Independent Literary Awards

Last year I was asked to join as a judge for the Independent Literature Awards.  I was really excited and honoured to be a part of this process as I am very new blogger.  Through this process I got to met some fantastic bloggers with a lot of experience in the bloggersphere and who all share my love of reading and in particular speculative fiction.

The purpose of the awards was to identify the best books published in 2010 chosen and judged by literary bloggers.  Unfortunately due to some pretty tragic extenuating circumstances I was not able meet my responsibilities as a judge, but I cannot recommend enough the books that were shortlisted and the speculative fiction book that won Kraken by China Mieville.

Please go to the Independent Literary Awards site and add the books that won and were short-listed to your to be read (as soon as possible) lists as they have been selected by a great bunch of bloggers whose opinions I trust wholeheartedly.  Please check out the founders blog Wallace (Unputdownables)

Keep your eyes peeled and make notes of the great books you read published in 2011 as the selection process will kick off again later this year

For some great Speculative fiction bloggers, who were judges in that category, check out:

Bryce (The Stamp of Approval and Only the Best SciFi and Fantasy)

Jamie (Mithril Wisdom)

Jared (Pornokitsch)

Book review 'Mainspring' by Jay Lake

Steampunk is a genre which has caught my interest so with my last trip to the library I got hold of a few steampunk novels.  Steampunk is a sub-genre within speculative fiction.  It creates a world, generally based on Victorian times, with machines and automatons powered by steam.  It takes steam-powered machines and takes them to the next level.

 

This curiousity of steampunk as a genre led me to reading Jay Lake’s “Mainspring”.  Lake creates a universe with a clockwork Earth, made of cogs, gears and a mainspring in a hidden location.  The main character Hethor Jacques is a clockmakers apprentice who is visited by the Archangel Gabrielle and given the task of finding the Key Perilous and re-winding the mainspring as it is winding down and the Earth is slowly stopping.  The equator is made up of a vast wall with gears at the top which rotate the Earth.  The idea of a clockwork Earth fascinated me and the literal interpretation of God ‘creating’ the Earth was a great idea for a novelist to explore.  But although the ideas and the potential of a clockwork Earth and a clock-maker God appealed I did not enjoy the book at all.

Lake tried to cram too much fantasy into the book.  Over the equatorial wall there was a world full of ‘winged savages’, giant automatons, furry Neanderthal like people, sorcerers and other monsters.  There was just too much.  The writing style did not sit well with me either as it felt like he was trying too hard to be epic by using phrases that were far too over-descriptive.  Lake also took much from the bible made unoriginal changes like the ‘Brass Christ’ who rewound the world many years ago and taking passages from the bible and just adding a word here and there about gears to make it fit to his world for example the below rewritten prayer

“Our Father, who art in Heaven
“Craftsman be thy name
“Thy Kingdom Done
“Thy plan be done
“On Earth as it is in Heaven
“Forgive us this day our errors
“As we forgive those who err against us
“Lead us not into imperfection
“And deliver us from chaos
“For thine is the power, and the precision
“Forever and ever, amen.”. 

Also I must admit the interspecies sex made me pretty squeamish.  The only time I enjoyed that part was when my friend drunkenly read out the passages while wearing a monkey costume (this actually did happen).

So although the idea and creativity behind this clockwork Earth was great ‘Mainspring’ did not live up to its potential.  Two out of five stars from me.  Please let me know if you disagree with this I would love to know what people liked about this book.

Wrap-up Book Buying Ban in September

The Book buying ban has finally come to an end.  I managed to stand strong although I have had a couple of major temptations.  The reason I wanted to participate in this ban was because my spending on books was getting completely out of control.  I finished my degree in February and after six long years of reading mostly legal texts I went on a buying and reading spree.  Books in New Zealand are expensive and e-readers have only just come onto the market here so it was not strange for me to spend $100 on books in one week.  With an upcoming wedding to save for I decided I needed to get my spending under control.

Even though I need to cut down my spending long-term and shorten my to be read list I would not participate in a book buying ban again.  Banning leads to binging.  History has shown us this time and time again.  Temptation drove me to concocting arguments in favour of me failing the ban.  The most prominent argument was that since prohibition didn’t work, a book ban couldn’t either.  After much thought I decided that there are many similarities between books and alcohol...

The ways that books are like alcohol:

•       They are both highly addictive;
•       You can read or drink for pleasure;
•       You can  read or drink to escape from reality;
•       They can both lead to headaches if over used; and
•      If over used they can lead to a break down in communication between family and friends.

Prohibition in North America only lasted for a short time as bootlegging (rum-running) became widespread and organised crime took control of the distribution of alcohol.  Prohibition generally came to an end in the late 1920s or early 1930s in most of North America and Europe, although a few locations continued prohibition for many more years.  Therefore, because alcohol and books are so similar, prohibition or a book buying ban is not going to work in the long run.  Luckily I did not have to book smuggling or bootlegging in order to get hold of something to read.

The ban has been a good thing in its own way, it encouraged me to put together a to be read list and gave me a chance to focus on the books I had at home rather than the new and shiny ones in the shops.  However I am going to control my spending in other ways in the future, like being patient enough to wait for library reserves to come in.  I am also going to try to get hold of second hand books or only buy new when they are on sale.

