Elizabeth Fitzgerald's Blog: Earl Grey Editing, page 27

GUFF Interview: Alexandra Pierce

The Get Up-and-over Fan Fund is designed to promote connections between fandoms in Australasia and Europe. This year GUFF will send one delegate from Australiasia to Worldcon in Helsinki in August. Voting is open to all interested fans, regardless of nationality. It closes 17 April.

Deciding how to rank the candidates can be a pretty daunting prospect, so over the next few weeks Earl Grey Editing will be featuring an interview with each candidate. So far I’ve interviewed Belle McQuattie, Donna Maree Hanson and Sam Hawke. Joining me today is Alexandra Pierce.

First and most vital: What’s your favourite beverage?

My favourite hot beverage is black tea; I go in for flavoured ones like Earl Grey or some of the fruity ones from T2. Cold well, I have a weakness for elderflower cordial and New Zealand sauvignon blanc. Of course.

Yum. Elderflower cordial with tonic water is one of my Christmas traditions.

Oh nice! I have Plans to investigate elderflower as an ingredient.

How did you come to be involved in Australian SFF fandom?

Through Alisa Krasnostein! A friend got me reading the Aussie magazine Andromeda Spaceways; Alisa was interviewed and said she was looking for reviewers for her review site at the time (Australian Spec Fic in Focus), I emailed her and then all of sudden I was going to cons and the rest of it.

You host a feminist SFF podcast called Galactic Suburbia with Alisa Krasnostein and Tansy Rayner Roberts. Your seventh anniversary was earlier this month. What has been the most memorable part of the podcast for you?

Whoa seven years. Thats amazing. At the Australian Worldcon in 2010, we were at the Hugos ceremony and someone behind us said “Hey, listening to you two is like being on my commute!” We love feedback and feeling like part of a community. Also, winning a Hugo Award was pretty memorable. Plus, I get a regular date with two awesome women. Weve talked about some amazing stuff.

Winning a Hugo Award is definitely something that’s going to stick in the memory.

I was watching the live stream. It cut out as they said our name and then our acceptor was on the stage. I cried.

In addition to the GS podcast, you also teach, review books, write a column for Tor.com, and run a couple of blogs, as well as another podcast (on cooking). Have I missed anything? How do you manage to juggle it all? Do you have any tips on how to steal a TARDIS?

Uh yeh ok, when you put it like that it sounds like I do a lot! I also cook and occasionally do house work; I try to get away for astronomy occasionally, too. How do I fit it all in? Well, I dont have kids or pets. That certainly helps. I also work part time as a teacher and have done for a while, which gives more time not only during the week but also at night and on weekends when otherwise I would be planning or marking. I dont always manage to juggle everything – sometimes I drop balls all over the place. I guess I keep doing the things Im doing because theyre all things I WANT to be doing, so doing them is (usually) enjoyable. That definitely helps. As for using a TARDIS I think of Hermione and her time-turner and I think that would be a very bad idea. Id just end up confused.

What’s coming up next for you?

I’m editing a collection of non-fiction in honour of Octavia Butler, which is tremendously exciting; I’ll also be hosting a Facebook book club, on the first Sunday of the month from March to June, on a few of Butler’s books.

I loved Letters to Tiptree, so I’m really looking forward to this new anthology.

Were excited! Its called Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler.

Wow, what a great title!

What are you most looking forward to about Worldcon 75?

Meeting people! At the 2010 Worldcon I was very new to the scene and very shy. I’m still very shy but at least this time I have had contact with people who will be there, so I’ll feel more like I’m *allowed* to talk to them!

Alexandra Pierce reads, teaches, blogs, podcasts, cooks, knits, runs, eats, sleeps, and observes the stars. Not necessarily in that order of priority. She is a Christian, a feminist, and an Australian. She can be found at her website, and on the Hugo-winning Galactic Suburbia podcast.

Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge

Published: February 2017 by Less Than Three Press

Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)

Genres: Contemporary fantasy, LGBTQIA

Source: NetGalley

Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2017

Available: Publisher (electronic only) ~Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~Kobo ~ Smashwords

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gloria did not intend to start a halfway house for lesbian werewolves. It just sort of happened. Between running a small bed-and-breakfast with her friend Nadine, helping one young lycanthrope adjust to life after the bite and soothing ruffled fur when the other brings home an unexpected cat, Gloria has more than enough to keep her busy, but one thing is definite: she is not nor ever will be an alpha, whatever Nadine says. And the ever-expanding circle of misfits in her guesthouse is certainly not a pack. If only Nadine and the rest of the world were as simple and clear cut as she kept wanting them to be.

