Synopsis:

From the Arthur C. Clarke award winner, Adrian Tchaikovsky, comes the third instalment of the DOGS OF WAR science fiction series, a future where genetically engineered “Bioforms” have inherited not the Earth, but the Solar System.

The end of the world has been and gone.

There was no one great natural disaster, no all-consuming world war, no catastrophic pandemic. Rather scores of storms, droughts and floods; dozens of vicious, selfish regional conflicts that only destroyed what could no longer be rebuilt. No single finishing stroke for Earth’s great global human society, but you can still bleed to death from a thousand cuts.

The Red Planet fared better. Where Earth fell apart, Mars pulled together. Engineered men and beasts, aided by Bees, an outlawed distributed intelligence, survived through co-operation, because there was simply no alternative.

Fast forward to the present day. A signal – “For the sake of what once was. We beg you. Help.” – reaches Mars.

How could they not help? A consortium of Martian work crews gather the resources for a triumphal return to the blue-green world of their ancestors.

And now here they are – three hundred million kilometres from home.

And it has all already gone horribly wrong.

Review:

I hate bees, but man do I love Bees. 

For the third installment in his Dogs of War series, Adrian Tchaikovsky focuses on the distributed intelligence known as Bees, which is about time for me. In a lot of ways, Bees was perhaps the most interesting part of the original work in the series.

The first book, Dogs of War, was released in 2017 and featured the main storyline with Rex, a dog bioform who is the leader of a motley crew of animal bioforms — himself, Honey (a bear bioform), Dragon (a reptile), and Bees (literally just bees). The first novel was set near-future and explored what it means to be human and if the consciousness’ of bioforms entitles them to the same rights as “mankind.” 

In 2021, Tchaikovsky released Bear Head, featuring Honey. The Mars setting for a lot of it gives it a bit of a Total Recall vibe and the story features a lot into media personalities and free will. Honey plays a key part in the book, but is by no means the main character. Bees plays a key role as well…on Mars as one of the early colonizers and also back on Earth as they have split their intelligence. 

I liked, but didn’t really love the first two books. Rex is and forever will be a Good Boy, and I really like Honey the Bear, but in both books it was just hard for me to put myself in their shoes (maybe cuz dogs and bears don’t wear shoes?) but in the end, it actually was easier at times to empathize with the bioforms (the animals) than with the humans (especially Thompson from Bear Head). There is a lot to like and I’m glad I read them, but I just didn’t resonate with those books. Not like I did with Bee Speaker. 

No one can accuse Adrian Tchaikovsky of not being imaginative. Each book in this series is so wildly different from the others in terms of tone and setting and he makes even the hardest of sci-fi concepts so digestible. It would have been so easy for him to set this book on Mars after the events of Bear Head and invent some reason why Bees has to be the hero of the day. 

Instead, in Bee Speaker we return to Earth…a planet which has lost control of itself and its technology. All that happened in the days of Rex, Honey, Dragon, and Bees is the Old time. The people of Earth have devolved into a neo-feudalistic society of sorts. Bees is revered as a type of God among some — an invisible deity capable of great works, but before their time. Other people form up in abandoned bunkers, quasi-manors with a medieval hierarchy at play. And lastly, the remnants of the Old time, the Dog Factory where bioforms are still produced and some of the last vestiges of technology is still utilized. 

Dropped into the middle of all of that are four Martians, returning to Earth after getting a signal from the Earth Bees. Of course, it’s a Tchaikovsky book and things do not go swimmingly for our intrepid adventurers on their return to their ancestral planet. 

One of the things I loved about this book was two opposing views of what the future may bring. On Earth, disinformation and politics killed society as they knew it and the little technology humans had in Bee Speaker was often beyond their comprehension. Mars, on the other hand, almost collapsed from some of the same factors in Bear Head, but was saved by Bees and Honey and went on to be more of a communal civilization where everyone worked together and pushed technology onward and forward. Those two sides of the knife’s edge were on full display throughout this Bee Speaker. In the end, just like in Bear Head, the subject of the book — Bees — isn’t our main character, but instead acts as more of the MacGuffin towards the final quarter of the novel. 

