Adventures of a Bookonaut

Fantasy New Releases and Booktopia Free Shipping till Midnight Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:23:00 +0000

It’s getting close to the end of the year and the wonderful folks at Booktopia have launched a July preorder catalogue. You can purchase these on preorder and get free shipping when they come in to stock if you use the code below.

I had a glance through and picked out a few books that might be of value to you dear readers.

If you are a fan of Juliet Marillier the second in Shadowfell series, Raven Flight is out on the 9th of July:

Neryn thought she had lost everything and could trust no one, not even her mysterious companion, Flint. But when she finds refuge at the rebel base of Shadowfell and discovers her canny gift as a Caller, she feels the first stirrings of hope.
Now she faces a perilous journey with the rebel Tali and the Good Folk, who shadow her steps. She must find the three Guardians who can teach her how to use her unwieldy gift – one that it is rumoured could amass a powerful army.

Can Neryn master her magical power to save Alban from King Keldec's stranglehold?

Or will she be too late?

But if adult fiction is more your thing the witty Kate Elliot will be releasing Cold Steel on the 25th of June. It’s the third in the Spirit Walker series.

Trouble, treachery, and magic just won't stop plaguing Cat Barahal. The Master of the Wild Hunt has stolen her husband Andevai. The ruler of the Taino kingdom blames her for his mother's murder. The infamous General Camjiata insists she join his army to help defeat the cold mages who rule Europa. An enraged fire mage wants to kill her. And Cat, her cousin Bee, and her half-brother Rory, aren't even back in Europa yet, where revolution is burning up the streets.
Revolutions to plot. Enemies to crush. Handsome men to rescue.
Cat and Bee have their work cut out for them.

The Long War hardcover is being released this week, on the 18th of June. It follows on from their New York Times Best Selling The Long Earth.

War has come to the Long Earth....
Humankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by stepping, which Joshua and Lobsang explored a mere decade ago. Now "civilization" flourishes, and fleets of airships link the multiple Earths through exploration, trade, and culture.
Humankind is shaping the Long Earth, but in turn the Long Earth is shaping humankind. A new America that has christened itself "Valhalla" has emerged more than a million steps from the original Datum Earth. And like the American revolutionaries of old, the Valhallans resent being controlled from afar by the Datum government.
In the intervening years, the song of the trolls--graceful, hive-mind humanoids--has suffused the Long Earth. But in the face of humankind's inexorable advance, they are beginning to fall silent . . . and gradually disappear.
Joshua, now married and a father, is summoned by Lobsang. It seems that he alone can confront the perfect storm of crises that threatens to plunge all of the Long Earth into war.
A war unlike any that has been waged before...

As always though the have a selection of bargain stock for Fantasy and Science Fiction fans.

There are works from Tansy Rayner Roberts, Glenda Larke, Karen Miller, China Mieville, Anne Bishop, Elizabeth and Sean Williams all for around $5.

So check the links out and if you want to get free shipping put WINNER in the coupon code area on checkout.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

The Toughest Girls in the Galaxy

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:57:00 +0000

I am an old time gamer. I have somewhere the 1st edition of Warhammer 40K, I have legions of plastic and pewter soldiers sitting in the garage which will probably outlive me and the apocalypse. So I should not have been surprised by what’s on offer from the French company behind Raging Heroes. To be fair they are hardly alone in what they depict. But let us entertain for a second the possibility that the idea behind a kick starter aiming to provide you with 3 all female 28 mm armies is to redress the gender imbalance in tabletop gaming.

Did you manage it?

I offer you:

So ok the crafting of the miniatures is top notch. But the appeal is to the 14 year old male gamer (and those still 14 at heart). It would be nice to see a woman wielding a chain gun with more than a singlet on. Below are some pictures of women in combat gear, notice the distinct lack of breastplates showing an outward indication of the wearer’s gender. Notice how from a distance you would be hard pressed to see the lace corsets the are obviously hiding under those fatigues.

How about some gaming companies start leading by example and stop playing to the masturbatory fantasies of young teens and older men who should know better.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Ticonderoga eBooks a treasure trove of SpecFic win

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:47:00 +0000

I have slipped in my role as Australian Speculative fiction guide. Either that or Russ at Ticonderoga has been very sneaky. Somehow, as if by magic, there appears to be a number of their quality paperback collections/ works available as ebooks.

I am reading Cat Spark’s The Bride Price at the moment, just go and buy the collection NOW, don’t wait for my review. I am about 75% through and every story has been brilliant.

It’s only $5.99

Buy It NAOW

And while you are there pick up The Girl With No Hands and other tales, Midnight and Moonshine, Dead Red Heart, The Year of Ancient Ghosts and Heliotrope.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Review – Winter be My shield by Jo Spurrier

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:39:00 +0000

Winter be My Shield is the debut novel from South Australian fantasy writer Jo Spurrier. It was released last year and the second in the series, Black Sun Light My Way was launched on the first of June this year.

