09 Feb
1881 Fyodor Dostoevsky died. His greatest work Crime and Punishment was published in 1866. In 1880 he gave a speech about poet Pushkin at unveiling of Pushkin monument in Moscow and was hailed as a prophet. Read Crime and Punishment
Maxim Jakubowski's Best Science Fiction 2012 Back to top
Equations of Life Simon Morden
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
This is the opening volume in the Metrozone trilogy by a British author who had previously written books for younger readers. The near future, London after a worldwide catastrophe has become a teeming... Format: Paperback - Released: 07/04/2011
The Noise Revealed Ian Whates
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
Another new British author steeped in technology noir and the second volume in a new series that began with THE NOISE WITHIN. Pursued by sinister assassins, scientist Philip Kaufman is forced to flee... Format: Paperback - Released: 12/05/2011
The Quantum Thief Hannu Rajaniemi
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
A mindboggling and assured debut by a Finnish physicist who writes in English (and lives here) this is the book everyone is raving about. And quite deservedly. Jean Le Flambeur is a mind... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/11/2011
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe Charles Yu
With only TAMMY - a slightly tearful computer with self-esteem issues - a software boss called Phil - Microsoft Middle Manager 3.0 - and an imaginary dog called Ed for company, fixing time machines is a lonely business and Charles... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/05/2011
Zoo City Lauren Beukes
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
A second novel by the fast rising South African author (pronounced Beukes like mucus, she tells us...), recently shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. A frantic urban fantasy in which ex-drug addict... Format: Paperback - Released: 18/08/2010
The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
An award-winning novel by a new American writer, THE WIND-UP GIRL is a dark vision of the future, almost like William Gibson without the computers. A tale of industrial espionage, civil war... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/12/2010
Son of Heaven David Wingrove
The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/11/2011
The Demi-Monde: Winter Rod Rees
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
The first volume in a fascinating new series. The Demi-Monde is the most advanced computer simulation ever-devised, created by the military as a training ground. Its virtual inhabitants are ruled by some of... Format: Paperback - Released: 29/09/2011
The Fallen Blade : Act One of the Assassini Jon Courtenay Grimwood
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
The initial volume in a new trilogy, THE ASSASSINI, by the popular British SF author, this is also his first venture into fantasy. It's Venice in 1407 and Atilo, Duke Marco's chief assassin... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/02/2011
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch
A Maxim Jakubowski Best Science Fiction selection.
Shortlisted for the Galaxy UK New Writer of the Year Award 2011.
A new series by a Doctor Who writer (the second volume MOON OVER SOHO is out now) this is an engaging... Format: Paperback - Released: 25/08/2011
The Passage Justin Cronin
One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.
It’s the end of the world, but not as we know it. The rise of a zombie plague, and life in the aftermath, but a real cut above the usual... Format: Paperback - Released: 12/05/2011
Horns Joe Hill
Hill is of course horror royalty, being Stephen King's son, but his second novel (following the gruesome but compelling HEART-SHAPED BOX) could teach his old man a lesson. Ignatius Perrish wakes with a terrible headache to discover he now... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/06/2011
The Left Hand of God Paul Hoffman
LORD OF THE FLIES meets Stephen Donaldson in this first fantasy novel by an established mainstream author. Add a dash of Shakespeare and Mervyn Peake and this quest tale involving a group of courageous youngsters travelling... Format: Paperback - Released: 19/08/2010
Secrets of the Fire Sea Stephen Hunt
The fourth volume in Hunt’s fascinating Jackelian fantasy series has
unbridled imagination to spare, as cyberpunk landscapes conjugate to
perfection with a Sherlockian mystery investigation of the highest
calibre led by Boxiron and Jethro Daunt. Wildly entertaining and with
the... Format: Paperback - Released: 03/02/2011
Kraken China Mieville
The protean Mieville's take on a London full to the brim with Gods, mortals and supernatural manifestations. This is London today but not as we know it as a teeming galaxy of inhuman manifestations invade the streets and skies and... Format: Paperback - Released: 05/11/2010
Apartment 16 Adam L.G. Nevill
The night watchman of an upmarket London block is drawn to an apartment that’s seemingly been empty for over 50 years but in which he hears curious noises. In parallel a young American woman inherits a property in the same... Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2010
A Matter of Blood Sarah Pinborough
The first volume in this relatively new British author’s Dog-Faced Gods trilogy is a revelation. A near future mystery set in a post recession world where financial chaos reigns soon veers uncomfortably into very dark territory indeed as DI Cass... Format: Paperback - Released: 10/02/2011