Humanity for Beginners is a quietly charming novella that subverts some current tropes common in urban fantasy shifter stories.

For a start, it centres a lesbian woman in her 40s–not your typical werewolf protagonist. Gloria denies the others’ insistence she’s their pack alpha. In fact, she denies there’s a pack at all (though never that they’re a family). Self-control is very important to her and she does her best to act as rationally and as human as she can. This doesn’t always work in her favour.

Gloria’s attitude towards pack dynamics stands in strong contrast to the toxic masculinity of the other packs portrayed in this story. Gloria doesn’t dominate through violence and aggression, as the other packs do. Instead, her approach is more maternal; she can’t help but be genuinely concerned for the well-being of her adopted family. This doesn’t mean she’s a pushover or that she wears her heart on her sleeve. Indeed, she sometimes struggles to stay neutral and let her fellow werewolves to make their own decisions, even though it’s really important to her that they do. She also is capable of enforcing boundaries where necessary.

This resistance to toxic masculinity also manifests in the type of story this is. Set in a rural guesthouse, Humanity for Beginners is a domestic tale that centres on relationships. As the characters sort out romantic, pack and family dynamics, they’re also busy preparing food, cleaning rooms and taking bookings. It’s a gentle story without a whole lot of action, though conflict remains present.

While each of the characters was distinct, the characters external to the pack could have used a little more depth. In particular, I would have liked to learn a little more about Damien, who is part of the family even though he’s not a werewolf. However, I feel the author did a reasonable job within the constraints of a novella.

Overall, Humanity for Beginners was a subversive story that was a pleasure to read.

GUFF Interview: Sam Hawke

The Get Up-and-over Fan Fund is designed to promote connections between fandoms in Australasia and Europe. This year GUFF will send one delegate from Australiasia to Worldcon in Helsinki in August. Voting is open to all interested fans, regardless of nationality. It closes 17 April.

Deciding how to rank the candidates can be a pretty daunting prospect, so over the next few weeks Earl Grey Editing will be featuring an interview with each candidate. So far I’ve interviewed Belle McQuattie and Donna Maree Hanson. Joining me today is Sam Hawke.

First and most vital: What’s your favourite beverage?

I once had a boss who went to a management course that convinced him he needed to get creative pictorial responses out of his staff, so for a few weeks he kept making us express our ideas in pictures. (When asked to draw a picture representing how we felt about a particular task, one of my colleagues drew a picture of herself crying, which made him cross and the rest of us giggle). In honour of a dumb and painful craze by the most annoying person I’ve ever worked for, I am going to answer this in visual form.

Oh, and hot chocolate any time of day. Consequently, I am pretty easy to entertain.

I am definitely keeping this diagram to reference for next time we catch up. Also, don’t tell anyone but I’m not all that fan of pink fruit teas either.

Now, before I get too distracted: how did you come to be involved in Australian SFF fandom?

My love of SFF is present in my earliest memories: watching Star Blazers on our wee black and white TV with my siblings, going to the movies for the first time to see the Neverending Story, sneaking David Eddings books my sister said I was too young to read off her shelf. But outside my immediate family, in my pre-internet youth, my exposure to fandom was limited to occasionally getting a thrill when someone recognised my Red Dwarf t-shirt in the street and exchanging a knowing nod. None of my friends were ever into SFF so it remained a thing I shared with my siblings and my closet but not much further. I think my teenage years might have looked very different if I’d been born 10 years later.

I discovered the joy of Other Fans! On the Internet! eventually, and always having wanted to be a writer, it was natural that I mostly fell into bookish spaces. However, being very shy meant I was typically an obsessive reader but limited contributor to a lot of these places. I guess I can thank the group at Robin Hobb’s SFF.net newsgroup for finally drawing me properly into fandom. A few of us Aussies in the group met up at Supanova back in 2014 and hung out with each other and Robin in person (I don’t think I was even really aware conventions existed outside a faint knowledge of San Diego’s Comicon before that). That coincided with me finally finishing a publishable novel, joining the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, and getting up confidence to participate in spaces I’d previously just watched. This year I’m planning on attending at least 3 conventions – Continuum, Conflux and Worldcon – and I’m very excited to be involved. I really like the way shared love of fictional worlds can bring people together no matter how different they seem.

