Book Review: Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky

In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs Of War we were introduced to the world of bioforms, bio-enhanced intelligent animals developed to fight and to always obey. Things had changed by the end of that novel and now two of those characters, huge bear Honey and distributed intelligence Bees, are back in Bear Head.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

2020 Authorial Activities

 So what have I been up to this year in terms of writing?

I've had 19 reviews published in SF Crowsnest which as usual, is more than I remember writing. I've only written 2 short stories however.

It's been a good year for publications though: 15 stories published in 7 languages, including 3 new languages: Occitan, Korean and Vietnamese. Another 4 stories have been accepted too, for future publication.

Book Review: London Centric edited by Ian Whates

In this new collection from NewCon Press, editor Ian Whates has drawn together tales of future Londons that range from near-future versions of the city that could be the city as we know it, to far-future glimpses of dazzling architecture and stunning technology.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The A to Z of First Contact

 Five years after I last had a story published there, I've sold my flash fiction story The A to Z of First Contact to Abyss and Apex magazine. The story takes the form of a guidebook for starship captains, another one of my non-standard format stories that I enjoyed devising.

Book Review: The Evidence by Christopher Priest

We return to the enigmatic Dream Archipelago in Christopher Priest’s new novel The Evidence, the location of many of his novels and short stories. It’s a world of hundreds of islands in which strange things tend to happen and where Christopher Priest takes advantage of the temporal and gravitational anomalies to weave wondrous and multi-faceted tales.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Nucleation by Kimberley Unger

An intriguing blend of hard SF, corporate espionage and conspiracy theory, ‘Nucleation’ is a solidly enjoyable novel from Kimberley Unger that picks up several recognisable SF tropes and combines them into a relatable yet refreshing tale.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Expenses Claim for Snowdonia Bigfoot Expedition

My non-prose story Expenses Claim for Snowdonia Bigfoot Expedition is out today in issue #51 of Neon Literary Magazine. 

I'm very excited about this story, inspired as it was by real life. Though not everything in this story obviously actually happened to me. Except for the submitting of an expenses claim, which I have done on numerous occasions.

Three Vietnamese Stories

 Three of my short stories have been published in Vietnamese this week at ZZZ Review, all translated by Do Quyen:

Englebert, which has previously been published in English and Hungarian.

The Gondolier: the 19th language this has been published in and, including the translations posted on this site, its 50th language altogether!

The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat, which has previously been published and podcast in English and also published in Spanish and Estonian.

Vietnamese is my thirtieth published language!

The Good Ship Munders Sets Sail

 The Good Ship Munders, a collaborative story conceived by Alex and hijacked by Haydn and myself, is now out at Aphelion.

Several of my earliest stories were published at Aphelion and it's very nice to be back there.

Book Review: Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu’s second English-language shorty story collection, Hold Up The Sky, comes to us via a selection of various translators, presenting stories from almost two decades of the Chines SF master’s work.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.