The Anthology is being edited by PS Cottier and Tim Jones, both fantastic people and poets in their own right.
The anthology is being published by Interactive Publications.
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Long time readers of the blog will remember the Peacemaker graphic novel launched by Marianne de Pierres in mid 2011. 
Marianne has been hard at work crafting that tale into two novels that will published by Angry Robot in 2014 and 2015. Peacemaker (Book 1) is due for release by Angry Robot books in early May 2014.
So until that time you will just have to console yourself with the cover art by Joey Hi Fi, which was partly inspired by the graphic novel which illustrated by Brigitte Sutherland and created by Marianne.
More details about the book can be found on this page.
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King Breaker rounds out a chronicle of four novels, plus a novella. The chronicle is a tale of the fortunes of the royal family of Rolencia after their parents and the heir to the throne are murdered and the crown usurped.
In King Breaker, Byren, the remaining heir has managed to defeat the invading army and is betrothed to the Myrofinian Queen, the 15 year old Isolt. So technically he is now king-in-waiting to the country that invaded his own; while the bastard, Cobalt the Usurper, sits on the throne of Rolencia. The Merofynian nobles, like all self centred aristocracy resent him and when he has to leave his younger brother Fyn (who has developed feelings for Isolt )as Lord Protector, the scene is set for some opportunistic politicking and potential family feuding. Piro the youngest, continues her adventures as the Mage’s apprentice and manages to almost shake her reputation for putting her foot in it. We also see the return of Garzik, Orrade’s brother, who struggles with loyalty to Rolencia or the Utland raiders.
I felt more keenly than ever, the tension in the interpersonal relationships in this novel. Indeed much of the fighting, much of what would usually be set battles is glossed over fairly quickly. That’s not to say there isn’t action, but that of the three or four large battles that took place, most were quickly resolved or happened off page. One of Daniells’ strengths though, is making you care about the characters and she is equally well versed in placing them in physical or emotional danger, so don’t think a lack of gutsy battles is going to give you an easy ride.
If I had to find fault, I did feel in a couple of places that Daniells may have had to cut material too sharply. King Breaker is the largest book in the series, coming in at 774 pages and there were two distinct points that I felt that Daniells’ usual style felt a bit truncated i.e. she had to cut harshly to get the page count down.
I would suggest that King Breaker could have been two(if we ignore the realities of publishing) or maybe three books. I certainly think there were enough subplots to continue without padding the tale out. But that’s a minor quibble and to be fair I think Daniells has done a brilliant job of wrangling the material down into the one tome to round off the tale.
King Breaker has all the qualities that I have come to expect of the series – excellent pacing, interesting interpersonal relationships and a good portrayal of a gay character in Byren’s companion Orrade. The King Rolen’s Kin chronicle is a nice introduction to Daniells’ work and when you have recovered from the rollercoaster ride I suggest you take up the Outcast Chronicles which I think is grittier and better paced than Game of Thrones.
Note: The King’s Man novella is only available as an ebook, and while not necessary to read before embarking on King Breaker, it will enhance your enjoyment. It’s also one of the best novella’s I have read over the past two years – see my review here.
This book was provided by the author.
Australian’s can purchase the entire series through Booktopia and if you use the following code ( EARLY) midnight Saturday(November 9) you can get free shipping.
To purchase the ebook novella The King’s Man you will have to look online at Amazon, Kobo, or Rebellion
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women..![awwbadge_2013[4]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2nBY6W3o1tqUtDWvp3xUdjVOmUqsOll3wdHhnwHmo8z09e2JoNDFv0J98d5qNus4Vj-iGnkFojMjKXho0npFeuhuST3O9iWHbFCMPhZyjJDixHPTRPP3EqL-Dzff_mriRAkmF275q7fxB/s1600-h/awwbadge_2013%25255B4%25255D%25255B6%25255D.jpg "awwbadge_2013[4]")
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Such a busy weekend I forgot to tell you all about the latest Galactic Chat:
This week Sean chats to Australian Speculative Fiction novelist Patty Jansen. Patty is a member of SFWA and winner of the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. She has published fiction in various magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Aurealis, Redstone SF and the Universe Annex of the Grantville Gazette. She has also successfully self published a number of novellas and novels.