What Australian SFF work have you recently loved?

I’ve been pretty embroiled in writing/editing stuff the past few years and haven’t read as much as I’d like to – I’m particularly out of touch with recent short fiction, Australian and international. But I’m always a fan of and find room for the big Aussie fantasy writers like Trudi Canavan, Glenda Larke and Garth Nix – Jennifer Fallon is a particular favourite so I was thrilled to get my paws on the Lyre Thief, and am looking forward to the next one shortly. I’ve also loved Kate Forsyth’s fairytale retelling/historical fiction hybrids – do they count as SFF? I’ve also been catching up with Gillian Polack’s smart, literary-bent novels (The Wizardry of Jewish Women, Time of the Ghosts), and I just finished Thoraiya Dyer’s debut Crossroads of Canopy, which I really enjoyed – absolutely gorgeous, immersive worldbuilding. For something a bit darker, I thought Watershed by Jane Abbott, set in a nearish future Australia, was a really grim, clever piece of dystopia.

I recently read Jane Abbott’s Elegy and loved it. Looks like I’m going to have to pick up some more of her work!

And speaking of my Mt TBR wish list, City of Lies is the first book in your duology, The Poison Wars, and is set to be published by Tor in 2018. Congratulations! It must be a dream come true. Did you do anything special to celebrate, or did you immediately start work on the next thing?

Thank you! It is, literally, the dream. I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone for AGES so I did a lot of squealing within the confines of my house, and I took my family out to dinner, but nothing more dramatic than that. I have been trying to think of something dumb and fun to buy as a celebratory treat (when I finished the book I bought myself the Kitchenaid mixer I’ve always wanted – I am a mad baker) but haven’t come up with anything delightful-yet-unjustifiable enough yet.

In some ways it still doesn’t feel real! I didn’t head straight into the sequel because I want to be informed by the direction the first one takes post-edits, so I’ve been dabbling in another, unrelated, fantasy that I hope will be the next project after this.

What’s coming up next for you?

Everything sort of depends how City of Lies goes – I’m contracted for 2 books but whether it stays at 2 or not depends whether it does well and people want more, I guess! So, yanno, hopefully people will buy it and like it…

Fingers crossed!

Lastly, what are you most looking forward to about Worldcon 75?

I have never been to a Worldcon so honestly I don’t entirely know what to expect other than a chance to hang with cool people and talk and think about the things I love (and hopefully find some new things to love!). I made a joke about Tim-Tam eating contests in my voting pitch on my blog but I am legit hoping someone challenges me to this because no-one EVER believes me how hard it is, and I will laugh salty tears of joy when they’re trying to finish biscuit number 2 and have just realised how things are turning very very wrong. I’m also hoping to meet and geek out over some great authors, attend interesting panels, butcher some Finnish, eat weird stuff, and get into some fun ridiculous arguments.

Sam Hawke has wanted to write books since realising as a child that they didn’t just breed between themselves in libraries. Having contemplated careers as varied as engineer, tax accountant and zookeeper Hawke eventually settled on the law. After marrying her jujitsu training partner and travelling to as many countries as possible, Hawke now resides in Canberra raising two small ninjas and two idiot dogs. Her debut novel, City of Lies, the first book in the Poison War series, is due out from Tor in July 2018. You can find Sam Hawke online at samhawkewrites.com, on Twitter as @samhawkewrites and on Facebook as www.facebook.com/samhawkewrites.

Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold

Published: February 2017 by Subterranean Press

Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)

Series: Penric and Desdemona #2

Genres: Fantasy

Source: NetGalley

Available: Publisher (print only) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Young Lord Penric now wears the white robes of the Bastards Order, complete with shoulder braids marking him as a divine and sorcerer, while he pursues scholarly studies in the court of the Princess-Archdivine. His demon of disorder, Desdemona, is, of course, present, accounted for, and offering clever commentary, particularly when she grows bored. And so when a Locator of the Fathers Order shows up on the Archdivines threshold in need of a sorcerer for a journey and she volunteers Penric, at least Des is thrilled with the prospect of an adventure. As they travel into the mountains to locate Inglis, a shaman accused of murdering his best friend, the situation grows into a test for all of Penrics developing talents.

