Adventures of a Bookonaut

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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Ditmar Awards 2013 in tweets and pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:54:00 +0000

Australian SpecFic Review 24/4/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:26:00 +0000

Still experimenting with the Australian SpecFic Review. Paper.li seems to do a pretty ordinary job of picking up the #ausfrev tag ie where ordinary means absolutely shite. So at the moment I have a a column on my Tweetdeck account that captures those hashtags nicely and then I manually add to the paper.

I have notifications turned off at the moment and am sharing the paper once after I have finished collating it for the day.

I am currently only doing a daily paper if there are enough reviews.

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Breaking News - Ben Peek gets six figure book deal

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:24:00 +0000

from John, Ben’s agent:

Australian author Ben Peek’s first epic fantasy novel and two sequels have been acquired by Julie Crisp, Editorial Director at Tor UK, in a six-figure world-rights deal with agent John Jarrold after a hard-fought auction. She set a floor, which she exercised at the end of the auction for a six-figure sum. The under-bidder was Hana Osman of Michael Joseph/Penguin UK. The first novel, titled IMMOLATION, will be published in spring 2014.

[Read on]

Congrats Ben.

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Norma K Hemming Nominations announced:

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:11:00 +0000

The wonderful Rowena Cory Daniells brings us the glad tidings. There are 4 authors nominated and 6 books. They are in no particular order:

Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
Winter be my Shield by Jo Spurrier
Besieged, Exile, and Sanctuary by Rowena Cory Daniells
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

The Norma K Hemming Award :

marks excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability:

in the form of science fiction and fantasy or related artwork or media.

produced either in Australia or by Australian citizens.

first published, released or presented in the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is given.
[source]

I have read 4 of the above titles and concur with the judges selections. I haven’t read the Jo Spurrier (it’s in my non reviewing TBR pile) but I have heard some very good things. I would have been severely (yes severely) perturbed if Rowena hadn’t made the list because there’s a whole lot of gender commentary wrapped up in some of the best gritty dark fantasy on the market.

For judges comments you can go here.

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2012 Chronos Award Nominees and Ballot

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 05:49:00 +0000

Now for those of you unschooled in the ways if Australian Speculative Fiction awards, it’s nearly time for the Chronos Awards. The Continuum Foundation(who ran a tip top national convention last year) has proudly announced this year’s ballot for the Chronos Awards for excellence in Victorian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in 2012.

Victorian fiction being the State of Victoria, Australia, not Victorian as in Steampunk. So some of those nominated below appear on national awards and there are other who don’t. It's nice to sometimes see good work that may have been missed.

I even get a guernsey.

Best Long Fiction

Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker (Ticonderoga Publications)

Salvage by Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)

Walking Shadows by Narrelle M. Harris (Clan Destine Press)

Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2011 edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)

Dyson’s Drop by Paul Collins (Ford Street Publishing)

Comments:

Must get Bread and Circuses. I can remember Felicity Dowker being interviewed about it early in the first season of Writer and the Critic. Salvage by Nahrung, nominated for national awards, this is a good novel/novella even Mrs Blogonaut loved it. Walking Shadows, is staring daggers at me from the shelf. And well I … yep moving on

Best Short Fiction

“Five Ways to Start a War” by Sue Bursztynski in Light Touch Paper Stand Clear, edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon Petrie (Peggy Bright Books)

“The Mornington Ride” by Jason Nahrung in Epilogue, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)

“Nematalien” by LynC in The Narratorium, edited by David Grigg

“Fireflies” by Steve Cameron in Epilogue (FableCroft Publishing)

“The D_d” by Adam Browne in Light Touch Paper Stand Clear, edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon Petrie (Peggy Bright Books)

Comments:

I fare subtly better in this category. Owning 4 of the stories. All good, but my favourites are the Nahrung and the Bursztynski.

Best Fan Writer

Alexandra Pierce – good reviewer and commentator

Jason Nahrung – great reviews, music as well as the Specfic scene (bastard’s a good writer too)

Nalini Haynes - tireless content provider of reviews & geek culture- often provides audio and video interviews with local and international stars.

Bruce Gillespie – an institution :D

Grant Watson – intelligent commentator on film, Dr Who, and speculative fiction in general

Steve Cameron – Good writer, sadly have not chanced upon his fan writing.

Comments:

See above

Best Fan Written Work

Reviewing New Who series by David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

Comments:

A worthy nomination. But sad the category has no other competition.

Best Fan Artist

Dick Jenssen

Comments:

A worthy nomination. But sad the category has no other competition.

Best Fan Artwork

“The Entellechy” by Dick Jenssen, cover art for Interstellar Ramjet Scoop for ANZAPA 267 edited by Bill Wright

Comments:

A worthy nomination. But sad the category has no other competition.

