Category: Books
The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Series book 1) by Mary Robinette Kowal (book review).
Showered with plaudits and the odd award, 2018’s ‘The Calculating Stars’ has already been widely celebrated as being ground breaking in genre, gender representation and setting. It is the first novel in the ‘Lady Astronaut’ series (pre-dated by short stories and post-dated by sequel novels) detailing the journey of Elma York from not especially humble […]
Parasites: The Kon-Tiki Quartet: Part Two by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke (book review).
Back in February, I reviewed ‘Dislocations’, the first volume in a quartet of novellas jointly written by British SF authors Eric Brown and Keith Brooke. I’ve now caught up with the second volume, ‘Parasites’. The story is set one hundred years later on as the Kon-Tiki spacecraft which was launched at the end of ‘Dislocations’ […]
Ninja Get Good: My Ultimate Guide To Gaming by Tyler Blevins (book review).
There seems to be a growing abundance of ‘how to-’ gaming books coming out now. When you consider commissioning books can take at least 18 months to get together, then publishers have been looking ahead for some time now. This is the first time I’ve head of Tyler Blevins who uses the name of ‘Ninja’ […]
The Warehouse by Rob Hart (book review)
I wonder if booksellers will try to use the big bar code on the cover of Rob Hart’s book, ‘The Warehouse’? It is the same bar-code so watch what they do. It quickly becomes apparent that the warehouse city called Cloud uses the Amazon warehouse tactics of employment. We follow two new recruits. Zinnia, who […]
Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars carries the Hugo Awards.
The Calculating Stars, an alternate history of climate change and space exploration by Mary Robinette Kowal was voted Best Novel by science fiction fans in the 2019 Hugo Awards hosted in Dublin. Tomi Adeyemi’s West African-inspired fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone, won the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book. Jeanette Ng, author […]
Photographing The Deep Sky: Images In Time And Space by Chris Baker (book review).
Look at the cover of Chris Baker’s book, ‘Photographing The Deep Sky: Images In Time And Space’, and tell me you aren’t tempted purely by the cover. Baker owns a telescope observatory in Spain and all the photographs in this book are taken there or in the viscinity. The book is divided between nebulas and […]
The North Beyond Part 2: Maesrhon by P.M. Scrayfield (book review).
‘The North Beyond’ is one big novel divided into four books, of which this is the second part. As a result, there is little to guide the reader in the architecture of this fantasy world. Part one was the story of Numirantoro (none of the characters have a familiar diminutive), her childhood and how she […]
AlphaBit: An ABC Quest In 8-Bit, illustrated by Juan Carlos Solon (book review).
You can always tell when publicists are paying attention to us at SFC, they spot me reviewing books suitable for sprogs, although this is probably the youngest I’ve done as it’s for really early learner age. Juan Carlos Solon’s art is designed to look like 8-bit pixel art and for each letter of the alphabet, […]
Am I Overthinking This? by Michelle Rial (book review).
Now am I overthinking here? Michelle Rial’s book ‘Am I Overthinking This?’ on a page flick test is an assortment of photographic and simple art pages, some of it purporting to be the bell-shaped averages graph. When you read, the text is actually very simple but it is supposed to be. Are you sure you […]
Electric Forest by Tanith Lee (book review).
One of the problems with choosing from the plethora of books on offer is which one. Should it be something a friend with similar tastes has recommended, a new author you’ve not yet sampled or one of the ‘classics’. The term ‘classic’ is itself a minefield. Younger readers tend to think of them as on […]
