Sheep Might Fly (a fiction podcast) by Tansy Rayner Roberts – a review

Australian Women Writers' Challenge 2016 This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2016 Reading Challenge. All my 2016 AWWC reviews can be found here.

I’ve been on a bit of a Tansy Rayner Roberts kick of late (for example see my recent review of Musketeer Space, and I’m currently reading her crime novel Drowned Vanilla). What got me onto this dash was listening to Roberts new podcast, Sheep Might Fly.

Sheep Might Fly is a fiction podcast, with Roberts alternating between “reprint” and original fiction. She seems to be taking longer short fiction works, and dividing it up into bite sized chunks which she is releasing on a weekly basis. Roberts narrates the stories herself.

This is another innovative form of releasing fiction into the world, from an author who is clearly experimenting with all the new world of publishing has to offer. Her serial release of Musketeer Space, use of Patreon and now this venture into audio delivery of fiction has been interesting to watch. Combined with her more traditionally published fiction, Roberts seems to have really embraced the “hybrid author” approach championed by writers like Chuck Wendig (amongst many others). I love seeing people branch out and try so many different things, it’s the only way we’re going to find out what works in the 21st century for publishing..

Roberts launched the podcast with a 10 part serial, “Fake Geek Girl”, which was originally published in Review of Australian Fiction Volume 14, Issue 4. From the website:

Meet Fake Geek Girl, the band that plays nerdy songs at the university bar every Friday night, to a mixture of magical and non-magical students: lead singer Holly writes songs based on her twin sister Hebe’s love of geek culture though she doesn’t really understand it; drummer Sage is an explosive sorcerous genius obsessing over whether Holly’s about to quit the band to go mainstream; shy Juniper only just worked up the nerve to sing her own song in public and keeps a Jane Austen themed diary chronicling the lives and loves of her friends. When the mysterious, privileged Ferd joins their share house, everything starts to unravel…

Line by line, this story is trademark Roberts, with a playful wit and real focus on character development and relationships. In a remarkably short space of time, Roberts is able to provide enough world building elements to really whet a readers appetite. The characters are marvellously drawn, with Roberts switching voices deftly as she switches the point-of-view character. I loved listening to the piece week on week, but I must admit I only just felt like I was getting to know the characters and world when the story finished rather abruptly. The central mysteries of the story (will Holly leave the band? What’s up with the mysterious Ferd?) are wrapped up neatly, but I was left wanting more. I hope we see some expanded fiction set in this same world soon.

At the time of writing (early May 2016), Roberts has started on her second story, “Glass Slipper Scandal”. Again from the website:

Charming is a kingdom where fairy tales come true, which has been bad news for its troubled royal family, but good news for the gutter press that thrives on the scandals and gossip provided by their teenage Princes Gone Wild. Kai is a rookie reporter at the Charming Herald. Dennis is a new Royal Hound, charged with protecting the self-destructive princes from disaster.

Disaster arrives in a pumpkin coach… The story of the century is wearing glass slippers… and Castle Charming will never be the same again.

I’m only four episodes in, but I’m liking the premise again for this one. I’ll be interested to see how long this story goes for – it could be wrapped up rather quickly, but again I see real potential for how the story could move forward and expand.

If you’ve read and enjoyed any of Roberts work, I’d highly recommend downloading Sheep Might Fly and giving it a go. Excellent bite sized morsels of fiction, delivered free of charge to your electronic device of choice. Can’t ask for more than that!

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

Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts – a second review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2016 Reading Challenge. All my 2016 AWWC reviews can be found here.

Now a little while ago I did a review of Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts that was a bit of a cheat, in that Roberts was publishing the book at the rate of one chapter each week, and I was only about half way through. I was doing a bit of cleaning up on this site last week, and I realised I never went back and gave any final thoughts. You can read my original review here.

From Goodreads:

Musketeer Space is a (mostly) gender-swapped retelling of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas as a space opera.

The Three Musketeers is a messy, uneven, glorious romp of a novel, and with Musketeer Space the plan is for the story to remain essentially intact despite the addition of advanced technology, racial and sexual diversity, and a whole lot of women with swords.

When last we spoke of this book, I was on chapter 33 (around half way through the book) and going strong. So how about the rest of the book? Well, the wit remained sharp. The characters remained well rounded. The diversity remained broad. The adaptation to a space opera setting remained clever.

