| Living Hell by Catherine Jinks |
[Jun. 1st, 2007|04:07 pm] |
Allen and Unwin (2007)
ISBN:9781741148282
$16.95
Reviewed by Angela Slatter, June 2007
“You’ve lived your whole life in peace and safety. You think your future is all mapped out.
But then something goes horribly wrong.
You have to start running.
And suddenly your world will never be the same again.”
Forty-three years ago the spaceship Plexus with its cargo of almost fifteen hundred humans, left a petrochemically-scarred Earth, seeking a new world. The ship is a kind of huge travelling city, that meets all the needs of its human inhabitants – they are fed via food dispensers, are transported around the ship in On-board Transport Vehicles (OTVs), and governed by a Senate composed of leading citizens. The population is divided into A Crew and B Crew, alternatively working the ship and cryogenically frozen in shifts of four years (hence people are referred to as “Shifters”). Everyone knows they have, or will have, a job to do – from teen years every person is trained in some aspect of keeping Plexus running. Each individual is a ‘useful’ member of the society (medics, navigators, biologists, food technicians, computer whizzes, etc); all children are good citizens-in-training.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=living_hell |
|
|
| The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly |
[Jun. 1st, 2007|03:46 pm] |
Hodder (2007)
ISBN: 0340899492
$19.95
Reviewed by Angela Slatter, June 2007
“High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for company.
But those books have begun to whisper back to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in the myths and fairytales so beloved by his dead mother he finds that the real world and the fantasy world have begun to meld. The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words: ‘Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king.”
Allow me to be upfront about this: I am a John Connolly junkie. Yes, I’m one of them, those who wait impatiently for his new book to come out. I’m on the mailing list. I buttonhole people and demand to know if they’ve read Connolly and if not, why not. There it is, I’ve nailed my undies to the mast, so to speak.
Why am I so fond of him? Several reasons: I’ve never taken to one of his books with a red pen after finding spelling mistakes; his grammar is generally wonderful, his turn of phrase lovely and lyrical (interesting for a man who generally writes about serial killers and nasties from the other side of the dark veil - then again, he’s Irish); he plots and paces beautifully; and he scares the living daylights out of me. If one of his books could make a decent gin and tonic, I’d marry it.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=the_book_of_lost_things |
|
|
| Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist |
[May. 29th, 2007|11:31 pm] |
Låt den rätte komma in (2004)
Translated from the Swedish by Ebba Segerberg
Text Publishing (2007)
$32.95
Reviewed by Angela Slatter, May 2007
“Oskar lives with his mum in a Stockholm highrise. He likes eating sweets, and collecting stories of violent murder from the newspaper, and he has a slight incontinence problem. The kids at school call him Piggy and beat him up.
Luckily, the new girl next door shows promise. Eli smells a bit and never seems to feel the cold and sometimes her hair has a lot of grey in it. So there’s a good chance she’s an even bigger misfit than Oskar.
But her ‘father’ is another matter. There’s a whiff of something very bad hanging around him.
Right after their arrival, a child’s body is found hanging from a tree, and amid the media frenzy other weird things start to happen. The police think it’s a serial killer. They’re so wrong.”
In my younger days, I used to read a lot of horror. I drifted away, however, when it all became one long trail of hack, slash, hockey masks and Freddy Kruger striped sweaters. I did, however, stick with vampire lit. I go back to Dracula once every couple of years, just because it retains the power to scare me, and whilst it is not perfect, it is brilliant. I still love Le Fanu’s Camilla, campy old thing that it is. When it’s good, vampire lit is wondrous to behold.
When it’s bad, vampire lit gets stuck in the train-track rhythm of Suck, kill, sleep. Suck, kill, sleep. It gets old very quickly (unless you have a particularly long attention span and tolerance for repetition – which I do not). Anne Rice, I’m sad to say, makes my head ache with her formula of self-obsessed, aristo-vamp flitting across the world, inserting self into historical events, and telling everyone how very, very naughty, subversive and attractive he/she is. I keep going back to vampire lit with a bloody-minded optimism because I like to think that someone, someday will do something different. As a result, there have been some wonderful moments of discovery when I happened upon works like Tanith Lee’s The Blood of Roses, Barbara Hambly’s Immortal Blood and Kim Newman’s Red Reign.
