Here's my June Book watch column from the New Zealand Herald:
from The Continuing Adventures of Alice Spider,
by Janis Freegard - print and ebook - http://www.anomalouspress.org/books/alice.php
Janis
Freegard is an excellent New Zealand poet who features an alter ego called
Alice Spider in many of her poems. This US-published chapbook brings together a
number of the Alice Spider poems. Their characteristic tone is wry and
sometimes surreal, but don’t be fooled: Alice is a character who goes for what
she wants and gets things done. It’s a joy to read such sparky poetry.
The Shingle Bar Sea Monster and Other Stories,
by Laura Solomon - print and ebook - http://www.amazon.com/The-Shingle-Monster-Other-Stories/dp/9888167359
Laura Solomon is a New Zealand writer whose work tends towards magic
realism: stories in which fantastic events take place in an otherwise realist
world. It’s a style of fiction most closely associated with Latin American
writing, but in this collection Laura Solomon uses it to make what might
otherwise be low-key stories ‘pop’, as they say in Hollywood: her characters,
many of them girls and young women, show their mettle when confronted with
bride-seeking sea monsters, angels, and men who howl for the moon, among other
unsettling factors. Well worth reading.
The Spiral Tattoo, by Michael
J. Parry - ebook - http://www.amazon.com/The-Spiral-Tattoo-ebook/dp/B0058DUKOU
I enjoyed this entertaining novel about a large troll and
a small flying Eleniu who are partners in the City Guard of a trading city with
six sentient races. While there's nothing especially original in this fantasy
world, it makes a good backdrop to the murder investigation which is at the
foreground of the story. Although I felt the villain, one of the most
intriguing characters, was kept in the background a bit too long, I had a lot
of fun reading this story – enough that I’ve now bought the second book in the
series.
Thanks for the mention, Tim!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tim. I'm glad my poems managed to reach you.
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