Science fiction series, The Elite and the Rogues by indie writing community stalwart, Niranjan, is getting a re-release with all new covers. I have the privilege to be able to help share the new cover reveal for the first book in the series: The Elitist Supremacy. It’s an excellent minimalist cover for this Indie Ink Awards finalist. Epic stakes, morally grey characters, complexity and conflict...

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...

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...

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...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to remind ourselves that it’s okay not to be okay, and that our mental health is just as important as our physical health. Mental health representation in media is so important in helping us to destigmatise and normalise having open, honest conversations about the subject. Books, especially fiction, are particularly good vectors for this, since we as...

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...