Cultivate a thick skin Politics is ubiquitous, and what seems personal to us may be political to other people. It’s almost impossible to write fiction without it embodying your own outlook on life: and when we use fiction to make political points — to advocate for some aspect of our outlook — it’s bound to
Books
2018 is upon us, and so we are preparing to clear our shelves and sink our teeth into all the amazing books that the next 12 months are sure to offer us. However, we can’t set out into the New Year without acknowledging just how brilliant 2017 was for genre fiction. Rather than attempt a
Heather Child’s debut novel Everything About You hits bookshelves (and the virtual bookshelves you find on the internet) on 26 April and we have the cover reveal for you thanks to the folks at Orbit Books! Here’s what you need to know: “Freya has a new virtual assistant. It knows what she likes, knows what
After concluding his barnstorming Age Of Darkness trilogy, author Stephen Aryan is back with Mageborn, the first in a new epic fantasy saga set in the same world that also serves as an excellent jumping on point for newcomers. We talked to Aryan about his new saga, the response to the Age Of Darkness books, his
We at SciFiNow would like to congratulate sci-fi author Claire North for making the shortlist for The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2017 with her excellent novel The End Of The Day. The other shortlisted young authors include Minoo Dishaw (Outlandish Knight: The Byzantine Life Of Steven Runciman), Julianne Pachico (The
It’s all happening for Tade Thompson’s novel Rosewater, which has just won Best Novel at the very first Nommo Awards, the first awards for African speculative fiction, and has been picked up for worldwide publishing by Orbit Books. Originally published by indie press Apex, Rosewater is the first in a trilogy and we have the
With Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water earning rave reviews around the world, it’s the perfect time to revisit one of the filmmaker’s early masterpieces: Spanish Civil War-set ghost story The Devil’s Backbone. Helpfully, there’s a beautiful new making of and art book from authors Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams, and we have
We’re very excited to reveal the cover for King Of Assassins, from author RJ Barker and Orbit Books! “The epic conclusion to this debut fantasy trilogy featuring a cast of assassins, knights and fools to delight any fan of Brent Weeks or Robin Hobbs. THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING . . .
One of the latest novels to address the possibility of a world transformed by the effects of global warming, Paul McCauley’s Austral is set a number of years into the future. Antarctica has been colonised, the retreating ice revealing the landscape underneath, and humanity are building a new world there. The eponymous central figure is a
It’s easy to draw comparisons between Sleeping Beauties and several other books in Stephen King’s back catalogue. There’s the unstoppable pandemic and battle between good and evil of The Stand, there’s the isolated small-town panic of Under The Dome and The Tommyknockers, and the institutionalised abuse of women of Dolores Claiborne. However, this latest novel,
Powered armour goes by many names in science fiction – including exosuit, assisted armour, jacket and exoskeleton. As readers we might quibble about the terminology, but we can all agree on one thing: it’s damned cool. Armoured suits are an element of SF that frequently catches the public’s imagination. Join me on a tour de
Writing William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken was unlike writing the previous six books in the Shakespeare Star Wars series (the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy), because like everyone else I encountered The Force Awakens for the first time on December 17, 2015. No, I didn’t get any advance knowledge of the script and
The cover for Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars: The Force Doth Awaken has been revealed, showing BB-8 rocking an Elizabeth costume like he was born to do it. It’s the latest chapter in the author’s acclaimed Bard-infused take on the Star Wars saga, and it’s coming to the UK from Quirk Books on 3 October. Here’s
In our book Basic Witches: How to Summon Success, Banish Drama, And Raise Hell With Your Coven (Quirk) we talk about taking inspiration from the historical and cultural idea of the witch: a woman who, whether or not she has magical powers, possesses an uncanny ability to fly in the face of expectations. The witch
Ren Warom’s SF debut no Escapology was one of the most gripping and inventive cyberpunk novels in recent memory. The world she created, with Slip Haunt Shock Pao being forced into a deadly and potentially catastrophic heist and coming up against mob bosses, assassins and insane AIs, was both grounded and blisteringly creative, showing a
Time travel purists should probably steer clear of Rowan Coleman’s latest. Though its heroine, Luna Sinclair, is a quantum physicist, it’s not science that helps her step through the fourth dimension. Nope, it’s the power of love. After a lifetime of struggling with depression, Luna’s mother recently killed herself. But she left a video for
David Gemmell is one of the fantasy genre’s true legends, and we’re excited to hear that 33 of his books will be released as audios for the first time. Orion Audio and Hachette Audio have joined forces to acquire the world audio rights to Gemmell’s entire work, including the Drenai series, the Rigante series and the Troy
Tightrope walker Hoshiko is a star. Graceful and beautiful, she’s the main attraction of the glittering Cirque, her daring antics captivating audiences everywhere. She’s also a prisoner, forced to perform to a crowd that wants nothing more than to see her fall to her death. In Hayley Barker’s dystopian YA novel, Britain has torn itself
Robert Jackson Bennett’s brilliant Divine Cities trilogy comes to an end, and the author of Mr Shivers and The Troupe has made sure to send his characters off with a bang. The incredibly rich world that he has created, with warring states, undercover operatives, miraculous tricks and dead gods who aren’t as dead as they
Bags of Holding…in SPAAACE! When I first realized I had to deal with starship layouts in the hexarchate, I had two choices. I could either sit down (probably with my long-suffering husband) and make a loving diagram of a ship and its layout, and refer to it assiduously every time I had someone go from
I grew up reading The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift Jr, Nancy Drew, and The Hardy Boys. These mysteries were packaged by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and specifically targeted kids. Like many of my contemporaries, I liked reading these books because they were about kids like me solving fantastic mysteries. I fell in love with the characters,
Illustration by Grahame Baker-Smith from The Folio Society edition of The World of The Worlds by H.G. Wells The Folio Society’s edition of HG Wells’ classic The War Of The Worlds is available now and we have a couple of Grahame Baker-Smith’s incredible illustrations for you. Illustration by Grahame Baker-Smith from The Folio Society edition of The World of The Worlds by
Unless you have been living in Outer Mongolia, no doubt you will have heard talk of a popular little animated movie called Frozen. Cleverly jumping on the bandwagon, Elly Blake has a ready-made audience for her new, YA series, Frostblood. Ramping up the raunch factor and adding some gladiator action, it is time for Frozen
A house swap goes horribly wrong in this latest chiller from SL Grey (aka excellent South African authors Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg). Having explored shopping malls and underground bunkers, the duo are back with a tale of grief, insanity and the dangers of taking a chance on unrated Air BNB users. Literature professor Mark