The ‘Nameless’ competition has been extended until the 1st of September 2009, and a $500 winner’s cheque has been added to sweeten the already tasty prize pool.
Read the story here. Come up with a conclusion and a title. Make your $10 donation and enter the competition here.
The completion of the ‘Nameless’ story could be wrought in almost any medium: as a prose piece of 1000 words or less, as a poem, as a stand alone illustration or graphic comic in panels, as a photograph or a short film shot on a cell phone...
The 1st of September deadline for this competition is carved in stone.
Only one who hunts with a high calibre imagination will be able to take out this bounty.
Source: Stephen Studach
Friday, July 31, 2009
News: Scribe launches the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize
Scribe is delighted to announce the launch of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize. The prize is open for an unpublished manuscript by any Australian writer over 35, who may or may not have been published before. The winner of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize will be awarded a book contract from Scribe and a prize of $12,000.
Scribe’s Fiction Acquisitions Editor, Aviva Tuffield, said, ‘For a number of years it has concerned us that the Vogel Prize is only for writers under 35 because it seems that many novelists, especially women, only find the time and have acquired the life experience to write novels later in life.’
There are many examples of late bloomers when it comes to writers, certainly in terms of getting published – and many of those are women: Elizabeth Jolley published her first novel at 53, as did Anita Brookner; Marina Lewycka was 58 when her debut, A Short History of Tractors in
Ukrainian, appeared; Annie Proulx was 58 when she won the PEN/Faulkner book award for her debut novel and the following year she won a Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News; Penelope Fitzgerald got going in her 60s; and Mary Wesley had her first adult novel published when she was 70.
And it’s not just the women: Raymond Chandler published his first story at 45 and his first novel at 51; Norman Lebrecht won the Whitbread award at the age of 54 for his first novel. All of these writers would have been disqualified from the Vogel Award. While athletes, for example, peak in their youth, writers can develop at any stage of life and often come of age later and write their best work after a few attempts. This year’s Orange Prize for New Writers in the UK had a shortlist of three debut women authors, none of whom was under forty.
Tuffield said, ‘It is a difficult time in the Australian fiction market right now, especially for debut authors — the ABC Fiction Prize has ended, and Australian publishers are cutting back on their fiction lists — and so we hope this prize will raise the profile of Australian fiction and find a wonderful new voice and/or novel. Scribe appreciates the assistance of Copyright Agency Limited in helping us to establish this prize.’
The winner will be announced in March 2010.
For entry forms visit CAL SCRIBE FICTION PRIZE
• For an unpublished manuscript by an Australian writer over 35
• Prize is a book contract from Scribe + $12,000
• Winner announced March 2010
• Entry forms available from www.scribepublications.com.au/prize
Source: Susan Hornbeck, Publicist, via Lucy Sussex
Scribe’s Fiction Acquisitions Editor, Aviva Tuffield, said, ‘For a number of years it has concerned us that the Vogel Prize is only for writers under 35 because it seems that many novelists, especially women, only find the time and have acquired the life experience to write novels later in life.’
There are many examples of late bloomers when it comes to writers, certainly in terms of getting published – and many of those are women: Elizabeth Jolley published her first novel at 53, as did Anita Brookner; Marina Lewycka was 58 when her debut, A Short History of Tractors in
Ukrainian, appeared; Annie Proulx was 58 when she won the PEN/Faulkner book award for her debut novel and the following year she won a Pulitzer Prize for The Shipping News; Penelope Fitzgerald got going in her 60s; and Mary Wesley had her first adult novel published when she was 70.
And it’s not just the women: Raymond Chandler published his first story at 45 and his first novel at 51; Norman Lebrecht won the Whitbread award at the age of 54 for his first novel. All of these writers would have been disqualified from the Vogel Award. While athletes, for example, peak in their youth, writers can develop at any stage of life and often come of age later and write their best work after a few attempts. This year’s Orange Prize for New Writers in the UK had a shortlist of three debut women authors, none of whom was under forty.
Tuffield said, ‘It is a difficult time in the Australian fiction market right now, especially for debut authors — the ABC Fiction Prize has ended, and Australian publishers are cutting back on their fiction lists — and so we hope this prize will raise the profile of Australian fiction and find a wonderful new voice and/or novel. Scribe appreciates the assistance of Copyright Agency Limited in helping us to establish this prize.’
The winner will be announced in March 2010.
For entry forms visit CAL SCRIBE FICTION PRIZE
• For an unpublished manuscript by an Australian writer over 35
• Prize is a book contract from Scribe + $12,000
• Winner announced March 2010
• Entry forms available from www.scribepublications.com.au/prize
Source: Susan Hornbeck, Publicist, via Lucy Sussex
News: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One
Ellen Datlow has announced the contents of the forthcoming The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One, due out in October from Night Shade Books. The book features two Australian horror writers - Miranda Siemienowicz and Margo Lanagan. Contents as reported:
- Cargo by E. Michael Lewis (originally published in Shades of Darkness)
- If Angels Fight by Richard Bowes (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
- The Clay Party by Steve Duffy (The Werewolf Pack)
- Penguins of the Apocalypse by William Browning Spencer (Subterranean)
- Esmeralda by Glen Hirshberg (Shades of Darkness)
- The Hodag by Trent Hergenrader (Black Static)
- Very Low-Flying Aircraft by Nicholas Royle (Exotic Gothic 2)
- When the Gentlemen Go By by Margaret Ronald (Clarkesworld)
- The Lagerstätte by Laird Barron (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy)
- Harry and the Monkey by Euan Harvey (Realms of Fantasy)
- Dress Circle by Miranda Siemienowicz (Hecate)
- The Rising River by Daniel Kaysen (Black Static)
- Sweeney Among the Straight Razors by JoSelle Vanderhooft (Star*Line)
- Loup-garou by R.B. Russell (The Werewolf Pack)
- Girl in Pieces by Graham Edwards (Realms of Fantasy)
- It Washed Up by Joe R. Lansdale (Subterranean)
- The Thirteenth Hell by Mike Allen (The Journey to Kailash)
- The Goosle by Margo Lanagan (The Del Rey Book of SF&F)
- Beach Head by Daniel LeMoal (On Spec)
- The Man from the Peak by Adam Golaski (Worse Than Myself)
- The Narrows by Simon Bestwick (We Fade to Grey)
Source: Miranda Siemienowicz
News: 'The Mother' US edition
The US limited edition of Brett McBean's second novel THE MOTHER is now up for pre-order from Thunderstorm Books.
The Hume Highway stretches for more than 800 km from Melbourne to Sydney.
For most people, it's simply a way to get them to their destination; a mostly uninteresting route dotted with low hills, scrubby bushland, and the occasional petrol station and rest stop to break the tedium.
But for one woman, the Hume is a place of death, of sadness, of loss. And of revenge.
For this woman has a plan; a plan involving hitchhiking - hopping into any and every car that will stop and pick her up. Because she's seeking a man. A man with a tattoo. The man who brutally murdered her teenage daughter. Even if it takes her the rest of her life, she aims to find him. Even if it means pain, loss... And death.
This is the uncut version with two graphic scenes deemed too extreme restored back into the text. The book features cover art by Alan Clark; Motherly Perspectives (intros from Kelli Dunlap, Mandy Hartley, Wendy Howarth, and Karen McBean); an afterword regarding the restored text by Brett McBean; and an afterword from Robert Hood. This will be extremely limited at only 125 signed hardcover copies.
Available as:
Black Voltage Hardcover Edition
Limited to 125 copies
(with or without an Alan M. Clark remarque)
$85/$75 US
Monsterback Softcover Edition
$19.95 US
Source: Brett McBean
Book Review: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
Jonathan L. Howard, Hachette Livre Australia, 2009Johannes Cabal is certainly no hero: robbing graves is, after all, not a particularly heroic pursuit. But now Johannes needs his soul - which he traded in return for the secrets of Necromancy - back, and thus is forced to strike a wager with Satan. In return for his own soul, Johannes must gather one hundred others. Given control of a diabolical train-travelling carnival (created to tempt, bully and trick people into signing over their souls, although you can also win goldfish), Johannes has one year to beat the devil at his own game.
But the devil rarely bets on anything other than a Sure Thing...
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is being marketed by the publishers as being 'perfect for fans of Tim Burton and Terry Pratchett', and this is fairly accurate, as far as it goes: the humour certainly reminds one of Pratchett, with most of the comedy drawn from the mannerisms, foibles, and verbal peculiarities of the characters; and the various situations presenting themselves throughout the novel do have a rather macabre quality overall, which could be called Burton-esque.
However, there's a far darker level to Johannes Cabal that reads more like Joe Hill or (as the author himself acknowledges) vintage Ray Bradbury. Howard mines the whole wide horror genre for material here, playing some of the elements (such as zombies and Lovecraftian shennanigans) purely for laughs, while others he uses in a manner that - at the very least - greatly disturb. A visit by Johannes to a remote, haunted railway station left the hairs standing up on the back of this reader's neck, as did his visit to an ancient family crypt. The use of Infernal trickery to drive a desperate mother to infanticide genuinely sickens and angers. And in one scene, a young lad takes a ride on the ghost train, the psychological ramifications of which fly straight over his head, but which are likely to give the suffering reader sleepless nights.
