The Cold Commands

Richard Morgan

Del Ray (2011)

ISBN: 9780345493064

Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce

I’d like to say that The Cold Commands is a satisfactory or entertaining sequel to Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains, but those who have read the latter would know that I was lying through my teeth; it couldn’t be either. So I will go with ‘appropriate.’ Other adjectives to describe it as a novel include ‘enthralling,’ ‘chilling’, and ‘relentless’.

You could probably read this without having read the first book, but personally I wouldn’t recommend it; partly because things make more sense in context, and partly because The Steel Remains is excellent.

Retro Review: 2012

Edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne

Twelfth Planet Press (2008)

ISBN: 9780980484106

Reviewed by Alexandra Pierce (this review was first published in April 2008)

Writing near-future science fiction, especially giving it a particular date, requires a certain amount of bravado, as well as all the necessary imagination and skill of sf writing in general. In giving their eleven authors a specific date to write to, Krasnostein and Payne have been – to my mind – exceptionally daring, and demanding. In order to address this topic, authors have had to put themselves out there, on the line, and make a stand as to what the world might be like in four (from when I read it) or five years’ (from their writing) time.

Before I read this anthology, I tried to think about some of the changes that have happened in the last four or five years, to get some perspective on what sort of changes I would be happy to accept. The issue of water was something that sprang to mind immediately: it has become a much more pervasive issue in Australia in that time, as has the topic of climate change on a worldwide scale. On a universal scale, the Mars Rovers were launched in 2003 and reached their destination at the start of 2004; Voyager got further away from the Sun than any other known object in the solar system. Australia got a new government. Battlestar Galactica came back to the TV screen. So some things have changed a lot; others, not so much.

Overall, the stories presented in this anthology are highly enjoyable. They all have different styles, with quite different takes on the year in question – although having some common threads, which will be mentioned below. I do think, however, that as an anthology about the year 2012 it is not entirely convincing. Some of the stories do not, to me, ring true for a future just four years away. Ten years – quite possibly. Four … seems like a stretch.

Retro Review: The Traveling Tide

Rosaleen Love

Aqueduct press (2005)

ISBN: 0-9746559-9-6

Reviewed by Gillian Polack (this review was originally published in September 2006)

This book is the fifth volume of a series called “Conversation Pieces” – Conversation pieces is a perfect description. It is a small paperback, barely a hundred pages. It contains seven short works by Love. Is this slim volume science fiction/fantasy because several of the pieces are? Is it satire? Is it a tribute to Bridie King and emails home? I’m not sure that it’s any of these. I found myself in dialogue with the book trying to ascertain its identity and seek its meanings. It’s a lovely little volume and I would very much like to see what happens with other Australian writers when they produce Conversation Pieces.

In Love’s case I found this book lifted a veil and I was able to see a bit further into the writer at work. My favourite piece was “In Tribulation and with Jubilee: On Pilgrimage with Bridie King”. Its structure was a little ad hoc, but I wanted to know more about the places Love and King were visiting and the people they were meeting. But I am out of order. Let me talk about the pieces as they appear.

Retro Review: Black Juice

Margo Lanagan

Allen & Unwin (2006)

ISBN: 9781741750911

Reviewed by Kathryn Linge (this review was first published in April 2008

I come to this collection with certain prior knowledge of Margo Lanagan and her successes, but no actual first-hand experience. And the prior knowledge is weighty, including a World Fantasy Award for Best Collection and a World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction (for “Singing My Sister Down”)*. From that respect, I am pleased to say that I don’t think there are any poor stories in this collection. Each is well-written and readable. However, neither did I find these stories particularly gripping. Indeed, a couple of weeks after reading the collection I find very few stories have stuck in my mind and I find it hard to picture some of them without rechecking the first few paragraphs. The stories are good, but I did not find them great.

Although I am only reviewing Black Juice here, I did in fact read all three of Lanagan’s collections one after the other, in chronological order. In terms of the writing, I think Black Juice stands right in the middle, where it chronologically belongs. White Time reads like a first story collection, although it was also the collection I most enjoyed. With each collection Lanagan’s writing becomes more developed but also perhaps more abstract and more stylised. I found the stories in Red Spikes too abstract to connect with.

