Science Fiction Books > 5 GBP to 9 GBP Science Fiction Books

The Triffids are Coming

Advantages: Tense, atmospheric, compellingly written
Disadvantages: Dialogue feels slightly stuffy in places

...Wyndham's 1951 novel 'Day of The Triffids', main protagonist Bill Masen awakes in a London hospital to find that his eyes are heavily bandaged and nobody appears to be around to attend to him. Tentatively removing his bandages and discovering that he is still able to see, Masen quickly discovers that the hospital is deserted and some terrible catastrophe appears to have occured, with the city in a state of abject chaos. Everyone appears to be blind, ...
...the numerous pubs throughout the city, whist others cling to one another in an attempt to find food and somehow remain alive. Masen remembers the radio reports about strange cosmic phenomena in the sky that played out during the weeks he was incapacitated in the hospital, and it soon becomes apparent that watching these weird lights in the sky has somehow caused 99% of the worlds population to go completely blind. This is not all that humanity suddenly ...

Burning_Darkness 02.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

Terry Pratchett lied to me!

Advantages: Terry Pratchett's childish younger borther?
Disadvantages: Poor central character, broken writing style.

While waiting for the next Terry Pratchett instalment I had a look around for someone with a similar style. On the back of this book Pratchett himself claims Rankin to be "One of the rare guys who can always make me laugh" so what more recommendation does a Pratchett fan need? Cornelius Murphy is the stuff of epics; he is rather annoyed that no one else seems to realise this. As such he is the only one not surprised when he becomes employed by a ...
...screws left after you put the toaster back together? And how does the thermos flask know whether to keep something hot or cold? Good old-fashioned British comedy is what this novel aspires to be. Full of comedy sketches it reads like a Monty Python show and as such is somewhat hit and miss. Cornelius's epic journey seems to be an excuse by Rankin to place him into sitcom situations such as a street riot, a hostage situation and a Monastery. Amusing ...

dididave 25.02.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Book of Ultimate Truths - Robert Rankin

It is not just about football!

Advantages: It's very funny, and oh so true!
Disadvantages: None

The Disc, for those who don't know, continues to float in space, supported by the elephants who ride the back of the great swimming turtle A'tuin. The Hub about which the planet spins is a centre of great magic, and best avoided if you want to live a happy and contented life. At the outer perimeter is the great circle sea which unendingly streams over the rim into the void, which is best avoided if you want to continue to live at all. Most Discians ...
...Smeems, for instance, is the Candle Nave at the Unseen University. He has to worry about keeping the candles not just alight, but properly melted, artistically, gothicly, dribbled, as it were. Of course, there's Trevor to help. And there's Nutt. With two t's. Trevor Likely has a tendency to skive off work whenever possible, and to kick a tin can around. His dad was a legend. Nutt is… well, no-one's quite sure what Nutt is, even him. Goblin isn't ...

hiker 07.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

After The God Squads

Advantages: convincing world-building, complex plot and thought-provoking ideas
Disadvantages: flat characters

The world post Faith Wars (or Oil Wars, as the fundamentalists are inclined to call them) is both very different and, at the same time - as it should be in relatively close-future s-f - uncannily similar to ours. It's a world of the Second Enlightenment, where, at least in Europe, religion has been truly separated from politics and became a genuinely private and societaly marginalised activity. Terrorism is history and the global warming has been ...
...of churchgoer-bashing God Squads in the aftermath of the Faith wars. But it's all about to change when a priest and then a bishop are killed in what hints at a return of fundamentalist violence. But is it really? Soon the godless join the religious on the list of targets and the plot thickens, connecting Scottish clubs, an Australian creationist theme park and outer space, with new Gnostics, cyber-veterans and Christian fundamentalists figuring prominently. ...

magdadh 28.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Night Sessions - Ken MacLeod

AS HARD SF AS IT GETS (The Line War - Neal Asher)

Advantages: Asher knows his stuff
Disadvantages: It's all a bit too much for me

This new addition to the Polity universe starts off where the Polity Agent left off. Polity is still suffering from the onslaught of Jain tech, a lethal nanotechnology designed to destroy civilisations. Jain-infested Erebus and all his subjugated AIs are at war with the Polity and Agent Cormac, Orlandine and Dragon all are trying to their best, in their unique ways, to thwart Erebus's plans, whatever they might be. The narrative constantly skips ...
...in sequence. As the previous Cormac novels, this one is a space opera with a big helping of post-cyber-punk. All kinds of human-AI hybrids feature prominently (bio-machines and a powerful nanotechnology). The underlying conflict and, let me call it, existential core of the Polity world, buried deeply under the explosive high-tech, is about what it is to be a human or a machine, evolved or built, top-down or bottom-up. And, as with the previous Cormac ...

magdadh 24.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Line War (Agent Cormac 5) - Neal Asher