First published 1988. Fontana paperback, 1989, pp 256, c.80,000 words. The first third of this classic Kyle thriller is top-notch: a great set-up in an interesting location with a plausible cast of characters. The reveals are nicely paced and the scene well sketched in. It seemed as though this was Kyle at his best. Unfortunately […]
Honey Ant, The — Duncan Kyle Read More »
First published 1972. Sidgwick and Jackson paperback, 1979, pp 188, c.77,000 words. Imagine Woody Allen in his heyday, in Manhattan or Annie Hall say: New Yorker through and through, neurotic, Jewish, intellectual. This is pretty much David Selig, this book’s protagonist. Only he is a bit less successful than Wood Allen characters, in fact he
Dying Inside — Robert Silverberg Read More »
First published 1988. New English Library paperback, 1988, pp 480, c.185,000 words. This is book one of ‘The Cadwal Chronicles’ and by the last page there are more loose ends than in a big bowl of spaghetti. It is a great sprawl of a book which leaves the impression that Vance didn’t bother to plot
Araminta Station — Jack Vance Read More »
First published 1978. Pan paperback, 1996, pp 307, c.70,000 words. This is not the usual Innes thriller. It is an imaginary diary of Captain James Cook’s third and last voyage of discovery. Cook, and others, kept logs of their activities during the journey, and these were intended to be handed to the authorities who had
Last Voyage, The — Hammond Innes Read More »
First published 2015. Springer paperback, 2015, pp 434, c.140,000 words (main text). The subtitle of this book is ‘Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life’; which just about encapsulates what it is all about. ‘Seventy-Five Solutions’ rather suggests a rather dull and dry academic exercise with a laundry list of
If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens… Where is Everybody? — Stephen Webb Read More »
First published 1987. Legend paperback, 1989, pp 473, c.145,000 words. This is a classic ‘first encounter’ story. Initially one of Jupiter’s moons disappears, then strange features appear in the landscape in the USA and Australia. The former turns up in Death Valley and is accidentally discovered by some geologists who notice a hill that isn’t
Forge of God, The — Greg Bear Read More »
First published 1895. Pan paperback, 1966, pp 123, c.43,000 words. With this book Wells launched himself as a science fiction author of note. The Time Traveller launches himself from late Victorian Britain and describes to sceptical and astonished friends his journey eight-hundred thousand years into the future. He remains in the same geographical location: suburban
Time Machine, The — H G Wells Read More »
First published 2009. National Geographic hardback, 2009, pp 309, c.88,000 words. The subtitle to this book is ‘A scientist’s search for extraterrestrial intelligence’, and with that Shostak is keen to reassure us that this isn’t some wacko’s alien encounter story. The cover also tells us that Shostak is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI institute,
Confessions of an Alien Hunter — Seth Shostak Read More »
First published 1972. Fontana paperback, 1981, pp 220, c.85,000 words. This is a classic, straight-forward thriller of the period. It follows Alistair Maclean’s formula of taking an ordinary man and placing him in an extraordinary situation, and then throwing everything but the kitchen sink at him, and once he has survived that, the plumber is
Flight into Fear — Duncan Kyle Read More »
First published 1989. Penguin paperback, 1991, pp 347, c. 115,000 words (main text) + . Gould was a paleontologist at Harvard University and a science communicator. This work summarises his interpretation of the results of other’s research on the organisms whose remains were found in the Burgess Shale, which lies in the Rocky Mountains of
Wonderful Life — Stephen Jay Gould Read More »