Tag archives for Fiction - Page 10
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Book Review – Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an interesting book in many ways, linguistically, sociology and the convincing alien world it is set on. The premise is that the main characters are the descendants of two people stranded on an alien planet. The Family (as they refer to themself) are waiting for the day when the rescue mission will come to take them all to Earth. The world is the familiar story book jungle with a strange alien weirdness to it. For a start the sky is dark and the trees and animals luminesce. The typical body plan is six legs and very large eyes, as one might expect on a dark planet. Metal is known but unavailable to the Family, they only have primitive technology despite folklore of the advanced tech. The family…
Book Review – The Annihilation Score by Charlie Stross
The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross My rating: 4 of 5 stars I finished reading The Annihilation Score last night, I really enjoyed it, although it makes a lot more sense now that I've read the spoiler thread comments over on The pitch is Bob Howard's exes set up a superhero team to fight crime. The Annihilation Score is the 6th Laundry novel and the second departure from Bob as the narrator. This time we have his wife Mo as our unreliable narrator. She is tasked to set up an arms length body to get ahead of the curve on an outbreak of superheroes. This is a side effect of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, AKA the end of the world as we know it. As well as working flat-out to deal with the superheroes Mo finds her marriage falling apart. Her…
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Book Review – Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link My rating: 4 of 5 stars A collection of nine short stories with a sort of urban fantasy/horror theme, although low key theme horror rather than scare you into changing your pants horror. What they do is make you think about things. Almost all of the stories could be very normal, with a slightly mentally off kilter protagonist, or there could be something else there that you cannot quite see. A couple are straight fantasy, the Wizards of Perfil, being a good fantasy story about wizards that buy children for a nefarious hidden purpose. All of the stories are well crafted, and they all have a good premise that is well executed. I didn't feel that any of them were there just to make up the numbers. There was a level of variety about them…
Book Review – The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality by Gahan Hanmer
The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality by Gahan Hanmer My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was offered a free copy by the publisher. What made me say yes to this offer was that the story was about an attempt to set up a fake mediaeval kingdom in the modern world. As a (lapsed) 17th century re-enactor it ticked my 'experimental archaeology' box and I thought it would be worth reading. Member of The Montgomery Levy displaying archery in mediaeval times (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Having read The Kingdom on the Edge of Reality it was much more than I had expected and I really enjoyed it on a number of levels. Firstly there is a very interesting piece of straight literary fiction here. It isn't a work of fantasy and there is strictly no magic. Given a billionaire determined enough this…
Book Review – Silesian Station by David Downing
Silesian Station by David Downing My rating: 4 of 5 stars Second in the series, and it ends where I expected the first to end. It starts a few weeks on from where the previous book left off. In late July 1939 John Russell is returning to Germany from America by boat with his son. Definitely an interesting read, Downing has clearly done his research well. There is a fantastic period feel to it. Especially the embuggerance around the travelling to and from Poland. The places and the people are very well described, and the latter are well observed and seem real. The danger in the air from unguarded comments is real for these characters, and they are mainly circumspect with strangers. I was also pleased to see how Russell's film star girlfriend develops too. She starts the story with a…