Cover Art | Empire of Light by Gary Gibson (Tor)

Gary Gibson has recently handed in the third book in the Dakota Merrick series, starting with Stealing Light and continuing in September with Nova War. His publisher, Tor UK, have given us fans a chance to give a little input into the cover for the third book, Empire of Light. Have a look below at the two covers:


To vote you can either follow the instructions on Tor's page dedicated to this or you can head over to Gary's blog and vote on his poll. This is really great and I fully applaud Tor and Gary for doing such a thing and opening up the doors for fans to give their thoughts and opinions. Please, even if you haven't read the first book (and I suggest you do!), head over and vote, it'll only take a click or two!

Review | Death's Head Day of the Damned by David Gunn (Bantam)

Title: Death's Head Day of the Damned
Author: David Gunn
Publisher: Bantam
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 400
Release Date: June 18th 2009

Lieutenant Sven Tveskoeg is a killing machine whose DNA marks him out as less – or perhaps more – than human.

He’s survived everything a hostile universe can throw at him, but it’s not luck that’s kept him alive. A lucky man wouldn’t be picked out of obscurity to serve in the army of his Emperor, OctoV, a machine-human hybrid who appears to be a teenage boy but is actually immeasurably older. Maybe Sven’s survived out of sheer bloody-mindedness (although let’s not forget his enhanced healing abilities and preternatural strength).

He and his squad of auxiliaries are in Farlight, capital of the Octavian Empire, for a bit of R & R. But the emperor is missing and what begin as riots soon turn to slaughter as civil unrest erupts into civil war. And behind the double-crosses and Byzantine betrayals that threaten to topple OctoV from his throne is, of course, the U/Free, a galaxy-spanning empire with the technology of gods and the morals of schoolchildren. As anarchy takes over, Sven could choose stay low and do nothing. But when has he ever done anything that sensible?

Once again we join Sven Tveskoeg in another Death's Head book, and after thoroughly enjoying the first, Death's Head (review), and the second, Maximum Offense (review), I was very eager to see where this one would take the series. After two books that delivered an excellent first person, stripped down prose with more action than you could shake a bazooka at, I was hoping that Day of the Damned would deliver more of the same, but with some new elements to keep it fresh. I was very pleased when it did all, but felt it may have been at a cost.

We start Day of the Damned with a little prologue with General Jaxx while he is waiting to meet OctoV, but he doesn't show. This little scene sets up the story quite nicely, with OctoV apparently missing and General Jaxx the obvious figure at which to direct unrest on the Octovian Empire. We then catch up with Sven, taking leave on Farlight, the capital of the Empire, although the leave he is on comes to an abrupt end when civil unrest threatens the throne that OctoV has held for millenia. Although visiting friends away from the city, a chain of events is put in motion when the life of Vijayy Jaxx is put in danger and Sven must get back to Farlight and join up with the Aux to tackle the ever-growing problems there. Not only this, but the political maneuverings of the U/Free - a galaxy wide civilisation - are starting to bring down the empire that Sven knows and serves.

What I liked about Day of the Damned is that it still keeps the first person view and the focus on the gritty and violent that I enjoyed so much in the first two. Not only that, but the political aspect is coming more into its own this time around and has a bigger role in the story. The only trouble with this is that Sven is our eyes and ears as we progress through the story - he freely admits that the political side of things is of no interest to him. David Gunn uses and excellent analogy for this, that when someone tries to teach Sven to play chess he quite simply puts it that he "doesn't play the long game". While this viewpoint has worked well up to now, I felt that it didn't really help that side of the story this time around, especially with the plot revolving around these aspects, although this is one aspect of Sven that he is consciously aware of and tries to work around this.

