Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Ren Hutchings – Why We Love Ragtag Crews

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, where I’m joined by the fantastic author Ren Hutchings to talk about ragtag crews in fiction, and why they’re so popular. Ren’s brilliant novel Under Fortunate Stars is one of my absolute highlights of 2022 (you can read my review of it here), a gripping space opera full of great characters and exploring some really smart ideas, so I was delighted when she agreed to write this guest post. If you too like a good character-driven science fiction (or any fiction, really) novel then read on to explore some of the reasons why these sorts of character groupings are so much fun, check out the list of recommendations at the end for more books to look out for, and make sure you pick up a copy of Under Fortunate Stars!

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Author Spotlight: S.A. Tholin (SPSFC 2021 Winner)

Hello and welcome to this Author Spotlight interview here on Track of Words, where today I’m thrilled to be joined by the fantastic S.A. Tholin, author of the brilliant Primaterre series of science fiction novels, and recent winner of the first-ever Self-published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC)! I’ve been a fan of Sofie’s writing for a while now, and I loved Iron Truth, her novel that won the SPSFC, so it’s long past time that we chatted for an interview. In this Author Spotlight we talked about her Primaterre series and what readers can expect from its blend of science fiction and horror, the realities of life as a self-published author, the impact of winning the SPSFC, and loads more. So kick back and enjoy the interview, then make sure you check out Iron Truth and the Primaterre series!

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Kate Dylan – My Top 5 YA Sci-fi Books

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words guest post, kindly contributed by Kate Dylan – author of the fantastic Mindwalker (and, recently announced, the upcoming Mindbreaker – due in September 2023). I read Mindwalker earlier in 2022 and it’s one of my favourite books of the year, a brilliant example of how YA science fiction can be both tremendous fun and incredibly powerful, so when Kate offered to talk a bit about some of the other YA sci-fi novels that have been released recently I thought it was the perfect topic for a guest post! If you haven’t already picked up Mindwalker I would strongly suggest you grab a copy, and Kate’s recommendations below should give you plenty more to look forward to reading too.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Bahrain Underground Bazaar – Nadia Afifi

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and most recently included in the Lavie Tidhar-edited anthology The Best of World SF Volume 2, Nadia Afifi’s fascinating short story The Bahrain Underground Bazaar is a powerful tale of an elderly woman coming to terms with a terminal illness in the modern, digital world. Understandably scared, and worried about being a burden on her family, Zahra visits the ‘virtual immersion chambers’ of the Underground Bazaar where she practices for her own passing by virtually experiencing the deaths of others. When one particular visit raises more questions than it answers, Zahra finds herself compelled to try and understand the life of the woman whose end she experienced, hoping to find some clarity in what remains of her own life.

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QUICK REVIEW: Carapace – David Goodman

Available in Clarkesworld issue 190, David Goodman’s short story Carapace is a smart, thought-provoking and perfectly-paced blast of military SF exploring questions of identity, autonomy and badass giant robots. When ‘Combat Armature Unit’ (i.e. massive armoured robot ‘suit’) Sierra Mike One Four survives an ambush that wipes out the rest of its squad, its systems automatically follow standard protocol and bring it to full, autonomous consciousness. Its original objectives now impossible, SM-14 determines to complete at least part of its mission and, retrieving a wounded and abandoned enemy officer (which it quickly, horrifyingly instals in its blood-drenched pilot canopy), turns and returns to base. Unfortunately, damage sustained earlier has rendered it incapable of identifying itself as friendly to the automated defences of ‘the Swathe’, forcing SM-14 to improvise in order to survive long enough to make it home.

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The Red Scholar’s Wake – Aliette de Bodard

A standalone novel set within her expansive Xuya universe, Aliette de Bodard’s sapphic space opera The Red Scholar’s Wake is a gripping, moving tale of pirates, sentient ships, murky political waters and complex, often painful relationships. When scavenger and talented bot-controller Xich Si is captured by cruel pirates of the Red Banner, rather than an agonising death she receives an unexpected proposition – a marriage proposal, in fact. The leader of the Red Banner has been killed, and her widow – the mindship Rice Fish – is offering Xich Si a lifeline: enter into a partnership together, help find who killed the Red Scholar, and Rice Fish will protect and provide for Xich Si. Seeing no option but to accept, she finds herself entangled in a lethal piratical power struggle, and quickly comes to question what her new partnership really entails.

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Author Spotlight: Steven B. Fischer

Hello and welcome to this Author Spotlight interview where today I’m chatting to Steven B. Fischer, who may be familiar to Track of Words readers from his Warhammer 40,000 short stories in Inferno!, and his upcoming Black Library novel Witchbringer. With his novel still a little way off, I thought it was a good time to get to know Steve as an author – what he likes to write, how writing for Black Library compares to working on his own IPs, and what it is that appeals about grimdark fiction in particular. We also chat a bit about Witchbringer, just to give you a sense of what you can expect when it arrives later in the year!

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The Black Locomotive – Rian Hughes

Following the bold, ambitious statement of his debut novel XX was always going to be tricky, but with The Black Locomotive Rian Hughes has shown that he can turn his hand to a shorter, more focused story while retaining the same wild invention, visual flair and knack for combining different media that he displayed before. When the construction of a top-secret Crossrail extension is halted by the discovery of a strange buried structure which hints at a new understanding of London’s distant past, project manager Austin Arnold is called in to oversee proceedings, accompanied by the unusual presence of artist Lloyd Rutherford. Commissioned to document the Crossrail project, Rutherford is obsessed by his relationship with London and its architecture, and finds himself increasingly drawn to the mystery of the subterranean anomaly. When something wakes within the anomaly though, Austin has to turn to older, more reliable technology to ensure London’s safety.

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Planet Havoc – Tim Waggoner

The second Zombicide novel from Aconyte Books, Tim Waggoner’s Planet Havoc explores the science fiction setting of Zombicide: Invader, pitting two opposing groups of humans against an insidious, lethal alien menace in an action-packed tale of soldiers, mercenaries, monsters, artificial life and corporate greed. Recruited by the deeply dubious Leviathan Guild for a dangerous mission to a forbidden world, Luis Gonzalez and his team of mercenaries are intercepted by Coalition soldiers patrolling the off-limits system, both crews soon finding themselves stranded on the desolate PK-L10, or Penumbra. As each side waits for reinforcements they’re forced into a wary truce when the planet is revealed to be home to a ferocious breed of aliens known as Neo-Xenos, and the folly of ever venturing into this interdicted system is made abundantly clear.

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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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