Imagine my joy to find Let The Right One In, a Swedish vampire love story, and the scariest thing I’ve read in a long time.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=let_the_right_one_in |
|
|
| Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix |
[May. 28th, 2007|10:43 pm] |
Allen and Unwin (2005)
ISBN: 1-74114-441-8
$14.95
Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce, May 2007
Drowned Wednesday is quite a bit fatter than the previous two books in this series (Mister Monday and Grim Tuesday), at 366 pages. Unsurprisingly, there is commensurately more action, as well as more reflection and angst on the part of the main character, Arthur Penhaligon.
Quick recap for those not following closely: in the first book, Arthur was (accidentally?) chosen as the Rightful Heir to the Architect of the House. The House is something like the world tree, Yggdrasil, of Norse mythology - all possible worlds connect to it (here they’re the Secondary Realms, and include ours), and is a labyrinthine world of its own. The Architect created everything a very long time ago, and not quite such a long time ago she upped and left, leaving a Will and seven Trustees. Since then, the Trustees have got uppity and taken a seventh of everything for themselves. Understandably they don’t much want an Heir to actually come along and upset the apple cart, which, needless to say, is what Arthur is doing. The Will itself is sentient, and helps Arthur along - presumably wanting to be reunited with all of its parts. Each of the Trustees seems to represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins - Wednesday, for those keeping track, is sloth (I think).
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=drowned_wednesday |
|
|
| The Forgotten Prince by Paul Collins |
[May. 28th, 2007|10:10 pm] |
Lothian Books (2006)
ISBN: 073440882X
$14.95
Reviewed by Gillian Polack, May 2007
This book is a charming romp. Sal is an apprentice with the Thieves’ Guild and is determined to pass her prac exam. Unfortunately, her prac exam lasts three very dull months. During this time she has to hold down an ordinary job (boring) and then betray her employers (uncomfortable) by stealing something of great value from them (the only interesting bit of the whole test). Sal has to disguise herself as a non-thief and look respectable. She has to learn a new dialect and sound respectable. When she goes into a shop she has to purchase the items she wants. It was all wrong.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=the_forgotten_prince |
|
|
| New Ceres Issue 2 |
[May. 28th, 2007|10:09 pm] |
edited by Alisa Krasnostein
Alisa Krasnostein (2007)
$5
Reviewed by Adam Bales, May 2007
When I woke up this morning with a craving for futuristic science fiction that explored Eighteenth Century culture I thought I was bound for disappointment. At least until I saw New Ceres.
New Ceres is a shared world webzine where each new author contributes to and helps expand the world of New Ceres. While this planet exists amidst a universe of sophisticated technology, the settlers aim to recreate the Eighteenth Century and outlaw any technological advancement created after this period.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=new_ceres_issue_2 |
|
|
| The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld |
[May. 28th, 2007|10:07 pm] |
Razorbill (2007)
159514062X
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, May 2007
Peeps is a sharp, science fictional vampire novel that looks at vampirism as a parasitic plague. It is a witty, dark and very contemporary YA novel that managed to make vampires about as sexy as any other sexually transmitted disease. Westerfeld’s vampires reacted to the disease by throwing off all marks of their identity, and giving themselves up to a hunger for raw protein.
The Last Days, a not-quite sequel, goes one step further by showing the apocalyptic effects of the vampire parasite, through the eyes of a group of teenagers far more innocent and starry-eyed than Peeps’ cynical Cal. Moz and Zahler are two guitarists in search of a dream. Pearl is a rich girl and musical genius, who longs to be famous. Together with an autistic drummer with a collection of paint cans, and a recovering vampire with the voice of a demon, they might just get their chance to form a rock band and become world famous before the world comes to an end...
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=last_days |
|
|
| Interfictions |
[May. 17th, 2007|02:19 pm] |
An Anthology of Interstitial Writing
Edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss
Interstitial Arts Foundation (2007)
ISBN-13 978-I-931520-24-9
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, May 2007
“Interstitial” (meaning: the space in between) is one of those descriptors that has been floating around lately in those internet discussions about what is, and what is not genre. The term seems a little more academic than “slipstream” and far less limiting than “magical realism” or even “speculative fiction.” Personally, I’ve most commonly come across the term when genre writers are trying to explain why what they write is not genre - or, at least, is different to the “usual” products of genre. However interstitial the stories in Interfictions may be, it is clear that this anthology is a work owing more to genre fiction than anything else. Interfictions is an anthology concerned with the spaces between genres, and the spaces between genre and something else.
