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: bsfa
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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DAVID RAIN: A SMALL REMEMBRANCE
Back at the end of 2010 I interviewed David Rain for the British Science Fiction Association’s Focus (no.54, 2011) – a magazine for writers. David was programme leader for the MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, which was at that … Continue reading
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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REVIEW: GEMSIGNS AND BINARY BY STEPHANIE SAULTER
Gemsigns and Binary by Stephanie Saulter (Jo Fletcher Books, 2013 & 2014) (Originally published in Vector 278) I can cut a long story short in reviewing Stephanie Saulter’s first two novels, Gemsigns and Binary (collectively part of the slightly clumsily … Continue reading
REVIEW: NOIR AND LA FEMME EDITED BY IAN WHATES
Noir and La Femme edited by Ian Whates (Newcon Press, 2014) (originally published in Vector 277) Ian Whates, through Newcon Press and the Solaris Rising series, has established himself as a key editor in UK short fiction and I, like … Continue reading
REVIEW: PROXIMA BY STEPHEN BAXTER & ON A STEEL BREEZE BY AL REYNOLDS
So, I wrote this review a long time ago but I’ve never been happy with it and I tried to rework it and get it to say what I wanted but its never quite worked the way I saw it … Continue reading
Posted in Other reviews, Review, Uncategorized
Tagged 2015, bsfa, review, sf, Vector
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‘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
TALES FROM TURKEY CITY: PUSHBUTTON WORDS
From issue 59 of Focus the fourth of my pieces of flash fiction “inspired” by the common writing errors and bad habits catalogued in The Turkey City Lexicon. This time, it’s all about pressing buttons with clichés. Words used to … Continue reading
Posted in Flash Fiction, Focus
Tagged bsfa, flash, Focus, turkey city
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AS IF ANYONE CARED: 2012 BSFA NOMINATIONS AND STUFF
So I was putting together my nominations for the BSFA Awards and it kind of morphed into a wider longer look back at the things I read and enjoyed in 2012. Of course everyone else has already done this and … Continue reading