In this chat they talk about Patty's newest novel, Ambassador, to be published by Australian Press Ticonderoga, the importance of diversification for any writer and current issues in the field, such as sexism and diversity
.
Patty's Website
Patty on Twitter
Purchase Options for Ambassador - here
Credits
Interviewer: Sean Wright
Guest: Patty Jansen
Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts
Post-production: Sean Wright
Feedback:
Twitter: @galactichat
Email: galactichat at gmail dot com
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At the beginning of October I had a chat with Sean Williams about his new YA book Jump: Twinmaker you can listen to us talk here at Galactic Chat. I had the opportunity to ask some follow up questions below:
Please enjoy:
1. Jump features Fabbers or fabricators, with more widespread use of 3d printing how close do you think we are to seeing technology like them?
On the one hand, you can see existing technologies like cheap 3-D printers and online libraries of downloadable 3-D models heading in exactly this direction, so it’s easy to believe it might be just around the corner. On the other hand, the sheer amount of data and fine-scale manipulation required to make things like food and the Mona Lisa seems far beyond us. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Printing objects in hard-to-supply places like space or a battlefield has obvious utility for organisations with enormous R&D budgets, so work is being undertaken right now that will eventually filter down to the mainstream. How long until I can fab a convincing steak that required no animal slaughter? I’d guess twenty years, plus or minus ten. The Mona Lisa? Probably sooner. A living person? A very long way off indeed.
2. What do think would be the most monumental change wrought by matter transference technology if it were to occur now?
That’s a hard question to answer because I suspect everything would change.
Our notion of space and time would shift, since being able to step literally anywhere in a moment or two removes all concept of “between” from everyday life. Once a city on the other side of the planet becomes closer in a very real sense to a destination two blocks away, where you might walk instead of d-matting, that leads to a fundamental restructuring of how we view the world. This goes beyond polyglot societies and complicated national identities. This speaks to how we inhabit the universe around us, and leads to powerful new metaphors for finding our place within it.
Then there’s the way we imagine ourselves as creatures with physical bodies and coherent identities inhabiting those bodies. Any device that can scan your every atom and rebuild you at will leads inevitably to the possibilities of copying, mutation and erasure, all of which put severe pressure on our sense of self. If you can change your physical form any time you like, who are you really? If you can make two or more identical versions of you, which one is really you? If you are deleted en route to your destination, are you really dead? This notion of what’s real and what not is relatively easy to answer when the matter we’re made of is mutable. When it is, we’re in a whole new, and very fascinating territory!
I talk a little about the economics in the world of Twinmaker in “Face Value”, a short story featuring characters who will appear in the sequel.
What lies at the heart of the economy of this world is that the one irreproducible commodity people can trade is time. You can make a thousand copies of a roast lamb dinner for no cost at all, but if you want someone to make you the original that the copy is taken from, that will cost you, because it takes time to cook the meal. So it’s the ultimate service economy, but with every transaction conducted electronically, of course; there’s no physical money since that could be easily copied too. It’s not fundamentally different from our world in some ways, but utterly different in others.
Governance reflects that. Things like passports and state borders don’t exist anymore, since they just can’t survive in the face of d-mat technology. This is something you’ll see a lot more of in the sequel. I don’t want to burden the books with the nuts and bolts of world-building, but I do want observant readers to know that they are there.
Many thanks to Sean for answering my questions. You can buy your choice of three versions of Jump: Twinmaker (or all three if you really want to make Mr Williams happy) at Booktopia.
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Fablecroft have been a supporter of Jo, having previously published her short story collection The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories.
You can check out further news at the Fablecroft page
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Hmm… probably not going to happen.