In the end, it may be a fairly simple novel in its story, but Bee Speaker is a great addition to the Dogs of War series, introducing some memorable characters and pushing the bounds of what it actually means to be “human.” 

Thank you to Head of Zeus for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

On a planet shrouded in darkness, a stranded crew must fight for survival. But, the darkness may have plans of its own in this wildly original story from Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author of Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists – and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .

Review:

For about 60 percent of Shroud, I couldn’t get enough. Action and drama on a completely alien moon with our human protagonists hampered by dark and the unknown hidden beneath the blackness. You might think I hated the other 40 percent…but that’s what really clinched how exceptional this novel truly is. With each new thing I read the more I’m convinced that Adrian Tchaikovsky is the new Master of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. 

That other 40 percent? That’s what a lot of authors would ditch on the cutting room floor, and perhaps with good reason in their cases. He takes the mundane of politics, economics, and culture — potentially hundreds or thousands of years in the future — and sculpts a bonkers first contact story around it. In the opening of Shroud, we’re introduced to a small team of scientists poised in orbit above a far-off moon. Science is happening, but it’s all under the direction of profit — how can the government exploit the resources of the planet and moon to their advantage? That’s all there, lurking in the background, but the early scenes are all definitely framed around science from a first-person POV, so the crass capitalism isn’t front and center…yet. 

When I saw that Tchaikovsky had another First Contact book, a year after putting out Alien Clay, I was a little concerned that it would be a similar story with similar beats. And…yes and no. When I read Alien Clay, I remember thinking that it felt like three different books inside of one volume and Shroud does this as well to a certain degree. But, the internal structure is vastly different and is very much its own unique novel that deserves to be read. In fact, I think Alien Clay and Shroud might work really well as a kind of duology in the differences of first contact between humans and an intelligent alien species.

Don’t get me wrong – this is not just a philosophical novel about what it means to be an alien or how we impose our own humanity upon the otherness of space. This novel rocks with horror-tinged action throughout the core of the book. After the team find what they believe to be life on the moon they’ve called Shroud, an accident on their station strands some of them on the moon that seems to be actively trying to kill them at every turn. It turns into a journey home with no guarantee of success. And the joy is that along the way we discover the life on Shroud is way more intelligent than any of them suspected. 

I don’t want to say any of these are similar, but as I read I thought of a few other books and movies. There are tastes of Project Hail Mary as our hapless humans try to communicate with the well-intentioned aliens with mixed results. The Vin Diesel movie Pitch Black definitely came to mind in how they handled the darkness and the dangers that lie within the shadows. I even had thoughts of MacGyver as our pair of protagonists worked their way out of one situation or another.  

OK, let’s finish up my thoughts on Shroud and that final 20 percent of the book. So the action-packed narrative of the middle portion wraps up… and again, I think many books end right there. Our characters are heroes for their achievements and we’re left with a happy ending for all. But that’s not what Tchaikovsky does and that’s really what puts Shroud above so many other books I’ve read this year. All the political and economic shadows that were lurking in the background of the first act of the book are back and are challenging the science that seems like it should be more important. The word “exploit” is even used in the final few chapters as a virtue for what they want to do to Shroud. The payoff of the novel is unique and unexpected and Tchaikovsky challenges his readers with their own values and interests. 

Ultimately, I couldn’t have been happier reading Shroud. Tchaikovsky is at the top of his game and I look forward to each and every time his name is on the cover. 

Thank you to Orbit for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

The year is 2204.

The galaxy is on the edge of conflict.

And an ancient conspiracy is about to explode.

Can two intelligence operatives with a brutal shared past and a former Lunar freedom fighter stop a dastardly plot that dates back to the lost continent of Atlantis?

