City of Masks by Ashley Capes

City of Masks by Ashley Capes is the first in an epic fantasy series and the author's debut novel. Before I get to the review part, I'd like to draw your attention to the cover. I did not notice the city in the eye and nose holes until just now. How cool does that look? It's also more pertinent to the story since the skull (/mask) by itself struck me as horror or dark fantasy, which is not what the book is, in my opinion.

Waking in Anaskar Prison, covered in blood and accused of murder, nobody will listen to Notch’s claims of innocence until he meets the future Protector of the Monarchy, Sofia Falco.

But Sofia has her own burdens. The first female Protector in a hundred years, her House is under threat from enemies within, the prince has made it clear he does not want her services and worst of all, she cannot communicate with her father’s sentient mask of bone, the centuries-old Argeon. Without the bone mask she cannot help anyone — not herself, and certainly not a mercenary with no powerful House to protect him.

Meanwhile, far across the western desert, Ain, a young Pathfinder, is thrust into the role of Seeker. Before winter storms close the way, he must leave his home on a quest to locate the Sea Shrine and take revenge on the people who drove his ancestors from Anaskar, the city ruled by the prince Sofia and Notch are sworn to protect, whether he wants their help or not.

I tend to approach fantasy books by new authors (and new to me authors) with some degree of trepidation. I'm very particular about what kind of fantasy I enjoy and there are a lot of ways in which a fantasy book can disappoint me. Luckily, I need not have worried when it came to City of Masks. It's an entertaining read which kept me interested and turning pages. I would go so far as to say that it's the best début fantasy I read this year.

There are two and a half storylines running through City of Masks. There are the events in the titular city including a youngish noblewoman on the run after a coup and a group of (ex-) mercenaries (sort of). Sofia, the noblewoman, was a strong character who kept fighting back as much as she could and didn't make any stupid mistakes (a pet peeve of mine). Notch and Flir, two of the mercenary types were enjoyable to read about. Flir particularly struck me as a good character. I suspect we're going to learn more about her in future books, but for now an almost inhumanly strong female character was sufficiently interesting to really add something to the group dynamic of the mercenaries. For example, she was always the one to do the heavy lifting etc. There are other elements of city life which are a bit unusual, like monsters appearing in the sewers, and which are only partially addressed in this first book. Again, I think this is something which will be explored further in sequels which I look forward to reading.

The other, almost entirely separate, storyline is about the desert people and, specifically, Ain a "Pathfinder" who can sense paths where other people have been before (a useful skill in the desert with shifting sands). He is sent on a mission to find a sacred temple outside of the desert. His story is quite separate from the other characters' until the very end when they converge amusingly and a bit unusually. Quite where his story is going in future books I'm not sure, but I look forward to finding out.

City of Masks was an entertaining read that I would recommend to all fantasy readers. Unfortunately it's only available in paper and Kindle formats from Amazon at the moment (the author sent me a special version for review), but if that doesn't present a problem to you, I would definitely recommend giving it a go. Hopefully this will change soon and, in any case, I look forward to reading the second book when it becomes available.

4 / 5 stars

First published: May 2014, Snapping Turtle Books
Series: The Bone Mask Trilogy book 1
Format read: ebook
Source: Courtesy of the author
Disclaimer: The author is a friend, but I have, as always, endeavoured to write an unbiased review

Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014 Wrap-up

As the year draws inexorably to a close, it's time for me to admit that I'm not going to finish any more AWW books this year. I'm still halfway(ish) through one, but it's an audiobook, and I won't be commuting anywhere until January. So. The time has come (the Walrus said) to speak of bookish things. And for my Australian Women Writers Challenge wrap-up post for 2014.

I read a bunch of books, where "bunch" can be defined as 32, assuming I didn't accidentally miss any (and depending on how you count). In the past I've put a little blurb/mini review with these posts, but all of these books will or have been covered by one of my Australian genre round-ups (horror, SF, fantasy), so I'm jut going to leave you with the list and a genre descriptor for each book.