Penric’s Demon was one of my favourite reads last year and so I was delighted to get my hands on a review copy of Penric and the Shaman. As expected, it proved to be a fantastic continuation of the series by one of SFF’s masters.

Time has passed since the last book. In the intervening four years, Penric has earned his braids as a full-ranking priest and has settled into a scholarly life. The narrative begins with a little taste of Penric’s current life. It’s quiet but Penric, being a huge nerd, loves it. Desdemona, having been through it all before (more than once), is bored by it. I really enjoyed this look into how their relationship has developed. It is part odd-couple and part parent-and-child, though this latter dynamic shifts over the course of the novella. One of my few quibbles with this book is that while we do get a few more glimpses of their relationship, we don’t get to see all that more of Desdemona.

What we get instead is an illustration of what their relationship looks like to outsiders. The story is told in close third-person from three points of view: Penric; Locator Oswyl, who has come to hunt down a shaman; and Inglis, the shaman himself. This enables us to witness what it’s like to be in Penric’s presence, to see the slips in phrasing and intonation when Desdemona takes over. It also shows us how frequently Penric is underestimated, his relative youth and cheery disposition often causing others to think him a fool, even dismiss him.

One of the things I loved most about Penric’s Demon was Penric’s kindness and I was pleased to see this remained present. The character is definitely less naive and there were glimpses of the burden he’s under. However, he never treats Desdemona as a burden and is unfailingly respectful to those around him. And even though he is less naive than he was, he still has lessons to learn–lessons that come as a surprise to him.

The gods continue to interfere in this world (and in Penric’s life) in ways both direct and indirect, which I very much enjoyed. I also liked the expansion of the world’s magic system and felt it interacted with the dominant religious system in interesting and plausible ways.

I found the opening oddly bumpy and the style jarred, but quickly settled down with Penric’s appearance. There was also a bit of info-dumping during Oswyl’s briefing of Penric and the Princess-Archdivine. It made sense in context, but I was on the verge of being lost before it was done.

However, on the whole Penric and the Shaman was an absolute delight to read. I’m very much looking forward to the next in the series.

Loose-leaf Links #35

Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces on sci-fi and fantasy I’ve come across and share them with you over tea. Today’s tea is Neo Australia’s Ginger Tea, a tasty blend of ginger, cardamom pods, tulsi and apple. This is an old favourite of mine and especially welcome on cool evenings when I’m looking to avoid caffeine before bed.

Follow Up

In my last links post I mentioned this wonderful database of books featuring asexual or aromantic characters. I neglected to properly attribute the creator, Claudie Arsenault. Thanks to Lynn O’Connacht for gently pointing this out to me.

Recent guest Forestofglory shares some favourite 2016 short fiction recommendations over at Lady Business.

Awards News

As mentioned last week, the World Science Fiction Society are establishing a new Hugo-related award for Best Young Adult Book. They’re looking for some feedback on their shortlist for the award’s name. You can fill in their survey until 15 March.

Also, a reminder that nominations for the 2017 Sir Julius Vogel Awards are open until 30 March. The awards recognise achievements in New Zealand speculative fiction and nominations are open to everyone for free.

The Australian Romance Readers Awards were announced on 25 February. My book wish list just grew a little longer.

File 770 have announced their intention not to run for the Hugo Awards this year.

The A. Bertram Chandler Award is open for nominations. The Chandler is a juried award which recognises lifetime achievement in Australian SFF.

Community and Conventions

Genre Worlds has put out a call for 200-300 word abstracts for their academic conference in November. The deadline for abstracts is 21 April.

Conflux, Canberra’s speculative fiction convention, have announced Ellen Datlow will be this year’s International Guest of Honour and Kaaron Warren will be this year’s MC.

Last year’s MC, Sean Williams, writes about his trip to Antarctica on the Australian Antarctic Division’s Arts Fellowship.

Voting for the National Australian Fan Fund is open until 16 April. NAFF will send one Australian fan to the Natcon, which will be Continuum held in Melbourne in June.

There has been a change to the GUFF voting ballot with Alisa Krasnostein standing down. Alexandra Pierce will continue to run as a solo ticket. The voting deadline has been extended until 17 April.

