April 2012
30 posts
4 tags
The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon
The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon is the second book of the Rift Runners (trilogy, I think). The first book was The Undivided.
This is very much the sort of series where you can’t read book two without having read book one before it. The Dark Divide picks up more or less right where The Undivided left off. I don’t think I can say anything too specific about the plot without spoilers...
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“Ethnic cleansing, he was certain, was not a game played by little girls.”
– Jennifer Fallon, The Dark Divide
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Black Glass by Meg Mundell
Black Glass, debut novel by Meg Mundell, caught my eye because it was shortlisted for Aurealis Awards in both the SF and YA categories. (And being written by a woman, hence counting towards my SF Aussie Women Writers Challenge also helped.)
The narrative style and presentation of the story and characters is exactly the sort I usually dislike. The scenes, as well as presenting the two most central...
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Ditmar shortlist announced →
Congratulations to all the Ditmar shortlistees! I’m a little bit late posting this, but I’ve been on a stranger schedule than usual manning (womanning? Personning?) a telescope. True story.
The ballot (now open if you’re eligible to vote) is reproduced below.
What I find particularly interesting is comparing the shortlist to the Aurealis short list and seeing which books appear...
Tor/Forge going DRM-free →
Good news on the road to eliminating irritating DRM.
Tom Doherty Associates, publishers of Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen, today announced that by early July 2012, their entire list of e-books will be available DRM-free.
“Our authors and readers have been asking for this for a long time,” said president and publisher Tom Doherty. “They’re a technically sophisticated bunch, and DRM is...
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“When he was telling the truth, Colmán was painfully conscious of his role as the...”
– The Dark Divide, Jennifer Fallon
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Burnt Ice by Steve Wheeler
Burnt Ice, the first in the A Fury of Aces series, is Steve Wheeler’s debut novel. I was really excited to read a new ANZ science fiction novel since there are so few of them being published, especially by large publishers (this one is from Harper Voyager, if you’re wondering). And it has such a lovely cover, too (so much SF coming out of the US has unappealing covers with artwork...
5 tags
Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins
Spellbound by Rachel Hawkins is the concluding volume in the Hex Hall trilogy. You can read my reviews for Hex Hall and Demonglass (US) / Raising Demons (UK/Aus) at those links. I bought the UK/Aus ebook edition of Spellbound but because I have the first two books in US paperback editions, I have also included the US cover below. Well, actually, I included it because for the first time I prefer US...
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Gender distribution in SFFH Australian authors...
Tansy put out a request on Twitter for someone to compile states on gender breakdown of Aussie SFF novelists and for some reason I volunteered. Because apparently I was bored this morning (actually, it did take my mind off feeling sick, so yay).
[[MORE]]
I used the Ditmar 2012 eligibility list which theoretically lists all newly published SFFH novels in 2011. It’s probably relevant to note...
6 tags
Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
Demonglass (titled Raising Demons in the UK/Australia) by Rachel Hawkins is the second book in the Hex Hall trilogy. You can read my review of book 1, Hex Hall, here.
The shenanigans and sarcasm from Hex Hall return in full force in Demonglass. Sophie is off to spend summer break in the UK with her absentee father and, luckily, her best friend Jenna is allowed to come with her. Conveniently, from...
2 tags
“In my experience, nothing pleasant slithers.”
– Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins
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Destiny of the Light by Louise Cusack
Destiny of the Light by Louise Cusack is the sort of book that might colloquially be called a BFF: Big Fat Fantasy. I think that’s a good term, because other possible sub-genre descriptors such as “epic fantasy” or “high fantasy” come with different connotations for different people. So BFF it is. (Even though ebooks don’t really have a thickness, shh.)
After...
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“‘Single Lifers are weird! Fancy seriously considering that you are only meant to...”
– From Ice Burn by Steve Wheeler
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Shift by Em Bailey
I came across Shift by Em Bailey while browsing some ebook store (I don’t actually remember which one, probably Kobo since that’s where I bought it). It was the blurb that first intrigued me, so allow me to post it here:
Olive is not crazy – although there was that incident last year and that spell in the psych ward, but now she’s taking her meds and staying away from the toxic ‘in’...
1 tag
““‘You’re a good fighter then, are you?’ she asked, and prepared herself...”
– Destiny of the Light by Louise Cusack
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Cat Girl's Day Off by Kimberly Pauley
Cat Girl’s Day Off by Kimberly Pauley is set in a world where people have non-secret superpowers. Chicago schoolgirl, Nat, has a very talented family. Her parents and siblings all have multiple and powerful superpowers. It runs in the family. Except Nat only has one superpower: she can talk to cats. Whoopdidoo.
The excitement starts when her best friends force her to watch a YouTube video...
5 tags
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is dystopian YA set in a future USA where everyone gets plastic surgery at 16 to make them look a) pretty and b) all very similar. Pre-op teens are called uglies because their, y’know, normal-looking faces and bodies are considered ugly by the very precise beauty standards of the society. Post-ops are known as pretties (with additional qualifiers for age later on)....
