Archive For The “Kiwi Writers” Category
SpecFicNZ review of the new supernatural mystery by writing team Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray
A scientist with parent problems and her tough-guy half-brother with a not-so-imaginary friend in the shadows…the perfect team to solve a mystery in which the body is missing. I enjoyed watching the back and forth as the two authors each steered one character’s point of view. I’d call this a dark urban fantasy that just barely touches the line into horror. Yes, there are slimy tentacles and lots of blood and gore, but all this tends to be limited to just a few pivotal scenes. For those with more sensitive tastes, there is animal death, but not directly impacting the characters we’re given time to love.
The plot gives plenty of surprises and crash-bang twists and turns. There’s a good emphasis on science as the basis for investigations, and the troublesome parents are all too relatable, wishing their daughter would switch careers and marry the smarmy businessman they recommend to her. It is gratifying that she comes into her own when away from their influence, even though they make her feel so helpless and they do not respect her career – when she is out pursuing that career and probably a little harder than she should, she finds unexpected strength within herself to do the impossible and survive.
Relationship development is also significant as Penny and Matiu grow closer and learn to trust and work with each other. In the beginning they are shown as very different and often not even on the same wavelength, but they are forced into collaboration and can only solve the crime by their combined and maximised effort, taking each to breaking point and beyond where they ever thought they could go.
There are some vagaries of verb tense that don’t quite work for me, but I bet only a language nerd would ever notice. And I would have liked a little more detail in the setting, since my own home town doesn’t often feature in a novel. It almost feels a little bit generic except for the ubiquitous Harbour Bridge, and it was only when our intrepid heroes got out in the countryside that it started to feel more like New Zealand. By the same token it was great to see Auckland as the main backdrop for this tale, and perhaps in the future cities do become even more generic than they already are.
Hounds of the Underworld is a fast-moving futuristic novel with a great New Zealand flavour and supernatural thrills on the side, excellently written in a noir whodunit style, and just slightly fewer dogs than the title suggests.
Review by Grace Bridges
Grab it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1935738968
Tracking Al Qaeda in Pakistan, sex on a Fijian beach, fighting UFOs in Africa – Sam Kahu’s 2009 might sound exciting for a fifteen year old, but there’s no room for error. Earth’s alien overlords want no repeat of the last battle. They want Sam and the rest of the Changels eliminated. But as natural…
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The Sir Julius Vogel Awards were presented this weekend at LexiCon in Taupo.
Full List of Winners:
Best Novel:
Into the Mist, Lee Murray (Cohesion Press)
Best Youth Novel:
Light in My Dark, Jean Gilbert and William Dresden (Rogue House Publishing)
Best Novella / Novelette:
The Convergence of Fairy Tales, Octavia Cade (Book Smugglers)
Best Short Story:
“Splintr”, A.J. Fitzwater, published in At the Edge (Paper Road Press)
Best Collected Work:
At the Edge, Edited by Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray (Paper Road Press)
Breach is an online magazine for SF, horror and dark fantasy short fiction, and is currently open for submissions. Our focus is on new and emerging Australian and New Zealand writers and artists, and helping them get their work out into the world.
Issue number 1 is now available through iTunes and Smashwords. Travel to the mesosphere to catch a glimpse of Hannah C. van Didden’s The Unknown, while in Matey, Peter Kirk wonders what happens when robots get old. With Hurk + Dav, Arthur Robinson introduces two of our favourite new characters. And poet Jesse Hayward plays with time in The Devil’s Loop.
Steff Green, New York TImes and USA Today bestselling author of sixteen dark dystopian fantasy and paranormal romance novels and regular speaker at the Romance Writers of New Zealand conferences, is offering an eight-week training course on the topic of Making Your First Indie $1000.
The course will cover plotting, finishing what you start, indie publishing options, managing outsourcing, identifying and reaching readers, and more. Registation is open now, and the course starts on May 15th, 2017 at a cost of $99USD.
Voting is now open for the 2017 David Gemmell Legend Awards for fantasy, including our very own Helen Lowe, and her third instalment in the Wall of Night series, Daughter of the Blood.
Voting is free and open to everyone, so head on over to the link and get a look at the entries, and cast your vote.
The Commuting Book is a Christchurch based initiative that leaves tagged books at bus stops around the city. People can read them during their daily commute, then return the book to a bus stop for the next person to discover.
