Tag: Speculative Fiction

Posts that have a speculative fiction angle (should be almost everything on the site)

Swarm and Nexus by Deborah Biancotti, Margo Lanagan and Scott Westerfeld – a review

I recently read the second two books in the Zeroes trilogy by Deborah Biancotti, Margo Lanagan and Scott Westerfeld (Swarm and Nexus). Long time blog readers might recall that I read, and enjoyed, the first book in the series a while back.

From Goodreads:

EVERY POWER HAS A DARK SIDE. Keep the secret. Use your power for good. Keep out of trouble. Stick together. Or things will fall apart.

It’s the holiday season, but the celebration at the Zeroes’ underground nightclub is blown apart when two strangers with new powers take to the dance floor. The Zeroes pursue them, only to discover that they’re fleeing an even more sinister power-wielder, Swarm. The Zeroes must learn all they can about this dangerous new player if they are to stay safe.

Meanwhile each of the Zeroes also has their own issues to deal with. Bellwether’s confidence is challenged, and Mob questions the nature of her power. Crash’s conscience gets a workout, and Anon and Scam face harsh truths about belonging. And it’s up to Flicker to pick up the reins and lead the Zeroes into a terrifying showdown.

A terrific sequel with a cracking pace that raises the stakes in this brilliant and unique superheroes series.

From Goodreads:

The Zeroes are in disarray.
One of them has vanished into thin air.
One of them is in prison.
The rest of them are on the most-wanted list.
And something big is brewing.

After defeating Swarm in a breath-taking stand-off, Nate has been arrested for his murder. In prison and isolated, he can’t use his powers of influence at all. Flicker, Chizara, Kelsie and Ethan are on the run and in hiding from the FBI who believe the Cambria Five are domestic terrorists. And Agent Phan and the FBI have a secret weapon up their sleeve – a teenager with a superpower that the Zeroes haven’t encountered yet.

Meanwhile, Sonia Sonic and her growing band of weird-hunters are tracking inexplicable events across the country – and their investigations lead them to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, where the celebrating crowds promise enormous power to anyone who can channel it. Time is running out for the Zeroes, but they must learn to trust each other again and combine their powers for good – to avert the looming disaster.

A brilliant, action-packed conclusion to the superb Zeroes series.

All my points from my review of the first book remain true. While it is very young adult perspective, there was enough adult material to hook me in.

I really like the idea of “networked” powers in this series. I was recently talking to a group of young people about the way they engage with social media, and I was blown away by what was essentially the sophisticated network theory analysis that they used to navigate that space. Rather than focus on individual posts or tweets, they seemed to hold a map in their head of a pattern of social media interaction from individuals they followed. They made judgements on authenticity and levels of accuracy based around these patterns. It was fascinating, and made the way the powers in this series work even more interesting as a reflection on this way of seeing the world. It made me feel old at the same time, but that’s my problem not the book’s!

The crisis level ratcheted up at an appropriate pace across the two books, with appropriately more powerful “bad guys” to stretch our heroes. What struck me though was how contained the story telling was. The progression seemed natural. Right up until the end, the stakes were high but not preposterously so. Of course, right at the end everything went a bit bonkers, with world changing consequences, but hey – this is speculative fiction. What’s not to like about a bit of bonkers? I could understand why some people might get put off by the sudden change in pace, but I liked it.

The level of teen angst was kept to a minimum, which I liked. That’s not to say there isn’t angst, but considering everything going on it was appropriate/proportional to the level of crisis.

The narrative voice for each point of view remained very consistent. I assume that the authors probably split up the work so that each author was responsible for different characters, but the overall effect worked. They seemed to work well together, and the work was well edited. If there were seams where one author ended and another began, they weren’t clunky, and I was well and truly able to suspend my disbelief.

Considering how over the top the last part of the last book got, I was happy with the ending. As a reader, I had a good sense of completion, without loose threads irritating me.

Overall, this is a good trilogy and one well worth your time, especially if you’re interested in a millennial take on super powers. Well and truly recommended.

Rewatching DS9 – Season 2

I’ve continued watching, and enjoying, Star Trek Deep Space 9 over the last few months. A few comments on season 2 follows – if you’re interested you can also go back and read about my initial decision to do a rewatch, and a few comments on season 1.

In season 2, I was really struck by the ongoing commentary on feminism. You’ll be shocked to hear that this wasn’t something I remembered from the first time I watched the show (I was a young bloke in my late teens/early 20s in the 90s – I wasn’t thinking about feminist issues anywhere near as much as I should have been). Looking back now, I can see that the show was influential in  introducing concepts that are now part of the more mainstream conversation on challenging the traditional role of women in society.  I suspect I have a lot to thank DS9 for – by introducing these concepts by “stealth” I think I’m a much better person today than I might have otherwise been.

