by Emlyn Roberts-Harry

With the colossal popularity of Game of Thrones and the book series which it's based on, A Song of Ice and Fire, the current trend in fantasy fiction is, somewhat predictably, to copy it. As tends to be the way, though, it's the most superficial elements which people are latching onto: the bleakness, the realism, and of course the grim darkness of a story where anyone can die. 

Not that there's anything wrong with writing a story with those aspects to it, but it does get a little tiresome when everyone's doing it. A Song of Ice and Fire is, despite having become bloated lately, still a masterpiece, but it's not the darkness itself which makes it such a great read. What makes it work is that Martin knows fantasy inside out, is well versed in the genre's conventions, and decided to use his magnum opus as an opportunity to deconstruct it. And that's great: every genre could do with a little more detailed examination, and it's absolutely worth taking the time to pull apart cliches and try to examine how things might really go in these imagined worlds. 

by Emlyn Roberts-Harry

It takes guts to write a superhero prose novel. The genre is so inextricably tied to visual media in general and comics in particular that removing the visual element is always going to be a bit of a dicey prospect. So much of the genre's appeal is built around spectacle - the costumes, the battles, etc - and it can be difficult to replicate that in prose. Fortunately, Magno Girl is much more character-oriented than many of these stories, taking advantage of the fact that it's a novel, and Joe Canzano has an impressive ability for describing some truly ridiculous fight scenes. 

by Emlyn Roberts-Harry

River of Stars is a sort-of sequel to Kay's previous book, Under Heaven, taking place in the same world but around 400 years later. Despite the huge time skip, though, the effects of the cataclysmic events which happened in Under Heaven are still being felt. Where it was a story of an empire at the peak of its powers being brought down by decadence and hubris, River of Stars is a more melancholy look at a crumbling civilisation frantically trying to stay intact, despite the incompetence of those trying to run it and the increasing power of younger rival kingdoms.

by the IWG Book Team

2014 was a great year for books. Unfortunately, there were so many books that we're sure that you didn't get around to reading everything. Neither did we, but still, the I'm With Geek team diligently selected from what literary delights we had devoured which were our favourite reads of the year. So whether you're looking for recommendations or just wanting to see if your favourite made the cut, come inside and check out our Best Books of 2014.

By Emlyn Roberts - Harry

Waterstones has announced the shortlist for its Book Of The Year prize, which, as the name suggests, is intended to recognise and highlight the best work of fiction or non-fiction that year, as nominated by Waterstones booksellers across the UK. Due to the sheer number of great books published in 2014, they've had to expand the shortlist from six titles to eight in order to reflect the quality and diversity of current publishing - which can only mean good things for us readers!

by Emlyn Roberts-Harry

There are books that you loved as a kid which, when you read them again years later as (at least technically) an adult, don't really hold up. Whether they simply skew too young or rely too much on familiar characters and situations because children don't have the breadth of reading experience that adults do, novels aimed at younger readers can be frustrating for older people. The best children's books are the ones which manage to be accessible enough for young readers but deep enough for adults to get their teeth into as well - books which can truly be described as suitable for all ages. 

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

There's loads to like about Robert E. Howard's classic stories of Conan the Barbarian. They're hugely entertaining, pulpy tales of great deeds and high adventure, and they see Conan himself take on practically every adventuring role under the sun. Thief, pirate, mercenary, soldier, all the way to king of Aquilonia, you name it and Conan's probably done it at some point. 

In spite of that, though, there are plenty of things about these stories which haven't aged well, and can be quite awkward to a modern reader. Naturally, one has to bear in mind that they were written in the 1930s and a certain amount of datedness is to be expected, but there are still aspects of Howard's writing which are problematic. Certainly, there's nothing that's anywhere near as bad as the horrendous - even for the time - racism which you'll find in H. P. Lovecraft, but the treatment of ethnic minorities, and especially women, in Conan's saga tends to leave a lot to be desired.

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

It's quite fitting, in a way, that the last science fiction novel Iain Banks would write was about the end of an entire civilisation. He made it pretty clear that he didn't want to write a story about the end of the Culture itself - they're determined to keep going for as long as they possibly can - but in writing about a "cousin" civilisation to the Culture choosing to call it a day, The Hydrogen Sonata achieves a feeling of finality that seems very appropriate to its status as the end of the series.

By Emlyn Roberts-Harry

Worldcon is one of the oldest fan conventions in the world - the inaugural event, Nycon 1, was held in New York in 1939, and apart from when it was interrupted by the Second World War, there has been a con every year since. This summer, for the first time in almost 50 years, the convention returned to London, and Worldcon's 75th birthday was one hell of a party.

by Emlyn Roberts-Harry

Iain M. Banks, already a successful author of literary fiction, arrived on the science fiction scene in 1987 with Consider Phlebas, the first novel in his long-running series about the Culture, an anarchist, utopian, post-scarcity society. Oddly for the series, Consider Phlebas is told mostly from the point of view of a staunch enemy of the Culture, giving it a very different feel from the rest of the novels in the cycle.