Latest: Reviews

Game of Thrones comes to Sky Atlantic

Game of Thrones comes to Sky Atlantic

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! George R R Martin’s epic Game of Thrones finally airs here in the UK on Monday, broadcast on Sky Atlantic. And chronicles was given the chance to take a sneak peek at the the first two episodes before they [...]

April 16, 2011 | 0 Comments More
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi

The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi

The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi Gollancz, 448pp, £12.99 The science fiction debut of 2010 was apparently Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief. Almost a year before it appeared, it was being said Gollancz had bought it based solely on a synopsis and a single chapter. Rajaniemi’s few prior fiction sales had garnered much praise – three [...]

April 13, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Music for Another World, edited by Mark Harding

Music for Another World, edited by Mark Harding

Music for Another World, edited by Mark Harding Mutation Press, 270pp, £8.99 Prominent on the cover of this first anthology from Mark Harding’s Mutation Press is the description “Strange Fiction”. I am not, I must admit, especially fond of that label. It seems too nebulous. Science fiction and fantasy, as labels, have their grey areas [...]

January 21, 2011 | 3 Comments More
Review: Keith Brooke, The Unlikely World Of Faraway Frankie

Review: Keith Brooke, The Unlikely World Of Faraway Frankie

In his four excellent novels as Nick Gifford, Keith Brooke explored worlds of the young adult where things go wrong – often seriously wrong. Filled with images of macabre seasides, factory farming, terrible schools, haunted houses and much, much more, the books were marvellous entertainment, often moving and sometimes hard hitting. In this new book, [...]

November 15, 2010 | 0 Comments More
Review: The Karate Kid (2010)

Review: The Karate Kid (2010)

The rush to remake the 1980′s should be sign to lock yourself away from the world until it blows over. And the expectation is that the Karate Kid remake should be top of the list of cheesy cash-ins. Surprisingly, it defies all cynicism, presenting a fresh, invigorating, and highly enjoyable film. The plot is more [...]

November 10, 2010 | 0 Comments More
Terminal World, Alastair Reynolds

Terminal World, Alastair Reynolds

Terminal World, Alastair Reynolds Gollancz, 496pp, £18.99 There’s a pun in the title of million-Pound author Alastair Reynold’s latest novel. It’s not an especially good pun but, sadly, it’s somewhat characteristic of the book. Which is not say that Terminal World is a bad novel. If it disappoints, it does so in comparison to Reynold’s [...]

October 24, 2010 | 3 Comments More
Review: The Road To Bedlam by Mike Shevdon

Review: The Road To Bedlam by Mike Shevdon

Readable, original, recommended.

October 15, 2010 | 0 Comments More
The Restoration Game, Ken MacLeod

The Restoration Game, Ken MacLeod

The Restoration Game, Ken MacLeod Orbit, 303pp, £18.99 Where does the end of a story belong? At the start of a book or, well… does it belong at the end? If the narrative is the journey to that end, should the story open with the destination? Isn’t the thrill of exploring new places one of [...]

August 22, 2010 | 0 Comments More
Veteran, Gavin G Smith

Veteran, Gavin G Smith

Veteran, Gavin G Smith Gollancz, 391pp, £12.99 pbk I like Richard Morgan’s novels, and the cover of Gavin G Smith’s debut novel Veteran claims it is a debut on a par with Morgan’s. We all take such marketing with a pinch of salt but, conversely, without such comparisons readers might never find new books they [...]

August 6, 2010 | 1 Comment More
The City and the City, China Miéville

The City and the City, China Miéville

The City and the City, China Miéville Pan, 373pp, £7.99 pbk Ever since the publication of Perdido Street Station ten years ago, China Miéville has been a darling of the UK genre literati. This is not entirely surprising – he’s intellectual yet commercial, a vocal Trotskyist but his books are not especially political, and a [...]

June 18, 2010 | 2 Comments More
City of Dreams and Nightmare, Ian Whates

City of Dreams and Nightmare, Ian Whates

City of Dreams and Nightmare, Ian Whates Angry Robot, 427pp, £7.99 pbk On the back cover of Ian Whates’ debut novel, City of Dreams and Nightmare, it says “FILE UNDER FANTASY”, but I’m not convinced. City of Dreams and Nightmare is certainly genre fiction, but its best fit would be science fiction. Yes, there are [...]

May 25, 2010 | 0 Comments More
Liz Jensen: The Rapture

Liz Jensen: The Rapture

The Rapture, Liz Jensen Bloomsbury, 341pp, £7.99 pbk Gabrielle Fox is a therapist, assigned temporarily to Oxbridge Adolescent Secure Psychiatric Hospital. She is also a T9 paraplegic – in her own words, “nothing works below the waist” – after a car accident two years earlier. Her chief patient at Oxbridge is Bethany Krall, a teenage [...]

May 13, 2010 | 1 Comment More
Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

I picked up The Graveyard Book with a sense of trepidation. I was originally a reader of The Sandman comic series, starting at Issue #8. I also enjoyed his graphic novel work. However, I stopped my subscription to The Sandman two story arcs from the end because I felt characters no longer served as characters, [...]

January 3, 2009 | 0 Comments More