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.

An Investigation of Dragons

Back in August I wrote 'A Critique of Dragons' where - as part of my research into Dragons for my NaNoWriMo project 'Dragons of Bern' - I discussed the way dragons were presented in various works of literature; 'THE GREAT ZOO OF CHINA' by Matthew Reilly , 'DRAGON HEART' by Cecelia Holland, 'DRAGON KEEPER' by Robin Hobb and the 'EARTHSEA' cycle by Le Guin.

Continuing the exploration of the portrayal of dragons, I've since read 'TALON' by Julie Kagawa, 'TOOTH AND CLAW' by Jo Walton, 'SERAPHINA' by Rachel Hartman and McCaffrey's 'DRAGONFLIGHT' - some very wonderful and diverse books.  Of course, I am not reviewing the books themselves, just the dragons themselves.

Let's start with 'TALON' (by Julie Kagawa).  Shapeshifting dragons.  Dragons in human form, in our world, pretending to be human, living their whole lives out as human beings.  Being hunted down by an elite, top-secret military organisation - the Order of St. George.  Ember and Dante Hill are two hatchlings who - in human form - are sixteen-year-old siblings, being introduced into the human population for the first time. The existence of their dragon community is the greatest secret on the planet, and they must restrain their natural impulses, and never transform into their dragon selves under any circumstances.

There are some very clever things in this book, and I like the way that the protagonist Ember has two selves, her 'human' self and her 'dragon' self, which both have conflicting ideas about certain other humans and certain other dragons.  How were the dragons portrayed though?  They were a more instinctive, much larger and scarier version of the character's human selves.  The whole concept of shapeshifting from human form into dragon form is too much of a stretch for me, though.  There's just such a massive size discrepancy, where does all that mass come from/go when they transform?

Next is 'SERAPHINA' which is Rachel Hartman's debut novel.  It's an outstanding debut, and I really enjoyed it.  But we're here for the dragons.  This novel is set on a different world, in the Kingdom of Goredd, which it about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the truce between draonkind and their Kingdom. Seraphina, the protagonist, is the music mistress at the royal court, herself under the tutelage of Orma, who is a dragon in human form living amongst the human population.  Shapeshifting dragons again?  Yes indeed.  Disaster strikes the Kingdom when Prince Rufus is murdered prior to the arrival of the Ardmagar, the leader of the Dragons.

Despite the shapeshifting element of the dragons - again a stretch too far - the dragons in Hartman's novel are very interesting.  They are generally emotionless, supremely logical beings with their own political structures. Throughout the story it's shown that throughout their conflicts and wars with humanity, they've learned from us, and there's been a significant cultural change where instead of hoarding gold they now hoard other values like intelligence.  I especially like this because it brings them to life even more - ideas values, and ways of thinking do change over time, and it speaks of the depth and complexity of their species.

'TOOTH AND CLAW' by Jo Walton really took me by surprise.  I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up, but I fell in love with it really quickly.  It's a regency romance (think Pride and Prejudice) but all the characters are dragons.  Throughout the country, there live common servant dragons and dragons of noble rank, such as Exalted, August, Majestic, Illustrious, Dignified and Respected. This story focuses on the family of Dignified Bon Agornin, who begins the story on his deathbed, and what becomes of Respected Avan, Blessed Penn and the sisters Respected Selendra and Haner.  While they have titles, they have very little in terms of wealth and size. 

These dragons are portrayed so well; they sleep on beds of gold coins, the bigger and stronger can develop the ability to breathe fire, the Blessed (the priests) bind their wings and do not fly, the servants have their wings bound and are not permitted to fly.  The society is so well divided into the haves and have-nots, and as you may have suspected, a lot of the story revolves around finding acceptable partners of noble rank.  They're intelligent, they're all unique individuals with their own values - greed, love, equality, honour, for example.

And finally, 'DRAGONFLIGHT: THE FIRST CHRONICLE OF PERN' by Anne McCaffrey which some may say is an even more iconic Dragon series than Le Guin's 'Earthsea.'  Well, it's got a lot more dragons in it.  Pern is a planet, colonised by humans, and highly empathetic humans with an innate telepathic ability have the ability to bond with and fly the Dragons.  Over hundreds of years, the reason for the existence of these Dragonriders has been forgotten, and only one of their Weyrs remain inhabited. But soon they're going to be needed more than ever.

