Book Review: War of the Maps by Paul McAuley

There’s a real sense of wonder right from the beginning of Paul McAuley’s new novel War Of The Maps. Set in the far, far future among an ancient, worn-out civilisation on an artificially created world, it seemed first of all medieval, then maybe Wild West or possibly a little bit steampunk.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Good Ship Munders

The space opera novelette The Good Ship Munders that I co-wrote with Alex and Haydn has been accepted by Aphelion, the home of several of my earliest stories. It won't be appearing there till the end of the year, but I'm looking forward to this fun story seeing the light of day.

Book Review: Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling

Translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle, Qualityland is Marc-Uwe Kling’s satirical novel of a future where everything is controlled by algorithms. Set in a European country now known as Qualityland, it’s like living inside Google: adverts, deliveries, partners, jobs and every other aspect of each person’s life is assessed, rated, personalised and provided by all-knowing computer algorithms.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Accountability Accepted

My short story Accountability - a kind of literary / science fiction / urban fantasy tale - has been accepted by Hybrid Fiction and is scheduled to be published in April.


This story started out as an attempt to write something Claire-Northesque after reading Claire North's astounding novels The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 84K, Touch and The Sudden Appearance of Hope.

Book Review: The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham

When I decided to jot down my initial impressions of John Birmingham’s ‘The Cruel Stars’, I was surprised to find myself half-way through the 480 page book already. This was not because I had been reading particularly fast but because I didn’t feel like much had yet happened.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Observed Again

Following on from the wonderfully-read versions of Escapades in Time and The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat, I'm thrilled that Observers is also to receive the Podcast treatment at Tall Tale TV.

Observers was first published at Emerging Worlds and has appeared in Galician at Nova Fantasia. This new audio version will be available in June.

Three Occitan Tales

Rather excitingly, three of my stories have been accepted for publication by Diu Negre, a website of science fiction, fantasy and horror in  Occitan.




The three stories to be translated are The Gondolier, Englebert and The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat.




Occitan will be my 28th published language.


The Gondolier, being the shortest, is up first and you can read it here.

Neon Yeti

Long-running UK literary magazine Neon has accepted my non-prose story Expenses Claim for Snowdonia Bigfoot Expedition. I'm really excited to see how this will look in print as it's a decidedly unusual format.

Galician Observers

My short story Observers, recently published in Emerging Worlds, has been accepted by Galician webzine Nova Fantasia - my fourth story in Galician. They work pretty quickly at Nova Fantasia, so you can read it here already!

Magazines Review: Visions #2: Visions of Humanity

The second issue of Visions magazine landed on the doormat with a solid thud: a chunky, serious-looking magazine of 256 pages in red, black and white with monochrome illustrations, innovative fonts and unconventional layout. I had been very impressed with the first single-themed issue when it came out earlier in the year, so I was intrigued to see what this second volume would bring under the title Visions Of Humanity.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.