Sci-Fi

Quick Review: NOBODY’S BABY by Olivia Waite (TorDotCom)

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Detective Dorothy Gentleman investigates the surprising (impossible?) appearance of a baby on the Fairweather…

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty’s most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

A wild baby appears! Dorothy Gentleman, ship’s detective, is put to the test once again when an infant is mysteriously left on her nephew’s doorstep. Fertility is supposed to be on pause during the Fairweather’s journey across the stars — but humans have a way of breaking any rule you set them. Who produced this child, and why did they then abandon him? And as her nephew and his partner get more and more attached, how can Dorothy prevent her colleague and rival detective, Leloup, a stickler for law and order, from classifying the baby as a stowaway or a piece of luggage?

This is the second novella starring Dorothy Gentleman, a ship’s detective on the HMS Fairweather, an interstellar passenger liner transporting people to a new life on a new planet. Gently paced, well-written and engaging, it’s another very good read from Waite, and fans of the first are sure to enjoy this. Continue reading →

Excerpt: THE UNIVERSE BOX by Michael Swanwick (Tachyon)

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Next year, Tachyon Publications are due to publish The Universe Box, a new collection of 21 superb short stories by Michael Swanwick. To whet readers’ appetites for the collection, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt from the title story. First, here’s the synopsis:

Discover the vast worlds and pocket universes of Michael Swanwick (Stations of the Tide), the only author to win science fiction’s most prestigious award five times in six years. In his dazzling new collection, the master of speculative short stories returns with tales in which magic and science improbably coexist with myth and legend. With two stories original to this collection, Swanwick aptly demonstrates with poignant humor why he is widely respected as a master of imaginative storytelling.

In engaging stories, Mischling the thief races through time to defeat three trolls before the sun rises for the first time and turns the inhabitants of her city into stone. A scientist is on the run from assassins, because her research in merging human intelligence with sentient AI is too dangerous. An aging veteran obtains a military weapon from his past: a VR robotic leopard in which he rediscovers the consequences of the hunt. In the biggest heist in the history of the universe, a loser Trickster (and the girlfriend who is better than he deserves), sets out to violate every trope and expectation of fiction possible.

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Excerpt: THE HEIST OF HOLLOW LONDON by Eddie Robson (Tor Books)

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Next month, Tor Books are due to publish The Heist of Hollow London, the latest novel from Eddie Robson; a twisty dystopia that blends Severance with Ocean’s Eleven. The publisher has kindly provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers.

First, though, here’s the synopsis:

In games of betrayal everyone loses.

Arlo and Drienne are ‘mades’—clones of company executives, deemed important enough to be saved should their health fail. Mades work around the clock to pay off the debt incurred by their creation, though most are Reaped—killed and harvested for organs when their corporate counterparts are in medical need.

But when the impossible happens and the too-big-to-fail company that owns them collapses, Arlo and Drienne find themselves purchased by a scientist who has a job for them.

The reward: Debt paid off, freedom from servitude, and enough cash to last a lifetime.

The job: Infiltrate a highly secure corporate reclamation facility in the heart of dead London and steal a data drive.

They’re going to need a team.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: OUTLAW PLANET by M. R. Carey (Orbit)

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In November, Orbit Books are due to publish Outlaw Planet, a new stand-alone science fiction novel by M. R. Carey! I’ve been a fan of the author’s work since The Girl With All the Gifts, and am very much looking forward to reading this — although, it has reminded me that I have fallen a little behind, and must get around to reading the author’s Pandominion duology. Here’s the synopsis for the new novel:

Sometimes the fate of entire worlds can be decided by a woman with nothing to lose, and the smartest gun in the multiverse in her hand…

This is the story of Bess — or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It’s the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It’s the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it’s the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero.

This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war — one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

This is how Bess learned the truth about her world. Came to it the hard way, through pain and loss and the reckless spilling of blood, and carried it with her like a brand on her soul. And once she knew it – knew for sure how badly she’d been used – she had no option but to do something about it.

M. R. Carey’s Outlaw Planet is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on November 18th.

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

Follow the Author: Goodreads, BlueSky

Upcoming: GODFALL by Van Jensen (Grand Central / Bantam)

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In January 2026, readers will be able to read Godfall, the latest novel (and first in a series) by Van Jensen. Actually, readers will be able to read it in a new edition. After a buzzy Hollywood bidding-war (won by Ron Howard), the novel is getting re-published. In a weird coincidence, I stumbled across both of the new editions on the same day. Both of the covers are certainly eye-catching, and they led me to the book’s synopsis, which ultimately made me put this on my To-Read shelf. (The option news also helped pique my interest.) Jensen also wrote some of the DC New 52 series that I read, back when they all kicked off (The Flash and Green Lantern Corps).

Really looking forward to it. Here’s what it’s about:

When a massive asteroid hurtles toward Earth, humanity braces for annihilation — but the end doesn’t come. In fact, it isn’t an asteroid but a three-mile-tall alien that drops down, seemingly dead, outside Little Springs, Nebraska. Dubbed “the giant,” its arrival transforms the red-state farm town into a top-secret government research site and major metropolitan area, flooded with soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists — and a murderer.

