Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Mindwalker – Kate Dylan

Out soon from Hodder & Stoughton, Kate Dylan’s YA sci-fi novel Mindalker offers up a breathless blast of neon-soaked, tactically-modded fun laid over a surprisingly dark and powerful core. In a divided, post-apocalypse America, eighteen year-old Sil Sarrah is a Mindwalker for the Syntex Corporation – modded and trained to step into field agents’ minds from afar and extract them from the most dangerous missions. Knowing full well that she only has a year or so of life remaining before her implants finally kill her, Sil is determined to go out with her perfect mission record intact, right up until something goes horribly wrong and she finds herself on the run from her own people. As she searches for intelligence on Syntex’s enemies in an attempt to clear her name, Sil starts to relearn how to live outside the protection of the company, along the way gaining a new perspective on the world around her.

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Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – via Grimdark Magazine

Ever since first reading Gideon the Ninth back in 2019 I’ve been hooked on Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb stories, so I was thrilled to be able to review the third novel in the series – Nona the Ninth – for the fine folks over at Grimdark Magazine. That review is now live, and you can find it here; do check it out! Rather than post the same review here on Track of Words, I’ll use this space to add a few more thoughts about Nona in general, and my experience of reading it (including the preparations I made in advance). So, if you just want to get straight to the review then by all means head over to the GdM site and check that out! If not, read on…and I’ll link out to the review again at the end.

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QUICK REVIEW: As Yet Unsent – Tamsyn Muir

A small but intriguing part of the Locked Tomb Series, Tamsyn Muir’s short story As Yet Unsent is available to read for free on the Tor.com website. [SPOILER WARNING: read Harrow the Ninth before reading this review or the short story in question] Fitting in roughly between Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth, it’s written from the perspective of Second House necromancer Judith Deuteros and takes the form of excerpts from a report she wrote while in captivity at the hands of Blood of Eden. As she slowly, begrudgingly recovers from the injuries she sustained at Canaan House, Captain Deuteros documents her observations of her captors, what they seem to want from her and what this means for her continued existence, as well as the changing behaviour and attitude of the other Canaan House survivors – Camilla Hect and Coronabeth Tridentarius.

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Sci-fi in a Fantasy World – Kate Dylan Guest Post

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where I’m delighted to welcome author Kate Dylan with a fascinating article exploring some of the differences between science fiction and fantasy, the ways in which some stories work better as SF than F, and what those differences might mean for both writers and readers. If you’ve ever pondered questions like what the difference is between science and magic, or between a tech company and a coven of witches, or how an eight year-old child would end up with a computer implanted in her brain, then this article is going to be of interest!

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[IN BRIEF] A Psalm for the Wild-Built – Becky Chambers

A novella is often the perfect length for a story which really digs into a single, fairly self-contained idea, and that’s exactly what Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built (her first Monk and Robot book) does. It’s the tale of Sibling Dex, a tea monk with a tendency for crises of purpose, who finds themself gradually coming to terms with their own thoughts and needs in the most unlikely of company. On an impromptu journey into the wilderness, Dex is stunned to come across Mosscap, a robot in search of answers to the question of what humans need. In the generations since robots suddenly and unexpectedly achieved consciousness and subsequently left mankind’s cities in favour of the wilderness, no human has even seen a robot, never mind talked to one…until now. And suffice to say, Dex does not feel overly prepared for the experience.

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Under Fortunate Stars – Ren Hutchings

Ren Hutchings’ debut novel Under Fortunate Stars, out now from Solaris, is a characterful and thought-provoking space opera featuring accidental time travel, unwilling heroes and space-based corporate bureaucracy. On board the cargo hauler Jonah, roguish Jereth and cynical Leeg are trying to stay away from the war with the Felen engulfing Union space when they find themselves trapped in a strange deep-space rift. Caught in the same rift is the Gallion, a ZeyCorp research vessel transporting an alien ambassador. When the two ships meet, confusion abounds as the Gallion crew claim to be from a time far in the Jonah’s future. Not only that, but history buff Uma, Director of Engineering onboard the Gallion, recognises the Jonah as the ship that carried the ‘Fortunate Five’ and played a crucial part in ending the war with the Felen…even if its crew doesn’t quite match up to what the history books say.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ren Hutchings Talks Under Fortunate Stars

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m delighted to be chatting to Ren Hutchings about her debut novel Under Fortunate Stars, which is out this week from Solaris. A brilliant space opera full of great characters, accidental time travel, corporate bureaucracy and unwilling heroes, this book is full of mystery and warmth and wonder, and I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t be happier to have the chance to talk to Ren about the story, the setting and some of the themes she’s explored within it, so read on to find out more about this fantastic new science fiction novel (and make sure you keep going right to the end, where you’ll find a link to an original song that Ren has collaborated on, to accompany the book’s release).

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QUICK REVIEW: Bone Armour – Victoria Hayward

Victoria Hayward’s short but razor-sharp story Bone Armour couldn’t be more suited to Grimdark Magazine (it’s available in issue 30) if it tried, setting its stall out early with mention of Bonecutters and ‘cadaver grinding facilities’ before getting really dark. Told via a series of written reports, it details Warrant-Officer Tamoh’s pursuit of a worker gone rogue and suspected of impeding the ‘war effort’. As Tamoh follows Meret’s trail through the vast manufactory dedicated to the production of bone armour, from crowded Habitation Zones to empty transport hubs, the net gradually closes in even as the danger Meret poses becomes increasingly clear.

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Braking Day – Adam Oyebanji

A spectacular science fiction debut, Adam Oyebanji’s Braking Day tells a gripping story of a generations-long mission approaching its end, and the prejudices and politics of a community torn between a troubled past and an unknown future. As the three ships of the generation fleet approach ‘Braking Day’ – the point at which they start to decelerate ready to reach their destination at long last – aboard the Interstellar Vehicle Archimedes trainee engineer Ravi MacLeod is being worked harder than ever. Struggling with the requirements of his studies to become an officer and the suspicion of his family towards those of the officer class, Ravi finds himself caught between two worlds. When he starts seeing impossible things he worries that the stress is getting to him, but it soon becomes clear that something strange is going on, and beneath the surface of the fleet there are tensions starting to come to a head.

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36 Streets – T.R. Napper

After the incredible, immersive experience that was his 2020 short story anthology Neon Leviathan, T.R. Napper returns with 36 Streets, a full-length novel in the same setting that delivers mystery, action, compelling questions and heart-wrenching emotion. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia and comfortable with neither heritage, Lin ‘the Silent One’ Vu is a brutally efficient gangster living and working in the dangerous streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. When her boss tasks her with investigating a murder at the request of a strange, rich Englishman, Lin has the opportunity to put her skills to a different use to normal. As her investigation proceeds though, the secrets she uncovers force her to confront her own painful past, and consider anew her place within the thirty-six streets.

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