Author Archive: Gareth D Jones
Nova Hellas: Stories From Future Greece edited by Francesca T Barbini & Francesco Verso (book review)
The 2017 anthology ‘Stories From Future Athens’ has been translated into English and a couple of additional stories added for the anthology ‘Nova Hellas: Stories From Future Greece’ from Scottish small press Luna Press, edited by two Italian editors, Francesca T Barbini and Francesco Verso. The collection has also been translated into Italian, making this […]
Seven Devils (book 1 of 2) by Elizabeth May & Laura Lam (book review).
A ruthless empire strives to conquer every planet and destroy every alien race, controlling its subjects and ensuring their loyalty through indoctrination and conditioning. On a remote planet, a beleaguered rebellion plots to withstand them. Elizabeth May and Laura Lam have cooked up an entertaining twist on the ‘galactic empire versus rebels’ trope in the […]
Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts (book review).
In the far distant future, a group of long-lived humans take a 40 light year flight aboard the starship Forward to investigate an interesting feature detected on the planet V538 Aurigae. The craft is also a generation ship for what appears to be a sub-species of human and briefly reminded me of ‘Non-Stop’ by Brian […]
The Future Is Yours by Dan Frey (book review in situ).
EMAIL From: Geoff Willmetts, SF Crowsnest To: Gareth D Jones Hi Gareth, here’s a new book for you to review: ‘The Future Is Yours’ by Dan Frey. It’s written as a series of emails, texts, transcripts, reports etc. REPLY Hi Geoff, sounds great – I like that kind of thing. I’ve read (and written) quite […]
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (another book review – all right it’s an echo).
Celebrated scientist Evelyn Caldwell has cracked the secret of creating human clones. This could be the start of a high-concept SF novel involving an imperial clone army but, in fact, takes a far more interesting and darkly humorous. It shares some of the concepts of Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Never Let Me Go’, the clones being created […]
Inscape by Louise Carey (book review).
Set in a high-tech future London that has been built on the ruins of its pre-meltdown predecessor, Louise Carey’s novel ‘Inscape’ is a sparkling mix of cyberpunk, espionage, and post-apocalyptic social stratification. London and presumably the rest of the world is controlled by competing corporations, chiefly InTech and Thoughtfront who control one side of the […]
Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky (book review).
In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s ‘Dogs Of War’ we were introduced to the world of bioforms, bio-enhanced intelligent animals developed to fight and to always obey. Things had changed by the end of that novel and now two of those characters, huge bear Honey and distributed intelligence Bees, are back in ‘Bear Head’. This time the action […]
London Centric: Tales Of Future London edited by Ian Whates (book review).
In this new collection from NewCon Press, editor Ian Whates has drawn together tales of future Londons that range from near-future versions of the city that could be the city as we know it, to far-future glimpses of dazzling architecture and stunning technology. ‘London Centric’ is a real treat for fans of Urban SF and, […]
The Evidence by Christopher Priest (book review).
We return to the enigmatic Dream Archipelago in Christopher Priest’s new novel ‘The Evidence’, the location of many of his novels and short stories. It’s a world of hundreds of islands in which strange things tend to happen and where Christopher Priest takes advantage of the temporal and gravitational anomalies to weave wondrous and multi-faceted […]
Nucleation by Kimberley Unger (book review).
An intriguing blend of hard SF, corporate espionage and conspiracy theory, ‘Nucleation’ is a solidly enjoyable novel from Kimberley Unger that picks up several recognisable SF tropes and combines them into a relatable yet refreshing tale. Although the story involves wormholes, quantum entanglement and other high-tech concepts, the prose is perfectly accessible, throwing in jargon […]
