In 1977, humans placed the Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft with the hope it would be found by an alien civilization in the future.
In 2036, the alien equivalent arrived on Earth.
Science Fiction
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Synopsis Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place. Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the […]
The Escher Man by T. R. Napper
Synopsis Endel ‘Endgame’ Ebbinghaus is a violent man, a street-level enforcer for a drug cartel. Or is he? In The Escher Man, nothing is as it seems. Friends, enemies, the past and the present, all become blurred in a world where memory manipulation has become the weapon of choice for powerful corporations. From the gaudy, glittering […]
Review: Eyes of Empire (The Hybrid Helix #5) by J.C.M. Berne
Synopsis: A baby dreadnought is terrorizing two star systems. A new wormhole has been opened, a new planetary system revealed, populated by a strange and impossible race. A mad god is on the loose. The il’Drach have destroyed an entire planet, and are on their way to Wistful. Rohan just wants a peaceful day of […]
Review: Disquiet Gods (The Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio
Synopsis The sixth novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire. The end is nigh. It has been nearly two hundred years since Hadrian Marlowe assaulted the person of the Emperor and walked away […]
Review: Limelight and Other Stories by Lyndsey Croal
Synopsis “An impressive collection…with a surprising number of pieces that feel just prescient enough to worry about.” —Rebecca E. Treasure, author and Managing Editor of Apex Magazine Limelight is a collection of over twenty high-concept dark science fiction tales from near and far futures. The title novelette—about a young woman brought back from near death by […]
Book Review: Off Midway Station by Marc Alan Edelheit
TL;DR Review – Slow-burn beginning that builds to an action-packed climax. A fascinating look at the construction and launch of a brand new spaceship. Synopsis: Humanity is on the brink of annihilation. Only one man can turn the tide. For centuries, we explored the stars and settled new worlds. But a mysterious alien threat emerged, […]
Review: Deep Freeze (Revival #1) by Michael C. Grumley
Synopsis “A fast-paced juggernaut of a story, where revelations pile upon revelations, building to a stunning conclusion that will leave readers clamoring for more.” ―James Rollins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sigma Force series The accident came quickly. With no warning. In the dead of night, a precipitous plunge into a freezing river trapped […]
Review: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Synopsis While we live, the enemy shall fear us. Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda […]
Review: Falling Into Oblivion (Tendrils of Chrome #1) by Aaron M. Payne
Synopsis: MODIFICATIONS COME AT A PRICE. Detective Sol Harkones is tangled in the wires of a deadly conspiracy involving defective body modifications causing permanent brain damage. A suspect is known, but something more dangerous may be lurking in the shadows. A city plagued by waste. Violence fills the streets. Oblivion is within reach. Review: I […]
Review: Limelight and Other Stories by Lyndsey Croal
In space, no one can hear you scream sob like a baby Publisher’s Synopsis Limelight is a collection of over twenty high-concept dark science fiction tales from near and far futures. Lyndsey’s work explores the bright potential and the dark reality of our near and far futures through the lenses of connection and loneliness, love […]
Review: Mushroom Blues (The Hofmann Report #1) by Adrian M. Gibson
Synopsis ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. BEAT THE WINTER BLUES. Blade Runner, True Detective and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick and China Miéville in Adrian M. Gibson’s dark, hallucinatory, fungalpunk noir debut. Two years after a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and […]