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...

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 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 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...

There’s plenty to sink your teeth into this Indie August, with sales and bundles galore. Indie August often plays second-fiddle to its earlier cousin, Indie April, but it shouldn’t! It’s just as impactful for indie authors as the spring event, and this year, it’s determined to prove it. As usual, my books are involved in some of the big sales this month so I thought it would be helpful to list...

An excellent blend of science fiction and magical fantasy with romance, and LGBTQIA+ and disability representation, from Barry Ryerson. I’ve been looking forward to reading The Magic Circle for quite a long time. The curse of being a mood reader! That being said, it still took me a while to read the book. That’s not a slight on the book at all, though. I’ve been busier than usual and I didn’t...

Here we are at last: The end of Dune. Or, at least at the end of Frank Herbert’s original novels. I know there’s plenty of expanded universe stuff out there from his son, Brian, but I’ve heard enough about it to know it’s something I don’t really want to explore. It’s taken me four years to read this series—it’s a pretty leisurely pace, and I found I needed a long time between these books to...

I loved the TV show adaptation of The Expanse. Coming in with a take so cold it’ll give you frostbite: I think it’s one of the best science fiction shows we’ve had in a very long time. In fact, I struggle to think of anything that compares, since the likes of Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. Okay, that take might be a little warmer. Fight me. So I was very much looking forward to diving into...

The covers for the Weight of the World trilogy are all so good it’s almost unfair. They look absolutely fantastic. So, Recall Order is my first indie of 2025! I’ve been really enjoying this trilogy so far, and I do highly recommend picking them up if you like military sci-fi, space opera, mechs and alien invasion stories. But with this second instalment we can add terrorism thrillers and espion...

As I mentioned in my most recent writing update blog post, I have been making moves to take my books off of Kindle Unlimited and push them out widely to other ebook stores. This process started with The God Sun, which wasn’t on Kindle Unlimited and was a great way to get all the accounts set up. And now, happily, the rest of my books have followed suit! The Re-Emergence, From the Grave of the...

I liked doing this reading wrap-up thing last year. It gave me an opportunity to showcase once again all the books I read and reviewed this year. Review posts are often ephemeral—even though they’re on the internet forever, once they’ve been posted on the socials, they’re quickly forgotten and buried. So this is a great chance to bring some more well-deserved attention to the books...

Continuing on with my decision to read some of the novellas from last year’s Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championships, here we have contest winner A Sorrow Named Joy by Sarah Chorn. The cover art on this book is wonderful, and after reading, it really captures a lot of the heart of the character of Joy. Although I will freely admit that I’m a bit of an idiot. Before I realised what this...

It’s release day! My cosmic horror novelette, The God Sun is out now. I freely admit this wasn’t a book I thought I would have written at this point in my author journey, much less actually released for people to read. I’ve had the title banging around in my mind for the last six months or so, and I thought it would become a new novel trilogy set in a completely different universe...

If you’ve been following my social media posts for the last few weeks, you’ll no doubt have seen it teased that I got into the Halloween spirit and spent the latter half of October writing something spooky. I had intended to finish and publish it before the end of the month, but as always things took longer than I expected. But, not two days into November, I finished the first draft...

Honestly I thought I’d hit the peak weird of the Dune Saga with God Emperor of Dune and that the final two books would be dealing with the fallout while coming back down the mountain. But like a car salesman slapping the roof of an old jalopy, Heretics of Dune is where Frank Herbert confidently declares that there’s plenty of weird in this baby yet. Only, this time the series pivots...