Review – Page 12 – markwebb.name

Aurealis #51 (June 2012) – review

Issue #51 is the June 2012 issue of the Aurealis magazine, a monthly magazine showcasing Australian speculative fiction and with an emphasis on Australian content and news. I’m quite behind on my short fiction reading (issues 52 and 53 are looking sternly at me from my iPad as we speak).

The first story in this edition was At the Crossroads by Daniel Baker. This was an interesting story with some great concepts, but I must admit I found it a little confusing to follow. This probably says more about me than the quality of the story. It follows the adventures of William as he transverses worlds through a mechanism known as the Crossroads as he chases his desire to be a Cartographer (one who maps worlds). Some of the imagery in the story is quite strong and I liked some of the descriptive text, but I wasn’t quite captured by it.

Next was The Pesky Dead by Richard Harland. This was a fun story! The lead character had a strong and very distinctive voice (even though he himself wasn’t very likeable). I enjoy stories set in an Australian context, and this one didn’t disappoint. It hinted at a system of rules for dealing with the spirits of the dead, and did it in such an entertaining way. A great piece.

As always Carissa’s Weblog providing a round up of some of the more interesting articles around on the web in the area of Australian speculative fiction, mostly in the form of interviews and video. Reviews abound, with more books than is worth mentioning.

There is an extensive interview with Garth Nix, which gives some interesting insights into his writing as well as some of his latest works (including A Confusion of Princes which I reviewed recently on this site).

Michael Pryor’s editorial puts the fiction back into science fiction by shining a light on the concept some people hold that science fiction should predict the future. Given how woeful science fiction authors tend to be at it, it probably comes as a relief that Pryor takes the line that science fiction should be about exploring the effects of possible futures, rather than trying to guess which ones will actually happen.

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Viral Novella series – -30-, Anomaly, Martyrs and The Call – review

The Viral novella series is a collection of four novella length stories, all based around the theme of viral warfare. The four stories are only loosely connected together, each acting as an almost stand alone treatment of the topic. The series is anchored by author Steven Savile, who is co-author of all four stories. Along with Savile, the stories are co-authored by:

-30- – Keith R. A. DeCandido (when journalist Joe Lombardo is fed information by an old source about the CIA using immunisation programs as a cover for searching for terrorists, he has to decide whether to publish the story and cause untold damage to the reputation of immunisation. Of course, the CIA hired team of assassins on his trail make it difficult to think clearly).
Anomaly – Jason Fischer (a doctor overseeing a vaccination program in Africa discovers a CIA plot to use the vaccines to infect people to cause disruption to the African Union).
Martyrs – Jordan Ellinger (a local Pakistani doctor does a deal that allows him to run a free inoculation program, while the CIA uses DNA taken from patients to track down a dangerous terrorist).
The Call – Alex Black (Nikolas, a veteran CIA agent, hunts a Taliban commander potentially in possession of a weapon of mass destruction).

I read this series because I’ve liked the work of one of the authors (Jason Fischer – an Australian speculative fiction author).

Each of the stories in the series felt a little rushed, but I did think the four stories complemented each other well, making the series a good one to read together. The theme of immunisation programs used as a cover for more nefarious secret agent purposes, and the possible consequences, was pushed hard and a little repetitively in each story, although Anomaly used a sufficiently different take on the subject to be interesting.

The writing was consistent, especially considering the number of authors involved. I probably preferred Anomaly, but then I’ve liked Fischer’s writing for a while. Anyone who can find a way to use the line “If it’s good enough for David Hasslehoff, it’s good enough for me” in a story has my vote. The tension in the each of the stories was sustained and the action was credible.

I think the series would have been stronger if the stories were interlinked more, forming a more cohesive overarching storyline. I suspect this would have been possible with a relatively small amount of additional work – the stories were grouped fairly closely in terms of subject matter. Regardless I enjoyed all four stories individually.

A credible series of modern thrillers, each of which could have legitimately longer pieces in their own right.

Note: the series was provided to me at no cost by Jason Fischer, one of the authors.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

Podcast listing update

I’ve recently updated the Podcast page on the website, with a writeup of the Shooting the Poo podcast, and adding the new Last Short Story podcast onto my “watch” list. The page is under the Links menu item on my website, where I summarise all the speculative fiction podcasts I listen to on a regular basis.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – review

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter takes the idea of parallel worlds to a whole new level. People learn how to step between worlds with the aid of a simple device (powered, may I say, by a potato), and find that our version of Earth is the only one in which humanity evolved.

You can’t take any form of iron between the worlds, which at least slows down humanities attempts to exploit the resources of these other Earths. Still, it is not long before settlers start moving out, settling worlds that are very much like our own except completely unpopulated.