There’s a great opportunity for SpecFicNZ members to support this initiative by donating books and/or helping promote the concept.
If you would like to establish a Commuting Book library in your city, contact the team at the above link.
ARMISTICE collects tales of a time millions of years ago on far off worlds, a time when the inlaris’ home planet still existed; Woelf Dietrich, M.J. Kelley, Dana Leipold and Elaine Chao give us stories about intergalactic space travel and tragedy wrought by a global war that tore Earth asunder; narratives of hope and love, and yes, we take you to the wastelands of North America, where… Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out. But mostly these stories involve Earth: exploring first contact, the golden era of alien collaboration, the Great War, and the interspecies conflicts that still rattle the world.
Genre: Steampunk-flavoured Dark Fantasy
Walking corpses and black-market liquor: the quiet life.
Teltö Phuul, Necromancer and Library Clerk, likes his days safe and predictable. Not for him the intrigues of the Viiminian Empire, a gothic monstrosity held together by sheer force of will.
Until the Empire’s dreaded secret police come knocking. Caught in a web of schemes in the diseased heart of Kuolinako, the underground Imperial capital, Teltö can trust no-one. Not the Northern theocrats who abhor Necromancy, and certainly not the Grand Chancellor, whose iron-fisted rule has kept the old order alive that little bit longer.
When one false step means torture and disappearance, this journey will change our Necromancer forever.
Auckland Allies 3: Unsafe Harbour by Mike Reeves-McMillan
Nazi sorcerers are plotting to steal the body of a tech billionaire, and the Allies must stop them, while outnumbered and, literally, outgunned.
Damaged by earlier encounters, but more determined than ever, they must draw on the spirit of the city itself – and their growing mastery of the magic in Sir Isaac Newton’s lost manuscript – to defend Auckland and each other. But how bulletproof is Tara’s new super suit, exactly? And can Sparx get a warning to the billionaire in time?
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” ~ Milton Berle
This is a quote that resonates with me, not as a carpenter (I don’t know my slidey-cut-wood-tool from my bang-in-nails-thing) but as a writer.
We are cursed (in the Chinese sense) to live in Interesting Times. Now, more than any period in history, writers are able to communicate with a global audience. We can create stories and share them with anyone, the best part is; they give us money for them!
Wait, what? Money?
What sorcery is this??
Kalanon’s Rising by Darian Smith
Solve the murder. Stop the war. Save the world.
Sir Brannon Kesh spent years building a new life as a physician, leaving the name Bloodhawk and the war that spawned it behind. But when the King’s cousin is murdered, duty calls him back. The crime scene suggests dark magic and the evidence points to the ambassador of Nilar, an alluring woman with secrets of her own, who sees Bloodhawk as little more than a war criminal.
As bodies pile up and political ramifications escalate, Brannon must join forces with a vain mage, a socially awkward priest, and a corpse animating shaman to solve the murders and prevent another war. But who can he trust when the phases of a bigger plan take shape?
The Risen are the greatest danger Brannon has ever faced. If he and his team cannot stop the killer then all of Kalanon – and the world – will descend into darkness.
Canterbury author E.G Wilson’s short story 12-36, which appeared in the At The Edge anthology (Paper Road Press, 2016), is under development to be made into a short film by local production company Rolling Ridges.
They are currently running a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds they will need to build the set, make the costumes, and hire the gear needed to pull it all together.
You can support local NZ filmmakers adapting kiwi spec fic onto the screen by checking out their PledgeMe page and getting behind the project.
Interspecies has had a good run thus far, reaching the top-ten of two Amazon bestseller lists and staying there for a couple of weeks, even becoming the number three hot new release in its category. Our collective smiles touched our earlobes as we watched our baby climb the charts.
And now, after so many requests, the paperback is also available. So, if you prefer a more tactile reading experience, click here . We’ve even lowered the price to $9.99 for a short time.
Or, if you prefer the ebook version and haven’t picked it up yet, it’s only $1.99 right now to celebrate the paperback release.
“This is the Affinity Project – where freewill is turned to ash.”
Evie is out of options. She must comply with the Affinity Project – obey their rules, play their deadly games, give up Jamie. And her losses keep growing…
When she decides to help a small group of Shields trying to affect change, Evie finds herself in the firing line. Counsellor Knox is intent on revealing her secrets and shackling her to the Affinity Project for life. To protect her family, Evie must betray those closest to her.