One of the other things that caught me out was the lack of the Aux - they don't appear in the first half of the story and the character and team building that was done in Maximum Offense didn't feel like it was paying off as much as I was hoping. That isn't to say it doesn't - when the Aux turn up they fall in very nicely with the story and I felt at home with them almost immediately. Despite this, I felt that Day of the Damned was much more focused on Sven after the detour of the second book that focused on the team more. This is good as Sven is one of those characters that you can't help to like and I wouldn't be reading a third book in a series if the main character didn't work.

One of the other things that Gunn has done so well is convey the bleakness of a civil war. With Farlight plunged into civil unrest we get a street view of events and I can fully believe that this would happen. It feels both depressing and frightening to know that, although this is fiction, this is the sort of thing that would happen given the chance, that people would behave like this. What makes this hit home even harder is the casual way Sven shrugs it off - he's seen worse and has lived through it. This just makes me realise that despite the enjoyment I've had from reading the Death's Head books, both Sven and the stories are dark entities, but Gunn has used them to give us good, entertaining stories.

To be completely honest, this wasn't as good as the previous two, but that's not to say it isn't good - it is. I enjoyed the new political aspects here but felt that, overall, they detracted from the enjoyment of reading from Sven's view. The ending has been left in such a way that it could go many places from here - all of which could deliver more of everything that makes the Death's Head novels so good.

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Review | Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Title: Zoe's Tale
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 335
Release Date: June 5th 2009

How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history? I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human.

Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did — how I did what I had to do — not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes. It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.

Zoe's Tale is the fourth novel from John Scalzi set in his Old Man's War universe (Old Mans War (review), The Ghost Brigades (review), The Last Colony (review)), although this time we have another viewpoint. Previously we've followed either John Perry or his wife, Jane, but in Zoe's Tale we get what the title make obvious - the story of Zoe, their adopted daughter. We also have another first in that the events of Zoe's Tale run parallel to those in The Last Colony. So, does Zoe's Tale live up to the promise of Scalzi's previous novels? Is Scalzi able to write as effectively as a 17 year old girl? Does the book work when we're getting a story re-told? The answer to all of these is a resounding yes!

I won't lie - I'm a big fan of John Scalzi and find his writing compulsive reading, but the thought of reading a story following events that I had already followed didn't do much for me. Perhaps this is why I didn't import the US hardback when it was released last year, although I feel that the wait I had between The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale was needed. If I had read both of them back to back I think I would have been a little less likely to enjoy it as much with all events fresh in my mind. The break between them allowed the time needed and it let me come to this with a fresh perspective.

Basically, John and Jane are asked to lead the first colony world founded by current colonists (rather than Earth natives). With a threat from the Conclave - a gathering of races now turning towards more peaceful solutions than the fighting that has gone on for many, many years - to all other races not a member that any colony founding will be dealt with by, if necessary, deadly force. John, Jane and Zoe are thrown into the deep end of the Colonial Union politics. Zoe, a person regarded by the Obin as a figure of near-messiah status due to her fathers work, is seventeen year old trying to settle into new colony life after leaving everything she knew behind. And this is how we see it - through her eyes, seeing things that a teenager does that adults don;t necessarily pick up on.

As we see things from Zoe's side it gives the opposite viewpoint to the military one we had in The Last Colony. We also get to find out a little more about events that took place during The Last Colony that weren't fully covered in the book, or events in the previous book that have some follow on side-events here. These are mainly minor, from the children's point of view of the strange attempts at breaking into the village, the attacks on the village and, ultimately, the arrival of the Conclave. The biggest addition is the time Zoe spends apart from her parents in trying to find a solution to the whole Conclave/Colonial Union problem. This is outlined in The Last Colony, but getting to see it first hand and experiencing everything properly certainly adds to the story.

Scalzi once again delivers an excellent story with great characters. Yes, the viewpoint is not one you'd expect from an author who has given us some pretty great military sci-fi books, but it works. In a book where the main downside is that it's reliving previously told events - which isn't as bad as it sounds, not by a long shot - John Scalzi has given us a story with everything he's known for in his typical flair. Very highly recommended!

