Science Fiction Book Reviews | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Rise and Run (A Broken Man Novel #1) by RJ Plant

From the first few pages of Operation Rise and Run, readers know they are in for a grim, mysterious, and well-crafted novel. Author RJ Plant has delivered a stunning introduction to her vision of the future, not one of atomic destruction or a zombie apocalypse, but rather a fate that seems disturbingly probable, where science fiction and geopolitical realities have brutally collided.

Following the destructive end to the war on terror, the world has turned a new page, one in which power is more centralized – in the Government Directive International (GDI). The reason this book sends shivers, however, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-06-14T06:44:13+02:00April 3rd, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Path of the Ancients: Space Time Illusion by Ancient Philosophy

Path of the Ancients: Space Time Illusion A daughter’s scientific and metaphysical inquiry after the loss of her father forms the scaffolding of this intriguing novel about the ultimate question: Who am I? A complex but rewarding story guided by Hindu scripture, the novel tells the story of Kalki as she tries to understand the apparent death of her inventor father, Anadi, while posing a number of questions around religion, science, and philosophy.

Path of the Ancients: Space Time Illusion, credited only to the author “Ancient Philosophy,” imagines a near-future India dominated by technology. There, Kalki and friend Shiva combine science and the Upanishads in the […]

Greg Rideout2018-03-27T13:24:45+02:00March 26th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: International Fiction Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews, Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine

The Beasts of Electra Drive by Rohan Quine takes the reader on an adventure through the life of Jaymi, a video game designer living in Los Angeles, that has ventured out on his own after becoming disheartened by his work with a former employer, Bang Dead Games. Once a programmer for Bang Dead Games, Jaymi now embarks on a journey that takes him deep into a magical world of his own creation, where his Beasts from his games emerge out into the real world, or “meat-space,” as they call it, through his programming.

Unhappy with his old company, Jaymi uses […]

SPR2019-01-11T14:51:46+02:00March 21st, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Raptor Ray by Brent Reilly

Raptor Ray by Brent Reilly is an eccentric show of imagination. It opens on the strange birth of Ray, the poor scaly dino-kid doomed to ridicule, and it gets stranger and stranger from there on out, telling a story that blends together a huge number of sci-fi tropes (time travel, space travel, dinosaurs, cataclysms, the list goes on), as well as non-fictional elements, for a completely inventive read.

The book is rich in information, with facts from the real world and the author’s imaginative fictional world giving the atmosphere of the novel a wholly unique texture. This strange pastiche of […]

SPR2018-04-30T11:01:14+02:00March 15th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Afterlife Code by J.M. Erickson

Sci-fi novels often give readers a distant glimpse into a potential future, but Afterlife Code by J.M. Erickson may provide a peek into future events for this generation. In this story, neural implants have been designed to treat many different diseases and disorders of the brain, but for Dr. Melanie Sage and Robert Cobb, her therapist, an unexpected malfunction of this new technology tosses them into another world…a world they each possess in their own mind.

This thrilling novel combines religious philosophy, scientific exploration, and the limitations of the human mind with brilliant clarity. Rather than giving one picture of […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-03-16T11:20:10+02:00March 14th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Freak God by Peter Kornis

The Freak God

In The Freak God by Peter Kornis, an intriguing and eye-opening parable about the value of knowledge over belief, readers witness what gods and humans could achieve if they worked together for honest, honorable goals.

This sci-fi novel is set in a far-flung human colony in the far reaches of space, where the unique atheistic beliefs of one nation there have given rise to a new god – one who does not seek adulation or submission from the humans around him. Readers are given an intimate look at this “non-god god” as he grows up alongside humans, similar to what […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-04-04T09:56:49+02:00March 12th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Atheism Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Timing the Infinite by Nathaniel Schmeling

Timing the Infinite by Nathaniel Schmeling

For those who look or think about the world differently, life can be a minefield of isolation, confusion, despair… and occasionally hedonism, but it also offers the potential for bizarre, one-of-a-kind storytelling. In Timing the Infinite, author Nathaniel Schmeling embarks on a brilliant linguistic roller coaster ride, one packed with import, introducing a myriad of unforgettably weird and profound characters.

Stranger is an apt name for the protagonist, as he seems to represent a massive bundle of “otherness” and embraces the unknown. A brilliant programmer with a multilayered façade of nihilism and perceived freedom, he is actually an existential […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-03-08T10:06:15+02:00February 22nd, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Visionary Fiction Book Reviews|

Arklight: Operation Nightfall by J.M. Myrick

Being able to step back in time to change the future is a common theme in science fiction, but author JM Myrick puts a new spin on this old idea with Arklight: Operation Nightfall. This ambitious novel, the first in a trilogy, tells the story of an elite team of soldiers who are mysteriously transported back to 1943 into the dark heart of Germany under Hitler’s control.

Supernatural forces bring them back to this crucial moment in time, and what they discover is something that the world has never known: Germany had a weapon that could have won the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-09-04T06:36:58+02:00February 22nd, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews, Time Travel Book Reviews|