1. The Dreaming Volume 1 by Queenie Chan (review) horror manga
2. The Dreaming Volumes 2 & 2 by Queenie Chan (review) horror manga
3. Stained Glass Monsters by Andrea K Höst (review) stand-alone fantasy
4. The Other Tree by DK Mok (review) contemporary fantasy with religious supernatural themes
5. Carrier by Vanessa Garden (review) post-apocalyptic set in Australian outback
6. Bespelled by Dani Kristoff (review) paranormal romance
7. Peacemaker by Marianne de Pierres (review) outback-themed SF
8. The Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke (review) epic fantasy, book 1
9. North Star Guide Me Home by Jo Spurrier (review) epic fantasy, book 3
10. The Bride Price by Cat Sparks (review) short story collection, mostly fantasy and horror
11. The Year of Ancient Ghosts by Kim Wilkins (review) novella collection, horror and fantasy
12. Innocence Lost by Patty Jansen (review) short fantasy, Dutch-inspired setting, book 1
13. Chasing the Valley: Borderlands by Skye Melki-Wegner (review), YA gaslamp fantasy, book 2
14. Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier (review) YA historical with ghosts set in 1930s Sydney
15. Chasing the Valley: Skyfire by Skye Melki-Wegner (review), YA gaslamp fantasy, book 3
16. Dagger of Dresnia by Satima Flavell (review) epic fantasy book 1
17. Guardian by Jo Anderton (review) the kind of fantasy some people think is science fiction, book 3
18. Prickle Moon by Juliet Marillier (review) short story collection, fantasy
19. Shatterwing by Donna Maree Hanson (review) dark fantasy, book 1
20. Langue[dot]doc 1305 by Gillian Polack (review) time travel SF
21. The Ark by Annabel Smith (review) near future epistemological SF
22. Secret Lives of Books by Rosaleen Love (review) short story collection, mix of fantasy and SF
23. Loving the Prince by Nicole Murphy (review) SF romance
24. Zac & Mia by A J Betts (review) YA contemporary
25. Small Shen by Kylie Chan and illustrated by Queenie Chan (review) mix of manga and prose fantasy, part contemporary Hong Kong, part historical China
26. Phantazein edited by Tehani Wessely (review) short story collection of folkloric fantasy
27. Drowned Vanilla by Livia Day (review) cosy crime with food
28. This Shattered World by Amie Kaufmann and Meagan Spooner (review) YA SF
29. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier (review) younger readers fantasy dystopia
30. No Need to Reply by Jodi Cleghorn (review) contemporary flash story collection
31. The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins (review) contemporary (sort of portal) fantasy
32. Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz (review) Australian steampunk

And those are my books for the 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge. I will be continuing on with the challenge in 2015 — and indeed will continue contributing to the AWW blog. Roll on 2015 and a bunch more excellent Australian fiction!

Reading Aussie Horror in 2014

For the second year, I decided to focus on Aussie horror — that is horror written by Australians, not necessarily set in Australia. I challenged myself to read at least five books and hoped for ten after managing eleven last year. I didn't quite do as well this year, reaching only nine or seven books (depending on how you count), but at least I exceeded my rather modest goal.

Why do I say it's seven or nine depending on how you count? Well it's because the first three books horror books I read this year were the three volumes of The Dreaming, a manga written and illustrated by Queenie Chan. They make up a complete story, which could just be thought of as split into three. Whichever way you count it, though, it was an engaging and creepy read. Highly recommended. See my full reviews of volumes 1, 2 and 3.

The remaining books I read are less related than the first three.

The Memory of Death by Trent Jamieson (review) is a novella following on from his Deathworks trilogy, of which there are more books yet to come. As I said in my review:

I don't know much about the upcoming sequel — other than the title, The Carnival of Death — but The Memory of Death reads a bit like it might be a bridging novella between the trilogy and the next story. It has it's own story, of course, but it's mostly the story of How Steve Gets Out Of The Mess Of Book Three's Conclusion. It's the set-up for something more, which I look forward to reading and which I suspect won't make as much sense without the bridge that is The Memory of Death.

Turns out there were quite a lot of short stories in my horror reading this year. Mostly short stories, actually. Only one book was a novel.

Dead Americans and Other Stories by Ben Peek (review) was the first thing I've read of Peek's. His short stories were interesting and largely unusual. For example, here's what I said about the first story in my review:

"There Is Something So Quiet and Empty Inside of You That It Must Be Precious" — OK, the title of this story makes it even creepier; I had forgotten it while I read. I also went back and read through the chapter/section headings and they were eerie. A story whose creepiness creeps up on you (heh). The kind of horror with a drab and mundane setting that puts the fear in the commonplace.