As the sheriff of Little Springs, David Blunt thought he’d be keeping the peace among the same people he’d known all his life, not breaking up chanting crowds of conspiracy theorists in tiger masks or struggling to control a town hall meeting about the construction of a mosque. As a series of brutal, bizarre murders strikes close to home, Blunt throws himself into the hunt for a killer who seems connected to the Giant. With bodies piling up and tensions in Little Springs mounting, he realizes that in order to find the answers he needs, he must first reconcile his old worldview with the town he now lives in — before it’s too late.

Van Jensen’s Godfall is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (January 13th, 2026) and Bantam in the UK (January 8th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Excerpt: SPACE SHIPS! RAY GUNS! MARTIAN OCTOPODS!, edited by Richard Wolinsky (Tachyon)

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Next month, Tachyon Publications are due to publish Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!, an Oral History of Science Fiction, comprised of a collection of interviews with authors, originally conducted for the radio. The collection was edited by Richard Wolinsky, and is sure to appeal to aficionados of the genre old and new. The publisher has provided us with the introduction, written by Wolinsky, to share with CR’s readers. Here’s the synopsis:

Today, depictions of aliens, rocket ships, and awe-inspiring, futuristic space operas are everywhere. Why is there so much science fiction, and where did it come from anyway? Radio producer and author Richard Wolinsky has found answers in the Golden Age of science fiction, between 1920 and 1960.

Wolinsky and his fellow writers and co-hosts Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, interviewed a veritable who’s who of famous (and infamous) science-fiction publishers, pulp magazines, editors, cover artists, and fans. The interviews themselves, which aired on the public radio, Probabilities, span over twenty years, from just before the release of Star Wars through the dawn of Y2K.

Probabilities was the home of a vivid cross-section of the early science fiction world, with radio guests offering a wide range of tales, opinions, theory, and gossip. It speaks to how, in the early days, they were free to define science fiction for themselves and push the genre to explore new ideas and new tropes in creative (and sometimes questionable) ways.

Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods! is ultimately a love letter to fandom. Science fiction wouldn’t have survived as a genre if there weren’t devoted fanatics who wrote fanzines, organized conventions, and built relationships for fandom to flourish.

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Upcoming: SLOW GODS by Claire North (Orbit)

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I’ve been a fan of Claire North‘s books ever since The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (2014), and have eagerly looked forward to each new title. This winter, the author turns to space opera with Slow Gods, a “galaxy-spanning tale ​of one man’s impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars”. Really looking forward to this. Here’s the synopsis:

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot’s chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I’ve lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?

Claire North’s Slow Gods is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on November 18th.

Also on CR: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, Touch, The Gamehouse, The Sudden Appearance of Hope, and Sweet Harmony

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

Excerpt: THE COMING FIRE by Greg Mosse (Moonflower)

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Next week (July 17th), Moonflower Books are due to publish the third book in Greg Mosse‘s Coming Darkness series: The Coming Fire. To mark the release, and give readers a taste, they have provided CR with a short excerpt to share. First, here’s the synopsis:

First came the darkness.
Then the storm.
Now Alex has no choice: it’s time to face the fire.

Following a fighter jet crash in the Haitian hinterland, special agent Alex Lamarque is taken captive by a violent, drug-addled gang, the only authority in this lawless territory.

Unknown to Alex, his lover Mariam Jordane has escaped the deadly flood of her home valley in the Pyrenees. But Mariam, along with Alex’s mother Gloria, is trapped on the wrong side of the world, facing a crescendo of dangers: the AI viruses crippling the digital state; the breakdown of law and order; and unexpected, terrifying news from a Paris observatory.

Four thousand kilometres to the south, in the remote Sahara, the consequences of the cataclysmic events at the Aswan dam continue to reverberate throughout the world.

With the woman he loves presumed dead, his mother in danger, and no hope of rescue, Alex must tackle his greatest challenge yet: break free from the gang, uncover the truth, and finally face the perpetrators of the global conspiracy that’s seemingly hellbent on destroying the world. Can he – and the people he loves – escape the coming fire?

Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: AUTOMATIC NOODLE by Annalee Newitz (Tordotcom)

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A cosy near-future story of finding purpose and found family — through noodles — in a bleak future.

You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food—the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around—for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war.

But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other—and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.

I’ve not read as many of Newitz’s works as I would like, but everything I have read I’ve very much enjoyed. I happened to get the DRC of this one just after finishing a longer read, and I dove right in, drawn to the premise. Hooked from early on, I enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Upcoming: EXILES by Mason Coile (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

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I hadn’t heard about the second novel from Mason Coile, Exiles, until the publisher reached out about it a couple of weeks ago. Coile is a pseudonym for acclaimed, best-selling Canadian horror author Andrew Pyper, who sadly passed away in January 2025. This posthumous release is “a terrifying, taut” blend of “science fiction and psychological horror”. Set on Mars. I’ll be reading this very soon. Here’s the synopsis:

A terrifying locked-room mystery from the author of William – this time set on a remote outpost on Mars.

The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray — the machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is missing.

In this barren, hostile landscape where even machines have nightmares, the astronauts will need to examine all the stories – especially their own – to get to the truth.

Mason Coile’s Exiles is due to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in North America (September 16th) and Baskerville in the UK (September 18th).

Follow the Author: Goodreads