Martin McGrath
Welcome to my website. I intend to use this space to hold forth on things like politics, books, technology, films and anything else that interests or irritates me.
You can also use this site to see examples of some of the work I've done as journalist, writer and designer. I'm available for freelance work and my rates are competitive and negotiable for good causes.
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Tag Archives: books
REVIEW: AURORA RISING/THE PREFECT BY ALASTAIR REYNOLDS
The latest issue (no. 3) of the BSFA Review is out, and it contains my review of Alastair Reynolds’ Aurora Rising (previously released as The Prefect). This is a slightly extended version. I jumped into the ebook of Alastair Reynolds’ … Continue reading
BOOK REVIEW: OCCUPY ME BY TRICIA SULLIVAN
The overwhelming sensation left at the end of Tricia Sullivan’s strange, awkward, new novel is of things straining and stretching and struggling to be free. This is true of the characters, all of whom seem to be constantly pushing against … Continue reading
Posted in Other reviews, Uncategorized
Tagged books, bsfa, review, reviews, science fiction, sf, Vector
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REVIEW: THE BEES BY LALINE PAULL
Why would an author write a story in which the main characters are bees? One reason might be simply that bees are interesting little creatures – fascinatingly social, successful, widespread and apocryphally busy – and we are intimately familiar with … Continue reading
REVIEW: DARK STAR BY OLIVER LANGMEAD
Untold riches and global celebrity? Whatever it was that possessed Oliver Langmead to write Dark Star, we must hope that it was neither of the above. Because who, in their right mind, writes a science fiction/noir detective story (and it … Continue reading
Posted in Other reviews, Uncategorized
Tagged 2015, books, bsfa, review, reviews, sf
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DOUBLE FRACTIONAL AWARD NOMINEE
So, the Hugo nominations are out, and there are a number of things I like and many things I have absolutely no interest in. In the end I weakened and nominated some stuff, just so I could feel properly entitled … Continue reading
Posted in Writing news
Tagged books, sf, solaris rising 2, Spec Fic 2012
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REVIEW: THE ROOK BY DANIEL O’MALLEY
Daniel O’Malley’s first novel, The Rook, won the 2012 Aurealis Award for best SF Novel published by an Australian and comes laden with praise from writers like Charlaine Harris, Charles Yu and Lev Grossman. I found it hard to understand … Continue reading
REVIEW OF THE ECHO AT ARCFINITY AND OTHER STUFF
So my grumpy review of James Smythe’s The Echo is now online at Arcfinity. I’m not normally bothered by the science being wrong in fantastic fiction if it makes the story better – that’s normally true when the author has made … Continue reading
‘TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE BSFA NOMINATION DEADLINE…
Okay, so, if I wanted this to be any use to anyone I’d have done it weeks ago, but I didn’t and there was always just one more book to try and squeeze in… And if I wanted this to … Continue reading
REVIEW: THE PEACOCK CLOAK BY CHRIS BECKETT
The thing that I like best about Chris Beckett’s short stories in general, and this new collection, The Peacock Cloak, in particular is the rage that is bubbling under the surface and that occasionally erupts from the page. Not all … Continue reading
REVIEW: EXISTENCE BY DAVID BRIN
I did not like David Brin’s Existence. It is a book so distressingly unpleasant that it left me wondering – and this is no exaggeration – whether I had had enough of the whole of science fiction. I suppose you … Continue reading