A Brief History of my Favourite Authors Part 1

As an author, one thing that I get asked a lot it "who inspired you?" and I haven't been able to give a decent answer.

The assumption, of course, is that there's an author whose books left such an impression on me that I (at least on some level) was inspired to copy them.  Well not copy them, but do what they do.

And that's not how it went at all.  I have loved reading from a very young age.  Books, puzzles and model aeroplanes were my life as a kid.  I don't know when it dawned on me that writing books was an actual option.  But by then I'd read such amazing books that I was over-awed.  I knew that there was no way I could write anything nearly as good as my heroes, so why bother?

The first authors whose worlds I fell in love with were Asimov and Clarke.  I pretty much only read science fiction at that point.  After  staying up after my bedtime, reading them by torchlight under my covers in our Wandiligong home, Asimov's short stories and novels kept me up at night, on my bunk sometimes in fear, sometimes in wonder, but mostly giddy with the absolute genius behind it.  Despite a lot of his works being 'hard' sci-fi, it was written in such an accessible manner that even an eleven-year-old understood it.  The worlds he dreamt up, the future histories of humanity, the perfect mysteries, the bizarre and humorous, and the deep characters.  Any writer would consider themselves lucky to come up with one idea as good as any of his, and he had hundreds.  He is probably most famous for the Foundation series, but if I had to choose just one Asimov piece to take with me to a desert island, it would be Nightfall.  I usually try promote Australian authors here, but if you haven't read Nightfall, do yourself a favour.

Like Asimov, Clarke is an author who wrote hard sci-fi, and is probably most famous for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood's end.  The book by Arthur C. Clarke that to this day astounds me is Rendezvous with Rama.  I used to read it with my mum and  liked it so much that as soon as I finished reading it I went right back to the start.  It was so well written, the mystery, the fear, the adventure.  Having a great first line is amazing.  But ending a book with a final sentence that gives you that 'oh my God' moment, there's nothing better.  I'm not going to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read it, because if you haven't, you're going to get yourself a copy now. 

  

Amongst others, Asimov and Clarke wrote pieces that challenged so many of my preconceptions of the world, the origin and nature of humanity, and the origin and nature of the universe.  And between them, what questions about the Earth, about the solar system, about the universe, did they not ask?  If I wanted to be a science-fiction writer, what could I do that they had not already done?  Not only were they sci-fi writers, but they were also scientists.  I knew I wasn't smart enough to be a scientist, and if you had to be a scientist to write science fiction, there wasn't much hope for me.  That's a idea that kinda stuck with me, that you have to be a scientist to write science fiction.  From a twelve-year-old's perspective, you think that makes sense. And you have to admit, there's a certain logic to it.  It's funny how having these little ideas in your head, unchallenged, almost too small to notice, can make a difference to someone's life.   

From Sci-Fi I turned to Fantasy, and the cycle continues.  Stay tuned for Part 2 when I talk about the fantasy books that changed my life.

   

ASF Book Review #3 - 'Beginnings'

My last Australian Speculative Fiction book review of the year will be something a little different, for two reasons. Instead of a novel, the book is an anthology of short stories.  And it's an anthology that not only features one of my own short stories, but 'Beginnings: Australian Speculative Fiction Anthology Vol. 1' is something that I helped put together as well.

In the middle of 2018 there was a post in a Facebook writing group asking if other Australian authors who wrote speculative fiction would want to create their own group for supporting each other, for sharing writing advice. And so the Australian Speculative Fiction group was formed.  From there, it was only a short while before we had the idea to create our own anthology.  Six months later, we released 'Beginnings' - which makes it sound easy. It was not easy. But we did it. And here it is - isn't that cover amazing, by the way?

Firstly, what I love about this collection of short stories is the diversity.  While there may be a few sci-fi or fantasy stories, each is unique and takes you on a very different journey.  One of the benefits of this is that it exposes the reader to different genres than they would normally read - personally I've never been interested in the paranormal/supernatural genres (witches, werewolves and vampires), two of my favourite stories in 'Beginnings' are about witches - 'The Morrigan' by Maddie Jensen and 'Dealt in Sin' by Sasha Hanton.