On Equity

Strange Horizons hosts a roundtable on Indigenous Futurisms, focused on North America.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch muses on writing with chronic health problems.

For Writers

Over on Tor.com, Judith Tarr discusses some troublesome tropes about horses. Fantasy writers should pay attention.

Kameron Hurley is frank about her 2016 writing income.

Cat Sparks and Amie Kaufman are interviewed about the difficulties SFF writers have with getting published in Australia.

For Readers

In celebration of her Aurealis nomination, Leife Shallcross is giving away five copies of Strange Little Girls to Australian readers. International readers may want to keep your eyes open for more giveaways in the future.

Natalie Zutter and Leah Schnelbach suggest 8 SFF books that are sexier than Fifty Shades of Grey.

At Book Riot, Danika Ellis has some suggestions on how to read more and internet less.

The Impossible Story of Olive in Love by Tonya Alexandra

Published: March 2017 by Harlequin Teen

Format reviewed: Paperback ARC, 284 pages

Genres: Contemporary YA, speculative fiction

Source: Publisher

Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2017

Available: Amazon ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Dymocks ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Plagued by a gypsy curse that shell be invisible to all but her true love, seventeen-year-old Olive is understandably bitter. Her mother is dead; her father has taken off. Her sister, Rose, is insufferably perfect. Her one friend, Felix, is blind and thinks shes making it all up for attention.

Olive spends her days writing articles for her gossip column and stalking her childhood friend, Jordan, whom she had to abandon when she was ten because Jordans parents would no longer tolerate an imaginary friend. Nobody has seen her until she meets Tom: the poster boy for normal and the absolute opposite of Olive.

But how do you date a boy who doesnt know youre invisible? Worse still, what happens when Mr Right feels wrong? Has destiny screwed up? In typical Olive fashion, the course is set for destruction. And because were talking Olive here, the ride is funny, passionate and way, way, way, way dramatic.

This story is for anyone whos ever felt invisible.

This story is for anyone who sees the possible in the impossible.

I had some very mixed feelings about The Impossible Story of Olive in Love. The premise was intriguing and the implications were well thought out. However, there were a few elements that really didn’t work for me.

Olive is not in any way a likeable character. She’s caustic, selfish and easily bored. She’s a drama queen who likes to cause trouble and leaves her loved ones to deal with the fallout. This makes sense in the context of the story. Being invisible (but not silent or intangible), she’s more used to hiding from other people than she is to interacting with them. This means she’s socially awkward and lacks both manners and diplomacy. However, given how much time she spends watching other people, her lack of empathy doesn’t completely make sense and I struggled to figure out what Tom saw in her.

I would probably have had more tolerance for Olive as an unsympathetic narrator if the story hadn’t had a few other unsavoury elements. The gypsy curse is a bit on the nose, and the gypsies responsible are the stereotypical feckless, vengeful vagrants. There’s also the occasional line that is transphobic, homophobic or ableist, which did not at all endear the book to me.

Which is a shame, because there were some potentially very interesting elements. Isolation was a strong theme and it was nice to see how this applied just as much to Tom and to Olive’s sister Rose as it did to Olive herself. Even though Olive is functionally able-bodied (more or less), they are essentially care-givers to Olive and this comes with a price.

The practicalities of being invisible have also been carefully thought out. Transport is a problem, as Olive can’t catch a bus or a taxi and driving herself around would look alarming. She’s never learned to kiss and since she can’t see herself in a mirror her makeup skills and sense of fashion are lacking. She can’t live on her own or even let herself in the front door for fear of alerting the neighbours.

I also appreciated the way the book avoided the obvious ending. There were a few elements that could have used a little more foreshadowing, but the outcome was more mature than I’d expected. It steered the book away from being a romance and more towards a coming-of age story.

However, ultimately The Impossible Story of Olive in Love wasn’t the book for me.

Guest Post: World Science Fiction Society Young Adult Award

 

Having recently been a judge for the YA categories of the Aurealis Awards, I’ve grown quite familiar with the genre. So I was delighted to hear the WSFS is exploring the possibility of establishing a YA award tied to the Hugos. Today I have Forestofglory here to tell us a bit about the award.

