May 2013
8 posts
5 tags
Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Tankborn by Karen Sandler is a one of not that many YA dystopian novels I’ve read that is also proper science fiction. As well as the political aspects requisite in dystopian novels, it also deals with genetic engineering with a backdrop of planetary colonisation. I’d been meaning to read it for a while, since Shaheen recommended it, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. Part...
6 tags
School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins
School Spirits by Rachel Hawkins is the first in a new spin-off series from the Hex Hall books (Hex Hall, Demonglass / Raising Demons and Spellbound). You definitely don’t have to have read the Hex Hall books to enjoy this new series, however. The blurb: Fifteen-year-old Izzy Brannick was trained to fight monsters. For centuries, her family has hunted magical creatures. But when Izzy’s...
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New Booksies
Time to regale you with my new bookish acquisitions once more. This time, I purchased two books and received two review copies. From Harlequin AU and Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry via NetGalley, and Andrea K Höst I received the following review copies: Ink by Amanda Sun Hunting by Andrea K Höst — already reviewed iD by Madeline Ashby Playing Tyler by TL Costa And I purchased Crucible of Gold...
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Hunting by Andrea K Höst
Hunting is Andrea K Höst’s latest release. Unlike the earlier books of hers that I’ve reviewed in the past (And All the Stars, The Touchstone Trilogy), Hunting is definitely fantasy, not science fiction. The blurb was what really got me keen to read this one: Ash Lenthard doesn’t call herself a vigilante. She’s merely prone to random acts of derring-do, and occasional exhibitions of...
7 tags
Valley of Shields by Duncan Lay
Valley of Shields by Duncan Lay is the second book his Empire of Bones trilogy. Last year, I read and reviewed the first book, Bridge of Swords. I had forgotten, when I first picked up Valley of Shields, just one much of a cliffhanger the first book had ended on. This second volume starts pretty much the same second the previous one ended, jumping straight into the action. As such, it was a very...
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My First Twenty #AWW2013 Challenge Reads
The time has come when I’ve read my first twenty books for the Australian Women Writers Challenge this year. (Well, actually, I’ve read 21, but let’s just look at the first 20 for now.) It’s been quite a mixed bag. I’ve been actively trying to read more horror and science fiction from Australian writers so the list is skewed a bit in those directions. In fact, looking...
7 tags
The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa
The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa is the second book in the Blood of Eden series, which started with The Immortal Rules. The premise of the series is: when a virus threatens to wipe out humanity, vampires come out of hiding to protect their food supply and more or less set up “safe” areas where humans won’t die of the plague (which causes rabid zombie-like creatures) and can...
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Charlotte's Army by Patty Jansen
Charlotte’s Army is a novella by Patty Jansen set in the same universe as several of her other works but which stands alone. I’ve previously reviewed her novel Shifting Reality and short story “The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang” from the same universe. Since I first heard about it, I’ve found the premise of Charlotte’s Army interesting: an army of artificial...
April 2013
17 posts
5 tags
Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon
Zenn Scarlett is the début novel by Christian Schoon. The titular character is a seventeen year old girl living on Mars who is studying to become an exoveterinarian — a vet for alien animals (although they do treat Earthly animals too). Part of the blurb (which, in my opinion, is a bit too long and too detailed but could be worse): Zenn Scarlett is a bright, determined, occasionally...
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One Small Step edited by Tehani Wessely
One Small Step: an anthology of discoveries is edited by Tehani Wessely and has just been launched by FableCroft at Conflux, this year’s National SF Convention. The blurb: Sixteen stories of discovery from Australia’s best writers. Each story in some way addresses the idea of discoveries, new beginnings, or literal or figurative “small steps”, but each story takes you to places you far...
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And the Ditmar winners are...
The nice thing about the internet and Twitter age is the prevalence of live-tweeting events one cannot attend. It almost feels like being there. Sean has also made a nice Storify collection of the event here. Meanwhile, I’ve attempted to collate all the award winners in this post. They’re not in the order they were announced (roughly reverse order, actually, because I copy-pasted from my shortlist...
