Some lovely new reviews around the internet!
Kyla Lee Ward at Tabula Rasa gives an entertaining review of Dirk Flinthart’s Path of Night, noting: “Flinthart delivers a thoughtful and entertaining take on his material.”
Elizabeth at Earl Grey Editing Service says of Phantazein: “The stories that make up the anthology had a nice mixture of cultures” and “…I’d definitely recommend it…” while Tsana Reads and Reviews declares: “there’s something here for all kinds of fairytalesque fantasy fans.”
We really appreciate all the reviews from our readers – if you have read one of our books, please post (or cross-post) a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as they do help!
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Congratulations to Joanne Anderton whose collection The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories is shortlisted for the Silver Falchion Best Single-Author Collection category. Also appearing on the shortlists is our friend “Livia Day” with her book A Trifle Dead from Twelfth Planet Press. Other Aussies on the list are Max Barry with Lexicon and Amie Kaufman (and Megan Spooner) for These Broken Stars. Well done all!
Speaking of Jo Anderton, she answers Three Questions over here at Maggie’s Blog.
I noticed this lovely review of “Flower and Weed” by Margo Lanagan on Goodreads – thanks Figgy!
And this comprehensive and wonderful review of To Spin a Darker Stair by Intellectus Speculativus, in which he says: To Spin A Darker Stair is an excellent example of how fairy stories can be told in a revisionist manner, and come out of the process truly fascinatingly.
As Tansy and I are working away on Cranky Ladies behind the scenes, Alex Pierce proves it’s never too late to talk about favourite Cranky Ladies, blogging about Alexandra Kollontai this week! Don’t forget you can catch up on all the posts in the Cranky Ladies blog tour here.
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I don’t usually review books here on the FableCroft site, but like to periodically do so when it’s a book by one of the authors we have published in the past or is something so brilliant from another small press that it deserves to be shouted from the rooftops! Like this one:
Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories
ISBN: 978-1-922101-11-2
August 2014, Twelfth Planet Press
Alisa Krasnostein & Julia Rios (eds.)
Kaleidoscope is one of the best anthologies I have read for a very long time. It’s not just the concept, which is both necessary and overdue; it’s not just the stories, which are engaging and beautiful and thoughtful and brilliant; it’s not just the way the authors explore science fiction and fantasy from perspectives all too frequently unseen in fiction; it’s all of these things, and that it seems so natural. In this anthology, every story takes a character (or two or three) who is often “othered” in fiction (and life), and makes their differences a part of the story. Readers will see themselves, they will see their friends, they will see their families, their cultures, their religious beliefs, their sexuality, their physical and mental states and they will see them as normal, as okay, as special. Not othered. Important and relevant and very very good, Kaleidoscope offers a powerful message to our society about difference, and about what we, as readers, want (and need) to see in our stories.
Some pieces, such as Tansy Rayner Roberts’ “Cookie Cutter Superhero”, offer a biting commentary on popular culture, couched in humour and teen spirit; others, such as “Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon” by Ken Liu, take a gentler approach, examining first love with a fantasical twist. Some stories shade darker, as with “The Legend Trap” by Sean Williams (set in his Twinmaker universe, an added bonus for fans) and “Kiss and Kiss and Kiss and Tell” by E.C. Myers; still others take a familiar trope and turn it sideways, like Faith Mudge’s “Signature” and “The Lovely Duckling” by Tim Susman. Some of my favourite works in the book were those that embedded the story in the protagonist’s nature, like the magic of Jim C. Hines’ “Chupacabra’s Song” and Karen Healey’s astonishingly good “Careful Magic”. There are so many wonderful stories in the pages of Kaleidoscope that every reader will find a favourite (or two or three), and every reader, teen or adult, will find at least one that speaks to them in deeper ways.
Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of the book. Kaleidoscope will launch on August 5, 2014 and can be preordered here.
Review cross-posted to Goodreads.
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I don’t usually review books here on the FableCroft site, but like to periodically do so when it’s a book by one of the authors we have published in the past.
I first encountered Peacemaker protagonist Virgin Jackson in de Pierres’ story “Gin Jackson: Neophyte Ranger” (first published in the Agog! Smashing Stories anthology in 2004, and I liked it so much I reprinted in FableCroft’s Australis Imaginarium in 2010). I was delighted to read Peacemaker in graphic version in 2011, and was a bit sad when that format was unable to continue, so it was with huge anticipation I started on the novel version! And I have not been disappointed.
Virgin Jackson is a senior ranger in a themed conservation park; odd things have started to happen to her, and not just finding herself saddled with a US Marshall who is himself just a little strange. When she first finds a dead body where it’s almost impossible for anyone to be, she is essentially accused of the murder, and then is attacked in her home. Not one to stand idly by and let things happen, Virgin starts to investigate for herself, with the help of friends in useful places, and the odd Marshall Sixkiller. What she finds is not at all what she expects…
There are several changes that have occurred from the original short story to the novel-length edition. Focus is by necessity shifted for the longer form, and while the book is still (in my eyes) very Australian, I can also see where some elements have been altered to give the story a more international tone, and that both works very well on a plot level as well as being a sensible move in terms of audience.
In another incarnation, de Pierres writes crime fiction, and her experience in both a science fictional setting and a mystery one offer a deftness of touch here. Peacemaker rollicks along at a cracking pace, and I found myself holding my breath in anticipation at times, which is always a good sign! The character of Virgin is vivid and wonderfully acerbic, and I found both she and the supporting cast so well realised they really bounced off the page. With that combination, I got to the end of the book and flipped the last page in disappointment, because while the story ended well (albeit definitely set up for the next volume), I simply didn’t want it to stop. Bring on the next instalment!
Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of the book. It is available in ebook from your favourite e-tailer or ask your bookstore about the paperback.
We’ve been fairly focused on Cranky Ladies for the past few weeks, but of course there is always more going on behind the scenes!
Firstly, we’re almost halfway through the first round of reading for Insert Title Here, and hopefully will have responded to all authors within the next fortnight.
Secondly, new reviews! We love seeing these appear around the ridges, so please let us know by email or Twitter if you write a review of a FableCroft book!
Black Static #39 has a great round up of recent Australian short fiction anthologies and collections, and Joanne Anderton’s The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories is part of that. The reviewer calls Jo an author “who deftly blurs the lines between horror, fantasy and science fiction”, and looks at each story. Of particular interest, the two original stories have thoughtful comments, and the reviewer calls “Mah Song” rich in detail and says of “Fencelines”, a slowly burgeoning mood of unreality settling over the text as the narrative unfolds. Nice!
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Kyla Lee Ward at Tabula Rasa gives an entertaining review of Dirk Flinthart’s Path of Night, noting: “Flinthart delivers a thoughtful and entertaining take on his material.”