I’m here to talk a bit about the prospective World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Young Adult award and ask you to take a short survey to help decide on the name of the award. WSFS is the organization that sets the rules for Worldcons and the Hugo and Campbell Awards. It is run by volunteers and is a direct democracy. I am part of committee formed to study the possibility of a YA award. Last year we recommended that a YA award similar to the Hugo Awards be created (kind of like the Campbell award). This year the committee was tasked with finding a name for said award.

Elizabeth asked me to talk a bit about the community aspect of this award so I thought I would share a bit about my background and my goals for the award. I bought my first Worldcon supporting membership a few years ago so that I could nominate for and vote on the Hugo Awards. I joined because members of my online community had been voting in the Hugos and made it seem like fun. After joining my first Worldcon, I became a member of a new-to-me community of Hugo voters. Mostly I participated online, talking with friends about what I had read and watched and what we wanted to nominate. I’ve had good experiences with the WSFS community, though the last two years were politically fraught. The Worldcon community is not always welcoming, it costs money to join, the rules are complex and arcane, and debates about even minor details can get heated. Nonetheless, I love how they insist that you are buying a membership, not a ticket. I love the long history of the community, dating back to the 1st Worldcon in 1939. As a member of this community, I want to reach out to the YA community to share things and ideas we both enjoy. For me that’s what awards are best at creating ways to honor and share things we love.

The push to create an award was started by Worldcon members who were also part of YA communities and wanted to see these communities brought together. Three years ago, a 20-person committee was formed by WSFS to study the feasibility of a YA award (I joined year ago after the committee was formed). Members are long-time Worldcon attendees, YA librarians, academics, lifelong YA readers, and young adults. We’re all volunteers.

Since I last wrote about the YA award process, the YA committee has been analyzing feedback from the first open-ended survey and creating a shortlist of possible names, which are featured on our current survey. The process of narrowing down the names was tricky and at times contentious. We needed eliminate names that were already in use for another award, or that had unfortunate double connotations. We also debated which names had cross-generational appeal and whether to consider names of real people. In the end we decided not to include names and picked a shortlist of six possible names.

You can read more about what we like about each name on the survey itself. You can also find more information of Facebook and twitter @worldconYA. The survey will be open until March 15. We would love to have your input.

In addition to being a YA fan, Forestofglory frequently recommends short stories and discusses her thoughts on Hugo nominees at her blog.

Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Published: March 2017 by Allen & Unwin

Format reviewed: Paperback, 336 pages

Genres: Fantasy, middle grade

Source: Publisher

Available: Publisher (print and electronic) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Dymocks ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Talking dogs. Mischievous wizards. An evil stepstepfather. Loads and loads of toads. Such is the life of a Frogkisser.

Princess Anya needs to see a wizard about a frog. It’s not her frog, it’s her sister’s. And it’s not a frog, it’s actually a prince. A prince who was once in love with Anya’s sister, but has now been turned into a frog by their evil stepstepfather. And Anya has made a ‘sister promise’ that she will find a way to return Prince Denholm to human form…

So begins an exciting, hilarious, irreverent quest through the Kingdom of Trallonia and out the other side, in a fantastical tale for all ages, full of laughs and danger, surprises and delights, and an immense population of frogs.

Garth Nix is highly regarded for his Middle Grade and YA fantasy, and Frogkisser! is unlikely to change that. It is a charming story with some fresh takes on a few traditional fairytale elements.

Anya is the youngest of two princesses. Her sister, Morven, is flighty and obsessed with boys. All Anya wants to do is hang out in the library and read books (and really, who can blame her?), but someone has to be the responsible one. Anya and Morven’s stepmother is off chasing rare plants, while their stepstepfather is an evil, cold-hearted sorcerer bent on taking over the kingdom. In order to achieve his ends, he plans to send Anya away to boarding school. However, Anya escapes first with the aid of the royal dogs.

Along the way, Anya encounters a number of fairytale tropes, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the Good Wizard and a flying carpet. One of the things I loved about the story was that these elements never manifest in quite the way you expect them to–there’s always a twist . As someone with a stepmother I adore, it was refreshing to see the part of the villain instead played by Anya’s stepstepfather (the man her stepmother married after her father passed away).

Nix is clearly a dog person. Readers familiar with his Old Kingdom series may remember the Disreputable Dog. Frogkisser! has the royal dogs, a pack of canine advisers to the royal family. They’re presided over by matriarch Tanitha, and one of the younger dogs, Ardent, serves as a companion to Anya on her adventures. Being a dog person myself, I loved these characters and there were a few observations of canine behaviour that had me chuckling in recognition.

