Alison Flood

London

Comment and Culture Editor at New Scientist

Comment and culture editor at the New Scientist; formerly @guardianbooks. Reviews thrillers for @ObsNewReview

Articles

Our favourite science fiction books of all time (the ones we forgot)

6 days ago | flipboard.com | Alison Flood

12 hours agoPoehler said she went from "crying to laughing so hard that like squirt tears came out." Laughter truly is the best medicine, and no one knows that like Amy Poehler and Jon Hamm. During the newest episode of her podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Poehler told guest Paul Rudd about the time Hamm made …
23 (more) of the best science fiction books ever - according to New Scientist writers

6 days ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

Almost exactly a year ago, I asked our team of expert science writers here at New Scientist to name their favourite science fiction novels. Personal tastes meant we ended up with a wonderfully eclectic list, ranging from classics by the likes of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler to titles I’d not previously read (Jon Bois’s 17776 was a particularly wild suggestion, from our US editor Chelsea Whyte – but it’s well worth your time). But! We couldn’t stop there.
Crime and thrillers book of the month: Young woman on the road to ruin

6 days ago | observer.co.uk | Alison Flood

A hit and run with awful repercussions, a not so perfect marriage – and Stephen King’s favourite detective gets another case There is a death at the heart of Hannah Beckerman’s Three Mothers (Lake Union), and a police investigation into who caused it. But this is not your usual police procedural. Instead, it is a quietly devastating look at the tangled strands that lead up to the death, and the terrible fallout it has for those affected. The victim is 17-year-old Isla, killed in a hit and run.
The best new sci-fi of May 2025 featuring a moving, near-future tale from Grace Chan

2 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

While there are no big names publishing new science fiction novels this May, there are some real gems nonetheless – including a big tip from me, Grace Chan’s near-future Every Version of You. I want to press it into the hands of everyone I know.
Captivating images expose a 'staged version' of nature

2 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

A Maasai man looks out at Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. But this is no pristine wilderness: behind him are the remnants of a “champagne picnic experience” for tourists. “Tourists are paying for the privilege of re-enacting a scene from a colonial film,” says photographer Zed Nelson.
Images capture the timeless beauty of America's ancient forests

4 weeks ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

Life Photographer Mitch Epstein's years-long project highlights the majesty and vulnerability of old growth forests across the US Gnarled, wild and majestic: these two very different trees in California form part of Mitch Epstein’s quest to photograph ancient forests across the US.
Crime and thrillers of the month - review

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Alison Flood

Abigail Dean’s The Death of Us (HarperCollins) opens not with a crime, but with news of an arrest. A serial killer who terrorised south London for decades has been caught, and Isabel, one of his victims many years ago, has been told of the arrest. “He’s called Nigel,” she says, sardonically, to her former partner, Edward, who was in bed beside her when their home was invaded by the killer. “What were you expecting? Adolf?” he answers.
Crime and thrillers of the month – review

1 month ago | msn.com | Alison Flood

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Book Club reviews: Readers give their honest thoughts on Dengue Boy by Michel Nieva

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

We have read all sorts in the New Scientist Book Club, from Octavia E. Butler’s classic slice of dystopian fiction, Parable of the Sower, to space exploration in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay. Michel Nieva’s Dengue Boy (and this isn’t the article for you if you are yet to read it: spoilers ahead!) was something else entirely: a weird and technicolour vision of a dire future in a flooded world, where our perspective is that of a humanoid and homicidal mosquito.
New Scientist recommends The Martian - sci-fi fun for all the family

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Alison Flood

When your children range from 8 to 14 years old, it’s hard to find a weekend film for the whole family, particularly with a grandad in the mix as well. Happily, the 2015 film adaptation of Andy Weir’s The Martian, starring Matt Damon (pictured above) as Mark Watney, an astronaut who is accidentally abandoned on Mars, fitted the bill. There’s something wonderfully enjoyable about watching people being very clever.