Between stories set amongst the stars are tales set in our own backyard.  Stephen Herczeg's 'Bus Trip' is about a student taking the bus home from Canberra to Adelaide for the Christmas holidays. Belinda Brady's 'Break the Spell' gives me the familiar imagery of Melbourne's Royal Arcade. 'When the Lights Went Out' (Lachlan Walter) is an intriguing sci-fi piece set in the Victorian countryside, and Rebecca Dale's 'Bugles Bred & Bugles Born' centres around the unbelievable events at one of Sydney's Westfield shopping centres.  'Bugles Bred & Bugles Born' is one of the most unique stories in the anthology, and honestly I don't know how to define or describe it, but the ending still sends shivers up my spine it's that good.

The theme of 'Beginnings' is explored in a variety of ways, from starting life over in a new city ('The Teacup' - Austin P. Sheehan) from starting over alone on a brand new world ('Portals' - A. A. Warne) and from the transition from life to the afterlife ('Next Journey' by Chris Foley and 'The Beginning of the End' by Carolyn Young).

Amongst a collection so diverse, it should be hard to pick a favourite. But 'The Inheritance Experiment' by Kel E. Fox is an absolute standout. It's the story of an Austrian girl, stolen from her family home and subjected to horrible experiments, before being flung into the carnage of World War One. It's a compelling story, and - like every good short story should - it leaves the reader wanting more.

In conclusion, this is a thoroughly enjoyable collection of diverse short stories. There's something in there for everyone, and many of the stories are so good they're worth re-reading.

Here's a link to the Aussie Speculative Fiction website, for information about the group, where you can read more reviews of books by Australian Speculative Fiction authors, and see exclusive flash fiction pieces and author interviews.

Here's a link where you can buy the 'Beginnings' Anthology where it's currently being sold exclusively through Amazon.

The 20 Best Books I Read in 2017 (Part One).

In my first blog Evidently I'm Going to Regret This I said that I'd read 52 books in 2017 as part of the Popsugar Reading Challenge.  I honestly surprised myself by reaching that goal. 

Anyway now's as good a time as any to share my favourite books from last year.  I say 'from last year' but honestly I read more books that are 10 to 50 years old than books read the year they're published.  Anyway, here are ten of the books I gave 4 stars to (in the order that I read them).

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN  - Lindqvist (2004). 
From the start, I am not a fan of Vampires.  But I'd seen the movies (and probably don't need to say that the original is better than the remake) and really enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give it a go.  and it was great.  Really dark and creepy, almost Lolita levels of creepy, basically.  What was great about it was how it was not the usual vampire story.  The protagonist was a boy in Sweden who was bullied at school and befriends a young girl in their apartment complex.  Who turns out to be a vampire.  There is a lot of killings and brutality, and at the centre of it all are these sweet kids who help each other out of nothing but friendship.  It's tense, it gritty, it's written really well. 

THE COLLECTOR - Fowles (1963).
This was a really clever book set in England about a socially awkward clerk who comes into a large sum of money and his plans to win the affections of Miranda, a middle-class Art student he has long admired.  He eventually convinces himself to kidnap her, and win her affection by being nothing but a gentleman to her.  But he didn't think his plan through, nor count on the intelligence and desperation of his prey.  The second part of the novel is told from Miranda's POV and is entirely compelling.  It it well written, it gives one the chills, and leaves you breathless.  Highly recommended.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN - Riggs (2011).
Miss Peregrine's is a really fun YA novel, where Jacob finds there might be some truth to his grandfather's crazy stories shortly after his disturbing death.  When he has an opportunity to go to a place that was special to his grandfather with his dad, he jumps at the chance, and starts putting together pieces to a mystery lost in time.
It's a different take on the standard YA fantasy, it's engaging, and feels quite familiar all the way through.  Meeting the 'Peculiar' children (and Miss Peregrine, of course) is a delight, however the further you go, the darker and scarier it gets.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK - Lindsay (1967).
The very first few pages absolutely transported me to my youth, growing up in country Victoria, the sights, the sounds, the scents are exactly as Lindsay described.  This novel actually featured in a recent blog post of mine, Books and Movies that I Love.  Basically Picnic at Hanging Rock is a superb mystery full of eerie events, curious characters and sinister undertones. 

LAVINIA - Le Guin (2008).
Ursula K. Le Guin, one of my all-time favourite authors, wrote Lavinia in 2008.  It is an unusual book in a sense, as the titular character is a character in Virgil's Aeneid.  A significant character, too - the wife of the hero Aeneas, yet in the Aeneid she was not given a line.  Le Guin gave her a voice, and made her real - but not only that, but brought her family and community of Laurentum to life, and describe's not only Lavinia's conflict with her family marvellously, but also the war between Laurentum and her neighbours and the invading Trojans, lead by Aeneas. 