Interstitiality within genre is a subject that comes up so frequently (particularly in discussions of award elegibility) that I was surprised to see the authors describe this in their afterword as the first anthology of interstitial writings. I think perhaps this is an overstatement - it might be the first anthology which says it is interstitial, but I’m still not much wiser as to the difference between interstitial fiction and slipstream or magic realism, of which there have been many anthologies.
In his introduction to Interfictions: an anthology of interstitial writing, Heinz Insu Fenkl outlines the relationship between interstitial literature and genre, in an attempt to present the theme of this anthology. Personally, I think Interfictions would stand better without this introduction, which I found confusing and not overly helpful as to the aims of the book. The afterword by the editors is far more succinct and useful in this regard.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=interfictions |
|
|
| Command Decision by Elizabeth Moon |
[May. 13th, 2007|03:35 pm] |
Vatta’s War Book 4
Orbit (2007)
ISBN: 978 1 84149 379 4
$19.95
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack, May 2007
Elizabeth Moon is one of a small number of writers capable of producing excellent science fiction with a strong military bent, while still developing characters the reader cares about and a plot that sweeps you up. This novel is the fourth of a series, and clearly not the last. It is the only one I’ve read from this series, although I’ve read most of Moon’s other work. By the time I was a third of the way into it, I was eager both to go back and read the first three books in the series, and for the next one to be published so I can read that too.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=command_decision |
|
|
| The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld |
[May. 10th, 2007|10:50 pm] |
Razorbill (2007)
159514062X
Reviewed by Ben Payne, May 2007
Moz and Zahler are two teenage guys who’ve been playing music together for years without getting anywhere. That changes when they meet Pearl, a precocious keyboard player, who with her weird friend Minerva and ring-in drummer Alana Ray, set about transforming the band into something special. Of course, nothing ever runs that smoothly, and before long sexual tensions are emerging within the group, not to mention some plain, garden variety tensions, which threaten the newly formed equilibrium. Things aren’t helped by the fact that at least one of the group is infected with a strange new disease, and the city is falling apart around them.
Anybody expecting a straight sequel to Peeps might be put off by the start of The Last Days. While the events of the former novel are in the background of the latter, the protagonists remain for some time (often quite humorously) oblivious, involved as they are in their own concerns. This pacing decision is probably wise, as it allows the reader to get to know the five central characters, and gives us a chance to care about them before the danger hits.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=last_days |
|
|
| The Earthborn by Paul Collins |
[May. 10th, 2007|11:47 am] |
Tor Forge (2004)
ISBN: 0 – 765 – 34199 - 9
US$5.99
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack, May 2007
The Earthborn is a fast moving science fiction adventure story aimed primarily at younger teenagers. It tells the story of 14 year old Welkin Quinn. He is a crew member on Colony, a space ship that left Earth 300 years ago to colonise Tau Ceti III. Unfortunately the planet proved to be uninhabitable, and instead of settling another planet, the ship returned to Earth. On the long return journey, the ship monitored broadcasts from Earth, and so knew about the increasing troubles which culminated in a nuclear war. The elders on the ship have convinced themselves that Earth is now inhabited by savages, who must be crushed so that the superior crew of Colony can re-colonise.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=earthborn_wars |
|
|
| Seacastle by Tansy Rayner Roberts |
[May. 10th, 2007|08:02 am] |
Book 1: The Lost Shimmaron
ABC Books (2007)
ISBN: 9780733320262
$12.95
Reviewed by Ben Payne, May 2007
Nick and Thomas are brothers living on the edge of the strange purple Lake Shimmer. Their relationship is defined in oppositional terms; Nick is the practical one, Thomas the intellectual. One day Thomas is called by a mysterious voice and finds himself drawn into the lake. Nick, feeling responsible, dives in after his brother and the two of them emerge in an underwater city called Seacastle. Seacastle, however, is locked in its own turmoil, as the wise guiding Beacon has gone silent, refusing to speak to its former friend Catya. Meanwhile the world is being rocked by serious earthquakes which threaten to destroy it.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=seacastle |
|
|
| Reviews Recently Published |
[May. 7th, 2007|12:14 pm] |
May 1 - 4
The Star Tablet by Jay Caselberg - reviewed by Alisa Krasnostein
The Star Tablet is the third book in an ongoing series following Jack Stein, Psychic Investigator. Jack’s ward, Billie, has been studying archaeology with Professor Antille at the University of Balance City in Utrecht. Specifically, they were working on understanding markings on the star tablet, an alien artefact presumably uncovered in the previous book in this series. They were working on the tablet, that is, until they both went missing. Jack sets off on an investigation to find them.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=the_star_tablet
Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris - reviewed by Angela Slatter
It starts so well on page one:
“The silent witnesses lie everywhere, passing from one form of matter to another, gradually becoming unrecognizable to their nearest and dearest. Their bodies are rolled into gullies, shut in the trunks of abandoned cars, harnessed to cement blocks and throw down to the bottom of lakes. Those more hastily discarded are tossed on the side of the highway - so that life, having swerved away, can swiftly pass them by without pausing to look.”
