GUEST POST: Who is Elyse Martingale? by MATTHEW BLAKSTAD

Name: MATTHEW BLAKSTAD Author of: SOCKPUPPET (2016) LUCKY GHOST (2017) On the web: www.matthewblakstad.com On Twitter: @mattblak Ah, yes: Professor Elyse Martingale. Doyenne of Britain’s post-war computing revolution. Political radical and scourge of the state. Inspiration to a new generation of 21st century hacktivists. Surely you know all about Elyse Martingale? What’s that? You’ve never heard of […]

LUCKY GHOST by Matthew Blakstad

LUCKY GHOST Matthew Blakstad (www.matthewblakstad.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £16.99 Welcome to the Strange, an augmented reality game that has taken the world by storm. Through Encounters, the Strange matches participants together, giving them tasks to complete, which is why Alex Kubelick finds herself slapping a complete stranger in the face one morning. Completing tasks […]

An Interview With DAVE HUTCHINSON by George Sandison

2084 Unsung Stories (unsungstories.co.uk) Currently on Kickstarter: unsungstories.co.uk/2084 Indie publisher Unsung Stories are currently running a Kickstarter project to fund the release of 2084, an anthology of dystopian fiction from some of the biggest names in the genre. Fully funded within the first 24 hours, the anthology is now heading towards its third stretch goal. […]

An Interview with MATTHEW BLAKSTAD

Name: MATTHEW BLAKSTAD Author of: SOCKPUPPET (2016) On the web: http://www.matthewblakstad.com On Twitter: @mattblak Matthew Blakstad’s first career was as a professional child actor. From the age of ten, he had roles in TV dramas on the BBC and ITV, in films and at theatres including the Royal Court. After graduating from Oxford with a […]

SOCKPUPPET by Matthew Blakstad

SOCKPUPPET Matthew Blakstad (www.matthewblakstad.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £16.99 Days before the nationwide rollout of Number 10’s Digital Citizen initiative, news appears online that the pilot scheme has been hacked, and the data stolen. The source of the information becomes an immediate suspect, but there’s only one problem: famous Parley personality sic_girl doesn’t exist; she’s […]

THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES by Aliya Whiteley

THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES Aliya Whiteley (aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com) Unsung Stories (www.unsungstories.co.uk) £9.99 The Great War is a not-too-distant memory, and England is still in the process of recovering from the horror and loss that it wreaked. Teenager Shirley Fearn lives in the small village of Westerbridge, where she attends the local school taught by Mr Tiller […]

GUEST POST: The Arrival of Opportunity by ALIYA WHITELEY

Name: ALIYA WHITELEY Author of: THE BEAUTY (2014) THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES (2016) On the web: aliyawhiteley.wordpress.com On Twitter: @AliyaWhiteley Aliya Whiteley’s second novella, The Arrival of Missives, goes on sale on Monday 9th May. To celebrate the book’s launch Reader Dad is very pleased to welcome Aliya back to talk about the book’s […]

LONG DARK DUSK by JP Smythe

LONG DARK DUSK (Book 2 of the Australia Trilogy) JP Smythe (james-smythe.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £13.99 Months after the events that brought her and her companions to Earth, Chan Aitch is living in a shanty town built against the inner surface of the wall that now surrounds Washington, D.C. She has, so far, managed […]

WAY DOWN DARK by J. P. Smythe

WAY DOWN DARK (Book 1 of The Australia Trilogy) J. P. Smythe (james-smythe.com) Hodder & Stoughton (hodder.co.uk) £13.99 When Chan Aitch’s mother dies, she leaves a gaping hole in the so-called power structure aboard the Australia. Chan is left to pick up the pieces, and attempt to defend the part of the ship previously controlled […]

SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson

SEVENEVES Neal Stephenson (www.nealstephenson.com) The Borough Press (www.boroughpress.co.uk) £20.00 The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason. It was waxing, only one day short of full. The time was 05:03:12 UTC. Later it would be designated A+0.0.0, or simply Zero. An unknown Agent has split the moon into seven pieces, which remain […]