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

TV Show | Virtuality Pilot

Virtuality is a pilot episode from one of the guys behind Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D Moore. I've been watching Galactica and I'm now on season 3 and enjoying it, so when I heard about Virtuality I was interested enough to make sure I took a look at it.


What we've got in Virtuality is a near future sci-fi drama based upon the first ship capable of interstellar travel - the Phaeton. On a 10 year mission to Epsilon Eridani and coming towards the go/no-go point near Neptune, we follow the crew as they go about their daily lives while relaxing using the virtual environments available to them on board. These environments seem like the real thing and various programs are chosen by each crew member as their form of escape from the confines of the ship. Not only that, but the whole mission is being filmed as a reality-type show by two of the crew members as part of the sponsorship that funded the ship.

However, as we follow each crew member in their personal spaces a recurring person seems to be in the programs with them. No one knows why, or who they are, but as conversation about this isn't readily bought up until later in the show we are left guessing ourselves. Combine this with the impending go/no-go choice the commander has to make, the fact that we're told Earth has less than 100 years before it becomes uninhabitable due to global warming, and a serious medical condition in one of the crew arising and we have a very interesting concept.

Personally, I enjoyed this very much. Not only is the situation an interesting element of the show, but the characters are engaging and I want to know more about them while discovering more about the mission, the ship and the nature of the planet Earth they have left behind and the star system they are heading to. Most of all, I want to know what is happening with the virtual reality programs and how this affects the crew when it is there only escape.

Despite enjoying it, I can't help but feel that it would soon run out of story if it had been picked up as a series. With only twelve characters, and in a limited environment, the possibilities are far from endless. Perhaps this is one of the reasons it hasn't been commissioned for a full show, although if it were set up as a mini-series it could effectively tell the story that needs to be told without becoming stale.

It's regrettable that good sci-fi shows like this are developed only to be dropped before getting a proper chance to shine, but when the tv stations want a hit they won't put the time and effort into a show that will require involvement and development to fully hit it's potential.

In the end, worth watching and enjoyable. A good example of thoughtful sci-fi that doesn't require big action set pieces to leave an impression.

Review | Wrath of the Lemming Men by Toby Frost (Myrmidon)

Title: Wrath of the Lemming Men
Author: Toby Frost
Publisher: Myrmidon Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Release Date: June 15th 2009

From the depths of Space a new foe rises to do battle with mankind: the British Space Empire is threatened by the lemming-people of Yull, ruthless enemies who attack without mercy, fear or any concept of self preservation.

At the call of their war god, the Yull have turned on the Empire, hell bent on conquest and destruction in their rush towards the cliffs of destiny.

When the Yullian army is forced to retreat at the battle of the River Tam, the disgraced Colonel Vock swears revenge on the clan of Suruk the Slayer, Isambard Smith's homicidal alien friend.

Now Smith and his crew must defend the Empire and civilise the stuffing out of a horde of bloodthirsty lemming-men- which would be easy were it not for a sinister robotics company, a Ghast general with a fondness for genetic engineering and an ancient brotherhood of Morris Dancers- who may yet hold the key to victory…

I stumbled across Space Captain Smith (review) and God Emperor of Didcot (review) last year and enjoyed them so much all I can do is recommend them to anyone that will listen, whether they like sci-fi or not. Toby Frost managed to write not only a laugh-out-loud space romp, but one that holds up well enough if you take all the humour away and start looking at the back bone of the stories - the world he has created. It just works so well and because of the fun I had with the first two novels Wrath of the Lemming Men was pretty much my most anticipated book of the year and the sooner I could get it through the letterbox the better. Not only did it meet my expectations, but once again Toby is expanding more and more from the base he set up in Space Captain Smith.

What I enjoyed most about Wrath of the Lemming Men was the fact that we're now on the third novel and following the crew of the John Pym again through their adventures. I know this sounds simple - and it is - but I feel that when I start reading these characters I'm not only whole heartedly enjoying reading about them, but I'm also running through my mind just what they'll say and do in the situation they're in. I feel at home when they come on page - Smith, Carveth, Suruk, Rhianna, they all feel like old friends now.

