Book Review: The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson

The idea behind dating apps meshes with social media to create compatible social groupings known as Affinities in Robert Charles Wilson’s near-future novel that initially seems to be heading towards a utopian tale of co-operation and acceptance, but soon turns into a wonderfully complex tale of social revolution.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Putting the Science in Fiction Official Anouncement

Putting the Science in Fiction has been officially announced by Writers Digest. The book is due out in the autumn and includes a chapter by me on waste management in science fiction.

Official Sleep

Another day, another story for my eldest son Alex: Official Sleep is now online at 365 Tomorrows.

Book Review: Origamy by Rachel Armstrong

The art of origamy (sic) weaves space and time, alternative universes and parallel histories in a mind-bending and befuddling fashion that allows the origamy circus-troop family of Mobius to see and experience any point in space and time.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

That Thing Lurking Over There

My eldest son Alex has had his third story published, this time at Aphelion where several of my stories were published a few years back. This one is entitled That Thing Lurking Over There.

Book Review: Planefall by Emma Newman

In a small colony settlement on a far planet, the appearance of a stranger from outside brings change to the community and unpleasant echoes of the past in Emma Newman’s haunting interstellar tale Planetfall. It’s a psychological drama with convincingly complex characters and a multi-layered plot that wraps interplanetary colonisation around faith, biology and betrayal.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Long Afternoon of Sir Rupert Moncrief

My chronologically confused steampunk story The Long Afternoon of Sir Rupert Moncrief is on line today at Gallery of Curiosities. It's read out in a fabulous Scottish voice and sounds wonderful.

Book Review: The Smoke by Simon Ings

Simon Ings brings us an alternative Earth in his latest book The Smoke, where history has diverged at some point from what we know to produce something far more bizarre than usually encountered in alternative histories.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Something Coming Through by Paul McAuley

When the alien Jackaroo come to Earth, they claim to be concerned only with the welfare of mankind. They provide access to fifteen extra-solar planets for mankind to colonise and from these worlds come a steady stream of alien artefacts from the lost Elder Cultures, artefacts that are little understood but that affect people in many strange ways.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds

I have found all of Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space books and short stories to be wonderfully atmospheric and perpetually gripping and, out of all of them, the standalone novel The Prefect, featuring Prefect Tom Dreyfus, was my favourite.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.