The Turning by Paul J. Newell

Our narrator is Lleyton Quinn, a forecaster of consumer demand by trade, whose help is sought covertly by Detective Sergeant Melissa Keller in investigating a series of cases in which people (more than one of whom is known to Quinn) have run away for no obvious reason. As the novel proceeds, it transpires that the runaways have been "turned" -- they have somehow come to stop caring about anything at all -- as Lleyton discovers first-hand when it happens to Keller. And, when he finds out who (or what) is behind the "turning," the implications for humanity will be...

Continue reading at SF Site.

Further links:

Paul J. Newell

The Virnation puzzle

Appian Publishing

Extended Play, ed. Gary Couzens

Gary Couzens takes to the decks for the third Elastic Press anthology, a set of nine tales at the longer end of the short story bracket, linked by the presence of music...

Read more at The Zone.

Further links:
Tony Richards
Chris T-T
Tall Poppies
Elastic Press

Remainder by Tom McCarthy

The protagonist...does not reveal his name, and can’t remember much about his accident; but its lasting effects are all too clear to him: intensive physiotherapy has left him conscious of every little movement he makes, and he longs for the days when he could perform action without thinking – the days when he felt real. A settlement has left our man rich to the tune of eight-and-a-half million pounds, and he wonders what to do with it all. Then one night, at a party, he recalls in great detail a flat he used to live in, where he felt real in a way he doesn’t now. He resolves to recreate those surroundings – right down to the sounds, smells, and neighbours – in the hope of capturing that feeling once again. And he doesn’t stop there…

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Further links:
INS (Tom McCarthy)
Alma Books

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

Eric Sanderson...lost his girlfriend in an accident whilst on holiday – and, thanks to a recurring disassociative disorder (according to his psychiatrist, Dr Randle), he keeps losing all memory of his self. When we join Eric, his disorder has recurred for the eleventh time; and, as he tries to make sense of life again, he receives a series of letters signed ‘the First Eric Sanderson’ giving a rather different explanation for his amnesia: that Eric is being hunted by a Ludovician, a ‘conceptual shark’ that feeds on human memories...

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Further links:
Steven Hall
Novel website
Canongate

Magnetic North, ed. Claire Malcolm

This book collects together works produced between 2003 and 2005 as part of a live literature programme that took place in Newcastle Gateshead...

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Further links:
Andrew Crumey
Fiona Ritchie Walker
Julia Darling
Val McDermid
Chrissie Glazebrook
Charles Fernyhough
New Writing North

The Steam Magnate by Dana Copithorne

Kyra is sent by the Heiress Veridi to the Broken Glass City where she must find a man named Eson and take from him a certain deed. Eson has inherited his family's hot springs in the northern mountains, and is in control of the electricity generated by them -- but more than that, the springs also grant him the power to bind others to himself through deeds like the one Kyra has been instructed to retrieve...

Read more at SF Site.

Further links:
Dana Copithorne (Art Portfolio)
Aio Publishing

Urban Fantastic by Allen Ashley

The author's work inhabits territory that the fantasy genre could usefully exploit/explore in the years ahead. If the first stage in the development of modern fantasy was ambiguity (is the fantastic element in the story real or not?), and the second stage was stories in which the fantasy is acknowledged to be real; then the logical next step is to put the fantasy to work -- and this is what Ashley does in his stories...

Continue reading at SF Site.

Further links:
Allen Ashley
Crowswing

Macrolife by George Zebrowski

Living on planets is a precarious business. You never know when some quirk of geology or a stray rock falling from the sky will put paid to your species; not forgetting evolutionary pressures pushing you who-knows-where, and sundry other ravages. So it's pretty much inevitable that a civilization wishing to survive in the long term (for the sake of argument, ours) must become space-faring. But what then?...

Continue reading at SF Site.

Further links:
Pyr

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

A new book by Neil Gaiman is always welcome but a short fiction collection is perhaps especially so, because it lets us experience a wide range of his work. Certainly, Gaiman’s remarkable talents are showcased to brilliant effect in Fragile Things. There are twenty-seven (or should that be twenty-eight?) pieces of fiction in the volume; let’s examine some of them.

Continue reading at Laura Hird's New Review.

Further links:
Neil Gaiman
Hodder Headline

Dusk by Tim Lebbon

A man wearing a red robe enters the village of Trengborne and proceeds to slaughter everyone there -- all except two people, that is: Rafe Baburn, the young boy he's looking for; and Kosar, a former thief who hid when he saw the man approaching the village. Leaving Trengborne, Rafe falls in with the witch Hope and Kosar with his ex-lover, a warrior named A'Meer from the mysterious Shantasi people. The truth about the red-robed man becomes clear...

Read more at SF Site.

Further links:
Tim Lebbon
The world of Noreela
Bantam Spectra