Tag: Review

Describes any post that does some kind of review of something

Aurealis #49 (April 2012) – review

Issue #49 is the latest issue of the Aurealis magazine, a monthly magazine showcasing excellent Australian speculative fiction. With an emphasis on Australian content and news, I’m finding Aurealis is rapidly becoming one of my key barometers for what is happening in the Australian speculative fiction landscape.

The First Boat by Sean McMullen was an interesting take on how quickly Australia might collapse if some of our basic utilities (in this case electricity) were taken from us. The choice of the main point of view character was good, a young perspective mirroring the confusion of the time. McMullen’s characters are taking action when the rest of us would just be faffing around, and the twist at the end will resonate with Australian readers.

I am a big and growing fan of Jason Fischer‘s work, and Rolling for Fetch did not disappoint. Fischer describes a dystopian world of energy shortages and reverted transportation where some gangs have their feet replaced with wheels and perform couriering services. It is an excellent dissection of a transient subculture and the impact of what is essentially a fad where radical surgery is an option (and you thought you might regret that tattoo you got at university – at least you didn’t replace your feet with wheels!). The good news – Mr Fischer has a new short story collection coming out from Ticonderoga Publications called Everything is a Graveyard. The bad news – it isn’t due out until October 2013!

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. I’d particularly recommend watching the video of Neil Gaimen’s recent event at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne (mentioned in a previous new article on this site).

This issue also contained a very interesting interview of Greig Beck by Crisetta MacLeod, titled E-publishing: An Hour with Greig Beck. I do the bulk of my reading electronically these days, and as one of the inaugural authors picked up by the new Pan Macmillan all-digital imprint Momentum Mr Beck has some interesting insight into that rapidly evolving scene.

Michael Pryor’s short editorial talks about the importance of getting young people into science fiction, although I wish it had been just a slightly longer piece that talked about how we could achieve that worthy goal!

The What do you Think? section of the magazine contains a link to my review of issue #48. They are also running another online survey to get feedback on this month’s issue.

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Asimov’s Science Fiction – March 2012 – review

Asimov’s has been quite enjoyable lately, and the March 2012 issue was no exception. The editorial (by Sheila Williams) contained an interesting discussion on the concept of SF “canon” in the short story category and Robert Silverberg was as engrossing as always in his discussion of the possible facts behind the Atlantis myths.

The Way of the Needle by Derek Künsken was a superb rendition of a completely alien culture with humanity nowhere to be seen. The beings described are made up of metal spike and spines that absorb energy from a nearby pulsar. The society that was sketched through the novelette was original and the development of the main character, Mok, was well handled. There was even alien martial arts – an excellent story all round.

Golva’s Ascent by Tom Purdom was another story told from an alien perspective, albeit this one with human involvement. The exploration of a different evolutionary stream was interesting – intelligence evolving without tool making capacity. There was enough action and adventure to keep the plot moving along and the main character, Golva, was sympathetically sketched. Another good story.

The Pass by Benjamin Crowell explores the somewhat primitive remains of a society where most people upload themselves into “the Cloud”. The idea behind this story was very engaging and it was an interesting exploration of the limitations of a virtual existence when viewed from the outside.

Nanny’s Day by Leah Cypess was another interesting premise – where society has reached the point where “parenthood” was defined as the person with the strongest emotional connection with a child rather than a biological connection. It was a very well written story, but I had trouble drawing a line between our current society and this potential society of the future and my inability to willingly suspend disbelief kept pulling me out of the story.

Also in this issue:

  • Mrs Hatcher’s Evaluation by James Van Pelt
  • Patagonia by Joel Richards

As usual, Asimov’s also contains some poetry including:

  • A Change in Gravity by G. O. Clark
  • Discoveries in the Annals of Poetry by C. W. Johnson
  • Sonet I  by A. Walker Scott

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Analog – March 2012 – review

Analog Science Fiction and Fact for March 2012.

The Ediacarian Machine by Craig DeLancey was a well written piece exploring the means by which an ancient, alien civilisation might explore the galaxy. The idea behind the story was interesting and some of the ideas around future technology trends were engaging.

Mother’s Tattoos by Richard A. Lovett contained an interesting exploration of where government surveillance and advertising might go into the future. The body as a billboard seems to be a bit of a theme in a few short stories I’ve read lately. The main character in this story was a bit irritating, but then I suspect he was supposed to be.