It was one of my personal reads for the year, a non review copy that I obtained at Supanova in 2012. Like many reviewers I have books that I should be reading and those which I purchase and want to read. The later, has books in it stretching back to 2011. Winter be My Shield was plucked from the leaning to-be-read-pile by virtue of the buzz it seemed to be generating without significant spruiking by the author. It was blurbed by Robin Hobb, Trudi Canavan had mentioned it favorably and folks in my twitter stream seemed to keep mentioning it. If I wasn’t a scientific skeptic I might have said the universe was telling me something.

So did it live up to the buzz? The short answer is yes.

For me, the tone of Winter be My Shield sits somewhere between the gateway genre works of Trudi Canavan and Rowena Cory Daniells’ Outcast Chronicles. There’s violence and torture but its pitched at a level that won’t be shock to anyone that’s coming to the genre cold.

Mentioning the cold, Winter be My Shield shares similarities with one of Daniells’ other works, The King Rolen’s Kin trilogy, in that it occurs in a snow bound landscape and both tales are shaped by the environment rather than it being just an element thrown in for flavour. When an author goes to the trouble of considering how weather affects landscape and armies and thereby plot it rounds the tale out, makes it more three dimensional.

But enough of comparing Spurrier to other epic fantasy writers. What does she offer the reader? Stylistically there’s nothing in the writing that draws too much attention to itself, I did wonder at some anachronistic word choices in dialogue, but apart from that Spurrier’s writing is pretty transparent delivering a well paced and entertaining story. After having abandoned some other debut novels in my reviewing list, Winter be My Shield made the act of reading pleasurable again.

Though pop culture is now becoming saturated with a winter that is always coming, Spurrier’s choice of war in the frozen North still has enough wiggle room to deliver an original tale. I did perhaps think that she may have been riffing off events surrounding the Varian Disaster but being somewhat of a history nerd that endeared me to the story whether it was the case or not. Whether its the Wolf Clan versus the Akharian Empire or the Germans versus the Romans everyone loves an underdog and everyone likes to see the pompous getting taken down a peg or two.

The magic was delightfully loose in its description, logical enough for the author to place constraints on it for the purpose of narrative but free enough to give the reader a visual spectacle. I am not terribly enamored of magical systems that sound like they are derived from old school D&D and as such the rather elemental magic delivered here, is right up my alley.

The scale is epic, but there's also a nicely developing story of relationships – both romantic and platonic between the main characters. The stakes are high not only for a people but also for distinct individuals.

I eagerly await finding the time to read Black Sun Light My Way.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Erotic Romance for Men - Guns, Zombies or ...

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:22:00 +0000

an eBook review of Kylie Scott’s, Skin.

That's it I admit it I am fast becoming a fan of romance. The kind of romance that Kylie Scott writes at any rate. I reviewed Scott's first title Flesh, late last year. It was the concept - erotic romance with zombies( no not WITH the zombies) that hooked me in. I read a sample chapter, enjoyed the humour (honest it was the humour), and Scott kindly offered to arrange a copy for review.

I honestly didn't know what to expect, I mean you expect a certain amount of sauciness and zombies but I have been burned before by titles pitched as genres they are not. Scott's a self confessed B grade horror fan so I was perhaps thinking it might be a little camp in its delivery.

I was pleasantly surprised. What I got a well balanced combination of romance, action and erotica. That surprise is I think revealing of an acculturated aversion to romance. I read this rather brave post by Delilah S. Dawson and it reinforced again to me what silly ideas the genre community and particularly male segments of it have toward anything that suggests the romance genre. Nobody beat me with a stick every time I looked at a romance cover so I don’t understand why I have (had)such a subconscious reaction against it.

Kylie Scott writes well,I could not get through a paragraph of Fifty Shades of Grey, but Skin I couldn't put down. Should I be surprised at this? It’s not any less hard to write an engaging zombie romance than it is to write an engaging epic fantasy and if you think it is maybe reflect on that thought.

With a debut as good as Flesh, Scott had a reputation, with me at least, to uphold. Leaving behind the characters in Flesh she embarked on a new premise, a new story line set in the same post apocalyptic Queensland.

Our main character is a school librarian, cooped up with the remnants of the staff and student body (that's horror if ever I have heard it) until they vote her out and sell her to a guy that's got a van load of supplies. Moral of the story- don't trust the Maths faculty.

So here we have a scenario that's looking like its going to delve into non-consensual interactions. My inner feminist began to awaken. I questioned whether I liked where this story might lead, and what Scott might be exploring.

Scott to her credit pulled it off. She made the situation believable - our protagonist never presents as a victim to anything but her own desires and there's enough internal monologue that explores her decisions, to suspend my disbelief.

And action, how many romances have the heroin pinning the villain to the a wall with the bonnet of a truck? Ok pinned is being delicate, crushing both his legs is more like it.

