Reviewed by Jamie Marriage

If given the opportunity to avoid extinction would you take it? Even if it meant abandoning or even destroying everything you know?

This is the major question that David Brin’s novel Existence doesn’t so much try to answer as investigate from every angle.

During a routine space-junk collection mission astronaut Gerald Livingstone goes against protocol and lassos a crystalline object that has been drifting in Earth’s orbit for longer than anyone imagined. And when the crystal egg begins to speak with the voices of alien entities, welcoming humans to join them, the already precarious balance of Earth society is thrown into chaos.

Existence is a complex entity built primarily CyberPunk and Hard Sci-Fi components, but they aren’t the only elements that have been crafted together to tell this tale, and with stunning cohesion.

Hamish Brookeman, acclaimed novelist and director, is tasked with unravelling a plot that risks the plans of his secret society. And in turn exposes far more than he expects.

Hacker, an eccentric playboy, ends up in an extreme sporting accident that results in falling into a world of strangeness and grants him a new sense of purpose.

And Tor Pavlov, pop-culture reporter extraordinaire, prevents a terrorist bombing and becomes immersed in an online culture of unimaginable proportions.

But these are only a few of the many varied characters intertwined within Existence; each of whom have a vital part to play in the overall scheme of things. The tangle weave of betrayal, suspicion and subterfuge is constantly tinged with the hint of hope and progress. Especially when a second egg is discovered that refutes the grim tale of the first.

The writing of Existence is amazing, the characters flawless in their scope and the setting a fascinatingly erratic ride through worlds often difficult to comprehend, but never hard to picture with this level of storytelling. But be warned, this is a dense parable; filled from end to end with twisting points of views and narrators-a-plenty.

It isn’t a fast book, but it is a great book. And one worth taking the time to enjoy.

Few romantic stories are as complex as those written by a futurist; and Bruce Sterling proves this case to the elegant extreme.

Love is Strange is just what the title suggests; an exploration of romance that is destined to take the protagonists places far beyond the norm. But then the main characters themselves cannot claim to be mainstream, so their journey seems custom tailored the their eccentric dispositions.

Gavin, a young Seattle project evaluator working in a venture capital firm, is a guest speaker at a futurist conference in Capri. Using the conference as a cover for his company’s somewhat shady business deal with a Brazilian cultural minister he enlists the help of his nomadic translator, Farfalla, to help him get in contact with her past client.

Deeply rooted in her mystic upbringing, Farfalla immediately develops an attraction to Gavin; believing him to be “The One” spoken of by her occult mentor. She also rapidly takes on a semi-maternal role with Gavin’s sister; a young Goth musician who is as certain of her eventual fame as Farfalla is of her supernatural connection to Gavin.

The story soon delves deep into the complexities of love, especially when two completely separate narratives seem to be running side by side. Gavin’s journey is taking him towards either the salvation or destruction of his old-money family. Farfalla’s own road to happiness is also strewn with complications revolving around her communist parents and oblivious circuit designer boyfriend.

Love is not only strange but horrifically difficult in Sterling’s tale; and certainty is as much of a hindrance as ambiguity. It is often hard to consistently empathise with both Gavin and Farfalla at the same time, as their opinions clash repeatedly making this story an emotional tug-of-war with no clear line in the dirt.

During the novel Sterling maintains his consistently expressive style that is inherent in many of the greatest futurist writers. There is the constant reverence for what has come with the hope of what is to come, and on the edge there is always a hint of possible destruction. These things are what makes a great tale, and Love is Strange is no exception simply because it is a romance story above all.

Solid writing, evocative scenes and twisted underlying narratives all come together to create something that is neither one thing nor another, but a mixture of many different subjects that prove that love is very strange indeed.

Publisher: 40k Books (December 22, 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

ASIN: B00ASBPAWY

Fade to Black is everything you could want from a debut novel, and so much more. Raw and passionate, without the trappings of an author trying to squeeze out the next tale in a series, it grabs you by the scruff of the neck and refuses to let go.

That isn’t to say that Francis Knight has written something that lacks style or flair; far from it. But in this case the fluid language, wonderfully depicted settings and deep characters are far more the tools used to convey the heavy plot than the tale itself.

Fade takes place in a film noir style metropolis of both magic and technology. The setting isn’t any one thing and nor are the characters, everything takes on a double or triple meaning; from the sterile and strict Upside to the raucous heartbeat of Under. When Rojan Dizon, bounty hunter and mage in hiding, begins his search for his missing niece – taken by those who don’t fit into his world – he sets off a chain reaction that leads him into a society that should never have existed.

The story sweeps across jagged turns, never quite staying on a single path for the reader to get comfortable, but making sure they stay on the ride until the end.

Characters are multifaceted, often having multiple agendas, and this includes Rojan himself. As the tale twists and turns through the three-hundred or so pages it becomes clear that as a narrator he is keeping something close to his chest. From a purely academic viewpoint these are some of the most realistic characters in fiction, as is evidenced not only by their hopes and fears but also by how they have been shaped by their surroundings.

Most of Fade to Black is dark and dirty, as is everything beneath the Heights. Emotion is the key to its success, as it is very easy to start empathising with every individual. Including the unpleasant ones. And while it is a very serious novel, with an underlying mystery that has a habit of scraping at your heart, it maintains a sense of humour that prevents the reader from dropping too far into the Black.

Once the mystery begins to unfold it is impossible to put it down. Fade to Black will leave you feeling raw and satisfied.