Novel Ideas

The train journey between Bristol and London is quite useful for getting some reading done and this week's meetings in the "Big Smog" allowed me to finish James Lovegrove's Age of Ra. A contemporary alt-history set in a world ruled by Egyptian dieties, the book follows a British soldier who ends up fighting with a rebellion against the Pantheon of Gods in Freegypt.

Whilst Egyptian SF it is well removed from Stargate, except maybe the use of ba lances by the troops. Well worth checking out and would make a great near-future SF background with battles ranging from small scale guerilla raids to a mass battle on the plains of Megiddo.

Age of Ra is one of a trilogy of ancient god in contemporary settings books by Lovegrove, the next being Age of Zeus, with Age of Odin forthcoming, though apparently they are all stand alone stories.

Looking for the release date of the Odin book I stumbled across a short story by Lovegrove called Dead Brigade. The premise of this sounded really interesting so I picked up a cheap second hand copy off Amazon (it is only a hundred odd pages and in a large well spaced font so not worth the £5.99 RRP).

Set in the present day with the British Army unable to recruit the numbers of troops it needs for the various guerilla wars it is involved in across the globe, scientists reanimate dead soldiers to fill the ranks.

In many ways it is a shame this is a short story as it has a lot of good ideas and a moral twist that would have been better developed in a longer novel. That said it is well worth picking up a second hand copy as it has some really 'cool' ideas for games (especially the attack on the Serb hospital). If you like modern games and zombies, this is a must read.