#166. LAND UNDER ENGLAND By Joseph O’Neill

Published : 1935
Pages : 296
Overall Mark : 6/10

While searching for his missing father, Anthony Julian embarks on a terrifying journey into the Earth’s interior. There he discovers a subterranean world where descendants of the Roman Army suffer under a totalitarian regime in which individualism is completely obliterated by telepathic means. Refusing to join this rigidly controlled society, Anthony must fight to save his father and find a route to the surface – or perish.

JOSEPH O’NEILL (1878-1952)
Joseph O’Neill was an Irish educationist and author. He worked as the Permanent Secretary to the Department of Education, Irish Free State, between 1923 and 1944. Although not strictly an SF writer, O’Neill used SF instruments to make cultural and political points with great eloquence. Land Under England (1935), about an underground world where citizens are controlled by telepathy, is a satire on Hitlerian totalitarianism.

VERDICT
This is a bit of an odd concept, and I’m surprised it was considered so highly. It seems to take two completely separate ideas; a lost Roman civilisation and a race of telepaths, and combines them in an unusual way that shouldn’t work, yet it does, I didn’t feel myself questioning the concept as I read, nor how these people became telepaths in the first place, which just goes to show that it must have been reasonably well written for me to not think of this when I was reading. Instead I became immersed in Anthony’s search for his father, a search that we pretty much know from the start is not going to be successful.

#165. CRYPTOZOIC! By Brian Aldiss

Published : 1967
Pages : 224
Overall Mark : 8/10

In the year 2093, human consciousness has expanded to the point that man can visit the past using a technique called ‘mind-travelling’. Artist Edward Bush returns from e lengthy ‘trip’ to the Jurassic period to find the government overthrown by an authoritarian regime. Given his mind-travel experience, he is recruited by the new regime to track down and assassinate a scientist whose ideas threaten to topple the status quo. However, the job of an artist is not to take orders but to ask questions…

BRIAN ALDISS (1925-2017)
Brian Wilson Aldiss was born in 1925. He was a highly decorated science fiction author who achieved the rare feat of acceptance as a writer of real significance by the literary establishment in his lifetime. As well as his many award-winning novels he has been a hugely important anthologist and editor in the field. He also wrote the pre-eminent history of the genre (with David Wingrove), Billion Year Spree (later expanded and revised as Trillion Year Spree). He died the day after his 92nd birthday.

VERDICT
This started off well, with some entertaining and well written back and forth between Ed Bush and the rest of the characters, but then it gets a little confusing, especially at the end where it’s hard to tell what exactly we are expected to believe has happened so far in the narrative. Fans of classic sic-fi will enjoy this, but it can get a little bogged down at the end by trying not to explain to obviously what has happened throughout.

#164. THE EMBEDDING By Ian Watson

Published : 1973
Pages : 254
Overall Mark : 6/10

In a quiet British research institute, Chris Sole is investigating a strange language whose grammar could open up the vast psychic potential of the human mind.

In the depths of the Brazilian jungle, an Indian tribe is discovered, speaking a rhapsodic drug-induced tongue.

And in Earth’s orbit, alien beings monitor our planet, effortlessly mastering the proliferation of human languages. What they offer is extraordinary. But will their price be too high?

IAN WATSON (1943-)
Ian Watson graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, and lectured in English in Tanzania and Tokyo before beginning to publish SF with ‘Roof Garden Under Saturn’ for the influential New Worlds magazine in 1969. His work has been frequently shortlisted for the Hugo and Nebula Awards and he has won the BSFA Award twice. From 1990 to 1991 he worked full-time with Stanley Kubrick on story development for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence, directed after Kubrick’s death by Steven Spielberg. Ian Watson lives in Spain.

VERDICT
This was a fun story, though it takes a little while to really get going. I liked the comparison between how the people involved were treated, and how they tried to balance the price of knowledge against the price of a life. Watson makes this satire on the human condition funny and thought provoking, but I would have liked it to be a little more consistent.

#163. RAISING THE STONES By Sheri S Tepper

Published : 1990
Pages : 453
Overall Mark : 8/10

When the human settlers arrived on Hobbs Land, the native Owlbrit were almost extinct, but before the last one died, the humans learned a little of their language, ideas and religion. And it seemed that maintaining the last Owlbrit temple, with the strange statue that was its God, led to peace and prosperity. But then men from the harsh patriarchal religion of Voorstod came to Hobbs Land in pursuit of a refugee and determined to impose their own way…

SHERI S. TEPPER (1929-2016)
Sheri S. Tepper was the author of several resoundingly acclaimed novels, including The Margarets and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, both shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Aware, A Plague Of Angels, Sideshow and Beauty, which was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of Locus. She is one of the few writers to have titles in both the SF and Fantasy Masterworks lists. She died in 2016.