Tanitha isn’t the only female in a position of power in this book: women are everywhere. They are warriors, healers and bandits. It was such a delight to read a story where the gender balance was equal and where not all the women were white.

While it is a Middle Grade novel, adult readers will find plenty to enjoy. Geekish references are sprinkled throughout the story; there was one Lord of the Rings reference almost at the end that had me laughing out loud.

All in all, Frogkisser! is an absolute delight to read, no matter what your age.

Mt TBR report: February 2017

The first half of February continued January’s frantic pace as I concentrated on finishing all the remaining Aurealis nominations. The second half slowed down to a somewhat more manageable pace.

Since I’m over halfway towards my goal of reading 100 books for 2017, I’ve decided to revise the goal up to 150.

My other personal reading goals also included one trip to the library a month. February included two trips: one to pick up The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin and When A Scott Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (both so I could read along with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Paperback podcast), the other to pick up Binti: Home by Nnedi Okrafor.

Mt TBR Status

Mt TBR @ 1 January 2016: 327

Mt TBR @ 31 January 2017: 307

Mt TBR @ 28 February 2017: 309

Books Read

33. Unbidden by Shayla Morgansen. Read for Aurealis. Third book in the Elm Stone Saga. A young girl is swept up in events as a defeated council of magic users struggles to do battle with rogue elements.

34. Origin Stories by David Marshall. Read for Aurealis. A sweet, but not-too-bright, teenage girl discovers she has superpowers and is then forced to step up when her first date with the boy next door is crashed by a supervillain.

35. Wanted, A Gentleman by K.J. Charles. Reviewed here.

36. Elegy by Jane Abbott. Read for Aurealis. Literary fantasy. An ancient story of dark and light plays out in a small Australian town.

37. Robyn and the Hoodettes by Ebony McKenna. Read for Aurealis. A gender-swapped retelling of Robin Hood.

38. Fire Boy by Sami Shah. Read for Aurealis. Wahid just wants an ordinary life but finds himself plagued by djinn.

39. Goldenhand by Garth Nix. Read for Aurealis. When Sabriel takes a well-earned holiday, Lirael is called upon to take over as the Abhorsen. However, when her friend Nick is attacked by a Free Magic creature, she worries her training may not be enough to save him and the Old Kingdom.

40. Songlines by Carolyn Denman. Read for Aurealis. Lainie discovers she’s not an ordinary high-school girl but the guardian of a secret gate to the Garden of Eden.

41. Hexenhaus by Nikki McWatters. Read for Aurealis. Historical fantasy. The lives of three women accused of witchcraft echo through history.

42. Jumpstart by A.K. Brown. Read for Aurealis. A team of scientists come together to develop instantaneous travel through space.

43. Redemption by Lara Morgan. Read for Aurealis. The third book in the Twins of Saranthium series. High fantasy. With his twin sister banished to the void, Tallis is desperate to bring her back, whatever the cost.

44. Threader by Rebekah Turner. Read for Aurealis. Sci-fi. Josie harbours a genetic mutation that makes her telepathic and telekinetic. She does her best to stay off the government’s radar and registration lists, but after she’s caught ripping off gullible clients she’s forced to join Helios Academy for training.

45. The Price of Magic by K.J. Taylor. Read for Aurealis. Follows the adventures of Pip, a magic user in a world where magic comes at a cost to physical ability or mental health.

46. The Bone Queen by Alison Croggon. Read for Aurealis. Epic fantasy. After being exiled for his role in summoning forth the Bone Queen, a talented bard discovers he may not have been as successful in banishing her as he’d thought.

47. The Ocean of the Dead by Andrew McGahan. Read for Aurealis. A pirate captain risks everything to cross a treacherous stretch of sea around the equator to start a new life in the southern hemisphere.

48. Among Galactic Ruins by Anna Hackett. Reviewed here.

49. With Roses in Their Hair by Kayla Bashe. Reviewed here.

50. The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. Sixth in the Rivers of London/Peter Grant series. When Lady Ty’s daughter gets caught up in a high-profile murder investigation, she calls in a favour from Peter. A bit lacklustre compared to some of the others, but Aaronovitch really does well with his ending twists.

