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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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An Echo In The Bone - by Diana Gabaldon |
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Diana Gabaldon. An Echo In The Bone. London, Orion books, 2009.
Review by Jan Napier
 Diana Gabaldon has a definite bent for passionate narration. Her gift makes the seventh book in her widely feted Outlander saga, a 'must have.' The perennial romance between Jamie Fraser, and his time travelling wife, Claire, is only one of four storylines explored within. The American revolution, in particular the two battles of Saratoga, acts as the catalyst which sees them converge.
Discerning readers are readily able to appreciate that an opus as wide ranging, and as factually specific as 'An Echo In The Bone,' (which traverses not only continents, but centuries as well), needs meticulous investigation, in order to be deemed acceptable by critic and reviewer alike. Part of what makes reading this book, such an intriguing experience, is the vast amount of research which the writer has undertaken in order to give this work of historical fiction its bona fides. The ease with which Gabaldon integrates actuality, and fictive deeds into a cohesive whole, are a tribute to her professional skills.
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 4/9/09. The newspaper photo displayed a giant woman's face in an iceberg — a trick of nature, the article claimed.
I know it's Freya, Norse goddess, waiting to be released, to be worshipped again.
Frozen, like Merlin in the tree, she is only waiting for the new era. Global warming.
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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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The Rats and the Ruling Sea: Chathrand Trilogy Book 2