How often does a collection of novellas cause you to go and borrow every book you can by the author? For you see, that’s what I did before I’d finished reading The Year of Ancient Ghosts. That was before the Lark and the River, the final novella in the collection left me blinking away the tears, left me so immersed that I had to remind myself that it was fiction.
Not many writers do that to me anymore. It is a battle – skill and talent versus my familiarity with literature and story. Most of the novellas within the collection were excellent, a couple superb.
The titular novella, The Year of Ancient Ghosts, had me in mind of a dramatisation of MR James’ A View from a Hill – foreboding and menace found in small things, the frisson when the everyday is cleverly juxtaposed with the weird.
“Strange wee boy. Full of stories. Full of mystery. Folk around here used to say, he’s not for this world, that lad. Not for this world.” Then, checking himself, realising he might be stirring my sadness, he cleared his throat. “I’m glad you’re both here. I think you made the right choice.”
Jenny the wife of a famous novelist returns to the place of his youth – the Orkney Islands. She takes their young daughter, as they had planned, to meet the people that raised him. Straight away Wilkins situates the reader in the aftermath of a tragedy, we are immediately sympathetic and on edge, fearing what strangeness is in store for our two bereaved souls far from home. Wild weather, strange noises and bad dreams draw out the tension as we wait to cross the threshold from unsettling normality to horror.
The Crown of Rowan, is a reprint and one of the superb stories in this collection. Set in the kingdom of Thyrsland, Wilkins’ version of Anglo-Saxon England, it is a tantalising glimpse into what I think would be a great full length novel or series. Wilkins alludes to such a novel in her afterword (which also struck me as a beautiful piece of writing) hoping that she has captured the spare and elegiac mood of the original Old English literature.
There are seven kings in Thyrsland. My father is one of them, and my husband is another. In my belly, perhaps, I carry a third.
It is blood month, and outside my bower window I hear fear-moaning cattle on their way to slaughter. Every night this week, I have smelled blood on the wind: faint but unmistakable, worming under the shutters. And I’ve turned my face to my pillow and held tight to avoid retching.
Unmistakably elegiac from the get go I think. A beginning that could launch a thousand (well I said raving fanboy) books but I’d settle for just the one. I must admit I am a fan of the Anglo-Saxon era, the poetry, the mystery, the fall of Rome till the Norman conquest. Similar to England, Thyrsland is experiencing a time of change – different models of kingship, different religions, conflicts political, military and personal. I got the sense that an epic prose edda (yeah I know not quite Anglo Saxon) was to unfold alongside the personal story of our protagonist Rose. In The Crown of Rowan you have earthy magic, love, mystery and a hint of battle. Wilkins has sold me on the novel and any following set in this particular world.
Dindrana’s Lover is a reworking of Wilkins’, The Death of Pamela, and is the tale of Percival’s sister, left behind at the residence of Saint Triscula as he and Galahad go off on an adventure. It’s a reworking of Arthurian legend and I like its commentary on attitudes to desire and virginity. I am sure I am not the only reader that sincerely hoped Galahad would meet with a riding accident in this piece. The story is dark, sensuous and immersive.
He turned his gaze to her. “Virginity, Dindrana, is a woman’s only treasure. His hands, then, shall I remove them both?”
“You shall not touch him,” she said, imbuing her voice with more force than she actually felt. “Let him leave. You shall not act contrary to my wishes when you are the guest of my father.”
Galahad, courteous to a fault, put his sword away. “Go,” he said to Gabriel. “I shall be telling Dindrana’s father of this, so you’d best go for good. You will be unwelcome anywhere in Margris from this moment on.”
Gabriel stood uncertainly, reached for Dindrana. Instantly the sword was free again, swinging down and stopping a mere inch from Gabriel’s hand. “You will lose it,” Galahad threatened.
The passage made me want to kneecap Galahad with war hammer.