51. Viral Airwaves by Claudie Arsenault. Reviewed here.

52. Frogkisser! by Garth Nix. Review forthcoming

53. The Impossible Story of Olive in Love by Tonya Alexandra. Review forthcoming

54. Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire. Fourth in the InCryptid series. Urban fantasy… well, sort of. Alex Price and his girlfriend Shelby fly to Australia to help her family contain a werewolf outbreak. I was fairly impressed with the way the Australian elements were handled, but the interpersonal dynamics made this my least favourite of the series so far.

55. Beyond Pain by Kit Rocha. Post-apocalyptic erotica. Third in the Beyond series. Bren and Six have their share of scars: Bren from the former commanding officer that threw him to the wolves and Six from the vicious and now-dead leader of Sector Three. The O’Kayne gang has offered them a place to belong and between them they’ve built a fragile but trusting relationship. Bren risks throwing it all away for a chance at revenge.

 

Books Acquired

Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

When A Scott Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare

The Champion of Baresh by Susan Grant

Frogkisser! by Garth Nix

Beguiled by Joanna Chambers

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers

Unnatural by Joanna Chambers

The Dream Alchemist by Joanna Chambers

Unforgivable by Joanna Chambers

Sweet Disorder by Rose Lerner

True Pretences by Rose Lerner

Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner

In For a Penny by Rose Lerner

A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner

Nerve Endings edited by Tobi Hill-Meyer

Viral Airwavesby Claudie Arsenault

Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge

The Impossible Story of Olive in Love by Tonya Alexandra

Rise by Mira Grant

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

Masks: A New Generation by Brendan Conway

Binti: Home by Nnedi Okrafor

Online Reading

Hands on Education by BewareTheIdes15. Yuri!!! On Ice fanfiction. Contains spoilers and explicit content. Yurio might be one of the best figure skaters in the world, but there are some areas of life where his education has been sadly lacking.

You Get a Logan, You Get a Logan, Everyone Gets a Logan! by coutlaw2523. This one is going to take a little explaining. Memory and I accidentally thought Gin Jenny was tweeting about James Logan of X-Men fame instead of Logan Huntzberger of Gilmore Girls. This led to a hilarious thread discussing possible Logan crossovers… that Chelsey of The Reading Outlaw then went and wrote. Maybe you had to be there.

What have you read this month?

Read My Valentine 2017 Wrap-up

During February I ran Read My Valentine. Ordinarily, it’s my excuse to read and review as many romance novels as I can manage, but I was still reading for the Aurealis Awards until almost midway through the month. So, this year I took a slightly different approach and concentrated on reviewing work that represented a spectrum of sexualities and gender identities:

Hold Me by Courtney Milan. Trans F/Bi M. Contemporary romance.

Wanted, A Gentleman by K.J. Charles. M/M. Historical romance.

Among Galactic Ruins by Anna Hackett. F/M. Sci-fi action romance.

With Roses in Their Hair by Kayla Bashe. F/F. Sci-fi YA romance.

Viral Airwaves by Claudie Arsenault. Asexual M/F, plus M/M & F/M side relationships. Post-apocalyptic SFF.

I’m pretty happy with the representation here. I hope to continue this balance in future years and perhaps even expand it a little. I know I have a lot to learn about the aromantic spectrum, for example, and have been pondering how I might include representation in my reviews for Read My Valentine… or whether I make a point of reviewing some immediately after the challenge.

Outside of these reviews and the Aurealis submissions, I read very little romance: just two books. I have a forthcoming review of The Impossible Story of Olive in Love by Tonya Alexandra, which is, in any case, more of a coming-of-age YA than a romance.

The other was Beyond Pain by Kit Rocha. This is the third in a series of sci-fi dystopian erotica that I’ve found impressively feminist and sex-positive. So far, it has included favourable representations of bisexuality, polyamory, exhibitionism and BDSM. The explicit content means it’s not going to be for everyone, but if you don’t mind that sort of thing, I highly recommend it. I’m glad there’s still another five books in the series and a new, related series beginning soon.

Considering the lack of participation Read My Valentine has had, I’m not convinced the current format is working. However, since I’ve been enjoying it, I’m considering turning it into a yearly blog feature instead of abandoning it entirely. I’m also happy to take suggestions.

How about you? Have you read any romance this month? What romance would you recommend?