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{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->AllTomorrowsFutureCover<!-- Jason Boggs -->|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|-author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"5|genre=Science Fiction[[image:154564134X.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazon.co''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.uk/dp/154564134X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

Following the destruction of the Earth, amongst a rare number of survivors, Kyr has been raised on Gaea Station – the home of the last scraps of humanity – and trained relentlessly to avenge her people and the world that should have been hers. All her life, she has been conditioned to fall in line, to fulfil her duty and ensure that humanity perseveres.| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0356521834}}{{Frontpage|author=M R Carey|title=Infinity Gate|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=[[The DragonI'm annoyingly picky when it comes to science fiction. Not because it's a genre I dislike – nothing of the sort. My standards are high precisely because it's a hard genre to get right – and when it's bad, it's Harvest by Jason F Boggs]]often terrible. But the premise of Infinity Gate had me hooked. A concept this intriguing felt like a high-stakes gamble: if it was done well, it'd be fantastic. So this is where I sum up that premise.|isbn=0356518043}}{{Frontpage|author= Michael Grothaus|title=Beautiful Shining People|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''But fearing something and having it come to pass are two different things. And I'm willing to bet most of what we fear will never happen, or we can take steps to change it.''

[[image:4star''Beautiful Shining People'' revolves around the question of identity and acceptance.jpgOf what it means to be human. Of what is real and what is artificial, and whether the development of technology is exciting or frightening.|linkisbn=Category:{191458564X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739593901|title=22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:=5|genre=Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''

Young Nelson Jones I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{Frontpage|author=Mark Lingane|title=Galaxy|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Spark, who is an elite pilot with the Space Academy, barely makes it through a battle alive. His co-pilot was not so fortunate. Waking from a young coma that lasted years, he remembers little and gifted military cadet is in no physical shape to resume his duties. But Earth is under threat and he must. Returned by his superiors to the space station, he finds himself amid a last ditch attempt to save humanity - and not just from the alien threats against it, but also from its own sins against itself. |isbn=B09X3NZ76W}}{{Frontpage|author=Tade Thompson|title=Far From the Light of Heaven|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Michelle 'Shell' Campion is fulfilling her lifelong dream of going to space. As first officer aboard the sleeper ship Ragtime, bound for the fascist new world order called of Bloodroot, she will essentially be a babysitter for the ship's AI captain. However, when she wakes up at the end of her trip to find dozens of her passengers butchered and the Ragtime'New Eras AI almost non-responsive, she begins to realise that her first mission won't be going as smoothly as she hoped it would. As Down on Bloodroot, disgraced investigator Rasheed Fin and his experiences led him android partner Salvo are sent up to discover exactly what went wrong on the Ragtime. Meanwhile, former astronaut and friend of Shell's father Lawrence Biz takes a path shuttle to Bloodroot, half-alien daughter in tow, to see why the Ragtime has gone quiet, leaving behind the politicking and bureaucracy of conflict Space Station Lagos. What the five of them discover on the Ragtime has ramifications not just for Bloodroot, but potentially the entirety of human space…|isbn=0356514323}}{{Frontpage|author=Claire North|title=Notes from the Burning Age|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary=At its core ''Notes From the Burning Age'' by Claire North is a spy thriller, with as many double crosses, interrogations and night time escapes as Le Carre or Fleming. However, as with the best novels, it wears many masks and its most affecting one is that of a new and timely genre, cli-fi, or climate change fiction. North's novel tells of a world devastated by climate change where humans have been forced to start anew and live alongside nature without any of the modern and corrupting "luxuries" (read: fossil fuels, weapons of mass destruction, intensive farming). There is a growing unhappiness with this limiting world, and selfone group, the Brotherhood, aims to master these processes no matter the cost to the Earth.|isbn=0356514757}}{{Frontpage|author= Adrian Tchaikovsky|title= Shards of Earth|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed, warped into an unrecognisable shape by the moon-discoverysized aliens known as the Architects. Humanity is scattered, constantly fleeing as world after world falls to the architect's reshaping. Then, just when they had the human race on the run, the Architects vanished. And so, the memories of the war fades, heroes are forgotten, and humanity begins to fracture and fight among themselves. Idris Telemmier, a man genetically engineered to try and communicate with the Architects, does not want to be remembered. But, when he and the crew of the salvage ship he calls home discover what appears to be recent Architect activity, suddenly he is thrust back into the spotlight. As he and his allies bounce from star system to star system, chased by alien crime syndicates, human secret police and rich slavers, he became slowly begins to realise that the real war is only just getting started…|isbn=1529051886}}{{Frontpage|author=Terry Miles|title=Rabbits|rating=4.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a changed manslangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. Picking up 20 months after K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the events lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it'The Devils ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's Dragoneven being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...|isbn=1529016932}}{{Frontpage|author=C J Carey|title=Widowland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Nathan Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on an expedition down to uncover the mystery childless, the husbandless and the widows. Female literacy is actively discouraged. And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the sungatesparty line before they're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|isbn=152941198X}}{{Frontpage|author=Everina Maxwell|title=Winter's Orbit|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= Prince Kiem is a famous political disappointment. He's outgoing, carefree, and has gotten into many drunken scandals over the past few years. So when a terrible secret leads an important political alliance is to be arranged – one that is supposed to prevent an interplanetary war – no one expects him to horrifying discoveries be chosen for the role. Least of all involvedhim.|isbn=0356515885}}{{Frontpage|author=Rob Winters|title=His Name Was Wren|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In September 1944 something came down in Oban Woods, near the village of Hurstwick. MeanwhileIt came down hard, taking the spire of the village church with it, destroying a stone shack, and leaving a wide trail through the humans wood, but no trace of what it actually was. German secret weapon was the local gossip, but there should have been an explosion and a crater, and there were neither of those things.|isbn=B08KGVNVNB}}{{Frontpage|author=Mark Lingane|title=Note to Self: An Education|rating=4|genre=Science Fiction|summary= In Kry's world, the Aesini fight for discovery that human cells replace themselves every seven years results in a cascade of medical "advances": in 2030 it's found that radiation can return cells back to their very existenceregeneration state seven years before, as Nelsonin 2035 it's nemesispossible to cure cancerous tumours but with the side effect of erasing seven years of memory, by 2045 the cosmetics industry is using the same technique to "de-age" their customers by seven years. In a society obsessed with image and youth, who needs memories?|isbn=B08LY8J4KS}} {{Frontpage|author= Christopher Paolini|title= To Sleep in a Sea of Stars|rating= 5|genre= Science Fiction|summary= On the moon of a distant gas giant, Major Ira BillisXenobiologist Kira Navárez is helping with the efforts to make the planet habitable to human life. However, a discovery of an ancient alien bunker under the moon's surface leaves her bonded with a strange alien entity. After the entity bonded to her loses control and kills half the staff of the research station, the United Military Command cruiser Extenuating Circumstances arrives in the system to take Kira in for examination. Things go from bad to worse when the Extenuating Circumstances is attacked and destroyed by an alien ship, and she has to flee to the 61 Cygnus star system. She is revived aboard the freighter Wallfish, crewed by Captain Falconi and a rag-tag bunch of misfits, and the news is grim. The same aliens that destroyed the Extenuating Circumstances are now wreaking havoc across all of human-occupied space, and only a mythical weapon known as the Staff of Blue can stop them. As the death toll climbs and more players are introduced into this war, Kira slowly begins to realise that she may have had a greater hand in the conflict than she could've possibly imagined…|isbn=1529046505}}{{Frontpage|author= Laura Lam and Elizabeth May|title= Seven Devils|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Eris is one of the foremost operatives of the Novantae, finds a terrifying new ally resistance movement fighting against the ruthlessly expansionist Tholosian Empire – an Empire she was destined to inherit in her past life as Princess Discordia, whom everyone believed has been dead for years. Clo, an ace pilot for the Novantae, has a mission: hijack a quest Tholosian spacecraft to gather information vital to restore the New Era war effort. Although she's less than pleased to glorydiscover that her former friend Eris is her partner on this mission. As Nelson Things get more interesting as the mission commences; aboard the ship are three defectors with a secret that could potentially cripple the Empire. Eris's brother Damocles, the runner-up heir to the Empire, is plotting to disrupt peace talks between Tholos and his friends the last of the free alien species. It's a race against time as the clock rebels move to put a stop Damocles' plans, with millions of lives hanging in order the balance…|isbn=1473231140}}{{Frontpage|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)|title=A Life Without End|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I looked at the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have a birthday this year – I know, yet another one. It won't be one of the major numbers, but the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizon. And then a few of the big 0-numbers, and if all goes well, I'll be an OBE. (Which of course stands for Over Bloody Eighty.) Now if that's the extent of my mid-life crisis, I guess I have to defeat this new threatbe happy. Our author here doesn't use that exact phrase, but he might be said to be living one. Determined to find out how to prolong life for as long as he wants – he would like to see 400 – he hops right into bed with the assistant to the first geneticist he interviews, and they find themselves facing end up with a child, which is at least a way of continuing the life of his genes, and a power beyond imagination… [[The Dragonmotive to keep on going. But how can he get to not flick the 'final way out's Harvest by Jason F Boggsswitch, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?|Full Review]]isbn=1642860670}}

<!-- Anders -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653199.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653199/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlight, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle is a brief twilight that is barely survivable. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side you die, to close to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for life. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, will anything ever change? [[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders|Full Review]] <!-- Hamilton -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1447281322.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1447281322/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Salvation by Peter F Hamilton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Apparently the term ''space opera'' was coined in 1941 as a pejorative. It was borrowed not from the high-brow musical art form, but from the common or garden 'soap opera'. It related to a particular kind of science fiction which the coiner (one Wilson Tucker) described as a ''hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn". It would be fifty years later before the term started to be re-appropriated to cover – if still the same themes of distant futures, military conflict, heroism and a simplistic set of values – more literary, more expansive works. The term is now taken as compliment. [[Salvation by Peter F Hamilton|Full Review]] <!-- Chadwick -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:0349700249.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349700249/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[XX by Angela Chadwick]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT Fiction|LGBT Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Angela Chadwick's debut novel explores the possibility of two women being able to produce a baby girl through a process called Ovum-to-Ovum fertilisation. It centres around Rosie and Jules who take part in the first ever clinical trial that would allow them to have a child of their own without the need for a sperm donor or any other male intervention. What follows is a story that shows the harshness and at times disgraceful behaviour of the media, and the general public, when faced with a controversial technique that could lead to the demise of men. [[XX by Angela Chadwick|Full Review]] <!-- Thompson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0356511367.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356511367/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Rosewater by Tade Thompson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Rosewater is a town Move on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless - people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumoured healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again - but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realisation about a horrifying future. [[Rosewater by Tade Thompson|Full Review]] <!-- Rajaniemi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473203287.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473203287/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Imagine a world in which death was no longer something to fear but something to aspire to. After discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, the Big Smoke for the recently deceased. In 1938 the British Empire is caught up in a race against Soviet spies and dealing with a mole buried deep in the heart of Summerland. When Rachel White, an ambitious SIS agent, becomes suspicious about the potential rogue agent, she must decide how far she is willing to go and how much she is willing to risk to uncover the truth. [[Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi|Full Review]] <!-- Setchfield -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785657097.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785657097/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Europe – 1963. The world is used to the constant tensions between the West and Russia, with the Cold War a seemingly never ending threat in the lives of everyday people. What they don't know however, is that the real cold war is fought on the borders of this world, far from prying eyes at the edges of the light. British Intelligence agent Christopher Winter is forced to flee London when an assassination attempt goes horribly wrong, and is forced into a tense, unwelcome alliance with the lethal Karina Lazarova. As the threats rise, Christopher finds himself caught in a quest for centuries old hidden knowledge – an occult secret that will give instant supremacy to whichever nation possesses it. Racing against the enemy, Christopher is taken from ruins in Bavaria through to the haunted Hungarian border, all in search of something unholy – born of the power of white fire and black glass. It's a world of treachery, blood and magic. A world at war in the dark. [[The War in the Dark by Nick Setchfield|Full Review]] <!-- Dixen -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471406849.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471406849/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ascension by Victor Dixen]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Six girls, six boys. Each in the two separate bays of a single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choices, under the unblinking eye of the on-board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programme, the world's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars. Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, is one of the chosen ones. She has signed up for glory. She has signed up for love. She has signed up for a one-way ticket. Even if the dream turns to a nightmare, it is too late for regrets. [[Ascension by Victor Dixen|Full Review]] <!-- Ruocchio-->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0756413001.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0756413001/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Hadrian Marlowe sits in the distant future writing the true account of his life to add context to a tale everyone in the Empire knows already. ''Empire of Silence'' is a hero's quest but it is made clear from the start that it will not end that way. We are millennia in the future, Earth has been lost and great houses rule portions of a vast empire. Hadrian Marlowe is set to inherit one of the great houses but following some terrible news he decides upon a new path instead. [[Empire of Silence (Sun Eater) by Christopher Ruocchio|Full Review]]  <!-- Reynolds -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Reynolds_Fire.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575090588/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] What happens when Utopia is achieved? When everyone is linked neurologically to everyone else and people vote on each minor decision so every aspect of life is truly democratic? Everyone knows everything and everyone decides everything so what can possibly go wrong? Except people are dying, melting to be precise, and no one knows how, or why, or who could be next. In such a circumstance who can be trusted to solve this crime and do so without spreading panic? What if the only people who can be trusted have already let you down once before? [[Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds|Full Review]] <!-- Quine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Quine Beasts.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0992754941/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Meet Jaymi. He's a world-class video games designer, and fresh to a new mansion in the Hollywood Hills on the basis of some recent success. But he's seen the future and he doesn't like it. His current employers, able to bring any amount of class, skill and culture to the world of gameplay, are beset on appealing to the most lunkheaded and lowest common denominators instead. Indeed, their next big thing will change the world for the worse – it will be a massively disturbing environment, where people progress through the world of the entity by spreading fake news about anyone and everyone else on the planet, whether they're playing along or not, and by getting kind of prestige points on spoiling and shaming anything beyond a user-accepted, algorithm-designed, status quo. With a much more Reithian approach, Jaymi goes freelance, and sets up a way of restoring the balance with a launch of his own, where aspects of his more humanitarian mind are played out by avatars of him in the game. He sees this as a way to improve society and get his own back – but the chance of getting revenge more quickly comes about when those avatars leave their encoded background, and become fully playable characters in reality… [[The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine|Full Review]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Doescher_Will.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/159474985X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=159474985X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a man called William Shakespeare, who was able to create a series of dramatic histories full of machinations most foul, rulers most evil and rebellious heroes and heroines most sturdy. You may or may not have noticed the cinematic version of his original stage play for ''The Force Doth Awaken'', but here at last we get the actual script, complete with annoying-in-different-ways-to-before droids anew, returning heroes from elsewhere in his oeuvre, and people keeping it in the family til it hurts. And if you need further encouragement, don't forget his audience only demanded three parts of Henry VI – here the series is so popular we're on to part seven – surely making this over twice as good… [[William Shakespeare's the Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Brookmyre -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Brookmyre_Places.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/035650624X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=035650624X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Living in 2017 has me longing to live in some sort of futuristic Utopia, in a world of free thinking and no major crime. Perhaps in a Space Station high above the Earth were the greatest minds have travelled so that they can build a vessel that will send the next generations of humans to populate new planets. You know that as soon as you arrive it will be the same old problems. You can't really have a Utopia with people in it, can you? [[Places in the Darkness by Chris Brookmyre|Full Review]] <!-- Curtis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0995465754?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0995465754]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue. It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]] <!-- Dick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dick_Electric.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473223288?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473223288]] ===[[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick]]===  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|[[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Newest Short Stories]] Philip K Dick's stories were originally published in the 50s, but they are more present than past. On the big screen ''Blade Runner 2049'' relaunched the Dick-inspired cult classic to reviews of pure praise; and on slightly smaller screens, Channel 4 has adapted the author's short stories for TV. Startlingly, Dick's current relevance reaches beyond fiction and into the factual: his topics from intrusive advertising and loss of privacy to the increasing machination of society are all headline material in today's news. It is as if half a century after their inception, Dick's electric dreams are becoming reality. [[Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick|Full Review]] <!-- Goss -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Goss_600.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785942719?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785942719]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Story Reviews]] [[:Category:Children's Rhymes and Verse|Children's Rhymes and Verse]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] Consider the Doctor. Just how many birthday and Christmas gifts must he have to hand out each year, were he to keep in touch with even half of his companions? He would certainly need a few novelty gifts for some of them, say, for example, whimsical books of verse that pithily encapsulate the life of a Time Lord and that of some of his friends and enemies. As luck would have it, he has the space in his TARDIS to stock up in advance, so my advice to him – sorry, her – would be to pop along to his local Earth-based book emporium and get himself ready. And if you're working on a shorter timescale, with a shorter lifespan, and thinking perhaps just one gift season ahead, well my advice is pretty much the same. [[Doctor Who: Now We Are Six Hundred: A Collection of Time Lord Verse (Dr Who) by James Goss and Russell T Davies|Full Review]] <!-- Mann -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Mann_Ghosts.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783294183/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ghosts of Empire by George Mann]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Taking on a band of undead Mummies will take it out of the best of us and a holiday may be needed. If you are from New York there are not many other cities worldwide that could impress you, but London is one of them. Surely, a nice visit to England, far from the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, will help you to relax. It is not as if Russian Tsarists are on the loose with magical powers or the events are conspiring to raise the sleeping power of Albion from its slumber. Is it? [[Ghosts of Empire by George Mann|Full Review]] <!-- Weir -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Weir_Artemis.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0091956943/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Artemis by Andy Weir]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Welcome to Artemis, the first city on the moon. A powerhouse for the rich and a once in a lifetime trip for earth tourists, and also a place a small community of citizens call home. Jazz Bashara is one such citizen. She came to Artemis with her father aged six, it's the only place she's ever known but she wouldn't say she's flourishing. In fact, the phrase most often used to describe Jazz is a waste of talent. Jazz lives in the low end of town, sleeping on a bunk, using a shared bathroom, which is all she can afford through her job as a porter. However, Jazz dreams above all else of being rich and to this end, she has set up a side business of illegal smuggling activity. When one of Jazz's regular clients wants her to step up from petty criminal to major criminal for a handsome reward, it is just too tempting to refuse. What Jazz doesn't know is all the facts behind what she is being asked to do. [[Artemis by Andy Weir|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |}