning debut. Synopsis: TWO YEARS AFTER a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hoppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. […]
Review: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler
Synopsis When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA. Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again. The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While […]
Review: Saint Elspeth by Wick Welker
Synopsis Why did they come? When they appeared across the sky, speculation wheeled around the world—the aliens were from heaven, the invaders were from hell… or they were proof that neither existed. But when they landed, curiosity gave way to suspicion and the nations reacted with nuclear force, setting off a chain reaction that left […]