Book Review: Strange Music by Alan Dean Foster

A few years back I read the last three books in Alan Dean Foster’s long-running ‘Pip And Flinx’ series, a light-hearted, adventurous series about the empathic Flinx and his pet mini-dragon, Pip. The air of tediousness that enveloped me as I read through them returned to mind when I received this new book which brings the series back to life.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Time Roads by Beth Bernobich

The Irish Empire takes the place of the traditional British Empire in The Time Roads, an alternative history/steampunk tale from Beth Bernobich, set at the turn of the 20th century when European geography and politics are almost familiar yet convincingly different.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Ten Year Semi-Pro Anniversary

It's ten years since I first had a story published in a semi-pro magazine, when I actually had 3 in a row:

• A few Good Men in Australian popular science magazine Cosmos
• Absolute Zero in Greek weekly newspaper comic supplement 9
• Inside Every Successful Man in UK webzine Hub

It was almost 3 years since my first story had been published, but at this point I hadn't started to focus on any particular market. This was a great boost to my writing though.

Collaborative Novelette Sale

I'm very pleased to anounce that my novella Quivira, co-written with Jonathan C. Gillespie, has been accepted for publication by The Society of Misfit Stories, an imprint of Bards & Sages magazine that specialises in long stories that are the wrong length for most magazines.


This is my longest story published to date, at 16,000 words. Jonathan and I wrote alternating sections from two different character's points of view, one in the style of a science ficiton story and one presented as s fantasy story. You'll have to read it to see how that makes any sense.


It's due to be published some time next year.

Book Review: Ghost in the Shell by Andrew Osmond

Probably in common with a lot of the audience who have seen the 2017 live action film Ghost In The Shell starring Scarlett Johansson, I was aware that the story originated as a Japanese anime title, but otherwise I had no idea about its background. In fact, my knowledge of the genre is rather paltry and this became evident as I read through Andrew Osmond’s fascinating history of the film.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Spanish Mole Rats

The Spanish translation of my story The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat is now on line at Argentinian magazine La Idea Fija.

This is my 2nd story in that magazine and my 11th story in Spanish.

Book Review: Austral by Paul McAuley

The partly-thawed Antarctic Peninsula seems like an obvious place to set a novel in a globally-warmed future, but it’s never crossed my mind and I can’t say I’ve come across it in any other book before. Paul McAuley describes a wondrous wilderness of retreating glaciers, hardy frontiersmen, burgeoning greenery and blossoming towns that are working their way inward from the tip of the peninsula. It’s a magnificent setting for a tale of survival, human intrusion into nature and the fight against repeating history’s mistakes.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Provenance by Ann Leckie

After the phenomenal Ancillary trilogy, how could Ann Leckie hope to live up to expectations with Provenance? It’s a tough job but she does it with style, giving us a tale that is related to the other three books and set in the same universe as her Radchaai Empire, but is different enough to stand on its own and exude a distinct charm that does not rely on its predecessors.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Multi-Author Collaborative Story Now On Line

My collaborative story Something On Your Mind?, co-written with 8 other authors, is now on-line at Kaleidotrope. This is my third blind collaboration set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis. I gave the other authors the setting and asked them to write a short scene with their own character but with no idea of the overall plot and I then stitched all the sections together into an whole story.

Book Review: The Corporation Wars: Emergence by Ken MacLeod

The third book. Emergence, in Ken MacLeod’s Corporation Wars trilogy continues straight on from the previous volume Insurgence where, as I explained in my review of that book, I had completely lost track of what was going on. A brief introduction to summarise the story so far or maybe a glossary that I could refer to to remind myself who was who might have been helpful before diving right back in to the plot.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.