Sci-Fi

Excerpt: DARKSIDE by Michael Mammay (Harper Voyager)

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MammayM-P4-DarksideUSHCIn a couple of weeks (September 24th), Harper Voyager is due to publish the fourth action-packed installment in the Planetside by Michael Mammay: in Darkside, retired Colonel Carl Butler gears up for another investigation, full of danger, corporate intrigue, and technology that people would kill for. To mark the imminent release, we have an excerpt to share! Here’s the synopsis:

Colonel Butler has paid his dues and just wants to enjoy his retirement on a remote planet. But the galaxy has had other plans.  He has been roped into searching for a politician’s missing son and an industry magnate’s missing daughter. He has been kidnapped, violated numerous laws, and caused the destruction of colonial facilities. He’s famous — or infamous, depending on who you ask — praised and reviled in equal measure across the galaxy for his exploits.

And he is determined to never let the government drag him into another investigation.

But when a runaway twelve-year-old girl whose father has gone missing asks him for help, well… it’s a lot harder to say no.

The girl’s father, Jorge Ramiro, was supposed to have been on Taug, a moon orbiting the gas giant Ridia 5, working on a dig with a famous archaeologist. But now there’s no sign of him and no record of him being there. Mining operations on the moon are run by two different consortiums, Caliber and Omicron — both of which have tried to kill Butler in the past. Butler doesn’t believe in coincidence.

Landing on Taug with his right-hand man Mac, computer genius Ganos, and an elite security squad, Butler soon finds that they’ve charged back into the crosshairs — because Ramiro is not the only who has disappeared, and the perpetual darkside of this moon is hiding more than the truth about a missing archeologist…

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Excerpt (2): NEW ADVENTURES IN SPACE OPERA, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Tachyon Publications)

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NewAdventuresInSpaceOperaUSHCOn August 13th, Tachyon Publications are due to publish New Adventures in Space Opera, the latest fantastic new collection of science fiction edited by Jonathan Strahan. To celebrate the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with two excerpts! The first excerpt went up on last week, and the second — from Charlie Jane Anders‘s “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” — is below.

First, here’s the anthology’s synopsis:

Award-winning science fiction editor Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction of the Year series) presents this quintessential guide to the New Space Opera, showcasing short stories from fifteen of acclaimed speculative fiction authors, including Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, Sam J. Miller, and more.

In “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” a cloud-based contractor finds a human war criminal clinging to the hull of the ship. The clones of “All the Colours You Thought Were Kings,” about to attend their coming-of-age ceremony, are also plotting treason. During “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” two outlaws go on the run after stealing a device from a space cult.

Take a faster-than-light trip to the future. Discover where memes rise and fall in moments. Here are the new, adventurous, and extremely efficient–takes on interstellar battles, sentient spaceships, and galactic intrigue. The future is sooner than you think, and there’s only so much time to visit.

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Excerpt (1): NEW ADVENTURES IN SPACE OPERA, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Tachyon Publications)

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NewAdventuresInSpaceOperaUSHCNext month, Tachyon Publications are due to publish New Adventures in Space Opera — a fantastic new collection of science fiction, edited by Jonathan Strahan and featuring a great many talented authors. To celebrate the pending release (it’s out on August 13th), the publisher has provided CR with two excerpts! The first excerpt, below, is from Tobias S. Buckell‘s “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance”. The second excerpt will go up next week.

Here’s the anthology’s synopsis:

Award-winning science fiction editor Jonathan Strahan (The Best Science Fiction of the Year series) presents this quintessential guide to the New Space Opera, showcasing short stories from fifteen of acclaimed speculative fiction authors, including Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, Sam J. Miller, and more.

In “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” a cloud-based contractor finds a human war criminal clinging to the hull of the ship. The clones of “All the Colours You Thought Were Kings,” about to attend their coming-of-age ceremony, are also plotting treason. During “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” two outlaws go on the run after stealing a device from a space cult.

