(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) The age we live is in many ways not a happy one. Beset by war, climate change, microbial resistance, the rise of fascistic government and a host of other ailments, people feel beleaguered and exhausted and pessimistic about whether there are any ready solutions to any Continue Reading
Books
#ChristmasInJuly book review: There’s Something About Merry (Mistletoe Romance #2) by Codi Hall
(courtesy Sourcebooks Casablanca) When it comes to Christmas novels, and really many forms of festive storytelling, the much observed truism that there is nothing new under the sun is well and truly borne out. That’s not necessarily a criticism since those of us who love the season love the tropes Continue Reading
Book review: Chasm (The Glacian Trilogy, book 2) by Stacey McEwan
(courtesy Penguin Random House) If you’re going to make a fantastical world feel somewhat believable and authentic, and yes, fantasy needs to feel lived-in and humanly possible in some respects for the conceit to really stick its landing with readers, then you need three key things – taut, compelling and Continue Reading
Book review: All Wrapped Up by Ally Bunbury
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Christmas tales are, by and large, all about transformation and redemption. At what is styled at the most wonderful time of the year, everything is supposed to be possible and that includes giving a festive glow-up to lives that have languished and sorrowed in the other 11 Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly review redux: Dare to fall in love with Dash & Lily
If you are one of a more romantic persuasion than most, then you will find a great deal to like about a show that combines romantic comedy and Christmas, two genres that together account for much of the swoon-worthy, sigh-worthy, rose-coloured glass wearing wonder that makes the escapist part of Continue Reading
Book review: The Fancies by Kim Lock
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) A lot of people may feel like they don’t have a narrative bone in their body but the truth is, to one degree or another, we are all storytellers. Not necessarily out loud, although the creative types among most definitely are, but within, with the Continue Reading
Sci-fi review double: Foundation (S2, E1) and Strange New Worlds (S2, E4 & 5)
(courtesy IMP Awards) Foundation (S2, E1) Cataclysm in slow motion is once again the order of the day as Foundation, base don the work of the great Isaac Asimov ushers in its second season with “In Seldon’s Shadow”. A show known for its lush nuanced stroll towards a civilisational apocalypse Continue Reading
Book review: Frontier by Grace Curtis
(courtesy Goodreads) In a field as venerable and well-established as science fiction, with tropes plenty and cliches to burn, it can be challenging, though clearly not impossible as an impressive number of recent new books in the genre attest, to come up with something truly, mesmerisingly new. And even if Continue Reading
Book review: The Birdcage Library by Freya Berry
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Weaving a mystery into any story is a thing of consummate skill and almost beauty. One wrong foot either way, however, with too much or too little revealed, too early or too late and the entire beguiling narrative, at least the envisaged one, falls into a messy Continue Reading
Book review: Judas Blossom (Book 1 of The Nightingale and the Falcon) by Stephen Aryan
(courtesy Angry Robot Books) If you are history buff, you will be used to the fact that in recounting events from the near or distant past facts should take precedence over almost anything else, which is right and just and precisely what good history telling should do (this comes with Continue Reading