Hello everyone! It’s been a quieter month this November on the reviewing front. Perhaps people are taking a break after a busy October or perhaps things are just winding up towards the end of the year.

Science Fiction

wrong turn rawsonOur first review was for the book that recently won the Most Underrated Book Award: Jane Rawson’s A Wrong Turn At The Office Of Unmade Lists. Angie Holst reviewed it, writing:

The complexity of material in the novel deserves close attention, and hopefully the publicity surrounding the win will bring Rawson a wider audience.

Rawson paints the future Melbourne evocatively: the environment is ruined, disease is rife, the Internet is still ruling people’s lives but is essentially useless in providing what everyone wants, food and fresh water. Rawson’s vision of the future is depressingly easy to believe but at the same time vividly imaginative

the-arkThe other science fiction novel reviewed this month was Annabel Smith’s The Ark, garnering two reviewed. Monique writes:

The Ark gets my vote for the most interesting and clever book I’ve read this year. It’s not your typical narrative, composed instead of emails, instant messages, memos and other documents, forming an epistolary novel with a difference.

Sean the Bookonaut also enjoyed it, particularly the book design (above and beyond) and the accompanying app/website.

Fantasy

A small handful of quite diverse fantasy books this month. First up we had Ju Transcendancing reviewing Hindsight by AA Bell, the second book in her Mira Chambers trilogy. She enjoyed it but didn’t find it a light read. She also notes that it doesn’t really stand alone, being very much the second part of a trilogy.

On a completely different note, Debbie Robson reviewed Transcendence, a romance with reincarnation, ghosts and two timelines. She particularly found the descriptions of scenery evocative.

PhantazeinFinally, Sean the Bookonaut reviewed Phantazein, an anthology of fairytale and folklore — but not the usual suspects — edited by Tehani Wessely. He writes:

Kudos to Tehani’s eye for talent and story and kudos to the writers who took long raked over material in a lot of cases and breathed life and originality in to them. Phantazein showcases the depth of talent Australia has in the fantasy field and gives us a glimpse at some other international authors who we may not be familiar with.

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About Me

I’m Tsana Dolichva and I’ve been reading and enjoying Australian speculative fiction since I first started reading “grown up” books (back before YA was its own genre). More recently, I’ve been blogging my reviews over at the creatively titled Tsana’s Reads. I very irregularly blog about science in science fiction over at the Science Fiction Writers’ Guide to Space. When not reading or writing, I’m probably working towards my PhD in astrophysics.