Books

Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand: an infernally good read

: 21 September 2011; Gerard Wood

If you’re familiar with Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy, you might be wondering why we’ve chosen to take a look at the first novel, The Amulet of Samarkand, some eight years after it was published. Our only defence is “better late than ...

Flashback, by Dan Simmons: "scarily possible" future or Right wing propaganda?

: 02 August 2011; Gerard Wood

Dan Simmons’ latest novel, Flashback (July 2011), is “[a] provocative novel set in a future that seems scarily possible,” proving “why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers." So says the publicist anyway. Dan Simmons ...

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction online and free

: 13 July 2011; John Howell

The Orion Publishing Group has announced that the third edition of the essential science fiction reference work, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, will be released online in 2012 and will be completely free. This is a gigantic work ...

Thrilling conclusion to Dora Machado's Stonewiser Trilogy

: 12 June 2011; Gerard Wood

Over the years we’ve received a lot of novels for review, and it’ll probably come as no surprise that many of them are for first time authors seeking some hard earned exposure. That’s something we can sympathise with and we do our best to read ...

Win a signed copy of Stonewiser: The Lament of the Stone

: 10 February 2011; Gerard Wood

The Lament of the Stone, the third and final chapter in Dora Machado’s refreshingly original Stonewiser series, will be available from 28 February 2011. We’ve followed the development of this fantasy series with great interest since the first ...

Philip K. Dick's robotic head

: 14 January 2011; John Howell

Philip K. Dick has been resurrected from the dead as a talking robot head by Hanson Robotics. Below is the video to prove it. What makes this post even more bizarre is that this is the second Philip K. Dick robotic head they've built. Philip K. Dick ...

Review: A God Somewhere, by John Arcudi, Peter Snejbjerg & Bjarne Hansen

: 09 December 2010; Gerard Wood

It’s been almost 25 years since Alan Moore’s Watchmen exploded onto the comic book scene. With its three-dimensional characters, moral complexity and more realistic depiction of violence, Watchmen introduced a new paradigm for the superhero ...

Could Pittacus Lore's "I Am Number Four" be the next big franchise?

: 13 October 2010; Gerard Wood

If you haven't heard about I Am Number Four consider this a wake up call because the wheels of the marketing machine are spinning fast and picking up speed. Written by Pittacus Lore (if you can believe it, which you can’t), the novel was published ...

So Neil Gaiman is a Scientologist, you say?

: 08 July 2010; Gerard Wood

Almost any time we write anything about Neil Gaiman, you can be sure that someone will feel the need to post a comment “outing” the man as a Scientologist. While we have a fairly relaxed attitude to comments and will publish almost anything that ...

Review: Tom Strong Deluxe Edition Book 2 or how Tom Strong saved me from my own worst enemy

: 24 June 2010; Gerard Wood

It can’t often be said with anything like a straight face that the hero of a graphic novel has reached out from the page to touch the real world. But here I am with only the hint of a smile to state in all sincerity that Tom Strong saved me from ...