Some of the commentary was quite explicit – for instance the treatment of Ferengi woman in the episode “Rules of Acquisition”. But the commentary lies throughout the whole season, often highlighted by conversations between the Kira and Dax characters in particular. The season as a whole very definitely passes the Beckdel test!

The individual characters were interesting as well. The Dax character, having been hosted by male and female characters over its lifetime, allowed for interesting contrast points between the genders. The Kira character was a fascinating blend of character traits – fierce and aggressive warrior who embraces her sexuality. Even the minor characters reflected this commentary, for instance the struggles of Keiko O’Brien – a professional scientist who made a career sacrifice, but was miserable doing it.

Another thing that struck me was the lack of neat endings throughout the season. Issues were left not fully resolved, or at least with a less saccharine ending. For instance, in the episode”Cardassians”, a young Cardassian boy who has been raised by Bajorans is sent back to Cardassia rather than being allowed to stay with his adoptive parents. Odo and Kira’s discussion about trust at the end of “Necessary Evil” is another example where a relationship is deepened by not giving the obvious resolution.

And while this season is still quite episodic, there was a three episode storyline! Two “To Be Continued” endings!! At the time, I was amazed. Sustaining a story over three episodes of television seemed incredibly ambitious. Now it is par for the course to see story arcs that last across whole seasons, but back then I was very impressed. It was a hint of things to come, as DS9 started to pioneer longer and longer story arcs in later seasons.

The introduction of the mirror universe in “Crossover” was a lot of fun. The over-the-top acting, the bat-shit crazy Intendant, humanity as second class citizens and slaves – its a wacky rollercoaster ride.

A fantastic season of a fantastic show! What memories do you have? Any other DS9 fans out there?

Dimension6 Issue 12 out now

The latest issue of Dimension6 is out now, a free Australian magazine of speculative fiction. You can get your copy at the Couer de Lion website, or download a copy here.

Issue 12 features:

‘The Curious Child’ by Paul Speller

Cats are not the only things that shouldn’t be too curious.

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‘Correlation’ by Paul Stephanus

Perspective is everything, even when it comes to garbage disposal.

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‘The Gods of Mwaia’ by Bryce Stephens

Renai just wanted some land for his family; he nearly lost everything.

Rewatching DS9 – Season 1

We all have our favourite Star Trek series, and for me that series was Deep Space 9. I noticed a few months back that all the Star Trek series were available on Netflix. Of course, I have them on DVD, but DVD is so last decade. My laziness has hit a new 21st century high when I feel like the act of changing discs and the effort involved in remembering which disc you are up to has apparently become too much for me.

Oh please. You’ve hit that level of peak laziness too.

There is a lot of good TV around at the moment, and I’m relatively time poor, so seeing them on Netflix wasn’t enough to trigger any kind of rewatch. I’d tried to watch Star Trek the Next Generation again, to introduce my 9 year old daughter to the Star Trek universe. I didn’t last more than an episode or two. It has not dated well.

So I’d given up on old Star Trek rewatches, but then I was listening to a podcast (Galactic Suburbia), and one of the hosts (Alisa if I remember correctly) started talking about rewatching DS9 and I got all nostalgic. It was crunchy! It was a bit darker!! It had great story arcs!!!

Back in the day, I remember being a bit sceptical about the premise – how good could a space station be? Nowhere near as cool as a space ship. They’d be stuck in one place. There would be no spectacular space battles. Hell, the guy in charge wasn’t even a captain.

In my memory, the first couple of seasons were a bit episodic, then as the “ongoing” story took over I liked it more and more. So, I approached it assuming I’d have to grit my teeth and “get through” season 1 (especially remembering my STTNG experience). My daughter had a medium interest level (at best). I finally convinced her to sit down with me and watch the first episode.

It was excellent.

I mean, really excellent. Even though the actors were clearly still going through the “getting to know you” stage of a new series, the episode was fantastic. The story line was interesting. I loved it!

My daughter was less impressed. She wandered off at one point, complaining she didn’t really understand what was going on. Explaining wormhole aliens that don’t have a sense of linear time was a bit challenging for a 9 year old. I waved her away, slightly impatiently.

Over the next couple of weeks I kept watching, and the quality of each individual episode was excellent. Significantly better than I remember. The characters were introduced intelligently and developed over the course of the season with an admirable efficiency. Relationships were created and used to good effect. The world building was tight and to the point. The acting was, for the most part, excellent. Some haminess, but in the best possible way.