Best Fan Publication

Dark Matter Fanzine (www.darkmatterfanzine.com), by Nalini Hayes

SF Commentary, (http://efanzines.com/SFC/) edited by Bruce Gillespie

Viewing Clutter, DVD and Blu-ray reviews blog (http://georgeivanoff.com.au/other-writing/reviews/viewing-clutter/), by George Ivanoff

Comments:

On content and visible effort Dark Matter should take this one out.

Best Achievement

Continuum 8: Craftonomicon (51st Australian National SF Convention) Program by Julia Svaganovic, Emma Hespa Mann, and Caitlin Noble

“Snapshot 2012″ by Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Ian Mond, Jason Nahrung, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright

Comments:

I took me about five days to realise I was nominated in this category. Like I said I’m sometimes a bit slow. That being said Continuum 8, the last Natcon, was a blast. I think despite the mammoth effort that was Snapshot 2012, the programming of Continuum 8 I wouldn’t attempt if you paid me. I reckon it will go to them.

Best Artwork

The award for Best Artwork is not being presented due to insufficient nominations being received.

Comments:

Victoria is one of our larger states, so its a bit sad to see this category and others bordering on empty

Book Review - River of Bones by Jodi Cleghorn

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 03:47:00 +0000

River of Bones was previously published by the Australian Review of Fiction under the title of Elyora, the name of the town featured in the novella. I read it back in January and by a stroke of good fortune happened to read Dr Lisa L Hannett’s article, Wide Open Fear: Australian Horror and Gothic Fiction at the same time. Hannett introduced me to the concept of unheimlich, a term that roughly translates to an object, situation or place that has a quality of being familiar yet foreign at the same time.

The term describes River of Bones perfectly. The setting is familiar, yet strange and Cleghorn presents a story that straddles the borderline between the everyday, the mundane and the disturbing. She presents an Australian landscape and characters that I know and manages to embed a “wrongness”, a fractured reality that builds until the true horror is revealed.

Australia is the sort of country where a wrong turn can kill you, either the people, the animals or the environment. The initial opening of the tale ( a short prologue was added with the new edition) starts off with a band in their combi-van traveling an outback road to a gig. Most Australian’s have that experience of the road trip, of turning off into towns bypassed by the highway, of taking shortcuts that turnout to be long-ways-around. Elyora could be anyone of a hundred once-were-towns in my state.

Jo, Benny and Hal, members of the band Faunabate, have no idea what they’re in for when their car suddenly breaks down on the way to their first gig.
Their nearest town? Elyora. Upon arrival it quickly becomes clear that this is not your normal town. Why are all the magazines dated at 1974?
Why have all of their clocks stopped? And where exactly have all the people gone?There are some towns you don't ever want to visit.

And Elyora is one of them.

I have become a fan of Stephen King in recent years, more so for the emotional weight he embeds in his focus on character -I was more torn up over the love story in 22.11.63 than the Kennedy story. Though he does take a long time getting there. With River of Bones Cleghorn somehow manages to deliver that same weight, that same investment in character that I feel with King, but without such a long run-up. I would have been fine with just the emotional interplay, the tragedy in this novella, but Cleghorn delivered a double punch of emotional and very deftly placed, visceral horror. The ending was particularly gutting with respect to both.

Cleghorn’s rendering of Elyora and its inhabitants is so vivid that I see possibilities for it as an independent horror film in much the same vein as Wolf Creek. Hannett did not quote River of Bones as being part of the tradition of Australian Gothic ( she probably hadn’t read it at the time) but it strikes me as one of the better recent examples.

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Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast – Piper’s Reach Special

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:18:00 +0000

If you haven’t heard of Post Marked: Piper’s Reach and you are interested in contemporary fiction and exploring different ways of telling stories then I encourage you to visit the website. Here’s the summary:

In December 1992 Ella-Louise Wilson boarded the Greyhound Coach for Sydney leaving behind the small coastal town of Piper’s Reach and her best friend and soulmate, Jude Smith. After twenty years of silence, a letter arrives at Piper’s Reach reopening wounds that never really healed.
When the past reaches into the future, is it worth risking a second chance?
Post Marked: Piper’s Reach is an ambitious collaborative project between Jodi Cleghorn and Adam Byatt traversing an odd path between old and new forms of communication, differing modalities of storytelling and mixed media, all played out in real and suspended time. The project has at its heart a love of letter writing and music.

I had the great pleasure of talking to both Adam and Jodi last night and in a rush to get you some behind the scenes action before the series culminates I have spent the second day of my holidays editing just for you.

You can play via the player if you have decent internet

or you can download the mp3 file here.

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Book Review – Seroks (Iteration 1: Mirror Man) by David Hontiveros

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 08:44:00 +0000

In 2002 David Hontiveros won second prize in Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards- Futuristic Fiction Category for his short story titled Kaming Mga Seroks. That piece forms the first story in this collection. I say collection but Seroks is a tightly structured series of stories, so tightly linked that I am inclined to call it a mosaic novella.