Retro Review: The Accidental Sorcerer

KE Mills

Rogue Agent, book 1

HarperVoyager (2008)

ISBN: 9780732286040

Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack (this review was originally published in February 2008)

The Accidental Sorcerer turned out to be a delightful surprise. The first twenty pages seemed to be setting up a rather ordinary, derivative novel without much originality. But then the author hit her stride, and the novel turned into a lively, energetic, original romp that at times made me laugh out loud. By the end, I was already anticipating with pleasure future instalments in the series.

The Sorcerer of the title is Gerald Dunwoody, a depressingly ordinary young man, with a depressingly average level of magical talent. Resigned to his own ordinariness, Gerald has accepted his status as a Third Level magician, and with it a job as a bureaucrat in the Department of Thaumaturgy. Unfortunately, on one of his first jobs things go hideously wrong and he contributes to a devastating explosion at a major wand factory – and creates a huge scandal. Luckily Gerald isn’t entirely friendless, and he manages to get a job in another country as Royal Court Wizard. Given his lowly qualifications, Gerald has a sense that there must be some catch in the job; but it’s a job, and the title alone should give him enough status to eventually rebuild a career in his native land.

Retro Review: The Infernal

Kim Wilkins

Arrow (1997)

ISBN: 0091834171

Reviewed by Gillian Polack (this review first published August 2007)

Kim Wilkins is a reliably entertaining writer. She knows the tropes for horror and her backgrounds feel secure and are detailed to the exact level they need to be. Nothing I’ve read by her is less than good, and at her best she is an outstanding genre writer. This makes her quite difficult to review, because I want to say all the same things I have always said when asked about her: that she’s a fine craftswoman with a natural flow of language; that she knows her stuff and uses it well; that her books are enjoyable.

The Infernal does all of these things, and occasionally just a little bit more. It’s not a book to read at night alone in mid-winter. Which is exactly what I did. Just don’t ask me about my dreams for a bit, please.

What’s The Infernal about (besides dreams)?

Lisa is a musician who is successful enough to make a (bare) living, but not so successful that she and her band aren’t looking for that major breakthrough. She starts worrying when one of her fans turns up dead in a forest and when she starts dreaming vivid memories of the past. She does all the right things: tells the police everything she knows about the murder; explores her dreams to find out what has triggered them and why they are coming to her and how she can diminish them. Then the one thing that ought to be going right (her best friend’s marriage to a surprisingly normal accountant) goes all awry. Lisa does what she can, and has to face demons on all sorts of levels.

Retro Review: White Tiger

Kylie Chan

Dark Heavens, book 1

HarperCollins (2006) 

ISBN: 9780732282967

Reviewed by Tansy Rayner Roberts (this review was originally published in October 2006)

There have been some really great debuts for Australian fantasy writers in the last twelve months, with Karen Miller’s adventurous Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology, and Grace Dugan’s promising first novel, The Silver Road. Like these two exciting new authors, Kylie Chan has produced a fast-paced and innovative debut novel, which adds a new dimension to the general picture of Australian fantasy fiction.

Emma is an Australian living and working in the childcare industry in Hong Kong, her English language skills being particularly prized. When she loses her job in a prestigious kindergarten for making the lessons a bit too much fun, she is snapped up for a full time nanny position by one of her regular clients, a mysterious and handsome Chinese businessman, Mr Chen, with an adorable, completely over-scheduled four year old daughter, Simone.

Sounds like one of those romantic comedies where the nanny falls in love with her employer and fixes his family while she’s at it? You wouldn’t be far wrong, though there is far more to this novel than that plotline. Despite the fact that it takes a long time to be officially revealed (to Emma, at least, who is a touch dense on this particular subject), it’s not too much of a spoiler to reveal that Mr Chen is not a mobster (as Emma first believes) but is actually a Chinese god, as are many of his strange and entertaining cronies. He and his half-immortal daughter are under attack from various demons, and his current lifespan is running short. It is vital that he trains his daughter to be independent before he has to leave her, and that is only a matter of a few years. Falling in love with Emma is not part of the equation…

Retro Review: the Black Magician trilogy

Trudi Canavan

The Magician’s Guild, Harper Voyager (2001), ISBN: 9780732270957

The Novice, Harper Voyager (2002), ISBN: 9780732272364

The High Lord, Harper Voyager (2003), ISBN: 9780732272302

Reviewed by Kathryn Linge (this review was originally published in 2009)

The Black Magician Trilogy revolves around Sonea, a girl born in the slums of the city of Imardin, who discovers that she has magical abilities normally only found (or at least only looked for) in the upper classes. She discovers them during the annual Purge, when magicians from the Guild gather together to purge the city of the homeless by order of the King of Kyralia. Angry at how her friends and family are being treated, Sonea throws a stone at the magicians’ shield, and is amazed when it passes through the magical barrier and knocks a magician unconscious. The Guild are immediately concerned that such strong ability has developed naturally in a slum dweller, partly because no commoner has been accepted to be a Guild magician in hundreds of years, but also because if Sonea cannot learn to control her power, it will destroy her and possibly a good part of the city as well.