Upon Their Backs by Kyle Kirkland also had a big brother theme. I particularly liked the conceit of “just in time” identity creation – the idea that government surveillance is so ubiquitous that an agent can just mention some details and government computers will automatically fill in the blanks and create a full identity on the fly.

Also in this issue:

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Rise Like Lions by David Mack – review

My favourite part of the whole Star Trek television series (in its many incarnations) was the series of episodes that dealt with a “mirror universe” where up was down, good was evil and all the actors got to play different, and usually bad, versions of themselves. The original series episode that kicked it all off was interesting, but I really got engaged in it through the relevant Deep Space 9 and Enterprise episodes. This led me to read the various mirror universe novels that have been put out by the franchise in recent years, and for the most part enjoying them immensely. Rise Like Lions by David Mack is the most recent in that series.

The more recent novels have given some background regarding a “reformed” Spock and his attempts to take over of the Terran Empire and the planning he goes through to create something more like the Star Trek universe we know and love. There are (very faint) shades of Asimov’s Foundation series in the grand plan that Spock puts together to drive the old empire into the ground (including his own death) and then put events in motion to see a version of the Federation eventually arise out of the ashes (albeit over a couple of hundred years rather than the thousands of years in the Foundation universe). Rise Like Lions focuses on the end game, where all the threads come together.

From the TV series the impression is given that in this universe people are fundamentally bad – almost genetically pre-disposed towards evil instead of good. Interestingly, the books imply that that isn’t the case, but it is more a case of the cultures in the mirror universe being more martial – change the culture and you “fix” the universe. From a story writing perspective this makes sense – if everyone was intrinsically evil you wouldn’t really have anyone to feel sympathy for, which might make the narrative hard to sustain.

The book itself is solid and workman-like. There was a lot of ground being covered in a relatively short number of words and the book felt rushed as a result. Enjoyment of the novel certainly rested on the assumption that the reader had consumed some of the previous novels, especially The Sorrows of Empire (also by David Mack). There is some character development, particularly of Miles O’Brien, but not a lot. It ties a lot of threads together, and this should be the end of the mirror universe series (but it probably won’t be!).

Very enjoyable romp – add a star if you really like Star Trek.

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

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Showtime by Narrelle M Harris – review

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

Showtime by Narrelle M Harris is one of the Twelve Planets series published by Twelfth Planet Press (12 boutique collections of stories by Australian women writers). It is made up of four shorter stories, including:

  • Stalemate
  • Thrall
  • The Truth About Brains
  • Showtime

Continuing the Twelve Planets trend of very differently themed collections, Showtime uses traditional horror characters (ghosts, zombies and vampires) to tell this set of stories.

The prose of this collection is clean, with appealingly streamlined language and deceptively simple plot lines. This was one of the more satisfying parts of the book, good stories clearly told with enough interesting ideas to remain thought provoking.

While there is some violence in the stories, it is incidental and not the focus of the collection. The collection should appeal to those that like the concepts of horror, but aren’t attracted to over the top gore-fests that sometimes make their way into horror movies and books. Indeed, at least two of the stories had more of an urban fantasy feel than horror.

Stalemate is set in a typical Australian suburban kitchen, and starts off with what seems like a very un-speculative and often repeated airing of issues between a woman and her ageing mother. The pacing of this story was very good, with the gradual slide into the speculative aspects of the story handled particularly well. The ending was particularly satisfying.

Thrall tells the story of an ancient vampire, Dragomir, and his failed attempts to deal with modern society, including issues like every bozo with a mobile phone being able to video your attempts to lure a victim to their doom. The rendition of an old vampire, yearning for the world of their undead youth and deploring the trappings of the 21st century, was refreshing. The story revolves around Dragomir’s views of the world around him and decision to retreat to home soil in Hungary to wait out these irritating trends.

The other main character in the story is Erzsebet, a woman in her late middle age whose family has been enthralled to the vampire throughout the generations. The interplay between the two forms the core of the story. Both characters were interesting for different reasons, and this was probably my favourite story in the collection.

The Truth About Brains is a suburban zombie story. While I found this story the most difficult to relate to (the age of the protagonists and the suburban setting weren’t really my cup of tea), the writing was very good. There was a backstory that was hinted at in this book, regarding the parents of the protagonist and their own zombie experiences, that caught my interest. That would be a story I wouldn’t mind reading if Ms Harris ever writes it.

Showtime, the last story in the collection, tells the story of Gary and LIssa, two characters from Ms Harris’ previous book The Opposite of Life. Gary is a vampire and Lissa is human, and they work together as an investigative team. The story is set at the Melbourne Show, which makes an interesting setting. This story has the most urban fantasy feel of the collection.