The zombies are never more than a plot device to propel the characters, but let's face it that's true of 99% of zombie horror. One thing that Skin does as well as The Walking Dead is this suggestion that we have almost more to fear from those left alive, than by the shambling horde.

If there's one thing that did bug me it was the ending . It felt a little anticlimactic to me. Still, it was a wild ride. I think Scott's writing was tighter this time around, the pacing smoother.

If you enjoy, romance and well written erotica, if you're a bloke and you might be a little curious about checking out what all the fuss is about, I can't recommend a better gateway read. It's got close combat, small arms fire, zombies and kink.

So men - are you man enough to read erotic zombie romance? And women, this erotic romance palaver, how long have you kept this a secret?

This book was provided by the author at no cost.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Having my genre proudly ruined by women since 1984

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 03:04:00 +0000

There’s been a plethora of women writing about sexism in science fiction and fantasy this past week, Foz Meadows wrote a cracker of a piece here and Ann Aguirre (a-gear-ray) penned this yesterday.

Well worth reading both.

It was this gutless email from some ~~c**k-muppet~~ privileged male whinger, directed in private to Ann that got me head-desking:

“Its bitches like you that are ruining SF. Why cant you leave it to men who know what their doing?”

I mean seriously, being somewhat over dramatic aren’t we? I am pretty sure considering the male domination of the field that even excluding golden age male writers you could still find plenty of manly-man Sci-Fi.

A warning though,watch out for Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 it’s hard sci-fi but the gender- bendery stuff might make your insecure male boy-sacks shrivel up.

And that’s the thing I feel that reading some of these emails I am reading the thoughts of under developed boys, teenagers.

But perhaps that’s just me. Perhaps my reading was ruined at a young age, when at 9 I bought The First Travel Guide to the Moon from the scholastic book club. Or later when I read Ursula Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea after finishing Lord of the Rings.

There was another comment referencing whining:

Dear Ann:
Quit your bitching. Obviously your work is drek or you couldn’t crank it out so fast. Who cares what anyone calls the crap you write? So fuck off and stop whining about equality. Shit is equal to shit.”

Whining:

Verb:
Give or make a long, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.

Complain in a feeble or petulant way.

Who’s whining hey?

If you don’t want to read what women write then f*ck off and read something else. If you were trying to tell me what I can and can’t write you’d be drinking all your meals.

Note: I considered a gentle post, arguing the finer points of why its necessary to have variety, why women can, have and do write core sci-fi. But this was more fun.

Note 2: Jim Hines has a good collection of all the posting on the SFWA issue in

Roundup of Some “Anonymous Protesters” (#SFWA Bulletin Links)

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Havenstar releases from Ticonderoga

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 01:55:00 +0000

I reviewed Glenda Larke’s novel Havenstar here, shortly after she republished it as an ebook. The wise folk at Ticonderoga though sought out the rights to publish the book in paper form again. So for those that prefer the feel of crisp paper between their fingers you can now preorder a copy through the links below.

Additionally if you wish to buy some more Ticonderoga titles say Prickle Moon by Juliet Marillier, or Kim Wilkins’ The Year of Ancient Ghosts if you make a purchase over $49 you will get free shipping with in Australia.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Review – The Sea and Summer by George Turner

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Fri, 31 May 2013 02:47:00 +0000

The novel has been out of print for some time, indeed I tried to find a copy a couple of years ago and couldn’t. Thankfully Gollanz have seen fit to reprint it as part of their masterworks series.

So how, after 25 years, does the book hold up?

Remarkably well is the short answer. Apart from a couple of historical errors that have crept in with the relentless march of time, it’s a book that fans of Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker series and Anna North’s America Pacifica would enjoy.

It’s a story within a story – the survivors of an a slow apocalypse looking back at the end of the Greenhouse culture.

We are introduced to an archeologist taking a playwright around the crumbling monoliths of the Greenhouse culture. Vast city towers that held 70,000 plus people each. These are the autumn people living in the age where the earth is rapidly cooling toward another ice age. The Archeologist has written a novel that makes a narrative from her discoveries and thus the reader is drawn into the tale of a group of pivotal personalities that see out the beginning of the downfall of our culture, the Greenhouse culture.

A didactic novel written in the mode of science fiction realism, in literary terms, its tone feels very similar to English works like Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, its bleak forecast and representation of the poor reminded me a little of A Clockwork Orange. The Sea and Summer is undeniably Australian though and really should be on the reading list of every Australian science fiction writer.

Turner does note in his afterword that:

Nobody can foretell the future.In a world of disparate aims, philosophies and physical conditions the possible permutations are endless; few guesses aimed beyond a decade from today are likely to be correct, even by accident.

The comment above me made me smile because I think Turner got a lot right in The Sea and Summer, maybe it was pure luck, maybe it was a well rounded knowledge of trends or just an understanding of human nature, but his 2040’s has the rich with large flat screen entertainment terminals that sound a lot like the Smart TV’s that you can buy now (if you happen to be lucky enough to live where you can get suitable internet service). The broadening gap between the rich and the poor (or Sweet and Swill as they are termed in the book) is happening. Even the conspiracy at the heart of the novel was apparently voiced by one of Australia’s richest business women yesterday.

