Book Review: Flux by Jinwoo Chong

There’s a fascinating juxtaposition of high-tech thriller and noir detective tale in Jinwoo Chong’s debut novel Flux. Three strands of the tale are woven together with references to the hard-boiled 80s detective show Raider, whose iconic storylines are seemingly reflected in the events of the novel’s protagonists Bo, Brandon and Blue.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

This is my 324th review, and my last for the foreseeable future. Suffering from reviewing fatigue, I've decided to take a break.

Book Review: Karma of the Sun by Brandon Ying Kit Boey

When nuclear war destroys most of the planet, the Tibetan plateau is spared, sheltered by surrounding mountain ranges. A century later, it has become a place of superstition and legend, of bandits and warlords and, still eking out a living, poor villagers living their traditional lives.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Neom by Lavie Tidhar

Set in the world of Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station novel, Neom shares the same rich and varied history, multiple cultures, traditions and strange exotic secrets. It also emulates the measured and mesmeric quality of prose that first captures readers with the original Central Station stories that appeared in Interzone magazine.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Redspace Rising by Brian Trent

Redspace Rising is Brian Trent’s action-packed SF thriller brought to us by relative newcomers Flame Tree Press. I was surprised to discover on opening the cover, that this book is the second in the Ten Thousand Thunders series, following on from Brian Trent’s previous novel Ten Thousand Thunders.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Review #320.

Graphic Novel Review: The Circle by Cixin Liu

Adapted into graphic novel format by Xavier Besse, Cixin Liu’s The Circle is unusual among this series of adaptations and, from what I’ve read of his other short stories, in that it is set wholly back in history and does not give the impression of being a Science Fiction story.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: For the Benefit of Mankind

For The Benefit Of Mankind sees the arrival of an alien race in the skies of Earth, whose orbiting ships light up the dark world of professional assassin Smoothbore as he takes on an unusual contract amid an uncertain future.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: The Devourer by Cixin Liu

One of the recurring themes in Cixin Liu’s short stories is the arrival of an enormous alien artefact in the skies of Earth. Whether this is good or bad news depends on the story but, despite the same trope being used several times, I have always been surprised at what happens next in any given story.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: The Butterfly by Cixin Liu

It’s been a year since the first four Cixin Liu graphic novels were released, so the arrival of the next four is very welcome. Adapted and illustrated by Dan Panosian, The Butterfly is based on a story I don’t recall having read before.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Skyward Flight by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson

Skyward Flight is the omnibus edition of three Skyward novellas: Sunreach, ReDawn and Evershore, all of which are related to Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward Trilogy. I didn’t realise this before starting the book but, although these novellas refer back to events in the first trilogy, I was able to follow the story without any problem.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Eversion by Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds was a little-known contemporary of Jonathan Swift and Daniel Dafoe. His only novel of note was the seagoing adventure Eversion, which followed the crew of the sailing ship Demeter as is it searched for a previously unexplored fissure in the fjords of Norway, leading to a hidden lagoon and unknown treasures.

Read the rest of my semi-fictional book review at SF Crowsnest.

Review #312

Book Review: The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang

The Way Spring Arrives And Other Stories is a brand-new collection of stories translated from Chinese, with essays and a couple of stories originally written in English thrown into the mix, offers a much broader spectrum of Chinese speculative fiction than the other translations I’ve read in previous years.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Seven Mercies by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Seven Mercies is the sequel to last year’s Seven Devils and the concluding part of this duology. It continues the action-packed, entertaining, fast-paced story of a group of seven rebels who have now taken on the nickname the Seven Devils, based on the empire’s mythology.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Blindspace by Jeremy Szal

Jeremy Szal’s action-packed debut novel Stormblood exploded onto the scene last year, introducing us to alien-DNA-infected, ex-soldier Vakov Fukasawa. After agreeing once more to work for the interstellar government known as Harmony to track down the drug dealers spreading the same stormtech drug that was used to turn him into a killing machine, Vakov finds himself at the beginning of Blindspace facing a huge and complex conspiracy involving drug cartels, cultists, deep space pirates and smugglers.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Quifan

One of the greatest challenges for a Science Fiction author is to write a story set twenty or so years in the future. It’s not close enough to be indistinguishable from today, it’s not far enough in the future that anything could be possible, but it is close enough that you can soon be proven entirely wrong in your predications.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

The arrival of a new Revelation Space book from Alastair Reynolds is always quite an event and this is no exception.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel review: YuanYuan's Bubbles by Cixin Liu

Of the four graphic novels based on Cixin Liu’s stories that I’ve read so far, YuanYuan’s Bubbles is the first one where I haven’t previously read the original story, so this was a new journey of discovery for me.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: Cixin Liu's The Village Teacher

The cover image for this graphic novel adaptation of Cixin Liu’s story The Village Teacher seems very incongruous. The title brings to mind a quaint little village hall school scene, but the cover features an interstellar battle fleet destroying a planet.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth

As part of the new series of graphic novels adaptations of Cixin Liu’s work, one of his best-known short stories, ‘The Wandering Earth’, has been adapted by Christophe Bec into a fabulous and sumptuous looking work.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: Cixin Liu's Sea of Dreams

Several of Cixin Liu’s novels and two short story collections have been translated into English and I’ve read all of them, as well as having the chance to meet him in person in London when he was over in the UK.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Holdout by Jeffrey Kluger

When an accident triggers an evacuation of the International Space Station, one of the astronauts decides to stay behind. Ignoring protocol and direct orders, Walli Beckwith remains on board and is soon branded a traitor and a pirate. Using her new-found notoriety to shine a spotlight on the wholesale destruction of the Amazon rainforest, her status soon changes to folk-hero.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.