I was interested to see how Roberts would keep in line with the original text, when so much of the context was incredibly different. For the most part, the underlying construction and plot lines were remarkably consistent, and the use of a wide array of sexual orientations meant that relationships could be maintained even where some gender swapping from the original characters had taken place. But for all that drive for consistency, the novel remained fresh – a real feat all things considered.

Now, as a warning for the faint hearted, there is so much sauce in this book you could bottle it and hold a sausage sizzle. This very much fits in with the tone of the novel, and due to the afore-mentioned diversity of sexual orientation there is pretty much something for everyone as the plot rolls on.

And speaking of the plot, it is a very satisfying read from that point of view. I found that part quite remarkable, given that Roberts was writing a few weeks ahead of publication and that introduced some real risk of inconsistency that come from an inability to go back and change an earlier chapter that was already written. The threads of the story came together very well, and I think most readers would be satisfied by the conclusion.

As I said in the previous review, if you’re a fan of Roberts’ work, you should get yourself a copy of Musketeer Space. Stretching my memory back, I don’t recall a lot of science fiction in Roberts’ body of work, but hopefully this will be the harbinger of much more to come.

Now, I got the book in eBook form for being a Patreon supporter, but a quick scan of the internet doesn’t seem to throw up anywhere where a new reader might source the book in that form. The original blog posts are still available and can be found here.

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.

Writing update – April 2016

So, it’s been a little while since I put together a post on my own writing progress. What have I been doing over the last little while? Why no short stories ? Have the critics finally got to me? Has writers block descended with savage fury? Has the urge to write been purged from my soul with almost biblical ferocity?

Nah.

I have, however, had some trouble maintaining some consistency in my writing. Work has been hectic (and I start a new job tomorrow, which I’m not expecting will be any easier). I’ve been trying to make more time for family. And writing has suffered as a result. However, I have been making a few changes lately that I think will be positive.

First up, I joined a writing group. Not a critiquing group, but a group dedicated to getting some writers together in a room so we can write. And that is exactly what I needed. Sitting around, listening to what other people are working on, talking in the breaks – it all helps recharge my creative batteries. The group itself is excellent, I felt really comfortable very quickly and there are some fantastic authors whose work I admire attached to the group. I’ve only been once, but even that was a big boost for me. Looking forward to future meetings.

Long term readers might recall that I finished the first draft of a novel, Unaligned, a while back. I’ve been having real problems with the editing process. When writing the first draft, I could set myself modest daily targets (most often one handwritten page per day at a minimum) and I made steady, incremental progress. With editing, I couldn’t find the equivalent rhythm and pretty much all last year I struggled to even get started. Over the last month or so, I’ve been trying a few different things and some of them seem to be working. I was trying to do big, structural edits but the size of the task stopped me getting started. So, I’ve decided to do a run through the manuscript just doing line edits and looking for glaring inconsistencies. This is much more manageable, and I’ve been able to make some progress. I’m hoping that this approach will be more sustainable. I’ll keep notes on any major issues I come across that I just can’t fix in the line editing process, and that might form the basis of a structural review down the track.

I’m also thinking about writing some short stories based on secondary characters in the novel. One of the issues I’ve found is that the secondary characters feel a little too one dimensional. I’ve always struggled with creating “dossiers” on my characters, I’m hoping that a more narrative approach will help. These stories won’t be for publication necessarily (unless one turns out really well). Rather, they will be my way of making the characters a bit more fully realised in my own head. I’ll use jumping off points as I do the line edit of the manuscript to set up the side stories.

And finally, I’ve started work on a couple of very short, flash fiction length pieces. When I was publishing a few flash pieces a couple of years back, it gave me a sense of momentum that I seem to have lost since I started to focus on the novel. I’d like to get that momentum back!

So, that’s me. What have you been up to, writers? Who else is trying something new in the pursuit of better craft?

Monthly roundup culture consumed – March 2016

So, what did March have in store for me?

Books

I finished off The House of Shattered Wings by Alienate de Bodard, based in an alternate Earth in a Paris shattered by magical war. I don’t always love angel/demon stories, but this was a very engaging read, with compelling characters and an absolutely mesmerising setting. de Bodard’s writing is just exquisite, and if there are more in this series I’ll be reading them.

I also got through Charlie Jane Anders All the Birds in the Sky, which is a kind of a mashup of science fiction and fantasy set in an alternate Earth that has both science and magic, and is also on the edge of environmental collapse. I first heard about the book on a recent episode of the Coode St Podcast, and if you do read the book the podcast is very worth listening to.