Review 'Heart's Blood' by Juliet Marrilier

Heart's Blood
Juliet Marrilier
Published in 2009 by Pan Macmillan

A haunted forest. A cursed castle. A girl running from her past and a man who’s more than he seems to be. A tale of love, betrayal and redemption…

Juliet Marrilier’s ‘Daughter of the Forest’ was a book I picked up randomly when I was 14 and it started my love of fantasy as a genre.  I have continued to read her books and ‘Heart’s Blood’ is her latest offering.  ‘Heart’s Blood’ is based on the tale of beauty and the beast.  It is an interesting interpretation of the fairytale with Caitrin (beauty) fleeing from an abusive cousin and her son.  Caitrin is a trained scribe and hears of work at Whistling Tor, a crumbling fortress on the top of a forested hill.  Nearby villagers warn Caitrin away from Whistling Tor speaking of a curse put upon the chieftain that lives there and speak of evil and otherworldly things that roam the forest near the fortress.  This advice is ignored by the young scribe and she encounters the chieftain Anluan (the beast) who is weakened and deformed from a stroke at a young age.  He has strange ties to the otherworldly beings that roam the forest and frighten the nearby villagers.

Marrilier is a beautiful writer, the story flows beautifully with lovely imagery and language throughout the tale.  Once again Marrilier creates a strong female lead, who was a little annoying at times, but overall I enjoyed following her journey in gaining courage to face her personal demons.  I also appreciated the fact that Anluan was suffering from a physical rather than supernatural affliction.  There was no beast that magically turned into a beautiful man, just a flawed man who had been through hard times.

While I enjoyed the book as a whole I could not help comparing ‘the host’ in the book to the ghosts from the Paths of the Dead in Lord of the Rings.  Both books have ghosts tied to a human with violent pasts and must fight for release from the ties that bind them to the earth.

Heart’s Blood is a little more romantic and easy to read than I normally go for.  However Marrilier has consistently put out well written novels giving life to old tales and mythology.  It was a pleasurable book to read.  Three out of five stars.

Short story collection review - 'Father Brown Stories' by G. K. Chesterton

 I am generally not a lover of classics.  My taste tends to lean towards contemporary fiction, as the flowery language and the representation of women in classic literature (by this I mean pre 1920) do not appeal to be.

Every once in a while I attempt to read something by a classic author and almost always I do not enjoy it.  My latest attempt at reading a classic was G K Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown Stories’. 

The blurb outlines that: “A small, disorganised, ordinary priest, Father Brown is an unlikely genius when it comes to piecing together strange and mysterious clues.  Yet his ingenuity and intuition are unsurpassed, and his gift for deduction raises him to the top rank of investigators”.

I, surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories.  Father Brown is a great character and I really appreciated his powers of deduction.  It was refreshing to read a detective story containing actual detective work.  With the growth of technology forensics has taken over crime writing.  It was great to go back to the basics.

One of the other reasons I enjoyed these stories was that the endings were different.  Most of the stories ended with Father Brown walking off with the criminal in discussion or repentance.

To satisfy my interests there was even a vaguely steam-punk short story titled “The Invisible Man”.  In this story a man who became rich through the manufacture of robotic servants was found murdered.  I loved the way Chesterton described the automatons and the thought provoking and witty way he wrote.

“One of the high-shouldered hooks that served the thing for arms, was a little lifted and Angus had suddenly the horrid fancy that poor Smythe’s own iron child had struck him down.  Matter had rebelled, and these machines had killed their Master.”

I would definitely recommend for enjoyable detective stories that take you back to basics and enthral you with the beautiful and clever prose that Chesterton demonstrates.  Four out of five stars. 

Graphic Novel Review: Death the time of your life Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham and Mark Pennington

Neil Gaiman has a wonderful gift of taking the profane and giving it life.  I have been slowly making my way through Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels thoroughly enjoying the rich and mystical world he has created.   

One of my favourite characters in his series is the Sandman’s older sister Death.  Other personifications of Death have been of a man in a dark cowl carrying a scythe.  Many stories about Death are of how the Grim Reaper was outwitted, as death is something to avoid, escape and cheat.

As he has done time and time again Gaiman takes the myth and turns it on its head.  Gaiman’s Death is a perky, optimistic and loving woman.  She dresses like a goth but does not have a gothic temperament.  Instead of being menancing she welcomes you into death with a loving embrace and a smile.  It is odd to describe the character of Death to be as full of life but she is

The Time of your life is a spin-off from the Sandman comics focusing solely on the character of Death.  Foxglove and Hazel, other characters from the Sandman comics, appear as well.  In this issue Foxglove has become a famous rock-star and Hazel is a stay at home mother, pretending to be Foxglove’s secretary rather than her lover.  Hazel's tries to make a deal with Death to extend a life and Foxglove travels to the shadowlands save Hazel.  This issue takes the reader through a journey of life, death and dreams.  It is explained that there is no balance to death, no taking of one life for another, as death is inevitable.

The graphic novel is illustrated beautifully and it is easy to see how Gaiman and his team have created a series that is widely praised and timeless.  I thoroughly enjoyed the deeper exploration of Death’s character with an issue to herself and no Sandman.  Four out of five stars.

Tweeting with Margo Lanagan and Neil Gaiman

I just had to share this with everyone.  I love that some of my favourite writers are on twitter and respond to my tweets.  Here is a fun little conversation I had with NEIL GAIMAN and MARGO LANAGAN two of my favourite authors.  It was also a book-geek squee moment for me!  I talk about 'Red Nose Day' in my previous post.

Neil Gaiman
From the tweets coming in, it's amazing how many people are scared of clowns. Sometimes clowns are scared of people:http://bit.ly/bzI1bz


Gem
@neilhimself tell them to read Margo Lanagans "Red Nose Day". Clowns being snipered. Gold! 


Neil Gaiman
@gemzina Ah, but @margolanagan is a genius.


Margo Lanagan
@neilhimself @gemzina Oh, you guys. *pops red nose on, fluffs up fluoro curls around tonsure*