David PringleBesprekingen

Always a pleasure to return to the glory days of Warhammer fiction. There's some proper bangers here. Some ideas are going to go into my dnd campaign, that's how much I like them!

A rather superficial coverage of fantasy but it was cheap and had some nice pictures. Though As I've been re-reading it for this review, I've realised that there is more to it than I had supposed. There is a rather brief overview of different types of fantasy which is quite well done. But the main thrust of the book is about fantasy in the cinema and there are short reviews of most of the fantasy films that have been produced (mainly in USA) over the years. I was going to give it two stars but I've upped it to three.

Five stars as this books is one of the single biggest influences on my reading in my early adult life. 100 SF novels 1949-1984. A subjective selection but most of the genre classics from period are here, with perhaps a lean toward New Wave and progressive but representation from the hard field too. Yes, it is very white and male, but the second half of the list is more diverse, with the inclusion of work from Angela Carter, Suzy McKee Charnas, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler etc. indicative of changing times.

A fine collection. This time I made an effort to read Storm Constantine's short story, and found that after a slow start it really is a wonderful gothick story that shows some dark truths about the Imperium. In the end Ian Watson's stories are by far the best, whether Warped Stars' brush with chaos, or Alien Beast Within's look at the Genestealer Cults. Definitely worth your time.

Solid Warhammer 40k fiction. I borrowed this from a friend and read it mainly to get into the mindset to play Deathwatch but it's fairly enjoyable pulpy scifi. If you really dig the universe or want to learn more, worth a read. If scifi (particularly the grim far future xenophobia type) then you're better passing this up. I might go back and read more WH40k sometime...

EDIT: Dan Abnett is a good write in this universe and I really like another of Charles Stross's books (Accelerando). O, and I love the short story format. It really has grown on me, especially for these types of stories, and looking back this reminds me of Pump Six (or perhaps vice versa since I read that later) by Paolo Bacigalupi (which is phenomenal!)

Brian (Hodgson, William Hope); Baxter, Steven; Ryman, Geoff; Swift, Stableford

Storm Constanine - The Rust Islands

Old data is all around...

Paul Di Filppo - Alice, Alfred, Ted and the aliens

Wierd mashup of a presidential hit

William Spencer - The the mind-slice

The art world trades in artist brains...

plague of butterflies

David Hutchinson - The trauma jockey

A machine can read emotions...

Greg Egan - Reasons to be cheerful

A young boy has cancer...

Dominic Green - Everywhen

The ultmet dumping ground...

Meg Turville Heiz - Reality

Students get on a bus..

Francis Amery - When Molly met Elvis

using an immortal drug...

Ben Jeapes - Winged chariot

a new priest is needed...

Gwyneth Jones - Grazing the Long Acre

A woman falls with a strange crowd..

Colin Greenland - Christmas with Mary

Blue clones are everywhere..

Graham Joyce - The mountain kills le

Problems on the piste...

They were stylish...

Geoff Ryman - Family

Very weird indeed

Greg Egan - Orphanogenesiss

Digita life

Liz Williams - A child of the dead

Seeing the dead

Stephen Baxter - The fubar suit

Living in near Earth orbit...

Nick Cornwell - Love on 5 and Turquise

Gangster milileux..

Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne - Teddy Bears picnic, part 2

Return from the army...

Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne - Teddy bears picnic

Wacky version of Post-WW2 demob

Gwyneth Jones - The grass princincess

A princess becomes grass..

Francis Amery - The gift of the Magi

Romance and biotech...

Jeff Hecht - The saucer man

A fake contact turns real...

Eric Brown - The eshatruim at Lysia

A sculptor works in wood...

Stephen Baxter - Cadre siblings

The alien Qax rule Earth...

Paul D. Plippi - Stealing happy hours

The worst party ever..

Chris Becket - The marriage of sky and sea

A man and a computer visit planets...

Darrel Schwzer - The fire eggs

Darrel Schwzer - The fire eggs

What is their purpose...?

Susan Beetlestone - Fly

Flys watch people...

George Jenner - Loving Sancho

Richard Calder - Impakto

Trouble on a plane...

Ian Watson - The descent

A cosmic event passes through...

Leigh Kennedy - The bicycle way

Female jumpers...

James Lovegrove - Terminal event

As per title

Eric Brown - The people of the nova

A planet is dying...

Jean-Claude Dunyach - Foot prints in the snow

Aliens land at an airport...

Paul J. Mcauley - The secret of my success

The rich evolve...

Madeline Cary - Red-eye

Two women abroad..