That was about if for fiction last month. I’m in the process of changing jobs, and I did a lot of work-related reading at home (as well as some non-fiction like The First 90 Days).

Not much new TV this month, although I did crash my way through the second series of Daredevil (the Netflix original series). Like the first season, the second season is very, very violent but I quite liked the character progression, even if the main character (Matt Murdock) was a bit of a dick. Excellent fight scenes and great acting. If you like superheroes, you’ll probably already be watching.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is starting to grow on me a bit, it is a bit grittier than some of the other shoes with characters having to make more interesting moral choices. I’m still not sure how you make the underlying conceit of the show last more than 1 season, but I’m sure they’ll find a way.

I gave up on the new series of Heroes. If it even comes on Foxtel/Netflix I might go back and watch the end of the season, but I’m not in any hurry.

Movies

Batman vs Superman was OK. Not great, but not completely terrible. Of course, my expectations had been set absurdly low from what little critical attention I hadn’t been able to avoid, but overall I didn’t mind it. Maybe 6.5 out of 10?

Of course, I can’t really get behind this representation of Clark Kent. Christopher Reeves did the whole bumbling reporter schtick, and was so good at playing hapless that you could kind of believe that no one guessed he was Superman. This Clark Kent is just as square jawed and heroic as Superman, so it beggars belief that no one sees through his disguise immediately. I would imagine that the conversation amongst the executive team at the Daily Planet would go something like this:

“Hey Mary, who’s the new guy?”

“Why Jane, that’s Superman with a pair of glasses on. And not even very convincing glasses at that. Sort of hipster glasses without the accompanying beard. I wonder why he is bothering? And why does everyone keep calling him Clark?”

Wonder Woman, especially as Diana Prince, was cool though, so that made up for my Clark Kent disappointment.

Coming Up

Captain America will be towards the end of April, which should be fun. Looking forward to a bit of Cap vs Tony Stark shenanigans. Not sure what novel to read next, will give some careful thought.

So, what do you all have on the go at the moment? Anything I should be reading/watching?

Editors note 12/4/2016: due to further failed experiments with auto-publish, this post is late. Apologies!

Antipodean SF

It’s been a while since I mentioned my friend Ion “Nuke” Newcombe, and the excellent publication he edits and produces, Antipodean SF. Antipodean SF has been running online since February 1998, meaning its 18th birthday has just come and gone. And given the publication is now old enough to drink, I thought it was well worth celebrating with a little shout out.

I’ve had ten or so flash fiction pieces published at AntiSF over the years, and I’m not the only Australian writer to get early publication credits with Ion. I’m always amazed to look back and see how many of my favourite Australian speculative fiction authors got their start with AntiSF.

There have been 212 issues of AntiSF since 1998, each issues publishing between 6 and 10 flash fiction pieces of around 500 words (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter). By my calculations, averaging 8 stories at 500 words for 212 issues equals approximately 850,000 words of flash fiction, a large portion of which has been from Australians.

Ion is very generous with his time, and considering he is not making any money out of the publication, he gives a very generous amount of editorial feedback to his authors. He cares deeply about the Australian SF field and is well worth a chat if you ever see this man at the bar at a convention somewhere.

nuke-at-mic-100-2

So, if you fancy writing a short piece, you could do a lot worse than submitting to Antipodean SF. Who knows, you could be the next great talent that Nuke discovers!

Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody – a review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2016 Reading Challenge. All my 2016 AWWC reviews can be found here.

Obernewtyn is the first book in the Obernewtyn series by Australian author Isobelle Carmody. This is the first book by Carmody that I’ve read, so I went in without any expectations, good or bad.

From Goodreads:

In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. And for Elspeth Gordie, it is also dangerous. That’s because Elspeth has a secret: she is a Misfit, born with mysterious mental abilities that she must keep hidden under threat of death. And her worries only multiply when she is exiled to the mountain compound known as Obernewtyn, where—for all her talents—Elspeth may finally and truly be out of her depth. Then she learns she’s not the only one concealing secrets at Obernewtyn.

First, what I liked about the book. The setting was fantastic – far future post apocalypse world, but one where a great deal of order has been restored (no roving bands of blood thirsty mutants to be found). “The Great White” is described in almost mythical terms, leaving the reader to wonder how the world got from here to there.

The main character, Elspeth, is sympathetically drawn and brings the reader into the world in a very believable way. I enjoyed her growing exploration of her powers, and the slow reveal of the wider world around her as she progressed.

