Review: The world ended two years ago. Surviving on a few lightly populated colony planets, humanity is trying to out-run the creatures that destroyed Earth. The setup and initial plot unfold at breakneck speed. That's something I've noticed more in British SF (as this is) compared to U.S. fiction. You can watch this at work in many Dr. Who episodes -- a lot happens with no time to catch your breath. Anyhow things settle down and it's definitely worth your time if you enjoy vaguely plausible space opera with elements of horror.

Review: Written as the first in a series. In the very near future Julia Z -- a sort of hacker -- tries to locate a missing artist and ends up pulling on a thread that reaches into the darkest side of internet-enabled crime. It's a cross between a near future cyberpunk novel, crime thriller and mystery series genre. You'll have a better time if you read it as an entry in a series of well-researched crime thrillers. The style is rather direct and basic as mainstream thrillers tend to be. I found the mechanics of the artist's work questionable, but most other details were pretty convincing. Liu was a software developer and while he didn't focus too much on Julia's use of computers, what he showed was far better than what you usually get in these sort of stories or TV episodes. The bits about Julia's mother -- a Chinese immigrant -- really flesh out how Julia got to be the way she is, connecting her past to her current attitude and why she does what she does in the end. There's enough intriguing background sprinkled in to supply story lines for the next books if they come. The second half of the book gets pretty dark, but realistically so.

Review: A librarian in a low tech steam powered far future devises a vast computer to administer her city-state and wage war on unfriendly neighboring states. But the real purpose of the machine is to guide weapons that can destroy the automated sunshade that is slowly freezing Earth into a new ice-age. Two thousand years in the future, electronics are not feasible to produce, -- space based monitors annihilate any EM devices they detect. There are so many new ideas colliding in this book; I've just given you the biggest ones. The "Great Machine" is a computer made up of all humans; I believe they have some assistance from slide-rules and the like. It's an amusing notion, and actually slightly more plausible than I first supposed after some research on my part. It seems like McMullen had a notebook where he wrote down any big idea and SF plot device and after saving up for years dumped them all into this book. It's surprisingly compelling reading. The narration style and tone doesn't really match most modern novels; it's rather detached, and the pacing is all over the place. Parts of the book seem under structured somehow. Nevertheless it's well worth reading. The second book in the series seemed to be better structured.

Review: A group of tourists travel together on the "Canterbury Trails" bus to visit "The Impossibles". Those are seven of the most impressive "reality glitches" located in the USA that appear after it's discovered we live in a simulation. There's a little about simulation theory and a lot of time on the characterization of each of the travelers. There's not enough space here to do this book justice. It's as good as anything I've read by Gregory. A little less mind-bending than some of his stuff and deeper characterization. I liked the ensemble cast -- would make for a truly good TV series.

Review: Takes place in the same universe as Book of Doors. Some similar themes and characters.

Review: A future expedition into newly uninhabitable regions of Earth due to global warming goes terribly wrong. Of course it does. It's an interesting part of the plot: It's understood that some areas of Earth will become so warm and humid (look up "wet bulb temperature,) that humans won't survive on the surface as global warming progresses. What would that really mean for life on Earth? There's a lot more to this book, principally the unreliable first-person narrator. A perfect novella length.

Review: Follows the near future development of faster than light travel. But it's not the first time humans have invented it ... Set in future Scotland and near Earth space. There are some really ingenious settings and characters: The android who you're never sure is actually self aware. Oh he says he was very disturbed to learn he wasn't human but we're left in doubt. MacLeod very cleverly narrates his sections in such a way you can't figure him out, but it takes a while to catch on to what the author is up to. I feel like this book and its sequels in the Light-speed trilogy belong in one of MacLeod's established universes and it might help to enjoy the book if you've read some of those.

Review: A sequenced set of stories about videographer Amber and a conspiracy theory radio show and pod-caster host Jack Owens. He's trying to make the jump to video. On the radio you can stick to talking about Big Foot. On video things get a lot more real. This is a pretty funny book. Every one of the loosely connected stories presents a different mystery: Is what they just saw really paranormal or is there a rational explanation?

Review: Alternate world military with a bit of magic, something like 18th Century France. Starts out slow, but picks up about a third of the way through and just gets better and better. This is the first book in the "Shadow Campaigns" series.

Review: The book begins with a guy starting his day at the office in Hell. Yes, literal Hell. It's amusing and promises some adventures as the workers attempt to convince mortals to sign away their souls. Some hellish office politics take place. Then the story broadens to follow one family in danger of losing their last members to a Devil's bargain. Not the light comedy / supernatural thriller I expected, but still funny in parts and well written. Opinion on this one is quite mixed and I can see why. To really get the most out of it you need to read it like a mystery, not comedy or thriller or fantasy.

Review: On Anjiin, humans have developed a civilization somewhat less advanced than ours, but with some strange technology based on the very different life native to Anjiin -- biochemically incompatible with Earth-based life, giving their scientists some unusual advantages over most from other worlds. This becomes important when an alien force swiftly conquers all of Anjiin and abducts the biochemists to carry out special research for the invaders. Working under extremely difficult conditions, the scientists make some discoveries and begin to plan their escape. I never got into the Expanse series past the first book, but I think this will be a better series. The first installment is excellent.

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Review: Not reviewed