Sci-Fi
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Periodically, I make an effort to diversify my fiction reading. It’s easy to slip into just reading authors I know, especially those that are quite prolific. My fiction reading has been dominated by John Le Carré, Mick Herron and Adrian Tchaikovsky lately, and it felt like time to find some new authors. Malka Older was…
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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is the first in a space opera trilogy. One civilization of humanity has extended out into the universe to find other planets that maybe a replacement for earth. Some they will terraform, and on one likely candidate they will seed a new strain of humans. This involves transporting monkeys…
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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is about a crew of space tunnellers who are offered the biggest job they’ve ever had: to travel to the edge of civilized space to a small, uninhabited planet that is pretty much entirely made up of the fuel used to power spacecraft and…
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You must read this book. This is the best book I’ve read in a very long time. The Power by Naomi Alderman explores the nature and dynamics of power. Women have evolved the power to deliver excruciating and fatal pain through their hands, and men have not. Using four different characters whose lives eventually intersect,…
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This book was given to me by the author. This summer I went on an Arvon course on Science Fiction and Fantasy writing led by Emma Newman and Peter Newman. The week is mornings of workshops, afternoons of working on your project, and evenings of readings. On the first evening the tutors read from their…
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Earthwind by Robert Holdstock Published by Pan Science Fiction in 1978 Humans have colonised many planets and on one, Aeran, something strange has happened. The colonists have de-evolved into a stone age culture. Elspeth Mueller has come to find out why. Her colleague warned against the madness the planet evokes if you stay too long…
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Necrotech by K. C. Alexander Published 2016 by Angry Robot This was a lot of fun. Riko is a street thug, the muscle in a gang of criminals clinging to existence in a near-future cyberpunk dystopia. She wakes up in an unfamiliar lab and has to fight her way out. Riko thinks it’s just the…
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Singularity Sky by Charles Stross Published by Orbit in 2005 Singularity Sky is Charles Stross’s debut novel. Humanity has spread out among the stars and fractured into societies with different technological levels and administrative structures. Rochard’s World is an outpost of the New Republic, an authoritarian, mid-20th century tech level society. An entity called the…
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I love the title of Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula Le Guin. It’s a short story collection and normally I would steer clear of short stories as I don’t find them as satisfying as novels. This book came to me as part of the collection from an emigrating friend and, while I didn’t connect…
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First of all, apologies for not posting for months. I’m taking a diploma in life coaching and all I’ve been reading are coaching books. Some of which have been excellent. I read The Exile Waiting by Vonda McIntyre some while ago and I enjoyed it a lot. The story has stuck with me. Humanity has…
Boudica Marginalia 