The books central message, observation, warning on climate change goes largely ignored today. Our next likely Prime Minister for example seems confused by the reality of the situation. The Sea and Summer is not depressing though, realistic in its observation of humans and the disasters we can bring upon ourselves, but also hopeful.

The Sea and Summer won the Arthur C Clark award in 1988 the second year the Award had run. Turner had earlier won the Miles Franklin for his mainstream work The Cupboard Under the Stairs. Some awarded books fade from our consciousness, some we can look back on and wonder what the voters and juries of yester year were smoking. Not so with The Sea and Summer, this book deserves its award nomination and deserves to be read. I’d recommend it as a school text if I didn’t think that forcing teens to read it might result in an aversion to it by virtue of it being a prescribed text.

This book was provided by the publisher.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Release – Fearsome Journeys Ed. by Jonathan Strahan

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 30 May 2013 06:32:00 +0000

I don’t know if Jonathan has exercising humility or I am just out of the loop ( he’s never one to trumpet his worth) but here’s the latest from one of Australia’s best editors of speculative fiction. It’s his thirty-sixth anthology.

Due to a well earned reputation he’s managed to convince some of the best fantasy writers currently in the business to pen short stories for it.

To add to this good fortune its also available at Booktopia for $8.95

but wait there’s more(not steak knives though).

If you order through Booktopia before midnight of the 1st June and place snuggle in the coupon field that’s all you’ll pay.

Interested? You can purchase it here .

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

X6 – eBook Release

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 28 May 2013 02:28:00 +0000

Coming later this year from Coeur de Lion, the critically acclaimed collection, X6 will be released in digital format. It features 6 tales from some of Australia's best Specfic authors: Margo Lanagan, Paul Haines, Terry Dowling, Cat Sparks, Trent Jamieson and Louise Katz.

To check out the buzz around this collection when it launched in 2010 go here.

Some choice comments from the link above:

“Wives,” by Paul Haines, is a tour de force: a dystopian science fictional horror story which will alternately shock you, disturb you, and break your heart. - Richard Larson, Strange Horizons, August 2010

“Heart of Stone,” Cat Sparks, X6 – a tightly constructed, plot-driven X-Files style mystery, this one starts out as a quirky character piece but builds up to proper thriller proportions. Like the Haines piece, this novella has a really strong Australian voice to it, through setting and also character and dialogue - Last short story on Earth, October 2009

‘If X6 only contained Margo Lanagan’s rich and evocative fantasy “Sea-Hearts”, you’d be getting more than your money’s worth! But this volume of short novels by veteran editor Keith Stevenson weighs in with over 170,000 words by multiple award winning authors such as Terry Dowling and Cat Sparks … and fiery, up-and-coming “young Turks” such as Trent Jamieson and Paul Haines. Ranging from the sublime to disturbing in-your-face noir, X6 is a brilliant cartogram of what’s happening in Australian genre fiction.’ Jack Dann – multi-award winning author, and editor of Dreaming Again.

On the reputation of Wives and Sea Hearts alone I would buy this. Wives in particular, is spoken of with such high regard among readers and writers in the Australian scene that the collection would be worth it for that story alone. Then you have the novella Sea Hearts that formed the seed of Margo’s award winning book of the same name (Brides of Rollrock Island for readers in the Northern Hemisphere). But ice that cake with Sparks and Jamieson and you have a rather rich desert.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Twelfth Planet Press News – Ebooks and Anthologies

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 28 May 2013 02:02:00 +0000

TPP have released A Trifle Dead by Livia Day as an ebook. You can find it at their website, Wizard’s Tower Books, Weightless Books, Kobo(shortly) and Amazon.

If you have a local library with its finger on the pulse of the Australian genre scene, you might see the paperback copy on a New Book shelf near you.

But not to be content with that TPP have also announced a Young Adult anthology called Kaleidoscope. It will be released in late 2014. It will be edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios ( of Strange Horizons and Outer Alliance Podcast Fame).

As befits the name, the editors are:

“… not simply looking for cookie-cutter vampire or urban fantasy stories, but for things that transport us and subvert our expectations. We particularly want to see characters of color, disabled, neurodiverse, and mentally ill characters, QUILTBAG content, and non-western cultural elements.”

Eager writers can check out the specific submission details here.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Ira Glass on Creative Success

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:24:00 +0000

care of Peter Ball and Queensland Writers Centre.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Cover Candy - Caution: Contains Small Parts

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:59:00 +0000

Twelfth Planet Press has released the cover of the next Twelve planets volume, Caution: Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott.

The book is available for pre order here.