Find out in The Europan Deception, the first in the epic Dark Galaxy series! Perfect for fans of The Expanse looking for a fast-paced sci-fi thriller in a gritty, realistic setting.

Review:

Ryan M Patrick wears his book heart firmly on his sleeve with The Europan Deception. This is a spy cum conspiracy thriller in space, and fans of his previous books will not be disappointed by the thrill ride he’s crafted here. Patrick has built a future where jump gates and comms work hand in hand to shorten the distances involved, while spaceships and atmospheric craft adhere to hard science physics his space-related background demands. Humanity has expanded beyond the solar system into new colonies, all of which are aligned to their country of origin, including eastern and African states. This rich background is compounded with the reliance of the Earth based countries on the mineral wealth, and in turn the colonies on support as they struggle towards self-sufficiency. This forges a hotbed of revolution and sedition, into which Mark Clancy is thrust as an operative of the United States. Once the bullets fly, and colony related assassinations start, we follow Clancy on a journey of action and discovery from planet to planet seeking the true organisation at the heart of the conspiracy. Alongside him are two capable female agents who pull him out of the fire on a number of occasions, characters with real prowess and not just along for the ride.

Fans of Tom Clancy will lap up the action and the structure of Patrick’s book, while the overarching threat that he alludes to will excite the sci-fi reader for what is to come. There are moments when we can get bogged down in acronyms ‒ the author’s vast knowledge of the US government agencies is clear to see. However, the excitement and spy thriller feel overrides those and I look forward to Book 2 in the Dark Galaxy series.

Synopsis

The Starship Atlantis takes you on an unforgettable journey through the extraordinary. From alien civilizations and rogue AI to desperate missions on the brink of collapse, these stories will transport you across the stars into the heart of the unknown.

This anthology features six never-before-published novellas and short stories, plus two exclusive bonus tales.

Explore epic adventures crafted by eight USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors, whose works have captivated readers and sold over ten million copies worldwide.

Stories:
The Return by Joshua Dalzelle
Locust Twilight by Steven Konkoly
Hope Springs by Lindsay Buroker
Glass Lanterns by Anthony J. Melchiorri
Redwoods by Nathan Hystad
Starborn by Jasper T. Scott
Helpful Machines by Bobby Adair
Knight’s Gambit by Samuel Peralta

Review

Writer’s Note: Samuel Peralta, who wrote the forward and the concluding story for this short story collection, previously curated a number of sci-fi/fantasy anthologies, of which I have appeared in five of them with short stories of my own. 

Short story anthologies and collections are fantastic books for those unsure of what exactly they are looking for or wanting to read. By reading a shorter length work, you can find new authors that you vibe with and may even discover something you’d never find otherwise. 

Tales from the Starship Atlantis is a new collection from a collective of sci-fi and fantasy authors who call themselves Discover Sci-Fi. They had a previous collection of stories assembled in 2019 entitled Tales from the Starship DIscovery and plan to release another volume this fall, Tales from the Starship Endeavor.

With all these starships, all the stories are space-based sci-fi fare, right? You’d be wrong there. It definitely starts that way with The Return by Joshua Dalzelle, but there are a blend of Earth-based sci-fi stories as well from about half of the authors. 

My favorite of the bunch was Starborn by Jasper T. Scott. While the story has a definite space-based tone to it, most of it takes place on a planet with mysterious origins. Before long, the reader is clued in to the fact that the story is flipped from how it’s normally presented in books and stories, and the planet isn’t all it’s first presented as. And then, for fun, there are some subtle (and not so subtle) allusions to some current geo-political situations and figures that add a slightly humorous (and maybe troubling) twist to everything. 

And I know I’m biased, but I have always loved the stories that Samuel Peralta has put out. His output over the years hasn’t been huge like other authors (Peralta devotes more time to other pursuits like curating works and putting books and works of art in space – see https://www.lunarcodex.com/ for more info), but what he does write is always fascinating and thought-provoking. He has a point of view on his short stories that isn’t something you see from most authors. 