The Bride Price by Cat Sparks (review) is another collection of short stories. I picked this one up because it was shortlisted for a Ditmar (which it won, as did one of the included stories) and an Aurealis award. It's a bleak collection, bleak and artfully written. The story that has stuck most in my mind was the first. From my review:

My favourite story was the first in the collection, "A Lady of Adestan". It was poignant and gut-wrenchingly awful, increasingly so as we learnt more about the setting. "The Bride Price" was also a favourite. Perhaps, now I think about it, I liked these stories best because they did not end as bleakly as most of the others.

The Year of Ancient Ghosts by Kim Wilkins (review) is a collection of novellas, all of which were excellent, and my first exposure to her writing. This was one of only thirteen books this year that I gave five stars to, so you can be sure I loved it. From my review:

Wilkins' writing is masterful. She has the knack of using the right words to tell the story without being unnecessarily flowery in language nor too dull. I'm not sure there was a bad sentence in the entire collection. The details, historical and otherwise, are also meticulously researched so that every detail rings true. I first noted it in the main character's reaction to having to go to a foreign supermarket in "The Year of Ancient Ghosts", but it persisted throughout.

  

Bound by Alan Baxter (review) is a novel. Gasp! It's more action and hellish adventure than the other horror I read this year.

Bound was an action-packed and fast-paced read with elements of moral ambiguity and horror. You could also call it a dark urban fantasy, if you were so inclined. If you are looking for a darkish and violent read, then Bound is the book for you. It's also self-contained if sequels aren't your thing.

I haven't gotten around to reading the sequels, but they are both out now as ebooks, if you missed the announcement.

Last Year, When We Were Young by Andrew McKiernan (review) is another collection of short stories. Andrew and I were in the same critique group (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) and so I had read early drafts of a couple of the stories. It was fascinating to see how they'd come. The collection itself was a mixed bag of stories, strong overall but a range of style/subgenres.

I found I most enjoyed the more contemplative stories. My favourites were "The Memory of Water", "White Lines, White Crosses" and the titular "Last Year, When We Were Young", although the latter is perhaps less contemplative per se. The former two stories deal with loss and death in a poignant way.

I'm going to continue keeping track of my horror reads next year. At this stage in my main interest is in keeping up with authors I've already discovered and picking up a few new ones along the way. In particular, I haven't read any Paul Haines yet, and that's something I really need to rectify.

What were some of your favourite Aussie horror reads of the past year? Anything you'd recommend in the coming year?

Best reads of 2015 and some reflection

Last time I did one of these (two years ago) I tried to branch out beyond just five star books to also highlight other books that had done something great. This year, looking back over my spreadsheet, it really is mainly the five star-rated books. Have I become more jaded? Have books been doing less interesting things?

Actually, I think the biggest factor is my shift in reading since I started blogging. 2012 was the year I started blogging and only about 30% of the books I read in that year were sent to me for review. That means most of the books I read I chose to read because I (mostly) knew they would be interesting to me. In the two years since, more than half of the books I've read have been review books. While most of my review books are books I genuinely want to read and would probably read anyway, I probably wouldn't read them quite so promptly without the reviewer obligation. And that invariably means that some books that I want to read but that aren't review books get pushed back (and put off and pushed back some more), which tends to narrow my reading. You may note that all my favourite 2014 reads were published in 2014 except for one, which is starkly indicative of the fraction of 2014 publications that made up my reading (67% of all the books I read were published in 2014, a further 20% in 2013 meaning that recent releases came close to making up 90% of my reading).

This bothers me and I really, really want to reduce the number of review books I take on next year. It's going to be a busy year for me outside of book blogging, so I'd rather feel more relaxed about my reading. In the end, what's the point if I'm not enjoying the whole process? I don't need an additional source of stress in my life.