Take a faster-than-light trip to the future. Discover where memes rise and fall in moments. Here are the new, adventurous, and extremely efficient–takes on interstellar battles, sentient spaceships, and galactic intrigue. The future is sooner than you think, and there’s only so much time to visit.

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Quick Review: DEATHWORLDER by Victoria Hayward (Black Library)

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HaywardV-WH40kAM-DeathworlderCatachans versus a dying planet overrun by tyranid horrors

On a planet trapped in the closing jaws of the Great Devourer, Major Wulf Khan of the Catachan 903rd receives a final, desperate mission – one which will take her soldiers into the maw of the tyranid threat.

Lazulai is a world beyond the brink, its battle against the tyranids all but lost. Once-magnificent cities lie in ruin. The seas boil. The skies crack. Horrific alien bioforms devour. In mere days the planet will be consumed.

The 903rd Catachan ‘Night Shrikes’ defend one of the last fortresses still standing. Led by Major Wulf Khan, to die fighting is all that is expected of them… until she is given one last mission: to lead a squad through the apocalypse and recover a piece of archeotech that may doom or deliver the entire Lazulai System.

Facing impossible odds and zero hope for aid, the major must hold her squad together as they pick their way through an endless xenos jungle. The enemy is merciless, relentless, endlessly adaptable and formidably resourceful… but so too is Khan.

This is an excellent addition to Black Library’s growing Astra Militarum range/series. Following a small squad of Catachan commandos on a desperate, deadly mission, Hayward manages to evoke not only the brutal (often short) careers of Imperial Guardsmen, but also the horror that is the Great Devourer. I very much enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press)

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BradleyK-MinistryOfTimeUSHC2A highly-anticipated new time-travel mystery

A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time…

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible — for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how — and whether she believes — what she does next can change the future.

I first heard about The Ministry of Time from a friend of the author’s, in the summer of 2023, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating it ever since. I started reading it a few days after its release, and I’m happy to say that I very much enjoyed it — it’s a witty, interesting take on time travel mysteries. Continue reading →

Excerpt: ROGUE SEQUENCE by Zac Topping (Tor Books)

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ToppingZ-RogueSequenceUSHCRogue Sequence is the latest near-ish future thriller from Zac Topping. Due to be published by Tor Books in June, it promises more of the action-packed intensity of the author’s previous novel, Wake of War (which I have, and is rapidly climbing my TBR mountain). The publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers, to whet your appetite for the upcoming novel. Here’s the synopsis:

It’s 2091 and independent contract companies around the world are producing genetically modified soldiers… to be sold to the highest bidders.

Ander Rade is a super-soldier, a genetically engineered living weapon, and has been dutifully following orders since he gave himself to Xyphos Industries’ Gene-Mod Program several years ago. But when a mission goes sideways, he’s captured, imprisoned, and forced into brutally violent fighting pits for the better part of the next decade… until agents from the Genetic Compliance Department of the United American Provinces appear in the visiting room.

Things have changed since Rade was captured. Shortly after his incarceration, the World Unity Council banned human genetic engineering and deemed all modified individuals a threat to society. Overnight, an entire subculture of people became outlaws simply for existing. But instead of leaving Rade locked behind bars, the GCD agents have come with an offer: Freedom in exchange for his help tracking down one of his former teammates from that ill-fated mission all those years ago.

It’s an offer Rade can’t refuse, but he soon realizes that the situation is far more volatile than anyone had anticipated, and is forced to take matters into his own hands as he tries to figure out whose side he’s really on, and why.