If there is a downside to the collection, a few of the stories feel incomplete. Like they are just a sample of much larger works. Which, given the nature of the Discovery Sci-Fi group, is definitely a good chance with some of the authors and their other works they want readers to find and read. 

I’d recommend checking out Tales from the Starship Atlantis. Eight fun sci-fi stories and each one has its own flavor and personality. 

Synopsis

The ISF Althaemenes was the first of its kind. A spacecraft capable of travelling the vast distances to other stars. But on its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri, all contact was lost and its crew never returned.

Four years later, the United Earth Confederacy received the ship’s distress signal.

Captain Helene Cross and the crew of the ISF Apemosyne are sent to determine what happened, and if possible, rescue the wayward explorers. However, there is no response from the crew and the mystery deepens when scans show that the supposedly stranded vessel is in full working order, leaving Helene and her team no other choice but to board and investigate. Soon, a maddening presence begins to stalk their minds, influencing their actions, threatening their very survival.

The crew of the Apemosyne must discover the source of the madness and put an end to it if they are to have any hope of escape.

Review

I picked this up because I wasn’t really enjoying my other read. Aside from the book being connected to a series I’d already started and that it was a horror novella, I knew nothing about it. The fact that I’d enjoyed past books from the author was reason enough to buy and read it.

And it did not disappoint. Horror has been a mixed experience for me so far, but I really enjoyed how the first half of this book made me feel connected to the characters, gave me a good feeling for the setting, and had that creeping discomfort I’ve come to expect from space scifi stories that lean towards the dark side. I was hooked!

I won’t go into too much detail for the rest of the book because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I liked the sinister feeling of it and the [bleep] ending (choosing an adjective here would probably be spoilery too; suffice it to say, I liked it). I hope we get to see a connection to this in the rest of the series eventually!

If this is your first experience with this universe, definitely make sure to check out the main series! If you come with previous knowledge, make sure not to miss out on this one because it’s a great addition to the existing world building!

Synopsis

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates, the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival, he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.

In the midst of a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln, but distant Earth as well.

Review

I’m not sure why I’ve put off reading his books, but Alien Clay was my first novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. His various series have appealed to me, but I sometimes like to start with a standalone novel when I’m encountering an author new to me. Alien Clay fit that bill perfectly and I quickly devoured it and in the end, it secured a spot on my Top 10 list of 2024. 

The book is really like three books rolled into one. There’s action, but really that’s fairly secondary to the plot. There is a fair amount of sci-fi exploration and a heaping dose of first contact, although this is far from the typical first contact story we’ve all come to expect. I haven’t read a lot of “hard sci-fi” in years, but Tchaikovsky did a great job of putting well-crafted characters and a fascinating story around the hard sci-fi elements. 

Our protagonist and first-person POV character, Professor Anton Daghdev, is an outcast in a very literal sense. He opposed the government on Earth, known as the Mandate, and was exiled to the alien world known as Kiln. At first, the book is Anton’s reconnection with other political dissidents in an attempt to gain back control over their lives. But that’s where the book takes a turn and the science-part of the science fiction really kicks in. 

I compared this book to some of the works of Michael Crichton, particularly Sphere, Congo, and even Jurassic Park. Crichton’s works seemed to generally share a view of science from a Frankenstein-level point of view. The idea that man’s hubris nearly always leads to nature wreaking havoc is prevalent throughout Crichton’s works and can be seen as clearly as a T-Rex trying to catch-up to your Jeep in the rear-view mirror. 

In Alien Clay, however, that science is treated a little differently. The book feels like Crichton and in my mind that is definitely a compliment, but while Crichton generally feels a view that nature should be feared, Tchaikovsky veers in a different direction for Alien Clay. It brings up questions that are tough to answer and the ethical dilemma is one that our characters and the reader need to grapple with. 

