Perfections in print

Listeners to Galactic Suburbia will already have heard the news, however is you aren’t into podcasts you might be interested that Kirstyn McDermott’s Perfections, originally released by Xoum publishing as an ebook, has been acquired by Twelfth Planet Press for its first print run.

The new cover is by the talented Amanda Rainey.

Here is my review of the novel on first release:

If you liked Madigan Mine, you’ll still like Perfections but they don’t occupy quite the same space.

Ian Mond, Kirstyn’s co-host on the Writer and the Critic described it as more of a character piece.    Kirstyn herself has tentatively called it modern urban gothic, situating it at the subtler end of the horror continuum.

And I think Perfections is a subtler piece of work than Madigan Mine. I always had suspicions with what was going on with Kirstyn’s first novel, it had a stronger affinity with well known Horror tropes.

Don’t get me wrong though, Perfections is still gut wrenchingly nasty at times, enough to really unsettle you but I was hard pressed to figure out where the horror was going to emerge - which of course kept me slightly on edge.

Now you notice here I am avoiding telling you the story.  And I am not going to reveal …[read on]

If you are a fan of subtle, creeping horror I recommend picking this one up.

 

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Book Release - Death at the Blue Elephant by Janeen Webb

Ticonderoga looks set to deliver another wonderful collection by yet another wonderful Aussie speculative fiction author.  Hot on the heals of Cat Sparks’ The Bride Price and Kim Wilkins’ The Year of Ancient Ghosts.

This time they have managed to snare Janeen Webb and her Death At The Blue Elephant. I am suspecting that there might be a sneak preview launch at Continuum X in Melbourne but it will be more widely available in the second half of this year.

There’s also a gorgeous cover by Nick Stathopolous. 

I have only recently come across Janeen’s short story work.  I know her more for the anthologies Dreaming Down Under edited with her husband Jack Dann.  But here in her first collection is great chance to read some older (and presumably dispersed or out of print works) as well as five original pieces composed for this tome.

Janeen is a recipient of the World Fantasy Award, the Peter MacNamara SF Achievement Award, the Australian Aurealis Award, and is a three-time winner of the Ditmar Award.

But don’t trust my word, let these individuals sway you:

Death at the Blue Elephant collects 18 incredible globe-spanning visions by the self-confessed 'inveterate traveller'. There’s magic here, and illusion, and strange wonders that’ll surprise and delight. — Robert Shearman

Exotic, cunning—often funny—and now and then edges to cut yourself on. — Tanith Lee

Gloriously adult, these stories will transport you—but they’ll never drop you home. — Anna Tambour

Janeen Webb’s assemblage of angels, aliens, devils and assorted revenants bring with them compassion and settings rich and exotic where even the mundanity of our everyday world is imbued with a sparkle rarely glimpsed in the hands of lesser writers. — Peter Crowther

Interested? You can preorder at indiebooksonline

 

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Taking stock – Examining reviews by publisher

Regular readers will be familiar with my gender audits and so this time I thought I would examine reviews by publisher to get a handle on how my reviews are weighted.

Now the following list only goes back over the last 2.5 years.  It lists publishers and self publishers and should give you a broad picture of the work I have reviewed.  In makes no differentiation between review copies and books that I selected/bought myself, indeed it’s missing a number of books bought from TPP and Ticonderoga that languish on my TBR pile.

Publisher	2014	2013	2012	Total
Hachette/Orbit/Etc	5	9	16	30
Wizard’s Tower	1	1	0	2
Solaris	4	1	3	8
Interactive Press	1	0	0	1
Picaro	2	1	0	3
ARF	1	0	0	1
A&U	2	3	4	9
SALT	2	0	0	2
Shambala	1	0	0	1
Peggy Bright	1	1	2	4
Shane Kozycan	1	0	0	1
UQP	1	0	0	1
FableCroft	0	2	0	2
Twelfth Planet	0	2	6	8
Ticonderoga	0	2	0	2
Satalyte	0	1	0	1
Momentum	0	2	4	6
Endeavour	0	1	0	1
Cloudburst	0	1	0	1
Flipreads	0	2	0	2
FutureFire	0	1	0	1
Harper Collins	0	3	0	3
Bloomsbury	0	2	1	3
CSFG	0	1	0	1
Emergent	0	2	0	2
Patty Jansen	0	2	0	2
XOUM	0	0	2	2
Rabia Gale	0	0	2	2
Tor Rox.	0	0	1	1
Patrick Duffy	0	0	1	1
Gilgamesh	0	0	1	1
Angry Robot	0	0	1	1
RBB	0	0	1	1
Glenda Larke	0	0	1	1
Math P.P.	0	0	1	1
CDL	0	0	1	1
Clan Destine	0	0	1	1

Comments

I can’t say there’s much that is surprising here, I thought that the reviewing would be heavily weighted toward Hachette etc. because the send me quite a lot books and aren’t shy about doing so. 

I thought I had reviewed more Twelfth Planet Press but then I sometimes forget that I have purchased most of their catalogue and not necessarily read it all. I note too that the Twelfth Planet Press and to a lesser extent Ticonderoga’s reviews are influenced by the fact that I have been participating in the Australian Women Writers project for some time and those two presses are focussed supporters of Australian women writers.  Twelfth Planet Press’ Twelve Planets Collection is a nice way to make your challenge target.

The Solaris figures are a little surprising but then I'’m a huge Rowena Cory Daniells fan and they have recently picked up Jonathan Strahan as well so maybe I shouldn’t be.

Top 5 reviewed publishers over the last 2.5 years

1. Hachette etc    30
2. Allen & Unwin  9
3. Solaris/TPP     8
4. Momentum      6
5. Peggy Bright   4

If I break the table into Traditional/Medium and Small Presses(incl Self pubbed)

Large	45
Medium	17
Small	49

Note I have ranked Solaris and Momentum as medium presses.

I think there’s an even spread between small and large presses and to be honest Hachette gives me access to a number of subsidiary publishers so I am not concerned about the weight they seem to have here.  Indeed they also publish a few Aussie authors in our scene.

Likewise I am not too concerned with the weighting among some of the more prolific small presses.  I have a Peggy Bright title in my reading queue at the moment and I have only one more Twelfth Planet book I am reading.  But I will use this as an excuse to read Angela Slatter’s and Lisa L Hannett’s collections from Ticonderoga. 

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