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Excerpt: THE RUNES OF ENGAGEMENT by Dave Klecha & Tobias S. Buckell (Tachyon Publications)

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BuckellKlecha-RunesOfEngagementUSHCNext month, Tachyon Publications are due to publish the new novel by Dave Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell: The Runes of Engagement. Pitched as “The Lord of the Rings meets Slaughterhouse-Five by way of World of Warcraft“, it’s a “delirious mashup” that pits the U.S. military against legendary monsters from fantasy novels and roleplaying games. And that sounds very cool indeed! To celebrate the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share. But first, here’s the synopsis:

No one could have been prepared for the day when orcs, trolls, and dragons fell from portals in the sky. But the world fought back against the invaders as best it could, with soldiers, tactical weapons, and even some rudimentary magic.

Now a tough but not-quite-prepared platoon of Marines is trapped on the wrong side of the portals. The enchanting landscape looks like Middle Earth but — to the dismay of the nerdiest soldiers — is nothing like it. While the Marines fend off dangerous, improbable, and very rude assailants, their mission is to escort a VIP (Very Important Princess) who could broker a strategic alliance between worlds.

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Very Quick Review: UNEXPLODED REMNANTS by Elaine Gallagher (TorDotCom)

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GallagherE-UnexplodedRemnantsUSHCA fast-paced, intriguing new sci-fi novella

An A.I. wages war on a future it doesn’t understand.

Alice is the last human. Street-smart and bad-ass.

After discovering what appears to be an A.I. personality in an antique data core, Alice decides to locate its home somewhere in the stargate network. At the very least, she wants to lay him to rest because, as it turns out, she’s stumbled upon the sentient control unit of a deadly ancient weapon system.

Convincing the ghost of a raging warrior that the war is over is about as hard as it sounds, which is to say, it’s near-impossible. But, if Alice fails and the control unit falls into the wrong hands, the balance of power her side of the Milky Way could fall apart. As Alice ports throughout the known universe seeking answers and aid she will be faced with impossible choice after impossible choice and the growing might of an unstoppable foe.

A very quick/short review, for this one. This is a pretty fast-paced, galaxy-trotting science fiction novella. After a slightly shaky start, I quickly fell into the setting and became invested in the characters’ fates. It doesn’t quite stick the landing, but I nevertheless enjoyed it. Continue reading →

Excerpt: CALYPSO by Oliver K. Langmead (Titan Books)

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LangmeadOK-CalypsoHCToday, we have an excerpt from the new epic verse novel Calypso, by Oliver K. Langmead: “A saga of colony ships, shattering moons and cataclysmic war in a new Eden.” It’s out now, published by Titan Books. Here’s the synopsis:

Rochelle wakes from cryostasis to take up her role as engineer on the colony ark, Calypso. But she finds the ship has transformed into a forest, populated by the original crew’s descendants, who revere her like a saint.

She travels the ship with the Calypso’s creator, the enigmatic Sigmund, and Catherine, a bioengineered marvel who can commune with the plants, uncovering a new history of humanity forged while she slept.

She discovers a legacy of war between botanists and engineers. A war fought for the right to build a new Earth – a technological paradise, or a new Eden in bloom, untouched by mankind’s past.

And Rochelle, the last to wake, holds the balance of power in her hands.

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Excerpt: THE YEARS SHALL RUN LIKE RABBITS by Ben Berman Ghan (Wolsak & Wynn)

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BermanGhanB-YearsShallRunLikeRabbitsHCOn May 14th, Wolsak & Wynn are due to publish The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits, a “complex work of literary speculative fiction that spans centuries”, by Ben Berman Ghan. To mark the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share — specifically, taken from Chapter 3. Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits starts in 2014 with a winged alien sowing the seeds of a strange forest on the moon. The novel then moves through humanity’s colonization of the moon and its consequences, onto a war with alien beings within a space-going whale, a cyborg mind that sleeps for hundreds of years after sheltering the city of Toronto from the worst of the war and finally a re-creation of humanity.

Ghan poses thoughtful questions about artificial intelligence, humanities quest for the stars and ecological destruction in this wide-ranging story, which is held together equally by beautiful writing and deft characterization. The end result is an ambitious debut that leaves the reader contemplating many amazing possibilities for the future of our world.

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