All that doesn't mean that I didn't absolutely love some of the books I read this year. Here are the highlights in the order I read them:

• Carrier by Vanessa Garden was the first stand-out book I read in 2014. It's a short novel in the post-apocalyptic Australian outback, a setting I don't think we see enough of in plainly-written novels. (The only other examples I can think of employ somewhat experimental/literary writing styles that just aren't as accessible.)
• The Lascar's Dagger by Glenda Larke is the first in a new fantasy series by one of my favourite authors. My loving it is hardly surprising. Any fantasy fans who haven't read any Glenda Larke really should, and this is as good a place to start as any.
• North Star Guide Me Home by Jo Spurrier was the conclusion to the Children of the Black Sun trilogy. All three books were excellent, but this was my favourite. It was less violent, making it more palatable and relaxing (and happier-ending) than the prequels.
• Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld surprised me with it's unputdownability. I picked it up on a whim long before the release date and accidentally read it all in two days. Told in chapters alternating between a young writer with an exciting YA book contract and her actual spec fic YA book, it's a very meta examination of the YA genre.
• The Year of Ancient Ghosts was the first thing I read by Kim Wilkins and it made me fall in love with her writing. Not for nothing did the titular story win the Aurealis for Best Horror Short Fiction.
• The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne came out of nowhere for me, and is a perfect example of an excellent book that I would not otherwise have been exposed to were it not for reviewing. It's a near-future book that unapologetically drags you into its world and forces you to experience a different perspective.
• Razurhurst by Justine Larbalestier is set in 1930s Sydney, not an era I knew a huge amount about before reading. As well as being an engaging story, it struck me as a very well researched setting with a lot of local flavour. Also ghosts.
• Kaleidoscope edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios is an anthology of diverse YA speculative fiction. Most anthologies are a mixed bag with a range of good and less good stories, but Kaleidoscope somehow manges to take "consistently good" to the next level.
• Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis first drew my eye because of certain diversity aspects and because I read a couple of the author's short stories and they were pretty great. This is a very excellent book, split between our world and a very different fantasy world, that I urge all fantasy fans to read.

Tsana's December Status (pre-Xmas)

This state of my reading post comes to you after I ordered a pile of books for vaguely Christmas-related reasons (more like Dragon Age graphics card related reasons, but, well, long story). But said pile of books has yet to arrive so they will go into a future post. Looking at LibraryThing (which is the most accurate rendition of my book collection), I still got quite a few new booksies this past month. Oops?

I also discovered (well, got around to setting up) digital library loans, particularly of audiobooks. Those don't count as books bought/received, obviously, but they have contributed to books read.

And while there'll be more "looking back on the year" type posts in the following couple of weeks, I have already posted by Anticipated 2015 Reads list. I am also hoping that laying out what month those books come out in will help me curtail review books. I don't want to fall as behind as I have been for the last few months again.

Finally, in writing news, I had a flash story in Antipodean SF this month. You can read it for free here.

What Have I Read?

• How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier, an audiobook that I borrowed from the library. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
• Difficult Second Album by Simon Petrie, an excellent collection of short stories. Highly recommended for SF fans.
• No Need to Reply by Jodi Cleghorn, a collection of flash stories. Contemporary rather than spec fic; an interesting genre sidestep for me.
• The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, another library audiobook. This one was more meh, but not terrible. Will probably read book 2, but won't go far out of my way to do so.
• Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis, a super awesome YA fantasy that I cannot recommend enough to all fans of fantasy or YA. Seriously, just read it.
• The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins, the third library audiobook I listened to. Modern Berlin, fairies and a serial killer of fairies.
• Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz, a steampunk romance novella set in the Western Australian gold fields
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, a solid fantasy book, recommended.
• Horizon by Keith Stevenson, a really good SF novel about an isolated crew on a long-term mission.

Currently Reading

City of Masks by Ashley Capes. I haven't gotten very far in, but I am enjoying it more than I expected (always a level of trepidation picking up a new fantasy author).

I am partway through some other books, but I haven't picked them up in a while. I should probably mention Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta, which I've only recently started in audiobook form.

New Booksies

New books were very batchy this past month, so I shall list them as such. Purchased because I could:

• Judgement Day (Science of Discworld 4) by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
• Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook by Terry Pratchett — also came with a special edition ticket thingy

Review books from Clan Destine Press:

• The Blood She Betrayed by Cheryse Durrant
• Arrabella Candellarbra & the Questy Thing to End All Questy Things by A.K. Wrox
• AKA Fudgepuddle by Fin J Ross

 Purchased because it came out and/or I saw it:

• Symbiont by Mira Grant
• How Green This Land How Blue This Sea by Mira Grant (novella in the Newsflesh universe, set in Australia)

More review books, the first two from the author and the last from the publisher via NetGalley:

• Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz (already reviewed)
• Curses and Confetti by Jenny Schwartz (third in the Bustlepunk Chronicles)
• Rebels by Accident by Patricia Dunn

Horizon by Keith Stevenson

Horizon by Keith Stevenson is a science fiction novel set in the medium future, mostly on a spaceship that's been sent to investigate the hopefully habitable planet Horizon and it's stellar system. I'm not really sure why the planet is on fire on the cover.