The writing is good at a sentence level, very engaging and easy to stick with. It was an easy read, and I had no trouble picking the book back up over the few days it took me to get through it.

The plot was interesting, but quite slow moving. In fact, it was probably the pacing that through me out of the book the most. I kept waiting for more to happen, which might be a sign that my mind has been ruined by too many action movies.

Another issue I noticed with the book was the lack of development of secondary characters. The view the reader gets is quite superficial, and given the main character can read minds, there really isn’t any excuse for that. Providing depth for secondary characters when you only have one primary viewpoint is something I struggle with in my own writing, so I sympathise. And the series has been very popular, so I assume we get to know more about the secondary characters in later books. But as a stand alone, this is something I found a bit distancing in my read.

Overall it was a solid read, and the start of a very popular series of young adult novels. Well worth checking out if you like a bit of young adult dystopia!

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.

Monthly roundup culture consumed – February 2016

So, what did I do with February?

Books

I started the Isobelle Carmody series The Obernewtyn Chronicle, making my way through the first book Obernewtyn. I’ll be reviewing the book for the Australian Women Writers Challenge, so I won’t say much here. I enjoyed the book, but didn’t love it. Will be interested to see where the series goes though.

Sorcerer to the Crown: Sorcerer Royal 1 by Zen Cho was an interesting read. Set in an alternate 1800s in Britain, the story focuses on a young African man who is the first black man to ascend to the position of Sorcerer Royal who finds himself championing the cause of equality for women and the poor to have equal access to magic. The book is witty and fun to read, with a great cast of characters. I admit I was expecting something more in the vein of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (and there are certainly some similarities), however the book was a lot more light hearted. An excellent read, well worth picking up.

I also read the final book in Brandon Sanderson’s young adult superhero series, Calamity. A good series if you like Sanderson’s work, with an interesting take on superheroes. If you were going to start, you’d start at the beginning of the series though – the book wouldn’t make much sense read by itself.

I’ve kept going with the sci fi series Killjoys on Foxtel about space based bounty hunters. Very gritty, with some good acting and interesting concepts/storylines. I read somewhere that it is produced by the same people as made Orphan Black, and the writing does have a similar feel to it.

The new Sherlock feature length The Abominable Bride was as excellent as always, with the 19th century plot cleverly worked into the modern BBC series. It reminded me of how good the series is, it’s a real shame the episodes are so few and far between. Compulsory viewing if you’re a fan of the series, but well worth having a look if you’re only a casual viewer. You’ll just have to ignore the brief tangents into the modern day.

I watched the end of The Shannara Chronicles, but I’m not sure I’ll be going back for the second series. The production values were excellent, but the acting didn’t really improve over the series and the plot didn’t really hold me. In the last few episodes, quite a few characters died and I didn’t really care – not a good sign!

Supergirl is continuing well. While not my favourite superhero franchise, it is something I can watch with the kids which is excellent. I can see that a few of the sub-plots (love triangles etc) are going to start to bug me more and more as time goes on, but on the whole it is very watchable TV.

Movies

I actually got out to see a movie in February. Deadpool, the Marvel movie in the X-Men universe (not, as I thought going in, the Marvel Cinematic Universe), was, in a word, excellent. Great writing, funny as all hell, convincing acting and with an adult sensibility that many of the superhero movies miss. If you don’t like sex, violence or bad language, best give it a miss. If you like the idea of a slightly more grown up superhero movie, don’t miss it. I suspect that a lot of the humour comes from comparing it with other superhero movies. Given that, if you haven’t watched much of the recent onslaught of MCU, DC and X-Men movies, this might not be one you have to rush out and watch. Still, excellent!

Coming Up

I’ve started on The House of Shattered Wings by Alienate de Bodard, based in an alternate Earth in a Paris shattered by magical war. Good reading so far, will let you know how it went next month!

Batman vs Superman is locked in for the end of March – looking forward to seeing how DC go with creating competition for the MCU.

Australian SF Awards Part 2 – The Ditmar Awards

Both of the major SF awards in Australia are happening towards the start of the year, so I thought I might signal boost both sets of shortlists. In this second post, I’ll be focusing on the Ditmar Awards (you can see my thoughts on the Aurealis Awards in Part 1 of this series).

The Ditmar awards are Australia’s national popular vote awards for speculative fiction. Where the Aurealis awards (which are judged not voted on) focus on written work and divide the genre up into extensive sub-categories, the Ditmar awards keep the genres together and award only on length (best novel, novella, short story, collected work etc). There are also several awards for non-written contributions to the SF categories (e.g. best fan writer, artwork, fan publication in any medium etc).