The dragons in this tale are certainly the more traditional type of dragon.  They are divided into classes by their colours, gold dragons are queens, the large brown dragons are the ones best suited for combat, and there are also smaller green dragons and so on.  It is only the queens, the golden dragons, that can lay eggs.  And a dragon will only bond with one human in it's lifetime.  It's a complicated system that works.  The dragons can communicate with each other telepathically, and with their bonded rider.  They have their own intelligence and wisdom - and this is the thing that irked me about the book, that the humans made all the decisions, all the plans without consulting their dragons.  Those dragons may have a wealth of helpful ideas and abilities that aren't being used because the humans are too pig-headed to ask.

So what is there to learn from these stories?  None of the dragons really came across as terrifying deadly monsters - the scariest were in 'Talon,' and given the protagonist is a dragon herself, it was kind of hard to be afraid of them.  A common theme amongst these four stories were the communities the dragons lived in, the way their societies were structured.  The dragons in 'Talon' were part of a secretive organisation, with clear ranks and roles assigned.  In 'Tooth and Claw' dragons had a complex system of nobility, birthright and marriage, as well as legal and political structures.  In 'Seraphina' the actual political system wasn't thoroughly explored, but they certainly had a complex society with a ruler, ambassadors to the human Kingdoms, as well as a rigid system of punishment for dragons who broke the law.  The Dragons of 'Pern' had a really interesting almost symbiotic relationship with their human riders, and the riders of the dragon queen and her mate were given the positions of the leaders of the Weyrs.  It was really interesting to explore these different political and social structures during the reading of these books.  I've learned that the old saying "no man is an island" applies equally to dragons.  They too have families, peers, leaders and social and political structures.   

Over the next few months I shall read Novik's 'HIS MAJESTY's DRAGON,' Goodman's 'EON,' Pratchett's 'GUARDS! GUARDS!' and 'THE DRAGON DIARY' by Steer. Of course, feel free to suggest your favourite dragon novels as well!




 

A Critique of Dragons.

Dragons have been a consistent feature of European and Asian folklore for centuries.  Very few creatures - mythical or otherwise - can produce such awe, wonder and fear in us.  And as a result, many books are still written and movies made featuring these monsters.

I never set out to write a book about dragons.  Hell, I never had any ambitions to write at all until just recently.  But you may recall from this post that I have a project in the works about dragons in an alternate-history Germany.  Because of this, I have been researching dragons - by that, of course, I mean reading a whole bunch of books with dragons. 

In this post I will review not the books themselves, but the dragons they contain.

'THE GREAT ZOO OF CHINA' by Matthew Reilly gives us dragons in the modern world.  How?  Okay, they are actually several species of very territorial dinosaurs who laid their eggs in the same place under a massive zinc deposit, protecting them from the cataclysm that killed the rest of the dinosaurs.  What I liked about Reilly's dragons is his vivid detailed descriptions of what they look like, how their sensory organs are similar to other reptiles, and how they behave.

But the way they were named (a minor detail, sure) was wrong.  These dragons were part of a zoo that was to make China the cultural capital of the world.  But did they get Chinese names?  No, they were names after existing animals - the Eastern Grey, Red-Bellied Black and Yellowjackets for example.  They came in different sizes as well, Prince dragons (as big as a 4WD) King dragons (as big as a bus) and Emperor dragons (as big as a plane).  And only the biggest could breathe fire. Now that's all well and good for dragons, but these are meant to be dinosaurs, and there's no evidence whatsoever of dinosaur groups working like that.  Oh, also they could talk.  I mean, through a computer translator and earpiece thing, but yeah.

