Tidhar's Central Station

This is a collection of three short stories that appear in Interzone by Lavie Tidhar all set in Central Station and revolves around a book-worm/seller with a vivid imagination and a sort of vampire who sucks memories out of be people.

'Strigoi' (Interzone 242) is concerned with the arrival and the 'vampire' and how she came to be one.
'The Book Seller' (Interzone 244) is concerned with the book seller and his relationship with the 'vampire'.

'The Core' (Interzone 246) explains partially some of the questions raised in the first two stories about why the 'vampire' was allowed into the city.

I hope there will be more of these stories.

Ack-Ack Macaque

Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L Powell is a story you can't put down. Part adventure story, part alternative history with a dash of sci-fi. The original short story was in Interzone magazine in September 2007, and was voted the most popular story of the year (I agree with that).

This though is not an extended version of the short story but a full-length story in it's own right, with the cigar-chomping, talking, fighter-pilot monkey fighting the 'bad guys' in both the virtual and real world. A world where Britain and France are a Commonwealth, with fascist forces who want to 'improve humanity' as well a talking monkey.

This is not a deep, very philosophic book, it is what it sounds like it is - a good adventure with sci-fi elements and a good enjoyable read. The book (definitely on the Kindle version) also includes the original story as well as a bonus.

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