Sci-Fi

Upcoming: ALIEN CLAY by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , , ,

TchaikovskyA-AlienClayUKHCI stumbled across Alien Clay while looking for a different book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following CR for even a short while that I am a big fan of the author’s work, so it is always nice to learn of another upcoming book! This is obviously now on my Most Anticipated in 2024 list. Due to be published next year in the UK by Tor Books, here’s the synopsis for this “thrilling far-future adventure”:

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.

In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK, on March 28th, 2024. No information about a North American publisher, at time of writing, but many of the author’s previous novels have been published across the Pond by Orbit Books.

Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn“, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, Shards of Earth, One Day All This Will Be Yours, and Ogres

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter

Excerpt: THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , , ,

Tidhar-CircumferenceOfTheWorldUSHCNext month, Tachyon Publications will publish The Circumference of the World, the latest mind-bending novel from Lavie Tidhar, and they have provided CR with an excerpt to celebrate the upcoming release. An author whose name on the cover indicates a must-buy/-read, this latest book looks like it’ll be as intriguing and original as his others. Before we get to the excerpt, let’s first check out the synopsis:

Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax…

Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction-obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband Levi goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.

The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?

Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE KING OF THE SPOIL by Jonathan D. Beer (Black Library)

Civilian Reader Review , , , , , , ,

BeerJD-WH40k-KingOfTheSpoilAn interesting and original look at life in an Imperial Megacity

Delve into the lawless underbelly of the vast city of Varangantua in this fantastic Warhammer Crime novel.

Within the vast sprawl of Varangantua lies the Spoil. It is a broken crossroads, forsaken by the Lex, abandoned by the city’s uncaring masters, where the only choice is a slow death in the manufactories, or a quick one on the street.

And it is in turmoil.

Andreti Sorokin, the gangster king whose vicious rule brought order to the Spoil, is dead, slain in the most brutal fashion.

Melita Voronova, skilled info-broker and reluctant agent of the imperious Valtteri cartel, is tasked with uncovering the mystery of who killed Sorokin, and preventing his fragile alliance of thugs and narco-pushers from collapsing into chaos.

As street-blades clash and gang leaders turn against one another, Melita’s instincts tell her there is a larger conspiracy at work. Someone has created this crisis not merely to disrupt the Spoil, but to overturn the foundations of Varangantua itself.

The latest novel in Black Library’s Warhammer Crime/WH40k series, which went up for pre-order yesterday. I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of the book from the author. It’s my first full-length read from Black Library’s Warhammer Crime imprint, and it is very good. It did, however, leave me wondering about the “Crime” label. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this and it offers readers an interesting and pretty original perspective of life in the underbelly of an Imperial megacity. Continue reading →

Excerpt: FLIGHT & ANCHOR by Nicole Kornher-Stace (Tachyon)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , ,

KornherStaceN-F-Flight&AnchorFlight & Anchor is a new story set in Nicole Kornher-Stace‘s Firebreak world, and is due to be published very soon by Tachyon Publication. To mark the upcoming release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with you all. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Young SecOps operatives 06 and 22 were about to be sent out for their first military engagement. Just a few years earlier, they were child refugees of a corporate civil war; Stellaxis modified them into supersoldiers. But 06 and 22 have escaped their prison barracks and entered a city they can barely remember. In the dead of winter, they sleep in an abandoned shipping container and scavenge for resources.

The Director of the Stellaxis supersoldier program knows that 06 and 22 are gone, where they are, and that she has no easy way of retrieving them. The Director also knows that if she sends anyone after them, there will be a bloodbath — or at least a great deal of bad press. But all operatives’ days are numbered. 06 and 22 must make a terrible choice: their freedom or each other.

Now, read on for the excerpt…

Continue reading →

Upcoming: SYSTEM COLLAPSE by Martha Wells (Tor.com)

Civilian Reader Upcoming , , , , ,

WellsM-MD8-SystemCollapseLike many, I am a huge fan of Martha Wells‘s Murderbot Diaries series. They are a perfect blend of action, adventure, and character-focused storytelling. In November, Tor.com are due to publish the seventh book in the series, System Collapse. It’s the second full-length novel in the series (the other books are novella-length, and there’s a short story as well). Here’s the synopsis:

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

Easily one of my most-anticipated books of the year. System Collapse is due to be published by Tor.com in North America and in the UK, on November 14th.

Also on CR: Reviews of All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, and Fugitive Telemetry

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter

Excerpt: A TIDY ARMAGEDDON by BH Panhuyzen (ECW Press)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , ,

PanhuyzenBH-ATidyArmageddonCABH Panhuyzen‘s debut novel, A Tidy Armageddon is due out next week. It has been described as a mix of “heart-felt journey of human resilience” and “action-filled suspense”. To mark the novel’s imminent publication, ECW Press has provided CR with an excerpt to run. First, of course, here’s the official synopsis:

They emerge from a war bunker to find the world utterly transformed: every product of human creation has been organized by an unknown hand into a vast grid of random nine-storey blocks, each comprised of a single item type: watering cans, lighthouses, fake Christmas trees, helicopters, spoons, and everything else human culture has every produced.