Again Showtime gave a good take on a vampire character. I particularly liked the concept that becoming undead made the brain slow down a little, reducing intuition and making it harder to learn things.

While Ms Harris does a good job sketching in enough background that those new to Gary and Lissa can follow along, I suspect that those that have read The Opposite of Life would get more out of this story. However, there was enough in this to make me want to read more, so I’ll be tracking down a copy of The Opposite of Life in the near future.

I’ve been impressed with the whole Twelve Planets collection so far, and Showtime continues that trend. A highly recommended (and very quick) read.

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

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Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #53 – review

Issue 53 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (this quarter edited by Patty Jansen) hit my letterbox recently and once again I was impressed by the quality of the contents. I’ve picked out a couple of stories that particularly grabbed me, but the whole edition was well put together and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

The only downside to this quarter’s edition was the very few Australian stories that made it through to print. I know ASIM use a blind review process and take only the best stories, but for an Australian publication to have so few Australian authors featured was a bit disappointing (if only American publications were so accepting of stories from other countries!).

Still there were a lot of fun pieces in this issue. Ms Jansen has a good eye for humorous stories (or perhaps just finds the same things amusing as I do) and I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times.

With that in mind, On the Train to Cairo by Gary Cuba represented a perfectly whimsical opening. This very short story, while not having a plot as such, was very well written and had an amusing concept (a gazelle and a tiger meeting in the first class compartment of a train to Cairo).

The idea behind Blood Man Calls the Whale by Marissa Lingen was interesting, with traditional tribal magic adapting to modern life and even chasing the tourist dollar. Ms Lingen captured a sense of place and characters very well in such a short story.

The style of writing in Marianne and the Mushroom Man by Lee Blevins was very clever. The story was fun and moved along at a good pace. Very entertaining read.

The Riddle of Svinn by Krista Hoeppner Leahy was also very entertaining. The main character, the not-sphinx, was well drawn and the sadness of the creature captured quite acutely.

The Nine Billion Pixels of Samsara by Gary Cuba was a good story, with a “have you really thought what would happen if the world was returned to a sublime state” concept making the ending quite strong. This was Mr Cuba’s second story for this edition, so the editor must really like his work!

Gauntlet by Barton Paul Levenson was a nice little space adventure romp. The characters and the setting were very good, resulting in a story that was a lot of fun.

How to Run a Five Star Restaurant in the Capital of the Elf Kingdom by R H Culp was also a lot of fun to read. Given Australia’s seeming obsession with food celebrity, the rise and fall of a fantasy celebrity chef was particularly apt for an antipodean publication.

Riding the Eye by J F Keeping was a nice little space mystery, and while Jupiter storm jumping as an extreme sport strained credulity a little, the good writing and characters in this story soon had me saying “sure, what the hell” as the protagonist launched himself towards Jupiter with only a spacesuit between him and certain death.

The Realm of Lost Things by Murray Ewing spoke to the lazy slob that lurks at the heart of my being (although hopefully I’m not as far gone as the protagonist).

I recently reviewed Debris by Jo Anderton so I was quite looking forward to reading the final story in this edition High Density. This story was the most moving of the issue. The premise was a very literal version of urban renewal gone mad, but it is the characters and the prose that really draw the reader in. An excellent piece of fiction. The story was followed up by an interview with Ms Anderton which was very interesting – if you’ve read and enjoyed Debris you’ll want to take a look.

Also included in this edition were other excellent stories:

Poetry:

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Aurealis #48 (March 2012) – review

Issue #48 is the latest edition of the Aurealis magazine, a quick monthly read showcasing some excellent Australian speculative fiction. It’s nice to get a monthly magazine that is short enough to not give me a sense of dread and guilt when I add it to my reading list.

There were three stories in this edition. The first, The Descent of Traag by Matt Bissett-Johnson, was a graphic story which was something a bit different, although interestingly it followed very closely my reading of the Sprawl anthology which did something similar in the middle of the book. I enjoyed the artwork, which showed up nicely on my iPad.

Thirty Minutes for New Hell by Rick Kennett was a well executed story about an Earth based mission to covertly observe the Dhooj, an alien race making their first manned space mission to another world in their solar system. It was an interesting premise to the story and well executed, with a fairly standard intervene/don’t intervene scenario but a nice little twist at the end. I enjoyed this one. A minor quibble – there were points in the story where I couldn’t immediately tell who was speaking and got pulled out of the story momentarily where I tried to work it out from context. It only happened a handful of times though and only slightly detracted from an otherwise very enjoyable story.

