Literary fiction masquerading as sci-fi. I, like many others, first heard about This Is How You Lose The Time War because of the Bigolas Dickolas Twitter incident of 2023, in which an innocuous tweet from a Trigun (an anime series) stan account gushing about the book absolutely catapulted it up the Amazon charts. An impressive feat, and I had kept the book on my TBR wish list pretty much ever...

A wonderful, whimsical fantasy and science fiction short story collection from Jendia Gammon. I thoroughly enjoyed Jendia’s previous short story collection, The Shadow Galaxy, the review for which you can read here. And so it was only natural to pick up To Wonder and Starshine. Here we have a collection of fairy tale like stories (some literally involving fairies) mixed with whimsical sci-fi...

Together is a Distant Star is a sci-fi & fantasy anthology all about belonging. It’s a real privilege to be able to share this cover reveal on the blog and spotlight an anthology featuring stories from so many great indie authors. How far would you go to find where you belong? A shapeshifting alien changeling raised by humans. The “wicked” child selected as the village sacrifice. People trapped...

Would it really be Indie April without the Narratess Indie Sale? April is all about celebrating independent authors, and the Narratess sale, having grown to be one of the biggest sales around, has for the longest time, been at the forefront of that celebration. And this year it’s back once again, bloating your TBR for 2026, with around 300 books and authors participating, all discounted from...

Ever since I read The Epic of Gilgamesh, I’ve had a hankering for diving into other ancient works that I have missed out on. Beowulf was the first such tale that came to mind. Not ancient in the anthropological sense, having been written somewhere between the seventh and tenth centuries CE, it’s nonetheless a work of seminal importance in western culture. I have known the broad strokes of the...

A fugitive robot running around the inside of a Dyson Sphere? Sign me the hell up! A sublime standalone sci-fi from Frasier Armitage. If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ll know how much I’ve enjoyed Frasier Armitage’s work in the past. You can check out my review of his novelettes Rememory and Investation here. The cover for Cage of Stars instantly popped for me. It really looks...

It’s been a long time since I started reading this series, and it took me a lot longer to read this book than I thought it would. I started it back in October and then hit a reading slump that was in no way anything to do with the book. At one time I thought this was going to be the final book in the trilogy, but no, there’s more coming. This is some of the best modern sci-fi around, in my...

Revealing a brand new cover in honour of the fifth anniversary of The Re-Emergence! I can’t quite believe it’s been five years since I became a published author. Five years since I released The Re-Emergence into the world. Since then a lot has happened, but I’m still immensely proud of my little space bird book, and of series mascot, Seventeen. In honour of the occasion, (which isn’t actually...

2026 is a special year for me. It marks five years since I became a published author with the release of my first book, The Re-Emergence, in June 2021—the largely standalone space opera novella that kicks off the events of the Augment Saga. This little book with its plucky crew of space birds and endearing sentient AI, Seventeen (who has become somewhat of a mascot for my writing) has...

This is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition at this point. Reviews are often ephemeral, which comes across as rather paradoxical: Everything on the internet is there forever, but in the current landscape of heavy social media usage and algorithmic content feeds, review posts soon get buried. Sure they might receive a little boost when they’re initially posted, but they then fade into obsc...

I received a free advance reader copy/uncorrected proof of A Farewell to Humanity from the author. I also had the privilege of reading an early draft of this story that was much shorter and much lighter on details. I had really enjoyed that, and so when the offer came to read an ARC ahead of its release, I jumped at the chance. It has been fascinating to see how this story has changed in the...

This was the second of three vintage books I picked up on a trip to National Trust Ightham Mote last year. Their delightful little used bookshop had a locked glass cabinet of ‘rare’ and ‘vintage’ books which were reasonably priced. The first was the novelisation of RoboCop by Ed Naha which I read straightaway. The others were The Black Hole—the subject of this review—and Superman: Last Son of...

I will fully admit I bought this on a complete whim. I’ve heard a lot in passing about the Epic of Gilgamesh variously as a piece of ancient literature and the progenitor of the Great Flood myth in the biblical book of Genesis, but I didn’t know the story, and I fancied reading it for myself. This version by Stephen Mitchell seemed to be the most accessible to someone like myself with zero know...

I received a free advance reader copy/uncorrected proof of The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel from the author. I very much enjoyed the first book in this lunarpunk sci-fantasy series—The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern and its wildly imaginative night-living world, so I was very grateful when Jendia reached out to offer an ARC of the sequel and I jumped in straightaway. Serving up another helping...

Recently I reviewed Origins: The Secret Agent, the first of two short story prequels to The Magic Circle, that one giving backstory on Yevgeny, a key POV character from the main novel. Origins: The Hacker, goes back even further in time and follows the origin story of the main antagonist of the novel. I’ve said before how much I enjoyed The Magic Circle, so I was eager to jump into these short...

I really enjoyed reading The Magic Circle. I thought it was a really solid, action-packed adventure, mixing magic and sci-fi in a believable way. You can read my full review of it here. So naturally, eager for more in this universe, I was excited to delve into the two short story prequels, starting with Origins: The Secret Agent. I like the idea of these short prequels, as they allow the reader...

Bounty Inc. is the first book in the Bounty Inc. universe by Adam Holcombe. It’s a real privilege to be able to share this cover reveal on the blog and spotlight a fellow indie author. Adam Holcombe is the author of the Chronicles of Gam Gam series, and the Bounty Inc. universe which will be a collective of sci-fi novels spanning a galaxy. I have really loved the Chronicles of Gam Gam so far...

A Necromancer Called Gam Gam was one of my favourite books I read last year—An unlikely blend of knitting, kindness, and raising the decaying undead that took me on an emotional journey exploring loss and grief. So when The Wishing Stone was announced, I was so ready for another foray into this big warm hug of a world. And, spoilers for the review below, but I think this one really does top the...

A poignant and somewhat scarily prescient short story collection from Conrad Altmann. I had the privilege of beta reading one of the short stories—Luminite Ascending—that made it into this collection. That one was brilliant, and at the time I didn’t realise Conrad was looking to make a collection. So when Moral Laundry came out, I was really looking forward to checking out the other stories...

Gotta love long titles for short stories. On Demon Wrangling and Interpersonal Relationships Between Weary Immortals is certainly eye-catching and intriguing, and that’s what got me to pick it up. Also because I have read several of Rebecca’s short stories at this point and knew I was in for a treat. Vampyres and Witches make for strange bedfellows, and especially since I’ve been watching What...