Mark Webb's Blog, page 23
February 21, 2013
Ditmars, Galactic Suburbia award and the Stella Prize
A few items of news from the last week or so, all in one handy post!
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For anyone active in the Australian speculative fiction scene, the annual national SF award, the Ditmars, are now open for nominations.Why not nominate your favourite speculative fiction story or novel by an Australian author from 2012?
The Ditmars also include lots of ancillary categories for fan writing, artist etc. There are a lot of excellent reviewers out there in the Australian scene, such as Sean the Bookonaut or Ale...
February 15, 2013
Fringe – review
Years ago when Fringe started, I watched about 20 minutes of the first episode despite my concerns that Dawson’s Creek was heading to speculative fiction town. There was a plane, people died in mysterious and icky ways and at the 20 minute mark I thought to myself “I can’t commit to another X-Files”. I turned off the TV, rediscovered the lost art of conversation for the evening and felt vaguely relieved that I wasn’t committing myself to yet another television series. Besides, my younger self...
February 8, 2013
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
This review forms part of my contribution to theAustralian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found.
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolfis Ambelin Kwaymullina’s first novel. It is based inthe far future after a devastating cataclysm has left the world reshaped into a single continent, and the remnants of humanity living in a small number of cities and adhering to a philosophy of Balance to prevent future catastrophes.
Some people are born with special abiliti...
February 5, 2013
GenreCon 2013 – now taking registrations
Regular readers might recall that I attended, and enjoyed very much,late last year. Well, this year it is happening again. GenreCon Australia 2013will be held in Brisbane in early October.
GenreCon is a more professionally oriented convention aimed more at writers, editors, publishers rather than fans. Last year’s program was excellent – filled with all manner of useful informationand interesting speakers.
The organisers have just announced some initial details including the date...
February 2, 2013
Dark Space by Marianne de Pierres – review
This review forms part of my contribution to theAustralian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found.
Dark Space is the first of the Sentients of Orion series by Marianne de Pierres. The storyline primarily follows three characters – Baronessa Mira Fedor, a member of the planet Araldis’ aristocracy and born with a genetic makeup that allows her to interact directly with living spaceships, Trinder Pellegrini the spoiled son of Araldis’ planetary ruler and T...
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi – review
Old Man’s War is the first in theOld Man’s War series of books by John Scalzi. I’ve heard the book mentioned in a lot of different venues and wanted to give it a go before trying some of Scalzi’s later work (including the recentRedshirts whose premise intrigued me).
Old Man’s War is military sci-fi. It is often compared to Robert Heinlein’sStarship Troopers and I can see where the comparison comes from.Old Man’s Warbrings a modern sensibility to the same themes (humanity beset by aliens across...
January 21, 2013
Blood and Dust by Jason Nahrung – review
About bloody time, Jason Nahrung. I’ve been waiting for something likeBlood and Dust ever since I heard one of Nahrung’s short stories (Smoking, Waiting for the Dawn) on the Terra Incognita Speculative Fiction podcast a couple of years ago. Yes, yes – I know he released a sensitive almost literary novella recently filled with beautiful gothic themes and broody settings earlier in the year. I and thought it was a great read. But this is the novel I’ve been waiting for.Vampires in...
January 19, 2013
Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott – review
This review forms part of my contribution to theAustralian Women Writers 2013 Reading Challenge. All my 2013 AWWC reviews can be found.
Perfectionsis Kirstyn McDermott‘s second novel, following the excellent Madigan Mine in 2011 (which I as part of the 2012 AWWC challenge). The two novels are not related in terms of plot, although they do share a certain sensibility (which I’ve heard described by the author on her Writer and the Critic podcast as “modern urban gothic”).I enjo...
January 16, 2013
Reviewing process (Subtitle: no I don’t get a lot of free books)
I was asked recently where I sourced the books I review on this website. Do I get review copies from publishers/authors? How do I choose the books? In general, what is my reviewing process.
For the most part, the books I review on this website are books that I’ve chosen to purchase. The main purpose of writing a review is for me to reflect a little more on what I’ve just read, with the hope that this reflection might improve my own writing. Thinking about what I liked in a story and what didn’...
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandan Sanderson – review
Like a lot of people I’ve been reading The Wheel of Time series for 20 years, so it was with a sense of great relief that I approached reading A Memory of Light, the last of 14 books. There must be at least between 2 and 3 million words in the series, and in my younger years I re-read quite a few of the earlier books, so I think it is fair to say that I’ve invested more reading effort into The Wheel of Time than any other fantasy series.
It is interesting looking at the books now – a lot of mo...