Commenting on all the episodes would be tedious for you, but a couple of highlights:

  • In “Emissary” (the pilot episode), as well as everything above I loved the idea of a run down station, with everything broken. Perhaps its the engineer in me, but the lack of clean lines, the general grubbiness of the world really appealed to me.
  • “Captive Pursuit”, where O’Brien befriends an alien from the Gamma Quadrant who is being hunted, really endeared O’Brien to me. I loved his willingness to put everything on the line, and watching him mastermind a gaol-break was fantastic. I love it when engineers go rogue!
  • The episode “Dax” where Jadzia is accused of murder and refuses to defend herself, I found quite moving. She was quiet, she was determined and she was willing to defend the secrets of her previous host to the end. That episode really stuck with me.
  • “In the Hands of the Prophets” (the season finale) introduces then Vedek Winn – one of my favourite baddies in the whole Star Trek universe. She is just so loathsomely evil. Also in this episode was the first time in Star Trek that I noticed them introduce a minor character for a few episodes beforehand, so that when she suddenly played a major role it wasn’t as jarring as it could have been. This “seeding” was the fore-runner of the longer story arcs that came to characterise the show.

Somewhere in the middle of the season, my daughter wandered back in and started paying attention again. She likes Quark. A lot. I’m now not allowed to watch DS9 without her, although she is often doing other things while it is on. That’s OK. I think she’s slowly getting hooked.

Just in time for Star Trek Discovery.

The Devil Wears Shapeless Ugly Garments Covered in Dog Hair (a story)

A colleague and friend once said to me (in a moment of rare frustration) “You know Mark, you should write a story called ‘The Devil Wears Shapeless Ugly Garments Covered in Dog Hair’”. I really liked the title, so I decided to oblige.

At their worst, public service performance reviews can feel like being savaged by a pack of wild dogs. This story does not contain a particularly subtle metaphorical treatment of the subject.

It is, I guess, a sequel to ‘In the Service of the Public‘, if flash fiction can have sequels.

The Devil Wears Shapeless Ugly Garments Covered in Dog Hair

‘Oh god, performance appraisal time,’ Alison thought as the mauve indicator light flashed in the corner of the screen. It was her supervisor, T’ahmar.

Ever since Earth’s artificial-black-hole-induced implosion, Alison had drifted from job to job throughout the bureaucracies that made up the Interstellar Coalition Public Service. Initial sympathy for her plight had morphed into curiosity, which had then solidified into indifference.

The years danced by. No alien race was willing to take on the burden of the million or so human refugees who happened to be away from home when the accident happened. The reality of it was that governments only allowed proper citizens to take senior positions in their public services.

So Alison, once considered the bright future of the Earth Department of Foreign Affairs, was reduced to menial filing in a backwater colony of the Frusbian Empire — a grand name considering the Frusbians had colonised only three moons and a mining asteroid in their own solar system.

Still, human beggars like Alison couldn’t be choosers. With no place to call their own and so little in the way of aid from the other races, humanity drifted towards the edge of extinction. The Sol system had been evacuated and was still off-limits. Any habitable planets in what had been known as human space were claimed by civilisations with military capability. The few nascent human colonies were relocated, “for their own protection”. Humanity was the new underclass of the civilised worlds.

The indicator flashed again. T’ahmar didn’t like to be kept waiting. Not that her previous supervisor Z’utpok had been lenient, but he had at least recognised that Alison — despite being human — had significant skills to offer. Z’utpok had allowed her to help with issues of policy, and she had been instrumental in getting his bureaucratic pièce de résistance approved by the Frusbian government.

Flushed with success and singing Alison’s praises, Z’utpok immediately retired. Unfortunately, the senior bureaucrat brought in to replace him moved to populate senior posts with former colleagues selected more for loyalty than competence. Before long Alison found herself on the wrong side of her new boss T’ahmar through a combination of her connection to the previous regime, her non-Frusbianness, and her all too human tendency to speak her mind.

Now T’ahmar had insisted on a traditional performance review. While theoretically still legal, the orthodox Frusbian performance review was considered barbaric and tasteless by most modern commentators. Still, if Alison was going to save up enough money to get off this rock she’d have to go through with it.

Alison donned the traditional Frusbian review garb (which looked to her more like a hessian sack) and mentally reviewed what she knew about the D’armen attack dogs that T’ahmar favoured. Once she was as ready as she would ever be, she grabbed her favourite duelling dagger from her desk and headed out towards the Review Arena, trying all the while to think of a better way to earn a living.