Thirty-four light years from Earth, the explorer ship Magellan is nearing its objective - the Iota Persei system. But when ship commander Cait Dyson wakes from deepsleep, she finds her co-pilot dead and the ship's AI unresponsive. Cait works with the rest of her multinational crew to regain control of the ship, until they learn that Earth is facing total environmental collapse and their mission must change if humanity is to survive.

As tensions rise and personal and political agendas play out in the ship's cramped confines, the crew finally reach the planet Horizon, where everything they know will be challenged.

I had no specific expectations for this novel and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Honestly my least favourite part was the opening because of all the vomiting (I am a touch emetophobic) but after that was done with it was smooth sailing. I quite liked the mystery aspect that was established right from the start. The crew (mainly seen from Commander Cait's point of view) wake up from deepsleep to find one of their number dead and something difficult to ascertain wrong with the computer. It takes most of the book to work out what happened and why. They also receive confusing communications from Earth which don't make anything much clearer.

The action in Horizon centres on two causes: clashes of personality between all the crew, and external forces on Earth or more locally. Cait spends a lot of the book trying to strike a balance between personalities and situations. I really enjoyed her as a character. She had integrity and genuinely wanted the best for everyone. It was refreshing to read about a competent character trying to make the best of a difficult situation without being annoying (one of the other characters was annoying enough for the whole book) or making stupid mistakes. The other characters were also well-rounded with reasonably complex motivations.

The story was about half science half politics and I found the former more convincing. Not that the politics was bad, per se, but it was necessarily hazy — because the present Earth situation was a mystery to the characters — and the history was recounted only briefly. (I should note that there's a pre-launch history at the back of the book, but reading that after the story didn't really add much beyond the timeline aspect.) The science, on the other hand, was pretty good. Nothing made me angry (a good measure of accuracy) and there were only a couple of minor niggles I noticed that I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't. Stevenson is also consistent with noting the differences in manoeuvrability in low gravity throughout the book, instead of lazily cranking up the gravity (which was realistically generated through spin) and leaving it at that.

I want to talk about the ending but, of course, I don't want to go into major spoilers. I will just say that one aspect of the ending was a little too Arthur C Clarke for my liking. Not that I don't like Clarke, just that it had been done before and I didn't think it needed to be done again. That said, it wasn't a bad ending, taken in isolation.

I enjoyed Horizon and I would recommend it to all fans of science fiction. There's not a huge amount of Australian-authored SF out there and it's always nice to see more, especially when it's of this quality. SF fans who enjoy semi-science driven stories (it's not all about the science but the science is important to the story) will probably enjoy Horizon. I will certainly be keeping an eye on future novels Stevenson writes.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: November 2014, Voyager Impulse
Series: Don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Challenges: Aussie SF Reading Challenge

Anticipated 2015 Reads

Inspired partly by Shaheen's 2015 Aussie YA list, I thought I'd try making a list of general books coming out in 2015 that I'm looking forward to. I've tried to make it complete but I've inevitably missed something. All speculative fiction and largely Australian authors (shocking, given my blog, I know). Oh, and I've put the unknown release date books in the middle instead of start or end so that they feel less left out. On the other hand, sequels with unknown release dates I've put in the month a year after the previous book's release, with a note.

January:
— The Dagger’s Path by Glenda Larke (Orbit/Hatchett), sequel to The Lascar's Dagger

February:
— Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (Penguin), the last Bloodlines book

March:
— The  Hush by Skye Melki-­Wegner  (Random  House), new series, sounds awesome
— The Buried Life by Carrie Patel (Angry Robot, got ARC)
— The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig (Voyager, got ARC)
— Prudence by Gail Carriger (Little Brown / Hatchett), first in the series about Alexia's daughter, what's not to like? I anticipate hilarity (and the series has been rename to The Custard Protocol, which says it all)
— Fall of Fair Isle by Rowena Cory Daniells (Solaris), same world as Besieged (Outcast Chronicles) but set much later
— Cranky Ladies of History (FableCroft, pre-ordered through crowdfunding), anthology about awesome women, what's not to like?