Howard's deft characterisations also support the unease: there are very few Good People in this tale. Certainly the central character, Johannes, seems completely amoral, often chillingly so; he's not even likeable enough to be an anti-hero, really. He is a fascinating character, though, and so the reader is compelled to follow him throughout the narrative. However, the fact that we understand who and what he is - which should reduce his scare factor considerably - doesn't prevent us from feeling genuine fear for the lives and souls of those who cross him. That's a very neat trick for any author to pull off.
I could continue to rave about this book at great length, but I'll conclude here by saying that Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is perhaps the very best speculative comedy novel I've read over the past fifteen years. Comparisons with other popular fantasists will be inevitable, but there's a distinct and original style to this debut novel that I assume must be distinctly Howard; only the publication of more works by this author will corroborate this, and I can't wait to read them.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Review: Bacon's Arena
A man sits in what appears to be a glass box, half his head is missing and he is screaming. In another scene, two suspicious looking figures wait outside a bedroom containing what could be a bloodied corpse. Finally, bodies of animals and quite possibly humans surround a sinister gentleman whose eyes are hidden in darkness. It's not the latest torture porn flick to come out of Hollywood. It is, in fact, the work of one of the twentieth century's great artists, Francis Bacon.A review for a fine arts documentary might seem a strange fit for a website like this one, but horror and art are not the unlikely bedfellows they might at first appear. You only have to look at the works of people like Hieronymous Bosch, Goya, Dali and Otto Dix to see some pretty fevered nightmares that wouldn't look out of place in some of the more outre work of directors like David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro.
But enough of the justifications. Is this doco any good? Well, yes and no. He was undoubtedly a fascinating fellow and was good for the odd controversial quote or two. There's a lovely score by Brian Eno and some nice artistic, though ambiguous, artistic flourishes - scenes of a bloody bullfight are interspersed throughout, echoing the sometimes violent nature of his work (and his life). As a biography it works well, not shying away from some of his less savoury characteristics. One of his lovers committed suicide on the day of the opening of an important exhibition by Bacon in Paris. The artist decided to go ahead with it anyway, posing for the cameras and enjoying the limelight.
On the other hand, as with most movies and books about painting, it's hard to capture the vibrancy of a canvas in reproduction or the process of creating art. There are tantalising glimpses of his studios which look like the aftermath of a sustained bombing raid, but too often his motives seemed elusive. Maybe that's as it should be.
If you're at all interested in this artist's work, check out this documentary. If you're a neophyte, probably best to steer clear. For a very quick introduction to Francis Bacon's work, you can check out his estate's official website here.
Bacon's Arena is directed by Adam Low and released in Australia by Madman Entertainment.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
News: First National Republican Short Story Competition
On 6 November 2009, it will be 10 years since the republican referendum was lost. To commemorate this event and to remind Australians of what they still don't have, the Australian Republican Movement is calling for speculative fiction short stories between 2000 and 4000 words that portray an Australian republican future in a positive light and demonstrate the absurdity of a hereditary monarch as the Australian Head of State in twenty-first century Australian society. Stories must be original and unpublished.
First National Republican Short Story Competition
Deadliine: 31 August 2009
1st prize: $611.99
More information and daily blog of creative stimulus material: click here.
E: qld@republic.org.au
Entry fee $11.99 (Cheques or postal order payable to 'Australian Republican Movement')
Send entries to:
Australian Republican Movement
PO Box 87
Geebung Q 4034
The judges are Queensland author Nick Earls, Brian Matthews (Professor of English, Flinders University), and John Warhurst (Professor of Political Science, Australian National University).
Source: Dr Glenn A. Davies, Australian Republican Movement
First National Republican Short Story Competition
Deadliine: 31 August 2009
1st prize: $611.99
More information and daily blog of creative stimulus material: click here.
E: qld@republic.org.au
Entry fee $11.99 (Cheques or postal order payable to 'Australian Republican Movement')
Send entries to:
Australian Republican Movement
PO Box 87
Geebung Q 4034
The judges are Queensland author Nick Earls, Brian Matthews (Professor of English, Flinders University), and John Warhurst (Professor of Political Science, Australian National University).
Source: Dr Glenn A. Davies, Australian Republican Movement
Monday, July 27, 2009
Review: Drag Me to Hell
One of the principal celluloid horror directors of all time has taken a break from gargantuan blockbusters and returned to the genre that sparked a revolution amongst the dark faithful. The Evil Dead films basically showcased the genesis of a new and fantastical way of low budget filmmaking: a trilogy that sparked thousands of imitators and set the bar for what can be achieved when natural, creative genius is given free reign. Drag Me to Hell is a fictional nod to many influences, but still stamped with Sam’s unique brand of inventive camera work and strong visual style …
The film starts off in a mundane world all of us know to well: the office space. Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), is a loan officer in a bank and adheres to the whims of her superiors in the hopes of landing a lucrative Assistant Manager position: this is great angle; Sam and his brother Ivan have written and then displayed a realm that’s so clinical in the details – the familiarity of the nine-to-five hum drum is so part and parcel with all of us that – knowing that there are horrors to come – we feel strapped in for a joyride. We know Christine’s world is about to be shattered, her cozy niche forever transformed by what we have seen and know of the plot.
And that (the plot), concerns one Mrs. Ganush, an old gypsy who is refused an extension on her mortgage by Christine, is ultimately shamed, and seeks vengeance by cursing her in an ugly stouch that has to be seen to be believed. Sam Raimi knows what repulses us, and he uses the character Mrs. Ganush to really get under our skin in this regard. For me, there is just something so ultimately creepy about old hags … especially ones that cackle and have a vendetta or score to settle. In the aftermath of her confrontation, Christine is visibly shaken, and persuades her boyfriend Justin (Clay Dalton), to consult a fortune teller … perhaps a way to gauge whether or not the cursing of her jacket button had any real ramifications. The seer is Rahm Jas, someone who is wise in the ways of dark arts and is, in due course, recruited by Christine to help understand the enigma she is dealing with.
To go into detail regarding this enigma is probably giving too much away, but suffice to say Raimi, during the course of this dark excursion, gives us everything we’ve come to expect of him. There’s the horrific moments of possession laced with delicious slapstick comedy; advents of pure relentless terror where nothing is shown and everything is only suggested or hinted at. An apocalyptic climax with genuinely repulsive scenes … and of course no modern horror or thriller movie is complete without an unexpected twist. Here, the performances are solid, and the effects are ratcheted up to very decent levels. I have a feeling Raimi would have enjoyed working with a limited budget that would not have produced the mind-numbing headaches that an intricate franchise like the Spiderman films would have entailed.
Throughout its duration, there was at least half a dozen times that the audience visibly jumped or were rocked backwards … hackles raised in an crowd is a sure sign an observer is viewing a future classic.
The film starts off in a mundane world all of us know to well: the office space. Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), is a loan officer in a bank and adheres to the whims of her superiors in the hopes of landing a lucrative Assistant Manager position: this is great angle; Sam and his brother Ivan have written and then displayed a realm that’s so clinical in the details – the familiarity of the nine-to-five hum drum is so part and parcel with all of us that – knowing that there are horrors to come – we feel strapped in for a joyride. We know Christine’s world is about to be shattered, her cozy niche forever transformed by what we have seen and know of the plot.
And that (the plot), concerns one Mrs. Ganush, an old gypsy who is refused an extension on her mortgage by Christine, is ultimately shamed, and seeks vengeance by cursing her in an ugly stouch that has to be seen to be believed. Sam Raimi knows what repulses us, and he uses the character Mrs. Ganush to really get under our skin in this regard. For me, there is just something so ultimately creepy about old hags … especially ones that cackle and have a vendetta or score to settle. In the aftermath of her confrontation, Christine is visibly shaken, and persuades her boyfriend Justin (Clay Dalton), to consult a fortune teller … perhaps a way to gauge whether or not the cursing of her jacket button had any real ramifications. The seer is Rahm Jas, someone who is wise in the ways of dark arts and is, in due course, recruited by Christine to help understand the enigma she is dealing with.
To go into detail regarding this enigma is probably giving too much away, but suffice to say Raimi, during the course of this dark excursion, gives us everything we’ve come to expect of him. There’s the horrific moments of possession laced with delicious slapstick comedy; advents of pure relentless terror where nothing is shown and everything is only suggested or hinted at. An apocalyptic climax with genuinely repulsive scenes … and of course no modern horror or thriller movie is complete without an unexpected twist. Here, the performances are solid, and the effects are ratcheted up to very decent levels. I have a feeling Raimi would have enjoyed working with a limited budget that would not have produced the mind-numbing headaches that an intricate franchise like the Spiderman films would have entailed.
