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Speculative Flash Fiction |
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You're about to launch into an adventure at AntipodeanSF, the online magazine that's devoted to the regular montly publication of ten fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, or horror mini-stories of about 500 words each.
AntipodeanSF will entertain you, yet won't take hours to read.
Please spend a few moments to read this month's stories, reviews, and other information about down-under SF.
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"Time Machines Repaired While U Wait" by KA Bedford |
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K.A. Bedford. Time Machines Repaired While U Wait. Fremantle Press, Fremantle, 2009.
Review by Jan Napier
 The Wellsian concept of time travel has been debated, explored, and expanded upon many times, but never before in such a compulsively readable format. From the opening statement onwards, I had the sense of being directly involved in a series of occurrences, which although weird — even eerie — contained commonplace incidents. This feeling was further accentuated by the book's setting within my city of birth, plus references to familiar locales. A bond was instantly forged.
K.A. Bedford's award winning novel has a plot as twisted as a Narwhale tusk. It also boasts more mysteries than an archaeological dig, includes enough criminal activity to keep aficionados of the oeuvre beguiled, and of course, there's Spider's selfless love for Molly to consider. Such a plethora of universal themes renders Time machines... user friendly to a widely divergent readership.
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"Altar of Eden" by James Rollins |
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"Altar of Eden" by James Rollins, Orion Books, in all good bookstores January 2010
 James Rollins, alter-ego of Jim Czajkowski (from the copyright notice), has a background in veterinary science, and he brings that expertise to his new novel "Altar of Eden", mixing it up with a rollicking sense of adventure that's wrapped in a plot that just never lets go. Reading this book is like watching a relentless action movie that jumps from battle scene to battle scene, and it all rolls up with a conclusion that is rather Bond-esque - from the bumbling extras, through mad scientists and exploding helicopters, to the scarred epitome of evil that causes the heroine, Lorna Polk, so much trouble.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot, a crime that the back cover of the book perhaps approaches, but suffice to say that the action, which is notionally in the science fiction genre, includes a strange cargo of genetically modified animals that sport heightened intelligence, strange atavistic characteristics, and various other extrapolations into the realms of pseudo-biological science.
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 Ark
Stephen Baxter
ISBN 0575080590(978-057-508059-1)
RRP $35.00 October 2009
Gollancz Paperback (234 x 153)
If you've not read the previous novel in this series by Baxter, "Flood", don't panic. It's not necessary as a prerequisite. This new (released in October 2009) novel "Ark" stands alone, and it includes enough references back to previous events so that the story makes sense.
"Ark" is a end of the world novel writ large. Baxter brings his trademark style to the work, piling disaster on disaster, weaving it with human emotion and character, and leaving enough of the cast alive — despite the disasters — to allow the reader to identify with the events that unfold.
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A Touch of Dead: A Sookie Stackhouse Collection