An excellent protagonist with an interesting savant ability to read people’s expressions in such minute detail he can tell what they are thinking and to represent that in art is the solid core of Eyes of Fire in my Waking Dreams by Greg Mellor. James Glazebrook is a very interesting character and his ability allows Mr Mellor to describe the world around him in a very interesting way. I loved the concept of a speech interpreting device that sounded like Bruce Wayne. The ending was a little disturbing and made me concerned for Glazebrook’s ongoing mental health. A good read.

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. This month’s edition also contained a very interesting piece by Crisetta MacLeod reviewing In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood. I’m going to have to read this book, I’ve heard such a wide range of disparate feedback on it. Episode 71 of the Coode St podcast discussed the book at length with none other than Ursula le Guin herself, whose work is apparently explored in detail in the book. Their conclusion was that the book was flawed in many ways, with only a fairly narrow range of the field explored. They also contend that the book is somewhat negative about the genre. Other reviews, like Ms MacLeod’s, are extremely positive about the book and its take on the science fiction field. I love that the book has generated this kind of widely divergent reaction. After hearing the early negative reviews I was planning to steer clear of In Other Worlds, but this review has made me rethink that strategy – I’ve added the book to my ever growing to be read pile.

This month’s editorial focused on the decision by the Aurealis editorial team to publish in an eBook format rather than going purely online. I thought the arguments were well made and I tend to agree – making the magazine into an e-book format does make it feel more self contained and like a thing you can own. I always enjoy insight into the editing and publishing process.

The What do you Think? section of the magazine contains a link to my review of issue #47, which was cool. They are also running an online survey to get feedback on this month’s issue.

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Sprawl edited by Alisa Krasnostein – review

I’ve been looking for speculative fiction anthologies with primarily Australian content recently. The first I came across was Sprawl edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press), which contains a very entertaining array of stories aimed at the Australian suburbs (i.e. not urban fantasy, more like suburban fantasy). It has stories by some authors I’ve been recently discovering and loving as well as some whose work I haven’t had a chance to see before.

Overall the anthology has a strong Australian feel. In the introduction, Ms Krasnostein talks about wanting to showcase Australian writers and I think this book achieves that aim extremely well. As you’d expect from an editor that is involved with an initiative like the Galactic Suburbia podcast, Ms Krasnostein has done an excellent job achieving gender balance in the author list, with slightly more women than men contributing.

As always when writing about an anthology, I’m conscious that saying something about every story would make for a very long review. As such, I’ve restricted myself to commenting where I have something particular to say – and given the short length of the stories I try not to say too much about plot to avoid spoilers. But up front I will say that there wasn’t a single piece in this collection that I didn’t find enjoyable in some way.

One Saturday Night, with Angel by Peter Ball was the first story by Mr Ball that I’ve read (at least as far as I can recall). It is quite a short story and very self contained in terms of location, but I really enjoyed the writing and I thought the atmosphere of a late night convenience store was a fantastic counterpoint to the supernatural elements of the story.

I found Sweep by Simon Brown interesting. I enjoyed the turn of phrase and found the slowly introduced horror, especially when recounting events from memories of being a child, to be particularly effective. The end of the story stuck with me – very satisfyingly nasty.

I’m beginning to expect to enjoy work by Deborah Biancotti, and No Going Home was no exception.  A beautifully written story about a mysterious woman, Gabe, who turns up at Harry’s house one night, with no memory of her life to that point. The story felt transient, both in the way the characters were rendered and how the story flowed. Lovely to read.

Loss by Kaaron Warren was another very effective horror story, invoking a kind of claustrophobia as the (admittedly somewhat unsympathetic) protagonist’s world shrinks around her.

Walker by Dirk Flinthart was one of my favourite stories of the collection. The idea of ancient spirits adapting to modern suburban life, and the shepherds that stand between them and humanity, was very interesting. I also enjoyed the style of writing, the world building elements and the voice of the protagonist.

Seed Dreams by Liz Argall/Matt Huynh was a clever addition to the anthology – a graphical interlude that was a pleasant surprise in the middle of the book.

The “voice” of the protagonist in White Crocodile Jazz by Ben Peek was very compelling. Tom Tom is mute, and his external interactions are by necessity more physical (and often very violent). I liked the atmosphere generated in this story, with a good plot and satisfying conclusion.

