DAVID M HENLEY Manifestations. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The second book in the Pierre Jnr trilogy is a compelling read, full of ideas and fast-flowing events. David Henley’s Pierre Jnr trilogy explores the world of the future. 2159 is a time not so far in the future, however, that it doesn’t contain many ideas and...
MR CAREY The Girl With All The Gifts. Reviewed by Jacqui Dent
Sentient zombies will give you something to think about in this post-apocalyptic thriller. Since they first entered the popular consciousness, zombies have been evolving creatures. From humans under voodoo spells, to shuffling reanimated corpses, to virus-infected...
JAMES BRADLEY Clade. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
James Bradley’s new novel reveals a frightening future that grows more possible day by day. A near-future novel that uses the devastating effects of climate change as its setting and yet isn’t a complete downer: that’s quite an achievement, particularly as it also...
WILLIAM GIBSON The Peripheral. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
The father of cyberpunk returns with a new novel that deals in corporate wars, time travel and murder. William Gibson is one of the most famous science fiction authors of the modern age. His now classic Sprawl Trilogy, Neuromancer, Burning Chrome and Mona Lisa...
JULIET MARILLIER Dreamer’s Pool: Blackthorn and Grim 1. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
A bargain for a healer’s life is struck amid simmering anger and revenge in the first instalment of this new epic fantasy. This fine fantasy novel opens with the main characters, Blackthorn and Grim, in a brutal prison, filthy, demoralised and damaged, both physically...
KEITH STEVENSON Horizon. Reviewed by Bill Congreve
A mission to discover a new planet is sabotaged in this debut SF full of plot twists and wonder. There are two main schools of space opera today: military SF, where some version of the US marines arrives on the scene, kills everybody, and lets God sort out the good...
TERRY PRATCHETT and STEPHEN BAXTER The Long Mars: Long Earth 3. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
This rich and far-ranging epic continues to explore new worlds and ethical problems. Before beginning this book it is necessary to know that in the previous books, The Long Earth and The Long War, the authors dealt with something that Pratchett calls quantum. For him...
BEN PEEK The Godless: Children Book One. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
Ben Peek’s debut gives George RR Martin a run for his money. The best epic fantasy is a seamless blend of intricately wrought elements that creates a fully-realised world with a comprehensive and weighty history that continues to affect the lives of the equally real...
ALAN BAXTER Bound: Alex Caine Book One. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
A grimoire, ancient magic – and cage fighting. This novel romps through it all. Warning! Wizards are no longer weedy, spectacle-wearing dorks with wimpy scars on their heads waving sticks and reciting pig Latin. In the world of Bound, the first in the Alex Caine...
BEN AARONOVITCH Broken Homes. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
This police-procedural urban fantasy is a celebration of contemporary and mythological London. Broken Homes is the fourth in the wonderful Rivers of London series. Rivers of London, Music of Soho, and Whispers Underground are the first three. It would be possible,...
CHRISTOPHER PRIEST The Adjacent. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
This unsettling new work incorporates echoes from previous books and forces readers to ask what they want from a novel. I’ve read a few books by Christopher Priest now, and I have to confess that often I don’t really understand what is going on in them; but still I...
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