Pure SF pulp, The Fall of Chronopolis (1974) is the fifth novel by British author Barrington J. Bayley. While it superficially resembles a space opera, it is really more of what could be called a "time opera". The Chronotic Empire rules hundreds of years of human history, using powerful time-ships to head off threats from the past and the future. But when officer of the Third Time Fleet, Mond Aton, glimpses the true nature of the "temporal substratum", it begins to change everything...

This episode is a brisk look at the novel which Rhys Hughes called "perhaps the ultimate time travel story", and which was possibly was an influence on the setting of Warhammer 40,000. To catch up with a previous review of Bayley's The Garments of Caean (1976), listen to episode 108.

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This special feature episode focuses on three novels written in partnership by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbbluth - The Space Merchants (1952), Gladiator-at-Law (1955), and Wolfbane (1959). Each unique in their own way, these three books are classics of the genre in the 1950s. They are the products of a special partnership between two writers who complemented each other perfectly.

Significantly, all three books were originally serialised in Galaxy magazine, which at the time was edited by H.L. Gold. In this sense, the three books represent some of the high watermarks of magazine SF in the exciting, productive 1950s. All three were also published in book form by Ballantine, then a new company which was helping to build a market for SF novels, which had never existed prior to the '50s.

The partnership ended early due to the untimely death of Kornbluth in 1958. Soon afterwards, H.L. Gold stepped down from Galaxy, and left Pohl to take over from him. These three novels, then, arrived at a time of tremendous change in the genre. In this episode, I try to do them some justice - especially Gladiator-at-Law and Wolfbane, which I feel deserve the classic status already afforded to The Space Merchants.

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Winner of the BSFA Award for Best Novel, Excession (1996) is the fourth novel in Iain M. Banks ever-popular Culture series of SF novels. In this entry, the awesome power of the post-scarcity Culture civilisation is challenged by two linked threats. One is the increasing aggression of a cruel species, the Affront. The other is the emergence of a vast and mysterious structure, the Excession.

On one level a classic "big dumb object" story, Excession explores previously unseen elements of the Culture setting - not least the workings of its super-intelligent AIs.

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For lots more writing on classic science fiction, other books, video games, and more check our my site andyjohnson.xyz and follow me on Twitter: @andyjohnsonuk