Promisingly intriguing and intriguingly promising. There’s a nice light touch on the language, which suggests some talent with, and consideration for, words. So, what’s the story?
Our protagonist and first person narrator is Harper Connolly, daughter and step-daughter of variously dead, disbarred and debaucherous lawyers. As a result of being struck by lightning at the age of fourteen, Harper can locate the dead and know exactly what killed them. She travels the US with her stepbrother-cum-manager, Tolliver Lang (cool name). Armed with the baggage of drunken, junkie parents, a stolen sister, and various other childhood traumas, they stay in cheap motels, find bodies, pick up pay cheques, deal with hostile law enforcement agents, fundamentalist Christians who think Harper’s talent comes from Satan himself, and generally a lot of people who dislike our heroine on sight. Most of this dislike seems to stem from a distaste for the fact that Harper charges for her services. I’m not sure why this causes so much angst, given that any number of psychics, palm readers, water dousers, etc, all charge for their services, and generally don’t get tarred and feathered and/or run out of town on a rail - although Small Town, USA may well still be mired in the Middle Ages as regards anything remotely ‘witchy’. Perhaps it’s also got a lot to do with Harper, who can be long on sass and selfishness, short on charm and empathy.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=grave_sight
Stephen King Uncollected and Unpublished - reviewed by Tim Kroenert
It’s fair to say that your enjoyment of this non-fiction volume will be directly proportionate to the amount of Stephen King’s work you have read, and the degree to which you have enjoyed it.
Truth be told, only the most diehard of King fans are likely to find themselves hanging on every word, from the first page to the last. That said, even the most casual of King readers will find something of interest. In fact, even those who are yet to read a King novel or story, or who feel they have reason to doubt the man’s considerable talent, will at least find the introductory essay to be compulsory, compelling reading.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=stephen_king_uncollected_and_unpublished |
|
|
| forthcoming guests on the ASif! Discussion Forums |
[May. 7th, 2007|12:12 pm] |
Just in case you'd gotten out of the habit of frequenting the ASif! Forums since we had a wee break ... here is the list of forthcoming guests:
May 9 - 22 Grant Watson
May 23 - June 5 Paul Collins, writer
June 6 - Jun 19 Gail Martin, writer
June 20 - July 3 Marianne de Pierres, writer
July 4 - July 17 Terry Dowling, writer
July 18 - July 31 Jack Dann, writer
August 1 - August 14 Jay Lake, writer
August 15 - August 28 Garth Nix, writer
September 12 - September 25 Sean Williams, writer |
|
|
| Hydrogen Steel by K A Bedford |
[Feb. 1st, 2007|03:41 pm] |
Edge(2006)
ISBN 1894063201
$19.95
Reviewed by Alisa Krasnostein, Feb 2007
Overall, the science fiction novels published in Australia in 2006 were disappointing. Hydrogen Steel by K A Bedford was one of the few standouts that managed to hold my attention for the whole book. Thrilling in places, suspenseful in others, an avid science fiction reader could do a lot worse than Bedford’s latest offering.
Former homicide inspector Zette McGee has found a quiet life on the Serendipity retirement habitat in the Sirius A system. Her quiet, peaceful life is interrupted by a call from Kell Fallow in desperate need of her help and claiming to be a disposable, just like her. Being an android is McGee’s big secret. Noone knows, not even her best friend Gideon Smith. It’s the reason she quit the police force and she’s still not really fully convinced that it’s true and if it is, where her life ends and her programmed memories begin.
Read this review: http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=hydrogen_steel |
|
|
| Magic's Child by Justine Larbalestier’s |
[Jan. 30th, 2007|04:18 pm] |
Razorbill (2007)
ISBN:1595140646
US$11.55
Preorder this book
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, Jan 2007
Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness trilogy was one of the most promising debuts to launch amidst the huge, high-quality YA wave that has swept through the publishing industry in the last few years. The first two books in the trilogy dealt with magic in a refreshingly down-to-earth manner, along with three very believable teenage protagonist voices and an entertaining cross-cultural gimmick, complete with US and Australian language and spelling differences.
