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“Flashforward” by Robert J. Sawyer (1999)
Better hope you were watching the Lottery at the time. “A slice through spacetime…” The future is unknowable to us, which is many ways seems ridiculous. It’s like we’re walking backwards down a...
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“10 Billion” by Stephen Emmott (2013)
“This is a book about us.” Last year, Earth’s population hit seven billion humans. In 1800, it was just one billion. Think about that a moment. It means that our population has grown seven times bigger...
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“The Pirate Loop” by Simon Guerrier (2007)
“Six thousand robots danced through the streets of Milky-Pink City.” Although I have mixed feelings about the genre of science fiction, I am a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Doctor Who. That’s probably...
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“The Running Man” by Stephen King (1982)
On your marks… “She was squinting at the thermometer in the white light coming through the window.” We all know who the Queen of Crime is (and if you don’t, you definitely haven’t been on my blog...
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“Man In The Empty Suit” by Sean Ferrell (2013)
“It is unfortunate for me that I am, by most any objective measure, a genius.” Ah, time travel. I love it, my best friend hates it, and it’s been the backbone of the BBC’s drama department for half a...
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“Shampoo Planet” by Douglas Coupland (1993)
Presumably has a Conditioner Moon. “My mother, Jasmine, woke up this morning to find the word D-I-V-O-R-C-E written in mirror writing on her forehead with a big black felt pen.” My Coupland Rereadathon...
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“Intrusion” by Ken MacLeod (2012)
Open wide. “Like any responsible father, Hugh Morrison had installed cameras in every room in the flat.” Given the current state of the world where sexism seems at an all time high, wars are still...
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“The Art Of Destruction” by Stephen Cole (2006)
Creation and destruction are just two sides of the same coin. “The darkness plays tricks on you, down here.” The modern Doctor Who books have become so hit and miss for me lately that when I approach...
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“The Martian” by Andy Weir (2014)
The Earth is obstructing his view of Venus… “I’m pretty much fucked.” Science fiction exists on a sliding scale of hardness, much like minerals do. On the end of soft science fiction, there are...
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“Rule 34″ by Charles Stross (2011)
“It’s a slow Tuesday afternoon, and you’re coming to the end of your shift on the West End control desk when Sergeant McDougall IMs you: INSPECTOR WANTED ON FATACC SCENE.” Last week, my colleague was...
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“All Yesterdays” by John Conway et al (2013)
All my troubles seemed so far away… “What images come to mind when you hear the word ‘dinosaur’?” Few things are as exciting to discover when you’re a child than the existence of dinosaurs, and nothing...
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“Ubik” by Philip K Dick (1969)
Safe when taken as directed. “At three-thirty AM on the night of 5 June 1992, the top telepath in the Sol System fell off the map in the offices of Runciter Associates in New York City.” I’ve always...
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“Only Ever Yours” by Louise O’Neill (2014)
“The chastities keep asking me why I can’t sleep.” I don’t ever like having to say the words, “I’m a feminist”. That’s not because I’m not one, because of course I am, but it’s merely that I don’t...
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“Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell (2004)
“Beyond the Indian hamlet, upon a forlorn strand, I happened on a trail of recent footprints.” I’ll wager that many of you have heard of Cloud Atlas. I started reading it ten years ago when I was...
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“More Than This” by Patrick Ness (2013)
“Here is the boy, drowning.” I was first introduced to Patrick Ness at the end of 2013 when the first of his Chaos Walking trilogy was thrust into my hands by a friend. After gulping the series down...
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FILM: “The Martian”
“I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.” Last year I read The Martian and by the time December rolled round, declared that it was probably the best book I had read all year. I still stand by...
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“Redshirts” by John Scalzi
Never wear red on a space ship. “From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Officer Q’eeng and Chief...
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“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (2008)
Let the Games begin… “When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.” For years I’ve been saying I’ll get around to this series. It’s not that I’ve not wanted to read it, I’ve just never been so...
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“Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins (2009)
“I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air.” Writing about sequels and trilogies is hard because anything you say will...
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“News From Gardenia” by Robert Llewellyn (2013)
The future doesn’t always have to end in disaster… “I feel confident that through the long annals of human history plenty of people have regretted not making a greater effort to understand someone they...
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