To The Last Page

After the thrilling adventure of Morhelion, the second book in Dominic Dulley’s SF adventure series The Long Game extended the range of the universe and the larger game being played out, Residuum seems to return to the formula of the first book Shattermoon , more or less consolidating ground without developing any new ideas. That doesn’t mean that it’s at all disappointing however, as there is still plenty of adventure to be found in the world of the Ascendancy for Orry Kent and the crew of the Dainty Jane. In Shattermoon , we were introduced to Aurelia Kent, ‘Orry’ and her colleagues, a team of irreverent n’er-do-well space grifters operating outside the normal rules of the Ascendancy, making enemies with the rich and influential, being chased by their enemies and the authorities, having to make rapid escapes off-planet, or break out of captive situations. Whereas that formula was repeated throughout Shattermoon – chase, capture, escape – the uneasy peace holding out between the Asc...

It’s not a glamorous profession at the best of times, but when the spotlight falls unexpectedly on pathologist Thomas Stolz of the Princeton hospital, you have to wonder whether he is up to the task. The corpse that has been put before him is none other than Professor Albert Einstein and everyone wants to know the cause of death of one of the greatest minds of our time. Stolz is also interested in that great mind and while carrying out the autopsy he has a sudden crazy notion to steal the brain of Albert Einstein. Despite Einstein’s express wishes not to leave his body to science, much less his brain, Stolz believes it’s his duty as a scientist to continue the search for.the advancement of human and scientific knowledge, or maybe his own career and fame. Probably mostly the latter. So he takes some work home with him, not telling anyone that the contents of the box he has brought down to his basement workshop contains probably the most famous brain in the world. Imagine if a second aut...

Interstellar space travel, the discovery of new planets, evidence of ancient alien civilisations and first encounters still remains one of the more fascinating sides of science fiction. The apocalyptic and environmental catastrophe perhaps not so much at the minute as we seem to be rapidly heading towards living in a J.G. Ballard novel – not that Ballard’s genius and vision has diminished at all. It remains fascinating because it’s still largely a journey into the unknown and there are many technical advances that have to be achieved or imagined to get us there, advances nonetheless that can also be used for other purposes back on Earth. Purgatory Mount opens with a journey to the planet y, the third Earth sized planet in the V538 Aurigae system, a mere 40 light years away. The five-man crew of the Forward are there to explore a tower that is not a natural phenomenon, but a vast pillar that extends 142 kilometres above the surface of the planet. The crew think of it like a structure t...

I admire how Chris Brookmyre manages to continually reinvent and stretch himself as a writer, but he can be frustratingly inconsistent. From his early explosive Tartan terrorism, incompetent killers and Jack Parlabane works he slipped into a series of inoffensive Jasmine Sharp crime thrillers lacking in any real personality and then spun off in all kinds of directions. Lately though we’ve seen some of his best work in such diverse genres as science-fiction ( Places in the Darkness ) and period medical drama thrillers co-written as ‘Ambrose Parry’ ( The Way of All Flesh , The Art of Dying ). Black Widow won awards and acclaim but didn’t convince me, while on the other hand in his last brilliant thriller Fallen Angel may have been his best writing yet. Whatever else The Cut might be then, you can be sure it’s going to be unpredictable. Brookmyre opens The Cut with two amusingly confrontational characters and a conventional prologue that promises some murder intrigue involving both. W...

It’s not going to be hard to get Alan Parks Harry McCoy series in order. After Bloody January , February’s Son and Bobby March Will Live Forever , The April Dead brings more death to the streets of Glasgow in the 1970s. And, while there might not have been a great deal that was new in the last book, The April Dead does expand on a period that has proved to be significant in relation to the expansion of crime not just in Glasgow but in the wider UK. The connections extend further, crime becomes less localised and part of a larger network, all of which has greater implications for the Glasgow police force, and Detective Harry McCoy. We’re in April 1974 in this latest book in the series. A man has been killed in an explosion in a small flat in an unlikely part of the city to be targeted by bombers. An IRA campaign has however already targeted London, Manchester and Birmingham, and the gruesome remains at the scene do make it look like the guy was making a homemade bomb when it went off...

Kristian Bang Foss’s comic road-novel gets off to a flying start with that title. Death, you can imagine, probably does drive an Audi. The rest of the less fortunate mortals found in the Danish writer’s hugely entertaining and thoughtful prize-winning satire, drive a somewhat less glamorous vehicle, although they all seem to be heading in the same ominous direction. Which – in geographical terms at least – is away from a grim housing estate in Copenhagen to the apparently rather more exotic destination of Morocco. There are however many incidents along the way, This kind of journey certainly didn’t figure in the plans of Asger, who is an advertising executive when things suddenly take a turn for the worse during the 2008 financial crisis. Living in Copenhagen with Sara and her daughter Amalie, it all starts going downhill after an advertising campaign quickly thrown together at the last minute goes badly wrong and Asger finds himself in quick succession out of work, out of home and out...

With a title like Incredible! the authors of this graphic novel have a lot to live up to, but you’d have to say that they largely succeed. And that’s obviously no small thing. Not only does the artwork often surprise with some inventive imagery and panel layouts that can quite literally take your breath away, but the story itself is one that sets out to show us something truly incredible. Prepare to be amazed. From an outside perspective, or from anyone observing the behaviour of 11 year old Jean-Loup Beaugens, he would definitely seem to be a strange boy who acts rather oddly. He has strange little routines and rituals that govern his every move, but there’s a reason and a method to his actions that most people wouldn’t understand. Jean-Loup consequently doesn’t fit in well with the other boys, as you can imagine, but he doesn’t mind. He lives in his own little world, gathering useful facts and information about the wonders of the world that he records on little cards in a filing sys...