false 9 50 49 true 5814656 read 0 true 2645590 currently-reading 1 true 2645589 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65870279 to: The Fifth Head Of Cerberus (Millennium SF Masterworks S) by Gene Wolfe
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65870198 to: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6) by J.K. Rowling
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65870127 to: Fahrenheit 451 (Flamingo Modern Classics) by Ray Bradbury
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65869908 to: There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Paperback) by Adrienne Barbeau
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64526572 to: Isambard Smith and the God Emperor of Didcot (Chronicles of Isambard Smith 2) by Toby Frost
With this sequel to Space Captain Smith, Toby Frost brings back Isambard Smith and his near-competent crew for an adventure that rocks the very heart of the British Space Empire... The Tea is Under Threat.

If anything, God Emperor of Didcot is even funnier than the first book in the series. The main characters return from Space Captain Smith and Frost makes use of this familiarity to develop the characters further and give them some space to grow. And they really do benefit from this – especially in the case of Carveth and Suruk.

This is still comedy first and foremost, though, and the jokes come quick and fast. There are digs at and references to plenty of SF tropes and classics as well as some well aimed barbs and a stream of well-written smuttiness that was far funnier than it deserved to be.

I don't doubt that plenty of people will compare Toby Frost to the likes of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Red Dwarf and much else. But the truth is that he really is in a class of his own. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/59736560 to: Escape From Hell! (Paperback) by Hal Duncan
Hal Duncan has quite a unique writing style, but once you are used to it his approach does give the story a real rhythm. And what a story it is: four characters die and go to hell - a broken down, media obsessed, nightmarishly bureaucratic version of New York.

They meet and, guns blazing, they make a break for it. On the way they discover Lucifer, kept prisoner by the Angel Gabriel and, in freeing him, bring down the angel's wrath on themselves. And then all Hell really does break loose.

It's a cracking, action packed and very cinematic story that manages to take some well-aimed swipes at - among other things - sensationalist media and the the Christian view of the afterlife. Well worth a read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57958564 to: High-Rise (Flamingo Modern Classic) by J.G. Ballard
This is seriously shocking stuff. Ballard gives us a vision of social collapse in which the wealthy tennants of an exclusive apartment block turn on each other against a background of escalating violence. The novel manages to be both gripping and disturbing and genuinely unnerving. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58544605 to: Exhalation (Podcast) by Ted Chiang
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