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Tahereh Mafi
Allen and Unwin (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-74237-820-6
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Shatter Me is an impressive debut novel from Tahereh Mafi, employing an unusual structural style to tell a not-quite-linear narrative following characters you come to love and loathe. While not marketed as such, it is apparently book one of a trilogy, but don’t let that deter you – this book stands alone quite well, and comes to a satisfying conclusion while leaving you wanting more.
Juliette is in isolation, restricted to a cell to “protect” society from her deadly touch. She thinks she might be going insane, in solitary confinement, and when her captors throw a young man into the cell with her, she’s certain of it, sure that one or both of them is intended now to die. But Adam is not what he appears, and it seems that the Reestablishment – the organisation that gained power after the world tried to destroy itself – has other plans for Juliette. Can she somehow gain back control of her own life, and perhaps even find a semblance of a normal life?
Garth Nix
Allen & Unwin (2012)
ISBN: 978 1 74175 861 0
Reviewed by Jason Nahrung
The foundation of this YA space opera from Garth Nix in a proposed computer game is apparent, but well controlled and logical. What is a quest if not a series of challenges, each developing a strength and teaching a lesson?
For Khemri, those lessons can be lethal, and increasingly serve to acquaint him with what it means to be human, or rather, an everyday citizen. To think, that someone might sacrifice themselves for another, out of desire and not coercion…
Khemri is one of millions of enhanced, purpose-crafted princes who control the empire within a bureaucratic framework of priests under an overarching Imperial Mind. Nix’s universe utilises three core technologies: mechanical, biological and psychic. It’s a wonderfully drawn world, from its terminology to its weaponry and medical tech, communications and transport, to the computer game idea of respawning or resurrection, new Battlestar Galactica style, after death. Read the rest of this entry »
Celine Kiernan
Allen and Unwin
ISBN: 978-1-74237-752-0
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
Reading Taken Away was a rather unexpected experience, largely because the blurb on the back bore very little resemblance to what the story was actually about. It was quite a good story, and I enjoyed the novel; it’s just that it was not at all what I had anticipated.
The story opens in 1974 on the night that Dom and Pat’s senile grandmother burns down their house. They weren’t rich to start with, but now they have nothing. The family must essentially start again, and to do so they move into the house they normally rent for holidays. It’s not much fun living in a holiday house when you’re not on holiday. A lot of the flaws that you never notice when you’re in a good mood and the place is bursting with relatives suddenly become obvious.
Kerry Greenwood
Phryne Fisher Mysteries, book 17
Allen & Unwin (2008)
ISBN: 9781741149999
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack (this review was first published in November 2008)
Kerry Greenwood has written many speculative fiction novels, but is possibly best known for her Phryne Fisher mystery stories. This is one of those novels, and it has only the faintest connection to the speculative fiction genre. It’s an enjoyable novel, though, and readers who know only Greenwood’s speculative fiction may well want to try this series as well.
Set in 1929 Australia, the novel is part of the continuing story of Phryne Fisher. The aristocratic and rich Miss Fisher is an amateur detective; although she earns some money from her endeavours, she doesn’t really need it and undertakes her investigations more from curiosity or a desire to help someone. Here Phryne finds herself dealing with two mysteries. In the first, the formidable Mrs Manifold approaches Phryne for help. Her son Augustine was found drowned on a St Kilda beach; suicide, the police say. But Mrs Manifold is certain he would not kill himself, and her reasons are convincing enough for Phryne to agree to try to find the truth. At the same time, a local lawyer has approached Phryne for help in finding an illegitimate child – who would now be an adult – and who might or might not exist. Read the rest of this entry »
Margo Lanagan
Allen and Unwin (2012)
ISBN: 978-1-74237-505-2
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Rollrock Island is a remote fishing community of honest, hardworking folk; simple, down to earth, but with a strange history that is about to come about full circle. Misskaella finds within herself a power that has not been seen on the island in several generations, the power to call forth people from the skins of seals. Her ability will change the island and its inhabitants completely, bringing about a new era of sea-wives on Rollrock.