The plot was also very strong in Brisneyland by Night by Angela Slatter. There were hints of a broader story here, with the feeling that you’d just touched one element of a whole world. I don’t think I’ve read anything by Ms Slatter before, but if this story is representative I am going to try to track down more of her work.

There was less post-apocalyptic dystopia than I was expecting in this anthology, but All the Love in the World by Cat Sparks certainly made up for the lack. Set in a post apocalyptic Wollongong (that was a fun phrase to write), the story balanced a description of the disintegrating world with the very personal reaction of the protagonist extremely well. Ms Sparks sketched a very strong lead character, sympathetic while still retaining human quirks and follies.

I recently read Her Gallant Needs by the sadly recently departed Paul Haines in his collection The Last Days of Kali Yuga, so I won’t describe it again here. A powerful piece of writing though, and an excellent way to finish out the anthology.

Also included in the anthology is:

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

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Aurealis #47 (February 2012) – review

Issue #47 is the latest in the new, electronic incarnation of the Aurealis magazine. This month is the first instalment since the “reboot” that has a price tag attached to it, but at $2.99 I don’t think anyone will be complaining.

There were two stories in this edition. The Sacrifice by Jenny Blackford harkens back to a retelling of ancient Greek myth, focusing on the escape of Jason (of Jason and the Argonauts fame) from Kolkhis. The story is mostly told from the point of view of Medea, the virginal princess that helps Jason escape from her father. The introduction tells the main part of the story – the willingness of Medea to (somewhat brutally) sacrifice her young brother to help Jason escape. The story was well written and an enjoyable read. I would have hated to live in ancient Greece – the gods just couldn’t leave people alone! Having said that, in this instance the gods merely fanned the flames of infatuation – it took a human being to think of a truly horrific course of action to escape a seemingly impossible situation, and use love to justify it all.

The second story was Breaking the Wire by Jason Nahrung. I quite enjoy Mr Nahrung’s tales of outback horror – his Smoking, Waiting for the Dawn was one of my favourite tales told in the now sadly defunct Terra Incognita Speculative Fiction podcast. Breaking the Wire didn’t disappoint, a tale that takes that age old practice of farmers maintaining their fence lines and adds a werewolf twist to it all. I loved the characters and the atmosphere was fantastically built. As has been my previous experience, I was left wishing there was something by Mr Nahrung set in the same kind of world but in a longer format. But speaking of Mr Nahrung and longer form work, I see that he has a book coming out soon from Twelfth Planet Press. Look forward to that as well.

As well as 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, this month’s edition also contained an editorial pondering the question of whether speculative fiction readers really are more tech savvy than the rest of the reading population. There was also a very interesting piece on the use of the multi-book series by speculative fiction writers by Crisetta MacLeod.

I’m enjoying the stories in Aurealis. I also receive the monthly email update, in which I won a book last month, so I certainly can’t complain about that. Next edition will include The Descent of Traag by Matt Bissett-Johnson and Thirty Minutes for New Hell by Rick Kennett.

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Asimov’s Science Fiction – February 2012 – review

Murder Born by Robert Reed was the novella length story in this month’s edition. It had an interesting premise – someone invents a device that instantaneously executes a condemned murderer by completely erasing them at the subatomic level. As an unanticipated side effect, when the device is used the victims of the executionee instantaneously come back to life.

At first I didn’t think I was going to like this story (from the introduction I thought it was going to be a bit preachy), but then suddenly I found myself still awake at 1:00 in the morning desperately ignoring the part of my brain telling me I was going to pay at work the next day, just so I could finish it off. I liked the writing style, and the plot really held me through to the end.

The Voodoo Project by Kristine Kathryn Rusch was another story I quite enjoyed in this issue. I thought Ms Rusch did a great job of sketching out the shadowy world of Rebekah, an operative for some kind of clandestine organisation who has the ability to see the future and the past, as well as the present. Sufficient detail was provided to give a good sense of ambience for such a short story. I also thought the character’s voice was strong and consistent.

I also enjoyed The People of Pele by Ken Liu, which described the reality for interstellar colonists isolated from Earth by relativity and the inability to travel faster than the speed of light. Strong writing and a hopeful message.

This month also had stories by:

  • Hive Mind Man by Rudy Rucker & Eileen Gunn
  • Observations on a Clock by D. Thomas Minton
  • Going Home by Bruce McAllister & Barry Malzberg

And poetry by:

  • Submicro-Text Message 3V45129XZ: To My A.I. Valentine by Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska
  • future history by Joe Haldeman
  • The Atom’s Lattice Could Such Beauty Yield by William John Watkins

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