The Ditmars are given out at the Australian national SF convention (which is this year Contact 2016 in Brisbane). The rules for the awards can be found on the Ditmar wiki. Details of the 2016 ceremony can be found on the Contact website. Voting is due to finish on 18 March 2016, with the voting form here.

To nominate a work, you have to be “known to fandom”, but to actually vote in the final ballot one needs to purchase a membership at the national convention (or have been a member of the previous year’s national convention). I can see how this makes the voting process administratively easier (and is in line with the voting practices in overseas awards), but it does seem to work to restrict voting to those that can afford the financial outlay (a supporting membership of Contact 2016 costs $40).

Why does this matter? The Ditmars suffer from the same weaknesses that other voted awards do – namely the voting process is only robust if you get a large, representative sample of people to nominate and vote. There is always the chance that the Ditmar’s become less representative of the best work of the year, and more representative of famous/popular content creators. While not conclusive, I find it interesting that I recognise nearly all of the names on the Ditmar ballot, but there are a lot of names that are new to me on the Aurealis awards ballot. I do wonder if removing or reducing the financial barriers to participation in the voting process might improve the inclusiveness of the results. Having said that, the nomination process is broader, so perhaps not!

It is good to have awards for non-fiction contributions to the Australian speculative fiction scene. As well as the categories listed below, there are two other awards that are usually given out at the Ditmar award ceremony. From the Contact 2016 website:

Norma K. Hemming Award
The Norma K. Hemming Award marks excellence in the exploration of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability, and is awarded by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF). Nominations close in the second week of December in the year preceding the respective NatCon.

A. Bertram Chandler Award
Australia’s top fan award, the Chandler is awarded by the ASFF for outstanding achievement in science fiction. Unlike the Ditmars, this award is decided upon by a jury appointed by the Foundation. Nominations for the Chandler Award are always open.

More information about the Norma K. Hemming Award and the A. Bertram Chandler Award can be found on the ASFF website.

All in all, the Ditmars represent a wonderful chance for the established Australian SF community to come together. I’ve attended a couple of ceremonies in the past, and they have always been uplifting affairs. In 2014, I was even fortunate enough to be on a podcasting team that won the Best Fan Publication in Any Medium award, which was a huge honour. Between the Ditmar and the Aurealis awards shortlists, you can get an excellent sense of where the action is in the Australian scene – and I commend it to you.

2016 Ditmar Ballot contents

The following section details the contents of the preliminary ballot. (Note that the final ballot will include a “No Award” option in each category.

Best Novel

The Dagger’s Path, Glenda Larke (Orbit)
Day Boy, Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing)
Graced, Amanda Pillar (Momentum)
Lament for the Afterlife, Lisa L. Hannett (ChiZine Publications)
Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti (Simon and Schuster)

Best Novella or Novelette

“The Cherry Crow Children of Haverny Wood”, Deborah Kalin, in Cherry Crow Children (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Fake Geek Girl”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Review of Australian Fiction, volume 14, issue 4 (Review of Australian Fiction)
“Hot Rods”, Cat Sparks, in Lightspeed Science Fiction & Fantasy 58 (Lightspeed Science Fiction & Fantasy)
“The Miseducation of Mara Lys”, Deborah Kalin, in Cherry Crow Children (Twelfth Planet Press)
“Of Sorrow and Such”, Angela Slatter (Tor.com)
“The Wages of Honey”, Deborah Kalin, in Cherry Crow Children (Twelfth Planet Press)

Best Short Story

“2B”, Joanne Anderton, in Insert Title Here (FableCroft Publishing)
“The Chart of the Vagrant Mariner”, Alan Baxter, in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2015 (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
“A Hedge of Yellow Roses”, Kathleen Jennings, in Hear Me Roar (Ticonderoga Publications)
“Look how cold my hands are”, Deborah Biancotti, in Cranky Ladies of History (FableCroft Publishing)

Best Collected Work

Bloodlines, Amanda Pillar (Ticonderoga Publications))
Cherry Crow Children, Deborah Kalin, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
Cranky Ladies of History, edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
Letters to Tiptree, edited by Alexandra Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories, Robert Hood (IFWG Publishing Australia)