Maxim Jakubowski's Modern Classics of Science Fiction Back to top
Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson
From the author of the major cyberpunk opus SNOW CRASH, a massive tales of conspiracies that span the ages and the globe as wheels within wheels of clandestine espionage and secret history unfurl. Wide screen baroque at its best... Format: Paperback - Released: 27/04/2000
The Book of the New Sun: Shadow and Claw Gene Wolfe
An award-winning science fantasy epic now available in two volumes set a million years in the future, which opens with THE SHADOW OF THE CLAW, about the quest of Severian the Torturer across an Earth transformed in mysterious and wondrous... Format: Paperback - Released: 16/03/2000
Hothouse Brian Aldiss
A future Earth has been overrun by vegetation and a a giant tree now connects the planet to the Moon, while the sun is about to go nova. A wildly exuberant tale of survival and thrilling adventures as the remains... Format: Paperback - Released: 07/08/2008
Market Forces Richard Morgan
In a near future London dominated by the power of multi global corporations, business executives fight each other not just in the boardroom but also on the roads in deadly reinforced vehicles. White collar wars against a background of shadowy... Format: Paperback - Released: 04/09/2008
Songs of the Dying Earth George R.R. Martin
The Technicolor world created by Vance in THE DYING EARTH is as much a classic as Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. This anthology compiled by Gardner Dozois & George R.R. Martin invites some of the best modern talents to return to this fascinating... Format: Paperback - Released: 29/09/2011
Viriconium: Pastel City , Storm of Wings , In Viriconium , Viriconium Nights M. John Harrison
Collects the three novels and all the short stories British author Harrison wrote about the twilight world of a mysterious far future city. With echoes of Victorian fantasy, Beardsley and Mervyn Peake, this is an imagined world both rich and... Format: Paperback - Released: 13/07/2000
Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
A young boy with awesome powers is controlled by the state and taken to a strange military school where his skill with games is manipulated with dreadful consequences as part of a deadly war between mankind and an alien race.... Format: Paperback - Released: 04/07/2002
Neuromancer William Gibson
Nearly a quarter of a century after its initial appearance, Gibson’s groundbreaking cyberpunk debut has lost none of its modernity and fascination. Extrapolating the world of the internet and video games culture, an unforgettable vision of a future where data,... Format: Paperback - Released: 27/11/1995
Matter Iain M. Banks
Banks’ Culture series, of which this the latest instalment, is space opera at its exuberant best: adventures and conflicts on a galactic scale, alien races by the dozen, non-stop action, a gallery of sharply-edged characters in search of the truth... Format: Paperback - Released: 05/02/2009
Perdido Street Station China Mieville
British author Mieville is one of the most adept practitioners when it comes to creating imaginary worlds and cities which are both alien and recognisable as an extrapolation of the world we live in. The urban and gothic New Crobuzon... Format: Paperback - Released: 23/02/2001
The Accord Keith Brooke
He moves with ease between lavish space operas, the perils of bio-technology, telepathy and in THE ACCORD,
a love story with a difference, between the cracks of alternate
realities in an England that is both familiar and rather creepy.
Lovereading... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/03/2009
Ink: The Book of All Hours 2 Hal Duncan
A Scottish author who breaks all the rules of fantasy writing with a
bravura sense of place and dislocation. No wizards or spells or quests
are to be found in his mesmerizing series The Book of All Hours, the
2nd volume of... Format: Paperback - Released: 04/01/2008
Principles of Angels Jaine Fenn
Her two books to date are set in the same baroque universe of galactic intrigue and expansion clouded by the evil Sidhe. CONSORTS OF HEAVEN blends fantasy settings with hardcore space adventure with winning
effect, and marks her as... Format: Paperback - Released: 12/02/2009
The Temporal Void Peter F. Hamilton
His books are all long and complex but infintely rewarding as his
future universe expands in every conceivable direction with a
widescreen gusto which is uniquely his own. This man thinks big. THE TEMPORAL VOID is the middle volume in... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/10/2009
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves Stephen Hunt
One of the best of a group of writers who return to Victorian
storytelling values for vigorous steampunk tales of dastardly deeds,
cliffhangers and intrigue. The Kingdom of Jackals series is already
into 3 books, the latest being THE RISE OF... Format: Paperback - Released: 01/09/2008
The Night Sessions Ken Macleod
A Scottish writer who often uses SF as a means for sharp social comment
but never allows his powerful messages to detract from the sheer pace
and adventure of his stories. THE NIGHT SESSIONS... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
The City and the City China Mieville
Winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award 2010.
