Monthly Archives: June 2020

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #22:- ANTARCTICA Kim Stanley Robinson Voyager pb, 562pp, £6.99 Wade Norton is sent to the southern continent to assess conditions prior to ratification of a new Antarctic Treaty. When a carefully co-ordinated attack … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #20:- TIMEQUAKE Kurt Vonnegut Vintage pb, 219pp, £5.99 In the year 2001 the world is struck by a cosmic phenomenon known as a timequake, rather like the stylus jumping a groove on a … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #24:- BAGOMBO SNUFF BOX Kurt Vonnegut Jonathan Cape hb, 295pp, £16.99 Back in the 1950s, when reading magazines was for millions of people a vital leisure activity and not simply something to do … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #22- TERANESIA Greg Egan Victor Gollancz hb, 249pp, £16.99 A precocious child, Prabir Suresh lives on Teranesia, a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, with his younger sister Madhusree and their parents, two … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #20:- LUMINOUS Greg Egan Millennium hb, 295pp, £16.99 Science fiction has always prided itself on its sense of wonder, but the criteria have changed. In the good old days (Before Hawking) mile … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #23:- MISSION CHILD Maureen McHugh Orbit pb, 385pp, £6.99 McHugh’s latest novel is set in a universe where, after centuries of isolation, a technologically backward colony world is once again in contact with … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #22:- LEAN TIMES IN LANKHMAR Fritz Leiber Millennium pb, 407pp, £6.99 Modern fantasy seems to have polarised. On the one hand are the serried ranks of high fantasy, fat volumes with portentous titles, … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #25:- MISSION OF GRAVITY Hal Clement Gollancz pb, 203pp, £9.99 First published in 1953 and now reissued by Gollancz as one of their SF Collectors’ Editions, Clement’s novel with its use of scientific … Continue reading →

A review that originally appeared in The Third Alternative #22:- BEING DEAD Jim Crace Viking hb, 210pp, £16.99 The latest book by prize winning novelist Crace opens with the violent death of its main characters, Joseph and Celice, two zoologists on … Continue reading →