Best Artwork

Cover art, Rovina Cai, for “Tom, Thom” (Tor.com)
Cover art, Kathleen Jennings, for Bloodlines (Ticonderoga Publications)
Cover and internal artwork, Kathleen Jennings, for Cranky Ladies of History (FableCroft Publishing)
Cover, Shauna O’Meara, for The Never Never Land
Illustrations, Shaun Tan, in The Singing Bone (Allen & Unwin)

Best Fan Publication in Any Medium

The Angriest, Grant Watson
The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia, Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts
SF Commentary, Bruce Gillespie
The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond

Best Fan Writer

Tsana Dolichva, for body of work
Foz Meadows, for body of work
Ian Mond, for body of work
Alexandra Pierce for body of work
Katharine Stubbs, for body of work
Grant Watson, for body of work

Best Fan Artist

Kathleen Jennings, for body of work, including Illustration Friday series
Belinda Morris, for body of work, including Belinda Illustrates

Best New Talent

Rivqa Rafael
T R Napper
DK Mok
Liz Barr

William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review

Letters to Tiptree, edited by Alexandra Pierce and Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
The Rereading the Empire Trilogy series, Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Reviewing New Who series, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely
“Sara Kingdom dies at the end”, Tansy Rayner Roberts, in Companion Piece (Mad Norwegian Press)
“SF Women of the 20th Century”, Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Squeeing over Supergirl series, David McDonald, and Tehani Wessely

Australian SF Awards Part 1 – The Aurealis Awards

Both of the major SF awards in Australia are happening towards the start of the year, so I thought I might signal boost both sets of shortlists. In this first post, I’ll be focusing on the Aurealis Awards.

The Aurealis Awards are a judged award, with a lot of dedicated SF fans and writers volunteering a lot of time to review, shortlist and ultimately pick a winner. The 2015 finalists were announced recently, and I blush to admit that I haven’t read many of the works listed. I am impressed by the wide range of authors and creators listed – I haven’t heard of many of them, which speaks volume for the health of the Australian scene at the moment. I can see I’m going to have to do a lot more reading to keep in touch with what’s going on in the field.

The awards will be held at the Australian national convention, being held this year in Brisbane on Friday 25th March (i.e. the Easter long weekend). It’s great to see the awards being presented at different venues around the country over the last few years – it gives more people a chance to attend and celebrate. Sadly I won’t be able to make it up to Brisbane myself – I’ve attended a few Aurealis Award ceremonies and they are always fun events. If you’re going to be in Brisbane over Easter, I’d highly recommend attending.

The introduction of the novella categories for science fiction, fantasy and horror says interesting things about the state of the field. Clearly, the award process must be attracting enough short fiction to make dividing the category into two parts viable. I wonder if it is also another indicator of the rise of the novella. I’ve heard it said that novellas are gaining a new momentum in the world of the eBook – clearly there are enough publishing opportunities for authors to justify a whole set of categories.

The Sara Douglas award is another interesting addition, trying to recognise whole series of works rather than individual books. I note that the award won’t necessarily be given out every year, which makes sense. The series that made the short list have all received a fair amount of critical acclaim, so I couldn’t possibly guess who might win it. But the creation of the award does show an ongoing trend towards recognising how people engage with novels in the 21st century, especially when looked at in light of the introduction of the novella categories mentioned above.

It seems that the Aurealis Awards are engaging in a certain amount of renewal and regeneration. I, for one, welcome our new award giving overlords.

2015 Aurealis Awards – Finalists

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

A Week Without Tuesday, Angelica Banks (Allen & Unwin)

The Cut-Out, Jack Heath (Allen & Unwin)

A Single Stone, Meg McKinlay (Walker Books Australia)

Bella and the Wandering House, Meg McKinlay (Fremantle Press)

The Mapmaker Chronicles: Prisoner of the Black Hawk, A.L. Tait (Hachette Australia)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

The Undertaker Morton Stone Vol.1, Gary Chaloner, Ben Templesmith, and Ashley Wood (Gestalt)

The Diemenois, Jamie Clennett (Hunter Publishers)

Unmasked Vol.1: Going Straight is No Way to Die, Christian Read (Gestalt)

The Singing Bones, Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin)

Fly the Colour Fantastica, various authors (Veriko Operative)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

“In Sheep’s Clothing”, Kimberly Gaal (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #61)

“The Nexus Tree”, Kimberly Gaal (The Never Never Land, CSFG)

“The Miseducation of Mara Lys”, Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“The Heart of the Labyrinth”, DK Mok (In Memory: A Tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett, Sorin Suciu)

“Blueblood”, Faith Mudge (Hear Me Roar, Ticonderoga Publications)