Alexander Glass - Upgrade

A brain in a tank

Don Webb - Man of Steel saves the world

Brilliant riff on War of the Worrlds s...

Stephen Dedman - A single shadow

Romance in Japan...

Thomas Disch - The First Annual Performance Arts Festival at the Slaughtrr Rock Battlefield

Re-enactors...

Nicholas Waller - Travel agent

Watch out for the Tourist Enforcement Agency...

Brian Stablefod - The Pied plumber of Hamelin

Call Tamm..

ALewxander Glass - Carlas eye

Just a virus...

Maya Katherine Bohnohoff

Grim trial murder trail ...

Stephen Baxter - The twelth album

True Beatles fans...

Mary A. Turzlo - Arms and the man

Watch out for E.As...

Domonnic Green - Queen of the hill

Syvia M. Siddal - Dryads

Trees uproot for war..

Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne - Citizen Ed

Brillaint dark variant of WW2

Don Webb - The literary fruitcake

As per the title

Ben Jeapes - Cathedral N.3

Musings on war

Brian Stableford - Worse thanthe disease

Infection for kicks..

Sylvia M. Sidall - The conflagration of the Gryffe

An unsual birthing...

Paul Di Filippo - Life sentence

The reverse of what one would expect...

Molly Brown - Doing things differently

A hi jinks space mission...

Garry Kilworth - The Council of beasts

Rather ploding...

Francis Amery - Lucifers comet

Whats in a name...

John Meaney - A bitter shade of blind sight

On a planet called Balance there are problems...

Ian Watson - Tulips from Amsterdam

An academic gives unusual assignments...

Lilith Moon - Contacts

Normally singular...

Michael Andre - Driussi - Under the moons of Jizma

A really wierd tale of other planets...

Barrrington J.Bayley - The crear

A woman is enticed by by a strange cult...

Eugene Byrne - Alfreds imaginary pestilence

A layabout is plagued by a layabout from the future...

Ed Gorman - Cages

Deeply unpleasant near future...

Julian Flood - Repeat after me

Which of a number of outcomes...

Ian Macdonald - The further adventures of Baron von Munch Huausen - the Gulf War

The real madcap truth...

Keith Brooke and Eric Brown - Appassionata

A female muscian falls in love with a dead composer...

Phil Masters - Platonic solid

Two tourists visit an unnamed country..

Gary Couzens - The facilator

Somes help is not what is wanted..

Cathine Mintz- Stone jungle

Dominic Green - Moving mysterially

The Church looks after spacoe exloration...

J.G.Ballard - The dying fallJ .GA couple tustle on holiday...

JG.G.Ballard - The secret autobiography

what to do at the end...JG.G.Ballard - The secret autobiography

Richard Calder - The embarkationforCyhera

A couple drive into the badlandds of their minds...

Ian Watson - How to be a Fictionaut : chapter 19

Terry Dowling - The Ich nenon and the Dormeeus

Kim Newman and Eugene Byrnre - Abdication Street

An Abdication Crisis hits...

Stephen Baxter - in the MSOB

A veteran spaceman becomes a handful...

Brian Stabeford - Sleepwalker

Ian McDonald - Recording angel

Humanity is on notice as the alien Chaga will convert everything...

Mary A. Turzillo - Eat or be eaten - a love story

Intelligent dinosaurs mix with peope but one must be careful...

James Lovegrove - Giving and taking

The old Gods live on...

Simon Ings and M.John Harrrison - The Rio brain

Set in Soho, wierd and over the top...

Peter T.Garrat - The hooded man

A play becomes reality for some...

Barrington J. Bayley - A crab must try

Amusing tale of crustaecian love...

Ian Watson - Such dedication

Jesus had a seret twin who goes into space ....

John Brunner - The drummer and the skins

A band reunites, stirrng old emnities...

Darrell- Schweeitzer - King father stone

A dead king killed by his sons lies dreaming...

Cherry Wilder - The curse of Kali

Rather standard-issue ghost story...

Paul Di Filopo - Flying the flannel

A very strange tour...

Greg Egan - Silver fire

An investator of disease transmission stumblesacross something strange...

Chris Beckett - The warrior Half and Half

A powerful exile returns - somewhat gnomic...

Mary Soon Lee - The tinkerbell theory

As reality colapses, romance brings people together...

Stephen Baxter - Darkness

A study of Byrons famous poem oversteps the mark....

Ian Lee - The end of the world is nice

The alien Lon, human-sized insects invade, but lifegoes on...