"For reasons unknown to everyone, Sherlock Holmes' birthday is celebrated every year on January 6." It's time to return once more to the Sherlock Holmes bookstore, run by ex-pat, Gemma Doyle, who might not actually be related to the famous author but shares the deductive reasoning skills of the even more famous fictional detective! These … Continue reading The Devil is in the Details – Vicki Delany
"The guys from the 'A' and 'B' crews have been sitting on their collective assfor five weeks,out in the middle of nowhere." When we were introduced to Bob Howard, Computational Demonologist for the secret government department set up to deal with otherworldly horrors, aka the Laundry, in The Atrocity Archives, many people used a description along the … Continue reading The Jennifer Morgue – Charles Stross
"Green sky at night; hacker's delight." Imagine the IT department of the X-Files, but in a very bureaucratic, very British civil service department. Here you will find Bob, who was not given much of a choice about working for the 'Laundry' (as it has been dubbed) after his geeky mind delved a little too deep … Continue reading The Atrocity Archives – Charles Stross
"People went missing on Giant." Seventeen seemingly unrelated missing persons cases have piqued Investigator Mossa's attention, and she once again asks for help from friend - more than friend? - Pleiti. Can a scholarly background provide more insights into the cases and uncover any links at all? Does missing mean dead - murdered or otherwise … Continue reading The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles – Malka Older
"Staybehind's body was moving before he woke up, driven by fear and algorithms." After the civil war, the newly seceded California declared that sentient robots had full citizen rights - well, at least the not-inconvenient ones...! They are pretty much indentured slaves, sellable to new 'owners' while they pay off their contracts. So when the … Continue reading Automatic Noodle – Annalee Newitz
"The first deep chill of winter had fallen over Tibbet's Brook." Once, the town of Tibbet's Brook was an epicentre for demon attacks from the Core, but those days have thankfully passed. Selia Barren's years of fighting demons have been exchanged for sorting out the arguments among her fellow residents, as the town speaker. That … Continue reading Butter Cookies and Demon Claws – Peter V Brett
"The neon signs glowed sullenly, sending sickly tendrils of light slithering down the rain-soaked streets like so many diseased serpents." Synthetics: vat-grown to perform all of the menial and unpleasant jobs that humans don't want, they look human - but are treated as objects. Killing a synth isn't murder, it's property destruction. But for Detective … Continue reading SINthetic – JT Nicholas
"My life fell apart when I was sixteen." It shouldn't be a surprise that the apocalypse happening makes things worse in the world, but here we are. Africa, and racial genocide (still?) drives everything. The 'holy book' says that one tribe is predestined to be slaves, but it doesn't stop the other side (who I … Continue reading Who Fears Death – Nnedi Okorafor
"It was early morning on the banks of the Elkinslough River." Mangled bodies with drastic and inexplicable injuries have started to show up in the city's river. Earstripe, a gnole (sort of a talking badger) and local constable (although there's tension in the inter-species attempts at inclusion), wants to investigate more than his superiors think … Continue reading Paladin’s Hope – T Kingfisher
"'Fake sun again today, I'm afraid.'" It's Sci-Fi Month - what better time to look back at the rather daunting backlog of NetGalley ARCs I never quite got to, and see what fits? And even better if it's something short to pad out those yearly reading stats 😉 We seem to be at something of … Continue reading Existence Augmented – Channing Whitaker
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