Welcome to Orphancorp, Marlee Jane Ward (Seizure)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

“Bullets”, Joanne Anderton (In Sunshine Bright and Darkness Deep, AHWA)

“Consorting with Filth”, Lisa L Hannett (Blurring the Line, Cohesion Press)

“Heirloom Pieces”, Lisa L Hannett (Apex Magazine, Apex Publications)

“The Briskwater Mare”, Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“Breaking Windows”, Tracie McBride (Aurealis #84)

“Self, Contained”, Kirstyn McDermott (The Dark, TDM Press)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

“Night Shift”, Dirk Flinthart (Striking Fire, FableCroft Publishing)

“The Cherry Crow Children of Haverny Wood”, Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“The Miseducation of Mara Lys”, Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“Wages of Honey”, Deborah Kalin (Cherry Crow Children, Twelfth Planet Press)

“Sleepless”, Jay Kristoff (Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, Penguin)

“Ripper”, Angela Slatter (Horrorology, Jo Fletcher Books)

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

“The Giant’s Lady”, Rowena Cory Daniells (Legends 2, Newcon Press)

“The Jellyfish Collector”, Michelle Goldsmith (Review of Australian Fiction Vol. 13 Issue 6)

“A Shot of Salt Water”, Lisa L Hannett (The Dark, TDM Press)

“Almost Days”, DK Mok (Insert Title Here, FableCroft Publishing)

“Blueblood”, Faith Mudge (Hear Me Roar, Ticonderoga Publications)

“Husk and Sheaf”, Suzanne Willis (SQ Mag 22, IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

“Lodloc and The Bear”, Steve Cameron (Dimension6, coeur de lion)

“Defy the Grey Kings”, Jason Fischer (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Firkin Press)

“Broken Glass”, Stephanie Gunn (Hear Me Roar, Ticonderoga Publications)

“The Flowers that Bloom Where Blood Touches the Earth”, Stephanie Gunn (Bloodlines, Ticonderoga Publications)

“Haunting Matilda”, Dmetri Kakmi (Cthulhu: Deep Down Under, Horror Australis)

“Of Sorrow and Such”, Angela Slatter (Tor.com)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

“2B”, Joanne Anderton (Insert Title Here, Fablecroft)

“The Marriage of the Corn King”, Claire McKenna (Cosmos)

“Alchemy and Ice”, Charlotte Nash (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #61)

“Witnessing”, Kaaron Warren (The Canary Press Story Magazine #6)

“All the Wrong Places”, Sean Williams (Meeting Infinity, Solaris)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

“Blood and Ink”, Jack Bridges, Prizm Books

“The Molenstraat Music Festival”, Sean Monaghan (Asimov’s Science Fiction)

“By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers”, Garth Nix (Old Venus, Random House)

BEST COLLECTION

The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After, Shane Jiraiya Cummings (Brimstone Press)

Striking Fire, Dirk Flinthart (FableCroft Publishing)

Cherry Crow Children, Deborah Kalin (Twelfth Planet Press)

To Hold the Bridge, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)

The Fading, Carole Nomarhas (self-published)

The Finest Ass in the Universe, Anna Tambour (Ticonderoga Publications)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Hear Me Roar, Liz Grzyb (ed.) (Ticonderoga Publications)

The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2014, Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (eds.) (Ticonderoga Publications)

Bloodlines, Amanda Pillar (ed.) (Ticonderoga Publications)

Meeting Infinity, Jonathan Strahan (ed.), (Solaris)

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 9, Jonathan Strahan (ed.) (Solaris)

Focus 2014: highlights of Australian short fiction, Tehani Wessely (ed.) (FableCroft Publishing)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

In The Skin of a Monster, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)

The Fire Sermon, Francesca Haig (HarperVoyager)

Day Boy,Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing)

Illuminae, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

The Hush, Skye Melki-Wagner (Penguin Random House Australia)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

No Shortlist Released

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

In The Skin of a Monster, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)

Day Boy,Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing)

The Dagger’s Path, Glenda Larke (Hachette Australia)

Tower Of Thorns, Juliet Marillier (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Skin, Ilka Tampke (Text Publishing)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Crossed, Evelyn Blackwell (self-published)

Clade, James Bradley (Penguin)

Illuminae, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

Their Fractured Light, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Renegade, Joel Shepherd (Kindle Direct)

Twinmaker: Fall, Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin)

