With the often downbeat tone common to british sci-fi,  Lies We Will Tell Ourselves is a high quality sci-fi collection. Casting old themes and modern concerns in wide and varied sci-fi settings, there is enough here to entertain most fans and readers of the genre. While the quality varies, even the weaker stories are above average.

Given the quality of the stories and the professional editing, it was no surprise to find that this is a collected edition of stories previously printed in magazines. Most of the stories have twists, making it hard to describe them without spoiling the collection, but the theme of lies, deception and self-deception run through all of them.

Sci-fi readers should enjoy it, but so may readers who simply want stories to make them think.