Through a number of forms and perspectives Hontiveros gives us a far future Philippines run by an almost omnipresent Maharlika Company, a world where the Chinese are the dominant force and the United States was bought out in the aftermath of a gene based attack on the male section of the populace leaving them mostly sterile.

If you are a fan of old school Gibsonian Cyberpunk you’ll feel a tingling of familiarity. Hontiveros, however, drags in some other ideas and influences that give this mosaic a fresh feel -there’s some Superhero DNA, the history of Filipino film is alluded to, and the occurrence of piracy is extrapolated past the point of software and cd’s.

Imagine a world with clones, imagine that film studios can clone actors and have the duplicates or Seroks (took me half the book to realize that Seroks = Xerox and that it roughly translates to Copies) stand in for them. Imagine then that these clones or the templates that are used to create them can be pirated. We have a world that’s ripe for abuse. We have a world where Seroks, who are for all intents and purposes human, don’t have human rights.

The mosaic follows the fortunes of a group or Seroks owned by aging Filipino movie star and disgraced President Frederico Rubio. The Seroks are all grown to look like the aging star at the different stages in his movie career, some engineered to be the characters and not merely the actor playing the character.

Seroks is part thriller, part comment on corporate greed, part superhero story. I love the diversity of writing form that Hontiveros brings to the work; first person point of view, television script, a couple of the pieces described almost in terms of stage directions. It comes as no surprise to me that he writes the Supehero comic series Bathala as I feel he has a very good handle on imagery and conveying that to the reader.

As a first Iteration, a part one, Seroks, does a very good job of laying down a firm foundation and giving the reader some action and resolution. The world building is fresh and tangible and I think that Hontiveros has played it well; giving us just enough to feel immersed and temporarily satisfied. I await further iterations. Don’t leave us waiting too long Mr Hontiveros.

The artwork is provided by Alan Navara - the cover and internal story separators. I think he and Visprint should be commended for rounding out the work with high spec. production and simple but striking artwork.

And thanks to Charles Tan for facilitating access to this work.

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The Stella Award and the Culture of Prize Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 02:10:00 +0000

A very interesting discussion on the Stella, the Queensland Lit Awards. It features Sophie Cunningham, Stuart Glover; and American academic, James English who’s written The Economy of Prestige.

Interesting discussions around gender and political influence in prizes. It’s only about 15 minutes long.

You can listen here.

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Self promotion by authors and awards

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:55:00 +0000

I have just read Seanan MacGuire’s post here and it’s a little depressing:

The main flush of angry kvetching over the Hugo ballot has passed; we're on to complaining about other things, like the Clarke Award short list and whether or not "fake geek girls" really exist. (I have a guest post about fake geek girls and why they're a fiction that makes me want to set everything the sun touches on fire coming up later this month, so I'm not going to go into that now.) And to be honest, I'm really glad. Sure, it's nice to have everyone you've ever met in a friendly capacity saying congratulations for a couple of days, and it's an honor to be nominated—nothing can change that. But the personal comments got to be a bit much within the first twenty-four hours, and by the time the primary articles stopped, I was basically just hiding under my bed and waiting for it to be over. [Read on …no really do because its a good discussion]

And while Jonathan McCalmont certainly doesn’t accuse Seanan of excessive self promotion he did criticize a group of authors/nominees for not “spreading the love” so to speak. Seanan being one of those authors.

My issue is not with the people engaged in the grinding and socially awkward task of being a professional writer but with the people who remind others of their eligibility whilst conveniently failing to acknowledge the existence of works other than their own. [Read the full article]

There is an issue with certain segments of the writing community not being acknowledged for reasons of race, gender and sexuality. I don’t think you’d find many who’d disagree with that claim. I’m not convinced however that it’s fair, to expect authors in particular to commit to the sort of Hugo posting that McCalmont would like. Even if they did, I wonder if they wouldn’t cop flack for the choices they made. That is, being accused of nominating friends and acquaintances or perhaps of not being sincere in their discussions of who should be nominated. If I had a choice between a “ya’ll should check out the other nominees, I ‘ve heard good stuff about them” and nothing - I’ll go nothing.

I think the sort of broad discussion posts that McCalmont was hoping to find more of, are the purview of bloggers and commentators. Indeed it looks to me if that first group he highlights is essentially made up of those.

I just don’t know if authors have the time to read and critically examine enough of the current works on offer. I know several authors at the top of their game in Australia that don’t read heavily in the field they write in for a number of reasons, chief among them being time and wanting to have a break from the genre.

So I agree with McCalmont that there should be more discussion well ahead of the nomination period, but I think that it’s not really an author’s responsibility. When it comes to sites that have staff/multiple volunteers then I’m on the fence. They have more individuals and a wider reading experience to draw on.

