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Contents |
Fiction |
Column |
Interviews |
Sponsors & Links |
Editorial |
Guidelines |
Reviews |
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ReviewsBudayeen NightsThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective AgencyThe RebelTwo Trains RunningThe Delphinus Chronicles
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Budayeen Nights : George Alec Effinger
This collection brings together nine of Effinger’s short stories set in the Budayeen, an exotic mix of the French Quarter of New Orleans and the Middle East shaken with a touch of cyberpunk. Barbara Hambly lovingly introduces the collection and provides a foreword for each story, painting a colourful context for those of us who have not read much of Effinger’s work, and snippets of interesting background information for those who have. As a posthumus collection, Hambly's introductions provide an insight to the work of a writer who is now tragically lost to us. The anthology begins with “Schrodinger’s Kitten”, arguably Effinger’s most well known story, and winner of a multitude of awards. The story tells of a young girl whose visions trace every possible future resulting from one incident in her life. The collection includes four about Marid Audran, one of the Budayeen’s best-loved protagonists, including the previously unpublished “Marid Throws a Party”. This tale unravels the mystery of a death at Marid’s nightclub, at his birthday celebrations. Other stories include vampirism, artificial realities, and almost all bear some link to Effinger’s ‘daddies’ and ‘moddies’, programme chips that are inserted into a cranial port. The Budayeen is utterly believable and realistic. As Effinger’s world is painted around us, the reader steps into a dream where the walled city seamlessly overlaps onto our own surroundings. We almost distinguish landmarks, and peer into the faces of the Budayeen’s eccentric characters, recognising the humanity and realism of each one, from Safiyya the Lamb Lady to Marid’s friend and business partner Chiriga. This book is a must-have addition to any collection, from the Effinger novice to the collector. Budayeen Nights can be purchased from the Golden Gryphon website at www.goldengryphon.com, or Slow Glass Books.
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The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency : Alexander McCall Smith
Now don’t get me wrong: I love chick-lit. Ballsy heroines who solve mysteries and the problems of their love lives without breaking a nail are great! Janet Evanovich and Sarah Strohmeyer hold a mascara and lycra-clad domination over one section of my bookshelves. At first glance, Alexander McCall Smith’s novel seems to belong there. Precious is still coping with the fallout from her brief and disastrous marriage to a musician who embodies all elements of bastard-hood. She is struggling with a small business. She is going against her family’s wishes by living by herself and running the detective agency. She manages her own problems using a mixture of intuition, gossipping skills and a wide network of connections, rather than more conventional detecting skills. Other aspects of the novel mark it as literary fiction. The criminals under investigation are not all philandering husbands, although they are well represented among the ranks of the crooks Precious must pursue. The thread that winds through the cases of small-time crooks is the seemingly hopeless search for a missing boy. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a piquant mix of third person involved narrative and storytelling. Precious Ramotswe, known to all including the reader as Mma Ramotswe rather than her first name, also refers to others by their full names instead of first. Her neighbour and would-be-swain, Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, is referred to by his full name even in Precious’ internal monologue! It is this style of crafty humour that makes the story an amusing and interesting read. The novel has an eye-catching cover in a pseudo-tribal style, guaranteed to grab the attention from among the pastel pinks and blues that currently populate the bestseller lists. Alexander McCall Smith has lived most of his life in Africa and Scotland, where he is a professor of Medical Law. As well as many other novels, children’s stories and non-fiction, Smith has published another three stories in the series following Precious Ramotswe and her Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, The Kalahari Typing School for Men. They look like worthwhile reading, if Detective Agency is anything to go by. The No. I Ladies’ Detective Agency can be purchased from the Time Warner Book Group website at www.twbg.co.uk, or ask for it at your favourite bookshop.
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The Rebel: An Imagined Life of James Dean : Jack Dann
Jack Dann has a history of walking the tightrope, or, more correctly, asking tricky “What If?” questions. In his 1995 novel The Memory Cathedral he asked us to follow him on a journey to the exotic Middle East with Leonardo da Vinci, for a time when little seems to be written in the historical record. This time around, Dann asks, “What if James Dean survived his 1955 crash?” which is a far riskier question to be asking. Readers are a fickle bunch, and one false move could be fatal. He doesn’t just have to get James Dean right, there’s a cast of supporting characters who have to gel with two different versions of history. And befitting a guy like James Dean, it’s a star-studded cast including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Robert Kennedy, Jack Kerouac and Frank Sinatra. When Jack Dann pulls James Dean from the wreckage of his Porsche, broken but with a still-beating heart, he opens up an amazing decade that never happened, grounded in enough fact to make the reader think it could have happened, and seasoned with enough cool stuff to make many readers wish it happened. We see a James Dean given another chance, sent back to do a great thing during a time in America’s history where so much happened: the rise of Elvis, the Beat Generation, the assassination of JFK, the Civil Rights movement: Dann leaves us guessing right until the end. It isn’t just the possibilities played out in The Rebel that make it such a good read, it’s Dann’s command of language. The following paragraph is a great example: “It was a cold, angry night, and there was iron in the air. The streets were mobbed with people, people who had not yet heard the news, people there for Bobby and Jimmy, and they were cheering and waving banners. Spotlights burned white and illuminated a flatbed truck where Bobby and Jimmy were to speak. Behind the truck was an oak tree, scarred and peeling in the brilliant light.” Each sentence is a poem, an intense lyric plucked from nowhere and spilled vividly onto the page. Dann writes like a man possessed by words, driven in an attempt to expunge the demons, exorcising the very soul of language in his purification rites. He gives the reader strong words, graphic images, metaphors for all five senses, a roller coaster ride of sudden twists and exciting turns of phrase. The Rebel isn’t just a book, it’s a vibrant manifestation of literature the way it should be written. Along with the sex, violence, fast cars, fast women, drugs and rock’n’roll that is only right for a book about James Dean. You won’t put it down. Take the plunge. The Rebel can be purchased from the HarperCollins website at www.harpercollins.com.au, Slow Glass Books or ask for it at your favourite bookshop.
