Book Review: A Candle for Malka by Louise Carey

I enjoyed Louise Carey’s debut solo novel Inscape a year or two back, a sparkling mix of cyberpunk, espionage and post-apocalyptic social stratification. This new novella, A Candle for Malka is more of a hard-SF, near-space corporate saga which I imagined from reading the blurb was going to have an Alien vibe. I was intrigued to see whether the brightness and freshness of Inscape would be reflected in this book.

Read the rest of my review in ParSec issue #6.

Book Review: The Extractionist by Kimberley Unger

Eliza McKay is an extractionist, someone who specialises in extracting personas from virtual reality and reuniting them with their bodies. Equipped with augmentations that allow her to work in virtual reality and write code intuitively, she would be in high demand if it weren’t for a problem in the past that put her the government’s blacklist.

Read the rest of my review in issue #5 of ParSec magazine.

Book Review: The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I finally got round to reading The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G.Wells just over a year ago, one and a quarter centuries after it was first published (though it should be noted that I was not actually alive for much of this time), so that the book was still fresh in my mind when I received a copy of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new re-imagining of the tale, The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.

Read the rest of my review in issue #4 of ParSec magazine.

Book Review: The Unfamiliar Garden by Benjamin Percy

In his fast-paced novel The Ninth Metal, Benjamin Percy introduced us to a future where a comet that passed close to the Earth left a trail of countless meteorites that rained down strange and exotic substances on the planet. Mentioned in the background of that novel are various bizarre things that have happened around the globe since then. The Unfamiliar Garden introduces us to a new set of characters who are dealing with some of these odd happenings.

Read the rest of my review in issue #3 of ParSec magazine.

Delightful Review

 SF Revu has the first review I've seen of ParSec #2 and calls my story Five Ways to Accidentally Save the Earth from Alien Conquest 'Hilarious and a delight.' 

Which is delightful.

Book Review: Wergen: The Alien Love War

 I have previously read most of Mercurio D. Rivera's Wergen stories as they appeared in various magazines and anthologies, and I enjoyed them all immensely.

Read the rest of my review in issue #2 of ParSec magazine.

Book Review: Tomorrow by Chris Beckett

Chris Beckett has his usual effect on me with his new novel Tomorrow in that, as soon as I start reading it, I fall into a trance-like state of comfortableness.

Read the rest of my review in issue #2 of ParSec magazine.

Five Ways to Accidentally Save the Earth from Alien Conquest

 In keeping with my tradition of unfeasibly long titles, my latest story is called Five Ways to Accidentally Save the Earth from Alien Conquest. It's out now in issue #2 of ParSec magazine.

Book Review: A Strange and Brilliant Light by Eli Lee

In a fictional country that sounds like it could be on the edge of Europe, in a future time that sounds like it could be just beyond our own, artificially intelligent machines are beginning to emerge.

Read the rest of my review in issue #1 of ParSec magazine.

Book Review: The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy

When a comet passes relatively close to the Earth, it's not planetary destruction everyone has to worry about in The Ninth Metal, but countless meteorites that rain down strange and exotic substances on the planet.

Read the rest of my review in issue #1 of ParSec magazine.

New Reviewing Venue

 For the past several years all of my book and magazine reviews have appeared at SF Crowsnest, but before that my reviews appeared in several other places.

New genre magazine ParsSec, which will include one of stories in issue #2, will also include book reviews and I've been invited to join the reviewing team. So you'll now see my reviews appearing in two places.

Five Ways to Accidentally Save the Earth from Alien Conquest

 The brand new magazine ParSec has been launched by PS Publishing, edited by Ian Whates, and the first two issues have a fabulous line-up of authors, including me. My short story Five Ways to Accidentally Save the Earth from Alien Conquest will be appearing in issue #2 in November.

This won't be my only involvement with ParSec. Further news to be announced...