The cover artist Amanda Rainey has also done an interview with David McDonald which can be found here.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Sean’s State of the Blog Address

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:47:00 +0000

Apart from awards postings it’s been pretty quiet round these parts. Truth is I am busy. The day job which I do three days a week is sucking 5 days energy out of me at the moment and it’s getting on into Winter (cold and dark).

That being said there are great cogs in motion, momentous designs afoot.

Galactic Chat

You may have noticed there’s a slow down in Galactic Chat. The reason for this is two fold: 1) I started my own podcast in December and contributed a number of interviews to that and 2) Galactic Chat is undergoing a bit of a refurb.

I have been handed the conch by its founders and will be relaunching in the near future with a slightly different format and some fresh voices. So keep your eye out for Galactic Chat Version 2

Writing

I have done virtually no short story writing, but have submitted poetry to a couple of competitions and intend to submit one to a specfic anthology.

Reviewing.

There’s been a slowdown in books reviewed this year. Due to the lack of energy and that some or the books I have received from big name publishers have been pretty ordinary- note that’s not bad, but they lack a certain something. I sat down to read Graham Joyce’s Some Kind of Fairytale they other day and had to stop (its a non review copy) because it is the kind of writing that is just a pleasure to read. I knew it would keep me from books I have to review. Luckily I got in the mail the other day George Turner’s The Sea and Summer .

I have to rotate through my review copy so that all my publishers get a fair go. I am hoping that after The Sea and Summer I’ll be able to get into some works by Cat Sparks, Eliza Victoria and the anthology Next.

Viewing

I must admit with the coming cold and the lack of energy my port of call has been good quality drama. Therefore I have imbibed Season 1 of Hell on Wheels and Season 1 & 2 of Lark Rise to Candleford. I have been greatly enjoying Call the Midwife and am wondering when Dr Who will get back to being a drama with touches of the same quality. Maybe they need some more Cornell writing.

Aurealis Awards 2012 (Held May 2013)

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:22:00 +0000

International Speculative Fiction #4

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:22:00 +0000

Issue 4 of International Speculative Fiction is out featuring yours truly’s review column. In which I cover some of the recent works of independent self publisher Rabia Gale and the award winning Eliza Victoria. But of course I shouldn’t be the only reason you pick up a copy of this FREE publication in one of its multiple formats (mobi, epub or pdf).

In this issue Roberto Mendes and Ricardo Loureiro have managed to bring together another great collection of story art and non-fiction writing from around the world. The fiction section features works by previous World Fantasy Award winners including Ken Liu.

The non-fiction section features an interesting interview with Zoran Živković on the fantastical tradition in European writing:

The term “fantastika”—used in slightly different ways in many European languages—doesn’t seem to have a satisfactory English equivalent. It could have been “fantasy” if that term hadn’t been reduced to a marketing label that means “Tolkienesque” fiction.

Fantastika is by no means limited to that narrow section of the spectrum. It is, in fact, the spectrum itself—all nonmimetic prose. Nearly 70 percent of everything written during the past five thousand years is nonmimetic and belongs to one of many forms of fantastika: folklore, oneiric, fairytale, epic, and so forth.

There’s also a wonderful profile of Romanian artist George Munteanu, that’s worth a look (note the cover image is his as well).

While you are there you should also take the opportunity to download their free 2012 anthology.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Give away - The Machine Who Was Also a Boy (Pandora's Paradoxes 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:55:00 +0000

eMergent Publishing has organized a giveaway for The Machine Who Was Also A boy. It’s got three days to run so hop on over and put your name down.

It’s written by two aussie authors, Mike McRae of Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs and Bad Ideas fame and Tom Dullemond, whose past works include: The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Volume One and a short work in From Stage Door Shadows .

Pandora Robinson was confused. What made a belief true or false? What gave words their meaning? And was a lie still a lie if you truly believed it? Sometimes the world just didn’t make a lot of sense.

Answering questions at school was hard enough, but after meeting a most peculiar mechanical man and his silent young companion, Pandora faces the hardest question ever. Are we the same person today as we were yesterday?

From the lair of the Sphinx to the bowels of The Theseus, clues to the answer abound, but will Pandora be able to put them together in time to save an unlikely friend and still make it to court in time to stop them taking her away from her Dad.

The Machine Who Was Also A Boy is a middle school tale of puzzles, paradoxes and perplexing predicaments.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Review – Witch Fire by Laura Powell

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 09 May 2013 05:06:00 +0000

Witch Fire continues the adventures of Glory Starling and Lucas Sterne, that began in Burn Mark. It’s not necessary to have read Burn Mark; Powell does an excellent job of providing enough back story to fill in new readers and not annoy fans who have already read the previous book.

Powell continues her unique blend of espionage, adventure and witchcraft. The gritty, understated “British-ness” I found in Burn Mark remains and further endears me to the series. The fact that it’s YA might turn off some readers, but I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice if that’s the reason why you’d make a pass on it. In Witch Fire actions have consequences, characters die – the descriptions might not be gratuitous, but often I find that implication throws a stronger punch. I found myself every bit as much on the edge of my seat as I would be with Quintin Jardine novel.