A strange and compelling murder mystery set in a place like no other. In a unique and seemingly impossible land, two separate cities share the same space at the same time, the... Format: Paperback - Released: 06/05/2011
The Steel Remains Richard Morgan
The Tarantino of British SF, Morgan moves like a magician between dark
fantasy and hard SF, from Conan characters with 4 letter words to rough
and tough space mercenaries and private eyes, but my own favourite is MARKET FORCES, which presents... Format: Paperback - Released: 09/07/2009
House of Suns Alastair Reynolds
His massive space sagas make the Star Wars movies feel like a trip
around the neighbourhood block. Imagination, intrigue, IMAX-size
adventures on a mega-scale make this hard SF at its very best. HOUSE OF SUNS is the latest in his Revelation... Format: Paperback - Released: 12/03/2009
Saturn's Children Charles Stross
His popular Merchant Princes series is great entertainment, space opera
with all the lights turned on but Stross’s strengths also lie in
breaking boundaries and his hard science SF novels demonstrate his
talent for ideas and innovative concepts. WIRELESS is a collection... Format: Paperback - Released: 02/07/2009
The joy of reading science fiction and fantasy lies in the genre's eternal qualities of reinvention, and the way it refreshes the reader's sense of wonder with every new author making a splash on the block. This is a domain where imagination reigns unlimited and even the most far-fetched stories somehow effortlessly trap you into their web of new worlds and concepts at the drop of a line. Similarly, it is also a field where new writers appear to emerge from out of nowhere fully-formed and ready to challenge the certainties of the world we live in with a gusto for action and challenging concepts.
Recent years have seen a veritable flowering of new talent amongst those distant galaxies, alien worlds and lands of fantasy. And even if you're understandably tired of vampire tales by now (and feel they should be left to teenagers or romance readers), there is at least one more you should look out for, as this suggested map of the new territories of SF & fantasy demonstrates.
Below is Maxim Jakubowski's list of Best Science Fiction 2012 authors. Click the author name to read his comment.
Summer is traditionally the favoured time for reading, whether it be on beaches, in the countryside, the garden or wherever the tides of leisure transport you and science fiction, fantasy and horror as ever proves a perfect recipe for escape and entertainment.
Who wants to be confronted with or reminded of everyday reality when you are attempting to relax? Abandon yourself to the siren call of the wilder shores of the imagination to other planets or fascinating alien environments, to the thrills and dread of terror or the wide screened sense of wonder that imaginary worlds can conjure up.
Imaginative writing is thriving and our summer selection will leave you gasping with awe, amused and scared on the same page as we select some of the more outstanding new books of the year.
And, as a bonus, anyone of these fascinating novels can also be read at home, as their tentacular delights will whisk you away from the armchair into brand new worlds. Who needs holidays when your mind is transported light years away?
Below is Maxim Jakubowski's list of Summer SF authors. Click the author name to read his comment.
So you’ve read H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, John Wyndham, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert’s DUNE, Philip K. Dick, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and other established classics of science fiction & fantasy, enjoyed the verve of STAR WARS and AVATAR on the big screen and follow LOST, HEROES and BEING HUMAN on television and you still want more. But where to begin? More elves
and vampires won’t satisfy your thirst for challenging ideas, action,
believable characters, good writing and a sense of wonder.
Here is a selection of modern classics that you might not have come across yet, and which are guaranteed to keep you under their spell until the very last page. All masterpieces of the imagination in their own right and proof that entertainment and intelligent speculation can make good bedfellows. Science fiction & fantasy is not only about dragons, spaceships and things that bite in the night. Read most of these astounding books and you will be hooked. Worse things could happen!
Below is Maxim Jakubowski's list of Modern Classic science fiction writers. Click the author name to read his comment.
There was a time when American science fiction and fantasy dazzled us: the golden years of Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov and so many writers whose pens effortlessly painted awesome galactic vistas with technicolor abandon. But the times they are a changin’ and for the past decade or so British authors have taken over the universe and are now the main providers of thrills, alien exotica and hypnotic if impossible parallel worlds.
Science fiction has never been about predicting the future but more about titillating the intelligence, questioning the whys and wherefores of the known (and unknown) universe, opening up new horizons, confronting how society changes both on a micro-scale or on a global palette. But most importantly it is about conveying a sense of wonder, whether depicting future worlds or taking us on on a trip beyond the frontiers of rationality or investigating human nature.
Let us not forget that, alongside Jules Verne, H.G. Wells was one of the pioneers of the genre in opening up the limits of the imagination. His contemporary children are rewriting the genre with vigorous abandon and we urge you to investigate all these new British writers, all of whom trip the light fantastic like no others before and explore what lies on the other side of reality. Tighten your seat belts for the rides of a thousand centuries.
Below is Maxim Jakubowski's list of hot British science fiction writers. Click the author name to read his comment.
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