Helen Lowe's Blog, page 171
October 28, 2014
Recommended Reading: My Final Thoughts on “Hild” by Nicola Griffiths
Recent posts on “great heroines” (all summarised here) reminded me that I needed to round up my final thoughts on Hild by Nicola Griffiths.
In my “What I’m Reading” post on September 25, I said:
“…so far, at around three quarters of the way through [Hild], I am absolutely loving it. I feel it is one of the best historical novels I have read in quite some time, not even excepting Hilary Mantel’s Booker prize-winning, Wolf Hall … just about everything about Hild is fabulous: a great historical se...
October 27, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Siobhan Harvey & “Van Gogh In Aotearoa”
The spirit is alive
in Starry Night reproductions
which hang, like crucifixes,
in varsity bed-sits,
petit bourgeois do-ups
and nouveau riche villas
across Aotearoa.
In such replicas, he’s reborn,
picks up his paintbrushes
and begins to set the All Blacks:
McCaw, Howlett, So’oialo,
upon the terra firma of his canvas
as if they’re men at work, harvesting.
Then, he finds his Arles in Akaroa,
where Port Louis-Philippe’s spectre
besets him with visions,
small prophecies, of fresh work:
Landscap...
October 26, 2014
The Ingredients Of An SFF Heroine
As I summarised in yesterday’s post, over the past week I’ve taken a look at a few more great heroines of SFF, Part 1 on Monday and Part 2 on Thursday) building on a post series from 2011 (Six Great Heroines Of SFF, Part 1 & Part 2.)
As also summarised yesterday I’ve also recently taken a look at some of my own heroines.
But all this got me thinking about whether there are particular ingredients in common between all these diverse characters. Usually, with SFF, there’s a “quest” or problem to b...
October 25, 2014
Looking Back: Looking Ahead
Looking back, this week I had another look at some great heroines of SFF I’ve encountered over the past three years, with More Great Heroines Part 1 on Monday, and More Great Heroines Part 2 on Thursday.
In addition to my 10, commenters also suggested:
Persimmon Gaunt in Chris Willrich’s Scroll Of Years series (Genre: Sword & Sorcery)
Breq in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice & Ancillary Sword (Genre: Science Fiction)
Zuleika in Mike, Linda & Louise Carey & Nimit Malavia’s The Steel Seraglio (Genre:...
October 24, 2014
Inside Middle Earth: Mt Aspiring National Park
This photo was taken on a “rain-wild day” in Mt Aspiring National Park, not far from a place called Paradise…
Orthanc, Lothlorien and Boromir’s death scene were all filmed in this general area—although I feel this particular landscape is unique to itself.
October 23, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Westwind Hold
The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick
The A Geography of Haarth post series is exploring the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each entry is accompanied by a quote from the books in which the place appears, currently either The Heir Of Night or The Gathering Of The Lost, or both.
The series is currently traversing “W”, the final letter in this series—but there are still a few more places in the Haarth world beginning with “W”. 
—
Westwin...
October 22, 2014
More Great Heroines Of SFF: Part 2
On Monday, I commenced a two-part post looking at some favourite heroines from SFF I’ve read over the past three years (since my Six Great Heroines Of SFF, Part 1 & Part 2 posted in 2011.) All ten heroines are in books by contemporary authors that have been relatively recently published, i.e. not just recently read by me (although that is also the case.)
The list is presented in alphabetical order by heroine’s name; no further preference should be inferred.
Now, please meet my concluding five....
October 21, 2014
Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Da Vinci’s Demons”
~ by Rebecca Fisher
Introduction:
Welcome to one of the strangest shows you’ve ever seen. Part totally-fabricated biography, part anachronistic historic-political drama, part Da Vinci Code conspiracy, part buddy-comedy, with a smattering of courtroom dramas, supernaturally themed mysteries, and romantic intrigue, Da Vinci’s Demons wants to be absolutely everything, all at the same time.
Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into this show, so much so that it’s nearly impossible to keep track...
October 20, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Excerpt From John Donne’s Meditation XVII—”No Man Is An Island…”
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
from Meditation XVII by John Donne, 1572-1631
—
Strictly speaking, this excerpt from Meditation XVII is not...
October 19, 2014
More Great Heroines Of SFF: Part One
A-ways back in 2011, I posted a two-part article titled Six Great Heroines Of SFF, Part 1 & Part 2 — with considerably more names listed at the end of the second post and via readers’ comments.
In that first article, I tended to focus on the classic heroines encountered in my formative SFF reading. Three years on, I’d like to highlight some of the heroines I’ve encountered in more recent reading. I stress that this is by no means an exhaustive survey, but simply compiled from books I’ve had a...
