Science Fiction Books > M Science Fiction Books

Black Man - A real page turner

Advantages: GREAT READ
Disadvantages: NOTHING

Black Man. = This book has a feel of Bladerunner meets Jason Bourne meets Hitman. Carl Marsalis was created. Carl is a variant Thirteen. He was made to genetically be the best, the most perfect super soldier there had ever been. But something has gone wrong after his last mission Carl has lost his willingness to kill. His superiors refuse to believe and instead use him as a Hitman for the UN. However this failure to kill gets him into trouble ...
...Carl thinks that now it must truly all be over with but then another Thirteen has just returned from Mars and is running around killing people. It is also killing off other Thirteens. Carl must find and kill it or wait for it to come for him. But as usual not everything is as it seems and soon there are twists and turns along the way and the conclusion is a superb ending to the book. The writing is crisp and fresh. Whilst the book races along and ...

MaldivesHoliday 16.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Black Man (Gollancz) - Richard Morgan

10 years later and he's still my favorite

Advantages: Great, story-driven period piece
Disadvantages: none

It's been ten long years since Robert R. McCammon published a novel, and I've been waiting impatiently the whole time. He was / is best known for his spellbinding horror novels, publishing a slew of excellent novels through the 1980s. I read every McCammon novel when I became a fan in 1990, and by the time "Gone South" was published I had caught up and had read everything he'd written to that point. Little did I know that I'd be waiting TEN YEARS ...
..."Speaks the Nightbird" was worth the wait. I plunged into this lengthy, satisfying novel and it was like speaking with an old friend after a long absence. This novel is a bit of a departure for the writer, as it's every bit a historical novel as it is a mystery story. The closest McCammon came to a historical novel was the WWII setting for "The Wolf's Hour", so I was a bit skeptical about him trying a "period" piece such as this. Thankfully, his ...

President-X-D 12.08.2003 · Read full review
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Review of Speaks the Nightbird - Robert McCammon

Sci-fi Noir

Advantages: Atomspheric old-style detective novel meets high-tech sci-fi
Disadvantages: Drugs, sex and swearing could offend

Laurens Bancroft is found in his study with his brains decorating the bookcase behind him. However, when a verdict of suicide is returned, Bancroft is not satisfied - adamant that he would never take his own life, he calls in outside help to investigate what he is sure is his murder. And so Takeshi Kovacs, Envoy solider-elite turned criminal, is awoken from his own near-death to play private eye to the rich and ancient Bancroft. Either he discovers ...
...to play out his penal sentence as 'd.h.f' - digital human freight. Struggling to overcome his last memories of being fatally shot, he finds himself in a different body, light years away from home and back on humanity's home planet, Earth. Can he find the clues to what really befell Laurens Bancroft? Not easy when someone is trying to kill you - again - nor when the local police seem to have a more than healthy interest in 'your body'. To avoid total ...

Calypte 15.02.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan

I was a teenage werewolf

Advantages: It's got werewolves and spies!
Disadvantages: You may not like the idea of werewolves and spies!

...this is a review of the book and NOT the audiobook. I've answered the ratings as if READING, not LISTENING. Thanks. Have you ever come in late from work, the howling wind and driving rain forcing you indoors to the comfort of a roaring log fire, your nearest and dearest ready to greet you with a freshly-warmed duvet and a big steaming mug of hot chocolate and marshmellows? If you have, you'll know the feeling I have every time I pick up The Wolfs ...
...coming back to. On the face of it, it's a story that shouldn't work. A story so seemingly laced in cheese-dripping clichés that it wouldn't merit even the slightest of second-glances in the discount book-store. Yes, it's a story about a werewolf who becomes a spy and the premise seems ridiculous. Bear with it however because as you get past the jacket cover, you'll find yourself on an exhilarating, thrilling ride as Michael Gallatin, Russian-turned-British ...

4ku-Papa 15.10.2007 · Read full review
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Review of The Wolf's Hour - Robert McCammon

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