... it just has to sound plausible
Chiang is the science fiction short story writer non-genre readers all praise (one of his stories was a question in this week’s University Challenge, for example). Which is not to say lots of genre readers don’t praise him too. And Continue reading
(A Facebook review) This won the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2023, and throughout much of the award’s history that would be reason enough to read the book. But the shortlists in recent years have been… variable. Some of the Continue reading
This was the debut novel of Kingsley Amis, father of Martin Amis, author of science fiction study New Maps of Hell (1960, UK) and the sf-adjacent The Alteration (1976, UK), and a writer I don’t normally read, even though I Continue reading
As I was reading The Nano Flower (1995, UK), I kept on thinking it would have been better titled The Gammon Flower (to be honest, I couldn t understand what nano had to do with it, anyway). In the early 1990s, Continue reading
This was a book that didn’t read as advertised. I’d been expecting something similar to Naomi Alderman’s The Power (2016, UK), which I hadn’t much liked (although I did like the TV adaptation). Instead, The Change (2022, USA) proved to Continue reading
Sullivan has long been a writer I wanted to read. I tried one of her novels, Maul (2003, UK), which was shortlisted for the Clarke, BSFA and Tiptree Awards, several years ago, but I remember finding it hard-going. In fact, Continue reading
Deep Black (2024, Canada) is the second book in the Arcana Imperii trilogy, following directly on from Artifact Space (2021, Canada; see my review here). In the first book, Marca Nbaro, orphaned daughter of a patrician family, faked her credentials Continue reading
(Another Facebook review) I am not, I will happily admit, a fan of Dick’s books, and the only reason I read this one is because it’s in the SF Masterworks series (and the series has way too many books by Continue reading
So, they sent robots to another planetary system, and some humans whose consciousnesses had been uploaded when they died, and the robots started mining an exo-moon and then accidentally developed self-awareness. Meanwhile the uploaded humans were living in a very Continue reading
I ve mentioned before I have a second blog where I post somewhat longer reviews. It s on Medium, and you can find it here. It occurred to me I ve not mentioned it here for a while and I ve added nearly a Continue reading