THE END

‘The Devil Wears Shapeless Ugly Garments Covered in Dog Hair’ was originally published in Antipodean SF, in issue 171 (September 2012). It is also available in the free collection of my published flash fiction and short stories A Flash in the Pan?. See my bibliography for more details about my published work.

‘Narration Blues’ stars in the AntiSF radio show Abnorba

My recently published flash fiction piece ‘Narration Blues’ was included in the AntiSF radio show this week (the show is codenamed Abnorba).  The editor, Ion ‘Nuke’ Newcombe, runs the radio show out of Nambucca Heads on 2NVR Nambucca Valley Radio. Fortunately for everyone in the rest of the world Nuke provides the radio show as a podcast.

Nuke encourages authors to narrate their own stories, so you get to hear my dulcet tones. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide whether that is a good thing.

Finishing Discworld

I’ve been a big fan of Terry Pratchett’s work for more years than I care to remember. I still remember coming across The Colour of Magic when I was at high school. It was a revelation – screwball comedy in fantasy done in a way I’d never encountered before. I laughed harder than I felt that a nerd with a taste for the fantastica had any right to. At that point only a few of Pratchett’s Discworld novels had come out, but I was hooked.

Ever since that first encounter, I have hung out for every new release, and each book has taken me back to that feeling I had in high school. When I heard about Pratchett’s alzheimers diagnosis I was sad. To be honest, sadder than I really had a right to be given I never met the man. And his death in 2015 struck me as it did his many, many fans around the world.

I read most of everything that Pratchett wrote, including the excellent Good Omens and more recently his co-authored Long Earth series. But there was one section of his bibliography that I had never ventured into, and that was his young adult novels (both in and out of the Discworld setting).

I’m not 100% sure why. By the time I became aware of them, I’d left the “young” part of young adult far behind. As I’ve got older, I’ve found less and less to empathise with in young adult books generally. These days, when I hear that a book is young adult it tends to drop down my “to be read” pile (so many books to read, it doesn’t take much to have one drop away). But still, this is Terry Pratchett. One of my favourite authors. And in the case of the Tiffany Aching series, they were even set one of my favourite worlds, the Discworld. Yet I put it off and put it off.

Recently, my 8 year old daughter was looking for something to read and I thought of the Tiffany Aching books. I didn’t know much about them, just that they were set in Discworld, involved witches and were for younger readers. So I bought the books on Kindle, and told my daughter I’d read the first one at the same time she did.

Now as it turns out, even the first book is a bit advanced for your average 8 year old and my daughter put it aside after a couple of chapters. I’m sure she’ll come back to them some day. But me, I kept reading. And reading. And reading. And soon I’d read all five books.

This isn’t a review of the series. They are good. If you like Pratchett, they are very good. And I will gentle nudge my daughter back towards them when she is a bit older, because there are some excellent themes for young women. If my daughter grows up wanting to emulate Tiffany Aching, well let’s just say there are much worse role models out there.

But reading them made me a bit sad, because reading them marked the end of a chapter of my reading life. There are no more Discworld novels to look forward to. I will never again feel the anticipation of an impending new release, never more have the satisfaction of settling in to read the opening chapters, never finish reading and feel the sting of having to wait so long until the next release. There are no more new words to be consumed.

Yes, I’ll reread at some point and yes it will be marvellous. But it will never again be new. And that makes me sad.

And so, I’ve written this post in an utterly self indulgent desire to share that sadness, and perhaps through writing come a little more to terms with it. No artist lives forever. But with Pratchett, I wish we’d had a little longer.

The Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett (with links to each book’s Wikipedia page) includes:

New story “Narration Blues” published on AntipodeanSF

One of my flash fiction pieces, titled “Narration Blues”, is in the latest addition of AntipodeanSF, an Australian publication.

It cannot be denied that “Narration Blues” is a silly story. I was listening to the voice over at the start of a fantasy television series, and I thought to myself “gee this is a lot of backstory – lucky they got the right person”. What if the hero died? Didn’t quite finish the quest? Gave up to become a carrot farmer? All that wasted destiny…

“Narration Blues” is the result.

As always, many thanks to Ion “Nuke” Newcombe, the editor of AntipodeanSF, for his support of my work. This is the 11th flash fiction piece that Nuke has published of mine, for which I am very grateful.

Dimension6 issue 10

Dimension6 is a free speculative fiction magazine, produced by Coeur de Lion Publishing.

This website is an affiliate of Dimension6, where you can download each issue.