With Wild dreams of Blood we are treated to some Viking infused urban fantasy. It was reminiscent of The Almighty Johnsons in some ways and highlights Wilkins’ facility in being able to write across subgenres. It’s hard to swing a hammer without hitting Viking mythology these days and I thought Wilkins did a fantastic job of grounding this story in the modern and everyday to differentiate it.
My greatest praise though falls on the final story The Lark and the River. This one nearly broke me. It’s historical fiction with a touch of magic, indeed if it weren’t in a speculative fiction collection you could get away with sliding it into historical magical realism. The setting is England after the Norman conquest (another period of great change) there’s tension between the displaced Anglo-Saxons and their Norman lords, between the old gods and the new one. As with some of the previous stories the background conflict is mirrored by family and personal conflicts. This is a time of upheaval in which love blossoms despite the odds and… well I’ll let you read it.
Have the tissues handy though.
New stone churches were going up all over England. For years, we’d done what we ought and travelled to the chapel-at-ease, four miles away at Lissford, as good Christians are meant to do. Or sometimes we forgot to travel or forgot to pray or forgot about God all together, because he wasn’t as tied to our days and seasons as we needed him to be, and instead we went to the spear-stone, or the well, or the ancient yew tree, to leave offerings and tie ribbons for wishes. Our community’s faith was fluid and self-serving, and we enjoyed the freedom even as we knew the creep of containment was coming in the wake of William’s invasion.
Wilkins combines great craft with solid knowledge and understanding of the core material. We have a mix of subgenres and their attendant historical underpinnings(influences) in this collection and Wilkins’ skill is demonstrated in not being overt about it but letting her historical knowledge sit under the motivations and actions of the characters.
On reflection everyone of these stories displays strong female characters, where “strong” is demonstrated in a variety of ways. For male writers who can’t understand how to write a diverse array of female characters I’d urge you to take a look at Wilkins. For international readers just beginning to appreciate the likes of Daniells, Lanagan and Warren. Please add Wilkins to your list, I think she’s one of our best.
This book was provided by the crew at Ticonderoga Publishing.
Note: Australian readers - If you are interested in purchasing and would like to do so before Sunday the 15th use this link and put READING in the coupon code area to get free shipping.
![awwbadge_2013[4]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3r98eHrrFUyQyqtAhZ0EJzl5RMqkDOkouDR5EGGnTivbb2aIQdg3dilbfIz0GMdxQEVTshbh-ZIA0ue1GjzTUsVHJ3DM1zsPKKLzBod5XOduGcJzNLfhmZVcBhoJLqOz9sDFiRwtc47xZ/s1600-h/awwbadge_2013%25255B4%25255D%25255B4%25255D.jpg "awwbadge_2013[4]")
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At the end of Winter Be My Shield, Sierra having managed to learn some control of her powers lets herself be caught by Akharian slavers in an attempt to get closer to Isidro and the potential treasure hidden at Demon Spire. An uneasy alliance is formed between Rasten, Isidro and Sierra as they manage to manipulate the Akharian’s and gain access to Vasant’s treasure trove of Ricalani magic.
Much of what I thought to be the goals of the major characters seemed to be resolved by midway through the story. It turned out to be a decoy by Spurrier an easy victory before she really tightened the screws on the characters. Much of the tension achieved in this novel comes from the testing and twisting of bonds between those characters. Much of the physical danger and tension comes again from isolating the characters from their allies and from each other.
Rape as a threat to characters and bystanders features heavily in Black Sun Light My Way. Spurrier, as she did in Winter be My Shield, didn’t restrict the threat or act to female characters. I like( appreciate maybe is a better word) that she takes this realistic approach ( modern fantasy seems to skirt around the use of rape in conflict as a weapon used against all genders) but the prevalence of it as a way to manipulate the readers emotions came close to being overused for my reading.
There was some anachronistic dialogue that jarred with me much as it did with book one, phrases or figures of speech that sound out of place because they are modern. But then we are reading fantasy; who says fantasy needs to be written in with an equally unrealistic 19th century English vocabulary?