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Two Trains Running : Lucius Shepard
In 1998, Shepard took to the freights in search of a story on the Freight Train Riders of America, an alleged mafia-type organisation said to be involved in rape, murder, gun-running and drug trafficking. Shepard interviewed tramps, law enforcement officers and squatters in gutters, alleyways, police cars and prisons. Colourful riders with monikers like Missoula Mike, Daniel Boone, Sidetrack, Madcat and F-Trooper, Two Trains Running reprints the article in full. A good writer gets the most out of their research, and Shepard is among the best. His time on the freights also inspired two novellas which round out the collection. In the first, “Over Yonder”, Shepard taps into a vein of the purest, darkest fantasy. Billy Long Gone hops a living train in search of the man who stole his dog. The train takes him Over Yonder to a world out of sync with the real world, a world full of danger and populated by tramps. Every tramp has their own theory on what Yonder is about, but everyone knows that there are only two ways out: death or jumping the unknown train east, the ride no one comes back from. Shepard not only creates characters we can sympathise with if not empathise with, he shows us the people under the crusty, booze-soaked exterior of tramps. The second novella, “Jailbait”, concerns the tale of Madcat and Grace, a middle-aged tramp and a girl too young to be doing what she’s doing. Madcat is after the simple life, the trains and somewhere warm to bunk in summer. Grace is nothing short of a big dose of trouble, and it doesn’t take long for her to complicate Madcat’s life. Shepard manages to craft a story out of no endearing characters that is nonetheless endearing. Golden Gryphon have done a good thing in publishing this mini-collection. John Picacio’s amazing cover really sets the book off, while the book itself feels right. Both stories would be swamped if placed in your regular Shepard collection, but here, alongside the Spin magazine article, the reader is presented three views of the life and culture of tramps, without losing sight of what really matters. Like any other person, the freight-riding tramps have feelings and aspirations, histories and futures, and Shepard shows us this. He understands that for many, a life on the rails is only a short train-ride away. Two Trains Running can be purchased from the Golden Gryphon website at www.goldengryphon.com, or Slow Glass Books.
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The Delphinus Chronicles : R. G. Roane
This is what occurs when Ross Erricson and a team of graduate students from Cabrillo University in San Diego are given 'Simon', the world's most powerful computer. They program Simon to learn the basics of how to talk and understand languages from the ground up. Simon is housed in a room that is so close to a dolphin tank at the aquarium next door, he can hear the clicks and whistles of his neighbours communicating. Perhaps the dolphins know more than just where the best fish are? There are those amongst us who already know what the dolphins know and may not like other people finding out the truth. These people appear to think that we cannot make an omelette with out breaking a few eggs and use this cliché to justify their methods in keeping secrets. The Delphinus Chronicles utilizes a narrative style that creates a fast paced action novel. The ideas that R. G. Roane feeds to us early in this novel hooks and draws the reader into the action before reeling us deep into the plot. The bad guys are given more depth than the good guys which makes it more satisfying when they receive their comeuppance. The gratifying conclusion also leaves us with just the right amount of unanswered questions to continue to spark the imagination. A hardcover first edition in your hand is a beautiful thing. It is a pleasure to hold and read while drinking a nice warming brandy or port in readiness for the winter nights ahead here in Australia. This first edition of The Delphinius Chronicles is good read for a winter night or for lazy Sunday afternoons where you don’t need or want the commitment of a 600 page tome of ancient lore and visits by ravens. The Delphinus Chronicles can be purchased from the Cherry Hill Publishing website at www.cherryhillpublishing.com, or Slow Glass Books.
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236 pages Golden Gryphon Press 2003
250 pages Abacus Fiction 1998
404 pages HarperCollins Publishers, 2004
114 pages Golden Gryphon, 2004
280 pages Cherry Hill Publishing, 1998