2013 Australian Women Writers’ challenge – wrap up

Well, another year another Australian Women Writers’ challenge.

The 2013 Australian Women Writers’ Challenge was another great experience. Challenging the lack of critical attention for Australian women authors is a worthy cause and once again I had the chance to expand my exposure to interesting authors.

In 2013 I undertook the Franklin challenge (read 10 books, review at least 6) and all those books were in the speculative fiction field.

2013 was not a great reading year for me – I did not get through many books at all. However I was able to meet my challenge goal, with reviews posted for the following books:

  1. Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott – complete: review here
  2. A Trifle Dead by Livia Day – complete: review here
  3. Suited by Jo Anderton – complete: review here
  4. Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres – complete: review here
  5. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina – complete: review here
  6. Black Glass by Meg Mundell – complete: review here
  7. The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  8. Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer – complete: review here
  9. New Ceres Nights edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wessely – complete: review here
  10. Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott – complete: review here
  11. Witches Incorporated by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  12. Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills – complete: review here
  13. Wizard Undercover by K. E. Mills – complete: review here

Highlights for me included Perfections by Kirsten McDermott (I’m a big fan of her work) and discovering the New Ceres shared world project (that was undertaken several years back). There were quite a few books that I’d planned to read in 2013 that I’ll have to carry forward to 2014 (including Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. HannettThe Ambassador’s Mission by Trudi Canavan, Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth and Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier to name a few).

I’ll be supporting the 2014 challenge (stand by for my commencement post) and I’d encourage everyone to pick up a speculative fiction book by an Australian Women author and give it a go.

Wizard Undercover by K. E. Mills – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Wizard Undercover

Wizard Undercover is the fourth book in the Rogue Agent series by K. E. Mills. You can read my review of the first book in the series, The Accidental Sorcererhere,  my review of the second book, Witches Incorporated, here. and my review of the third book, Wizard Squared, here. Those reviews cover a lot of my general thoughts on the world building and general background, so I’ll keep this review shorter and focused on the plot of this  book.

In Wizard Undercover, Gerald and his friends are sent in undercover to a royal wedding in another country to uncover a plot to sabotage the event and cause international strife.

This book brought together a lot of the strengths of the first few books. The plot is fun and engaging, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested. It is more of a straight out spy story, and is better for it.

While there is still an element of Gerald’s powers saving the day in an entirely unpredictable and convenient way, this is significantly de-emphasised compared to the previous books and indeed the smaller instances serve to advance other plot points.

In this book, Gerald’s inexperience as an agent is his biggest handicap. It is all very well bringing the biggest gun to the party, but if you don’t know who to shoot you are still rendered somewhat ineffective. Wizard Undercover treads that line much more adeptly than the last two books.

The character interactions felt more natural and polished as well, which adds to a richer reading experience.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, and on the strength of it am eagerly awaiting any further instalments in the series.

Highly recommended.

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


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Wizard Squared by K. E. Mills – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Wizard Squared cover

Wizard Squared is the third book in the Rogue Agent series by K. E. Mills. You can read my review of the first book in the series, The Accidental Sorcererhere and my review of the second book, Witches Incorporated, here. Those reviews cover a lot of my general thoughts on the world building and general background, so I’ll keep this review shorter and focused on the plot of this third book.

Wizard Squared is essentially a parallel reality story. In The Accidental Sorcerer, the protagonist (Gerald) makes certain noble decisions to resolve the plot. In Wizard Squared, the author postulates an alternate world where Gerald made other, less noble decisions and as a result warped himself into an evil sorcerer.

I thought this plot had a lot of possibilities, and was looking forward to reading the book. However, I wasn’t taken with the direction it went in. In some ways I am guilty of wanting a different book than the one the author wrote, which isn’t really fair.

The first section of the book retells the ending of The Accidental Sorcerer, but with the alternate ending. This went on for quite a long time – it almost lost me to be honest. I did wonder whether this kind of backstory might have been woven into the plot a little more seamlessly (and briefly).

Perhaps as a result of the extensive introduction, the rest of the story felt rushed and didn’t broaden the readers view of the world Mills has created as much as the previous two books. This was disappointing.