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New Booksies
I have been a little slow on the reviewing front of late. This is partly medical (I’m well enough to go to work, but not to do much else besides) and partly because I’ve been One Small Step which is a short story collection and it’s much harder to plough through several unrelated short stories by different authors than it is a novel. But, that said, since my last New Booksies...
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Norma K Hemming Awards
Another award shortlist has been announced. This time it’s for the Norma K Hemming Award, which “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.” The winner will be announced during the Ditmar ceremony at Conflux this weekend. In the meantime, here’s the...
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Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan has been nominated for all the awards (Ditmar, Aurealis x 2, Stella…) and, reading it, it’s easy to see why; the writing is lovely and the story is thoughtful. The blurb gives an idea of what it’s about: On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella discovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy...
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Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells
Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells is the latest offering out from Strange Chemistry, the YA branch of Angry Robot. Those of you who have been paying attention will be aware that I’ve loved almost everything Strange Chemistry have put out, and Emilie and the Hollow World is no exception. A blurb excerpt: While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, ...
4 tags
Aussie Horror Reading Challenge, Round-up One
It’s only April and it seems I have already completed the Australian Horror Reading Challenge I set myself. A large part of the reason is that I was only aiming for a minimum of five books. I was concerned that I would have difficulty tracking them down, but apparently I needn’t have worried. This post is just a summary of what I’ve read so far. I plan to write down more...
8 tags
The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne...
The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne Anderton is, as the title suggests, a collection of short stories. For those of you who’ve read Debris and/or Suited, these stories were very different in tone, surprising me a little with just how macabre they were. Overall, I was very impressed with Anderton’s worldbuilding in all the stories. Each story read like a glimpse into a...
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Aurealis Statistics
Last night, hubby and I were talking about the Aurealis Awards shortlist and the topic of there being more fantasy books published by Australian authors than science fiction or horror came up. In the course of events, I went to have a look at the entries for this year’s awards and before I knew it I had a spreadsheet and graphs and things. It just happened. So since I have these graphs, I thought...
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Australian Shadows Awards Winners
The Australian Shadows Awards winners have been announced! You can read the official announcement here. From the website: The Shadows are awarded to the stories and collections that best typify the horror genre, delivering a sense of ‘creeping dread’, leaving the reader with chills and a reluctance to turn out the light. And the winners are…. (with links to my reviews) NOVEL Perfections...
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Perfections by Kirstyn McDermot
Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott is the author’s second novel and has been shortlisted for a pile of awards this year, despite having only been released last December. It’s picked up shortlistings for Aurealis Horror Novel, Ditmar Best Novel and Australian Shadows Award Novel. Reading it, the award nominations are hardly a mystery. The blurb is short and sweet: Two sisters. One wish....
6 tags
Caszandra by Andrea K Höst
Caszandra is the final volume in Andrea K Höst’s Touchstone trilogy. This review contains minor spoilers for the previous books (mostly just the relationship kind). If you haven’t yet, I suggest reading my reviews for the earlier books — Stray and Lab Rat One — before reading the rest of this review (and ideally, reading the first two books themselves too). The series is about Cass, a...
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Lab Rat One by Andrea K Höst
Lab Rat One by Andrea K Höst is the second book in the Touchstone trilogy, following on immediately from Stray. This is definitely not the kind of series you could read out of order and still easily follow what was going on. Lab Rat One continues to tell Cassandra’s story, the Sydney girl that took a wrong turn and ended up on another planet. The story continues with more of her training...
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New Booksies
I went on a bit of a non-counting towards restrictions book buying spree over the weekend because I was sick and feeling sorry for myself and it was some sort of public holiday. I recovered from the sick the day after the purchase which strongly indicates to me that I should’ve bought all the books earlier. Obviously. I bought Lab Rat One and Caszandra by Andrea K Höst, the rest of the...