What continued to impress me was Spurrier’s research and her use of it in bringing the Wild alive as a very visceral setting. Pregnancy as a plot device was an interesting and realistic addition to the story and adds another layer of emotional connection between characters that I am sure Spurrier will use against the reader in book three.
Despite the points mentioned above Spurrier has an engaging style. This was an easy book to slip into but very hard to get out of - I read from midway to the end in one setting. If you are a fan of Trudi Canavan’s work and are prepared for the adult content then I heartily recommend Black Sun Light My Way and Winter Be My Shield.
This book was provided by the publisher.
An interview that I conducted with Jo for Galactic Chat can be found here.
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. Please ch![awwbadge_2013[4]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipl_cDYDwYW1HnI-x-Mm2oHaicWkoO_BuejgPOgt2YCg0KNOH-gw3EOO-SdpTO8QEpbjqeY4wScEEQpr_zB5OMocIi1MFPk68qCRqhExyA0g0-Hya2TbW3JAEGdn3HDl_y79xrFXCtvYIZ/s1600-h/awwbadge_2013%25255B4%25255D%25255B4%25255D.jpg "awwbadge_2013[4]")
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Aurora: Darwin is the debut novel from Perth author Amanda Bridgeman. The folks at Momentum publishing have done a great job with the cover art (reminiscent to my mind of the Astropolis covers that Orbit did for Sean Williams) and associated extras. They can be found here. Not entirely necessary for your enjoyment but good art can shape your perceptions.A distress signal on the edge of inhabited space. A mission that is far outside normal parameters. Two very different people with one common goal survival.A group of soldiers are sent to investigate a comms error on a classified military station near the asteroid belt. Three women are added to the all male crew as part of some PR exercise. There’s tension between the crew, between the Captain and Command and information on the situation is almost non existent.
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.David McDonald returns this week with another interview from Continuum 9. In this episode he talks to Kirstyn McDermott, award winning author of Perfections and the recently released Caution: Contains Small Parts, and co-host of the Writer and the Critic Podcast (fear not, this is a Mondy free zone).
In this episode they discuss the challenges of transitioning between short and long fiction, and the comeback of the novella. Kirstyn shares her thoughts on the changing face of the publishing industry and discusses her experiences with the ebook only release of Perfections. And, we hear Kirstyn’s tips on how you go about reviewing the work of people you know.
Play below or download here
You can purchase Perfections from Xoum, Amazon or Kobo
Caution: Contains Small Parts will be available from Twelfth Planet Press
Author Website: http://kirstynmcdermott.com/
Author Twitter: @fearofemeralds
Credits:
Interviewer: David McDonald
Guest: Kirstyn McDermott
Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts
Post-production: Sean Wright
Feedback:
Twitter: @galactichat
Email: galactichat at gmail dot com
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 enamoured 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.
![awwbadge_2013[4]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhwXDAr404Gu23aJLzSVPn1Fw1564azreSY_1Bxxegn9iXmZdU4msa6RGuOkkYO7pv-XKaO1Znq9DlK7ZyyuIrlLs84ZhbIQIybi6LOQuDeyQHxzmVYjznlQ6FnXCvvaRhfCuIV8d-3Ao/s1600-h/awwbadge_2013%25255B4%25255D%25255B4%25255D.jpg "awwbadge_2013[4]")
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.
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.
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.
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
“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.
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
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.
Dick Jenssen
Comments:
A worthy nomination. But sad the category has no other competition.
“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.
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.
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.
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
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.
We have appointed Elsie Michael in the new position of Reviews Manager. All reviews will now appear first in Aurealis issues and will be archived on the Aurealis website later.
We have appointed Julian Thumm in the new position of News Editor. He will be seeking out and collecting the sorts of news items that Carissa has in the past.
Our Social Media Coordinator, Dan Allan, will be placing the news items, depending on what they are, on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Google+, as well as a new Aurealis blog. You will no longer have to wait for the monthly AurealisXpress to get the news.
