DUNCAN LAY Wall of Spears: Empire of Bones, Book Three. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
An intricate and well-plotted narrative, full of incident, ends the Empire of Bones trilogy with a flourish. In this final book, the complex developments of the first two books in the Empire of Bones series are brought to the point of an epic battle. Wall of Spears...
ANN LECKIE Ancillary Justice. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
Immersive, layered and compelling: this standout science fiction debut rewards persistence. Ancillary Justice, the debut novel from American author Ann Leckie, has been garnering a fair bit of buzz around the speculative fiction community over the past few months and...
TERRY PRATCHETT Raising Steam. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
This new novel is an exuberant celebration of the endlessly changing Discworld. In Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett’s 40th book set on the Discworld, Ankh-Morpork, the most exciting and vibrant – but grubby – city on the Disc, is nearly a decade older than when we last...
ANDREW MACRAE Trucksong. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
This debut is a fresh – and refreshing – addition to the tradition of Australian dystopian fiction. Oh, and there’s trucks. Post-apocalyptic dystopian stories have been popular for a long time now and seem increasingly so. They allow us to play out our worst...JO SPURRIER Black Sun Light My Way: Children of the Black Sun, Book Two. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The second volume of this epic fantasy is a clever and engrossing tale exploring cruelty, enslavement, magic and power. In Winter Be My Shield, Book One of the Children of the Black Sun series, we were introduced to the Blood-Mage, who controls a form of telekinesis....STEPHEN BAXTER Proxima. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
Alien technology, interplanetary travel, Artificial Intelligence and the origin of the universe are among the many ideas explored in this complex and entertaining novel. Analog Science Fiction and Fact was my magazine of choice as a teenager. Often it featured stories...HUGH HOWEY Dust. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
A huge and occasionally chaotic canvas does not diminish the achievement of this dystopian trilogy. Dust is the long-awaited conclusion to the saga that started with Wool. If you have not read Wool, or Shift, the previous books in the trilogy, don’t start...SAMANTHA SHANNON The Bone Season. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The Bone Season offers a parallel future of clairvoyants and alien races in a complex and vibrant thriller. This is a very grim story threaded with startlingly good flashes of originality. That is not to say that brave young women, invading aliens and mind...TERRY PRATCHETT and STEPHEN BAXTER The Long War. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
Humans, trolls, bad governments and parallel worlds: Pratchett and Baxter offer a rich cast of characters and provocative ideas in their latest novel. There is so much going on in this sequel to The Long Earth that it is a wonder the authors can hold it together. Of...MAX BARRY Lexicon. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
This is fiction on the edge of the now – a contemporary thriller that moves backwards and forwards in time. Wil Parke prays it’s a case of mistaken identity when he’s waylaid in an airport toilet by a couple of guys who stick a needle in his eye and propose radical...EMMA NEWMAN Any Other Name: Book Two of The Split Worlds. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
Mirrored worlds of urban and traditional fantasy meet in this richly intriguing and inventive series. In all good fantasy it is the edges and borders that throw up the most exciting stories, rather like the way the edges of tectonic plates throw up volcanoes, and the...
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