Goldilocks by Laura Lam – via the British Fantasy Society

I’ve got another review for you over at the British Fantasy Society website, this time for the brand new sci-fi thriller Goldilocks by Laura Lam, so named for the ‘Goldilocks Zone’, the region of space around a star in which human-habitable worlds might exist. I do love a good space travel story, although considering it largely takes place on a spaceship on its way to another planet, this one turned out to be unexpectedly relevant to current events taking place right now! As usual, you’re very welcome to go straight over to the BFS website if you’d like to just read the review, but I thought I’d talk a little bit more about the book here.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Laura Lam Talks Goldilocks

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

For this interview I spoke to Laura Lam about her new sci-fi thriller Goldilocks, which is published on the 30th April from Wildfire in the UK, and on the 5th May in the US from Orbit. It’s a topical, relevant story of space exploration tackling big issues and complex character relationships – I’ve read it, and it’s well worth checking out.

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QUICK REVIEW: Useful Parasites – MK Hutchins

MK Hutchins’ second short story (after The Librarian’s Duel) in Aconyte Books’ KeyForge anthology Tales From the Crucible, Useful Parasites is a tale of loneliness, gentle kindness and the importance of grieving. Juniper-kin treewalker Taryx lives a quiet life tending his garden and ministering to the wounded creatures of the forest, mourning the absence of an important friend and waiting for his grief to fade. When his latest patient turns out to be a strange part-cybernetic creature the likes of which he’s never encountered before, he sees an opportunity to put his loneliness aside, but worries things aren’t all they seem with his patient.

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Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings – via Grimdark Magazine

I’m very pleased to have another book review published on the Grimdark Magazine website – this time I’ve reviewed a fantastic horror novella called Flyaway, by Australian author Kathleen Jennings and published by Tor.com. If you just want to check out my review, head over to the Grimdark Magazine website right here and have a read – as usual, I’ve tried to keep the review concise, spoiler-free and as objective as I can be. If, however, you’re up for reading a few more of my thoughts on the book, from a somewhat more subjective angle, then by all means read on!

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QUICK REVIEW: The Death of Uriel Ventris – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s provocatively-titled short story The Death of Uriel Ventris, available in Warriors and Warlords or the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19, revisits a much-loved Black Library hero in a thoughtful, action-light story of consequences and change. As Uriel Ventris lies dying, the Captain of the Ultramarines 4th Company finds his mind disassociating, and he relives – in a way – the pain and suffering that forged him into the Space Marine he would eventually become. Unaware of what’s happening to his physical body, he’s tested in spirit by not just physical and emotional pain but also the manifestation of his greatest fears.

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QUICK REVIEW: Unification – Chris Wraight

Chris Wraight’s short story Unification, available in the special edition hardback of The Lords of Silence or the Warriors and Warlords anthology, shows Vorx of the Death Guard – main protagonist of The Lords of Silence – in various earlier incarnations, sort of ‘Vorx through the ages’. When the Death Guard fight alongside Blood Angels in a pre-Heresy compliance, Blood Angels captain Camanio offers Vorx an insult that leaves him speechless. As Vorx recalls his youth on Barbarus fighting by his primarch’s side, the gravity of Camanio’s insult – what it means to the Death Guard – becomes clear. Much later, so too do the consequences.

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Inferno! Volume 5 – Black Library Anthology

After the name was resurrected by Black Library in 2018 for an ongoing series of short story anthologies (as opposed to the original bi-monthly magazines), Inferno! has now reached Volume 5 – featuring 12 brand new tales of action, adventure, death and destruction. With a mix of established BL authors and newer names, these stories span Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, Warcry and Necromunda, ranging from pitched battles to struggles with very personal daemons, and from hardened warriors to weary healers. Whatever your interest in Warhammer and Black Library, chances are there’s a story or two for you here – and all 12 are brand new and never previously released, too.

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QUICK REVIEW: Contract – Tristan Palmgren

Tristan Palmgren’s KeyForge short story Contract, the opening tale in Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology, explores the baffling logic of the Crucible through the eyes of an elven assassin aiming to pull off an audacious hit. Having gradually lost her sense of identity ever since her city was ripped from its world to join the Crucible, Vira lives for moments of exhilaration and the faint hope of some kind of vengeance. When she takes on a commission to kill a supposedly unkillable Archon, she knows how dangerous the consequences will be but determinedly accepts the contract anyway.

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QUICK REVIEW: Loyal to the End – Thomas Parrott

Thomas Parrott’s Warhammer 40,000 short story Loyal to the End is a tale of Imperial Knights told from the viewpoint of a Knight Armiger pilot, elevated to her position from peasant stock rather than through noble birth. Utterly loyal to House Viti and her liege lord Sir Valeon, Bondswoman Constance battles the forces of Chaos on the beleaguered Forge World of Agripinaa, fighting alongside her fellow Knights until disaster befalls them. Forced to flee and strike out on her own, Constance must find a way back to Imperial forces in time to warn her House of a terrible danger.

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Watchers of the Throne: The Regent’s Shadow – Chris Wraight

Book two in the Watchers of the Throne series, Chris Wraight’s novel The Regent’s Shadow picks up where 2017’s phenomenal The Emperor’s Legion left off, and delivers another brilliant slice of Warhammer 40,000 storytelling. In the wake of Roboute Guilliman’s departure to lead the Indomitus Crusade, Terra begins the process of returning to some kind of new normality. With a reshuffled council of High Lords and a populace still suffering, however, discontent and disorder is growing on the Throneworld. Sister of Silence Aleya, Custodian Valerian and new Imperial Chancellor Anna-Murza Jek each find their roles fundamentally changed in Guilliman’s wake, and set out in their own ways to understand what those changes mean.

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