Issue 10 is just out, and features:

‘The Other City’ by Rjurik Davidson
It was the time of life when everything falls apart. He had to get out of the city. But where would he end up?

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‘Glide’ by Natalie J E Potts
There are lots of species of Australian fauna that want to kill you. We just found one more.

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‘The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook’ by Craig Cormick
Cook was a Company man on a voyage of exploration. The son that accompanied him was dead. And wanted him dead too.

2017 Ditmar nominations

The Ditmars are the primary voted awards for Australian speculative fiction (as opposed to the Aurealis Awards, which is a juried award). The 2017 ballot is out, and available for voting for any eligible member of the national convention (this year held in Melbourne at Continuum 13 – the 56th National Science Fiction Convention).

The ballot is filled with some wonderful people, and my warmest congratulations go to everyone who received a nomination. I especially wanted to note that a story published in AntipodeanSF (which has published many of my flash fiction pieces) made the ballot for Best Short Story. Congratulations Edwina (author) and Nuke (editor)!

I also noted that Dimension6, the free magazine published by Keith Stevenson, published 2 of the novella/novelette nominations – a fantastic effort showing Keith’s excellent eye for talent.

http://wiki.sf.org.au/2017_Ditmar_preliminary_ballot

Best Novel

  • The Grief Hole, Kaaron Warren, IFWG Publishing Australia.
  • The Lyre Thief, Jennifer Fallon, HarperCollins.
  • Squid’s Grief, D.K. Mok, D.K. Mok.
  • Vigil, Angela Slatter, Jo Fletcher Books.
  • The Wizardry of Jewish Women, Gillian Polack, Satalyte Publishing.

Best Novella or Novelette

  • “All the Colours of the Tomato”, Simon Petrie, in Dimension6 9.
  • “By the Laws of Crab and Woman”, Jason Fischer, in Review of Australian Fiction, Vol 17, Issue 6.
  • “Did We Break the End of the World?”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Defying Doomsday, Twelfth Planet Press.
  • “Finnegan’s Field”, Angela Slatter, in Tor.com.
  • “Glass Slipper Scandal”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Sheep Might Fly.
  • “Going Viral”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Dimension6 8.

Best Short Story

  • “Flame Trees”, T.R. Napper, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2016.
  • “No Fat Chicks”, Cat Sparks, in In Your Face, FableCroft Publishing.
  • “There’s No Place Like Home”, Edwina Harvey, in AntipodeanSF 221.

Best Collected Work

  • Crow Shine by Alan Baxter, Ticonderoga Publications.
  • Defying Doomsday, Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, Twelfth Planet Press.
  • Dreaming in the Dark, Jack Dann, PS Publishing.
  • In Your Face, Tehani Wessely, FableCroft Publishing.

Best Artwork

  • cover and internal artwork, Adam Browne, for The Tame Animals of Saturn, Peggy Bright Books.
  • illustration, Shauna O’Meara, for Lackington’s 12.

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

  • 2016 Australian SF Snapshot, Greg Chapman, Tehani Croft, Tsana Dolichva, Marisol Dunham, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Stephanie Gunn, Ju Landéesse, David McDonald, Belle McQuattie, Matthew Morrison, Alex Pierce, Rivqa Rafael, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Helen Stubbs, Katharine Stubbs and Matthew Summers.
  • The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
  • Earl Grey Editing Services (blog), Elizabeth Fitzgerald.
  • Galactic Chat, Alexandra Pierce, David McDonald, Sarah Parker, Helen Stubbs, Mark Webb, and Sean Wright.
  • Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts.
  • The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond.

Best Fan Writer

  • James ‘Jocko’ Allen, for body of work.
  • Aidan Doyle, for body of work.
  • Bruce Gillespie, for body of work.
  • Foz Meadows, for body of work.
  • Tansy Rayner Roberts, for body of work.

Best Fan Artist

  • Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including Illustration Friday series.

Best New Talent

  • T R Napper
  • Marlee Jane Ward

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review

  • Kat Clay for essays and reviews in Weird Fiction Review
  • Tehani Croft & Marisol Dunham, for Revisiting Pern: the great McCaffrey reread review series.
  • Tsana Dolichva, for reviews, in Tsana’s Reads and Reviews.
  • Kate Forsyth, for The Rebirth of Rapunzel: a mythic biography of the maiden in the tower, FableCroft Publishing.
  • Alexandra Pierce, for reviews, in Randomly Yours, Alex.
  • Gillian Polack, for History and Fiction: Writers, their Research, Worlds and Stories, Peter Lang.