Release Date: 06/06/13
Publisher: Orbit
SYNOPSIS:
For one ex-journalist, the nightmare has just begun Miriam Beckstein has said goodbye to her comfort zone. The transition from journalist to captive in an alternative timeline was challenging to say the least. As was discovering her long-lost family, the Clan, were world-skipping assassins. Now civil war rages in her adopted home, she's pregnant with the heir to their throne and a splinter-group want her on their side of a desperate power struggle. But as a leader or figurehead? Meanwhile, unknown to the Clan, the US government is on to them and preparing to exploit this knowledge. But it hadn't foreseen a dissident Clan faction carrying nuclear devices between worlds - with the US President in their sights. The War on Terror is about to go transdimensional. But Mike Fleming, CIA agent, knows the most terrifying secret of all. His government's true intentions.
REVIEW:
The third and final compendium of Charles Merchant Princes titles and as with the others it’s a series that has been a joy to revisit as not only is it a cracking set of stories but its also for me the one that put the author on my favoured authors TBR pile. (The one that’s raided before anything else.)
As with the others the prose is sharp, the pace wonderful and when added to a plotline that keeps the reader guessing as well as trying to catch up in quite a few places all round gave me a blissful feeling as I turned each page. All round a cracking story and one that I was more than happy to revisit. Great stuff.
Release Date: 07/07/11
SYNOPSIS:
DI Liz Kavanaugh: You realise policing internet porn is your life and your career went down the pan five years ago. But when a fetishist dies on your watch, the Rule 34 Squad moves from low priority to worryingly high profile. Anwar: As an ex-con, you'd like to think your identity fraud days are over. Especially as you've landed a legit job (through a shady mate). Although now that you're Consul for a shiny new Eastern European Republic, you've no idea what comes next. The Toymaker: Your meds are wearing off and people are stalking you through Edinburgh's undergrowth. But that's ok, because as a distraction, you're project manager of a sophisticated criminal operation. But who's killing off potential recruits? So how do bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and a European spamming network fit together? The more DI Kavanaugh learns, the less she wants to find out.
REVIEW:
Having devoured Halting State a while ago I wondered if Charles would ever return to the gritty and dark near future world that he’d created as there was so much scope for the reader to explore. Luckily for me that is exactly what he does in this his new title, Rule 34.
Whilst the outline remains the same, the new characters that intersect are, as usual for Stoss, well-formed and wonderfully likeable. Add to this some fully believable developments, multi-layered plot and of course the usual Stoss misdirectional use of the magicians sleight of hand that when you get to a certain point you’ll have to reread to see the clues that have been nagging since their appearance as apparent off the cuff remarks. It’s cleverly woven, it has cracking prose and when you build up the crescendo to the extent that this author does you know that the payoff is going to be explosive. Great stuff all in and a wonderful read.
Release Date: 01/07/10
BOOK BLURB:
Bob Howard is an IT specialist and field agent for the Laundry, the branch of Her Majesty's secret service that deals with occult threats. Overworked and underpaid, Bob is used to his two jobs overflowing from a strict nine to five and, since his wife Mo has a very similar job description, he understands that work will sometimes follow her home, too. But when 'work' involves zombie assassins and minions of a mad god's cult, he realises things are spinning out of control. When a top-secret dossier goes missing and his boss Angleton is implicated, Bob must contend with suspiciously helpful Russian intelligence operatives and an unscrupulous apocalyptic cult before confronting the decades-old secret that lies at the heart of the Laundry: what is so important about the missing Fuller Memorandum? And why are all the people who know dying ...?
REVIEW:
I’ve always got a lot of enjoyment from titles by Charles Stoss, here in the third offering in his Laundry series the author continues to do what he does well, the humour is crisp, the writing pretty addictive and you know damn well that you’re going to get exactly what you want. Whilst some of the humour may seem to have been recycled from the previous two its still top notch and something that very few Sci-Fi authors do well. This title is a real treat and something different to the vast majority of titles out there, however don’t pick this up if you haven’t read the previous two as you’ll be missing something special. If you haven’t read any of Charles books to date but love authors like Tom Holt, then you may well want to give this guy a go, a real summer holiday break from the mundane.
BOOK BLURB:
It has been said that the natural state of science fiction is the short story. If that is so, you won't find a better exploration of that state than Charles Stross's new collection. Centred around an original and previously unpublished novella, 'Palimpsest', WIRELESS is a showcase of some of the best short SF of the 21st century. With an introduction from the author and containing hitherto uncollected works such as 'Missile Gap', 'Trunk and Disorderly' and 'Rogue Farm', and some gems previously available only in small press publications, such as 'A Colder War' and 'Antibodies', WIRELESS will illustrate perfectly why award-winning editor and anthologist, Gardner Dozois, once declared: 'Where Charles Stross goes today, the rest of science fiction will follow tomorrow.'
REVIEW:
A selection of a number of Stoss’ best short stories written over a number of years allowing you to see why this author has become a firm fan favourite over the years. Thought of as some as the Morrissey of Sci-Fi (well lets face it a lot of his tales are pretty depressing,) you can’t help but appreciate the pure genius of his writing within each tale. Even the collaborations of the tales within have his fingerprints all over and demonstrate how he not only honed his skill but brought fans back to the Hard Sci-Fi fold as he re-energised it with this offering. Classic offering and something that has easy bite sized chunks for those short breaks or even long journeys. A great offering.
BOOK BLURB:
Freya Nakamachi-47 has some major existential issues. She's the perfect concubine, designed to please her human masters - hardwired to become aroused at the mere sight of a human male. There's just one problem: she came off the production line a year after the human species went extinct. Whatever else she may be, Freya Nakamachi-47 is gloriously obsolete. What's more, the rigid social hierarchy that has risen in the 200 years since the last human died, places beings such as Freya very near the bottom. So when she has a run-in on Venus with a murderous aristocrat, she needs passage off-world in a hurry - and can't be too fussy about how she pays her way. But if Venus was a frying pan, Mercury is the fire - and soon she's going to be running for her life. Because the job she's taken as a courier has drawn her to the attention of powerful and dangerous people, and they don't just want the package she's carrying. They want her soul ...
REVIEW:
To be honest not the best work ever released by Charles. Unfortunately, it seems to try to explore way too many themes without delivering on many of the promises within, sadly letting the reader down as it appears to be more a book that’s either expected to sell by the authors name or just to hit deadline so that the author gets paid.
A great shame to be honest as this sort of novel is something to which Charles normally excels. The characters are confusing, the plot convoluted and seems to borrow heavily from books and films of the last thirty years bringing nothing new to the fore. It really will make me question my placing of this authors books in my TBR list and he’ll have to do something special in his next book to make up for this offering.
