(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Depending on your perspective, old age is a time where you either throw in the towel and admit life is what it is and there’s no changing it, and by extension, you, or you give things a long, hard look and carpe diem the Continue Reading
Books
Cover reveal party: The Way of the Walker by Salinee Goldenberg
(courtesy Angry Robot Books) SNAPSHOTReturn to the Thai-inspired world of Suyoram in this sharp follow up to 2024’s The Last Phi Hunter, exploring mythology, colonialism, and feminine rage. Ree is born with her eyes open to the Everpresent — a heightened awareness where Phi Hunters pull their magic and can Continue Reading
Book review: The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Good lord but swashbuckling space operatic fun is good for the too tightly tied down soul. When all the stresses and obligations of life have you feel suffocatingly pinned into a very small and ever-diminishing space, picking up a superlatively good piece of wide-ranging sci-fi Continue Reading
Book review: The Lonely Hearts Quiz League by Lauren Farnsworth
(courtesy Hachette Australia) It has long intrigued this reviewer why it is that we love “found family” stories so much. It’s not that they don’t present a comforting and warmly lovely scenario; after all, who doesn’t love the idea of sadness, loss and crushing social isolation being countered by slowly Continue Reading
Book review: The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong
(courtesy Hachette Australia) There is an inestimable joy to finding your people. We all start out in life with a family into which we are born, which can either work for us or not, but along the way, if we’re lucky enough, we accumulate friends so close they become that Continue Reading
Book review: Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino
(courtesy Scholastic) If you have grown up and are comfortably ensconced as a member of the heteronormative majority, you will have likely seen little to trouble your secure worldview. Almost everything caters to the idea that society, and indeed civilisation as a whole, has been shaped in its entirety by Continue Reading
Eurovision 2025 cultural festival Swiss book review: Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (translated by Barbara Harshav)
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Australia) The weight of life upon us can often be considerable; but for many people, it is not until a sudden event or change of heart hits them that they become aware of just great a load they are carrying. For some people, of course, it Continue Reading
“We act – or we lose.” The stakes couldn’t be higher as Foundation season 3 debuts its arresting first trailer
(courtesy First Showing (c) AppleTV+) SNAPSHOTBased on the award-winning sci-fi novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilisation amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. The premise of the stories is that, in the waning days of a Continue Reading
Book review: Letters to our Robot Son by Cadance Bell
(courtesy Ultimo Press) I know, I know, I KNOW that you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover (unless you’re part of a publishing company’s marketing team in which case that’s all you want to do). BUT, and in the case of Letters to our Robot Son by Continue Reading
Book review: Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3) by Martha Wells
(courtesy Tor Publishing Group) There have been more than a few stories of artificial lifeforms who have ended up being considerably more human than their creators. But is there anyone more human than the eponymous protagonist of this marvellous series by Martha Wells, a robot created to enforce, with extreme Continue Reading