Penumbra by Eric Brown
reviewed by David Maddox
In the future, humanity has scattered amongst the stars to colonize new worlds, and spread their influence across
the galaxy. Back home, to accommodate all this transport, everyday folks are required to pilot shuttles, transport
cargo, and maintain the multitude of orbital platforms that circle the earth. That's what Josh Bennett does
and he really doesn't wish for too much more in life.
Approaching Omega by Eric Brown
reviewed by David Maddox
The idea of humans colonizing other worlds is nothing new. Mix in a ship that doesn't have faster than light
capabilities and you end up with a bunch of frozen colonists, making their way out of our solar system, knowing
that not only might they not find a new world to inhabit, but the Earth they've left will be unrecognizable
through evolution.
Xenopath by Eric Brown
reviewed by John Enzinas
The story takes place one year after Necropath. Vaughan and his wife are happily married and expecting their
first child. He is enjoying a life free of telepathy, even if it is also free of the surplus cash he used to
earn. An old acquaintance contacts him with a proposal to join a telepathic detective agency. There is a bit of
angst but, in the end, Vaughan does it for the future of his family.
Necropath by Eric Brown
reviewed by John Enzinas
This is the story of a telepath named Jeff Vaughan who works on the docks of the space port
known as Bengal Station. His job is to scan ships for contraband and stowaways. He has become suspicious of his boss
and while investigating his suspicions, he discovers a cult that is smuggling something onto Earth.
Threshold Shift by Eric Brown
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Eric Brown is an author who, for near enough two decades, has hovered around the top of the second division of British writers,
without ever quite making the breakthrough into the first rank. He's a solid writer who has steadily earned good if not ecstatic
reviews and who has attracted a sizeable body of adherents. Yet there has never been the groundswell of support, the word-of-mouth
excitement, the great attention-grabbing work that would propel him to the next level.
Reading this entertaining new collection one begins to understand why.
Approaching Omega by Eric Brown
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Four humans are the maintenance crew on an outbound human ark escaping an Earth rapidly succumbing to anthropogenic destruction of the
environment and of other humans. Despite warnings all seems good-to-go, but upon their first awakening from suspended
animation, they find the ship heavily damaged, its central AI systems offline, some of the colonist-bearing pods destroyed,
others hanging by a thread.
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New York Dreams by Eric Brown
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The third installment in Eric Brown's Virex Trilogy finds P.I. Hal Halliday deep in VR addiction, living out a
fantasy existence in the pristine landscape of a virtual Virginia coastline, his only companion a programmed recreation of
Casey, the waiflike teenager who briefly shared his real life but has since moved on. Hal isn't alone in his VR dependence:
in the bleak world of the twenty-first-century USA, with its poisoned environment and teeming, refugee-choked cities, the
complete, if temporary, escape offered by VR is powerfully alluring.
The Human Front by Ken MacLeod and A Writer's Life by Eric Brown
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
There are basically two ways to approach the publishing of these two-in-one paperbacks, you can pick stories that are similar in style
and content, hoping they will each appeal to the same readers, or you can present a contrast, pair up two stories that are quite dissimilar
in content, written by two writers with different styles, and give readers familiar with one the opportunity to discover someone new.
Bengal Station by Eric Brown
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This is a hard-boiled detective novel with aliens, telepaths, religious cults, and the kind of port city where
anything can be found for a price. As befits a detective story, the plot revolves around the uncovering of secrets, the secrets of
Jeff Vaughan's past, Sukara's present, and the hidden rituals of The Church of the Adoration of the Chosen Ones. Vaughan's the
investigator, and what he finds will start and end with the deaths of friends.
New York Blues by Eric Brown
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
In this 2nd installment of the Virex Trilogy, set in a near-future North America catastrophically altered by
nuclear disaster and climate change, beautiful actress Vanessa Artois makes the trek up
to private eye Hal Halliday's grotty second-floor office-cum-apartment. She
wants Hal to find her kid sister, Canada, who vanished several days ago. But, as Vanessa is laying out the facts of Canada's
disappearance, a deadly beam of laser fire lances through the open window, missing her by millimeters.
New York Nights by Eric Brown
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
This novel is set in a gritty, near-future Manhattan. Terrorism and nuclear mishaps have rendered
much of the Eastern Seaboard unfit to live in, making New York City a mecca for the indigent and the lost. At
the same time, it's still a centre of money and power, and as much a party town as it ever was. In this edgy,
overcrowded, vibrant environment, Hal Halliday and his partner Barney Kluger run a detective agency that
specializes in missing persons.
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