The Hatching Ezekiel Boone Gollancz, 303 pages Review: Henry Northmore There’s a rich tradition of ‘when animals attack’ stories in horror and sci-fi. We’ve been besieged by insects, rats, dogs, sharks, crabs, you name it. From classy classics such as Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds to the splatter fiction of Shaun Hutson’s Slugs, if it
Savant Nik Abnett Rebellion / Solaris, 356 pages Review: Steve Ironside Savant is set in a College – a place where the Masters (helped by their Companions and Assistants) teach their Students, while the ever-watching Service manages the schedules of them all, minute-by-minute and day-by-day. This regimen isn’t just about teaching however; there’s a deeper
The Augur’s Gambit / The King’s Justice Stephen Donaldson Gollancz, 192 / 128 pages Review: Chris Heyman To describe a creative project as a palette cleanser would seem to disparage it but there is no more fitting term for The Augur’s Gambit and The King’s Justice, shipped as one volume in America but released in
Thirty Years of Rain Neil Williamson, Elaine Gallagher, Cameron Johnston (editors) Lulu Press, 248 pages Review: Chris Kelso There’s an old saying that suggests us Scots have more words for rain than an Eskimo does for snow. Despite our majority’s staunchly socialist attitudes and trademark pragmatism, for some reason, Scotland has proved fertile ground for
The Grace of Kings Ken Liu Head of Zeus, 640 pages Review: Eris Young I picked up The Grace of Kings originally because I was enticed by the idea of an epic high-fantasy story not set in a thinly-veiled version of western Europe. The setting of The Grace of Kings is a refreshing blend of ancient China
Empire Games Charles Stross Tor, 316 pages Review: Noel Chidwick Empire Games continues The Merchant Princes series, which we left in 2010 with The Trade of Queens. The Merchant Princes is an alternative Earth saga, featuring the Clan, who world-walk between their own timeline still stuck in the Middle Ages and ‘our’ timeline. They trade
Pirate Utopia Bruce Sterling Tachyon, 192 pages Review: Ian Hunter “Strange days indeed” as John Lennon once sang, and Pirate Utopia seems to be the perfect political satire novel to have come out in 2016 given the events of Brexit and the election success of Donald Trump, though as a novel Pirate Utopia is far
The Wall of Storms: The Dandelion Dynasty Book 2 Ken Liu Head of Zeus, 880 pages Review: Iain Maloney The Wall of Storms is the second book in Ken Liu’s The Dandelion Dynasty series and can be described as ‘epic’ without fear of hyperbole. Clocking in at 880 pages and 1.2kg in hardback it is
Revenger Alastair Reynolds Hachette, 411 Pages Review: Benjamin Thomas Pirating on the high seas: Except here the seas are leagues of space and these ships are crewed by integrators, bauble experts, and bone readers. Welcome to Alastair Reynold’s Revenger, a thrilling deep-space ride that follows two sisters, Adrana and Arafura Ness, as they sign up
The Dancer Rab Ferguson Unsung Shorts, 22 pages The Speckled God Marc Joan Unsung Shorts, 38 pages Review: Iain Maloney Online Exclusive Here at Shoreline of Infinity, the fastest way to get a story rejected – after bad writing – is for the science fiction ‘elements’ to be added on like accessories. For it to