SARA DOUGLASS BOOK SERIES AWARD

The Chronicles of King Rolen’s Kin [The King’s Bastard (2010), The Uncrowned King (2010), The Usurper (2010), The King’s Man (2012), King Breaker (2013)], Rowena Cory Daniells (Solaris Press)

The Watergivers [The Last Stormlord (2009), Stormlord Rising (2010), Stormlord’s Exile(2011)], Glenda Larke (HarperVoyager)

The Lumatere Chronicles [Finnikin of the Rock (2008), Froi of the Exiles (2011), Quintana of Charyn (2012)], Melina Marchetta (Penguin Random House)

Sevenwaters [Daughter of the Forest (2000), Son of the Shadows (2001), Child of the Prophecy (2002), Heir to Sevenwaters (2009), Seer of Sevenwaters (2011), Flame of Sevenwaters (2013)], Juliet Marillier (Pan Macmillan Australia)

The Laws of Magic [Blaze Of Glory (2007), Heart Of Gold (2007), Word Of Honour (2008), Time Of Trial (2009), Moment Of Truth (2010), Hour Of Need (2011)], Michael Pryor (Random House Australia)

Creature Court [Power and Majesty (2010), Shattered City (2011), Reign of Beasts (2012)], Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager)

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

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2016 Reading Challenge. All my 2016 AWWC reviews can be found here.

I am a big fan of Australian author Deborah Biancotti’s work. It particular, I really enjoyed a short collection of hers called Bad Power from a few years back (see my review here). Bad Power focused on the downside of having super powers, and ever since reading it I’ve been hoping for a novel set in the Bad Power universe. I’m still waiting for that novel, but let me tell you Zeroes by Deborah Biancotti, Scott Westerfeld and Margo Lanagan is the next best thing.

From Goodreads:

Don’t call them heroes.

But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. They can do stuff ordinary people can’t.

Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t—like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days.

Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group’s “glorious leader.” After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the rescue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. And at the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases.

Filled with high-stakes action and drama, Zeroes unites three powerhouse authors for the opening installment of a thrilling new series.

I’m not usually a big fan of young adult work. While there is some excellent quality writing in the young adult genre, I find that the themes and characters in the novels are directed (quite correctly) at a much younger market, and as a result they don’t tend to resonate as strongly with me. Zeroes, however, did manage to hook me in. The protagonists are all teenagers, all born in the year 2000 and all in possession of superpowers. But their powers have serious limitations and they screw things up as often as they fix them, and I found that did resonate with me. My own (fading) memories of youth are of uncertainty, inexperience and getting things wrong. I think one of the reasons why I don’t connect with young adult books very much is that there is too much competence amongst the young characters who have no real life experience.

The take on superpowers in Zeroes is very cool, and very 21st century. The bulk of the powers rely on networking effects, amplified impact when groups or crowds are involved. In the age of mobile phones and social media, this move away from the awesomely powerful individual makes a lot of sense and is remarkably engaging.

All of the characters are flawed, there are no pure heroes to be had here. Greed, narcism and one character who is worryingly sociopathic – a full range of negative emotions and motivations are on display. So, I was surprised to find myself feeling a real connection to this set of characters – as a reader I wanted them to overcome their limitations, wanted them to become better. And the authors skilfully guide the character development to a satisfying payoff. No-one qualifies for sainthood by the end of the book, but there is real growth across what is a large cast of characters.

I was interested to see whether a book written by three authors could achieve the right level of consistency for a novel. I was pleased to find that I couldn’t really see the seams in the writing, it did feel like a cohesive book. I have read and enjoyed works by Lanagan and Biancotti, and this book had echoes of both but was very much its own thing. As a writer, I’m interested in their writing process, I understand that they put a lot of emphasis on achieving that consistency.

The plot itself moves along at a good pace, and I thought the authors effectively ratcheted up the tension by creating increasingly high stakes situations and good interpersonal interactions between the characters.

This is a funny book – lots of humour from the characters and plenty of amusing situations. I wasn’t necessarily expecting a strong line in humour, but it was refreshing and served to counteract some of the teenage angst that is necessary in even a well written young adult novel.

There was a good focus on diversity in the novel, with a good gender balance amongst the protagonists and a mix of ethnicities and a disabled character. The novel isn’t preachy about diversity, but I’ve really been enjoying work that portrays a wide range of characters without making a big deal of it, and this book definitely fits that description.

Considering I originally picked up Zeroes partly to be a Biancotti completest, I had a very enjoyable experience reading this book. Highly recommended for young adult readers and people who like their superheroes flawed and very 21st century.

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.