Evil Gerald was a little too “moustache twirling” for my tastes. He had gone completely and utterly bonkers, and because the conversion to cartoon evil was so complete, it was hard to summon the “there but for the grace of god” type feeling I think the reader was supposed to have. I think there was an opportunity to portray a more subtly evil Gerald, which would have made some of good Gerald’s decisions more complex and morally ambiguous.

I mentioned this in the review of Witches Incorporated, but the use of Gerald’s wild and unpredictable powers to resolve plot issues irked me particularly in this book. None of the character’s actions have much impact – Gerald’s power did most of the work. And his powers were not particularly under his control. So really, things worked out via luck more than anything else. I found this slightly unsatisfying.

As a stand alone book, I’d have trouble recommending this one. If you are enjoying the series overall (which I am), there is enough character progression to warrant reading, but don’t be afraid to skip a few pages where necessary

Fortunately (spoilers) I enjoyed the fourth book in the series (Wizard Undercover) a lot more.

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


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Witches Incorporated by K. E. Mills – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Witches Incorporated cover

Witches Incorporated is the second book in the Rogue Agent series by K. E. Mills. You can read my review of the first book in the series, The Accidental Sorcerer, here.

K. E. Mills is a pen name of writer Karen Miller. After I’d read The Accidental Sorcerer, I attended a writing workshop with Miller at the Australian National SF Con. At the end of the workshop she gave away some piles of books in a sort of lucky door prize, and I was fortunate enough to win the rest of the series. Autographed no less. So I guess you could say that I’m reviewing some books I received gratis, but given I won them fair and square I’m not losing sleep over it. Besides, you try elbowing aside some other contestants to make sure you get a particular pile of books – I worked for my loot!

I might leave that last paragraph out of the Goodreads entry. Anyway, back to the review.

Witches Incorporated is set after the events of The Accidental Sorcerer and follows the adventures of Gerald and his friends as:

  1. Gerald completes his secret agent training (to become a “janitor”);
  2. Monk continues his mad inventor schtick for the government;
  3. Princess Melissande, Reg and a new character (Monk’s sister Bibbie) set up a witching locus agency (Witches Inc)

As the title suggests, this book focuses mostly on the last dynamic, with the point of view character mostly switching between Melissande and Gerald. After an interesting prologue with Gerald, the focus of the first half of the book is almost entirely on Melissande and the witching agency.

Melissande’s “promotion” to a primary point of view character is an interesting choice. It certainly gives a different perspective. Melissande is the least powerful (magic-wise) of the characters, and given Gerald’s super-wizard status, this gives us a slightly more relatable character to see the world through. In that way she takes the place of Gerald in the first book, before he came into his powers.

This brings me to one of the issues I had with this book (and with the rest in the series, truth be told)  – just how powerful Gerald has become. The first book had Gerald in the underdog position most of the time, which made him more endearing. From this book onwards, he is (by a long way) the most powerful wizard in the world. It changes his dynamic with his friends and old enemies, making restraint his most strongly emphasised personality trait. Restraint isn’t the most compelling trait in the world. His poorly controlled and understood powers also make for a convenient way for him to get out of sticky situations, without him being fully aware of how he does it.

The plot brings together the at-first-blush-relatively-trivial mystery that Witches Inc  has been hired to solve with Gerald’s first janitorial mission. The story moved along at a fair pace, and the ins and outs of the various bits of industrial espionage and implications for international politics were interesting and kept me reading.

The focus on a broader range  of characters did add to the richness of the world Mills has created. There is a lot of banter and I found the interactions interesting enough, although there was a little bit too much of the Robert Jordan style “women and men don’t understand each other” dynamic for my taste. That’s a minor gripe though.

I really enjoy the world Mills has created – a kind of steampunk powered by magic vibe. The first book focused on a colonial setting, this one was set in the motherland. I liked the extension of the world view, and gaining a better understanding of how the world works.

Overall I enjoyed dipping into this series again, enough so that I continued in my journey reading the remaining books straight afterwards.

Recommended.

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


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Caution: contains small parts by Kirstyn McDermott – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Caution: contains small parts

Caution: contains small parts by Kirstyn McDermott is the latest in the Twelve Planets series released by  Twelfth Planet Press. It includes the following stories:

  • What Amanda Wants
  • Horn
  • Caution: Contains Small Parts
  • The Home for Broken Dolls

Kirstyn McDermott is an author who I can rely on to produce excellent quality, lovely prose that creeps me the hell out. I’ve liked her earlier work (see my previous reviews of Madigan Mine and Perfections if you don’t believe me) so it will be no shock to anyone to find out that I really enjoyed Caution: contains small parts as well.

