Author Archives: Michael

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Peter McLean Talks Priest of Gallows

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to the fantastic Peter McLean about his latest novel, book 3 in the War For The Rose Throne series – Priest of Gallows. I’ve been following this series from the beginning, with the incredible Priest of Bones, and I can’t recommend it enough – so the release of a new instalment is always an occasion to celebrate! Priest of Gallows is out now in paperback, ebook and audiobook editions, so if you’ve been following this gritty, fantasy, gangster family saga then read on to find out more about the latest instalment…and then make sure you go out there and pick up a copy!

Continue reading →

Richards & Klein – Guy Haley

Originally published in 2011 and 2012, Guy Haley’s SF detective adventure novels Reality 36 and Omega Point are back in print in a hefty new omnibus edition entitled Richards & Klein, both books revised, updated and combined into a single volume. Set in 2129 it sees freelance security consultants Richards (a Class Five AI) and Otto Klein (German ex-military cyborg) investigating the murder of Professor Zhang Qifang, a prominent activist for AI rights, whose death heralds a rising threat that’s felt across both the physical and digital worlds. People connected to Qifang are dying or disappearing, some of Richards’ fellow Class Fives are acting weird, and someone really doesn’t want Richards and Klein to find out what’s going on. As they dig beneath the surface, their investigation takes them across the Real, the digital space of the Grid, and even the virtual worlds of the Realities.

Continue reading →

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Guy Haley Talks Richards & Klein

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m chatting to regular contributor Guy Haley – but this time it’s a little different to usual, as we’re talking about Richards & Klein, a brand new “rewritten, remastered, renewed” omnibus edition of his sci-fi novels Reality 36 and Omega Point! Originally published back in 2011 and 2012, they’re back in this cool new volume from Angry Robot – out on the 25th May – which, as you’ll find out later, is much more than a straightforward reprint. Whether you’re already a Guy Haley fan and you want to check out some of his non-Warhammer fiction, or you’re just on the lookout for a fun SF adventure, this is definitely one to check out!

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Fandom For Robots – Vina Jie-Min Prasad

First published in Uncanny Magazine and nominated for Best Short Story awards at both the Nebulas (2017) and Hugos (2018), Vina Jie-Min Prasad’s Fandom For Robots offers a warm, affectionate take on online fan communities and the value of fan fiction. As “the only known sentient robot”, Computron resides in the Simak Robotics Museum and takes the stage each day to answer audience questions and demonstrate his sentience. When an audience member suggests he might enjoy a Japanese anime series called Hyperdimension Warp Record (超次元 ワープ レコード) he finds himself drawn in by the show’s story, despite his inability to experience it emotionally. While waiting for new episodes, he discovers a fan-made wiki for the series, which sets him off on an unexpected path.

Continue reading →

A Few Thoughts On: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

I adored Susanna Clarke’s debut novel Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell when I read it back in…I don’t know, 2004 or 2005, and I had been hearing great things about her second novel, Piranesi, since it was announced in 2020. It took me some time to get round to reading it, but I eventually settled on the audiobook edition, narrated by the wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor, and listened to it over the space of a week’s worth of walks around Southeast London, at first pleasantly puzzled and then gradually, increasingly beguiled by its quiet, dreamlike depths. I had no intention of reviewing Piranesi, so I made no notes or took down any quotations, but after finishing it and spending some time mulling it over, I can’t help but want to talk about it. I’m not going to try and talk objectively like I would usually, because this is a book I loved so much I just want to sing its praises!

Continue reading →

Where to Start with Black Library: Necromunda

If you’ve ever looked at Black Library’s range of Necromunda stories and thought “that looks cool, but I’ve no idea where to start” then don’t worry – I’m going to do my best to help! As with pretty much everything BL produces, it’s tough to figure out in which order to read these stories and whether any of them are connected, but that’s where my series of Where to Start With Black Library articles comes in. I’m always keen to try to demystify Warhammer fiction, so in this article I’ll offer a few suggestions for what I think might be good entry points to Necromunda as a setting and as a fiction range.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory – Martha Wells

Taking place after the events of Exit Strategy (novella #4 in the phenomenal Murderbot Diaries series), Martha Well’s short story Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory is a quiet little study of one of the series’ most interesting characters. After the unpleasant events on TranRollinHyfa, Dr Ayda Mensah is back on Preservation Station with SecUnit and all of the survey team, trying to get on with her life. The trouble is, it’s not that easy to get over being kidnapped by corporate murderers, and Mensah is spending more time on finding ways to help SecUnit than she is dealing with her own pain.

Continue reading →

A Game of Broken Minds – Tom Jolly

Released in ebook by Distant Shore Publishing, Tom Jolly’s novella A Game of Broken Minds is a high concept modern-day science fiction tale of desperation and expanding horizons. Living on the streets of Santa Maria after a disastrous series of events, Cory is reduced to taking part in unlicensed pharmaceutical tests for money, taking drugs designed to induce tap into the unused parts of the human brain. To his considerable surprise, after he takes the latest pill he finds a strange voice manifesting in his head, claiming to be some kind of networked superbrain. While this seems like a good thing to begin with, Cory realises that the new, expanded world he’s become a part of is dangerous indeed.

Continue reading →

RAPID FIRE: Darius Hinks Talks Gitslayer

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m chatting to the excellent chap that is Darius Hinks about his new Black Library novel Gitslayer. Darius already has form writing about the irascible Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson in the Age of Sigmar, and this is his second Gotrek novel after 2019’s entertaining Ghoulslayer. It also bears what is surely one of the finest titles in all of the Black Library range! Gitslayer goes up for pre-order in hardback (via the Games Workshop website), ebook and MP3 audiobook (via the Black Library website and, presumably by then, Amazon) on Saturday 15th May, so if you’re keen to get your hands on Gotrek’s next adventure read on to find out more about it!

Continue reading →

The Beautiful Ones – Silvia Moreno-Garcia

First published in 2017, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones is back in print in a lovely new 2021 edition from Jo Fletcher Books (or via Tor in the US), and deservedly so. With the carefully observed characters and social customs of a novel of manners, set in a fictional world influenced by late-19th Century Europe and with a dash of telekinesis added in for a little bit of a fantasy edge, it’s a rich and characterful social drama, a slow-burn romantic love triangle, and a tale of conformity and conflict. The story begins in the city of Loisail during the Grand Season, with its glittering balls attended by the Beautiful Ones – the cream of society – and revolves around a trio of characters caught in a tangle of history, passion and deception.

Continue reading →