AWWC 2013: According to Luke by Rosanne Dingli

When Venetian art conservator, Jana Hayes, is presented with an ancient icon by a fellow Australian, priest, Rob Anderson, to assess its authenticity on behalf the Catholic Church she is excited. She delights in her work and when she discovers another older painting beneath the so-called St Luke Madonna, she is even more intrigued. Then things start to get messy - very messy - and Jana finds herself in danger as she tries to unravel the mystery of the icon. This is the beginning of a thrilling mystery which sees Jana and Rob find themselves in a dangerous race across Italy and beyond to Malta as they try to find out exactly who wants to stop the investigation and why. The story twists and turns with Jana's complex relationship with her mother as well as with Rob adding to it.

The author has obviously researched her subject deeply and I found the descriptions of the processes involved in art conservation, woven as they were into the narrative, fascinating and not intrusive. Setting is important in this story and the author skilfully evokes modern Italy and Malta with enough detail to make the reader feel as if they are there.

This is not a simple by the numbers thriller. It is built up with detail and peopled with characters who are rounded and believable. It would be enjoyed by those like their thrillers to involve intellect and more than just a wild ride.

According to Luke was published in 2012 and is available both as a paperback and an e-book from Amazon.com and the author's website. 

Rosanne Dingli blogs at www.rosannedingli.blogspot.com.au 

AWWC 2013: Shadow Queen by Deborah Kalin

Shadow Queen by Deborah Kalin was published by Allen & Unwin in January 2009.

Matilde, heir to the House of Svanaten, is nineteen, of age and more than ready to take her place on the throne but her regent grandmother is unwilling to hand over the reins. But it is not as simple as a desire for power. Matilde has visions of the future and her grandmother's skill at hiding this is all that keeps her granddaughter from being claimed by the church and losing her throne forever. When her long estranged aunt arrives with her young son for a festival, Matilde is delighted until a moment of prescience comes too late and she loses family, friends and throne in one horrific attack. Alone and desperate to survive and eventually regain her throne, she agrees to be bound in marriage to the man who has wiped out her family. Her new husband, though, wants more than a wife and uses magic to secure her loyalty. Matilde finds herself despised by those she cares about as she struggles to subtly undermine her conqueror.

Shadow Queen is in many ways a coming of age story. Tilde may be restlessly wanting her throne at the beginning of the novel but she is also immature and naive and her prescience is potentially dangerous to both her and her throne. When her whole world is destroyed she is forced to grow up fast and, although she makes mistakes - and there are many of them, she learns quickly that he new husband's ruthlessness must be matched by her own.

The author keeps a tight grip on a complex story of politics and psychological manipulation that reveals itself slowly as Tilde learns more about herself, her family and her kingdom and its enemies. The characters are well-drawn with a blend of strengths and weaknesses and, often, surprising sides to them. As it should be, no-one is perfect in this world where betrayal is commonplace.

Shadow Queen is gritty fantasy set in a realistic quasi mediaeval world and should appeal to those who enjoy novels by Jennifer Fallon and Glenda Larke. There are no elves, fairies or vampires but there is magic - and it's powerful and dangerous.


Shadow Bound, the sequel to Shadow Queen, was published in 2010 and, although the author says she has no plans for a further book in the series, she has left it enticingly open. I intend to post a review of Shadow Bound soon.

Correction: I said incorrectly that Shadow Queen was no longer in print and only available as an e-book on Amazon.com. Deborah Kalin has informed me in the comments section that Shadow Queen is still available in A4 paperback through the Allen & Unwin website online bookshop if your local bookshop doesn't have it in stock.

Deborah Kalin's website is at deborahkalin.com

GoH speech by N K Jemisin, Continuum

N. K. Jemisin's Continuum 9 speech (for those not part of the SFF world, Continuum is a science fiction convention held in Melbourne in Victoria, Australia) should be required reading for all of us - and by that I mean a universal "all".

I greatly admire N. K. Jemisin's writing - her original ideas and her prose are inspiring and I'd recommend her books highly - but what she has to say here is even more inspiring, in particular what she has to say about the silent 90%. I recently had my own epiphany about how silence makes everyone who doesn't call people on racist or other hateful remarks complicit in what is said. The truth is if we don't speak out we are as guilty as those who are making racist, anti-semetic, misogynistic, homophobic and other hate filled comments. That even this incomplete list is so long is disturbing in itself.