VERDICT
This was an interesting story, showing how many religions around the world have based their foundation on weak facts and disinformation. That is the fun side of the story, though the darker side focusses more on the wars that result from these religions as well as the persecution of certain sectors of society for no other reason than it was apparently dictated by religion. A solid read that never gets to the point of becoming dull, even though it can at times feel like it is dragging out an otherwise simple and succinct premise.

#162. THE DOOMED CITY By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1989
Pages :
Overall Mark : 8/10

It is a mysterious city with an artificial sun, bordered by an abyss on one side and an impossibly high wall on the other. Its inhabitants have been plucked from different time periods of twentieth-century history and left to govern themselves, advised by the inscrutable Mentors. This is the Experiment, seen through the eyes of Andrei Voronin, a young astronomer from 1950s Leningrad, whose rise through the political hierarchy has a devastating effect.

ARKADY STRUGATSKY (1925-1991)
BORIS STRUGATSKY (1931-2012)
The Strugatsky brothers began to collaborate in the early 1950s. Arkady worked as a technical translator and editor, and Boris was a computer mathematician at Puklova astronomical observatory. Their work includes Hard To Be A God, Definitely Maybe, The Snail On The Slope and Monday Starts On Saturday. Andrei Tarkovsky's much admired film, Stalker, was based on their most famous work, Roadside Picnic.

VERDICT
I do secretly like the Strugatsky’s, though Roadside Picnic was never a favourite. This is up there with likes of Monday Starts On Saturday, though not as obviously funny. Instead this takes the political satire end of the comedy spectrum – something that was definitely risky in the time it was written – and goes with that by parodying the ideas that were so prevalently observed in the former Soviet Union.

#161. THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME By H G Wells

Published : 1933
Pages : 424
Overall Mark : 4/10

When Dr Philip Raven, a diplomat working for the League of Nations, dies in the 1930s, he leaves behind a book of dreams outlining the visions he has been experiencing for many years, detailing events that will occur on Earth for the next two centuries. This fictional ‘history of the future’ proved prescient in many ways, as Wells predicted events such as the Second World War, the rise of chemical warfare, climate change and the growing instability of the Middle East.

H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)
Born in Bromley, Kent, the third son of a shopkeeper, Herbert George Wells was apprenticed to a draper before becoming a teacher-pupil at Midhurst Grammar School and winning a scholarship to study under T.H. Huxley. Through his trail-blazing works of science fiction, his prophetic imagination and his championing of socialism, science and women’s rights he became a hugely influential figure of international renown.

VERDICT
To be perfectly honest this was not only a struggle to read but also something of a let-down. I was expecting to read a brief history of the world spanning from 1933 to 2106, but instead I got around 300 pages focussing almost entirely on the twenty years following the publication of the book and then some random excuses for why the history was so incomplete. I thought, with Wells at the helm, that this would be a clever look at our future, but its focus is so tight compared to what it claimed it would show that it couldn’t be anything but a disappointment.

#159. THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS By Ursula K Le Guin

Published : 1969
Pages : 304
Overall Mark : 8/10

Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the winter-world Gethen. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they become male or female at the peak of their sexual cycle. He becomes drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long tortuous journey across the ice with a disgraced, outcast politician, loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in moving and memorable sequence, even finds love…

URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929-)
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honour. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

VERDICT
In comparison to the rest of her Hainish stories, this one in my opinion gives the best background to the race of androgynous aliens. There is much more in-depth descriptions and explanations of exactly what their society is like, whereas the other books seemed to assume you already know. Of the series that I have read, this is probably the best one so far.

#158. LIMBO By Bernard Wolfe

Published : 1952
Pages : 413
Overall Mark : 7/10

In the aftermath of an atomic war, a new international movement of pacifism has arisen. Multitudes of young men have chosen to curb their aggressive instincts through voluntary amputation – disarmament in its most literal sense. Those who have undergone this procedure are highly esteemed in the new society. But they have a problem – their prosthetics require a rare metal to function, and international tensions are rising over which countries get the right to mine it…

BERNARD WOLFE (1915-85)
Bernard Wolfe was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He worked as a military correspondent for a number of science magazines during the Second World War, and began to write fiction in 1946. He became best known for his 1952 SF novel Limbo.