Glory and Lucas have been recruited and trained by WICA (Witchkind Intelligence and Covert Affairs) but its all hush-hush because of their ages. They are beginning to get tired of the endless training when they are offered their first assignment – to go undercover at a special school for troubled witchkind teens with rich parents.

It sees them both leave England for the first time and the reader begins to get a wider understanding of the alternate reality that Powell presents. In the background is the ominous threat of an Inquisition that neither of them can quite trust and the shadowy terrorist group known as Endor.

Burn Mark impressed me with the goal driven characters and a generally well balanced take on gender roles. Witch Fire continues in the same vein. While there’s a budding attraction between the two main characters, this plot thread is left alone for most of the book. Lucas and Glory can be as incompetent as each other (they are teens) and are adept at coming to each others rescue. The secondary characters are also competent (they are intelligence operatives) and gender diverse.

I did feel that the make up of the nationalities at the school was a little “cookie cutter” stereotypical i.e. a Chinese witch who is really quiet and plays the piano expertly, an American cheerleader, a sleazy Latin-American playboy and the sister of an Indian Bollywood star. It was the only hiccup in what was a very smooth read.

Witch Fire picked up the threads that were left hanging at the end of Burn Mark and wove them into a compelling and expanding story, major character goals were realized, villains encountered justice and yet it does not feel as though the story arc is anywhere near finished. I don’t think “issues” should be the focus of every book written for teens but I think Powell gives us a great story, well realized characters and a world that can be examined for its prejudices from a safe distance.

I’ll repeat my concluding comments from the review of Burn Mark.

If you’re a fan of British crime or espionage drama I think you’ll enjoy this read.

This review copy was provided by the publisher at no cost

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Galactic Suburbia Episode 80

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:48:00 +0000

Wow, won’t be long until they hit the century.

This fortnight’s episode we find out the real reason why Alisa has been sick, she’s growing a whole new person. Congratulations to her and husband Chris. Highlights of this episode are : the discussion around Conflux, and the result of the paper art workshops that Alisa donated the misprinted Through Splintered Walls, and the announcement of a saucy extract from Sea Hearts that didn’t make the final cut.

Plus the regular features of news and culture consumed.

Download here

Enjoy all three Musketeers in Episode 80.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Aussies in Shirley Jackson Awards Line-up

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 04 May 2013 02:54:00 +0000

The Shirley Jackson shortlist has been announced and I am pleased to congratulate Margo and Kaaron (and their publisher Alisa) for making it to the list.

The nominees for the 2012 Shirley Jackson Awards are:

NOVEL

The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (ROC)
The Devil in Silver, Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)
Edge, Koji Suzuki (Vertical, Inc.)
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Crown Publishers)
Immobility, Brian Evenson (Tor)

NOVELLA

28 Teeth of Rage, Ennis Drake (Omnium Gatherum Media)
Delphine Dodd, S.P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
I’m Not Sam, Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (Sinister Grin Press/ Cemetery Dance Publications)
The Indifference Engine, Project Itoh (Haikasoru/VIZ Media LLC)
“Sky,” Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)

NOVELETTE

“The Crying Child,” Bruce McAllister (originally “The Bleeding Child,” Cemetery Dance #68)
“The House on Ashley Avenue,” Ian Rogers (Every House is Haunted, ChiZine Publications)
“Reeling for the Empire,” Karen Russell (Tin House, Winter 2012)
“Wild Acre,” Nathan Ballingrud (Visions, Fading Fast, Pendragon Press)
“The Wish Head,” Jeffrey Ford (Crackpot Palace, William Morrow)

SHORT FICTION

“Bajazzle,” Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape, Twelfth Planet Press)
“How We Escaped Our Certain Fate,” Dan Chaon (21^st Century Dead, St. Martin’s)
“Little America,” Dan Chaon (Shadow Show: All New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow)
“The Magician’s Apprentice,” Tamsyn Muir (Weird Tales #359)
“A Natural History of Autumn,” Jeffrey Ford (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2012)
“Two Houses,” Kelly Link (Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, William Morrow)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

Crackpot Palace, Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)
Errantry, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer Press)
The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, Andy Duncan (PS Publishing)
Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine Publications)
The Woman Who Married a Cloud, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean Press)
Windeye, Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

21^st Century Dead, edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martin’s)
Black Wings II, edited by S. T. Joshi (PS Publishing)
Exotic Gothic 4: Postscripts #28/29, edited by Danel Olson (PS Publishing)
Night Shadows, edited by Greg Herren and J. M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)
Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle (William Morrow)

source

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Bargain – Graham Joyce’s Limits of Enchantment

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Fri, 03 May 2013 23:57:00 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that Booktopia currently have Graham Joyce’s The Limits of Enchantment on sale for $2.95.