All four stories are in a contemporary setting (as is most of McDermott’s work that I’ve read). The horror elements are subtle – no splatter-punk here. These are generally speaking not high action pieces, rather they twist horror tropes to find interesting ways of exploring characters  and merging together the grotesque and the beautiful.

I’m always concerned with describing short story collections/anthologies – often the pieces are too short to describe without giving spoilers. Let me give you the blurb from the book itself.

Caution: Contains Small Parts is an intimate, unsettling collection from award-winning author Kirstyn McDermott.

A creepy wooden dog that refuses to play dead.
A gifted crisis counsellor and the mysterious, melancholy girl she cannot seem to reach.
A once-successful fantasy author whose life has become a horror story – now with added unicorns.
An isolated woman whose obsession with sex dolls takes a harrowing, unexpected turn.

Four stories that will haunt you long after their final pages are turned.

My favourite of the four stories was the titular story Caution: contains small parts. Without giving anything away, it resonated the most with me. I felt closer to the protagonist than in any of the other stories, and found the ending particularly moving.

The first story, What Amanda Wants, is a very strong piece. A strongly realised protagonist and a mystery that felt solid and resolved satisfactorily (with trademark McDermott creepiness).

Horn contained some very visceral writing and again a strongly realised protagonist. This is the story with added unicorns, in case you were wondering.

The final story (more like novella length) is The Home for Broken Dolls. This was probably my least favourite of the book. Don’t get me wrong: it is superbly written, with some well drawn characters and a good arc for the protagonist. However, I found it more intellectually interesting than emotionally engaging. This is probably one of those this-says-more-about-me-than-it-does-about-the-story moments though.

Overall this is another excellent addition to the Twelve Planets series, and a fantastic addition to  McDermott’s body of work. Highly recommended.

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


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Suited by Jo Anderton – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Suited

Suited by Jo Anderton is the second in the Veiled World series of books (see my previous review of the first book in the series, Debris, here).

Suited follows the continuing adventures of Tanyana, former elite manipulator of pions, now reduced to cleaning the magical debris left over from their use. Having taken the side of the Keeper (the mostly invisible manager of debris) against the mysterious Puppet Men, Tanyana finds herself the uneasy ally of the rebellion element in the city of Movoc-Under-Keeper as well as fighting an internal battle against her own debris collection suit.

Once again Tanyana is a very conflicted character – constantly questioning herself. At first I was concerned that she was going to spend a lot of time moping about, but as the psychological influence of her suit becomes clearer, the conflict behind the self-reflection becomes more evident and is more satisfying as a result.

In fact, the suit takes on enough personality to be considered a character in its own right in this book. I liked the balance between the power the suit provided Tanyana, and the cost of accessing that power. It made Tanyana more engaging.

The secondary characters are still fairly lightly drawn, but I did feel that some of the characters closest to Tanyana were filled in more solidly in this second book, in particular the character of Lad.

As is often the case with sequels, we learn a lot more about the world and what is going on with the supernatural, traumatised Keeper and the nasty Puppet Men. This is the part of the story that hooked me most – trying to puzzle out the mystery of exactly how this world is constructed. Tantalising hints are sprinkled through the story, including references to “programmers” (unusual in what is on the face of it a secondary world fantasy!). This central mystery, more than anything else, is what will bring me back for the third book in the series (which, as far as I can tell, isn’t released yet).

In Debris I occasionally found that the pace dragged, but didn’t have that sensation with Suited. Some excellent action scenes are interspersed with the more character driven scenes (in fact the scenes where Tanyana cuts loose are quite something to be seen).

All in all I enjoyed Suited immensely. Looking forward to the next volume!

Recommended.

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


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Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer

Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer is the latest in the excellent Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press. It is one of the shorter books in the series, and includes the following stories:

  • After Hours
  • Zadie, Scythe of the West
  • Wish Me Luck
  • Seven Days in Paris

Dyer has been winning a lot of awards over the last few years (e.g. recently won the Aurealis Award for her short piece The Wisdom of Ants) and I was keen to read this collection to get exposed to more of her writing. It is a diverse collection, from secondary world fantasy to science fiction (both far and near future) and with some urban fantasy thrown in for good measure.

