My March reading experience has been rather interesting. I kicked it off with a read-through of the messy first draft of mine own work in progress. I ploughed through a good chunk of it during a retreat weekend at the start of the month, then finished it off over the ensuing week. I've already discussed … Continue reading March reading: psychics, farmers and superhumans
The main book I read during February was A companion to wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear -- a fantasy novel published in around 2008 (first of a trilogy). I found it a fascinating book, certainly memorable, in some ways familiar and in other ways not. It's about a youth (Isolfr) who is tithed … Continue reading Book review: A companion to wolves
I've finished reading three fantasy novels this month -- that's much more like it! The slight drawback to this has been the wrecking of my sleep patterns. In my determination to find books to immerse myself in, I forgot the part where this means I keep reading to 3 or 4 or 5am... which in … Continue reading Three fantasy books by Aussie women for January
It’s been good to finally get my teeth into some contemporary epic fantasy in the form of Australian author Jo Spurrier's Winter be my shield (Children of the Black Sun - Book 1). From the very start this novel gripped me in its icy vices and – even if perhaps it faded a little in the … Continue reading Book Review: Winter be my shield
Here's a quick tip for reading big fat fantasy novels on e-readers. Particularly fantasy books with a MAP (or maps) at the front. Take a digital photo of the map with your phone. This makes it so much easier to refer to the map while you're reading the novel. The lack of navigability of e-readers is their biggest … Continue reading Quick tip for reading fantasy on e-readers
It's becoming a habit of mine at the end of each year to reflect back on the books I've read in the past 12 months -- and invariably I decide the list is not long enough, or diverse enough, or recent enough and I resolve to do better. (Here's what I read in 2012.) This … Continue reading What I read in 2013
It's always exciting to attend book launches, especially when the author is a member of one's writing group and an all-round nice guy. So it was with a spring in my step that I trekked north to the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy yesterday evening to attend the launch of Andrew Macrae's debut novel, Trucksong, … Continue reading Trucksong launch party
I can't remember who recommended it, or where I heard about it, but I recently read Nicola Griffith's Slow River, republished as part of Hachette's SF Masterworks series (it won the 1996 Nebula Award and Lambda Literary Award). Set in the not-too-distant future in a city that might be in England, Slow River is about … Continue reading Book Review: Slow River
I recently read Jo Walton's Among Others, winner of the 2012 Nebula, Hugo and British Fantasy Awards for best novel. Since it's one of the few recent SF novels I've read of late, I thought I would share some of my thoughts. [Mild spoilers...] Among Others has been described as many things: a fairy story, … Continue reading Thoughts on Among Others by Jo Walton
My introduction to Tolkien came when my dad read The Hobbit to my sisters and I as we sat around a campfire. Could there be a more perfect scenario? Our family was camping in South Australia's Flinders Ranges. I was about 11, my sisters younger. Our evening's entertainment consisted of hunkering around the fire that … Continue reading A campfire memory