Throughout its duration, there was at least half a dozen times that the audience visibly jumped or were rocked backwards … hackles raised in an crowd is a sure sign an observer is viewing a future classic.
News: Regional Arts Australia national consultation
Regional Arts Australia invites you to participate in a national consultation which will inform future directions for their work aimed at strengthening regional communities through arts and culture. Complete the online survey now.
RAA is aiming to get 15,000 voices to contribute by 31 July – make yours one of them today!
RAA's extensive national consultations (which include both the online survey and face-to-face meetings nationwide) are exploring the role of arts and culture for regional Australians and considering how the arts intersect with areas such as health, education, environment, tourism, technology, Indigenous culture and economic development.
Everyone who completes the survey is in the running to win a stay at a Medina Apartment Hotel in your closest capital city.
Source: Elizabeth Rogers, Chief Executive Officer, Regional Arts NSW, Director, Regional Arts Australia
Sunday, July 26, 2009
News: 'Family Demons' midnight screening
Ursula Dabrowsky, winner of the Best Australian Director award at the 2009 A Night of Horror International Film Festival for her eerie psychological feature film, Family Demons, is proud to be screening the film at the 2009 Melbourne Underground Film Festival.
The event will be held on Saturday, 29 August 2009 at 11pm at the Embassy (formerly the Queensbridge Hotel), 1 Queensbridge St, South Melbourne.
More details on the film at www.familydemons.com
Source: Sue Brown
News: Aeon Award 2009 2nd round shortlist
As recently announced on the Albedo One website, a number of stories have been added to the Aeon Award 2009 shortlist after the second round of consideration, which ran from April to the end of July. Author names are removed to ensure impartiality while the judging proceeds, but the story titles are below. This brings the total shortlist to 11 stories.
Round 2 shortlisted stories
Round 1 shortlisted stories
The competition directors would like to emphasize that the Aeon Award is still open for entries to the end of November '09.
Grand Judge, respected SF author Ian Watson, will then choose the winning stories. The Grand Prize is €1000 and publication in Albedo One, Ireland’s magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Second and third place prizes are €200 and €100 and publication in Albedo One.
Submissions may be up to 8000 words length in any speculative fiction genre (cross-genre or unclassifiable stories welcome). Full details can be found at the website. A modest entry fee of €7 applies to cover the prize money.
Source: Frank Ludlow
Round 2 shortlisted stories
- Star in a Glass
- A Falcon Sharp and Passing
- Wailing Wheel
- Angele Dei
- Lost Things
Round 1 shortlisted stories
- On the Feast of Stephen
- Fenn, Brother of Francis
- The Art of the Intractable
- Mr. Kriswinkle's Third Maiden Voyage
- Gordon Street
- Pirate Copies
The competition directors would like to emphasize that the Aeon Award is still open for entries to the end of November '09.
Grand Judge, respected SF author Ian Watson, will then choose the winning stories. The Grand Prize is €1000 and publication in Albedo One, Ireland’s magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. Second and third place prizes are €200 and €100 and publication in Albedo One.
Submissions may be up to 8000 words length in any speculative fiction genre (cross-genre or unclassifiable stories welcome). Full details can be found at the website. A modest entry fee of €7 applies to cover the prize money.
Source: Frank Ludlow
News: Quentin Tarantino & Popcorn Taxi present 'Dark Age'
“Dark Age is a kick-ass combo of giant monster movie, ecological horror and Ozploitation at its finest.” Quentin Tarantino.To celebrate the great Aussie genre films of the eighties, Inglourious Basterds director Quentin Tarantino presents his own personal 35mm print of Arch Nicholson's 1987 Ozploitation classic Dark Age for a phenomenal one-off Popcorn Taxi screening.
John Jarratt stars as a park ranger on the hunt for a killer croc in the Australian outback. Featuring a cast including Home and Away’s Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher), David Gulpilil (Australia, Rabbit Proof Fence, Ten Canoes) and a 25 foot crocodile, Dark Age is a true Australian classic.
Director of Inglourious Basterds, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Death Proof and Ozploitation fan, Quentin Tarantino, will introduce the screening before moderating a lively question and answer session with Dark Age stars John Jarratt and Nikki Coghill.
POPCORN TAXI:
DARK AGE + Q&A hosted by QUENTIN TARANTINO
Rated: (R)
Time: 7:30pm SHARP!
Date: Tuesday August 4th.
Where: Hayden Orpheum: 380 Military Road, Cremorne.
Price: $49 (all tickets).
Tickets available now from www.popcorntaxi.com.au
Source: Brooke Hemphill, Popcorn Taxi
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Review: Dexter, An Omnibus
· Publisher: Doubleday (Australian release Dec 2008) 
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 1-409-10065-0
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 1-409-10065-0
· Author: Jeff Lindsay
The first book in the Omnibus is Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Like all the books contained within, it is also available on its own.
This is an excellent introduction to Dexter. Told from Dexter’s point of view, it is clinical, slightly confusing in places, almost cold, and very, very calculating. Very Dexter. The characters are all completely rounded with wonderful idiosyncrasies. Many of you will be fans of the Dexter TV series and will have the mental images of the characters already burnt into your brain, but that’s okay, it still works. I’ve only seen a few episodes – just enough to know what each of the characters from the first series look like – and it didn’t hamper my mental image of the characters portrayed in the text.
For those of you who don’t know Dexter, he is somewhat different to everyone else. He is a homicidal sociopath with a fear of blood, who works for the Miami police department as a blood splatter analyst. Told you he was different.
From an early age, his foster father (a legendary cop in Miami) recognises the difference in Dexter and begins to train him to use the evil within for the common good. Flashback sequences are used sparingly but do enough to fill in a lot of the blanks one would expect to find in a first-book-in-a-series.
Dexter’s foster-sister is also a cop in Miami, but is struggling to find her way into the Homicide division to follow in her father’s footsteps. She’s a good cop, but terrible at playing kiss-ass to those above her – and in Miami, politics is a big thing in gaining promotion.
The story follows Dexter’s efforts at tracking down a new type of serial killer, one he seems to have an affinity with, one he admires, and Dexter’s efforts at trying to help his sister’s rise through the ranks and into Homicide.
I found it an excellent read except for the end. The closing of the final chapter had a big tension-filled build up, and then went straight to the epilogue which was drawn out and left a lot unexplained. It did lead onto the next book in the series, naturally enough, and tied up one loose end very neatly, but it didn’t deliver on the tension created, and allowed Lindsay out of a plot corner he’d written himself into by simply cutting the scene short and moving on to where he wanted to start the next installation. It was a little disappointing.
This is an excellent introduction to Dexter. Told from Dexter’s point of view, it is clinical, slightly confusing in places, almost cold, and very, very calculating. Very Dexter. The characters are all completely rounded with wonderful idiosyncrasies. Many of you will be fans of the Dexter TV series and will have the mental images of the characters already burnt into your brain, but that’s okay, it still works. I’ve only seen a few episodes – just enough to know what each of the characters from the first series look like – and it didn’t hamper my mental image of the characters portrayed in the text.
For those of you who don’t know Dexter, he is somewhat different to everyone else. He is a homicidal sociopath with a fear of blood, who works for the Miami police department as a blood splatter analyst. Told you he was different.
From an early age, his foster father (a legendary cop in Miami) recognises the difference in Dexter and begins to train him to use the evil within for the common good. Flashback sequences are used sparingly but do enough to fill in a lot of the blanks one would expect to find in a first-book-in-a-series.
Dexter’s foster-sister is also a cop in Miami, but is struggling to find her way into the Homicide division to follow in her father’s footsteps. She’s a good cop, but terrible at playing kiss-ass to those above her – and in Miami, politics is a big thing in gaining promotion.
The story follows Dexter’s efforts at tracking down a new type of serial killer, one he seems to have an affinity with, one he admires, and Dexter’s efforts at trying to help his sister’s rise through the ranks and into Homicide.
I found it an excellent read except for the end. The closing of the final chapter had a big tension-filled build up, and then went straight to the epilogue which was drawn out and left a lot unexplained. It did lead onto the next book in the series, naturally enough, and tied up one loose end very neatly, but it didn’t deliver on the tension created, and allowed Lindsay out of a plot corner he’d written himself into by simply cutting the scene short and moving on to where he wanted to start the next installation. It was a little disappointing.
Dearly Devoted Dexter is the second book within the Omnibus and picks up where the first one left off, but it also contains enough of the same information from the first book that it could stand fairly well on its own. As always with a series though, reading the first one is recommended, just don’t do it on the heels of the first one unless you really love Dexter the character.
Personally, I like how Lindsay has fully captured Dexter’s character but the repetitiveness gets a little irritating. The titles of the books carry over into the text with lots of variances on Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Poor Drained Dexter, and others – many others. If Lindsay is trying to show how much a serial killer is a creature of routine and ritual, he drives it well past home.
