You wake up … something’s wrong … you’re human. An ancient space-being called Moomamu has awoken on Earth and wants nothing more than to get back to his home in the stars. Taking the advice of his cat, Gary, he makes his way up t’north to meet the Tall-One-With-Insight. As he journeys across a land of underground trains, cappuccinos, and a man obsessed with killing him, he soon learns that being on Earth is a symptom of a bigger problem, and going home, just might destroy the planet. If I’m entirely honest, hipsters are a bit of a mystery to me. Ironic really, if I was about a decade younger and was slightly better groomed, I rather suspect I might be one (I do enjoy a good beard). From my current perspective however, they are an entirely different species. So for an author to come to the conclusion that hipsters could conceivably be from another planet seems like a completely reasonable suggestion as far as I am concerned. Moomamu finds humanity more than a little baffling (I can’t say I blame him). In his eyes we are a violent, contrary bunch who just don’t make much in the way of…

Please note Jani and the Great Pursuit is a direct sequel to Jani and the Greater Game. If you haven’t read that first then it is highly likely that this review may contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! Understood? Splendid…tally ho!! Jani and her stalwart companions Lieutenant Alfie Littlebody and Anand Doshi find themselves chased from India, via Greece, to London by the British authorities, Russian spies and a Hindu priest – who all want what Jani carries, the ventha-di: the key that will open the door to other worlds. In London she attempts to rescue the imprisoned alien Mahran – the only person who might help her save the Earth from the invasion of the merciless Zhell, the self-styled Masters of the Cosmos. But will she escape London and reach Tibet before the forces of evil capture her – and before she is betrayed by someone she considers loyal to her cause? Back in August 2014, I read a novel called Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown. It had a wonderful steampunk edge and was a perfect example of how good action/adventure should be. Jani and the Greater Game was great fun. I remember I…

Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons – a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura’s job is to censor video games, and he’s tasked with getting to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura’s hiding something… He’s slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame’s origins are even more controversial and dangerous than the censors originally suspected. Fiction, by its very definition, is essentially geared toward answering the question “what if?” Alternate history particularly delights in positing this conundrum. As soon as I read the blurb for United States of Japan, I knew that I had to read it. I’m willing to admit the giant robot on the cover also helped to sell me on the premise. An alternative version of 1980s America where Japan and Germany defeated…

A woman with wings that exist in another dimension. A man trapped in his own body by a killer. A briefcase that is a door to hell. A conspiracy that reaches beyond our world. Breathtaking SF from a Clarke Award-winning author. Tricia Sullivan has written an extraordinary, genre defining novel that begins with the mystery of a woman who barely knows herself and ends with a discovery that transcends space and time. On the way we follow our heroine as she attempts to track down a killer in the body of another man, and the man who has been taken over, his will trapped inside the mind of the being that has taken him over. And at the centre of it all a briefcase that contains countless possible realities. Tricia Sullivan returns to the genre with a book that will define the conversation within the genre and will show what it is capable of for years to come. This is the best book yet from a writer of exceedingly rare talent who is much loved in the genre world. I always enjoy that moment of trepidation that arrives whenever I’m reading an author’s work for the very first time. I’ve…

The official novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the highly anticipated blockbuster film directed by J. J. Abrams, hitting theatres in December 2015. More than thirty years ago, Star Wars burst onto the big screen and became a cultural phenomenon. Now the next adventures in this blockbuster saga are poised to captivate old and new fans alike—beginning with the highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And alongside the cinematic debut comes the thrilling novel adaptation by New York Times bestselling science fiction master Alan Dean Foster. Set years after Return of the Jedi, this stunning new action-packed adventure rockets us back into the world of Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2,and Luke Skywalker, while introducing a host of exciting new characters. Darth Vader may have been redeemed and the Emperor vanquished, but peace can be fleeting, and evil does not easily relent. Yet the simple belief in good can still empower ordinary individuals to rise and meet the greatest challenges.  So return to that galaxy far, far away, and prepare yourself for what happens when the Force awakens. I’m working on the assumption that most, if not all of you, that are reading this have already seen…

Please note – Europe at Midnight is a sequel to Europe in Autumn and this review will likely contain spoilers if you haven’t read the first book in this series. Dont say I didn’t warn ya! In a fractured Europe, new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight. For an intelligence officer like Jim it’s a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England’s interests. It’s hard to keep on top of it all. But things are about to get worse for Jim. A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has appeared who may hold the key to unlocking Europe’s most jealously guarded secret.. I only read Europe in Autumn last week. I enjoyed it so much I went straight from that into Europe at Midnight. Near future Europe is falling apart, nation by nation. The United Kingdom is now far from united, and on the European mainland many other countries are following suit. As if this constantly shifting political landscape wasn’t complicated enough, it…

A fractured Europe, a cook-turned-spy, a mighty web of espionage – but what happens when conspiracy threatens to overwhelm even reality itself? Europe in Autumn is a dystopian SF espionage thriller that evokes the Cold War novels of John Le Carré and the nightmarish world of Franz Kafka, taking place in a war and disease-torn Europe of hundreds of tiny nations. Rudi is a cook in a Kraków restaurant, but when boss asks him to help a cousin escape from the country he’s trapped in, a new career – part spy, part people-smuggler – begins. Recruited by the shadowy organisation Les Coureurs des Bois, Rudi is schooled in espionage. When he is sent to smuggle someone out of Berlin and finds a severed head inside a locker instead, a conspiracy begins to wind itself around him. With kidnapping, double-crosses and a map that constantly re-draws itself, Europe in Autumn is a modern science fiction thriller like no other. Ok, I’ll admit it. I am more than fashionably late when it comes to this particular party. What can I say? The life of a book reviewer is a battle against the same ever encroaching horror – so many books, so little…