VERDICT
This is an interesting satirical novel focussing on what life would be like if we were to chop off our limbs to prevent us from going to war. Clearly Wolfe thinks it wouldn’t work, but what he presents is an interesting concept. The idea that the actions of one man, albeit misinterpreted actions, could lead to such a movement is both funny and worrying, with a conclusion that really proves that mankind will go to war no matter how much they try not to.

#157. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN VOL 2 : SWORD & CITADEL By Gene Wolfe

Published : 1982, 1983
Pages : 615
Overall Mark : 8/10

Exiled from his guild, the former torturer’s apprentice, Severian, is now the Lictor of Thrax, a city far distant from his home. But it is not long before he must flee this city, too, and journey again into the world. Embattled by friend and enemies alike, pursued by monstrous creatures, Severian must overcome hitherto unimagined perils, as he moves closer to fulfilling his ultimate destiny. This edition contains The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch.

GENE WOLFE (1931-)

Gene Wolfe is one of modern fantasy’s most important writers. His best-known work, the four volume far-future Book of the New Sun, won the World Fantasy, BSFA, Nebula, British Fantasy and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. He has won the World Fantasy Award four times for his novels and collections and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award for his extraordinary body of work.

VERDICT

THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR - This had a lot more of a sci-fi feel to it than the first two books, with him fighting various monsters such as the Alzabo, and although that did in part take us away from the idea of this being a perfectly relatable story told in a different time, it did add to the story and make it all the more intriguing.

THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH - This had much more of a fable feel to it than the previous book, with its focus at times on storytelling as well as introducing the ideas of time travel and aliens, and it is this volume that finally reveals the big secret readers waited four years to find out.

#156. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN VOL 1 : SHADOW & CLAW By Gene Wolfe

Published : 1980, 1981
Pages : 603
Overall Mark : 8/10

Severian, a torturer’s apprentice, is exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his prisoners. Armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est, Severian must make his way across the perilous, ruined landscape of this far-future Urth. But is his finding of the mystical gem, the Claw of the Conciliator, merely an accident, or does Fate have grander plans for Severian the torturer…? This edition contains The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator.

GENE WOLFE (1931-)
Gene Wolfe is one of modern fantasy’s most important writers. His best-known work, the four volume far-future Book of the New Sun, won the World Fantasy, BSFA, Nebula, British Fantasy and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. He has won the World Fantasy Award four times for his novels and collections and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award for his extraordinary body of work.
VERDICT
SHADOW OF THE TORTURER - The characterizations in this novel are probably the best I’ve read in a long time in regards to SF and fantasy. The interactions work well and we aren’t faced with ridiculously hard to pronounce people and place names which I found refreshing. Severian, the lead character, is a little hard to get a grip on, but that makes him all the more intriguing.

THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR - This second volume didn’t feel as strong, although the interplay between characters was still well observed. Also it felt a little more fantasy oriented than the first volume, especially as it grew closer to its conclusion.

#155. CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG By Maureen F McHugh

Published : 1992
Pages : 313
Overall Mark : 9/10

After the Second Great Depression and the American Liberation War, the US has been left as a satellite state of China. In this strict world of Communist orthodoxy, young New York construction engineer Zhang Zhongshan must find his way in a worl that disapproves of both his cultural heritage and his sexual identity.

Not everyone can change the world; sometimes, the ultimate challenge is to find a way to live in it...

MAUREEN F. MCHUGH (1959-)
Maureen McHugh’s first story was published in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone magazine in 1988, and just a handful of stories followed before her first novel, the critically acclaimed China Mountain Zhang, in 1992. She has won the Hugo and Shirley Jackson Award for her short fiction, and the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award for China Mountain Zhang, her best-known novel, which was also shortlisted for the Hugo and Nebula Award. She lives in Los Angeles.

VERDICT
This was such an interesting character driven piece. The stories are a little disjointed, going back and forth between Zhang and a number of supporting characters who don’t necessarily prove themselves to be of immediate relevance but even from the opening chapter there are some great set pieces and awkward social interactions that only help in expanding on the lead character and showing how he manages to grow as the story progresses towards its conclusion.

#154. STARSHIP TROOPERS By Robert A Heinlein

Published : 1959
Pages : 275
Overall Mark : 6/10

5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down the terrifying enemy: an insect life-form known only as ‘Bugs’.

