Today sees the release of Murder & Machinery, an anthology of speculative fiction from Black Beacon books which contains my story, Fargan’s Termination. The publisher’s blog contains a short interview with me and the other contributors. It’s great to work with such a talented group, who have each interpreted the theme of the book in their own unique way. The theme was terrifying tales of machinery old or new used as a means of murder or menace.

In the interview I mention that I am watching Doctor Who in chronological order, one episode per week. This began in January 2018 and I am now about to start season 5 with the first episode of Tomb of the Cybermen. The Cybermen were once described by the Doctor as total machine creatures, originally being humans who replaced most of their bodies with cybernetic parts. Tomb, their third story, is widely regarded as their most terrifying.

Whilst machines have facilitated the development of humanity the underlying fear of science-fiction writers is that they may one day replace us.