(courtesy NewSouth Books) There is something magnificently enthralling about bearing witness to a talented author conjuring up an entire near-future world from the ground up in just 110 tautly-written pages. From nothing, we are led with brutal vivacity and a readily identifiable broken humanity into a dystopian world where civilisation Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Excitements by C. J. Wray
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Dancing deftly between the whimsical and the emotional weighty is a tricky thing to pull off in any novel. Tip too far either way, and the now-lesser part of the story feels pointless, a drag on a narrative that clearly wants to go one way in particular Continue Reading
UPCOMING READS: Two Kings by Holden Sheppard coming from Pantera Press
(courtesy official Holden Sheppard Twitter/X account) SNAPSHOTTwo Kings is a gritty and heartfelt gay coming-of-age story, set in the world of FIFO workers and tradies in Western Australia. Giacomo Brolo, aka Jack, is a mess, consumed by a self-loathing all too common for closeted men who have grown up in Continue Reading
‘Tis the season book preview: 12 Tropes of Christmas: an anthology of festive romcom stories
(courtesy Fantastic Fiction) A dozen ways to fall in love this Christmas! 12 authors, 12 tropes, 12 romance stories. Whatever your trope, you’ll find a romantic story in this anthology to keep you happy. Enemies to lovers, best friend’s brother, friends to lovers, married one, twice shy, and runaway groom/ Continue Reading
What makes things so Wicked? New featurette pulls back the curtain …
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Emmy, Grammy, Tony winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist and global superstar Ariana Grande Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: A White Christmas on Winter St. by Sue Moorcroft
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you read a few Christmas-themed books, you will be well acquainted with the recurrent themes of this most festive of genres. At least one member of the couple at the centre of the story must be emotionally broken or traumatised and in need of Continue Reading
Book review: The Day Tripper by James Goodhand
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) In recent years, there has a been near-chronological avalanche of stories that make merry with ideas of time and space and use our increasing understanding of how these two concepts work and interact to spin some incredibly involved and immersively beguiling storytelling. Having someone Continue Reading
Book review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) There a re a great many superstars of the literary sci-fi genre, authors whose minds not only go there but who are then, almost miraculously, able to take their wildly imaginative musings and doing something profoundly impressive them. One of the leading stars of this pantheon Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: The Gingerbread Café by Anita Faulkner
(courtesy Hachette Australia) As someone who grew up incredibly socially isolated thanks to incessant bullying from the first day of school until almost the last, this reviewer appreciates a story in which something similarly cut out of the mainstream finds their way into a place of belonging and the unconditional Continue Reading
Book review: Hurdy Gurdy by Jenny Ackland
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) The way the world is going at the moment, you would have to be the hardiest and perkiest of optimists to think that the way forward is strewn with anything but death, disaster and destruction. Fascists are making their cruelly odious presence felt around Continue Reading