By the time the book wrapped up, I found that not only had I discovered one of my favorite books of 2024, I was pretty sure I discovered one of my new favorite authors. 

Synopsis

The number one best-selling series that Audible listeners call “wonderfully entertaining”, “packed with humor, geek references and thought-provoking storylines”, and performed by “a true master story teller and actor” returns as the Bobs face their deadliest challenge yet.

The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all.

But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.

Just another average day in the Bobiverse.

Review

There are plenty of books that work just as well in any medium – physical, digital, audio. But there are a few books and series that I endeavor to read via audio and the Bobiverse books are on that list. I’m sure they work fine on their own in print, but combining Dennis E. Taylor’s words with Ray Porter’s narration make the Bobiverse books sing. 

In 2016, Taylor released We Are Legion (We Are Bob), and a sci-fi cult classic was born. He put out three total books between 2016 and 2017 and it seemed that the Bobiverse was neatly tied up. Then, in the fall of 2020, Taylor released a fourth book in the series, Heaven’s River. While I loved the first three books, I didn’t connect as much with this book, even though it was a nice respite in the midst of the pandemic. 

Not Till We Are Lost released four months ago and it was like a comfortable blanket after four years being away from the Bobs. I thought it was a great return to form for Taylor and Porter and enjoyed every minute of it. 

So what’s the Bobiverse? Well, it starts with Bob (duh), our main protagonist, getting killed in the first chapter of the first book. Then, he “wakes” up a century later as the brain behind an A.I. that will be controlling exploratory space probes. Throughout the first four books, Bob cloned himself numerous times (and the clones cloned themselves as well), hence a group of “Bobs” who renamed themselves upon cloning. Bill, Homer, Riker are just a few of the names that pop up in the early books with Icarus and Daedalus playing a big part in this installment. 

The Bobiverse books are a great framing device for a variety of sci-fi tropes from exploration to first contact, futuristic politics to space wars, and many other subgenres in between. Since Bob (and all of his clones) are Artificial Intelligences, they are essentially immortal, but Taylor keeps it interesting with the lifespans of other characters and how that immortality affects the Bobs themselves. Taylor keeps it all grounded in science, but he has a nice heaping pile of humor that helps each of the stories along. 

If you haven’t tried reading any of the Bobiverse books, you really should start with We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and if you do, I bet you’ll find it a quick and enjoyable read. Once you do, I imagine it won’t be too long before you find yourself waiting for the next Bob book, just like me. Not Till We Are Lost is a fine addition to the Bobiverse and sets up future books quite well. 

As an Audible Original, Not Till We Are Lost was first published on September 5, 2024. The Kindle version was recently published on January 5, 2025. 

Synopsis

An utterly gripping story of alien encounter and survival from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back . . .

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists – and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them . . .If they escape Shroud, they’ll face a crew only interested in profiteering from this extraordinary world. They’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all.

Due to be published 27 February 2025

Review

Shroud is an epitomical example of Tchaikovsky’s ingenious world building and memorable non-human characters.

The feat of world building, from the flora and fauna, to the weather and chemical composition of the environment, is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. It felt like I learned some new things from a scientific perspective too.

The story gets off to a slowish start, aboard a ship orbiting Shroud – a moon intended to be harvested for its resources. There is a lot of dense hard science thrown at you from the get go and a dystopian-esque, hierarchical human equivalent of the civil service in space. This is where we are introduced to our characters, through the POV of Juna – the assistant to the director of a special research team.

The characters live in a universe where humanity seek to expand by prospecting alien worlds and moons, but at a cost. The Concerns, akin to business-like organisations, measure the wage-worth of their inhabitants – employees – and if you don’t provide value to the cause, you’re put back on ice until your services might be needed again.

As things develop and the action shifts to the moon of Shroud itself. This is where the story picks up in pace and Tchaikovsky’s wild imagination really takes on a life of its own.