Dexter is once more called upon to help his sister solve a case when another new type of ruthless killer comes to town. Again Dexter admires much of what this new monster is capable of, but this time his sister wants help for more personal reasons: she wants to impress the guy from Washington sent to clean up this particular mess.
We delve a little deeper into Dexter this time round and watch as he is forced to lead a normal life while being watched by a fellow law enforcement officer. There are a few interesting twists in this one and the ending is handled much better than the first, but it is very much written to the same formula which makes it a bit of a push to get through and maintain interest.
Lastly we have Dexter in the Dark. If one thing is clear from this series, it’s I’d never want to go to Miami – they have some really weirdo killers over there. This time it’s an ancient cult which has ties into what makes Dexter tick.
It’s difficult to go into detail without giving away major plot points which would spoil the first and second book, but I think it’s obvious that the inspiration for the whole series is covered here. The disappointing bit about this is that the first two books spent most of their collective pages drilling the character of Dexter into the reader, making him so well known to us that we build up a strange type of empathy for Dexter the Dark Avenger and then the third one gives us a whole new explanation as to why Deeply Drained Dexter is the way he is, which shatters the character we’ve come to know. It left me with a feeling of being lied to, as if the first two books could have been some dream sequence of half-truths – and I hate dream sequences.
Still, the story explores Dexter as he has no choice but to become more human and how he handles experiencing emotions for the first time. There are some funny sections with his impending nuptials and how his friends and family prepare for them, but Lindsay goes way overboard with the different labels for our hero once more. There isn’t a chapter which goes by where Dexter is referring to himself as Depressed Dexter, Devoted Dexter, Dumb Dexter, or some variation of this. It gets a little repetitive.
Over all, the omnibus will be a must read for fans of the TV series. Personally I’m not, but I am a fan of the premise and the character of Dexter. Let’s face it, a nut job that kills other monsters of the community the police can’t deliver justice to, and who happens to work as a blood splatter specialist for the police department, and hates blood, is a character full of conflict and wonderful opportunities. It just comes across as very formulaic to me in plot, sentence structure and many of the phrases used. And the fact book three introduces a whole new ideal behind the character felt more like a grab to freshen up the franchise than an attempt to be true to the character we’d gotten to know in book one and two.
Review: The Edge by Chris Simms
Ask me what one of my favourite Bond (007) movies is and I’ll give you a largely obscure title, ‘Licence to Kill’. It took a franchise that had been built up and robbed the main character, James Bond, of everything – his best friend fed to the sharks (the man’s wife killed) and his licence to kill revoked – leaving only revenge left on the cards (a plot basically repeated in last year’s ‘Quantum of Solace’). Why am I mentioning this? Because this element is similar in vein to what Chris Simms has used to superbly craft his latest crime thriller, ‘The Edge’ (24 July 2009, Orion). He has taken his deeply realistic character, DI Jon Spicer, into his fifth novel with a huge event that will forever change his life, revenge the only option carrying Spicer forward.
Those who’ve read Simms’ Spicer series will know that Jon has a ‘black sheep’ brother, who makes brief appearances in each novel as a homeless drug addict. ‘The Edge’ wastes no time establishing the fact that this will no longer be so – the brother, Dave, has been found brutally murdered in Haverdale, in the Peak District. Jon has to identify what is left of the body, the second step in so many things going wrong, with a mortician confusing Jon’s police identity and casually showing him Dave’s remains as if it were part of his case – a severed head in one bag, the rest, well… mistaken for deer remains left in garbage bags, taking advantage of a non-verbal hunting agreement with the local rangers.
When Jon returns to console his family he unwillingly steps between torn parents, his mother blaming his father for failing to bring Dave home after all those years. Desperate to make everything right, Jon promises his father he will catch whoever was responsible. But, knowing his wife, expecting their second child, would not approve so quickly after the grave news, he lies to her and tells her he has been assigned to help the Haverdale police with their enquiries. Only, the police in Haverdale do not want his help at all (at one stage, they escort him out of town); they are largely inept and quick to dismiss Dave as being one of the drug dealers who are making their small town a haven of associated problems.
Jon had kept Dave a secret from many people, including his MIT (Major Incident Team) partner, Rick. But as his trail to find Dave’s killer draws too many dead-ends, he needs the help of such close friends to locate the one key in the case – a woman named Zoe, who called Dave’s mobile before he was murdered and whose picture is on Dave’s mobile screen. Zoe is back in Manchester, only, she is trapped in an apartment while an old pimp-slash-drug dealer – who Dave owes money to – waits for her outside, anxious to take advantage of Dave being away and drag her back into a life of crack and prostitution. This makes for a gripping set of extra scenes, especially since Zoe has a baby, Dave’s child, who is running out of all basic necessities and who has a rattling cough that isn’t getting better; especially when the pimp drops some drugs through the mail slot and coos Zoe into facing her internal hell. There are also many other fascinating side stories, such as the lives of obsessive rare birds’ egg collectors, that seamlessly mesh with Jon’s task of finding the killer.
So Jon has risked his ties to his family and his career. And he, for the most part, is alone. He goes behind everyone’s back to find the killer, lying to most people (continually his wife), posing as a policeman who’s actually on the case in order to follow his suspicions, living as his brother may have lived in his final days in order to see just what the hell the man had lost himself to.
Such a storyline makes me shiver, just reminiscing about it. Simms has written a gritty novel that grips from start to finish, cramming multiple tense scenarios into a relatively short length. I just couldn’t put it down.
I definitely cannot tell you any more, rather I will emphasise the superb work Simms has done on this novel (possibly his best Spicer novel). Jon Spicer faces the edge, a path of self-destruction, having to make so many choices to track down Dave’s killer that he usually would have, in good conscience, let go if he were acting in a hundred percent professional manner. But he is not – this is revenge, using all the skills he has. And some of those choices are going to carry through to future novels. Some of them are as depressing as hell, but we all make good and bad choices, and we all have to face them. This, again, is the realism Simms puts into every one of his novels, a trait that separates him from many others, putting him up there in the ranks of the best.
I want the next instalment now!
Review by Craig Bezant
Friday, July 24, 2009
Interview: Stuart MacBride talks with Craig Bezant (Part 2)
Scottish crime write-ist and bearded raconteur Stuart MacBride recently toured around Australia to promote his new novel, ‘Blind Eye’. During his final tour destination, in Perth, Western Australia, Stuart MacBride (SM) caught up with HorrorScope’s Craig Bezant (CB) for a rather casual interview, the writer eager to talk about his work and share his love for the craft.This is the second part of a 2-part upload.
CB: Now, you’ve got some huge issues wrapped up in ‘Blind Eye’ – including paedophiles, adoption and IVF for lesbian couples, gangs, street gangs and CCTV, new relationships, crooked cops, McRae deciding if he even wants to be a cop, and so on. Had you intended to make such an epic crime novel?
SM: Heavy drinking too. [Oh yeah, and Logan started smoking again, didn’t he?] Oh yeah. Well, I always used to love the books of R.D. Wingfield, the Touch of Frost books, because he was the first guy I ever read who did a police procedural where the police had more than one case to focus on. And that was just a revolution to me. I loved that as a reader, so I sacrifice these things [in my own writing]. There always has to be more than one case to go through. I try to make it passively realistic – there’s all these things in the background. But some of them that are meant to be throwaways just spiral out of control. They get bigger and bigger, it just happens. There’s no plan at the start, no plan for an epic. It’s more, “Oh my god, will this ever finish!”
CB: Do you have all the cases and background stories planned out before you start?
SM: I tend to mind map for the plots. On a whiteboard, I draw my map, and when I get to the edges of it I’m ready to start writing the book. It’s size determinant, I don’t know why. If it’s a short story, it’s a sheet of A4 – it has to be landscape, not portrait; novellas are a sheet of A3. So I reach the edges and I just start writing. There’s no set out for what comes where. I might not know if something will take off later or not, sometimes it just grows legs. I would love to have a more intellectual approach.
CB: In ‘Blind Eye’, the victims had their eyeballs ripped out and their sockets burnt. Did you base this on any real cases?
SM: Well I was told a story about Kraków, with a Polish angle, about how the influential and rich families wanted to impress everybody by building clock towers. And the fancier and bigger your clock tower was, the more stylish you were. So eventually it got to the point where someone decided “Mine will be forever the greatest clock tower”. The story’s actually in the book, and that’s where it came from, the thought that someone would get the person to make the greatest clock tower and then burn their eyes out with a hot poker [so the person could not make anyone else a better tower]. Of course it’s not true – I can’t find any historical reference to it, whatsoever.
CB: For the most part, DS Logan McRae uses physical force or a stun-gun to apprehend people. In ‘Blind Eye’ it is the first time he’s shot someone. I love that, despite being involved in a gunfight, his first instinct is to get the person to an ambulance. What made you want to take this angle in the novel, and what made you decide now was the time for Logan to shoot someone?
