Bloody January by Alan Parks
Alan Parks , Canongate Books , Crime / December 14, 2017

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn't a random act of violence. With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow's wealthiest family, the Dunlops. McCoy's boss doesn't want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouch...

Walkers in Shadow by Mike Chinn
Horror , Mike Chinn , Pro Se / December 7, 2017

Demons in Manhattan sewers. Enchanted gateways deep within the Bowery. Zombies in Harlem. Old World vampires haunting New Rochelle. Hidden Templar treasures and a hunt for the Grail across the length of a continent. Quasi-immortal Damian Paladin and adventuress Leigh Oswin pit their wits, guns and flying skills against the magical and mundane in 1930s America – and worlds beyond. Sometimes there is nothing better than a bit of good ol...

Plague Land by Alex Scarrow
Alex Scarrow , Horror , Sourcebooks , Young Adult / November 30, 2017

Leon and his younger sister Grace have just moved to London from New York when news of an unidentified plague begins to fill the news. Within a week the virus hits London. People in the streets turn to liquid before their eyes, and what follows is a frantic hunt for a safety which may no longer exist. For the Alex Scarrow fans amongst you, a quick internet search reveals that Plague Land was previously published under the title ReMade. ...

Artemis by Andy Weir
Andy Weir , Del Rey UK , Sci-Fi / November 23, 2017

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down...

Beyond the Empire by K B Wagers
K B Wagers , Orbit , Sci-Fi / November 16, 2017

Please note, Beyond the Empire is the third book in The Indranan War trilogy. If you haven’t read books one and two then read no further. This review will likely contain minor spoiler. I’d suggested picking both books, reading them and and then coming back when you’re ready. It’s ok, I’ll wait. Gunrunner-turned-Empress Hail Bristol was dragged back to her home planet to take her rightful place in the palace. Her sisters and pa...

Jade City by Fonda Lee
Crime , Fantasy , Fonda Lee , Orbit / November 9, 2017

FAMILY IS DUTY. MAGIC IS POWER. HONOR IS EVERYTHING. Magical jade—mined, traded, stolen, and killed for—is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon. For centuries, honorable Green Bone warriors like the Kaul family have used it to enhance their abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion. Now the war is over and a new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon's bustling capital city. They care about nothing but protecting ...

Strange Weather by Joe Hill
Fantasy , Gollancz , Horror , Joe Hill / November 2, 2017

“Snapshot” is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap. A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in “Aloft.”...

Hasty for the Dark by Adam Nevill
Adam Nevill , Horror , Ritual Limited / October 31, 2017

These selected terrors range from the speculative to supernatural horror, encompass the infernal and the occult, and include stories inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Aickman and Ramsey Campbell. Hasty for the Dark is the second short story collection from the award-winning and widely appreciated British writer of horror fiction, Adam L. G. Nevill. The author's best horror stories from 2009 to 2015 are collected here for the first tim...

Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky , Head of Zeus , Sci-Fi / October 26, 2017

Rex is a Good Dog. He loves humans. He hates enemies. He's utterly obedient to Master. He's also seven foot tall at the shoulder, bulletproof, bristling with heavy calibre weaponry and his voice resonates with subsonics especially designed to instil fear. With Dragon, Honey and Bees, he's part of a Multi-form Assault Pack operating in the lawless anarchy of Campeche, Southeastern Mexico. Rex is a genetically engineered bioform, a deadly...

Julian May (1931 – 2017)
Julian May , News / October 20, 2017

Back in 2010 when I decided I would start collecting my thoughts about books I’d read I was being my usual indecisive self. I spent an age umming and ahhing about what my book review website site would look like, what content would the site have, who did I wanted to try and target with my content and what rules would I follow. The only thing that was never in any doubt was what the site would be called. I already had a name, I’d see...

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
Fantasy , Melissa Caruso , Orbit / October 19, 2017

In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled -- taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army. Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire. Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous ...

The Ritual by Adam Nevill
Adam Nevill , Horror , Pan Macmillan / October 12, 2017

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives. Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they...

The Eternity War: Pariah by Jamie Sawyer
Jamie Sawyer , Orbit , Sci-Fi / October 5, 2017

The soldiers of the Simulant Operations Programme are mankind's elite warriors. Veterans of a thousand battles across a hundred worlds, they undertake suicidal missions to protect humanity from the insidious Krell Empire and the mysterious machine race known as the Shard. Lieutenant Keira Jenkins is an experienced simulant operative and leader of the Jackals, a team of raw recruits keen to taste battle. They soon get their chance when t...