The story centres around Joshua, a natural stepper who can move between worlds unaided, and Lobsang, an artificial intelligence claiming to the reincarnated soul of a Tibetan mechanic as they explore further and further out from the “original” Earth. There is something million’s of Earths away causing trouble, and our intrepid team are going to find it.

The novel also explores the way in which society fragments once natural resources become essentially limitless, and the attempts of those in power to maintain control (I particularly liked the fact that the US government claimed all versions of the American continent in an infinite number of Earths as being sovereign territory, despite having no way to police the claim).

The story itself is well written and compelling enough to keep the reader engaged. It was slightly disconcerting to have flashes of Discworld-esque humour that were clearly from Pratchett pop up through the story, but apart from that the writing styles of the two authors tended to mesh well. The voice of Joshua, from whose point of view most of the story is told, was engaging.

Each of the Earths has different conditions, where evolution or climate or even continental development has gone differently (without giving anything away there was one particular set of conditions that occurred to me early on – I was very happy to see those conditions actually occur later in the story). This setup allowed the authors to play a continuous “what if” game, it must have been a lot of fun to spend time imagining all these different Earths.

There was an interesting use of minor characters. A character would be introduced, some back story told and then a little mini-story outlined, usually just to illustrate some aspect of the social and/or economic changes happening in the world. The character then effectively vanishes from the story. While this allowed the authors to show the impact stepping is having on the world from a different point of view, it did make it hard to invest in feeling connected to characters in the story. Some of the minor characters reprise their roles briefly later, but others just seem to die away. I can’t decide whether it was an effective way of showing a broad view of the world beyond the knowledge of the main characters, or if it was just irritating.

Overall this was a good, fairly light read that I suspect may be the beginning of a series. Recommended.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix – review

I have several Garth Nix books loaded onto my Kindle. Indeed, when I made a solemn vow to myself to read more Australian speculative fiction a couple of years ago, Garth Nix was one of the first names I came across. But somehow I never seemed to get around to actually reading any of Nix’s work. Not his fault, his books have just been the victim of my dreaded “to be read” list.

I also don’t read much young adult work. Mainly because I’m not young and have limited reading time – I prefer work that has been targeted at my demographic.

So A Confusion of Princes, being a young adult work by Garth Nix, would seem to have almost no chance of me actually reading it. Yet for some reason I found myself selecting it from my Kindle and plunging in.

The protagonist, Khemri, is a Prince of the Empire, gifted with superior technology (mektek), biology (bitek) and psychic ability (psitek). Raised in seclusion and guided to have a strong sense of his own importance, he is suddenly thrust out into the universe at large where he finds that his fellow Princes (all 10 million of them) aren’t the nice, honourable guys and gals his training has led him to believe. Many of them wish him dead, and aren’t above helping the process along a little.

This is a very readable book, I polished it off in only a few days. The universe sketched out is fascinating, with its Princes and (non-religious) Priests playing out politics on a galactic scale. But I chose the word “sketched” very deliberately, I would have loved to see the culture and operation of the universe expanded a bit more before Khemri begins his separation from it. Indeed, in many ways the story felt a little rushed. We didn’t see much of Khemri actually living the life of a Prince, therefore it didn’t have as much of an impact when he started to question the status quo.

The writing is very good, with a fascinating exploration of where technology might go and how things could be streamed together. I’m always interested in how authors envision that the politics and organisation of a galactic society – it is hard to imagine how you could maintain a cohesive government over such a large physical and societal space.

Khemri as a protagonist was interesting, but I must admit I found his “evolution” to be less convincing because of the speed with which it happened. While often clueless, he was self aware enough to defuse what might have otherwise been some irritating character traits.

The novel came with a short story about Master Haddard, Prince Khemri’s Master of Assassins. I thought it was a good stand alone story that showed a little more of the universe pre-Khemri.

Nix and associates built a prototype online game based around the universe that A Confusion of Princes is set in, but I understand it didn’t go any further. That’s too bad – the universe that Nix has created would suit a gaming vehicle. The prototype game can be found here.

All in all an enjoyable book. Highly recommended for young adult readers. Recommended for adults.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge. All my AWWC reviews can be found here.

I’m not a big reader of horror, not because of any kind of strong dislike of the genre but I find that horror novels seldom make it to the top of my reading list. Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott makes me think that I’ll have to be more active in trying to find good quality horror – I really enjoyed this book.

I hadn’t read much about the story before picking up the novel, and the reading experience was richer for being surprising. But for those that like at least some plot overview, it tells the tale of Alex, a young man drifting through life who runs into a woman who he had known when they were both kids (the Madigan of the title). They get together and have a very dysfunctional relationship. Madigan attracts a quasi cult following of young goths. After she physically attacks Alex, they break up. Madigan commits suicide.

Then weird stuff starts to happen.