This is the story of trooper Johnny Rico, from his idealistic enlistment in the infantry of the future through his rigorous training to the command of his own platoon. And his destiny is a war that will span the galaxy.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN (1907-1988)
Robert A. Heinlein was educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish SF with ‘Lifeline’ for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. Among his many novels are The Door Into Summer, Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger In A Strange Land and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

VERDICT
Definitely not what I was expecting, and far from being Heinlein at his best this is still an interesting book that acts in some ways as sci-fi propaganda while managing to remain a mostly enjoyable read. Fans of the movie will be surprised by how different this is, and those who loathed the much-maligned movie might be pleasantly surprised.

#153. THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS By John Wyndham

Published : 1957
Pages : 220
Overall Mark : 8/10

In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and renders all the villagers unconscious. The next day they awaken – to find that all of the women are pregnant. But the blonde, golden-eyed children of Midwich cannot be human: they grow too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others. Inevitably, their nature brings them into conflict with the villagers, just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside...

JOHN WYNDHAM (1903-69)
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris started writing short stories in 1925. He wrote under many pen names, eventually settling on John Wyndham for his modified form of science fiction, which he called ‘logical fantasy’. He is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

VERDICT
Fans of alien invasion stories might find this a little tame due to the subtle nature of the invasion, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the methods that mankind chose to use in battling the menace. In spite of the twee surroundings and old fashioned nature of the book, there is still an element of defeatism present in this that is just as relevant to the world we now live in.

#152. MONDAY STARTS ON SATURDAY By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1964
Pages : 243
Overall Mark : 9/10

When young programmer Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karella, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry, where research into magic is serious business.

And where science, sorcery and socialism meet, can chaos be far behind?

ARKADY STRUGATSKY (1925-1991)
BORIS STRUGATSKY (1931-2012)
The Strugatsky brothers began to collaborate in the early 1950s. Arkady worked as a technical translator and editor, and Boris was a computer mathematician at Puklova astronomical observatory. Their work includes Hard To Be A God, Definitely Maybe, The Snail On The Slope and Monday Starts On Saturday. Andrei Tarkovsky's much admired film, Stalker, was based on their most famous work, Roadside Picnic.

VERDICT
If Terry Pratchett never read this book, I would be amazed. There is so much in here that fans of the Discworld series would enjoy and recognise, and more besides. The humour is dry yet sometimes absurd, and the plot is clever enough to have been one of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently storylines. Well worth the read, and the best of the Strugatsky brothers efforts I’ve read so far.

#151. SWASTIKA NIGHT By Murray Constantine

Published : 1937
Pages : 196
Overall Mark : 8/10

Seven hundred years after Nazism achieved power, Hitler is worshipped as a god. The fascist Germans and Japanese struggle to maintain their populations. An Englishman named Alfred is on a German pilgrimage. According to official history, Hitler is a tall, blond god who personally won the war. Alfred is astounded when shown a photograph of Hitler before a crowd. He is shocked that Hitler was a small man with dark hair and a paunch. And Alfred’s discovery may mean his death...

MURRAY CONSTANTINE (1896-1963)
A pseudonym for the feminist SF writer Katharine Burdekin. Born Katharine Cade, she was the younger sister of Rowan Cade who created the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. In addition to her Utopian and Dystopian fiction, she wrote several children’s books, including The Children’s Country under the pen name Kay Burdekin. Her best-known work remains Swastika Night, written as Murray Constantine – a pseudonym that was not confirmed until two decades after her death.

VERDICT
I actually enjoyed this book, with its bleak look at a future that could have happened if Hitler had won World War II. It’s amazing to read when you realise that this book was actually published before the war had even begun, so Burdekin not only comes up with a dystopian future based on a fiction but also predicts the war itself. The idea that Nazism moves its focus onto women once it has all but wiped out anyone else they deem unfit to be part of the so-called master race is a scary one as women are portrayed here as being treated like animals or something almost sub-human. An interesting parable of what could quite easily have been.

#150. A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY By Vernor Vinge

Published : 1991
Pages : 538
Overall Mark : 6/10

This is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Qeng Ho. Both they and the Emergents are orbiting Arachna, a dormant planet which will shortly wake up when its On/Off star relights after decades of darkness. Both groups hope to exploit the coming age of technology and commerce on Arachna.

But while the Qeng Ho seek only to trade aggressively, the Emergents’ plans are far more sinister, amounting to little short of genocide...

VERNOR VINGE (1944-)
Vernor Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, a computer scientist and science fiction author. He is best known for his two epic space operas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) and A Deepness in the Sky (1999), both of which won the Hugo Award and were shortlisted for the Nebula. He is the winner of 5 Hugos, 4 Prometheus Awards and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, among many others.