Led by Afghanistan war veterans Sergeant Elsie Sharpcot, a Cree woman who has struggled against the military’s rampant racism and misogyny, and Dorian Wakely, her PTSD-afflicted second-in-command, this section of misfit soldiers must negotiate the endless passageways that separates the blocks while they search for both survivors, and answers to the source of this catastrophe. And in the meantime, they must struggle – against the elements and each other – to survive.

Passing with fear and wonder through this museum of human achievement, provisioning themselves from its treasures, the group races to outrun the approaching winter.

Intrigued? Read on for a sample from A Tidy Armageddon, taken from Chapter 13…

Continue reading →

Excerpt: FOR THE FIRST TIME, AGAIN by Sylvain Neuvel (Tor.com)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , , ,

NeuvelS-3-ForTheFirstTimeAgainUSHCNext week, Tor.com are due to publish For the First Time, Again, the third novel in Sylvain Neuvel‘s Take Them to the Stars series. To celebrate the release, the publisher has provided CR with this except. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Against the backdrop of authentic historical events, Sylvain Neuvel concludes his acclaimed Take Them to the Stars series with a biting satire on the role of authority in all its guises, bringing us a truly breathtaking science fiction trilogy that spans the ages.

When you don’t know The Rules it’s hard to stay safe.

After a traumatic incident, Aster’s blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she’s the last of an alien race called the Kibsu, though she doesn’t know it.

She becomes the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. But help has come from a most unexpected quarter.

Whoever finds her first, it won’t be good news for Aster.

Or for the world!

Now, read on for four short chapters of the novel…

Continue reading →

Annotated Excerpt: DESCENDANT MACHINE by Gareth L. Powell (Titan)

Civilian Reader Annotated Excerpt , , , ,

PowellGL-C2-DescendantMachineTomorrow, Titan Books is due to publish Gareth L. Powell‘s latest science fiction novel, Descendant Machine. This is the second novel in the author’s action-packed Continuance series, and sequel to Star and Bones. As part of the blog tour celebrating the release, the publisher has allowed me to share this excerpt. First, though, check out the synopsis:

When Nicola Mafalda’s scout ship comes under attack, she’s left deeply traumatised by the drastic action it takes to keep her alive. Months later, when an old flame comes to her for help, she realises she has to find a way to forgive both the ship and her former lover. Reckless elements are attempting to reactivate a giant machine that has lain dormant for thousands of years. To stop them, Nicola and her crew will have to put aside their differences, sneak aboard a vast alien megaship, and try to stay alive long enough to prevent galactic devastation.

And without further ado, let’s get on with the excerpt…

Continue reading →

Excerpt: MOTHS by Jane Hennigan (Angry Robot Books)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , ,

HenniganJ-MothsToday, Angry Robot Books has provided CR with an excerpt from the latest novel by Jane Hennigan, Moths. Described as “A divergent future with a thought-provoking feminist slant”, here’s the synopsis:

Where were you at the beginning?
Or at the end?
And where are we all now?

Forty years ago, the world changed. Toxic threads left behind by mutated moths infected men and boys around the globe. Some were killed quietly in their sleep, others became crazed killers, wildly dangerous and beyond help. All seemed hopeless.

But humanity adapted, healed and moved on. Now matriarchs rule, and men are kept in specially treated dust-free facilities for their safety and the good of society, never able to return to the outside.

Mary has settled into this new world and takes care of the male residents at her facility. But she still remembers how things used to be and is constantly haunted by her memories. Of her family, of her joy, of… him.

Now the world is quiet again, but only because secrets are kept safe in whispers. And the biggest secret of all? No one wants to live inside a cage…

Exploring male violence against women, homo-normativity, and gynocracy, Moths is a powerful assessment of life through the lens of a main character in her 70s. A remastered and revitalised version of the previously self-published, smash-hit dystopian thriller by the same name, Moths shows us a new, post-pandemic world.

This excerpt is taken from the beginning of the book.

Continue reading →

Quick Review: COLD PEOPLE by Tom Rob Smith (Scribner)

Civilian Reader Review , , , , , ,

SmithTR-ColdPeopleUSHCHumanity if forcibly removed to Antarctica, ceding control over the planet to an extraterrestrial force. It does… not go smoothly.

A suspenseful and fast-paced novel about an Antarctic colony of global apocalypse survivors seeking to reinvent civilization under the most extreme conditions imaginable.

The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has thirty days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist… Antarctica.

Cold People follows the perilous journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because as they cling to life on the ice, the remnants of their past swept away, they must also confront the urgent challenge: can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity’s future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?

A gripping, fast-moving survival thriller, this is the first novel that I’ve read by Tom Rob Smith. It certainly won’t be my last. I really enjoyed this gripping, icy thriller. Continue reading →