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Vale: Samuel Youd, aka John Christopher

Posted in books, fantasy, news regurgitation, science fiction with tags , , , , , on February 4, 2012 by jason nahrung

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Word is spreading of a sad loss in the speculative fiction community, that of British Writer Samuel Youd, on February 3, only two months shy of his 90th birthday. <Update: Locus has confirmed Youd’s passsing.>

As John Christopher, Youd provided two of the great texts of my childhood, both of which have survived the recent pogroms of excess literature cluttering the household shelves: The Tripods and The Sword of the Spirits trilogies. Tripods in particular made a strong impression.

This is barely scratching the surface of his output published under numerous pseudonyms.

He ranked up there with the likes of Garner, Cooper and Le Guin in my early reading. I hope more generations come to appreciate his legacy.

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Aussies on Locus recommended reading list

Posted in books, fantasy, news regurgitation, science fiction, writing with tags , , on February 2, 2012 by jason nahrung

A few Australian writers appear on Locus magazine’s list of recommended reading from 2011 — novels by Kaaron Warren, Alison Goodman, Jo Anderton, Scott Westerfeld (who straddles the Pacific divide); collections from Margo Lanagan, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Lucy Sussex; anthologies edited or co-edited by Jack Dann and four (!) by Jonathan Strahan; novelettes by Peter M Ball, Isobelle Carmody and Margo Lanagan; and short stories by Peter M Ball, Damien Broderick, Terry Dowling, Thoraiya Dyer, Margo Lanagan, Chris Lawson, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Kaaron Warren.

Apologies for anyone I’ve missed through oversight or ignorance.

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Stormlord Rising, Snow Crash, Kraken, The Broken Ones, Phoenix Rising: one of these things is not like the others

Posted in books, fantasy, horror, review, science fiction with tags , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2011 by jason nahrung

Recent reading:

stormlord rising by glenda larke

Glenda Larke’s Stormlord Rising, book 2 of the Watergivers series, and quite superb. Just like book 1, The Last Stormlord (reviewed here). In which Larke beautifully uses landscape to sculpt her cultures, right down to the vernacular. Gives religion a thumping, stage-manages her rather large cast very well, manages to cause her characters a few headaches along the way as well. I was particularly chuffed at how book 2 feels quite self contained, while still managing to provide plenty of reasons to read book 3. Which I will do, very shortly.

snow crash by neal stephenson

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Fair to say that this, along with William Gibson’s Neuromancer (gushed about here), is a core plank of cyberpunk? Still holds up, after all these years, even if no one has bothered to fix that bothersome literal role/roll model. Coolest pizza delivery peeps evah! Will soon be lining up for his massive Reamde – wish me luck.

kraken by china mieville

Kraken, what passes for a romp in the land of far-too-talented China Mieville. A little cloudy in its cleverness in places — inky, one could say — as a vibrantly realised magical London (nice nod to a previous short story concerning cartography, too) and uber-clever dialogue as cults and other interested parties are caught up in the tentacles of a plot to bring about apocalypse. Evolutionary stuff!

the broken ones by stephen irwin

The Broken Ones, in which Stephen M Irwin gives Brissie a haunted makeover while trashing the place. Occult conspiracies, a tenacious detective and true chills. It’s Irwin’s second novel and, IMHO, shows the maturation of a mighty promising talent. I’ve burbled on about this one over at ASiF. I’m quite looking forward to Irwin’s next book.

phoenix rising

And then there’s Phoenix Rising, by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Sadly, a few factors combined to hobble my reading of this one, the first in a series. I say sadly because I was, despite the steampunk lingerie on the cover, really quite keen, thanks to the combination of a Kiwi heroine and rather spiffy dialogue. But then there’s the solo attack in Antarctica carried out in thigh-high boots and a fur coat, the willy nilly distribution of literal and spelling errors, the (non-authorial) disconcerting use of American spelling in a story about a Commonwealth agency in Victorian London: I do hope the new world order of international publishing isn’t all about the lowest common denominator (that’s you, America, or rather, it’s not ‘u’). It certainly isn’t about proofreading, is it? Anyway, maybe it was my flu making me more ornery than usual, but I just couldn’t wade through the glibness and clumsiness. I’ll keep it on hand for another shot, because I really do like that librarian, sorry, archivist, on the cover sipping tea.

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Disparate dystopian adventures: Wither and America Pacifica

Posted in fantasy, review, science fiction with tags , , , , on July 9, 2011 by jason nahrung

Dystopia is hot, especially in young adult fiction where The Hunger Games is probably the leader of the pack. I’ve read two new additions to the field recently, and these two debut novels could hardly be more different.