After Hours starts the collection, with a tale set in rural Australia where werewolves guard an Australian army base. One of the point of view characters, Jess, is a newly minted vet, looking after the army base guard dogs (amongst other patients). Dyer captures the sense of a newly graduated professional quite well – many years of training behind you, but realising how little it actually applies to the real world. The changing point of view between the vet and a werewolf is effective, and the story conjures a sense of the Australian outback well.

Zadie, Scythe of the West is based in a matriarchal society where women are the warriors, and only able to kill as many people as they have brought into the world to create balance (although interestingly they can severely hurt as many people as they like). None of the characters is entirely sympathetic, but they are all very engaging. Issues of gender imbalance are thrown into sharp relief.

Wish Me Luck is set in a far future when an area of space has been discovered where luck can be harvested and commoditised. Another very engaging character, who starts the story in a very sympathetic light but is a very unreliable narrator. The premise of the world is interesting with a lot of background work done to underpin the story.

Seven Days in Paris explores near future use of technology to seek out terrorists. It is a slow-reveal story, so I can’t say too much about the plot without spoiling. I enjoyed the manner in which information is divulged and the ending of the story is lovely. Probably my favourite story of the collection.

I can see why Dyer is gathering such praise. The writing is tight, but very evocative and her development of characters across very short story arcs is enviable. Her thematic exploration of power imbalances in this collection is impressive; to create such an array of very different stories that each throws a contrasting light on the asymmetric theme is quite an achievement.

All in all a very interesting read and a great way to get exposed to one of Australia’s most talented writers in the short form. Highly recommended.

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


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A Trifle Dead by Livia Day – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


A Trifle Dead

I know, I know. I said I’d only review speculative fiction books this year. I extolled the virtues of purity and staying faithful to the one true genre. I disparaged my own ability read anything else. And now I’m reviewing a crime novel.

I can hear what you’re all thinking. “Where are your ideals now, Webb?”, “So much for your love of speculative fiction, you’ll just wander around after any old book as long as it has a dessert on the cover won’t you?”

These are all well reasoned and valid criticisms, for which I have only one response, and a fairly poor one at that.

Pppppfffffffftttttttttttttttt.

You heard me. (1)

Livia Day is the crime alter-ego of fantasy writer Tansy Rayner Roberts, whose Creature Court trilogy I enjoyed very much. I was interested to see what she’d done with the crime genre (and I’ve also been really liking the work coming out of publisher Twelfth Planet Press recently).

Lets start with what I liked about A Trifle Dead. The writing is enviably tight, with good attention to detail. Pacing was excellent, although overall the book seemed a little long I couldn’t fault the pace of the individual chapters.

I loved the use of Hobart as a character in the book (and I could only think of it as a character). Day does an excellent job conveying the sense of the city, and for those of us on mainland Australia used to thinking of Tasmania as some kind of backwater, it was a real eye opener. I would imagine that the Tasmanian Tourism Board (if such an entity exists) would be promoting the hell out of this book. It made me want to visit (and I didn’t even go to Hobart when good friends were on assignment down there for a few years. I just always assumed they’d prefer to return to civilisation for any catch up, and only saw them when they visited Sydney. I missed an opportunity I think).

But this is where I came a bit unstuck – Hobart was the only character I built any kind of relationship with. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Day’s writing of the characters. I just didn’t like any of them much. The protagonist was a bit irritating, the love interests a bit dull, the best friend a bit meh. There were a couple of minor characters that were vaguely interesting (the protagonist’s house mate for instance), but they were few and far between. I just couldn’t connect.

I found myself rooting for the bad guy, and unless there was a level of plot subtlety that I missed, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to.

Now, I’m not a “foodie” and I don’t usually read crime, so I 100% admit that I am not the target audience here. My wife, for example, is a foodie and does read crime and I have had absolutely no hesitation in recommending the book to her – I think she’ll love it. But for me the characters all seemed a bit… well, if I’m honest, silly.

From that base, things went off track. Because I couldn’t connect with the characters, I didn’t like the dialog, despite it having an excellent level of snark. The plot twists, in as far as they pertained to the main character, didn’t hold any emotional resonance, despite being quite clever.