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Hugo Awards Shortlist
And on the back of all those other shortlists that have recently been announced, we have the Hugo Awards shortlist/ballot. I’m not going to reproduce the whole thing in this post, but you can go read it in full here. I just want to highlight a few categories. Links to my reviews where they exist. Best Novel 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit) Blackout, Mira Grant (Orbit) Captain...
March 2013
18 posts
6 tags
Rise of the Fallen by Teagan Chilcott
Rise of the Fallen by Teagan Chilcott is a début YA novel about demons, angels and elementals. It’s set mainly in Australia and can be described as urban fantasy or paranormal romance (although more on the romance elements below). The blurb: Appearing as students at a local Brisbane high school, Emilie and Cael are centuries-old elementals on the run. Their inseparable bond starts to fray...
5 tags
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare is the final volume of the Infernal Devices trilogy. I have previously reviewed the first two books, Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince and have enjoyed the trilogy immensely. It’s hard to write this review without spoilers, so I’m afraid it’s going to be a little shorter than usual. Clockwork Princess picks up a few months after Clockwork...
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Ditmar Awards Shortlist Announced
Wow, it really is awards season, isn’t it? Now we have the Ditmar Awards ballot announcement. You can read the official page here which also includes voting instructions. Don’t forget to vote if you’re eligible! The full list is copied below with links to my reviews where they exist and some light commentary. Best Novel Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin) ...
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Stray by Andrea K Höst
Stray by Andrea K Höst is the first book in the Touchstone trilogy and the second book of Höst’s that I’ve read. The other was And All The Stars, which was one of my favourite reads of 2012 and which has been shortlisted for two Aurealis Awards. Stray is about Cass, a Sydney teenager, who falls into a wormhole to another planet on her way home from her last HSC (High School...
1 tag
New Booksies
New books! This time I have two purchases and two review copies. I received Rise of the Fallen by Teagan Chilcott, a young Indigenous Australian author, from the publisher. It’s urban fantasy and set in Australia (Brisbane I think) so I’m looking forward to reading it. I also got the short story collection The Best of Connie Willis from the publisher via NetGalley. Need I really say...
3 tags
Australian Shadows Awards Shortlist
The shortlist for the Australian Shadows Awards, given out by the Australian Horror Writers Association, was recently announced. You can read the AHWA announcement here. On their website, they say: The Shadows are awarded to the stories and collections that best typify the horror genre, delivering a sense of ‘creeping dread’, leaving the reader with chills and a reluctance to turn out the...
2 tags
Aurealis Awards Shortlist
It’s that time of year again when the Aurealis Awards Shortlist is announced! You can read the official press release here (pdf file) and I am reproducing the list with some commentary below. Links go to my reviews where those exist. FANTASY NOVEL Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia) Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff (Tor UK) Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin) Flame...
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Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer
Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the latest in Twelfth Planet Press’s Twelve Planets series of collections. You can read my reviews of the other collections at this link. Asymmetry does not contain linked stories like some of the other Twelve Planets — in fact they’re all very diverse. They fall in different places on the science fiction to fantasy spectrum, but one thing they have in...
6 tags
Ash by Malinda Lo
Ash by Malinda Lo is a retelling of the Cinderella story. It’s not a straight retelling of the fairytale (pun rather intended) with some variations on the theme, but I think it will appeal most to people who enjoy fairytale fantasy. Ash opens with the titular character’s mother’s death and the story takes us through her father’s remarriage, death and Ash’s subsequent indentured servitude to her...
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Ishtar edited by Amanda Pillar and KV Taylor
Ishtar, edited by Amanda Pillar and KV Taylor, is a collection of three novellas about the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of love and war, Ishtar. The three novellas cover the past, the present and the future and together tell an overarching story of Ishtar’s trail through thousands of years of humanity. Overall, I was impressed at how well the three novellas hung together and told a...