VERDICT
This was pretty slow paced and at times I couldn’t tell where Vinge was going with the narrative, but eventually things got a little interesting. Like the previous book, I found it hard to follow what was happening that was of any real importance, but the characters were still fun to read about even if I wasn’t one hundred per cent sure at all times what their plans or motivations might be.

#149. ALWAYS COMING HOME By Ursula K Le Guin

Published : 1985
Pages : 525
Overall Mark : 6/10

A long, long time from now, in the valleys of what will no longer be called Northern California, might be going to have lived a people called the Kesh.

But Always Coming Home is not the story of the Kesh. Rather it is the stories of the Kesh. Stories, poems, songs, recipes – Always Coming Home is no less than an anthropological account of a community that does not yet exist, a tour de force of imaginative fiction by one of modern literature’s greatest voices.

URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929-)
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honour. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

VERDICT
It’s hard to judge this as a novel as it is more of a fictional anthropological guide to a made-up society. Le Guin does an awesome job of creating a world from the basic elements right up to the most important parts, but it is quite the challenge to wrap your mind around. There are stories interspersed between studies of the Kesh, but these are few and far between and just as hard to read as the rest of the book. It’s worth the effort to some extent, but it’s inaccessibility makes it more of an oddity than a must read.

#148. THE CHRYSALIDS By John Wyndham

Published : 1955
Pages : 200
Overall Mark : 8/10

David’s father doesn’t approve of Angus Morton’s unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that David and his friends have their own secret aberration, which would label them as mutants. And mutants, as everyone knows, should be burned. But as the children grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery – and death – or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands...

JOHN WYNDHAM (1903-69)
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris started writing short stories in 1925. He wrote under many pen names, eventually settling on John Wyndham for his modified form of science fiction, which he called ‘logical fantasy’. He is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

VERDICT
It’s amazing how much of this book seems to have been borrowed from over the years by comic books; from the mutants feared and hated by society for being different, to the appearance of an actual spider-man, this book is a must read for anyone who has ever been a fan of comic books or dystopian fantasies. Wyndham does a wonderful job of creating a world that instantly feels familiar in a child-like friendly way, then pulls the rug out from under us to reveal how truly terrifying other people’s hatred can be.

#147. THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH By Walter Tevis

Published : 1963
Pages : 185
Overall Mark : 8/10

Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien from the planet Anthea, an advanced world that has been devastated by a series of nuclear wars. When he lands on Earth, disguised as a human, it’s with the intention of saving his own people from extinction. Patenting advanced Anthean technology, he soon begins to amass the fortune he needs to help his people. But there are some who are suspicious of Newton’s company’s innovative products, and suspect there is more to this man than meets the eye...

WALTER TEVIS (1928-84)
While studying at the University of Kentucky, Tevis worked in a pool hall and published a story about the game for an English class. It was a theme he would later revisit in the novels The Hustler and The Colour of Money, both of which were adapted into Oscar-winning films. Among his other works, The Man Who Fell to Earth and Mockingbird are considered masterpieces of science fiction.

VERDICT
This is an intriguing look at how humanity might treat an alien visitor if they were to come across one. I love the idea that the alien, Newton, decides to try and make money by inventing amazing things, yet doesn’t actually seem to have any plans for his future. The ending is a little bittersweet, but it does give plenty of closure to his predicament and leaves the reader wondering if there have been visitors that we’ve never been told about...

#146. FAIRYLAND By Paul McAuley

Published : 1995
Pages : 376
Overall Mark : 8/10

The 21st century. Europe is divided between the First World, made rich by nanotechnology and genetically engineered Dolls, and the Fourth World – refugees displaced by war and economic upheaval. In London, Alex Sharkey, a designer of psychoactive viruses, is trying to stay one step ahead of the police and the Triads. But his troubles really start when he helps a scary, duper-smart girl called Milena quicken intelligence in a Doll, turning it into the first of the fairies...

PAUL MCAULEY (1955-)
Paul James McAuley was born in Gloucestershire on St George’s Day, 1955. He has a Ph.D in Botany, worked as a researcher in biology at various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in botany at St Andrews University, before leaving academia to write full time.

VERDICT
This is such an odd world that McAuley has created yet, as someone who was born and raised in London, it is oddly familiar too. Slightly reminiscent of the works of both Philip K Dick and Isaac Asimov through its use of robots as a metaphor for humanity, this story tells the history of how robotic slaves called Dolls rise up against their masters and create their own species, the fairies. This is both funny and dark, and manages to make feel real a story that is otherwise pure fantasy.