Nearly half my 2022 reading and two thirds of my review backlog were SF titles – time for some lightning reviews to capture my impressions before they fade away, starting with 3 SFnal thrillers: Plan For Chaos by John Wyndham, The Nox by Joe White & Catriona Ward and Pollen From A Future Harvest by Derek Künsken.
thriller
Pop quiz: you are an award-winning researcher, leading the field in human cloning. Your husband has stolen your research to clone a version of you he finds easier to live with. Do you help her cover up his murder?
Lina fled London to work for a European conservation corps, but her fragile peace shatters when her ex is arrested for assassinating a Minister. While Lina tries to extract her family from London, the Minister’s family also flee to the mountain reserve she works on. Everyone has deadly secrets – but will they kill to preserve them?
An idealistic rookie may seem an odd choice to unpick a deadly corporate conspiracy, but Tanta offers the one quality InTech needs most: unshakeable loyalty. But no Corp has clean hands. Can even Tanta stomach the secrets she will uncover?
60-some years after the mysterious Hyvönen Anomaly was first spotted, it looms on Earth’s doorstep. Some worship it; others fear it; only a select few have any idea what it’s capable of. Tomas Hyvönen’s crew have just 4 years left to figure out how to deal with the enigma before it envelops the planet – unless it consumes them first…
Orphan Black is one of my all-time favourite TV shows, a complete tale well-told in five seasons. Imagine my surprise and delight when Serial Box announced they had cooked up a sequel – narrated by none other than Clone Queen Tatiana Maslany herself.
When Mount Rainier erupted, the remote community of Greenloop was nominally deemed to be in a safe zone. Three weeks later, rescuers found no survivors. But the volcano was the least of Greenloop’s worries…
Patrick Edwards is a Bristol-based author of speculative fiction. I leapt at the opportunity to ask him a few questions (spoiler-free) to celebrate the release of his new novel Echo Cycle – and what a charming bloke he is!
20 years ago, three boys went on an ill-fated school trip to Rome. One lost an eye. One lost his only friend. One lost himself. Now all three are back in the newly-rebuilt capital of the European Confederacy, and their schoolboy feud will be nothing next to the ancient vengeance taking shape.
A sportsman dying on the field wouldn’t usually be a case for the FBI. But Duane Chapman is a Haden, and the body being ripped apart in the Hilketa match is a threep. So what went wrong? And was it an accident?
Nobody knows what makes someone Extraordinary, but Eliot Cardale and Victor Vale are determined to find out. Once they’ve developed a thesis, the next logical step is to test it. But to become superhuman, they will have to risk everything…
Liz left her abusive husband, but she hasn’t been able to cut him out of her life. When an argument turns violent, something – or someone – awakens within her and helps her fight back. Liz’s life may never be the same again…
Let’s kick off a new week with some news: I’m delighted to be taking part in the cover reveal for a new political tech thriller from sword-swinging physicist and financier Stewart Hotston…
The Atargatis was found deserted and covered in blood. Footage showing all aboard being eaten by mermaids was dismissed as a hoax. But now Imagine Entertainment plan to send a second ship to prove the lovely ladies of the sea exist. What can possibly go wrong?
Andrew Waggoner is one of the favourite victims of five brutal boys at school. When their hazing becomes torture one Hallowe’en, Waggoner’s pain and outrage opens the door to ancient forces that promise him revenge. But the ghosts of generations past also have their own wrongs to right…
onemore.org 