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.

Book Review: By Light Alone by Adam Roberts

A century or so from now, the problem of famine has been overcome by a technique that transforms hair into solar energy collectors that works by a kind of photosynthesis, so that nobody need eat food any more. This means that the poor must wear their hair long in order to survive, allowing them to soak up the sunlight, while the rich style their hair short as they can afford to eat food which has now become a luxury.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Reprint Cancelled

A reprint of my story The Accelerati, which first appeared in the print magazine Lore, has been due to appear on line at SciPhi Journal for quite some time, but the magazine has now sadly anounced its closure. It's not the first time this happened, and I suppose it won't be the last either. I still have another 3 stories due to be published this year though.

A Year of Reading

Also as a consequences of barely writing anything this year, I've read far more books than usual - a total of 86.

I've read almost entirely science fiction books for as long as I can remember, but last year I started reading Jeeves and Wooster, which is one of my favoutite TV series, and read 9 of the books this year. I also continued my ongoing quest to read the 'classics' of the genre, with the usual varied results. I also read 8 books by Matthew Hughes, completing almost everything available, along with my last 2 Eric Browns and final 4 Alastair Reynolds to bring me up to date.

My favourite books of the year? In reverse order of reading:

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
Killing is My Business by Adam Christopher
Austral by Paul McAuley
The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

A Year of Reviewing

Partly as a result of my lack of writing this year, I've had much more time to read and to write reviews. I just checked my reviews page on SF Crowsnest and was surprised to discover I've written 27 book reviews this year. That means I probably have more total word count on reviews than on fiction!

A Year of Writing

2017 was not a great year for writing. In fact, my total word count was the lowest since records began; or to be precise, since 2004 when I started writing again after a 12 year break. I wrote 3 flash fiction story, and one story that just crept up into novelette range. I also sold one long novelette and saw 3 stories published this year, in Spanish, Polish and my multi-author collaboration Something On Your Mind? in English.

Maybe I'll make a comeback next year.

Misfit Story Scheduled

My collaborative story Quivira, co-written with Jonathan C. Gillespie, which has been accepted by The Society of Misfit Stories now appears on their updated schedule and is due to appear in August 2018. I'm rather looking forward to it.

Book Review: Artemis by Andy Weir

Unlike half of the world’s population, I haven’t read Andy Weir’s debut novel The Martian, but in common with the other half of the population I did watch the film and rather enjoyed it. Andy Weir returns to the world of populist hard SF with Artemis which takes us this time to the Moon, location of the eponymous lunar city.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.