Thoughts?

Australian Shadows Award Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 06:07:00 +0000

The Australian Shadows Awards are:

… the annual literary awards presented by the AHWA and judged on the overall effect - the skill, delivery, and lasting resonance - of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian. [source: Australian Horror Writers Association]

Here are the winners:

NOVEL
Perfections – Kirstyn McDermott
LONG FICTION
Sky – Kaaron Warren
SHORT FICTION
Birthday Suit – Martin Livings
EDITED PUBLICATION
Surviving the End – Craig Bezant
COLLECTION
Through Splintered Walls – Kaaron Warren

The list includes two writers that I have read recently. And I am very happy to see them win, I don’t tend to read much horror,but those selected were certainly good writing. Congrats to Kaaron, Kirstyn and the others, whose works I have yet to read.

Oh and isn’t the trophy delightfully macabre, it’s made by Nightshade Fx

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A Bottle of Storm Clouds: Stories …not a review

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:42:00 +0000

Just a short post to give you a heads up. I have reviewed Eliza Victoria’s A Bottle of Storm Clouds for ISF and that review should be coming out in the next 3 weeks or so.

In short its good and I think fans of some of the dark fantasy writings of Margo Lanagan and Kaaron Warren might appreciate picking it up.

It’s 200 odd pages of award nominated stories.

and while we are talking about Filipino writers I really liking David Hontiveros’ Seroks - Iteration 1.

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eBook Review – Dieselpunk ePulp Showcase

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:27:00 +0000

I think I enjoyed Dieselpunk before I was even aware of the genre tag or that of its more prevalent cousin Steampunk. I can remember playing the tabletop version of Crimson Skies (the original, with the cardboard press out game pieces). So coming into this collection I had an expectation of something similar. "That Sort of World: a Tale of the Aether Age" by Grant Gardiner certainly didn’t disappoint on that front- indeed it felt like a Crimson Skies story. I enjoyed the genre markers: gangsters, speakeasies, spies and Grant employed some subtle humour to good effect.

Who are the People in your Neighborhood?" by John Picha, I thought had a good shot at mixing social comment with pulp action. It felt more 30’s vigilante superhero than my concept of Dieselpunk and there was some interesting use of tense that jarred me out of the story.

"The Wise Man Says" by Bard Constantine was hardboiled detective fiction in a dystopic future earth. It felt a bit like Dark City without the aliens. It was well done genre writing but the futuristic setting didn’t quite convince me. It would have been none too different a story without the science fictional markers.

"Friend of the Spirits" by Jack Philpott showed the broadest range in what could be called “Dieselpunk”, but it struck me as more fantasy than Dieselpunk for some reason – not enough Art Deco perhaps. All in all it was original even if it didn’t quiet fog up my aviator glasses.

So. It’s a showcase and it certainly displays a broad range of what an author might be able to do in the sub-genre. For my personal tastes though I am more a Sky Pirates kinda guy, battling Nazi’s on the back of giant Zeppelins. So I’d say I liked some aspects of the showcase more than others but it’s worth a look if you have the time.

Checkout the Dieselpunk site here.

This ebook was provided free of charge

Ditmars 2013 The Atheling

noreply@blogger.com (Sean Wright) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:30:00 +0000

or to give it the full title the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review. It’s named after the pseudonym created by science fiction writer James Blish and according to the rule

3.12 The William Atheling Jr Award:
The William Atheling Jr Award is for the writing or editing of a work or a group of related works of criticism or review pertaining to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, or horror.

So it can be quite broad. I personally view it as an award for a singular work or a small collection of works that make some critical impact. It’s for that reason that I don’t tend to favour what typically passes for blogging reviews as eligible for the award. Note this is just my personal opinion based on my own style of reviewing (which tends to be short; more inline with book recommendations.

What I favour for an Atheling is a work that is longer, has some critical bite to it, some depth and that makes some impact. This years nominees are:

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
————————————————————————
* Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, David McDonald, and Tehani Wessely, for review of Mira Grant’s Newsflesh, in ASIF
* Tansy Rayner Roberts, for “Historically Authentic Sexism in Fantasy.Let’s Unpack That.”, in tor.com
* David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely, for the “New Who in Conversation” series
* Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, for “The Year in Review”, in The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011
* Rjurik Davidson, for “An Illusion in the Game for Survival”, a review of Reamde by Neal Stephenson, in The Age

—

Those in bold were nominated last year either for a continuing project or for the new version of that project. I think all of these nominees fall under my own particular idea of the type of work we should be lauding .

I will tell you now though I favour Tansy’s post on Tor, it achieved impact, displayed passion and illustrated in the comments section why such a piece needed to be said. That’s not to say that the others aren’t worthy but that it really did strike a chord with me and others.