April:
— Geodesica Ascent by Sean Williams (Open Road reprint, have ARC), not really a new release but I've been meaning to read it for aaages
— The Last Quarrel by Duncan Lay (omnibus edition, Momentum), released episodically from January, but the full edition is what counts (for me)
— Insert Title Here edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft), unthemed anthology 

May:
— Age of X #3 by Richelle Mead (Penguin, date a guess)

Unknown:
— The Apportioners by Deborah Kalin (Twelfth Planet Press), the 12th of the Twelve Planets
— The Moth Cycle by Isobelle Carmody (Twelfth Planet Press), the 13th of the Twelve Planets
— Day Boy by Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing), new book, horror I think

July:
— Dealbreaker by Marianne de Pierres (Angry Robot), sequel to Peacemaker

August:
— The  Foretelling  of  Georgie  Spider  by  Amberlin  Kwaymullina  (Walker Books Australia), third book in the series starting with The Interrogation of Ashayla Wolf
— Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb (Del Rey / Voyager) sequel to Fool's Assassin

September:
— Worldbreaker Saga #2 by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot, date is a guess) sequel to The Mirror Empire
— The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon, set in the world of the Hythrun Chronicles (after the events of the Demon Child Trilogy, I think)

October:
— Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (Orbit), sequel to Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword

November:
— Fall (Twinmaker  #3)  by  Sean  Williams (Allen & Unwin, release date a guess), conclusion to Jump
— Manners and Mutiny by Gail Carriger (Little Brown/Hatchett) last book in the Finishing School series

December:
— Starbound  #3 by  Amie  Kaufman  &  Meagan  Spooner  (Allen  & Unwin), sequel to These Broken Stars and This Shattered World

What books are you looking forward to in the coming year? Any I've missed that you're excited about? Tell me in the comments!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is an unusual novel. Most of the story feels like it's YA or for younger readers, but the adult (point of view) framing of the story belies that. I would hazard that it's best suited to adults and perhaps older teens.

It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond this world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it.

His only defence is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

Before I read this book, I had seen a lot of people say a lot of things about it, mostly on Twitter (and Tumblr) and in contexts where I only got a snippet of their impression. I don't think I read any reviews before I read it. But while I had some vague idea of what other people thought, I didn't really know what to expect going in. Most of the people whose impressions I read were not people I know (retweets by the author and the like) and, I suspect, weren't people who usually read fantasy books. I was expecting a different kind of different book. What I got, however, was a solid modern fairytale.

The framing for the book is the adult main character returning to a place where some childhood memories were made and, well, remembering them. Most of the story is about a volatile period in his seven-year-old life, filled with magic and monsters and something like a terrifying adventure.

I suspect part of the appeal of The Ocean at the End of the Lane to mainstream readers (as in, don't usually read spec fic) is the ease with which the magical elements can be taken to be metaphors and coping mechanisms. But where's the fun in that? Why not let it be about the magic that only children can see and that adults are blind to? One of my favourite aspects of this novel was the interactions between the main character and his parents. It's not possible to tell the whole truth, or he's not believe when he does. I found it portrayed the way in which children live in their own separate but complete world very accurately. They may not properly understand some adult matters, but that doesn't mean they can't understand anything.

Ocean at the End of the Lane was a good read that I would recommend to pretty much everyone. I'm not a huge Neil Gaiman fan (I mean, I've liked his other books well enough, but not enough to go out of my way to read all of them) but I'd class this as one of his better books. From what I've read, I think I prefer him writing about children (if not for children so much in this case) more than his writing for adults. Also, I don't see a reason why precocious children shouldn't read this book, but I'm not sure an average seven year old would necessarily get as much out of it as an older reader. (I say this with zero baseline seven-year-olds in my life, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.)

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2013, Headline
Series: No
Format read: Hardcover *gasp*
Source: Purchased from real life book shop

Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz

Clockwork Gold by Jenny Schwartz is a romance novella set in a stempunk gold rush Western Australia. I think it's set in the same universe as her other WA steampunk books (Wanted: One Scoundrel and Courting Trouble), but the characters and plot are completely unrelated.

There’s a conspiracy in the Goldfields of Western Australia, and the money men of London don’t like it. Dirigible pilot Rebecca Jones likes it even less. She has a messenger service to run, justice to pursue in a lawless land, and she can do without Special Agent to the Crown, Nathan Burton, hijacking her dirigible—and her heart—and disrupting her carefully laid plans. The result is adventure, romance and explosions.