"Sorry, no. I refuse to join an army which practices human sacrifice and has no adequate pension plan." - Ashgad Nine-Swords

The bad guys are as bad and awful as ever with Ghast Commander 462 and his evil plots and the Yullian General Vock, one of the Lemming-Men of the title. The bad guys are what brings the novel together and the on page interaction between these two totally different aliens is great. Toby has really hit the nail on the head with the characters and despite the many humorous and tongue-in-cheek moments, he makes them feel like a threat, which is great for our tea-drinking heroes!

The world building this time around seems to have got better, and with two previous books now supporting the universe it's evident that Toby has taken a little extra time to develop it further. Yes, the jokes and parodies are present in droves, but they fit in to this excellent setting and although it can make it feel light hearted, it also brings a little more depth to the novel.

In the story itself we follow Smith and his crew from planet to planet on the hunt for the Vorl before the Ghast find them. Not only that, but the Yull have joined the battle and want nothing more than to kill all humans, at least when not tempted to jump off cliffs. The story flows well and although a little jumpy, it flies by at such a pace that it doesn't leave too much down time. However, the slower sections help to show the strengths that Toby has at creating a fairly believable universe. But ultimately, the fun doesn't stop for too long and we get a great and well rounded tale of adventure.

At the end of the day I could go on about how great Wrath of the Lemming Men is and how much I love the Space Captain Smith books, but I'm sure that would get more than a little annoying no matter how true it is. If you've not yet read any of the Space Captain Smith books then you're not only missing out on a good read, but a great cast of characters and some of the most humorous writing I've come across in quite a while.

Go out, buy the book, kick your feet up with some tea and biscuits and enjoy yourself a damned good read!

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Review | Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Orbit)

Title: Storm Front
Author: Jim Butcher
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Paperback
Pages: 341
Release Date: 1st September 2005

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Reasonable rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things -- and most of them don't play well with humans.

That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a -- well, whatever. There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

I read Black Magic Woman (review) and Evil Ways (review) earlier this year and it was my first real taste of urban fantasy, witches and wizards and all that jazz. I enjoyed them both immensely and quickly heard that the Dresden Files were the series to read when it comes to this genre. So, after much delay I finally got around to reading Storm Front, the first Dresden Files book. Did it live up to the expectations I had after hearing such great things? Of course it did!

When you're reading a book focusing on one character and despite how good the story is, if that one character doesn't feel right or is a character you just don't like, then there really is no hope in continuing to read it. Harry Dresden is not one of these characters. Jim Butcher had given us a great character here, a wizard that knows his stuff and is the kind of loner you would expect from being what he is, especially as he freely advertises the fact.

Harry knows many things, both human and other, and it is through his knowledge and history that we find ourselves thrown in quite happily to a fully realised world. With a great character you have to have a decent background to tell their story, and the magical elements are bought into the story very nicely and with little effort. It's because of this that I found myself really enjoying reading Storm Front, the style and prose working very well with this sort of story and not being too worried about not knowing one thing or another straight away, I knew that the story would tell itself and I would walk away without too many questions.

The actual story itself is told very well. As we start out with Harry we follow him working for the police on a strange murder while he also has a rather hesitant and secretive client come to him about her missing husband. With these two plot threads in motion we start to glimpse more and more of Harry's world and the various creatures that inhabit it. The pace is quick and doesn't let up much and although the general direction of the story is pretty obvious, it's a fun journey.

I will quite happily recommend this book to anyone that enjoys urban fantasy (although I suspect I'm the last one joining this train) or to anyone that wants to try something a little different and wants a fun read with nothing too taxing. I've already got the sequel, Fool Moon, on the shelf and I'll be slowly building up this collection with all the releases - it's just so easy and enjoyable to read!

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com