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA - Clarke (1973). 
This was a childhood favourite of mine, I am not ashamed to admit.  The imagination that Clarke had, the skills to bring such wonders to life, absolutely phenomenal.  Anyway, Rendezvous With Rama  tells the classic sci-fi story of first contact with alien intelligence.  An unidentified object - a massive cylinder - enteres out Solar System and slows down, and a crew of astronauts is dispatched to investigate it.  The tale of the crew and their exploration of the cylinder is so clever, and the ending is just so perfect, that I can't say a bad word about it.

PERFUME:  THE STORY OF A MURDERER - Suskind (1985).
Another novel that I had read after seeing the movie.  This is an original story though, in that it tells the tale of a man whose sense of smell is so powerful that his perspective of the world is unique.  He becomes a perfumer, one who creates perfumes, and becomes obsessed with capturing all the scents and creating perfumes to make people see him as angelic or god-like.  Unfortunately, some of the scents he must capture and use he can only obtain my murder.  The whole thing is very clever and really well-written.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY - Adams (1979).
I have to say that I used this book for the 'about an immigrant or refugee' prompt.  I don't think there's much for me to say about this one.  There's no dispute it's hilarious and an absolute sci-fi comedy classic. 

THE KING'S JUSTICE - Donaldson (2016).
This was a very interesting fantasy story.  A man rides into a town in the Kingdom attempting to solve a disturbing murder, which soon turn into a series of murders.  The characters are great, the story is captivating and complex with many twists and turns, and Donaldson has created another amazing fantasy world with a brilliant system of magic.

MARTIAN TIME-SLIP - Dick (1964).
I have to say Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite authors.  I have read most of his 44 novels and 120 short stories, and this is one of the ones that I think is the most under-rated.  What Dick does so well is really get right into the day-to-day life and concerns of the average person in whatever insane world he comes up with.  In Martian Time-Slip, the protagonist Bohlen is a repairman on a struggling colony on Mars.  His relationship with his wife is on a downward spiral, his employer is taking advantage of him, but what can he do?  Just get through as best he can and try keep his schizophrenic episodes at bay.  When Bohlen's path crosses with Arnie Kott's, the leader of the Water Worker's Union, his life gets turned upside down.  The most outstanding yet terrifying part of this book is Dick's description of what Manfred Steiner, an autistic child who becomes one of Arnie Kott's many pawns perceives. 


So that's the first ten books of my top twenty.
Next week I'll summarise the top ten, and share which six books I gave 5 star reviews to.

Please comment on whether you agree or disagree with my reviews, or the best books that you read last year!

Just some Book and Movies that I Freaking Love. No Big Deal.

Hello, thanks for tuning in.

My last blog post was about some of my Unpopular Opinions so to balance the scale, here  is a bit of a list of books and movies that I really love.

Let's start with books.  I'm a writer, this is in some weird kind of way a writing blog, so I expect some of my readers will also be writers.  So what are my all time desert island top five favourite books?

THE EARTHSEA CYCLE by Ursula Le Guin.  It's just a masterpiece, no question.  The words flow like poetry off the page, so simple yet so deep and profound.  Le Guin's magic system and dragons are the best that I've read, especially how the magic, legends and dragons of Earthsea are so interconnected.  Another reason this series resonates with me is that I read it soon after learning about Taoism, and the Earthsea cycle is certainly rooted in the Taoist message, living in balance with nature and with ourselves.

Even though A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is not Anthony Burgess' best book (in my opinion Earthly Powers is) it is certainly one of my favourites. The main drawcard is the Nadsat language Burgess created (or at least borrowed from the Russian tongue). Here's an example "I do not wish to describe, brothers, what other horrible veshches I was like forced to viddy that afternoon. The like minds of this Dr. Brodsky and Dr. Branom and the others in white coats, and remember there was this devotchka twiddling with the knobs and watching the meters, they must have been more cally and filthy than any prestoopnick in the Staja itself."  The linguistic style of this whole novel is amazing, and as a writer and lover of languages, it absolutely fascinates me.  But the other reason this book is so great and enduring is the message that the kids will always rebel.  No-one can stop this, it is an enduring aspect of our society.