SM: It’s not something the British police do a lot [shooting someone]. I don’t think in Grampians they have ever fired on anybody. It’s always been if they needed a firearms team there are negotiators to come in. So in the UK to actually shoot somebody it’s a really big deal. So I thought I’m going to make Logan be in that position. Clearly his life isn’t difficult enough. Then his reactions can’t be the big Hollywood hard man, “Hey, I just shot somebody”, glib one-liner, it’s “Oh fuck, I’ve shot somebody. Shit, is he all right? Is he dead? What am I going to do?” Silly bugger.
CB: The novel also explores the power-struggle of gangs in Aberdeen. You even had the Manchester Hoodies coming in. Is there a noticeable gang situation in Aberdeen, or purely fiction?
SM: It always amazes me, in Aberdeen we have Triads. And we have Yardies. Yardies in Aberdeen? It’s bizarre – on the north-east coast of Scotland it’s freezing all the time! And apparently a lot of drugs come up the road from Manchester, so there’s a kernel of truth in the novel.
CB: What’s the most interesting or bizarre thing you’ve learnt or experienced while researching for any of your novels?
SM: It was probably about bondage. My third book [‘Broken Skin’] featured the bondage community. I always had, I imagine, the same kind of reaction to the word bondage as most people, which was “Oooh!” [Giggles like a child]. And I didn’t actually realise until I tracked down someone on the scene just how serious it is. And the whole balance of power thing – the spanking is only happening because the spankee wants it, and when the spankee has had enough, it stops [not the other way round]. It could be anyone spanking them – it’s all about delayed gratification. It’s a very intellectualised approach to sex. I just hadn’t expected that at all.
The least surprising thing [I’ve experienced] is that it hurts to get kicked in the head by a dead cow. I went on a tour of an abattoir when I was writing ‘Flesh House’ and this massive bullock, size of a mini-bus, hanging from the ceiling, [it’s gone through the killing cycle and] it’s dead. And myself and the tour guide were standing twelve feet down from there because it was ‘perfectly safe’, and the bull creaks on the chain that takes it around to the processors, and just as it comes level with us, it’s leg shakes and BAM, right on the side of my face. Eventually I picked myself up from the blood-soaked abattoir floor.
CB: You wrote the novella ‘Sawbones’ for a company (Barrington Stoke) that specialises in books for reluctant, emerging or dyslexic readers. Do you enjoy writing novellas and shorter fiction, or prefer novels?
SM: I really enjoyed writing ‘Sawbones’. And it was for a good cause. I had a lot of fun. I always wanted to write a big American serial killer novel as well, so it was sort of like a dry run for me. I got to put in a lot of stuff I’d learned on my research trip for that book, and have more than I’ll ever get to write.
CB: You have a stand-alone novel, ‘Halfhead’, that will finally see the light of day in September? Would you care to elaborate on that novel?
SM: Yes, the start of October I believe, in Australia. I suppose it’s more accurately a near-futurist thriller. It’s serial killers. It’s explosions. It’s full-frontal nudity. It’s very dark and disturbing in places. Very dark and disturbing.
CB: Now that you’ve done some international touring, do you have any ideas for setting a forthcoming novel outside of Aberdeen? I know ‘Sawbones’ was set in America.
SM: Well, the McRae novels, I have a contract for six. I’m writing the sixth one just now. And then I have another contract for four – two of which will be McRae novels, two of which will be standalones. So… I love the experience of another culture, and actually getting to write something about it. It excites me.
Craig Bezant (on behalf of HorrorScope) would like to thank Stuart MacBride and HarperCollins for arranging and participating in the wonderful interview.
Interview: Stuart MacBride talks with Craig Bezant
Scottish crime write-ist and bearded raconteur Stuart MacBride recently toured around Australia to promote his new novel, ‘Blind Eye’, and experience all things Aussie (the opera house, surfers, the beach, kangaroos, tasting kangaroo…).
Stuart’s first book, ‘Cold Granite’ was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers′ best debut novel and won the Barry Award for best first novel. The follow-up, ‘Dying Light’, became an instant top-ten bestseller. The third, ‘Broken Skin’ won the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Breakthrough Author of the Year, 2008. Stuart also won the 2007 CWA Dagger in the Library, awarded for a body of work.
During his final tour destination, in Perth, Western Australia, Stuart MacBride (SM) caught up with HorrorScope’s Craig Bezant (CB) for a rather casual interview, the writer eager to talk about his work and share his love for the craft.
Because of the size of the interview, there will be 2 parts uploaded.
CB: I’ll start by saying that my wife gave me many a strange look whilst reading ‘Blind Eye’, in a sense that I burst out loud with laughter at random points, and when she asked what the story was about I’d casually say, “Oh, someone is poking out the eyes of the Polish community”. She looked at me as if I were psychotic or just plain insane. So, I’d liked to thank you for that.
Do you base the back-and-forth bantering between McRae and his associates, like Rennie and Steel, on people you know, through observations, or is this a bit of your own twisted humour creeping through?
SM: It’s kind of a combination all of those things, because I’ve always worked in teams my entire adult life before I became a writer. I always just make the police behave like the guys I used to work with. It’s that back and forth – trying never to answer any question that’s directed at you, always going off on a tangent or asking a question of your own.
CB: Your novels have a real pulp crime feel to them, while on the other hand being a lot more complex, or deeper, than an older pulp crime novel, particularly with McRae’s back-story. Did the old pulp novels influence your writing, or is this just something I’m noticing?
SM: I didn’t read a huge amount [of pulp crime]. It’s not intentional. I’m not that brave enough, to be honest, to make an intellectual reference.
CB: Are you a summer or winter man? Is this reflected in your novels? You had a go at having ‘Blind Eye’ set during summer, but your acknowledgements suggest that might be the last time. You even had Warsaw set in gloomy rain, for a while.
SM: But it was though [raining in Warsaw]. It’s a little unfair of Warsaw, but we went there in March to do the research for the book, my wife and I, and it just bucketed the entire time we were there. So it was miserable, it really was. I had to extrapolate what it was like in Kraków during the summer, even though we were there during the blizzards. It’s a lovely place, Kraków. We spent about ten days there. Beautiful country.
If you ever go, I can thoroughly recommend Crazy Communist Tours. I thought of lots of different ways I could have done the research – contact historians, novelists, you know – in the end, the Crazy Communist Tours basically give you a guide and a Trabant (for atmosphere), a nasty fibreglass car that was very big during the communist era. You could only drive one of these things for two hours or you die of fumes (it says that in the manual). In particular, they took me to Nowa Huta, where they’ve got the steel works. So the whole part of the book (in ‘Blind Eye’) is based on the trip that we did, and because we’d gone out with the guide, and it was just us, I could ask him whatever I wanted instead of picking this and that up from a book. It was really helpful, and a lot of fun too.
CB: How long does a Logan McRae novel take to write now, on average? Is it getting easier with character familiarity?
SM: They’re getting bigger. This one (‘Blind Eye’) was fourteen months, end to end. It was a nightmare. I spent two and a half months on the first draft, and then well over eight months rewriting it. I wasn’t happy with chunks of it so I just changed them dramatically. Which I hate doing, cause it’s work. I would love to be a lazy person, but I just can’t do that at all. Whereas this delightful thing [his novella ‘Sawbones’], two weeks it took me to write, and two and a half days to edit. And I love it, because it’s so less painful. I loved the opportunity to do it – something completely different. I also think it has the best first chapter I’ve ever written.
CB: You introduced me to a word I’ve never seen used before – ‘Shoogle’. Can you explain that one? Is it, like, shaking rapidly?
SM: I will demonstrate by shoogling my chair to the side. Or you can give it a shoogle [picks glass up and shoogles the hell out of it]. It’s basically to move in a non-smooth way; back and forth as a random sort of move. As far as I know it’s purely Scottish, it’s only Aberdeenshire that uses it.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
News: AHWA draft response to Parallel Importation Restrictions report
The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) Committee is very concerned about the recommendations made by the Australian Productivity Commission in its July report on Parallel Importation Restrictions (PIRs) on books.The AHWA Committee has voted to add the voice of horror writers to the chorus of outrage already expressed by the Australian Society of Authors, the Australian Publishers Association, major publishers, independent booksellers, and prominent authors such as Garth Nix and Tim Winton. In short, the Committee believes the abolition of PIRs will have a negative impact on the Australian publishing industry and result in Australian authors - including AHWA members - losing income and publishing opportunities.
Click here to read the Productivity Commission's report.
Click here to read the Australian Society of Authors news on PIRs.
The AHWA Committee proposes to submit the following detailed response to Federal politicians and the media in the hope the current laws regarding PIRs will be retained in defiance of the Productivity Commission's report.
The AHWA draft response is here (requires member login).
AHWA members are invited to provide feedback on this draft letter, but given the urgency of the matter, the Committee asks that you provide any feedback by 11.59pm Sunday July 26. Please send your feedback to Shane Jiraiya Cummings, AHWA Vice President - shane@brimstonepress.com.au).