I won’t labour the point, basically this is a well constructed book that just didn’t hit the mark for me. I still rate it reasonably well, because of the excellence of craft. But it’s not a series I’ll be following on from here (although I suspect my household will end up owning copies if I am any judge of my wife’s tastes).

However, if you love food, you are fond of Tasmania and you’re partial to a bit of crime, ignore my recommendation above and get yourself a copy of A Trifle Dead. And leave me a comment telling me what you think!

 

(1) OK, I’m not sure of the phonetic representation of a raspberry. That’s going to have to do. I’m sure you got the general idea.

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


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New Ceres Nights edited by Alisa Kranostein and Tehani Wessely – review

This review sort of forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my proper 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.

I don’t think I can officially claim this as an Australian Women Writer’s challenge book, as only 6 out of the 13 stories are penned by Australian women. However, it show the work of many of Australian speculative fiction’s current batch of award winning female authors (think Kaaron Warren, Angela Slatter, Thoraiya Dyer, Sue Isle, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sylvia Kelso), so I’ll probably promote this through AWW channels.

And in my mind I’ll count it as a 1/2 contribution to my target.


New Ceres Nights

New Ceres Nights was published in 2009 by Twelfth Planet Press. The premise of the anthology is that the stories are all set in the shared world of New Ceres, a planet in the outer colonies that has embraced (and ruthlessly enforces) an 18th century way of life. Apart from a single spaceport connecting it to the rest of the human race, the technological level of the whole planet has been wound back.

I found the background to this anthology interesting. The introduction by New Ceres Board members Tansy Rayner Roberts and Dirk Flinthart, tells of a world built by an online community of mainly Australian speculative fiction writers, artists and fans. This was a bit before my time (as regular readers of this blog know I have only been involving myself in the Australian spec fic scene for the last year or two), but it seems like a fascinating experiment in using the internet to build community.

As far as I can tell, the New Ceres project is gone (all links seem to lead to dead-ends and defunct sites), so reading this anthology feels like a glimpse into a now departed phase of Australian speculative fiction history. A few other artefacts survive (such as the book Angel Rising by Dirk Flinthart) as well as some cryptic references to an eZine, but that is about it.

It’s too bad – I liked what I’ve read so far. It would have been fascinating to have a look at all the shared “source material” as well just to see how the world was constructed. It reminds me of a recent Kickstarter the Massive Fiction Project, which is aiming to build a shared world for fiction writing. I’m interested in these kinds of endeavours and constructs, would have been great to see an Australian attempt.

If any reader of this article was involved in the New Ceres shared world experience, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Anyway enough tangental musings, why don’t we return to the actual book. From the back blurb: “New Ceres Nights presents thirteen exciting stories of rebellion, debauchery, decadence, subterfuge and murder, set against the backdrop of powdered wigs, coffee houses, balls and duels”.

The mixture of 18th century limitations and illicit high technology made a surprisingly powerful combination, reminiscent of some of the better steampunk stories I’ve read. All the stories were quite good, I can’t really call out one I didn’t like. As is my habit, I’ll only comment on those stories where I have something to say – which is no reflection on the other stories of course!

  • The first story of the collection, Debutante by Dirk Flinthart, gives a very effective introduction to the world of New Ceres. Set somewhat before the rest of the anthology, it is an origins story of a sort. Flinthart’s dialogue is particularly sharp, and the ending to this tale gives you a real sense of the tone of the collection.
  • The contrast between the first story and the second (The Widow’s Seven Candles by Thoraiya Dyer) is quite stark, as the reader is thrown from a relatively hi-tech scenario to a very low tech one. Dyer’s writing is very engaging, and she creates a very sympathetic lead character in the candlemaker Etienne.
  • Murder in Laochan by Aliette de Bodard was notable in its use of a non-European 18th century backdrop. I also quite liked the conceit behind the main character, and found the story a delight to read.
  • Speaking of interesting conceits, Tontine Mary by Kaaron Warren (whose work I have been enjoying a lot of late) draws on an actual feature of 18th century life, the tontine. A tontine is essentially a lottery, where a group of people put in money and the last surviving member gets it all. Warren captures the life of the title character marvellously, so much so that her parting “gift” to her great grand-daughter is all the more affecting because of the sympathy you have developed over the course of the story.
  • Tansy Rayner Roberts‘ background as a comedic writer comes through in the somewhat arch Prosperine When It Sizzles. Sharp dialogue and great pacing made this a very enjoyable read.
  • Blessed Are The Dead The Rain Falls Upon by Martin Livings introduces an element of the detective noir genre into the world of New Ceres. I enjoyed the change of pace, and the point of view character was well realised.
  • The anthology is rounded out by The Piece of Ice in Miss Windermere’s Heart by Angela Slatter. This story, extremely well written, had one of my favourite characters of the book, the gentlewoman thief Ms Violet Windermere. While filled with humorous asides, Slatter does engender a connection with the character that left me wanting more.