I don’t normally bother to post negative reviews. I don’t think they do anyone much service, either the book nor the reviewer. After all, most stories will find an audience, and it makes more sense to me to promote good reading rather than deride less satisfactory experiences. Which leads me to Wither, by Lauren DeStefano, with which I’ve made an exception.

wither by lauren destefano

My review is somewhat withering, and I thought long and hard about posting it (in hindsight, I should’ve not used the word bullshit; I do regret any snarkiness). But at the end of the day, the book annoyed me so much, I felt opening the discussion was worth it.

I have three core beefs with the book. The first is in the world building: a shambolic thing, coming across as shallow and ill-conceived and paying little attention to what could have been, and should have been, an examination of a society in which people barely live past their teens. What does this do the economy, to social cohesion, to the very psychology of those living with built-in expirations?

The second source of disgruntlement was in the heroine, a passive creature, admittedly caught in a rough spot but not being proactive enough in trying to extricate herself.

And the third, the thing that really stuck in my craw and induced me to write that dually damning review, was the fact that I just could not get past the fact that this book is built on a foundation of sexual slavery. Not arranged marriage, not some kind of celebrity matchmaking, but slavery; slavery with the apparent purpose of genetic experimentation through procreation. What a dire situation — one existing today — this could’ve been. And as I say in the review, the real pity of it all is that DeStefano can write, and her characters are beautifully drawn and the romantic elements are deftly handled.

america pacifica by anna north

By contrast, America Pacifica by Anna North is a dark, gritty visualisation of a world gone down the gurgler. I had a few qualms with the world building here, also — the story is set on a Pacific island where refugees from a new ice age struggle to retain the vestiges of the civilisation they have lost — but found the heroine engaging and gutsy — there was no romance in the sacrifices she had to make to uncover the truth of her mother’s disappearance — and, most satisfactorily, enjoyed the social examination that North brought to the story. It doesn’t hurt that the final scene is to die for. The full review is here.

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Patricia Piccinni’s fantastic body of work

Posted in art, review, science fiction, travel with tags , , , on June 22, 2011 by jason nahrung

patricia piccinini vespa sculpturepatricia piccinini sculpture

And I thought Ron Mueck’s sculptures were amazing…

And fair enough, they are. But Patricia Piccinni’s work, on show at the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide, blew my socks off. Not only are her sculptures incredibly life-like, right down to the dimples, the hairs in the moles, the subtle blue veins under the skin, but they take us into the future. Strange critters imbued with incredible personality inhabit this vision, a vision largely made in a human laboratory. Cloning and gene splicing are among the issues that Piccinni’s sculptures examine, and most carry more than a hint of melancholy. A purposely spliced pig-like creature carries a litter destined to be spare parts; another creature is made as a breeding ground for hairy-nosed wombats. A young girl plays with over-sized stem cells as though they were blobs of plasticene. Two boys play with a hand-held game machine, but they wear the faces of old men.

Also in the exhibit are some cool trucks and even cooler mopeds given animalistic life, photography and audio-visual displays.

But it was the incredible emotion that Piccinni fostered in her fabulous future creatures that elevated this exhibition into the truly remarkable.

Will we — can we — still love our creations tomorrow?

  • Lisa Hannett also saw the exhibit and describes it with far more eloquence here.

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    Review: Engineering Infinity

    Posted in books, review, science fiction with tags , , , , , , , on April 18, 2011 by jason nahrung

    engineeering infinity by jonathan strahan (ed)

    Usually, mention of ‘hard SF’ would make my eyes glaze over. I’m the kind of tech-zombie who is happy to just press the button and have the machine do its thing, without too much thought for the how. It’s only when it doesn’t work that I start to ponder, and even then it’s a case of hard Fs rather than hard SF. So when Engineering Infinity (Solaris) landed in my mailbox and editor Jonathan Strahan started talking about hard SF in his introduction, I started to sweat. But whew – as Strahan says in summarising his anthology, these aren’t necessarily hard SF stories in the classic mould, though they do all have humanity and technology bumping heads and seeing what happens. It’s a superb collection of 14 well-crafted and quite varied yarns. One of the most technical — Peter Watt’s ‘Malak’ — was one of my favourites, along with Greg Benford’s serial killers meet time travel yarn and Charles Stross’s space zombies. Definitely a book to keep an eye out for, regardless of whether you like your SF hard-boiled or runny in in the middle, with that tasty side of humanity. My rather more considered review is up at Asif.

