Sci-Fi

Excerpt: THE FIST OF MEMORY by Wole Talabi (DAW)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , , ,

Tomorrow, DAW Books are due to publish the latest novel by Wole Talabi: The Fist of Memory — a first-contact novel sure to appeal to fans of Arrival, Contact and sci-fi in general. To mark the occasion, CR has a short excerpt from the novel to share with our readers! Here’s the synopsis:

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil. 

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as “Baba,” it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: VERSIONS OF A MURDER by Paula Daly (Minotaur/Wildfire)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , , ,

I’ve been a fan of time-loop stories—in which a character cycles through the same moment, day, or event—ever since I watched Groundhog Day (like, I’m sure, many people my age). Another favourite example, if not my actual favourite, is The First Fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North—seriously, if you haven’t read it, yet, go give it a try. In May, Minotaur Books are due to publish the new novel by Paula Daly, Versions of a Murder, which looks like a very interesting take on the idea:

Versions of a Murder takes the idea of restarting at the same moment in time over and over, and spins it into a compelling suspense novel about a young woman who tries to catch a serial killer across numerous lifetimes.

What if you had to relive the day of your murder over and over?

Opening on one ordinary morning in 1974, junior doctor Heidi Quick awakens from a quick nap to find herself rushing about her day on a busy hospital ward. When a snowstorm closes in, she accepts a ride home from her senior colleague Dr Fred Preston, only for her night to turn shockingly fatal when Preston murders her in her apartment. Even more shocking is when Heidi wakes and relives that day again.

Heidi becomes locked in a time loop—one that resets not with the sunrise, but with her death. Each time she dies, she wakes again in 1974, memories intact, and haunted by a single unchanging truth: someone she trusts wants her dead. But that someone is a respected colleague, Fred Preston, whose charm and authority mask a darkness rooted in a real-life UK serial killer case.

The repercussions of this reverberate through the following years as Heidi relives versions of her life—sometimes days, sometimes decades—as well as versions of her murder. Soon, Heidi realizes that due to a twist of time and fate, she has a singular chance to both work out why she is being murdered and also determine how she can save future victims and lead a meaningful life. With each iteration, the lines between destiny and choice, victim and perpetrator, past and future blur, as Heidi tries to stop Preston once and for all.

Versions of a Murder is an utterly page-turning, inventive, absorbing and often moving novel, part gripping suspense, part quest for survival and justice, that considers the choices we make in life while also drawing out a cat and mouse story, as we root for Heidi from the start—and again and again and again.

Really looking forward to reading this.

Paula Daly’s Versions of a Murder is due to be published by Minotaur Books in North America (May 4th, 2027) and Wildfire in the UK (May 6th).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram

Upcoming: ORPHEUS by M. R. Carey (Orbit)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , ,

Like many people, I discovered M. R. Carey‘s books with the excellent, best-selling The Girl With All the Gifts. I remember devouring that novel in two sittings, each time well into the night. He’s become an author who I’ll always look out for. Recently, he’s been writing a lot more science fiction, and while I have fallen quite far behind (curse the linear nature of time and limited number of books one can read while also having to work!),* each of his SF novels has looked fantastic — Outlaw Planet, in particular. Next year, Orbit are due to publish his latest, Orpheus, which sounds particularly interesting:

On a planet where one half is forever in sunlight and the other in endless night, a young colonist must venture into the deadly Nightside to uncover the truth about the disappearance of his mother…

HUMANITY CAN’T SURVIVE THE NIGHTSIDE

On the distant colony world of Tessix, the sun never moves in the sky. One side of the planet burns under endless noon, whilst the other is a frozen wasteland in perpetual darkness. Human life is only possible in a narrow strip of land where the terraforming project almost worked.

Growing up on the borderland between light and dark, under the fading sun globes of Tanner’s Hook, fifteen-year-old Bead Plessey clings to his friends and his fantasies. Bead dreams of one day escaping the grim realities of life on Tessix – the declining population, the ruthless autocracy of the Noonday government, and the monstrous Daspa that come out of the nightside to feed on human blood.

When a stranger turns up at Bead’s home asking for lodgings, he brings the possibility of change. But who is Jud Valery, and where has he come from? Is his interest in Bead benign or sinister? And how is he connected to the disappearance of Bead’s mother, Omrid, eight years before? Looking for answers, Bead assembles an ill-assorted band of allies – but their investigation takes them far beyond Tanner’s Hook, into the nightside and into the long-buried secrets that shaped their world.