Source: AHWA
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Review: The Phoenix Files: Arrival by Chris Morphew
The Phoenix Files: Arrival is the first book in a young adult series, The Phoenix Files, by debut Australian novelist Chris Morphew.
Luke Hunter’s world has been turned upside-down by his parent’s divorce and is further disrupted when his mother accepts a new job and drags him to live in Phoenix, a town built in the middle of nowhere by the Shackleton Corporation for the use of its employees. In Phoenix, no one drives cars, but rides bikes instead. And while every student at the high school is provided with a laptop computer and there is a working town intranet, there is no connection to the internet, no satellite television and no mobile phone network accessible. Even the police force is absent, replaced instead by a private security force.
As Luke tries to settle into his new life, making friends with classmates Jordan and Peter, he begins to discover that there is something sinister happening in Phoenix. And someone is counting down the last hundred days of the human race.
This is an easy and enjoyable read for both teenagers and adults alike. Morphew has captured Luke’s voice perfectly, and his teen perspective of the strange events occurring within Phoenix makes them all the more sinister.
The most frustrating part of the book? It ends on a cliffhanger and the next book isn’t due for publication until 2010.
Morphew is a talented new author to watch and this series is going to be something special, if the first book is anything to judge by.
The Phoenix Files: Arrival is published by Hardie Grant Egmont.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Review: Slights by Kaaron Warren
‘Slights’ (2009, Angry Robot (HarperCollins)) has to be the strangest book I have read in quite a while. Australian author Kaaron Warren has crafted a bizarre (fictional) memoir that’s so depressing I just couldn’t put it down.
The story is told through Stephanie, from the time she is eighteen and gets into a car crash, killing her mother (the passenger), to the final slide into despair at age thirty-five. When Stephanie is involved in the car crash, she briefly dies, and is taken into her version of hell – a dark room where everyone she has slighted in life waits for her (many wanting to tear her apart). When she is revived her obsession with the dark room begins to consume her life. She is suddenly alone, her brother married and living elsewhere, her father long-dead (a police officer who died in suspicious circumstances), and does little more than dig up her backyard and think. And what begins as innocent, naïve observations about life begin to shape into harder, poignant criticisms and repeated brushes with death.
The diggings in the backyard reveal her father was a serial killer of sorts, and it seems the psychological trend is in her blood. After having her own life almost cut short again (and again), and returning to the dark room, Stephanie wants to know if others see it. She finds employment as a carer, asking the elderly patients to tell her what they see as their life ends. That isn’t enough though, and soon Stephanie is pushing people to the brink of death and then bringing them back and asking what they see. When their response doesn’t match her experience, well, they are of no further use to her.
To explain the plot with such simplicity really doesn’t do it justice. This is all a gradual development, with many, many smaller stories within (as Stephanie reminisces about her childhood and reflects on her current year). Each chapter presents a year in Stephanie’s life, usually when her birthday is about to occur – Warren does a tremendous job of focusing on this point because it allows the reader to see just how socially isolated Stephanie becomes, with lots of family members attending her earlier birthday to no one even remembering it in the later years. Of course, such depressing moments happen to coincide with Stephanie killing herself again (the believability is stretched to a point here, as to how many times one person can harm themselves and be miraculously found and saved just before dying). The interplay between this loneliness and the apparent success of others, such as her brother, is magic. I also love the use of Stephanie’s fantasy-like mind, with ‘That’s what should have happened… This is what did happen…’ It's a great way to show what this woman could have had, a prelude to the inevitable conclusion.
The only thing that was difficult for me, as a reader, is that in the beginning I disliked the constant see-saw of plot, from a short point in the present flashing back to a longer story set in the past (slowly building the characters). This became a little too much after a while, and there were times I almost skipped ahead. But two things happened – I realized this was just the character, she was speaking like many real people do, and it is after all a memoir; and Warren’s writing had that captivating quality which meant that no matter how frustrated I became with the subplots, they were written so oddly, so intriguingly, that I had to keep reading to see what bizarre thing would happen next (and many bizarre things did happen).
The biggest thing letting this novel down is part of its marketing. I was fortunate enough to receive an altered reviewer’s copy (the front covers of all Angry Robot review copies have a matching theme of shapes in the artwork, simple yet effective), but the cover readers will see presents a very dark vision of vicious looking people crowding around Stephanie in the dark room. It makes the novel seem like more of a zombie-horror-type novel when it just isn’t, thus potentially turning away readers who may have tried it (had they read the blurb) or disappointing people after some scares. The spiel from Angry Robot (its publishing goals) doesn’t really match the novel either (“for the new generation of readers, those who have grown up on Hostel and Hellboy, Gears of War and World of Warcraft and are now out there looking for the same adrenaline-fuelled entertainment in books...if you love gritty, fast-paced intense reading...”). This book is definitely gritty. As for the other conditions... I really hope such marketing doesn’t effect the sales of the novel (in a negative way).
Warren has crafted something special here. It takes some time to get into, but that may be because Stephanie is a hard character to like instantly. Oh, and look out for cheeky namedrops of Australian authors Robert Hood and Richard Harland, among others, in one of the numerous stories within the story.
Review by Craig Bezant.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Review: The Midnight Meat Train
The Midnight Meat Train, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) and based on the Clive Barker short story, is a frustratingly compromised film. For all of its assets, it is hamstrung by a slack pace and a sense of dragging on - a big 'kiss of death' for a genre based on tension and fright.The film follows Barker's original work remarkably closely - when other reviewers claim it is the best and most faithful Barker adaptation since Hellraiser, they're probably not far off the mark. Photographer Leon Kaufman's (Bradley Cooper) hunt for darker and more confronting subject matter leads him to a late night subway train and a grim-faced man in a black suit (Vinnie Jones) who's making a nightly ritual of brutally murdering whoever winds up left with him in the carriage.
Further twists and turns are best left for the viewer to discover by his or herself, but it's a story that works, has a solid and clear hook, and certainly satisfies on a narrative level. Cooper (probably best known for the role of Will in TV's Alias) and Jones (Snatch, Gone in 60 Seconds) both turn in solid work. Cooper allows his character to sink further and further into paranoia and obsession, while Jones exudes a wonderful sense of calm menace. The supporting cast are all excellent, including Leslie Bibb, Roger Bart and Brooke Shields as a cynical art gallery owner (watch for the Clive Barker oil paintings in the gallery sequences!).
Visually, it's mostly excellent, as well, boasting a lovely dark, crisp aesthetic and some great photography. Unfortunately, the film's gorier moments are let down by a very cartoon-like aesthetic, relying on openly obviously computer-generated effects that remove any real sense of horror from the proceedings. It is horror imagery from the Takashi Miike school of film-making but without the knowing ironic winking.
The script is good, the acting solid, and the visual aesthetic mostly enjoyable. This is why the film's slow pace is so frustrating. Japanese cinema generally works to a very measured pace - long takes, a calmer sensibility, and so on - but whether it's the American context or simply this film, in particular, Kitamura fails to ratchet up the tension sufficiently. The result is a film where you spend half your time waiting for the good bits rather than being drawn completely into the story.
Better than the majority of American horror films, The Midnight Meat Train remains one not quite good enough to fully recommend. One for the hardcore fans of Barker or Kitamura's work, I suspect.
The Midnight Meat Train is available now on DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures.
Guest review by Grant Watson
Review: Sword of Alexander (Japan, 2007)
Sword of Alexander is a genre mash-up that incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, historical drama, religion, action, and comedy. Charismatic Abe Hiroshi plays Genkoru, a wandering swordsman in Tokugawa Japan. He wields the titular weapon, one of three sacred objects made of the unearthly metal, orichalcum. Whoever possesses all three objects, of course, has world shattering power. By rescuing a princess, Genkuro sets in motion a plot which is both labyrinthine and at times, incoherent. Not to worry, though. The energy of this film will carry you over any bumpy holes in the story. They are chased by aliens, ninjas, mad monks, and at one stage, a man with a bear's arm possessed by extraterrestrials - yes, it's that sort of film.Abe Hiroshi handles the action and comedy with style. Hasegawa Kyoko is radiant as the princess, even managing to maintain her grace when her body is taken over by a rock spitting monster. Her bodyguard is played by Kudo Kankuro, who imbues what could have been quite a pathetic character with an element of dignity and charm. There's not a lot of depth to the other parts, but it's all carried off with a vigour that disarms criticism.
The fly in the ointment, however, is the intrusive voiceover narration. Possibly, something has been lost in the translation, but it regularly interupts with annoying comments. When clarification of the story might have helped the addled viewer, it remains strangely silent. It's a minor complaint in what is an otherwise enjoyable romp. This is the another in a long line of absolutely bonkers genre product from Japan - a trend I'm all in favour of. As our hero is apt to say, "Wondrously strange!"
