Alastair Reynolds, Terminal World, Gollancz Paperback, London, March 2010

Review by Nuke

Alastair Reynolds is best known for hard galaxy-spanning "hard" science fiction that isn't bounded by limited imagination, and at first glance the steampunk-ish "Terminal World" seems to be a departure from what has been a successful formula for him. This new novel has no fast spaceships, no overt advanced nanotechnology or terraforming, and no great distances in space and time to traverse with their attendant wonders. Instead we have steam-driven humans, horses and carts and dung to wade through, airships to float in, and what seems at first to be some kind of worldwide oppressive psychic power to be dealt with.

History is written by the victors, or so we're told. However, award winning writer Pamela Freeman, author of the 'Floramonde' series of children's books, has changed all that. In 'Blood Ties,' first novel of 'The Castings' trilogy, the conquered and dispossessed also have a say. Including the ghosts. In an unusual twist, the author has chosen to recruit the shades of the dead as active participants in her first adult oriented publication.

All of Freeman's characters possess great depth and credibility. They live and breathe on the page. It is impossible not to react to their enthusiasms and dilemmas. I defy any reader to remain unaffected by the description of Thorn's death:

"The roan's breath became harsh, settling into the death rattle that meant the end was coming. Bramble put her head down on his to share every shake and shudder."

Review by Jan Napier

Maggie Furey. Heritage of the Xandim. London, Gollancz, 2009.

Maggie Furey's prequel to her well known Aurian series, begins, as do so many matters of great import, with a prophecy. The Lady Of The Mist is vouchsafed a vision. "Three women born when the moon was concealed by the shadow of the sun, would hold the future of the world in their hands, to be lost or saved..."

Graham Storrs, Timesplash, New York, Lyrical Press, February 2010

Review by Nuke

Electronic books seem to have become acceptable all of a sudden (I say seem, but it really isn't that abrupt — it's just that it has taken some time for good, easy reading hardware to be developed), so it's timely that Graham Storrs has released this novel, Timesplash, in electronic format only.

I read this near-future SF story on my i-touch in various places that I'd normally have had to carry a paper and dead trees text — on the loo, in bed, lazing on the couch, at some all-too-frequent highway roadworks stops in the car, in fact at any spare moment I could grab the device out of my pocket.