Ditmars 2013 – Best Novella or Novelette

And it turns out I have read everything in this category and still would have if Jason Nahrung’s Salvage had been a sentence or two shorter and fallen into it.  And it’s further proof that having read everything doesn’t help with your voting.  I suspect that there are many worthy reads within the eligibility list, the trouble being  access to them, some hidden away in collections and time to read them.

The nominees are:

Best Novella or Novelette
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* “Flight 404”, Simon Petrie, in Flight 404/The Hunt for Red Leicester (Peggy Bright Books)
* “Significant Dust”, Margo Lanagan, in Cracklescape (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Sky”, Kaaron Warren, in Through Splintered Walls (Twelfth Planet Press)

 

Comments:

I reviewed Flight 404 here. A good hard science read, where that science is the backdrop, it influences story but is not THE story. My final thoughts on it were:

I really enjoyed this story, felt that that the character was an honest and positive representation of a transgender person and I was captive to the mystery and story right until the end.

Significant Dust is my favorite from Cracklescape, which I reviewed here.  Not my favourite Lanagan short, that honour goes to singing my sister down but as I said in the review of Cracklescape:

Significant Dust was the story that had me reaching for the tissues.  It’s not quite so gutting as my favourite Lanagan, Singing My Sister Down, because there’s a hopeful ending or at least Margo has left enough room for me to imagine one.

Sky was part of a fairly even collection, each of the stories presented something of value to me and I don’t have a feeling of Sky standing out above and beyond the others.  Here’s the review for Through Splintered Walls that contains the novella.

Of those that didn’t make it on to the ballot that I have read and that I think really stood out were "Elyora", by  Jodi Cleghorn, in the Review of Australian Fiction.  I am not sure the novella hit a wide enough audience.  I think it sits well in the Australian Gothic Horror genre as outlined in Dr Hannett’s article for This is Horror.  If you’re fans of Nahrung or McDermott I encourage you to check out Elyora, which will be republished this year by a UK publish under a different title and with a longer prologue.

The second is The King’s Man by Rowena Cory Daniells (though I’m not sure it was published in Australia or if that even matters by the rules) its a novella set in the KRK universe.  It’s gritty, largely self contained at still manges to carry the emotional punch of Daniells’ much larger novels. 

 

 

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Ditmars 2013 – Best Novel Comments

This is the first and hopefully not the last of my commentaries on this year’s Ditmars.  So without further ado lets take a gander at the Best Novel Category:

Best Novel
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* Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
* Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia)
* Suited (The Veiled Worlds 2), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
* Salvage, Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
* The Corpse-Rat King, Lee Battersby (Angry Robot)

 

I have read those highlighted in bold and own the other two.  Such is the life of a reviewer, I often lament, never enough time to read the stuff you buy for yourself.  That being said, I would have bought everything on this list if I hadn’t received review copies… but then I wouldn’t have had time to review them :D

Get on with it Sean.

My thoughts on Sea Hearts are here and I haven’t changed my opinion.  If anyone casually dismisses the field of Speculative Fiction I’d shove this book into their hands. Margo’s Sea Hearts is a front runner.

I reviewed Bitter Greens and interviewed Kate Forsyth here. This book is a triple threat, it delivers are fairy tale retelling or unearthing.  Exposes the hidden historical personality of Charlotte-rose de la Force and helps chip away at our often misconceptions of the power and place of women writers. It entertains and educates and leaves us with an emotional connection, a sad parting of the ways at the end of the reading experience.

Suited has been languishing in my personal to read pile for far too long.  I was very impressed by Debris and Jo has been putting out cracking short fiction.  It is to my detriment that I have not found time to read this work.

Salvage I reviewed here.  Take out the supernatural elements and you have still got a great book that really gets into the blood and guts of a relationship riven by the death of a child/miscarriage. Moody and atmospheric Nahrung somehow manages to make location feel like we are wandering the moors and not a sunny Queensland coast.

Perfections I reviewed here. McDermott’s second novel and I think my favourite of hers.  Perfections was a subtle horror playing on the angst, the friction that families generate.  It’s easy to like or understand the characters in Perfections and that connection is where Kirstyn hooks the reader with tiny barbs and then tugs on them.

Lee Battersby is well known in the Specfic community, his recent sales to Angry Robot indicating that perhaps a wider audience is noticing his work.  Again its to my detriment that I haven’t been able to find time to read this one.

 

 

Those we didn’t get to see.

The competition is so fierce this year that there’s enough for ten good books on the above ballot.  So here are my picks for also worth reading:

• Blood and Dust, Jason Nahrung, Xoum.
• Besieged (The Outcast Chronicles 1), Rowena Cory Daniells, Rebellion Publishing.
• Exile (The Outcast Chronicles 2), Rowena Cory Daniells, Rebellion Publishing.
• Reign of Beasts (Creature Court 3), Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperCollins
• The Light Heart of Stone (The Promise of Stone 1), Tor Roxburgh, Curious Crow Books.
• Pyrotechnicon: Being a true account of Cyrano de Bergerac's further adventures among the states and empires of the stars, Adam Browne, Coeur de Lion Publishing.

But even in selecting these books there are others that I think could make the list as well. All of those making the ballot should be very proud.

Who do I think will take home the trophy?

Trying to divorce myself from personal feeling and be objective.  Trying to ascertain the buzz and reach of the books.  I would have to say it’s going to be a close race between Bitter Greens and Sea Hearts.  But then again Salvage and Perfections are Australian Gothic Horror and if you’d asked me if we were likely to see horror novels in the best novel category I would have said it’s unlikely. I know that I will be agonizing over this category myself.

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eBook Review – Ghost Money by Andrew Nette

Published by the very pulpy sounding Snub Nose Press, Ghost Money is a solid outing for a first novel.  Though I don’t read a lot of pulp Crime, I think I have enough of a handle on the genre to sense where Nette is going with this novel.  For the most part I think he gives us a pulpy feel without the misogyny, treats the history of Cambodia respectfully and gives us a well paced read.

Ghost Money is pulp detective fiction featuring an Asian-Australian lead, Max Quinlan the son of an Australian ex-serviceman and a Vietnamese mother.  Quinlan’s an ex-cop recently self-employed as a private detective on the trail of an Australian businessman lost somewhere in South East Asia. Chuck in the dismantling of the Khmer Rouge, a country in turmoil and you have an interesting backdrop, with plenty of scope for double dealing and dastardly acts.

What I like about Quinlan, is that once Nette takes him further away from his area of expertise ie investigation, the reality that he is largely on his own, and increasingly out of his depth, impact on the character.  Our tough guy has his limits.

Nette's research and experience working in South East Asia is evident in the novel; perhaps too much so in some cases.  There were times when the history and the ambience that Nette tried to generate though imparting it, felt a little clunky.  A subtler delivery of the information or perhaps less information would have ensured a smoother read for me.

That being said I am a history nerd, with some undergraduate background in Ancient South East Asian history so I enjoyed the history in and of itself.

Ghost Money is gritty without indulging in it and considering the history of Cambodia, that’s a wise decision on Nette’s behalf.  The romantic liaison, a staple I am sure of every pulp detective novel, felt a little light-on for me.  There were two potential love interests and I am not sure if the character’s choice necessarily married up to the effort Nette put into developing the back story. 

Perhaps we’ll see the further adventures of Max Quinlan, where his choice of dame comes back to bite him.

This book was provided to me by the author.

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