How to Mars, by David Ebenbach, was really great fun: a reality TV show about 6 people taking a one-way trip to Mars. One of them gets pregnant, even after they were all strictly forbidden from having sex, and all the men have had the snip. What happens next? Some of it’s told in first […]
speculative fiction
Review: Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen
Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen Speculative fiction / Dystopia My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love that there are more and more books being published with motherhood at their core. Dark Lullaby joins the ranks of Q, The Mother Fault and The Farm, imagining a dark future of suffocating control over women’s reproduction and […]
Review: The Emporium of Imagination, by Tabitha Bird
The Emporium is a bustle of a place. People come and go. Some see magic everywhere. They have phone messages and answer their phone when it rings. Other people see less magic and a more commonplace shop selling quirky vintage wares. It depends on what they expect to see. A person looking for the impossible […]
Review: Skyward Inn, by Aliya Whiteley
‘What are those?’ while pointing at Fosse’s shoes. ‘Shoes,’ he said, very clearly, as if talking to a young child. ‘I thought they were regulation standard military Coalition issued walking apparel,’ it said. It was strange how being more precise with language could move everyone further away from a mutual level of understanding. This is […]
Review: The Swimmers by Marian Womack
The Swimmers is a furistic fable about how the power of storytelling can be turned into propaganda by those who wish to impose their will on others. It’s messy and, at times, hard to follow. But it’s also lyrical and beautiful to read. Chaotically structured and constantly rambling just like the jungle the story takes […]
Review: The Mother Fault, by Kate Mildenhall
I really enjoyed The Mother Fault, as much for the journey as the dystopian setting of a near-future Australia. Fast-paced and easy to read, I chewed through this story in two sittings. Mildenhall manages to weave everyday parenting challenges – loss of identity, nostalgia for pre-natal careers, maintaining a marital relationship in the face of […]