My superficial plot description above does not come close to doing justice to an extremely well put together novel. The writing is superb – visceral and compelling with just enough of an ick factor to highlight when something truly depraved is happening without going overboard. Set in Melbourne, it has a fantastic sense of place with the physical descriptions used very effectively to set mood and underscore the plot.

The characters are richly described and strongly developed over the course of the novel. Alex is particularly well drawn, very passive at the start and the story is an interesting case study in him gaining agency. Madigan is a fascinating character, strong willed and ruthlessly pragmatic in the pursuit of her goals. Her impact on an array of secondary characters highlights her evolving personality as she becomes increasingly self absorbed.

In fact most of the relationships portrayed in the novel are pretty messed up. The supernatural aspects of the book serve to highlight just how badly people can treat each other. There was some very interesting comments on power dynamics in relationships and the destructive effects of codependence. Issues of gender are also explored, with different gender orientations dealt with in a matter of fact manner, which is quite refreshing.

The pacing of the novel is excellent. McDermott plays with time, with very effective use of flashbacks to fill in the history of Madigan and Alex’s relationship. The novel had a “hard to put down” quality, with the story moving along at a fair clip and the mystery of what was happening in the present nicely balanced with the flashbacks showing how Alex got to where he was.

The ending of the novel is very strong, although difficult to talk about without giving important plot points away. It was an excellent way to leave the story, reminding me a little of a movie I recall from the late 90s (which I won’t name for fear of giving anything away!).

Madigan Mine was highly commended when released, winning the 2010 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel as well as the Victorian 2011 Chronos Award for Best Long Fiction. I can certainly understand why.

Highly recommended.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge. All my AWWC reviews can be found here.

Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts is the final book in her Creature Court trilogy. I’ve reviewed the previous two books elsewhere on this site (here for Power and Majesty and here for The Shattered City). To be honest I’ve been putting off this review for a bit – not because I didn’t enjoy the book (I did) but mainly because I’m finding it hard to come up with anything fresh to say about the third book in a trilogy.

Once again, I won’t give much of a plot synopsis for fear of spoiling this or the earlier books. From the Goodreads description – “The Creature Court are at war with each other. Three kings fight bitterly for power and dominance over Aufleur and the streets run red with blood.”

That about sums it up.

Reign of Beasts seemed more plot driven than character driven. There wasn’t as much sense of the characters developing or evolving as in the previous books, more reacting to circumstances in order to bring the overarching story to a conclusion. The conclusion itself was satisfying, with most of the questions raised throughout the series answered.

The one exception to the lack of character development was the threading of Poet’s back story throughout the book. These sections were very effective, even though the reader has seen how Poet turns out, his journey was very interesting and fleshed out some of the history of the Creature Court itself.

The previous books focused on the one city – Aufleur, with very little exploration of the world outside the city. Reign of Beasts has an expanded sense of place, with the city of Bazeppe featuring much more strongly. This broader landscape strengthened the story, providing a heightened sense of urgency as the consequences of failure increased.

The writing is very tight, with a good balance of drama and humour. The dialogue was particularly effective – the interplay between some of the minor characters was very entertaining. In fact, the minor characters somewhat stole the show generally, I found myself much more invested in them than some of the more major characters.

This book has lots of raunch. I mean lots. But then, if you didn’t like a bit of raunch in your reading diet I suspect you wouldn’t have got this far through the trilogy. So what are you complaining about?

I thought so.

Overall I found this a very satisfying end to the trilogy. Highly recommended.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

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Analog – May 2012

Analog Science Fiction and Fact for May 2012.

May’s edition of Analog contained Part IV of Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer. Triggers worked on the premise that a small group of people, including the President of the United States, were caught in an accident where their memories were accidentally linked in a chain (Person A could access Person B’s memories, Person B could access Person C’s memories etc).

The story had an interesting premise, with several sub-plots to assist in holding the readers attentions (who shot the President? Would one of the characters escape an abusive relationship? etc). I enjoyed the writing and was following along with the story to the point where I was anticipating each instalment. However, I’ve got the say that part IV took the whole plot sideways. I didn’t really feel that the ending in any way fit with the setup of the story. So, excellent writing but a disappointing ending.

But It Won’t Set You Free by Tracy Canfield was a fun story where human’s are the “aliens” secretly running tests on a sentient species (including an unfortunate anatomical mixup that results in an anal probe situation).

Also in this issue:

The End of Ordinary Life by Daniel Hatch
Lobstersaurus by Eric James Stone

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge. All my AWWC reviews can be found here.

The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts is book two of the Creature Court trilogy. I reviewed book one (Power and Majesty) a few months ago.

The Shattered City picks up where Power and Majesty leaves off. I’m finding that it is a bit hard to give any kind of plot synopsis of book two of a trilogy without giving away information about book one. Suffice to say that the main character Velody has to navigate the complicated politics of the Creature Court and find out more about the enemy they are fighting against.