Sword of Alexander is directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko and released through Madman Entertainment/Eastern Eye.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Review: Worldshaker by Richard Harland
When given the assignment to review Worldshaker, Richard Harland's latest novel for Young Adults, I was both excited and apprehensive. I have been a big reader of YA for many years—since before there was even a recognised 'genre' for such, possibly even before I was a young adult myself—and the Steampunk genre has long been a favourite, harking back to my initial childhood readings of Jules Verne.
The works of author Richard Harland are also well known to me. I read, and marvelled at, his Vicar of Morbing Vyle years before I was ever involved in the Australian speculative fiction community. Since then, Harland's work has become a staple of many genre anthologies and magazines released over the past few years and his novel The Black Crusade won the 2004 Golden Aurealis award.
Young Adult + Steampunk + Richard Harland!
Hence my excitement.
My apprehension stemmed from what I had originally heard of the novel, which wasn't much but that it involved enormous, steampunk, mobile cities.
Now, my favourite YA novel sequence of all time is Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines (aka Hungry Cities) quartet. The Mortal Engines series involves, as a major setting and plot point of the stories... enormous, steampunk, mobile cities.
Would Harland be touching upon the same themes as Reeve? Would I be able to divorce my reading of those previous novels from my enjoyment of Worldshaker? Had I already, too hastily, set Worldshaker into a category below my favourites?
I'm very happy to say that, with WorldShaker, the comparisons are in no way apt but the quality is right up there with the best. Richard Harland takes us to an altogether different place to other steampunk authors, a place a little darker... and a little bit more light hearted at the same time.
And this, I think, is Harland's gift; the offering of something that is, too all appearances, dark and gloomy but which leaves us smiling, and sometimes, even laughing out loud. He takes us to dark places but shows us that, even in the dank boiler rooms and engine rooms of life, there is always the absurdity and strangeness of human nature. Perfect things, I feel, to teach a young adult.
Worldshaker takes place on an alternative Earth still caught up, over one-hundred years after its end in our timeline, in a Victorian Era. Of the timeline diversion from our own, Harland said in an interview with ABC's Articulate, "The gothic-industrial reality of Queen Victoria II separated off from our reality when Napoleon's plan (historical fact!) to dig a tunnel under the English Channel actually came true. Then followed the Invasion of Britain, the Fifty Years War, the Age of Imperialism..." [original interview]
The action of the novel takes place entirely aboard the steam-powered, amphibious-mobile-city Worldshaker that plies the trade routes of the world. Colbert Porpentine is a young man set for life—he's from a distinguished family, grandson of Worldshaker's current Supreme Commander, and next in line to helm the mighty juggernaut city... until a girl from the boiler-rooms and engine-rooms below, a Filthy, finds her way into his room.
Thus begins an eye-opening adventure for Col as he is exposed to the true secrets behind the workings of Worldshaker. Dropped into the bowels of the city, he encounters another world, one far from his own and even further from the truth he was taught by his teachers and grandfather. Among the Filthies he is forced to confront the hypocrisy and ignorance of his own upbringing. The question is, what can Col do about it? Can he make a hundred years of horrible tradition right?
Worldshaker doesn't waste much time on exposition, which makes it a fairly fast-paced novel. The adventure starts on page one and, despite the novel being over 350 page long, never really slacks off. As well as the underlying themes of Industrialisation, Empire Building, Class Inequality, and Slave Labour, Harland serves up a plethora of exciting (and peculiar) characters and situations. Riff, the Filthy girl, is an especially strong and likeable character and her world below decks is suitably grim and depressing. Even the most obscure and lightly drawn side-characters are strengthened by absurd and evocative Gormenghast-esque names.
Overall, for me, Worldshaker is a great success. It treads in areas common to the Steampunk genre, but it's definitely wearing a different style of shoe. Never has YA Steampunk been both so grim and so amusing. To top all that off with a rip-roaring adventure and strong young male and female characters ensures that this should be a hit with its target market too. At least, I hope it does, because Worldshaker deserves to be enjoyed.
In the end, Worldshaker isn't Philip Reeve or Philip Pullman, but that's a darn good thing. Worldshaker is its own juggernaut of steam and coal-dust. It is Richard Harland doing what he does best, tearing across the page with steam-powered vigour—making us laugh, making us shudder, making us cheer and making us think. Now, he's also making me wait for a sequel!
Worldshaker by Richard Harland
Published by Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781741757095
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
News: Award Winning Australian Writing 2009
The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) congratulates Benjamin Hayes, winner of the AHWA Flash and Short Story Competition 2008 (Flash Fiction category), whose winning entry has been selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of Award Winning Australian Writing, to be published by Melbourne Books.
Award Winning Australian Writing publishes the best winning entries from over 300 short story and bush competitions across Australia. The book launch will be held at this year's Melbourne Writers' Festival. Details of the launch are as follows:
In 2007, David Conyers, winner of the AHWA Flash & Short Story Competition (Flash Fiction category), and Terry Dowling, winner of the Australian Shadows award, were both included in the first edition of Award Winning Australian Writing.
Source: AHWA
Award Winning Australian Writing publishes the best winning entries from over 300 short story and bush competitions across Australia. The book launch will be held at this year's Melbourne Writers' Festival. Details of the launch are as follows:
Book Launch: Award Winning Australian Writing 2009The date of publication is September 1.
2:30pm, Friday August 21
Festival Club (ground floor Function Space of Aust. Centre for the Moving Image), Federation Square, Melbourne CBD
Event duration: approx. one hour
Free and open to the public
In 2007, David Conyers, winner of the AHWA Flash & Short Story Competition (Flash Fiction category), and Terry Dowling, winner of the Australian Shadows award, were both included in the first edition of Award Winning Australian Writing.
Source: AHWA
Review: Shadow Queen by Deborah Kalin
Shadow Queen is the first book in Deborah Kalin’s series The Binding. This book is notable for having been published as a result of Allen & Unwin’s Friday Pitch.Matilde of House Svanaten is Queen-in-Waiting, the last surviving heir to the throne of the Turasi. Denied the throne for two years by her grandmother, Matilde is frustrated. Her frustration becomes a small issue when her world is invaded by an enemy from the north and her family slaughtered. Matilde alone survives and gambles her life and future by entering into marriage with her conqueror, Dieter of the Marsachen tribe. What follows is a struggle for power between the two and an unlikely romance.
Kalin’s writing is smooth and effortless to read, Matilde’s world is vivid thanks to intricate world building. The plot is engaging and fast-paced, making this book very difficult to put down.
There are some issues with character – namely Matilde’s at-times unbelievable naivete, which seems misplaced in someone groomed to be Queen. Her motives at times seem nonexistent, leaving her to stumble from plot point to plot point without any clear reason. Some readers may have issues with romance sub-plot, both from the point of view of Matilde’s motivation and because of issues with power.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, which in any other novel would be problematic. However, Kalin has arranged her characters artfully, leaving them standing on the edge of a precipice that leads into the complete unknown. Anyone who reads this book is going to have to read the next one, just to see how Kalin manages to untangle the web she wrote in this one.
Deborah Kalin is an Australian talent to watch, and it’s going to be very interesting to see her career develop.
Shadow Queen is published by Allen & Unwin.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Review: Without Warning by John Birmingham
This book is certainly high concept. What happens when the world's only remaining super-power is taken out of the equation? Birmingham presents an alternative history of the recent past. Just prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a huge wave of energy blasts the USA and destroys most of the continental United States (not to mention a large number of Canadians and Mexicans, though they don't really get much of a look in here). The resulting mayhem is seen through several eyes - an assassin on the run in Paris, the chief engineer of the Seattle City Council, a general at Guantanamo Bay, modern day pirates in the Pacific, a combat journalist embedded with troops in Iraq, and a political fixer in Hawaii. We learn of the unfolding mayhem as they do, while everybody scrambles for survival in a post-American world.
The multiple plot lines could easily have become an unwieldy mess, but Birmingham confidently handles the narratives and convincingly details the repercussions on both a personal and a geopolitical scale. While all this sounds extremely worthy, it's also hellishly entertaining. In what is essentially a post-apocalypse tale, the tone overall can't help but be a little pessimistic. However, the writer manages to infuse enough humour to forestall any wrist slashing on the reader's part. Sometimes, it reads like Tom Clancy with jokes. On occasion, the research into hi-tech weaponry becomes a bit intrusive. But hell, I'm sure there are some who will get a kick out of it.
The nature of the calamity that befalls America remains mysterious and this might frustrate some readers. If that's the case, then the ending will infuriate the same people. Really, though, it's just a plot device to play an interesting game of 'What If?' The characters are well-written, particularly for this type of novel where depth is often sacrificed for narrative drive. And if you don't like one story line or character, another one comes along in a few pages.
I hadn't read any of Birmingham's stuff since the days of He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, the definitive horror story of share housing. Without Warning will certainly have me scurrying back to check out his back catalogue.