6 tags
Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman
Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman is a difficult book to put into a single category. It’s been called urban fantasy by the publisher and while that is technically correct — it is fantasy and some of it takes place in a modern urban setting — the image generally conjured up by that label bears little resemblance to Between Two Thorns. The split worlds if the series title are the normal world...
5 tags
Guest Review of Havenstar by Glenda Larke
I read Havenstar by Glenda Larke several years ago, after having acquired a second hand copy of the out of print paperback version. Recently, Larke re-released an ebook edition of Havenstar, but to the excitement of fans (there were some copies of the second hand paperback being sold for ridiculously high prices on Amazon — money which sadly the author never saw). I purchased the ebook so that my...
5 tags
Flight 404 by Simon Petrie
Flight 404 by Simon Petrie is a science fictional novella set in the mid-distant future with interplanetary travel possible but not as common and easy as an intercontinental flight now. The main character, Charmain, is piloting a small ship, one of many sent to investigate and search for the remains of a large, missing passenger liner. The main action of the plot deals with the search for the...
1 tag
New Booksies
I got a bunch of books for review this time around! I also bought one achievement unlocked book: Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott. It was originally a toss-up between it and her earlier book Madigan Mine, but I couldn’t find the latter in ebook form. Moral of this story? A large publisher lost a sale to a small press that was on the digital ball. Looking forward to reading Perfections and...
8 tags
ASIM Issue 55
I received a copy of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM) issue 55 for review, edited by Jacob Edwards. I made some notes about each story as I read and those are included below in table of contents order. A few stories really stuck out for me, making me think about them long after I’d moved on to the next. “Illuminated” by KJ Parker had an unlovable initial narrator, mostly thanks to...
6 tags
The Holders by Julianna Scott
The Holders is Julianna Scott’s début YA novel. It’s a secret magical race living hidden in the modern world type of novel, set mostly in Ireland with an American main character. It wasn’t my favourite read of the year. This review contains spoilers. If you don’t want to be spoiled, I suggest not reading past the blurb. Blurb exerpt:
17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her...
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The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson
The Sunlit Zone by Lisa Jacobson is different to the books I normally read. It’s written in verse. It’s also much more literary than my usual fare, even when compared with the more literary books I’ve read recently, like the The Mad Scientist’s Daughter. I admit I probably wouldn’t have given it much of a second glance if not for the fact that after I tweeted in mock...
February 2013
15 posts
8 tags
The Opposite of Life by Narrelle M Harris
The Opposite of Life by Narrelle M Harris is the author’s first published novel starring Lissa and Gary. I recently reviewed its sequel, Walking Shadows. I have to warn you, this review is coming from the position of having read the second book first and I can’t avoid comparing the two. Lissa Wilson has seen more than enough death in her family, so when people start being savagely...
1 tag
A Bunch of News
I don’t usually do news posts (because I honestly don’t have time to) but a few exciting and noteworthy things have all come to my attention at once. Glenda Larke’s Havenstar, which was first published in 1999 and then quickly went out of print when the publisher folded, was re-released as an ebook late last year — link to SmashWords. Now Havenstar is being re-released in dead...
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New Booksies
I’ve acquired some new books since my last New Booksies post, ergo, time for another! From NetGalley I received Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Meade. I think this is her first foray into space opera (at least it sounds like space opera but I’m unclear as to whether there’s any actual space travel involved). It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I’ve enjoyed her...
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Walking Shadows by Narrelle M Harris
Walking Shadows by Narrelle M Harris is actually the second novel featuring these characters, something I didn’t realise until after I’d bought it. However, I can happily report that reading it without reading the prequel first in no way affected by enjoyment of it. Lissa is a Melbournian librarian whose best friend, Gary, is a dorky vampire. Shenanigans ensue when the vampires of...
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Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
Etiquette and Espionage is the first book in Gail Carriger’s newest series, the Finishing School books. As the series and title suggest, it’s set mostly at a special kind of finishing school in Victorian era steampunkish Britain. It’s the same world as Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate books (which start with Souless and end with Timeless) but fifteen to twenty-ish years...