'DRAGON HEART' by Cecelia Holland was about a sea dragon in a rich fantasy world.  What was compelling about this story is the main character, a princess, was unable to talk to other humans.  She was smart, and could understand them, but when she spoke only unintellegible animal noises came out.  But after sinking the boat she was travelling on and killing the crew, when she was trapped by the dragon on an island she and the dragon could talk to each other.  The dragon wanted her to tell him stories.  Honestly, it's very weird.  Most of the time the dragon keeps to itself, hunting and resting, like your regular monster of the deep.  The folk on land don't even know that such a creature exists.  Yet it has the intelligence to speak to the princess, to understand the stories she weaves, and has an element of sexual attraction for her and even assaults her.  I know, right?  What's going on there?  Anyway after escaping the dragon and returning to her family's castle, which is under seige from a powerful army, she calls out to the dragon to rescue her and her family.  Which he does, and then the princess goes off with the dragon.

'DRAGON KEEPER' by Robin Hobb is something different again.  This book is set in a fantasy world, and for something different, has one of the novel's several points of view being that of a dragon.  This shows us not just what the dragon looks like and does, but also what it thinks, feels and remembers from it's past lives.  The dragons in this world have many points of difference, one being their life cycle.  The book starts with Sisarqua, a sea serpent, struggling up the river to their ancient cocooning grounds.  After, well frankly insufficient time in the cocoon, it hatches and the dragon Sintara emerges.  What is done really well is the dragons' memories of its past lives, when it emerges it expects itself to be fully formed, ready to hunt, ready to fly. So she is horrified to find that she - and the other hatchlings - are stunted, weak, and incomplete.  This gives us a great, yet heartbreaking glimpse of the majesty of what she should be compared to the disappointing reality of what she is.  Normally proud and peerless in the air, on land and underwater, the hatchlings who remain misshapen and incapable of flight become a burden on the human community that supports them.  The humans re-assess their perception of dragons, and the dragons struggle to accept their dependence on humans.  The dragons can understand human speech, but not all humans can understand dragon speech, in an interesting twist.

And now the 'EARTHSEA' cycle by Le Guin.  These are the dragons that first come to my mind. They are an ancient, integral and magical part of the world.  I won't spoil the amazing 'THE OTHER WIND' - the last book in the series - but it's a must-read.  It's hard to talk about *just* the dragons here, because to understand them, you need to know that the whole magic system is based upon knowing the true names of things, the Old Language which was used in the making.  Magicians spend decades learning this ancient lost language, and know only fragments. But dragons, they know the Language of the Making inherently.  They are old, wise, and neither good nor evil by human standards, they are true to themselves and are very dangerous. 

So what have we leaned from these books? Most of them deal with the typical dragon or wyvern, four legs, wings, and the ability to breathe fire, with the exception of 'DRAGON HEART' which deals with a wingless sea dragon.  Regardless, they are all extremely dangerous, act act upon their own wild impulses.  That's not to say they aren't intelligent, there are instances where they communicate with humans in every book.

Next time, I will summarise the dragons from 'SERAPHINA' 'TOOTH AND CLAW' 'PERN' and 'THE DRAGON DIARY'.  Feel free to suggest other dragon novels I should grab as well!

The Reality of Being an Australian Writer #1

As a writer, we want our books, our stories, our worlds to have some kind of impact or influence on our readers. We want readers to be moved or inspired by our characters. As a rule, if a person decides to become a writer, one can assume that they've read something that has changed their life.

And that's true for me. I can think of several books that have had a profound affect on me. But today I'm writing about something that has perhaps a greater impact on my life, and as a consequence, the books I write and the worlds I create. That is Australia, our Great Southern Land.

As an Australian writer, Identity is important. The English-speaking world is dominated by American and English cultures, which don't always resonate strongly with Australians. For example, when I was twelve I remember lying amongst a grove of gum trees near a creek in my home town, considering the story of Saint George slaying the dragon, and asking myself what that had to do with me, how can that be relevant or part of my culture or identity as an Australian, millennia away from knights or dragons. And to this day I still shudder whenever I read the Americanised "mom" in any novel.

I knew that the story of St George was part of the folklore of England, where my father is from. You could say I went through a process of assessing these elements of foreign cultures and dismissing the ones that were too far removed from the world that I had grown up in. And I think it's fair to say that everyone does that to some extent, and continues doing that throughout their lives. But the more isolated you are, the greater the disparity becomes with your reality and that of the stories.