The first half of the book builds the tension about the as-yet-unseen enemy, demonstrating an intelligence behind the seemingly directionless attacks from the sky. Interestingly the last part of the book doesn’t really focus on the external enemy at all, bringing the focus back to the internal machinations of the Creature Court. In many fantasy trilogies, tension is built by increasing the scale of the world visible to the reader (thereby raising the stakes). The Shattered City doesn’t do this, rather it keeps the focus on a single city and builds tension through the personal interactions of the characters. It is an interesting technique.

It could be that my recollection of the first book has dimmed slightly over the months, but The Shattered City seems to have a fair bit more raunchy behaviour in it. It seems like well executed raunchy behaviour descriptive text to me, so if you like your novels steamy that aspect may appeal.

The book focuses on a wider array of characters and gives them more depth, particularly Velody’s companions Delphine and Rhian. This helps to give the series a more complete feeling, and I enjoyed getting to know more characters in more detail.

As a consequence of this, there is a lot more point of view swapping in this novel. It is handled well, I never felt confused about whose eyes I was seeing the story through which is impressive considering how often perspective is switched.

There was a lot less focus on the day jobs of the main characters (dress making etc), which kept the focus on the supernatural elements of the story and effectively highlighted the characters drifting away from the “real” world. Where professions were referenced, it usually had the effect of grounding the characters amidst the fantastic.

Like other work by Ms Roberts, the writing is very strong with vivid descriptions and fast, punchy dialogue.

Overall this is a strong work and upon finishing it, when my Kindle automatically brought up a screen giving me an option to buy and download the third novel of the trilogy, I pressed the button without any hesitation (I worry about what that particular feature of the Kindle is going to do to my to-be-read pile). Highly recommended.

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.

Damnation and Dames edited by Liz Grzyb and Amanda Pillar – review

Damnation and Dames (published by Ticonderoga Press) is a collection of noir style stories with supernatural themes, edited by Liz Grzyb and Amanda Pillar.

This was a very enjoyable anthology, with a lot of great stories that have been very nicely put together. All the stories stayed on theme, but there was enough variation to keep the collection interesting with some very unusual takes on the paranormal noir genre.

As is my habit with large collections I haven’t commented on every story individually (review would go for too long). There weren’t any stories I didn’t enjoy though, so where I haven’t commented it is mainly because I don’t have anything interesting to say, rather than there being a problem with the story itself.

The collection opens with Blind Pig by Jay Caselberg, a good short story to set the scene for the rest of the book. Vampires, a private detective and a bit of old fashioned gum shoeing to solve a mystery.

I enjoyed Sound and Fury by Pete Kempshall, which included a bit of voodoo magic in a early 20th century setting. The ending was good and unexpected enough to be entertaining.

Burning, Always Burning by Alan Baxter and Felicity Dowker is a well written piece, with another unexpected ending. The prose was very evocative and the story satisfying. Mr Baxter was up for Best New Talent in the recent Ditmar awards and Ms Dowker has a new collection out called Bread and Circuses, which I’m looking forward to reading.

The Black Star Killer by Nicole Murphy is a story set in the world of the gadda, which I believe have formed the basis for some of Ms Murphy’s novels. The story was enjoyable and I suspect those that have read Ms Murphy’s other work would get something extra out of the story.

Silver Comes the Night by M.L.D. Curelas set up an interesting world. The story was good – very satisfying – and I got the sense that there had been a fair bit of background world building behind the story.

Sangue Della Notte by Donna Maree Hanson was another story that hinted at a much larger world. It was entertaining, but read almost as an introduction or prologue rather than a self contained piece. I haven’t done enough research to see whether Ms Hanson has written more in this setting.

The Awakened Adventure of Rick Candle by Joseph L. Kellogg had a very original premise, of fictional characters accidentally brought to life, their “completeness” dictated by the quality of the writing and the amount of background given in their books. Very enjoyable story with a great ending.

Three Questions and One Troll by Chris Bauer moves more into the world of Fae, which was a bit of a change of pace from some of the other stories. I enjoyed the writing voice in this story.

Prohibition Blues by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter was another story focusing on the Fae. This was well written and felt like an anchoring story for the collection. The story had a great sense of place and invoked strong imagery. I particularly liked the way the characters were drawn in this story.

Ms Hannett was recently very successful at the Aurealis Awards for her collection Bluegrass Symphony as well as her short fiction, and that talent is evident in this story.

Also included in the collection were:

A Case to Die For by Karen Dent
Hard Boiled by Brian G. Ross
Outlines by Dirk Flinthart
Third Circle by Lindsy Anderson
Be Good, Sweet Maid by Penelope Love
Walking the Dead Beat by Robert Hood
One Night at the Cherry by Chris Large

I also reviewed this book on Goodreads. View all my reviews.

This work by Mark Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.