Author Archive: SvenScheurer
Farthing (The Small Change Trilogy book 1) by Jo Walton (book review).
‘Farthing’ by Jo Walton is the first book of ‘The Small Change Trilogy’. The opening pages of the novel set up a conventional murder mystery. It is May 1949 and newlywed Lucy Kahn née Eversley tells the reader about the occurrences at her father’s country house in Hampshire where some upper-crust families have gathered for […]
A Red Sun Also Rises by Mark Hodder (book review).
Mark Hodder’s ‘A Red Sun Also Rises’ pays homage to the planetary romances which were quite popular a while ago. It is presented as the journal of one Reverend Aiden Fleischer, found by a diving expedition and given to the author who removed most of the boring bits like descriptions of the fauna and flora […]
Songs Of The Dying Earth edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (book review).
‘Songs Of The Dying Earth’ by George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois is subtitled ‘Stories In Honor Of Jack Vance’ which tells all you need to know. Or does it? This book is an anthology of short stories and one novella about the Dying Earth and its inhabitants by twenty-two well-known authors who pay […]
Xeelee: Endurance by Stephen Baxter (book review).
‘Xeelee: Endurance’ by Stephen Baxter is a collection of eleven stories and novellas, all part of the ‘Xeelee’ sequence, which at the moment encompasses seven novels and fifty-two stories. Mankind features in the ‘Xeelee’ sequence as little more than an innocent bystander in an intergalactic war between the Xeelee and another species which will eventually […]
The Ripper Affair (Bannon & Clare book 3) by Lilith Saintcrow (book review).
‘The Ripper Affair’ by Lilith Saintcrow is the third visit to Londinium, the London of an alternate Victorian Age where steam technology and magic co-exist. We start directly in medias res with Clare testifying in court in a case concerning a member of an Eirean brotherhood (this world’s version of Irish terrorists). Clare’s friend and […]
The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett (book review)
‘The Company Man’ is the second novel by author Robert Jackson Bennett and, like the first one, a standalone story. The year is 1919, but the world is not quite ours. In this alternate version of Earth, the titular company McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. The world is dominated by this company, […]
The Moon Maze Game (Dream Park book 4) by Larry Niven & Steven Barnes (book review).
‘The Moon Maze Game’ is the fourth novel in the ‘Dream Park’ series by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. The story takes place nearly seventy years from now, 2085 to be exact. Humanity has spread throughout the solar system, a stable lunar colony is negotiating for independence, while lunar tourism is on the rise. The […]
Lockwood & Co.: The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud (book review).
‘The Whispering Skull’ is the second novel in Jonathan Stroud’s ‘Lockwood & Co.’ series. The plot is situated in an indistinct time (some hints in the books seem to indicate an alternate present, but the overall feeling of the period is still quite Victorian) in England – London, to be exact. For more than fifty […]
Sky Pirates (The Chronicles Of Light And Shadow book three) by Liesel Schwarz (book review).
‘Sky Pirates’, the third book of ‘The Chronicles Of Light And Shadow’, chronicles the further adventures of Elle Chance. She lives in a world in which, centuries ago, the spheres of Light and Shadow were one and the creatures from both sides, Nightwalkers, faeries and humans lived in harmony but the Romans chose science and […]
The Long Utopia (The Long Earth Cycle book 4) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (book review).
‘The Long Utopia’ by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter is the fourth book of ‘The Long Earth Cycle’. The Long Earth being a multitude of alternate Earths devoid of human life. Ours is called Datum Earth to distinguish it from the others. It all began on step day 37 years ago, the day when the […]
