book review

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Rec160 — The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, by Alison Goodman

Novel

Title: The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin

Author: Alison Goodman

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia

I devoured the Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, the follow-up to the deliciously titled The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. While having read the first will assist, it probably isn’t necessary to be moving on here, thanks to the careful placement of sufficient back story. The first featured three distinct adventures linked by an overarching plot involving a fallen nobleman with whom our point-of-view heroine, Gus, becomes entangled. This plot becomes the driving force of the Ladies Road Guide, with a secret cabal, a dollop of spies, and hindrances from societal and familial expectations adding healthy measures of intrigue and complication. Gus and her sister, Julia, make a formidable, but not infallible, duo, ably supported by a likeable supporting cast. The command of character and the Regency setting makes it a joy as the action thumps along like a rushing phaeton – mind those potholes, ladies! Just as pleasing is the clear suggestion that there is more to come. C’est magnifique!

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rec160: The Trespassers

The Trespassers, by Meg Mundell (UQP, 2019)

A murder on the high seas sets the scene for the second novel by Melbourne-based Meg Mundell, but this is no whodunnit.

Rather, the near-future setting serves as a mirror for the tensions of our turbulent times as, once again, Europeans flee their homes for the promise of a better life in Australia.

In this case, a plague is driving Irish and British residents to board sailing ships bound for Down Under in an employment scheme, but their vessel, The Steadfast, becomes a political hot potato when the voyage goes awry.

Told through the viewpoints of three beautifully drawn passengers, the story is dark and unremitting as friendships form and secrets surface under the most trying of circumstances.

Tighter than Mundell’s dystopian debut, Black Glass (2011), The Trespassers targets corporate accountability, the treatment of asylum seekers, and our moral compass in the Anthropocene as the stories of hearing-impaired boy Cleary, nurse Billie and teacher Tom intersect in a thoroughly engaging tale.

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rec160: Traitor’s Run

NOVEL

Title: Traitor’s Run: The Lenticular, Book 1

Author: Keith Stevenson

Publisher: Coeur de Lion, 2023

It’s been a few years since I first spied an early draft of this space opera, and my, isn’t it taller! The story is an accomplished presentation of interstellar empire building, pictured through the eyes of Udun and Rhees. Udun is regarded as a misfit among the empathic Kresz due to his adventurous spirit. He is presented in first person, our entry into the physiology, culture and planet of his insular people, who face world-changing rivalries among their Houses. As Earth’s Hegemony seeks to spread its influence into the Kresz’s chunk of space, known as the Lenticular, Rhees, a disgraced human fighter pilot, is thrust into a conspiracy of epic proportions. Their points of view sufficiently described the setting that a data file on the Kresz and glossary felt almost superfluous. Rather, I was on board for the ride as events pile pressure on both characters, leaving the story poised for the middle book of the trilogy. Sign me up.   

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rec160: Billy Summers

NOVEL

Title: Billy Summers

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton, 2021

We’ve heard this one before. Maestro Stephen King knows it. His titular character knows it. And that’s just the start of this clever, assured tale of an assassin seeking to plump up his retirement fund on a last dicey job. King rounds the edges off his hired gun by giving him a conscience – he only hits bad men, while acknowledging the reality that he, too, is, if not a bad man, not a good man – and making him a reader and also, potentially, a writer. So we find a story within a story, the hitman telling his past as he navigates the perils of his last job. There is a nod to one of King’s early, most successful successes, and tips of the hat to the writer’s craft. There is the humanity that King does so well in creating his characters, the eye for the detail that brings locations alive.  And there’s a fittingly killer ending for an adroit thriller.

>> Read an extract

A version of this reviewed has previously appeared in the Herald Sun

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rec160: Neon Leviathan

COLLECTION

Author: TR Napper

Title: Neon Leviathan

Publisher: Grimdark Magazine, 2019

Aussie Napper’s excellent 36 Streets won a Ditmar award at a recent Canberra convention, where I picked up this handsomely presented collection of 12 stories offering similar Asian-infused cyberpunk goodness (two original to this volume, the longer penultimate piece thoroughly Orwellian). The stories range from the 2030s to a dystopia more than a century on, revolving around battlers of various ilks trying to keep their heads up, street criminals and soldiers trying to stay alive. Memory, (virtual) reality and identity are common themes in the gritty collection that notably draws on Napper’s experience in Australia and Asia – Vietnam in particular is a strong influence. As Adrian Tchaikovsky notes in his forward, several conjure a familiarity through the common use of the evolving Kandel-Yu device and memory pins, and characters also reappear. While a couple of stories lighten the mood with touches of sly humour and surrealist elements, the collection presents a satisfying journey through the dark roads of the future.

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rec160: Her Perilous Mansion

NOVEL

Title: Her Perilous Mansion

Author: Sean Williams

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2020

A dream and time spent in Ireland form the foundation of this gentle middle-grade adventure from Adelaide-based Sean Williams. Orphan Almanac and Etta, a twelfth and put-upon daughter, receive offers of employment in a mysterious mansion, a golden opportunity for a step up in station and comfort. But they quickly realise all is not as it should be. As they investigate the sprawling home and grounds and get to know the largely unsighted and enigmatic inhabitants, the titular peril is gradually unveiled. Almanac and Etta strike a fractious friendship as they seek to uncover and decode the clues they need to solve the puzzle of the house and escape the deadly trap in which they have become ensnared. The pair are likeable heroes, the world — with just the right amount of magic — is well realised, and the danger, while grave, is not too unsettling for younger readers to handle. A fine, fun addition to Williams’ already broad and accomplished repertoire.

A version of this review was previously published in the Herald-Sun

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rec160: Dream Weaver

NOVEL

Title: Dream Weaver

Author: Steven Paulsen

Publisher: IFWG, 2023

In which fellow Ballarat-based writer Steven Paulsen draws on his own travels, a tonne of research and a well-honed imagination to conjure a thrilling chase across a chunk of 1400s Anatolia. Ali is a poor youth with a valuable gift – a gift he barely understands but drops him into the centre of a bloody power struggle. To survive he must fulfil a quest that involves unexpected allies and merciless pursuers, the prize a sheer delight. The story is pitched at a YA audience but rewards the older reader, even if some of the turns and reveals may not be too unexpected. The characters are enjoyable, the setting well detailed, and moments of magic are beautifully entwined in the historical period in what must draw references to the Arabian Nights. There’s an earthiness, a darkness, the flavours and scents of the food and the landscape, that keep the flights of fancy grounded while giving the story plenty of lift. Good fun.

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rec160: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin, 2020)

In 1983 England, all is not what it seems in this slightly askew historical setting.

Creatures of folklore and myth intrude into the human realm, with a dedicated band of booksellers keeping them in check.

The booksellers, versed in lore and adept in magical and martial battle, police the realm with a nod and a wink from the authorities.

Enter art student Susan, with a family secret that leads her into the secret world, with left-handed bookseller Merlin and his right-handed sister Vivien keeping her company as they pursue their own quest.

The characters are vibrant, the world as intriguing as you’d expect from a master of the genre such as Garth Nix.

There’s an engaging voice to the narrative that harks to the likes of Susan Cooper, Alan Garner and others who have brought the mythic into the mortal, and Nix is not adrift in that company as he doffs a fresh hat to that tradition.

A version of this review appeared in the Herald Sun, 31/10/2020