Beta-Life
Martyn Amos and Ra Page. Comma (
comma-press.co.uk), $16.95 trade paper (390p) ISBN
978-1-905583-65-2
In an interesting literary experiment,
scientist Amos and Comma Press
founder Page (The New Uncanny) pair literary and SF writers with scientists to
explore the implications of new and
upcoming technologies, in stories set in
the year 2070. Even the weaker inclusions are interesting, and there are
plenty of truly strong ones. Martyn
Bedford’s “Sayer of Sooth” is a witty
metafictional romp featuring lie-detecting goggles and a long-lost SF
anthology. Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s “Bruno
Wins!” takes the “Internet of Things”
and social media to interesting levels,
while Adam Roberts’s “A Swarm of
Living Robjects Around Us” explores the
political and personal implications of
intelligent personal robotics systems.
Annie Kirby’s “Luftpause” and Stuart
Evers’s “Everyone Says” offer humanistic
looks at the implications involved in the
technology-driven loss of privacy.
Equally fascinating are the essays in
which the scientists explain the present-
day state of the tech in question. Amos
and Page’s anthology will appeal to any
story provides an often scathing indict-
ment of the human condition. (Mar.)
The Void
Timothy S. Johnston. Carina, $2.99 e-book
(257p) ISBN 9-781-4268-9964-5
This engrossing and exciting SF thriller
is Johnston’s third Tanner Sequence
adventure (after The Freezer), but it stands
well on its own. Confederate Combined
Forces (CCF) homicide investigator Kyle
Tanner returned to his home base on Pluto
after catching one of the galaxy’s most
feared serial killers, the Grim Reaper. As
Tanner and his engineer girlfriend, Shaheen,
escort the Reaper back to Alpha System
for execution, they quietly discuss how
they might escape the iron fist of the CCF.
However, the sedate trip turns deadly when
their transport mysteriously loses power
and they are rescued by another incapacitated ship, the Phoenix. When Tanner finds
an unexplained dead body, his investigation
uncovers a secret CCF project targeting
dissidents. Everyone on board is suspect,
the Reaper escapes, the body count
increases, and Tanner starts to realize that
his erstwhile prisoner and the Phoenix are
connected. SF and mystery fans will be
impressed with Johnston’s tightly written
deep-space whodunit. (Mar.)
Allenson will triumph in Cambridge and
subsequently be defeated in Port Trent in
no way detracts from the enjoyment provided by this ingeniously structured
retelling. (Mar.)
Not Easy Being Green
Susy Gage. Bitingduck ( bitingduckpress.com),
$14.99 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-1-
938463-98-3
The second novel featuring physics professor Lori Barrow (after A Slow Cold
Death) returns to the campus of Superior
Technological Institute, where superstar
biologist Oriol Ortiz is engaged in
dubious experiments related to the supposed miracle cures performed at his
clinic in Mexico. After Barrow discovers a
dead mouse with a fluorescent green brain
tumor, she fears that Ortiz’s experiments
have gotten out of control. Pseudonymous author Gage is a physics professor,
and her experience shows in her darkly
comic and slapstick portrayal of grubby
labs, heated competition for grant money,
and unhinged postdoctoral students.
However, she undercuts herself with flat
prose, labored wordplay (celebrity agent
Morris Dietrich is known as “Moe Deet,”
a pun on the French maudit), and characters who all sound the same. (Mar.)
Sacrificial Lamb Cake
Katrina Monroe. Red Adept (
redadeptpublish-ing.com), $13.99 trade paper (242p) ISBN
978-1-940215-42-6
Monroe (Reaper) explores religious
identity and redemption, giving a passing
nod to comedy as she boldly showcases the
psychological and physical horrors of radicalism. Waitress Rain Johnson wants
nothing more than to make some money,
live her life free of her extreme environmentalist family (particularly her highly
unstable mother), and maybe find a more
stable and steady girlfriend than Francine,
her roommate and occasional lover. Yet all
of those wants are sidelined when a man
named Jude presents her with an offer she
can’t refuse. Not only is the money
decent, but it turns out Rain is the Second
Coming of Christ. Someone has started
the Apocalypse a little early, and it’s up to
Rain, Jude, and whomever they pick up
along the way to head it off at the pass.
With a promising comedic beginning and
over-the-top characters, the well-written
; The Mechanical
Ian Tregillis. Orbit, $17 trade paper (480p) ISBN 978-0-316-24800-6
Tregillis (Something More Than Night) launches a series with this superb alternate history filled with clockwork men and ethical questions on the nature of free will. The Calvinist Dutch empire, with the help of the mechanical
soldiers (“Clakkers”) that are imbued with intelligence and
enslaved through magic, has been dominant since defeating
the French in the 17th century. Two centuries later, their
only opponents are small French and Papal outposts in the
New World. Against this background, French spymaster Berenice Charlotte de
Mornay-Périgord, Vicomtesse de Laval, attempts to manage her secret agents
abroad. One of those agents is Father Luuk Visser, a Catholic priest undercover as
a pastor in the Hague, who knows he’s soon going to be exposed. He uses one of
the Clakkers, Jax, to smuggle an item across the Atlantic. As Berenice, Luuk, and
Jax go on their separate journeys (only briefly intersecting), they uncover multiple
dastardly plots, learn terrifying secrets, and have to cope with knowing that all
three of them have destroyed innocent lives. Tregillis’s complex setting is elegantly delivered, and the rich characters and gripping story really make this tale
soar. Agent: Kay McCauley, Pimlico Agency. (Mar.)
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