Who’s Graham Joyce? Well until I listened to the Coode Street Podcast here I had no idea who he was either. He’s a stunningly good writer of folk-fantasy (like Charles de Lint but with a sparse realism to the work,). I bought Some Kind of Fairytale after listening to the interview on Coode Street and had to stop after 30 pages because it was that good t.

Good enough for me to buy The Limits of Enchantment at that price without even knowing what it was about. So I think it’s worth checking him out, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

From his blog:

I grew up in the mining village of Keresley, near Coventry. It’s not a place you would find in the tourist guidebooks. A gritty, unlovely place. Salt of the earth people, but if you used words of more than two syllables you were instantly suspected of homosexuality. Mining people tend to be proud and aggressive to defend what little they’ve hacked out for themselves. [Read on]

t I know that sounds weird but I feared that If I kept going I wouldn’t be able to put it down, hence leaving me further behind in my reviewing. My wife, who doesn’t read fantasy has now absconded with it, another indication of its qualities

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Covey Candy – King Breaker

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 02 May 2013 06:06:00 +0000

You’ll see below the newly released cover for King Breaker, the fifth and concluding book in The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin. Clint Langley has outdone himself on the artwork again. Checkout Rowena’s site for further updates.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

eBook Review – Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:49:00 +0000

Asymmetry is the latest of the top shelf Twelve Planets series to emerge from Twelve Planet Press. It continues what I have found to be an outstanding showcase of Australian women writers in the speculative fiction field.

Thoraiya has been well supported by the team at Twelfth Planet Press for some time; she appeared in the anthologies, New Ceres Nights and Sprawl(her short, Yowie, won an Aurealis), had a novella, The Company Articles of Edward Teach (which won the Ditmar Novella Category in 2011) published as part of a double with Matthew Chrulew and now she’s produced Asymmetry. Thoraiya also picked up a Ditmar this year for her The Wisdom of Ants published published in Clarkesworld.

So as you would expect this collection of shorts is worthy of someone who is generating a lot of good work. There’s four stories, that showcase Thoraiya’s versatility within the genre and I would be stretched to find a less than brilliant one amongst them:

I fell into After Hours, a story of a young vet attached to a practice that has a special relationship with the nearby military base. They house and train “special” dogs. It’s a sign of very good writing that a novel, let alone a short can draw you in and immerse you when you are tired. I had a distinct yearning for more of the interesting the world and characters Thoraiya has delivered here. Very smooth and subtle writing, great characterization and a tantalizing idea. It’s hard to pull off a werewolf tale and make it fresh but Thoraiya does.

Zadie, Scythe of the West, could not be further from the setting of After Hours. Thoraiya gives us a female dominated warrior society where to participate in battle a woman must have given birth for every life she takes. This set up is not as desirous as some might think though and the emotional core of this story comes from the tension that this society creates around relationships and that despite having to give a life before you take one, war and killing is still horrendous and perhaps unjustified. This short could I think spawn an entirely original Dark Fantasy series if Thoraiya were so inclined.

Wish Me Luck somehow manages to fuse a steampunk-ish future with trans-dimensional travel where you pay your way with physically manifesting luck. It felt very Final Fantasy to me a fusion of science and magic, with pseudo-victorian trappings. Again entirely different to the preceding stories.

And rounding out the quartet is Seven Days in Paris, which is partly about counter terrorism and partly about human cloning. It raises questions about the acceleration of organisms (tips its hat toward current issues on GMO) and what boundaries governments will cross when they think it necessary to save lives. Somewhat evocative of the questions raised by Blade Runner.

I would be very surprised if this weren’t on the awards list next year. The only regret I have after reading it was that it was so easily consumed. For a collection that is thematically about imbalance, Twelfth Planet Press has produced one of the most balanced collections I have come across in recent times.

Kudos to Amanda Rainey for cover design and Charles A. Tan for the eBook layout.

This review copy was made available by the publisher at no cost.

Other Twelve Planet Reviews:

eBook Review–Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren

Book Review–Showtime by Narrelle M Harris

Book Review–Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti

Book Review–Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex

Book Review–Nightsiders by Sue Isle

eBook Review–Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Book Review–Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan

This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Review – In Fabula-divino edited by Nicole Murphy

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:41:00 +0000

In Fabula-divino is one of those projects that seemed to fly under my radar, despite being aware of and following many of the authors, the editor and publisher of the project. I’ll let the Editor, Nicole Murphy explain the concept in her own words:

In March 2009, author and editor Nicole Murphy began the In Fabula-divino project – the aim being to provide up-and-coming authors with their first taste of a professional editing experience, mentor them through the ups and downs of a writing career and give a leg up to some talented writers.
The first few months were crowdfunded via Indiegogo. The first four stories were turned around in just three weeks, undergoing at least three rounds of editing in that time. The later stories were edited over a two month period.
Each story was published online, available for a month here on this very website, before it was replaced by the next fabulous story.
Unfortunately, time and family health issues meant the project couldn’t continue at the standard Nicole had set….