A long time ago in a book review blog far, far away…. The second Death Star has been destroyed, the Emperor killed, and Darth Vader struck down. Devastating blows against the Empire, and major victories for the Rebel Alliance. But the battle for freedom is far from over. As the Empire reels from its critical defeats at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance—now a fledgling New Republic—presses its advantage by hunting down the enemy’s scattered forces before they can regroup and retaliate. But above the remote planet Akiva, an ominous show of the enemy’s strength is unfolding. Out on a lone reconnaissance mission, pilot Wedge Antilles watches Imperial Star Destroyers gather like birds of prey circling for a kill, but he’s taken captive before he can report back to the New Republic leaders. Meanwhile, on the planet’s surface, former rebel fighter Norra Wexley has returned to her native world—war weary, ready to reunite with her estranged son, and eager to build a new life in some distant place. But when Norra intercepts Wedge Antilles’ urgent distress call, she realizes her time as a freedom fighter is not yet over. What she doesn’t know is just how close the enemy…

Please note Grunt Traitor is a direct sequel to Grunt Life and it is entirely possible that this review may contain spoilers if you haven’t read the first book in this series. I recommend that you read Grunt Life immediately. Not only is it extremely good but this review will make a heck of a lot more sense once you have accomplished that simple task. Their spies were among us for years. They mapped our electrical infrastructure, learned our weaknesses, until finally they flipped the switch and threw us back into the Dark Ages. Only OMBRA and its battalions around the world seem capable of defending Earth from the next wave of attack – terraforming. But at what price can we gain our freedom from these yet to be identified aliens? They’re pushing the human race to the edge of extinction if we can’t find a way to change things. But what will we have to change? What will we humans become to survive this threat. This is a time for heroes. For killers. For Grunts. Benjamin Carter Mason will be asked this question over and over as he dives deep into the nasty heart of an alien transformed Los…

Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he’s spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day, some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism, right? After all, Zack tells himself, he knows the difference between fantasy and reality. He knows that here in the real world, aimless teenage gamers with anger issues don’t get chosen to save the universe. And then he sees the flying saucer. Even stranger, the alien ship he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders. No, Zack hasn’t lost his mind. As impossible as it seems, what he’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it. It’s Zack’s chance, at last, to play the hero. But even…

Born from the genius of the Animex, the aliens of the Noukari seek to gain a foothold on a savage planet. But the greatest danger to their existence lies within them – a powerful gift of telepathy. As the tension grows between idolatry and admiration of their creators, and the Noukari come to understand the latent powers within their own minds, a species created for peace are about to succumb to brutal violence. In a galaxy torn by conflict, will the first battle between the Noukari also be their last war? Based on the cover image, you could easily be forgiven into thinking that The Last War takes place in the vastness of space. That is certainly what I thought before I started reading. Turns out that you, and I are almost completely and utterly wrong. With the exception of a short prologue set in the inky void, the entire novel takes place in a small village called Genem. Apius is utterly driven by the idea that the Animex are gods. He believes that as they are the de-facto creators of the Noukari so they should be accorded the appropriate reverence and spiritual worship. He is obsessed with the idea…

There’s one truth on Australia: You fight or you die. Usually both. Seventeen-year-old Chan’s ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. They never found one. The only life that Chan’s ever known is one of violence, of fighting. Of trying to survive. But there might be a way to escape. In order to find it, Chan must head way down into the darkness – a place of buried secrets, long-forgotten lies, and the abandoned bodies of the dead. Seventeen-year-old Chan, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, keeps her head down and lives quietly, careful not to draw attention to herself amidst the violence and disorder. Until the day she makes an extraordinary discovery – a way to return the Australia to Earth. But doing so would bring her to the attention of the fanatics and the murderers who control life aboard the ship, putting her and everyone she loves in terrible danger. And a safe return to Earth is by no means certain. Way Down Dark is the new novel from J P Smythe and I’ll begin with a small admission, I’ve never actually read anything by this particular author. I’m always a little…

If I’m not reading genre fiction then I am more than likely watching a genre movie. When this interesting titbit of news popped into my mailbox I felt compelled to share. Ex Machina is a wonderful, transcendent piece of cinema and this book sounds equally wonderful.  Jock’s ‘Ex Machina’ concept work to be released as ‘Ava Evolved’ The creative process behind the break-out science fiction hit movie of 2015, Ex Machina, is to be opened up in a very special book this August. Alex Garland’s directorial debut has confirmed his position as the master of indie SF cinema and artist Jock’s concept work behind the film’s robot AI and the heart of the story, Ava, is being printed for the first time in a unique showcase format. AVA Evolved is a very special limited edition art book, that will feature loose-leafed A3 scale portfolio pieces, collecting Jock’s incredible concept art, detailing the evolution of Ava, from early mood-pieces to detailed key concept art. This stunning sequence of drawings, paintings and collages by the concept artist behind DREDD (2012) provides real insight into the creative process behind one of the most striking SF films of recent years. The book also includes…