M. R. Carey’s Orpheus is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on February 16th, 2027.

Also on CR: Guest Post “On Writing Strong Women”; Review of The Girl With All the Gifts

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads

* This is basically a given, now. So maybe I should stop writing it into my posts…

Upcoming: BEASTS OF THE WILD BLACK by RJ Barker (Podium)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , , , , , ,

Beasts of the Wild Black is a new series of sci-fi novellas by RJ Barker that was announced last week, and due to be published starting in October 2026 by Podium: Beasts of the Wild Black, Pride of the Wild Black, and Lost in the Wild Black.

The excellent covers for the three novellas were first unveiled by Runalong the Shelves, and immediately caught my attention. I’ve been a fan of Barker’s work ever since his excellent debut, Age of Assassins, so the fact that his name was on this was the first reason it is a must-read. Then I read the premise, which further cemented my interest.

The three books will first be available individually, before being published as a collected edition (in January 2027), in print, eBook, and audiobook — read by Clare Corbett and Vidish Athavale. Here’s the series synopsis:

Explore the Wild Black — where any signal could be a trap, any planet a mystery, and any companion a lifeline — in this trio of high-concept space adventures.

Deep Strike crews are accustomed to hostile terrain. But in Beasts of the Wild Black, Capt. Min Law and the crew of the Thunberg get more than they bargained for when they follow a garbled distress call to a seemingly quiet world. Meanwhile, in Pride of the Wild Black, Min’s mentor Maj. Gen. Alice Benner’s concern for her missing protégé draws her into a potentially wide-scale conspiracy. And in Lost in the Wild Black a wounded superintelligent cat named Bruce is trapped on a lethal planet desperate to send out a signal, no matter who — or what — hears it.

Here, too, is the synopsis for the first novella, for a little bit more information/detail:

The Wild Black wants to kill you: That’s the reality in this wildly imaginative sci-fi novella from the award-winning author of the Tide Child trilogy.

Years ago, Deep Strike cadet Min Law was left behind during what was meant to be a routine operation. Though he survived, the resulting trauma almost ended his career. Now, as captain of the DST Thunberg, he is preparing to take his crew on a similar journey to a seemingly quiet world following a garbled distress signal. The mission is simple on paper: find the source of the call, offer aid, return home.

But nothing is simple in the Wild Black at the edges of the unexplored universe. As the crew of the Thunberg searches for the signal’s source, they find strange ships and corpses that shouldn’t be there. The mysteries begin to pile up. What happened out here? And why does some of the technology look horribly familiar?

Fortunately, Min’s team of animal counterparts is prepared for anything. The bear, Sitka Pete, is eight hundred pounds of loyal muscle. The rooks are quick and coordinated, perfect for reconnaissance. And the cats, Oz and Hinder, well, they’re just cats. But together they’re more than up for whatever the Wild Black can throw at them — even if this region isn’t quite so unexplored after all…

Really looking forward to reading this series.

RJ Barker’s Beasts of the Wild Black is due to be published by Podium, on October 6th, 2026. No publication date, at the time of writing, for the second and third novellas. The collected edition is due to be published by Podium, on January 5th, 2027.

Also on CR: Interviews with RJ Barker — 2017 and 2020; Annotated Excerpt from The Bone Ships; Reviews of Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins, and King of Assassins

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Upcoming: THE DOG STARS (20th Century Studios)

Civilian Reader Movies, Upcoming , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On August 28th, Ridley Scott’s adaptation of The Dog Stars will arrive in theatres. It stars Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, and others; and the screenplay was written by Mark L. Smith. Based on Peter Heller’s debut novel, it’s one of my most-anticipated movies of the year. Well, it recently became one of my most-anticipated movies of the year, because it’s been quite easy to forget that it’s on the way — it has not been getting much attention in the various online spaces I spend time in. Continue reading →

CR20 Favourites: MILKWEED TRIPTYCH by Ian Tregillis (Tor/Orbit)

Civilian Reader Review , , , , , , , ,

As you may have noticed, Civilian Reader recently celebrated its 20th anniversary — a milestone that is still quite amazing to me. In addition to sharing the first review and interview I posted, I wanted to publish some other “CR20” content. One of the ideas I keep coming back to, recently, is some kind of “CR20 Favourites” series of posts: what are the books, interviews, and other things over the past 20 years that have stood out to me.