Best of all, Larbalestier presented a rare unromanticised magic system - indeed, the first book, Magic or Madness, introduced a relentlessly cruel magical system whereby the rare people born with magical ability have a limited life span intrinsically linked to their limited magical reserves: when they have used up all their magic, they will die. Worse, they can’t choose not to use magic, or they will go insane. The fifteen-year-old protagonists are faced with a terrible life choice: magic or madness? The second book in the trilogy, Magic Lessons, explored several loopholes in this harsh magical system, offering up two very real alternatives: to steal the magic of others, thereby shortening their life to prolong your own, and then the strange Cansino family magic that Reason, the central protagonist, is gifted with at a dark stage in her own life. The Cansino magic seemed seeded to give the author an “out,” so as to end her story without littering the streets with dead teenagers. However convenient this new magic appeared to be in Book 2, a significant portion of Book 3 is devoted to the author saying “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” as the Cansino magic proves to be just as dangerous and problematic and cruel as the common-or-garden variety.
Read this review: http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=magic_lessons |
|
|
| The Silver Road - by Grace Dugan |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|02:06 pm] |
Penguin Books (2006)
ISBN-13: 978 0 14 3004479
ISBN-10: 0 14 3004476
$19.95
Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce, Jan 2007
I am ambivalent about this book, and this review was very hard to write. At first, I did not enjoy it, but by the end I was thoroughly engaged. I am still unsure exactly what engaged me, and I am also unsure how to both do it justice but not give away the unexpected twists that make it exceptional. Ultimately, I think this is a magnificent yet flawed story.
I had anticipated that I would find this book a fairly average one. Hidden heir, tyrant usurper, frustrated love that comes good in the end ... These elements are standard parts of a fantasy story, and to make sure that you are writing a new and interesting story must be a difficult task for a writer. How do you mix it up, so that you keep your audience’s interest (and, probably, your own)? Many non-original elements are present in The Silver Road; at the same time, both the development and the resolution were a lot more sophisticated than I had expected.
Read this Review: http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=the_silver_road |
|
|
| Recent Review: The Pilo Family Circus |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|01:25 pm] |
The Pilo Family Circus
by Will Eliott
ABC Books (2006)
ISBN:9780733319815
$14.95
Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts, Jan 2007
Clowns are scary. Every one knows that. Funny? No. Entertaining? Rarely. Sinister? Oh, my, yes.
The thing about clowns being scary in the context of horror novels is, it’s been done. Stephen King did it with It, a novel so classic that I was once confidently told that if you’ve read it, you don’t have to read any other Stephen King novel... ahem. Anyway. Stephen King did “clowns are scary” as a horror novel theme and he did it so deep and dark that the idea of a first-time novelist taking is on is - well, brave.
Read the review: http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=the_pilo_family_circus |
|
|
| Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume 2 |
[Oct. 24th, 2006|08:30 am] |
edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt
MirrorDanse Books (2006)
ISBN: 0975773615 (v 2)
$19.95
Reviewed by Gillian Polack, Oct 2006
The trouble with Year’s Best volumes is they never have the precise selection of works anyone expects. The editors (in this case Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt) tread unchancy turf, looking for the genuinely outstanding in writing and voice and story.
Why is the turf so unchancy? Most other editors can claim that - in the final analysis - they chose a story because of personal appeal or didn’t choose a story because it didn’t speak to them. It’s a perfectly legitimate refuge: anthologies and magazines need the eye of the editor and the taste of the editor to give them an identity. A Year’s Best is supposed to achieve an equally strong identity through choosing what other editors have liked. At the same time the stories run a gamut through the eyes of other writers and editors: why this story and not the other one? There is a particular strong onus on the editors to make choices clear and reasoning transparent.
edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt
MirrorDanse Books (2006)
ISBN: 0975773615 (v 2)
$19.95
Reviewed by Alisa Krasnostein, Oct 2006
If you only buy one book this year, then this is the book you can’t live without. Congreve and Marquandt have found the cream of over 500 Australian SF and Fantasy stories from 2005 and whipped them into a solid, absorbing anthology. They have made Australian specfic look live and vibrant and paint 2005 as a rich and mature year for local publishing.
Read these reviews: http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=year_s_best_australian_fantasy_and_science_fiction_2 |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
asif_reviews's journal