Lian Tanner
The Keepers, Book 1
Allen & Unwin (2010)
ISBN: 978-1-74237-157-3
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
Welcome to the city of Jewel, where children are coddled and overprotected to the point of effective imprisonment. In a place where this has happened for decades, impatience and boldness are considered very wrong, and adults are almost entirely weak and ineffectual. Goldie Roth finds herself in a highly unusual situation when the ruler of the city, the Protector, tries to loosen the ties on the young by releasing them early from the guardchains of childhood, only to have an explosion suddenly destroy the fragile steps she had begun to take. The Fugleman, the city’s spiritual guide and leader of the Blessed Guardians – who ensure the safety of children (whether they need taking care of or not) – has his own agenda, one that is not at all on the same wavelength as the Protector’s.
Andrew McGahan
Allen & Unwin (2011)
ISBN 978-1-74237-647-9
Reviewed by Jason Nahrung
Andrew McGahan’s The Coming of the Whirlpool is not so much a love letter to the sea but to the literature of the sea. Homages abound in this, the first, handsomely produced title of the four-book Ship Kings series.
The Queensland author, now a Melburnite, has penned the Vogel-winning Praise and the Miles Franklin-winning The White Earth; in 2010 he was on hand to receive an Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel, Wonders of a Godless World. His Last Drinks was an insightful crime novel rooted in the corruption of Queensland’s Bjelke-Petersen era. And now his genre-hopping has brought him to YA fantasy – as a Sydney Morning Herald interviewer pointed out in October, “Any number of serious writers of good fiction, including Nick Hornby, Salman Rushdie, Patrick Ness and Roddy Doyle, have ventured into the genre.” So, you know, no shame. Hats off to McGahan for following his passion and leaving the prudes to scratch their heads.
He follows it well, too, this writer who grew up in the Queensland wheatbelt loving the likes of Poe – he name checks ‘A Descent into the Maelstrom’ in several interviews – and Moby Dick, Le Guin and Tolkien. He isn’t a sailor, he admits, but the details of sailing and seawater, weather and tide in Whirlpool ring true to this fellow landlubber.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Mandy Ord
Allen & Unwin (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-742-37216-7
Reviewed by Ross Murray
Mandy Ord is now a staple of the Australian comic art community with a career spanning over fifteen years beginning with her self-published venture, Wilnot.
Sensitive Creatures follows her full length Rooftops (2008, Finlay Lloyd) and is a collection of short graphic narratives that were originally self-published or found homes between 2002 and 2010 in publications including The Lifted Brow, falcon vs monkey, Tango, and Torpedo.
To the glancing eye Ord’s work may look unrefined but on closer inspection there’s close attention to detail and a surety in line, definition and layout. Ord conveys emotions through facial expressions, and body positioning with great care and definition. There’s never a time when you’re unsure what the characters are thinking or feeling.
Karen Healey
Allen & Unwin (2011)
ISBN: 978-1-74175-881-8
Reviewed by Tehani Wessely
When three teenagers discover a pattern of suicides among older brothers who visit the perfect tourist town of Summerton, they begin to investigate the possibility of a serial killer. But Janna, Sione and Keri uncover far more than they could have imagined on their quest for the truth, with high stakes meaning their own lives are now at risk. Can they save the next victim, or even themselves?
Healey made a stunning debut last year with Guardian of the Dead, a startling New Zealand-set story with sinister undertones. In The Shattering, she again brings New Zealand to life, as the country takes on its own role in the story. The setting is integral to the work, as much as the characters, providing a meaningful backdrop to the cast and the storyline. I really enjoyed the characterisations of Janna, Keri and Sione, who were three dimensional and well-rounded. There’s something very real about them, and I’m sure most readers will find something about at least one of the three to identify with.