I think part of the problem is fear - of offending a friend, of being ostracised, of being shouted down and even of physical attack, and, of course, we should not be foolhardy and put ourselves in danger but there is a lot we can do instead of standing back. We can write to the newspapers, get on talk back radio to contradict the ignorant, tell a friend who makes a casual racist slur that it is not acceptable. Every time we do this it makes a difference. It might be small but it counts.

It's not easy to overcome our prejudices, especially if it's something we've grown up with and we all carry baggage and make mistakes but what we can do is to keep trying to do better. What N. K. Jemisin has to say here is important. I urge you to read it.

Ken Tanaka's "What Kind of Asian Are You" video.

This video by Ken Tanaka has gone viral and I can see why. Although it's set in the US it's something members of my family have had to deal with here in Australia. We are a mix of different ethnicities and the younger generation (born in Australia and having grown up here) can sometimes face similar questions based on physical appearance. When you think about it, in a country like Australia which prides itself on its multicultural society this is more than a little odd and it's a question I would never ask. My assumption is, unless I'm told otherwise - and I find tourists usually tell you pretty quickly that they are visitors and where they are from - that the person I'm talking to is Australian either by birth or choice. If they want to tell me more, that's up to them.

Serendipity

For many years I had a pair of heavy, black wellies. They served me well until gradually they developed cracks and crazes. Then they got hard and brittle - and then they started to disintegrate. Boots that no longer serve their purpose are sad looking things - and there's no point in keeping them. Out they went to the dustbin and I started looking for a new pair.

That was five years ago. I went to all the nearby hardware stores, shoe shops and department stores. I found some big black boots but they were always men's sizes. My feet are hardly dainty but they're not that big. Probably, if I had lived in a country town, I'd have had no difficulty but I live in suburbia in a city and it seems there's not much of a demand for ladies wellies.

I started looking for alternatives. Rubber gardening shoes looked a possibility but they were hard and my feet hurt these days. Besides they let in the sand - and where I live we only have sand. I ruined several pairs of sneakers which also filled with sand but they seemed the only option until I walked into my local Woolies store to do the weekly grocery shop and found a rack of "ladies rain boots". Wow! There wasn't a single pair of black ones. There were leopard prints, flowers and patterns - and then there were these.

You may colour me happy.

AWWC 2013: The Singing Mountain by Anne E. Summers

I mentioned I was reading this book as an e-book a while back and, yes it has taken me a while to do a proper review but here we go.

The Singing Mountain (published by Solstice Publishing ) is Anne E. Summers first published novel after she began her writing life mainly as a short story writer.

Set in the Welsh mountains, The Singing Mountain is the story of Megan, a coal miner's daughter, who marries up and out of her class. Initially happy, the marriage comes under pressure when she and her husband, Ian, move back to his family's land holding of Glaswallon.

Pregnant, unhappy and haunted by strange dreams of Rhiannon, the Welsh mother and horse goddess, Megan follows her husband's cousin, Marigold, to the top of Mynnyd Mawr where the other girl disappears through an opening into Rhiannon's world. Under suspicion and increasingly isolated and frightened following the birth of her son, Megan decides her only option is to follow Marigold into Rhiannon's world and bring her back.

But this is only the beginning of a story that stretches from 1918 to 1940 and where events in both the human and magical worlds collide, interacting on each other and eventually involving Megan's whole family as the story plays out. Rhiannon herself may be honourable, but the harsh and often cruel realities of her world have consequences of that seep into Megan's world and their impact can be devastating.

Summers is a born story teller, and in The Singing Mountain, she weaves a fascinating tale set in two very different but equally real worlds and in two different time periods. If you enjoy your fantasy with a strong adventure story and well drawn characters I can recommend this book.

The Singing Mountain is available as an e-book and in print from Amazon.com or Solstice Publishing.

Hyperbole and a Half on Depression

I was a devoted follower of Hyperbole and a Half. Allie Brosh was clever, funny and talented and lifted my spirits and then one day, somewhere in 2011, not long after she'd announced that she was working on a book to come out in 2012, she stopped blogging. I kept coming back but there was nothing until she wrote a searing post about her battle with severe depression and stopped blogging again. Her post was bleak and sad and filled with the sort of detail that I suspect anyone who suffers from depression would identify with but in a way that made you want to keep reading. I kept coming back to her blog every couple of months, hoping she had managed to overcome this crippling disease but there was nothing.

Then, a few days ago, Jenny Lawson, better known asThe Bloggess, posted an update. Allie Brosh is back. Again she has written unflinchingly about her experience and it touches the heart. All I can say is go and read it. If you've ever suffered with depression or have a loved one who has suffered with it, go and read it. You won't regret it.