Being a novella it's a fairly brief story with a reasonable plot centred on various shenanigans happening in the gold fields. There's a conspiracy that Nathan is investigating — which leads him to impose upon Rebecca for a dirigible lift — and there's Rebecca's personal vendetta to punish a corrupt and generally terrible policeman. On the latter front it deals with some heavy issues, but with a comforting happy ending.

I've said before that I'm not a huge fan of capital-R-omance, so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that I was less enamoured with the romantic plot than I was with the steampunk elements. (What romance could trump mechanical echidnas designed to protect chickens from foxes?) I didn't particularly buy the premise — estranged-ish foster siblings — but I suspect others will feel differently.

Clockwork Gold was a quick fun read. I recommend it to fans of steampunk and romance. In particular, I would definitely recommend it to readers who enjoyed Schwartz's other books. This might not have been my favourite steampunk read ever, but I will be checking out her other new steampunk novella.

3.5 / 5 stars

First published: December 2013, self-published
Series: No, but same universe (I think) as the Bustlepunk Chronicles
Format read: ePub
Source: Courtesy of the author
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge, Australian Science Fiction Reading Challenge

The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins

The Autumn Castle by Kim Wilkins is the first novel I've read by the author, though I did enjoy a novella collection of hers earlier in the year. I can also definitely state it won't be the last novel I read by the author. I should also note I read it as an audiobook borrowed from the library

Berlin in autumn: Christine Starlight lives in an artists' colony with her lover Jude, whose patience and beauty have eased her battle with chronic pain. But Christine begins to be haunted by childhood recollections of a little girl's disappearance and the flapping of a blackbird's wings. Then her world is rocked by the return of a childhood friend...

Mayfridh rules over a land where a wolf is the queen's counsellor, fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf and mortals feel no pain. As Christine becomes addicted to Mayfridh's world, so Mayfridh grows addicted to Christine's, falling dangerously in love with Jude.

The Autumn Castle is sort of a portal fantasy in that there is the real world (Berlin in the early 00s) and there is fairyland, but a larger part of the action takes place in the real world. It's also more of a character driven story than a lot of the books I've read recently. There's no Quest and the world doesn't need saving from the start. There is a Bad Guy but several of the other characters are of dubious morality at one point or another. There are secrets, lies and conflicting desires. At a few points, I honestly wasn't sure how some issues were going to be resolved.

Christine is probably the easiest character to like. She means well and not in an offensively misguided way like some of the other characters. The chronic pain aspect was also a nice layer and I liked how it was portrayed in the book. It was something Christine was always aware of and something she wanted to avoid having define her.

The other characters were more difficult to like. Mandy, the serial fairy killer, was obviously reprehensible and irredeemable from the start. The sections from his point of view — mostly extracts from his memoires — are suitable icky and I enjoyed the way they were read in a German accent. In fact, most of the accents were pretty good in the audiobook although I was probably least convinced by the US accents of Christine and her boyfriend.

Mayfridh was an interesting character but one I increasingly lost respect for, especially towards the end. Having lived in fairyland for most of her life as a princess and then a queen, she's quite spoiled and, when she first comes to the real world, naïve about how things work. Both traits evolve as the book progresses but there were many reasons I wanted to tell her off towards the end.

The secondary characters all added significantly to the story and I appreciated the layers of complexity which we learnt as the story progressed. Several people turned out to be not quite what they seemed and there were a couple of revelations I really didn't see coming. A well-crafted story. And I liked the fairytale epilogue at the end. That was nice.

I highly recommend The Autumn Castle to fans of character-driven fantasy books. I think readers who usually don't read much fantasy would also enjoy it since, although the fantasy element is inextricable from the plot, the character-driven narrative is the more complex aspect. Assuming you like that sort of thing, anyway. There are some dark elements, so be warned: vicious murder and light torture within (but no rape, if that helps). The Autumn Castle is the first book in a "suite" of three unrelated novels (set in the same universe? I'm not even sure) and I intend to read the next one in the near future (probably as an audiobook as well; I have it in paper on another continent).

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2002, Harper Voyager (Bolinda Audio 2012 narrated by Richard Aspel) Series: Standalone but also the first of the Europa Suite
Format read: Audiobook
Source: Borrowed from the library
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge