Emissary by Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers' Emissary is an odd hybrid of political thriller, murder mystery, and science fiction epic. There are a lot of moving parts with different characters and genres interacting and conflicting. Some elements will be more successful than others depending on the reader. Personally the science fiction concepts and the slow exploration and explanation of...

Morte by Robert Repino

Robert Repino's Morte is a bizarre post-apocalyptic novel, part 1950s Sci-Fi, and part Animal Farm. During the course of the "war with no name" between the humans and the Colony, a race of giant intelligent ants, a chemical is released that mutates animals to human proportions and gives them human intelligence and knowledge. This is...

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts' Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea is, as the title suggests, homage to the world and imagination of Jules Verne. I have a particular fondness for the original Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I've probably read it seven or eight times, to say nothing of the movie. Therefore, I was both intrigued...

Mind The Gap by Tim Richards

Tim Richards' Mind the Gap combines Egyptian mythology, alternate worlds, trains, and the power of dreams into a fast-paced pulp adventure. Darius Ibrahim was minding his own business on the London Underground, when a knife-wielding stranger attacks him. Attempting to escape, Darius is cornered but suddenly finds himself at another train station entirely. It slowly...

The Sunken by S.C. Green

 S.C. Green's The Sunken is a steampunk-infused alternate history novel populated by metal men, dinosaurs, cannibals, dystopia, and a sprinkling of history. It makes for a fun filled romp that mixes and matches history and genre with infectious abandon and gleeful confidence. Set in an 1830s London very different from our own, it follows four young...

The Wanderer in Unknown Realms by John Connolly

John Connolly's The Wanderer in Unknown Realms is a horror and mystery novella set in the Interwar years between World War I and World War II. Soter, a private investigator haunted by the war, becomes embroiled in the search for the missing Lionel Maulding, an eccentric but well loved book collector. As Soter retraces the...

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations – The Collectors by Christopher L. Bennett

As with the Doctor Who novels that I occasionally review, this book requires a preamble, and obvious admission. I am a Trekkie, born and bred, and yes I use the term Trekkie, mostly because I like the sound of the word better. I have seen every episode of Star Trek ever produced at least once,...

Infinite Science Fiction One by Dany G. Zuwen

As with any short story anthology, Infinite Science Fiction One is a solid if variable collection of science fiction stories from around the world. Zuwen has pulled together a number of different authors and ideas of varying lengths and quality. Of the fifteen stories there were five standouts—Tin Soul by Elizabeth Bannon; Slow by Jay...

Willful Child by Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson's Willful Child wears its influences boldly on its sleeve. Captain Hadrian Sawback is the youngest captain in the fleet. He solved the nearly insolvable Mishmash Paradox by cheating, and the Admiralty is determined to prove it. In the meantime Captain Sawback has command of the ASF Willful Child on its maiden voyage. Hotheaded...

Quozl by Alan Dean Foster: Book Review

First published in 1989 and recently released in a new edition, Alan Dean Foster's Quozl is the comic tale of a race of extraterrestrial rabbits who intend to colonize the third planet from the sun, only to discover it is already occupied, by humans. Foster spends a good portion of the novel developing the Quozl...