INFINITY WARS Edited by Jonathan Strahan http://www.solarisbooks.com/ Infinity Wars is the sixth book in the Infinity Series of SF anthologies published by Solaris Books. Each anthology appears to be mono-themed and the fifteen short stories in this collection consider “the future of war itself,” or at least the nature of war in the future. Homo sapiens is an aggressive breed, so it seems that war most definitely has a future. This is a classy anthology with quality stories written by award-winning writers including (to name a few): Eleanor Arnason, Elizabeth Bear, Indrapramit Das, Rich Larson, Garth Nix, An Onomoyela, and Carrie Vaughan. There were two things that struck me, especially about the stories collectively. The first thing was diversity: diversity in the selection of authors, diversity in the subject matter of the stories (despite the umbrella theme), and the interpretation of how wars might be fought, and also diversity of locations and protagonists. Don’t come looking for traditional gung ho white male soldiery here. The fighters of the future come in all genders, sexualities, ethnicities, species, and colours. Some are human and some are markedly less so. Some are aggressive. Some are defensive, and it is not always front line troops who do the most damage. War zone locations include Earth, deep space and assorted planets, satellites and space stations in between. Long gone is the traditional Russian/American or East/West divide that has historically formed the basis of many war stories. Here we have Indian soldiers on the moon, Chinese/Indian tensions in Tibet and Heavy/colonist issues on settler planets. In deep space there are not just humans to confront. There are non-human enemies and allies to deal with, although we humans frequently seem to be our own worst enemies. I appreciated the diversity of these stories from a range of standpoints, not least that the variety, combined with the sheer quality of these stories, means that, despite the mono-themed nature of the anthology, Infinity Wars is an entertaining, and at times thought-provoking, page-turner. The second thing to strike me was the story endings. I don’t know if it’s a requirement of the Infinity series, but few of the stories had a tight conclusive ending. Most conclude with more possibilities or with endings that are open to interpretation. This openness made me think of an infinity loop and perhaps that was the intention? As a result, if you are looking for traditional war stories with conclusive heroic endings, this may not be the
anthology for you. If you like well-written, thoughtprovoking, and frequently open-ended tales of possible future conflicts, you need look no further. By J.S.Watts SUNGRAZER By Jay Posey www.angryrobotbooks.com This is the second series of Posey’s that has fallen across my desk. This one, like the first, is excellent and definitely worthy of your attention. The second book in the Outriders Series, sees a cold war between Earth and Mars, and when some massive weapons go missing the Outriders (a crew of super-soldier/spies) are called in to find out what’s going on. What they find is more than they bargained for… Intrigue, betrayal, and war are likely to follow. Posey sets up his world immediately, and remarkably well. His characters are mere pieces in his story, which is a bit of a shame, but more than made up for in terms of action. This is military SF fuelled by action and tension. Posey has created a wonderfully complex world, filled it with super soldiers and tension between the opposing regimes, and then thrown a spanner into the works to make everything explode. Great stuff again from Posey. By Adrian Brady COTTONSEEDS By Lily Dark https://lilyauthor.com/ A few years ago I remember being blown away by a trippy little dark fantasy book called Eden Fell by some mysterious creature known only as Lily. I read a lot of books, but not many stuck with me like that sucker did. I kept an eye out for more books by the same author, but unfortunately they were few and far between. I eventually found out that though an exceptionally talented wordsmith, Lily, now revealed as Lily Dark, always considered herself an artist first and a writer second. Thankfully, she’s found a way to combine both creative pursuits with this serialized graphic novel. Boasting beautiful artwork and killer prose, in a nutshell Cottonseeds records the many varied adventures of Sam Gillman, a twentysomething paralegal based in Tennessee who is forced into reconciling the amoral job of defending the guilty with fending off the supernatural forces which threaten to consume him from the inside out. Or maybe even the other way around. If you’ve always wanted to sink your teeth into a superbly produced graphic novel which somehow manages to wrap murderers, ghosts, and