The anthology also included the excellent:

All in all I found that I really enjoyed this anthology and have no hesitation in recommending it.

UPDATE 5/5/2013

The good people at Twelfth Planet Press tell me that the cryptically referenced eZines from the New Ceres shared world days are being published as eBooks. The first was released just a couple of days ago. Good timing on my part, no?

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


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The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills – review

This review forms part of my contribution to the Australian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found here.


 The Accidental Sorcerer

The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills has been on my to be read list for quite some time. The main reason I hadn’t read it was fairly simple – Amazon kept telling me it wasn’t available on Kindle. Later books in the Rogue Agent series were, just the first one wasn’t. I liked the blurb. I was intrigued by the concept. But the website kept telling me that the book couldn’t be purchased in my country.

What a bloody cheek I thought to myself. It’s an Australian author and everything. I hate the labyrinthian world of international publication rights.

Turns out I must have been doing something stupid. I eventually stumbled across the eBook version through some combination of searches and following links from other books. Now it shows up very easily when I search for the obscure phrase “The Accidental Sorcerer K E Mills”. <insert deity of choice here> knows what I was doing before.

Anyway, book firmly (but electronically) in hand, I started reading. The Accidental Sorcerer is based in an alternate Earth, somewhere in the equivalent of the late 19th/early 20th century. The main difference is that magic is very real and is being combined in interesting ways with the products of the industrial revolution. Our hero, Gerald Dunwoody, is a lowly ranked wizard on the edge of giving up his dreams of greatness. He has taken a public service job as a magical safety inspector and is sent on a surprise inspection of a magic staff manufacturing facility when things go horribly wrong. He manages to avert complete catastrophe (something that shouldn’t have been possible for such a low powered wizard) but still manages to get blamed for it all. Rather than stay in the England-equivalent country (Ottoland), he takes a job in the colonies in a small, unremarkable country (New Ottoland) as court wizard, hoping that the heat will eventually die down. Bad things ensue.

I enjoyed the alternate world aspect, especially examining how society might progress if magic was real and pervasive. The “mother country/colony” dynamic was explored, which has particular resonance for an Australian audience constantly battling with our own cultural cringe. It had that very British sensibility that I always enjoy.

I also liked the magic system. While not described in huge detail, there was that iceberg sense that Mills had worked this through under the surface so that the parts poking up into the air had a certain consistency.

I was a bit hit and miss with some of the dialogue. There was some excellent banter between characters, but also some that was trying a bit too hard to be witty. The voice of one of the minor characters (Reg the bird) didn’t quite strike the right chord for me, I could see what the character was meant to be, but it didn’t quite gel. Her mysterious history as a powerful political player in the past didn’t really match some of her more superficial comments as the plot progressed. However, other minor characters (such as Monk) were very nicely characterised.

The first half of the novel is quite light hearted. The second half moves into much darker and morally ambiguous territory. I really liked the contrast, and also how this transition established the scene for further novels. I think if the tone had stayed on the light end, I would have struggled to see how this could have been anything more than a one off novel. There was enough complexity by the end to justify an ongoing series.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but also can I say that the set up for future novels (the premise for Gerald’s future career) was great, and I especially appreciated how elements had been introduced through the book that came together nicely to support that direction. That’s a bit cryptic, but you should know what I mean once you’ve read the book.

I will be reading the other books in this series (at some undisclosed point in the future when I am more up to date with my current reading). In the mean time I commend The Accidental Sorcerer for your reading pleasure.

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


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