But there's much more to living in Australia than distance and isolation. The natural beauty of it's coasts and mountains, it's deserts and rain-forests, it's rivers and stone formations all mask it's harshness, it's underlying menace. If I'm ever asked "what books best sum up Australia?" I would say 'Wake in Fright' (Cook, 1961) 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (Lindsay 1967) 'Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence' (Pilkington 1996) 'He Died With a Felafel in His Hand' (Birmingham 2000).

'Wake in Fright' is a wonderful yet terrifying tale, about the divide between city and country, about the harsh nature of life in these remote towns, presenting not only the country itself but those who live in it as menacing. 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' is a wonderful mystery set in rural Victoria, which I discussed in this list of books and movies that I love. It's sinister, it's brooding and it captures rural Australia so well. 'Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence' shows us one of the many horrors of Australia's colonisation, the forced removal of First Australian children from their families. The argument here is that the darkness and cruelty of Australia lays within the culture of it's white colonisers, and is hard to refute. 'He Died With a Felafel in his Hand' is a more comedic look at the country through stories of living in shared houses. As funny as it is, it's still grim.

Many great Australian writers have written Speculative Fiction; Isobelle Carmody, John Marsden, Sara Douglass and Garth Nix just to name a few. Personally, I don't read books just because the author is Australian. I often look into who they are a bit more if their books particularly grab me. But every now and then when reading a book, a uniquely Australian landmark will appear, or an Aussie slang expression or turn of phrase will be used, and then you just know the author is Australian. I am not going to go out and say that the best Speculative Fiction Writers are Australian, but I will say that we have an advantage. It's easy for us to write about post-apocalyptic wastelands or desolate alien planets, barren environments and the types of people who thrive amongst the hardships and the types of people who succumb to the horror of it all, because that is our reality.

The Excitement of a New Beginning

As I may have mentioned, my novel with the working title of 'Emma and the Madhouse Kids' is currently being beta read. So what am I doing in the meantime?

Well, I've been doing the usual nose to the grindstone, 9-5 day work. I've even come up with a fun game to play, and you can play it too! Just count the number of times you say "for fucks sake" while doing your job. Whoever says it the most wins. Or loses. But the big news is that I've started a new novel!

It's exciting. Anything is possible in my new world. Dragons? Why not. Mysterious Druids? Have a bunch! Mythical creatures? Of course!

Who are the main characters? Who better than a family who love hiking in the Bavarian alps? A mum, a dad, 16 year old son, 11 year old daughter. Maybe they harbour a terrible secret? Maybe the marriage is falling apart?

So it's set in Germany then? Yes. Well no. But still maybe yes? We are talking Alternative History, folks! In this book, Germany was never unified, and we have Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, Saxony, etc as separate Republics, Monarchies or Kingdoms. Honestly that's the part I am the most excited about. Like I mentioned in this post my wife and I have travelled in Europe a fair bit, and what always strikes me is the distinct history and culture of each main city and state. So one of my goals is to try and incorporate that into my book.

Um. Ok. Are you serious about the Dragons though?  Yes. I mean, I know they're a bit cliché. And I've never written anything 'fantasy' before. I mean, this time last year I hadn't even thought about writing anything before, so not knowing what I'm doing is kind of business as usual. But they fit. Dragons are part of the folklore of Germany, and I can really see them working in this story. I want to pay homage to Le Guin's Dragons from Earthsea as well. If you have any suggestions of other books or series to read that feature dragons, feel free to suggest them!

What should I call it? I am unfortunately 200 kilometres shy of being able to call it 'Dragons of Bern' but l am sure a good title will come to me soon. And I am sure an amazing title will come to me after I have published it. In my earlier post An error occurred while trying to save or publish your post. Please try again. I mentioned I wanted to self-publish a novel before trying to get Emma and the Madhouse Kids traditionally published, and this is the one I'm going to self-publish. That itself is exciting, so not only do I have lots of dragon lore and history and geography to study, but I also have to figure out the best way to self-publish as well.

So yeah. Time to stop blogging and get back to writing.

Say true, people. And please do the needful.