Author Archive: Gareth D Jones
Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi (book review)
In a complete change from his high concept, far future ‘Jean le Flambeur’ trilogy, Hannu Rajaniemi takes us back to 1938 for his latest novel, ‘Summerland’. It’s a world of espionage, brewing conflict and political intrigue, set amongst various government departments where Rachel White is trying to discover the truth behind a Russian defector’s claim […]
After Atlas (Planetfall book 2) by Emma Newman (book review).
‘Planetfall’ was a fabulously engaging novel of deep characterisation and otherworldy intrigue that left me highly impressed. ‘After Atlas’ and ‘Before Mars’ are both dubbed as ‘Planetfall’ novels, as they are set in the same universe, but the stories are seemingly unconnected other than a shared background and references to the departure of Atlas, the […]
Altered Seasons: Monsoonrise by Paul Briggs (ebook review).
Relative newcomer Paul Briggs brings us a cli-fi novel with an eye-catching and dramatic cover in the form of ‘Altered Seasons: Monsoonrise’. Cli-fi, by the way, is climate fiction, this being a near-future story of climate change, which is one of those categories that skirts the edges of SF in that it’s slightly in the […]
Before Mars (Planetfall 3) by Emma Newman (book review).
In the third of her ‘Planetfall’ books, Emma Newman returns to a loosely-related setting in ‘Before Mars’, a book with the same background but this time set on Mars several years after the departure of the colonists who feature in ‘Planetfall’. Just as in the first book, the setting and plot are intriguing but once […]
From Distant Stars (book 2) by Sam Peters (book review).
Sam Peters’ 2017 debut novel ‘From Darkest Skies’ was one of those addictive books that I didn’t want to put down, filled as it was with mystery and intrigue, conspiracies and dangers. His follow-up novel, ‘From Distant Stars’, does not disappoint, taking us straight back into the action with agent Keon Rause, an investigator on […]
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller (book review).
Two books came to mind as I started reading Sam J. Miller’s book ‘Blackfish City’: ‘Austral’ by Paul McAuley and ‘America City’ by Chris Beckett. Of course, it turns out the book is not particularly like those novels at all, except in some superficial sharing of tropes. It’s set in a future where climate change […]
The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson (book review).
The idea behind dating apps meshes with social media to create compatible social groupings known as Affinities in Robert Charles Wilson’s near-future novel that initially seems to be heading towards a utopian tale of co-operation and acceptance, but soon turns into a wonderfully complex tale of social revolution. Adam Fisk’s life is fairly humdrum, with […]
Origamy by Rachel Armstong (book review)
The art of origamy (sic) weaves space and time, alternative universes and parallel histories in a mind-bending and befuddling fashion that allows the origamy circus-troop family of Mobius to see and experience any point in space and time. From the beginning, where Mobius has lost much of her memory of her own personal history and […]
Planetfall (book 1) by Emma Newman (book review).
In a small colony settlement on a far planet, the appearance of a stranger from outside brings change to the community and unpleasant echoes of the past in Emma Newman’s haunting interstellar tale ‘Planetfall’. It’s a psychological drama with convincingly complex characters and a multi-layered plot that wraps interplanetary colonisation around faith, biology and betrayal. […]
The Smoke by Simon Ings (book review).
Simon Ings brings us an alternative Earth in his latest book ‘The Smoke’, where history has diverged at some point from what we know to produce something far more bizarre than usually encountered in alternative histories. This is due to the pivotal event where this world split from our own being a biological discovery rather […]
