American War is a funny sort of a book, in many ways it doesn't feel like a science fiction novel at all. Like the others in the shortlist this year, the focus is very much on the personal interactions of a small core of protagonists. The Scifi element comes from the setting. As the title... Continue Reading →

'Spaceman of Bohemia' is an odd book. I think some of the strangeness comes from the fact that it may not have been originally written in English. Jaroslav Kalfar is from the Czech Republic and much of the novel is set in this eastern European setting. This is not a problem; in fact it was... Continue Reading →

'Gather the daughters' is a novel that is both disturbing and thought-provoking. It is impossible to read this book however and not be struck by its similarity to other works. The story is a mixture of 'The Handmaids Tale' and M.Night Shyamalan's 'The Village' Much of the darkest parts of Melamed's novel, and let's be... Continue Reading →

Jeff VanderMeer really made his mark in the last 12 months mostly due to the film adaptation of the first of his Southern Reach trilogy of books, Annihilation. Boasting no less than Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac as leads and directed by Alex Garland this film introduced many to VanderMeer's work. The film was a... Continue Reading →