Despite some hard science and completely alien landscapes and beings, I never felt lost (not as lost as our human characters, anyway). The author manages to describe everything in a way that is accessible and vivid.

Shroud is suspenseful, with some real moments of horror, but with a smattering of well placed humour that helps ease the mounting sense of unease.

The non-human characters are as weird as weird gets. The Shrouders also provide a secondary POV, giving a unique perspective on first contact with aliens.

The character development through adversity is done well, both from a human and alien perspective. The Shrouders’ development throughout the story is fascinating, both in how we perceive them, through their interactions with our characters’ pod, but also in how they perceive themselves, their world, and the alien humans. Tchaikovsky really shines in these moments of realisation and learning from the aliens.

Tchaikovsky is excellent with his social commentary through his speculative fiction. Another aspect I appreciated from Shroud is the strong theme of connection running through it – highlighted by the disconnection of humanity, but how we could achieve so much more by being more connected with each other in our common goals, was a message not lost on me, especially in this ever increasing fractious world we live in right now. We (humanity) have become disconnected from ourselves and each other in this future universe. The need for meaningful connection is portrayed well through both POVs throughout.

Tchaikovsky really goes beyond the realms of imagination with Shroud – a world full of mindblowing alien life and landscapes, based on (what I believe to be) well thought out scientific ideas. This is a hard sci-fi adventure done in the most brilliant and accessible way.

eARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley UK.

Synopsis

An exhilarating standalone novel set within the Owner universe.

He can jump between worlds. But can he save his own?

Ottanger is a rebel and mutant on an Earth governed by a ruthless Committee. But after its Inspectorate experiments on him, he discovers the ability to reach alternate worlds. The multiverse is revealed in all its glory and terror – and he can finally flee his timeline.

Then Ottanger meets the Fenris, an evolved human visiting Earth from the far future. He’d engineered the original world-walking mutation, so those altered could escape the Committee’s regime. Yet this only aided a few, while millions still suffered. And Ottanger sees that the Committee will become unstoppable if not destroyed.

However, the Fenris’s visit also attracted the Hive. With the power of its trillion linked minds, it craves world-walking biotech and will do anything to get it. As conflict looms at home, and war threatens the multiverse – the Fenris, Ottanger and his companions must prepare for battle . . .

Review

If you’re a fan of Neal Asher, you’ll be familiar with his clever sci-fi take on military fiction. But you’ll have never seen him do it quite like this before. 

World Walkers is Neal Asher in his prime. It blends body horror, military space opera, and a fresh spin on the multiverse to dizzying effect. The action is inventive, the plot is dense, and the style is compulsively readable. I sped through it, and couldn’t have slowed down if I wanted to!

The plot unfolds across a number of perspectives, the most consistent of which is the Fenris. He’s an alien (well, he belongs to a species of human that’s evolved so much, he might as well be alien) pulling the strings across the multiverse, sending technology back through time to avert genocidal disaster. The other perspectives all follow the individuals affected by this strange technology, and the impact it has on their evolutionary biology. Whether you agree with the Fenris’s mission or not, you’ll empathise with him as his experiments come back with mixed results, and the more things he tries, the bigger the hole he digs for everyone. Ultimately, it’s a case of good intentions gone awry, and this keeps everything relatable on a human level, even when the plot expands far, far, far beyond humanity.

In terms of pacing, it’s exceptional. The many layers unfold at just the right time to deepen your experience of what it means to walk between worlds, not just for the purposes of the plot, but for the characters too. I loved how the affect of world walking changed each character in different ways, and the impact it had on their personalities as well as their purpose was very satisfying to see.

The first half of the book is fantastic at building intrigue and playing with the concept of a multiverse. I loved the speculative elements dotted through this first half of the story — the questions it posed and the atmosphere of the whole thing worked for me on every level. It felt experimental in the way it was told, which is kind of meta when you think that this is all one big experiment on the part of the Fenris!

