Science Fiction Books > 25 GBP and more Science Fiction Books

Whiteout

Advantages: Brilliant premise, some great storytelling....
Disadvantages: ...too many 'clever' bits that don't gel

...falling on September 6th….and at the beginning people were happy". Of course they were. Snow. We complain about it, but it is white and clean and it does make people smile. At the beginning. The problem is, this snow doesn't stop falling. Day after day, week after week, all over the world, it snows. People stop being happy…start being…well, lots of things in succession really….annoyed, angry, frightened, trapped, brave, desperate and (in many cases ...
...on end. What if the whole world becomes buried in snow. What would happen to the people, to the planet, to civilisation as we know it? And then, what might cause it to snow and not stop…all over the globe? He starts at the beginning, with the first snowfall, and Tira telling us how it was. How it was in London anyway because that's what she knows. She takes us through the fall and what happens to her once she makes the decision not to stay put any ...

hiker 30.03.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Snow - Adam Roberts

Two books in one

Advantages: Readable and interesting memoir
Disadvantages: The short stories get in the way

"Green Shadows, White Whale" is an autobiographical novel, describing Bradbury's stay in Ireland to write the screenplay for the film "Moby Dick". However, as Bradbury is always more confident in the shorter form, it incorporates many of his "Irish" short stories. The result is a schizophrenic book. I found the new material, about Bradbury's relationship with John Huston and how he constructed the screenplay, fascinating. However I have never liked ...
...got in the way of a highly readable memoir. I feel that the book would have been far improved if Bradbury had abandoned his attempt at fictionalising his stay - if he had taken out the short stories, and treated the book as a genuine account of a small piece of cinema history. Nonetheless, given my disappointment at some of Bradbury's recent work, I was encouraged that it was the new material which I enjoyed, and I would still recommend the book ...

NeilHudson 10.09.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Green Shadows, White Whale - Ray Bradbury

A fiery SF tale

Advantages: A good honest SF read
Disadvantages: Not the material of the classics.

...and while it is not a tale that grabs you by the throat and does not let you put it down until the end (600+ pages sees to that one!), once finished, it leaves the reader with feeling that they've been part of a worthwhile experience. In a far-future version of our own galaxy, where the internet's levels of information exchange now span the Milky Way, this tale begins with the birth of an evil, the birth of its nemesis, and of a planetfull of people ...
...--- There are only a few human players in this story (and one of them has been constructed by a higher intelligence from spare body-parts) but those that we do see are pivotal, and highly developed characters. The following descriptions are brief so as not to give away plot elements: - Jefri and Johanna, a young boy and his older sister, crash landed on a strange planet while escaping the new evil, fighting for survival on this sometimes in-hospitable ...

one47 23.01.2002 · Read full review
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Review of A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge

Now look what you've got me into!

Advantages: fast pace, funny
Disadvantages: not long enough

The War God's Own A fantasy novel by David Weber Book 2 in the saga of Bahzell Bahnakson This is the second book in a fantasy series by David Weber. The events depicted in this book follow on from those in his first book "Oath of Swords" The volume I have is the Hard cover version. So I will work from that. In the front of the book are three additional maps of the territory. This gives me a better feel to the story in that you can place it in ...
...I feel that it helps the narrative along. We return to the fantasy world of Bahzell Bahnakson and his companion Brandark Brandarkson. As the reader travels through the world, more of the history of this world is revealed. New characters are introduced. Some of the reasons for the hate and distrust between the races and hradani were disclosed in the first volume. More becomes apparent with the unfolding story line of this the second book. Bahzell's ...

Coloneljohn 29.11.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The War God's Own - David Weber

"Aliens are coming"

Advantages: An entertaining read.
Disadvantages: Will not appeal to everybody, not even all science fiction fans.

This book I bought some time ago but have only recently got round to reading and re-reading. At first I thought it rather poor but I have changed my opinion since. A brief plot synopsis. This story set in the 30th century tells of the invasion of the human occupied part of the galaxy by an alien life form. This life form has been displaced from its own galaxy by a force they do not recognise. The distance displaced is meaningless as they can no longer ...
...no choice to survive but to colonise some other planets. Unfortunately these are already held by humanity. Following a long period of troubles humanity has colonised many star systems with different religious, economic or ethnic groups and has grown up to a certain extent. Wars are no longer fought. There are some small military craft that are used to discourage piracy but national armies are a thing of the past. Some military training still takes ...

Coloneljohn 20.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Soldiers - John Dalmas