A large part of The Magician’s Guild, book one of the trilogy, follows Sonea’s attempts to hide from the magicians, aided by her friend Cery and the Thieves, who see advantage in having access to a magician not controlled by the Guild. And, to be honest, I found the book fairly predictable and unexciting. The action remains static for much of the novel. After rousing the Guild’s interest, Sonea hides throughout the city. The Guild’s need to find her before she (effectively) explodes with power is not clearly established – there’s no real sense of urgency and so we have a storyline where the magicians nearly find her on a couple of occasions, but she avoids them, finds a new spot to hide, and the cycle continues. By the time, Sonea has been found by the Guild, and the danger of her uncontrolled power is finally explained, I was lost to the rest of the story. Don’t get me wrong, The Magician’s Guild is competently written and the text is far from stodgy. It just wasn’t very engaging.

Retro Review: Blue Silence

Michelle Marquardt

Bantam (2002)

ISBN: 186325 251 7

Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack (this review was originally published in 2007)

Blue Silence is a confident and assured science fiction novel, which I enjoyed a great deal.

The novel focuses on Senator Maya Russini, and is told from her point of view. Maya is a strong character; I realised at the end of the novel that Marquardt had given little indication of Maya’s age or appearance, and not a great deal of information about her past. Despite this, I had a strong sense of her personality and who she was, and I was definitely on her side for much of the novel. Marquardt has an eye for characterisation; her major characters were all strong, distinctive and interesting.

Maya and her Senatorial colleagues on Colony Two have been embroiled in negotiations with their sister colony (Colony One). The two Colonies are both space stations orbiting earth, but have very different lifestyles; Colony One is highly reliant on nano-technology and makes no attempt to create a natural environment. Colony Two has rigorous legislation banning nano-technology, and ensures that parks, gardens, and greenery exist throughout their station. In the past, One has supplied water to Two through their mining operations. But now, One is blackmailing them; they will only sell them water if they also agree to allow nano-technology onto the space station. Colony Two has options, but they’re limited, and if just one thing goes wrong in their attempt to get water from elsewhere, they will be at Colony One’s mercy.

Retro Review: Dark Space

Marianne de Pierres

Sentients of Orion, book 1

Orbit (2007)

ISBN: 9781841494289 

Reviewed by Tehani Wessely (this review was originally published in 2007)

Reading a Marianne de Pierres novel is almost like immersing yourself in a brilliantly detailed film – you find yourself engrossed in not only the plot and characterisation, but in the highly visual nature of the story. It is very easy to believe in the far distant (temporally and spatially) locale delineated in Dark Space because de Pierres embeds the physical surroundings so integrally to the plot that you find the world she has created is drawn implicitly for you, without being intrusive to the movement of the story.

In Dark Space, de Pierres has created a universe in a far distant future, where humans (or ‘esques) have migrated into the solar systems to planets that may be bought and sold by single families. In this case, most of the story is set on Araldis, a world owned by an aristocracy from a vaguely Italian background which purchased a world for its mining bounty. It otherwise has little to recommend it. Other than the upper class aristocracy, there are also the nobile – brought as servants but having some status – ordinary miners, and a variety of aliens inhabiting Araldis. The highest of the aristocracy, the Principe, is drawn as corrupt and uncaring of the lower classes, raising a self-centred, egocentric son with all his flaws, and no opportunity to experience life in order to grow or change. Trinder Pellegrini demonstrates some of the very worst of aristocratic dismissal of anyone of a lower class than he, even going along with his father’s plan to strip Mira Fedor – one of only a very few of her family in 200 years born with the genetic talent to fly the biozoon ship Insignia, and the only female – of her birthright. When Mira discovers this, she flees, and so becomes embroiled in the plots against the Pellegrini Principe and the aristocracy in general, quite by accident. Don’t be fooled though. This story is not the story of Mira Fedor and her fight to keep her birthright. That thread, while important to this book, and possibly more so in later instalments of the series, is not central to the story. Rather, the novel is about class, race, gender and cultural divides, woven deftly into an action packed plot on a distant world.