Without Warning is published by Pan Macmillan Australia.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Review: On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic. #74 - Fall 2008, #75 - Winter 2008, #76 - Spring 2009
Lovers of speculative fiction would do well to reflect from time to time on the important contribution of semi-pro magazines towards developing talented authors. Given that the professional zines are more inclined to publish big names than take a punt on an unknown, especially in difficult times, it is the lot of the semi-pro and amateur press to nurture young writers. It’s rare for a writer to appear fully formed on the publishing scene; most have cut their teeth in the small press.In Australia, Eidolon and Aurealis helped to develop home-grown talent like Greg Egan, Sean Williams, and Terry Dowling. The Canadian equivalent is On Spec, a digest-sized, perfect-bound magazine that’s been going for over twenty years and shows no sign of slowing. A no-frills zine with few illustrations and advertisements and weighing in at 112 pages, it consistently publishes high quality stories and verse by Canadian writers. To give you some idea of its influence, the Fall 2008 issue has interviews with celebrated SF author Cory Doctorow and young adult novelist Nicole Luiken, both of whom have published stories earlier (in Doctorow’s case, his first) in On Spec as long ago as 1990.
The Fall 2008 issue is a youth themed issue and publishes youth contest-winning stories of real quality. Edmonton twins Brittany and Ashlin McCartney each produced fantasy stories of real distinction. Brittany won the 15-18 category with a nicely wrought tale that draws from Arthurian legend, while Ashlin’s story “With Love” reads like an extract from a novel in-progress and made me want to read more. B. L. Trogen won the 19-23 category with “Burning Feathers”, an Asimov-inspired robot story with an interesting twist and a serious political message. Yuri Fabrikantov’s “The Finale” is a well-constructed ghost story that builds up to a brutal climax, but my favourite story in the issue was Seanah Roper’s “A Cat Named Wellington”, a whimsical fantasy that is at once funny and moving.
The standout story in the Winter 2008 issue was Ryan Laliberte’s “Every Single Round a Last Call”, a clever and happily satisfying tale of time travel and redemption set in a seedy bar. “Graveyard Orbit” by Jon Martin Watts and “Coolies” by Suzanne Church are two fairly conventional but well-written SF stories, the first set on a derelict space station/hotel, and the latter a future war story set in North America. “Taming the Beast” by Hannah Strom-Martin and “Glamour” by B. C. Holmes are fantasy tales that in different ways portray young women learning to assert their innate power and independence. “The Corrections” by Jared Young would make a perfect Twilight Zone episode and Alexander Curnow’s “Hesitant Ripples” is pure speculative fiction describing in minute detail the sensory impressions in the final seconds, and beyond, of a soldier whose skull is shattered by a sniper’s bullet.
My favourite piece in the Spring 2009 issue was Tony Pi’s “Come-From-Aways” about a Viking ship that washes up in a Newfoundland harbour with a single survivor on board. Tony Pi, a linguist by profession, handles the technical material well without swamping the reader, and the ending is up-beat and satisfying. Jack Skillingstead’s “Einstein’s Theory” is a thought-provoking alternative history piece in which the great physicist’s annus mirabilis of 1905 never happened, and he is still working in the Swiss patent office in his middle age. In J. Brian Clarke’s “Hell Ain’t What it Used to Be”, a recently deceased nasty-piece-of-work gets his just deserts in truly bizarre fashion. “The Lost Girls” by Khria Deefholts and “Last Man” by Matthew Jordan Schmidt are grounded firmly in gender studies, but didn’t do it for me, while E. E. Moxon’s “An Elephant in the Room” touches on the issue with imagination, tenderness, and insight.
Each issue of On Spec also has an author and artist interview, an editorial, and the occasional article. Barry Hammond’s article on Forry Ackerman in the Winter 2008 issue is a heart-felt tribute to a generous and funny man who made a lasting contribution to the fantastic arts. In the Spring 2009 issue, Robert Runte looks at the effect of the economic downturn on SF publishing, and observes, “there’s no bailout coming for the majors; it’s up to [the fans] to keep the new presses alive through the coming recession.” A point that applies as much to the Australian scene as anywhere else.
Copies of On Spec can be ordered here.
Review by James Doig.
News: Terry Dowling Ticonderoga editions available for pre-order
The best work of Terry Dowling, Australia’s "master of fantasy", will be released in two volumes published by independent WA publisher Ticonderoga Publications.The two volumes, Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear and Make Believe: A Terry Dowling Reader, collect thirty stories from Dowling’s almost 30-year career.
Terry Dowling’s fiction has won 21 national and international awards: eleven Ditmar and four Aurealis Awards (including two Convenors’ Awards for Excellence), an Australian Shadows Award, the International Horror Guild Award and two Readercon Awards in the US, a Prix Wolkenstein in Germany, and a Grand Prix at Utopiales 2001 in France. He has received three World Fantasy Award nominations and a Bram Stoker Award nomination.
Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear was first published in 2006 [by Cemetery Dance Publications, USA], selling out its print run and winning the International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection. This new release will be the first Australian publication of a collection described by the American Library Association as “One of the best recent collections of contemporary horror.”
Basic Black was also nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection.
Make Believe comprises 12 stories hand-picked by editor Russell B. Farr to showcase the best of Dowling’s SF and fantasy, including work from his acclaimed Rynosseros and Wormwood cycles. Renowned French surrealist Paul Delvaux’s "La Vénus Endormie" provides a stunning cover for the collection.
For true aficionados and collectors, 100 copies of each volume will released as a numbered hardcover edition, each one signed by Terry Dowling. Trade paperback editions of each title will be available in time for Christmas.
These books are available for pre-order from Indie Books Online.
Source: Ticonderoga Publications
News: Get Damned By Dawn
Writer/director Brett Anstey has asked me to invite any Victorian weirdos I know (hi, all you Melbournites out there!) to the world-premiere screening of his Banshee/walking dead horror film, Damned By Dawn.Wednesday August 12.
7.45pm (doors open 7:30pm)
ACMI Cinema 2 – Federation Square, Melbourne
It’s free entry, so bring along as many other friends as you like.
This looks like a spooky and entertaining horror flick in Evil Dead 2 mode and I've been looking forward to it for some time. Unfortunately I may not be able to get down to Melbourne on Wednesday (though of course Continuum opens on the 14th), but anyone who can get to the ACMI should make a point of doing so!
I interviewed Anstey about Damned By Dawn awhile back and you can read what he had to say here, as well as see some stills from the film.
Meanwhile, take a look at the trailer:
Postscript: It seems that there is proving to be unexpected interest in the screening, so the director has requested that anyone intending to attend email the organisers on info@damnedbydawnmovie.com, giving your name and the number of seats you want. But don't worry! It's still free.
Review: Splinter
Directed by Toby Wilkins.Stars: Shea Whigham, Jill Wagner.
Distributed by Icon Films Australia
Splinter is an independent horror film that owes much to classic, old-school monster films, especially John Carpenter's The Thing. The plot is simple: two couples - a pair of love birds on a camping trip and a couple on the run from the law - are holed up in an abandoned service station while a terrifying organism outside takes over the bodies of its victims in the most violent and creepy manner possible and then seeks out more yummy, warm-blooded people to consume. It is the simplicity of this siege scenario that makes Splinter effective. The film draws its tension from the audience's investment in these four characters and their struggle to survive. Refreshingly, this isn't a film that needed a high body count to be effective. Quite the contrary. The audience stays with the characters for most of the movie, allowing a connection to them that is sadly lost in so many high death toll slasher films of the last two decades.
There are deaths enough to satisfy the gore hounds, to be sure, but the most disturbing aspect of the film is the otherness of the splinter organism itself. Much like the animated body parts in Carpenter's The Thing, various corpses and dismembered appendages terrorise the characters in ways that will make your skin crawl. The splinter organism does not need explanation, although the observant viewer will notice signs along the roadside stating the area is an oil exploration site, which provides some level of plausibility for the imaginative viewer. The organism's ability to infect living people provides the film with its most confronting scene when one of the characters becomes infected. The resulting amputation (via box cutter and cinder block) is guaranteed to make you cringe.
Technically, Splinter does everything right. Most of the action takes place at night and within the fluorescent brightness of the service station, which provides Director Wilkins plenty of claustrophic, tight angle shots while lending an air of isolation. The special effects are superb for an independent film, easily on par with much bigger-budgeted efforts, bringing the corpse-creature amalgam to life in a realistically alien manner. The only false note was the characterisation. The acting from all concerned was top rate, but the characters themselves tended to develop into stereotypes: the fiesty survivor chick, the bad guy with the heart of gold, and the nerd with all the explanations. The audience's investment in their plight and a few deft direction changes toward the end of the film prevented them from sliding into the realm of cardboard cutouts, however.
It is easy to see why Splinter has won six Screamfest Awards and was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. It is a solid film in an era of hit-and-miss horror fare - it gets the basics right and provides just enough over-the-top creepiness to make it memorable. Splinter is probably the best alien body horror film since The Thing and will have you on the edge of your seat, squirming with every twist and turn.
www.splinterfilm.com
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