I thought I’d kick off this series of posts by revisiting, and re-recommending, Ian Tregillis‘s superb, not-as-widely-read-as-it-deserves Milkweed Triptych! Continue reading →

Excerpt: MOON OVER BRENDLE by Jeff Noon (Angry Robot Books)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , ,

A couple of weeks ago, Angry Robot Books published the latest magical contemporary fantasy novel from Jeff Noon: Moon Over Brendle. Already very well-received, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers (in case you need any more convincing to give it a read). Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

The Dust tells the story…

1968, Lancashire: It is Joe Sutter’s last summer before going to secondary school. His world is like ours but beyond and beside what we know is Greot; a vast swirling rainbow of many-coloured dust. It settles on the dead, it swathes cities and fields. Joe is one of the few who have the gift of always being able to see it. But no one knows what Greot is. Is it the trillion-eyed god? The history of everything told grain-by-grain? Prophecy? The magic of creativity?

Joe can’t know; all he wants to do is draw comics and listen to music. Then one day, after climbing up to the ancient tower on Brendle hill, he meets an old writer of pulp SF books who is determined to pass on the power and joy of telling stories. And everything changes.

Decades later Joe is a successful SF novelist, and the time has come to tell his story, not only of how he became a writer but also how the secrets of the dust were revealed to him, one grain at a time.

And now, on with the excerpt…

Continue reading →

Interview with JONATHAN D. BEER

Civilian Reader Interview , , , , , , ,

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Jonathan D. Beer?

There’s an existential question and a half…

Hello, to you and your readers. I’m Jonathan D. Beer. I’m a freelance writer for Black Library, and more generally a writer of science fiction and fantasy stories. I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, with one tiny cat and another that is part-fox, part-sentient rug.

I read War Studies at university, which was less about studying maps with arrows on it than I had been led to believe. I started writing for Black Library in 2020, just after the Covid-19 lockdown, and I still can’t believe I actually get to do this.

You’ve had two recent novels published by Black Library: Tomb World and Dominion Genesis. How would introduce them to potential readers?

Dominion Genesis is an exploration of how the Adeptus Mechanicus deals with trauma and loss, through the eyes (or, rather, the ocular implants) of Explorator Superior Talin Sherax.

Tomb World is the journey of a Necron praetorian, a guardian of the necrontyr’s codes of law and honour, after she is stripped of that honour by a betrayal. Continue reading →

Excerpt: BOY, WITH ACCIDENTAL DINOSAUR by Ian McDonald (TorDotCom)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , ,

Today, we have an excerpt from the recently-published new novella by Ian McDonald: Boy, With Accidental Dinosaur. The book has a pretty intriguing pitch, which, having read the book, is rather accurate: “How to Train Your Dragon meets Mad Max”. Huge thanks to the publisher for letting CR share this short excerpt from the start of the book. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

The story of an orphan in a fractured Southwest who just wants to ride a dinosaur under the lights.

Come one, come all to the dinosaur rodeo!

Tif Tamim wants nothing more than to be a dinosaur buckaroo. An orphan in search of a place to rest his head and a job to weigh down his pockets, Tif has bounced from circus to circus, yearning for a chance to ride a prehistoric beauty under the sparkling lights of a big-top.

To become a buckaroo, Tif needs to learn the tools of the trade, yet few dino maestros want to take a scrawny nobody from nowhere under their wing. But when Tif frees a dino from an abusive owner and braves the roving gangs of the formerly-American west to bring the dino to safety, he catches someone’s eye. And boy, how those eyes dazzle Tif from the back of a bucking carnotaur.

Fans of McDonald’s other novellas and novels will find plenty to like in this latest book. Recommended.

And now, on with the excerpt…

Continue reading →

Excerpt: WHAT WE ARE SEEKING by Cameron Reed (Tor Books)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , ,

Today, we have a substantial, two-chapter excerpt from What We Are Seeking, the “soaring novel of queer hope and transformation” by Cameron Reed. Pitched as “perfect for readers of Ann Leckie and Amal El-Mohtar”, I think a lot of people are going to like this. Here’s the synopsis:

On the planet Scythia, plants give birth to insects and trees can drag you to your death. Artificial monsters stalk the desert, and alien basket-men have wandered into town.

John Maraintha has been abandoned here, light-years from the peaceful forests that he loves.

The desert is harsh and the people in thrall to a barbaric custom called marriage.

He must find some way to make a life here.

But on Scythia, survival means transformation — and not everyone is willing to change.

And now, on with the excerpt…

Continue reading →