The anthology was made available in electronic form and despite all the poor luck it had to confront getting there, a paperback version was launched over this past weekend at the Australian Natcon.

But you want to know about the stories don’t you?

I wasn’t a big fan of anthology’s or a big reader of short stories before I became a reviewer, so the last two years has been a bit of an education in reading the shorter form and getting the feel of how anthologies work and what defines a good one. No anthology is going to be 100% everybody’s thing, it’s the nature of getting a large number of writers together and building something cohesive but that still allows individuality.

In Fabula-divino lacks a unifying theme, but it’s a slim read so I didn’t feel that it impacted on my reading experience. What Murphy has done is given us a sprinkling of reprints and original works (all we new to me) from well known authors of speculative fiction interspersed with some well work-shopped and edited work from new or up and coming authors. It was a quick, satisfying read with some excellent work from new and seasoned writers alike.

From the seasoned writers, I was emotionally gutted by Kaaron Warren’s White Bed (her first published story if I’m not mistaken)- I should know by now what to expect from Kaaron, but this story is a prime example of why she picks up awards for her writing. The second seasoned writer story that made an impact was Angela Slatter’s Dresses, Three, a fairy tale retelling.

Of the new writers SG Larner would have tied with Slatter for the story with the most emotional impact with her Regret, had the Warren not been included in the collection. It’s a really good example of the kind of speculative fiction that easily straddles the boundary between fantasy and magical realism i.e. it would not have been out of place in a Lit Journal.

Stay Out of the Park by Janett L Grady was another story that I felt mixed emotion, horror and hope in any interesting fashion. Finally I was kicking myself for not seeing the reveal in Holy Kench’s Zombie story, The Secret Life of a Zombie Fan, having been exposed to her unique fiction via her blog.

In Fabula-Divino is a mixed bag in the best sense of the word, a selection of good (some great) short stories, there’s no liquorice in this bag of lolliesY.

In Fabula-divino was published by eMergeant Publishing in partnership with Nicole Murphy and can be purchased through Amazon and Smashwords in electronic form. A review copy was provided for this review.

YI used to hate liquorice as a kid, and dreaded finding liquorice in bags of mixed candy. I have come to appreciate it especially in Sambucca form.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.

Book Review – Fragments of a Broken Land : Valarl Undead

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:22:00 +0000

What do you get when “Australia’s Master of Dark Fantasy” sets out to write a debut adult fantasy novel? Not Granddad's, journey through Middle Earth, that’s for sure.

I have read Robert Hood’s work before but short fiction is obviously different to the novel form, so I didn’t have any firm convictions going in – possibly the best way to approach a book really.

Other reviewers have compared Fragments of a Broken Land to that branch of the fantasy tree inhabited by Moorcock, Lieber and Vance. I know of these writers but have only ever played games that use them as a source material ( I’ll hand in my Fantasy Fan Union Card after this review).

So for the general fantasy reader, bereft of the esoteric knowledge bestowed on readers of Elric and Fafhrd what do you get? A world that is deceptively rich for one that exists only as a “solid firmament”. Hood manages to evoke a sense of long history, a passage of time and an exoticism that doesn’t rely on orientalism. It’s more sorcery than sword with a definite emphasis on the workings, metaphysics and consequences of manipulating “deep powers”.

In a place where no stars appear in the night sky, a group of strangers whose ancestries reach back to an earlier apocalyptic disaster are brought together to track down a resurrected corpse that might hold the key to the End of the World.

Structurally we have two stories, one that is a fairly straight forward fantasy quest, shadowed by the other which deals with the metaphysics, the unseen forces that impact on the first. We have characters that exist in both stories and that are aware, though not always fully, of the existence of two differing realities.

Fragments of a Broken Land will take an investment of your time and attention. This is not a book that you will want to devour. It will exercise your brains as you hold these two storylines and attempt to figure their conclusion before the main character does. It’s the mystery that pulls you through the book, the desire to know how Hood can pull the story, the world, together.

Initially I found the dual storyline and the shared characters a work out, but I think the structure of the book emulates the state of confusion the main character is experiencing. As the book progressed both I and the character seemed to get our head around things. On reflection then, I feel the structure was well done.

Another thing I enjoyed was the use of poetry and song. It’s a brave author that attempts these forms within a story. Some readers will skip over them(why this is I am not sure) and you have to have both skill and knowledge of poetic forms in addition to being able to place them in a fantasy setting and make them “sound” natural. So kudos to Hood for doing so.

Fragments of a Broken Land is a rich, thought provoking fantasy read with elements of horror. It’s a book that requires some fantasy grounding and possibly a mature reading experience to fully enjoy ie you don’t get annoyed when things aren’t handed to you on a plate.

Did you enjoy this review? Would you like to read more? You can subscribe to the blog through a reader,by Email or Follow me on twitter.