We have appointed Angelika Arvela as our new Submissions Manager, replacing Sari Webb. After a short break, we are now open to submissions again. We thank you for your patience.
[source]So new blood and probably a better approach to the news/ events happening side of things(near impossible to run a newsletter service in the age of Facebook and Twitter). I shall miss Carissa Thorp’s work and no doubt will miss a few other people that have been a regular feature. I wish them the best of luck.
Another beautifully understated cover by the talented Amanda Rainey and another wonderful collection from one of Australia’s talented crop of female writers.
I still don’t have a release date for it but it’s out sometime this year, coming in as volume 8 of the Twelve Planets Series.
Synopsis:
An Australian Air Force base patrolled by werewolves. A planet where wages are paid in luck. A future where copies are made of criminals to interpret their dark dreams. A medieval cavalry of mothers who are only permitted to take as many lives as they have created.
In every world, an imbalance of power. Something terribly askew between women and men, humans and wolves, citizens and constructs, light and dark.
In every world, asymmetry.
The TOC:
You will be able to purchase this volume from Twelfth Planet Press shortly, but if you are interested in the concept of 12 volumes of speculative fiction from as selection Australia’s top female speculative fiction writers, go here.
It’s worth noting that Thoraiya is eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
H/T David McDonald
Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast Episode 2
In Episode 2 Sean interviews Jodi Cleghorn author, editor and co-founder of eMergent Publishing. They talk about Jodi’s work in publishing, running charity events, and growing new authors. Then they focus on Jodi’s burgeoning career as a writer of quality short fiction.
Note: There has been a format change to single author interviews to allow faster production turnaround and to ease time pressures caused by your hosts’s new job.
Links
Mentioned in the podcast were stories From Stage Door Shadows -"Indigo" and "Cocaine, My Sweet Heart." From Eighty Nine.
The novella Elyora is free at Rabbit Hole Special Issue Review of Australian Fiction (just view the sample it’s actually the entire book)
Jodi writes the Ella-Louise character at Post Marked: Piper's Reach .
Thankyou for listening, you may leave audio feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/Bookonaut, or you may leave written feedback on Facebook, the Podomatic page, or at my blog.
Music
Music featured in this podcast is from the song Voodoo Machine by Lavoura downloaded from the Free Music Archive and Licensed under these conditions
Though Splintered Walls is the most recent of the Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press. And like the rest of that series, the quality is high, the selection of story and author perfect.
Splintered Walls follows the loose format of previous Twelve planets volumes with four stories – 3 shorts and a novella.
They are: Mountain, Creek, Road and Sky. Gemma Files in the book’s introduction says of Warren that:
[she] has the true gift of spell-casting, the sort of deceptively direct, declamatory literary style which says: I simply have to speak a thing, and no matter how odd it may seem in the telling, it is instantly rendered so—solid, actual, honest, real.
And I am not going to argue. I also think that Warren, like Lanagan has given us a collection that is identifiably Australian without belabouring the point. I found each of the settings recognisable, each of them resonated at some level within me.
Mountain tapped into my experiences of driving through the Glasshouse mountains and long road trips with my family, Creek awoke memories of drownings in desert waterholes, Road, flashes of roadside death markers and Sky, well Sky made me look at my small rural community in a entirely new and not altogether comfortable way.
Her “declamatory literary style” makes for stories that you just slip into, they are matter of fact, uncontrived. They could be “your” story until the reveal of course.
In looking back at the three shorter pieces I feel myself questioning which is truly horrific, the supernatural or the very real tragedy that occurs in the mundane? I think it’s the mundane situations in these stories that effect me the most. Once you get past the blood and guts in horror, past the suspense, it’s the empathy with characters, the horror they perform or are at the receiving end of that makes a piece work for me.
If you are into good, understated horror, horror in the everyday, then pick up this collection.
This book was purchased from the wonderful Wizard’s Tower Books.
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. Please check out this page for more great writing from Australian women.