The second half of the book reads a lot more like standard military sci-fi, when the presence of an enemy appears and the need to eliminate the enemy takes precedence. All of Asher’s trademark action chops are on full display, and the book feels like it’s on much surer footing in these later parts. 

Underneath the events of the book, there’s subtext that speculates on whether an evolved intelligence permits one culture to interfere with another. The singular genius of the Fenris is contrasted with a hive mind, and the idea of collective intelligence versus the individual allows for all sorts of allegories. Do we have the right to impose ourselves on anyone else? What threat does a conscious mind pose to life itself? And how does societal or cultural intelligence impede the agency of an individual? All of this is expertly integrated without so much as a seam on the overall story.

In terms of the body horror elements, props to Asher for creating a creature in the Fenris that belongs alongside the Xenomorph and the Thing. The alien aspects of the Fenris give him all the sci-fi horror elements that make him feel like a classic monster. And his belief in his own superiority makes him even more chilling than his fearsome exterior. Imagine if a Xenomorph had the cold logic of a Vulcan — even if its intentions were humanitarian, it would still be truly terrifying, right? Well, that’s the Fenris. A beast for the ages. And the way that the humans are affected on a biological level by the integration of his technology is like The Fly on steroids.

I loved pretty much everything about this book. It was so easy to read, and the way the plot unfolded was brilliant — I could track each new development without feeling lost in any way, and that’s quite something when you stop and consider just how multi-faceted this story becomes. And the excellent thing about the ending is that it feels every bit as epic as it should. It somehow manages to pay off all of that build with an absolute banger of a finale. Exceptional stuff. 

Overall, World Walkers is not so much a walk, but a sprint. It starts out at full speed and never lets up. It’s chilling in parts, mesmerising in others, and never less than thrilling. A standout multiverse novel that showcases all of Neal Asher’s strengths. Walk into whatever world is selling this book and pick up a copy immediately! 

Synopsis:

“The differences between worlds — they’re like two tapestries, one made of silk and the other of wool. But this door is a needle that sends me between them, and I’m what stitches them together.”

A future where memory is currency; a land of dinosaurs seeking the refuge of outer space; a city where events in the present can change the past; a family of colonists escaping grief on a distant planet; a dragon breathing fire on the bourgeoisie; an astronaut craving the power of flight.

Across the many Earths, change is the only constant. Every new tomorrow is a new beginning, whether you’re a superhero trying to hide your power from your boss, or an alien invasion has made you the richest person in the universe. Collected in this short story omnibus from Frasier Armitage are a catalogue of beginnings that stretch beyond the seams of our world. Step through a door to this unique multiverse of science fiction and fantasy in the first volume of short stories from the acclaimed author of New Yesterday and Time’s Ellipse, and travel to places that are only bound together by A Stitch Between Worlds.

Review:

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The stories featured in this collection range from near-future sci-fi to cyberpunk to those firmly rooted in the distant past. Each features a unique twist on a classic science fiction theme, making them both familiar and new at the same time.

There were a few really stand-out stories for me. The first was Rememory, a cyberpunk-themed story where a person’s memories are currency. It was an interesting idea, if a little disturbing to think about. How much of your life are you willing to spend on buying a home? Groceries? Luxury items? And what happens when you run out of memories to spend?

Another I really enjoyed was Skybound, for the simple reason that it’s a prequel to the author’s novel Time’s Ellipse, which I read earlier this year and loved.

But I think the story that will stick with me the longest is The Caretaker. Out of all the stories in this collection, that one held the most emotional impact for me. It’s hard to summarize that one without giving anything away, so I’ll just say this: You should read it.

The final story in the collection tied the rest together in a surprising way. Until that point, every story felt separate and completely distinct from everything else. That the author pulled them all together during the last few pages was very satisfying.

A Stitch Between Worlds was a fantastic read.

A Stitch Between Worlds will release November 15, 2024.