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    Anywhere But Earth … T minus X and counting…

    Posted in books, science fiction with tags , , , , on April 6, 2011 by jason nahrung

    anywhere but earth short story anthology

    Coeur de Lion has released the table of contents for its forthcoming anthology Anywhere But Earth, and wow, I’m very glad indeed to be in this one. Editor Keith Stevenson’s summary of my ‘Messiah on the Rock’: “Arse kicking atheists and messianic alien vampires”. Twenty-seven yarns all set somewhere that isn’t there — this is gonna be fun! This isn’t necessarily the final cover, and the anthology is due out late 2011.

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    Aurealis Awards finalists announced

    Posted in awards, fantasy, horror, science fiction, writing with tags , , on March 22, 2011 by jason nahrung

    The finalists for Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards have been announced. The Aurealis Awards recognise excellence by Australian writers and editors across the spectrum of fantastic fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror and all points in between. The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in Sydney on May 21. The judges had a bumper year to contend with — I judged for anthologies and collections, so I have an inkling of the array of quality shorts the other panels had to choose from — and the lists show some wonderful diversity, with newcomers rubbing shoulders with much-published authors, and a self-published fantasy novel making the final running, which is great to see. And of course, also great to see is Kirstyn’s Madigan Mine in the shortlist for horror novel, along with the most deserving Death Most Definite, by Trent Jamieson, and Jason Fischer’s After the World: Gravesend.

    2010 Aurealis Awards – Finalists
    CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)
    Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House
    Ranger’s Apprentice #9: Halt’s Peril, John Flanagan, Random House
    The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan
    The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin
    Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles (Penguin)

    CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
    Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking
    Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
    The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking
    Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen & Unwin
    The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)

    YOUNG ADULT Short Story
    Inksucker, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
    One Story, No Refunds, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press
    A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin
    Nine Times, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
    An Ordinary Boy, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press

    YOUNG ADULT Novel
    Merrow, Ananda Braxton-Smith, black dog books
    Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin
    The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin
    The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin
    Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin

    BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL
    Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin
    EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics
    Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing
    Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin
    Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne, McFarlane & Co.

    BEST COLLECTION
    The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing
    Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press
    Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press
    The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications
    Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications

    BEST ANTHOLOGY
    Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty Young, Brimstone Press
    Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
    Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books
    Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club
    Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books

    HORROR Short Story
    Take the Free Tour, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press
    Her Gallant Needs, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
    The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
    Wasting Matilda, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd
    Lollo, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing

    HORROR Novel
    After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics
    Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
    Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan

    FANTASY Short Story
    The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons
    Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
    The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
    All the Clowns in Clowntown, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
    Sister, Sister, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press

    FANTASY Novel
    The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self-published
    Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
    Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
    Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan
    Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)

    SCIENCE FICTION Short Story
    The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)
    The Angaelian Apocalypse, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The Angaelian Apocalypse, Twelfth Planet Press
    Border Crossing, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications
    Interloper, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)
    Relentless Adaptations, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

    SCIENCE FICTION Novel
    Song of Scarabaeous, Sara Creasy, EOS Books
    Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
    Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)

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    Australian Shadows shortlist announced

    Posted in awards, books, fantasy, horror, science fiction with tags , , , , , on February 25, 2011 by jason nahrung

    The Australian Horror Writers Association has announced this year’s finalists for the Shadows award, presented in the categories of (eclectic) long fiction, short fiction and edited publication, and I can safely say I’m happy I’m not trying to judge such a strong field — leastwise because my wife has two works in the running! I’ve read all but one of the final field, and they’re all darn fine yarns. Congratulations to all for making the final cut!

    The Shadows are announced in April, just ahead of the fan-based Ditmars at Swancon at Easter, and the country’s premier genre awards, the Aurealis Awards, at a gala bash in Sydney on May 21. Last year offered a bumper crop of tales spilling from Aussie pens: if you’re looking for some reading material, the shortlists make a great place to start.

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    The Seventh Wave by Paul Garrety — the moment is nigh!

    Posted in books, fantasy, science fiction with tags , , on January 22, 2011 by jason nahrung

    seventh wave by paul garrety

    The clock’s ticking and my mate’s nervous. Fair enough, given his debut novel is about to hit the shelves!

    Paul Garrety is a member of my Brisbane-based writing group, Writers on the Edge, and it’s been a thrill to see this story progress to the stage where HarperCollins have picked up both The Seventh Wave and its sequel. Sweet cover, too!

    Voyager have posted an extract here to whet the appetite.

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