Fleur Beale is the award-winning New Zealand author of over 20 novels for young adults and children – and the new release Fierce September, the second in a series which started with Juno of Taris. She very kindly agreed to answer a few questions for us! You’ve written over 20 novels for teens and children – what is your favourite aspect of writing for this age group? Is there anything you dislike? I think it’s good to have a framework within which to write, something that puts limits on characters that they have to push against or learn to live with. When you’re writing for kids and teens, those limits are the rules of the adult world and society in general. With teens too it’s always interesting to write about characters finding out who they are and what they’re made of. I can’t think of anything I dislike about writing for [...read more...]
Book Review: The Collectors Dream by Pierre Furlan
The Collector’s Dream by Pierre Furlan, Victoria University Press, RRP $30.00, ISBN 9780864736307, Available now. The Collector’s Dream is a quiet little gem of a book. It’s about a man, his collection, a quest and how this echoes through his life and through the lives of others around him. Will Bodmin, the eponymous collector, is a man who is haunted by the past, by objects and by Jungian phycology. Collecting is a both a profession and an obsession. Will is on a quest for the one piece which will make his collection – his life’s work – complete. The appropriately named Darling Pamphlet seems to be his one true love. Overshadowing the quest is his father – an almost supernatural genius. Even after his death, Franklin Bodmin is a powerful force in his son’s life. The Collector’s Dream is beautifully written: careful layers of detail are stacked up to give [...read more...]
It’s a Book by Lane Smith, Walker Books, RRP $29.99, ISBN 9781921720147, Available now. Monkey is reading a book. Jackass is having trouble getting his head around that concept. The story is awesome, the pictures are gorgeous and I laughed and laughed. Sure I could tell you how it’s a postmodern commentary on our connected society, our growing inability to admire an object for its presence and only appreciate it for its utility, our disconnection from the human universal of the story and all that the story has given us over the many thousands of years of homo sapiens’ existence. But I’d just be making that up. I loved it. Do you blog with it? No, it’s a book
Fierce September by Fleur Beale, Random House, RRP $19.99, ISBN: 9781869793289, Available now. Fierce September is the sequel to Juno of Taris, and picks up where that story left off (happily for people such as me who haven’t read the first book, there is a synopsis included). It’s very much in the “teenage/young adult speculative fiction” realm – how popular is this genre right now in publishing? And series – everything’s a series! Anyway, that’s not really relevant is it? So, how was the book? Ultimately, it was good. How can you go wrong really – Fleur Beale is a long-standing, much-accomplished author, and if she missed I would be most surprised. Being the middle book of a trilogy Fierce September does have a seemingly abrupt beginning and end but that wasn’t really much of an issue, even for a reader like me who came to this cold. The writing [...read more...]
War Dances by Sherman Alexie, Scribe Publications, RRP $30, ISBN: 9781921640803, 27 September, 2010. Sherman Alexie is very well known in the States as both a writer and film-maker but is probably less well-known amongst general readers in the rest of the world – mainly because his writing is very much of a place and of an identity (namely the US Pacific Northwest and Native American). Which is a shame because his themes are far more universal than that would indicate. Personal identity, family relations and the determinations of past actions – how are these not things we can all relate to? War Dances is a collection of short stories and poems that’s already won Alexie and the PEN/Faulkner Award and I can definitely see why – Alexie excels at short stories. They are spare but intense – finishing each piece leaves the reader feeling not just satisfied but wanting [...read more...]
Guest Book Review : Evil in Return by Elena Forbes
Today’s guest book review is brought to you by friend of BookieMonster and frequent commentator Kim! Thanks Kim, as always you are a rockie Bookie. Evil in Return by Elena Forbes, Text Publishing, RRP $40, ISBN 9781921656842, 27 September 2010. A body found dumped in a cemetery crypt, another in an old boathouse; both tortured and killed. Can a link be found between the two bodies before the count is added to? I should say right at the start that I’m rather fond of crime/thriller fiction. I’m also partial to motorcycles and single malts. There’s sufficient detail about the characters to form a connection (some good, some bad) without going overboard. The tale has twists that wouldn’t go astray in the Midsomer Murders (though is mostly set in London). The ending was tidy and plausible and has left things open for further adventures. Easy to read, the pace is fairly [...read more...]
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