edited by Shawn Stein and Nicolás Campisi
Freight Books, £9.99
Reviewed by Jethro Soutar
From WSC 362, April 2017
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Stories
Merging football with science fiction and fantasy, Rok of the Reds and Jackboot and Ironheel have taken the genre way beyond Roy of the Rovers
Guardian Publishing, £12.99
Reviewed by Si Hawkins
From WSC 351 May 2016
When the Secret Footballer embarked on his lid-lifting column for the Guardian six years ago, he presumably didn’t envisage having to stretch those trade secrets across four books, even after retirement. There’s a telling chapter here in which he repeatedly tries to quit playing, but football keeps pulling him back in, and you wonder if his publishers have been doing the same: “Dig deep, TSF, just a few more anecdotes…”
by Philip Kerr
Head of Zeus, £7.99
Reviewed by Huw Richards
From WSC 348 February 2016
Fiction with a sporting setting is notoriously variable in quality. Binary win-lose outcomes reduce the scope for ambiguity and authors may either be poor writers or under-informed. Philip Kerr sidesteps all of these traps with ease. His fictional club, London City, provides the context for crime rather than a narrative end in itself.