I've already mentioned one fantasy series, but absolutely must include THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT by Stephen Donaldson.  This is the ultimate anti-hero story, and as far as taking the reader on an emotional journey and exploring the depths of human frailty, this Epic Fantasy series stands head and shoulders above everything else.  Because of the sheer unlikeability of the protagonist and the crimes he commits, I get that a lot of people struggle with this book.  And that's OK.  A lot of the supporting characters more than make up for the cruelty of the protagonist.  I'm not going to say that I identify with Thomas Covenant, but flawed characters, characters that fail and characters seeking redemption are so much more interesting and relatable than the 'perfect hero' - the Supermans, the Harry Potters, the Sparhawks.

I have two choices left.  I need to include something by P. K. Dick, but what?  So many to choose from.  I guess it has to be V.A.L.I.S - the greatest example of a literary mindfuck I've ever read.  I chose this one because it's just so weird.  It's based on Dick's own experience of a psychotic episode, and is a bizarre story of fragmented realities and worlds breaking down, with a strong spiritual understanding.  There really is nothing else quite like it.

Okay.  The last book.  It's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay.  It's a rare book that can transport you somewhere, and this book, with Lindsay's vivid descriptions of the Australian bush; the sights, sounds and smells that she captures so well takes my back home every time.  So there's that, but it's also a superb mystery full of eerie events, curious characters and sinister undertones.  Like Kenneth Cook's 'Wake in Fright' this book talks about the danger and darkness at the heart of Australia which will not be tamed.  Cook portrayed that darkness in the souls of the Australians themselves, but this mystery questions whether the darkness perhaps comes from the deep depths of the country itself.

Honourable mentions go to A SCANNER DARKLY (Dick), OBERNEWTYN (Carmody), THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (Le Guin), STEPPENWOLF (Hesse), ALONE IN BERLIN (Fallada) and AMERICAN GODS (Gaiman).

Movies.  Here are my top five.
Firstly though, does anyone else remember when DVDs came out?  I told myself that I'd only ever buy a movie on DVD if it was one that you'd want to keep watching over and over again.  And the first DVD I brought was BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.  Cameron Diaz, John Cusack, and John Malkovich were all amazing in this mind-blowing Spike Jonze film.  Cusack's character finds some tunnel in his office building taking him briefly inside John Malkovich's head.  There's love, there's betrayal, and some truly surreal moments (including a monkey's flashback to it's own childhood) and a lot of really funny moments.

I love Sci-Fi.  And I love Horror.  So it's not going to be a surprise that EVENT HORIZON is next.  Sam Neil joins the crew of the Lewis and Clark after the beacon of the experimental ship he helped design, the 'Event Horizon' reappears in the solar system after disappearing for a long period.  They board the ship and soon find the crew is dead.  Where had the ship been?  What happened to it?  And (of course) what had it brought back?  There's a lot of psychology in this story as well, which I really appreciste.  The acting is good, the characters are good, and when it gets dark, it gets REALLY dark.  Certainly worthy of a remake.

Next, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND.  While I prefer anti-hero stories, Miyazaki's hero, Nausicaa, is just so perfect.  A anime sci-fi post - apocalyptic movie with humanity on the brink of survival, who could ask for more?  This movie was created with such love that we can still feel it, some 30 years later.  It still gives me all the feels.

So far, the films I have listed have definitely shown my age.  So this underappreciated film is a modern masterpiece, and in my mind the best movie of the last decade.  I am talking about CABIN IN THE WOODS, the genre-defying horror-comedy produced by Joss Whedon (and frankly the best thing he's been involved in since Firefly).  It is hilarious, it is scary, it is deviously clever and frankly a work of genius.

Another all-time favourite is STARDUST, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.  A beautiful, captivating story about a young man who promises to bring back a fallen star to win the heart of a young woman.  Only problem is, the star fell on the other side of The Wall, where the rules are a bit different.  It's magical and full of brilliant acting, of course everyone points out Robert De Niro, Claire Daines and Sienna Miller (who were great) but the actors who really stole the show for me were Mark Heap and Julian Rhind-Tutt.  All things considered, there are only two grievances one can have with this movie; Ricky Gervais and how the ending is a bit different to the novel.  Don't tell anyone, but I prefer this ending!

Honourable mentions go to RED STATE, GALAXY QUEST, ZOOLANDER, DOGMA, and EDGE OF TOMORROW.

So that's it for me now.  I'm off to write some dystopian stories.  If you want to comment on any of my choices or leave your own top-five lists, go right ahead!


Stay Awesome!