This edition of Aurealis sees the neo-noir 'Enfolded', from J Michael Melican and the punchy 'Discarded Pieces' from David Coleman making a splash.

I enjoyed both stories, but Enfolded was something extremely unique. I would have liked to learn more about the characters past, which was hinted at, and know what the future held for him. A truly interesting piece that outshone the other piece easily.

Having said that, though, both pieces are well written and formed part of a nice edition, including some advise for self-publishing and promotion as well as a handful of reviews on books.

I really liked the cover art of this edition.

Well toria what's your latest hair brain scheme?

 What do you mean hair brained scheme?  

Well you know what you are like you get an idea and it either, takes up all your time or you give up at the first hurdle.  

Well, I kinda guess that's fair.

 It is, but you still haven't told me what you plan to do

I plan to read some award long lists/ short lists;  including the locus recommended reading list,  the BSFA ,  the Andre Norton, the Ditmars, the international Mann booker, and a few more  

Have you hit your head on something?  Do I need to call 999?  Whhhy?

Well, firstly, many of these are genre and I didn't read much of this last year, which is a problem given that that is the kind of book that I am supposed to be reviewing.  Secondly, when I looked at the already available lists, I found that I had many of the works sitting, unread on my Kindle or on my shelve.  I thought that reading the lists might be the incentive I need to clear some of that TBR.  

So let’s look at the lists

NOVELS – SCIENCE FICTION
The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi (Borzoi; Orbit UK)
Clade, James Bradley (Penguin Australia)
The Darkside War, Zachary Brown (Saga)
Corsair, James L. Cambias (Tor)
Tracker, C.J. Cherryh (DAW)
Nemesis Games, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Dark Orbit, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Tor)
Weighing Shadows, Lisa Goldstein (Night Shade)
Europe at Midnight, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris)
Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu (Tor)
Luna: New Moon, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)
Galapagos Regained, James Morrow (St. Martin’s)
Going Dark, Linda Nagata (Saga)
Planetfall, Emma Newman (Roc)
The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW; Hodder & Stoughton)
Where, Kit Reed (Tor)
Poseidon’s Wake, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Ace 2016)
The Thing Itself, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Glorious Angels, Justina Robson (Gollancz)
Regeneration, Stephanie Saulter (Quercus; Jo Fletcher 2016)
The End of All Things, John Scalzi (Tor)
Seveneves, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)
Chasing the Phoenix, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
Radiance, Catherynne M. Valente (Tor)
Persona, Genevieve Valentine (Saga)
A Borrowed Man, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

NOVELS – FANTASY
Foxglove Summer, Ben Aaronovitch (Gollancz 2014; DAW)
A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown; Doubleday UK)
Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
Nightwise, R.S. Belcher (Tor)
Beneath London, James P. Blaylock (Titan)
The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Roc; Gollancz)
Prodigies, Angelica Gorodischer (Small Beer)
Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (PS; Open Road)
Empire Ascendant, Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot US; Angry Robot UK)
The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf)
The Liminal War, Ayize Jama-Everett (Small Beer)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
Killing Pretty, Richard Kadrey (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)
Finders Keepers, Stephen King (Scribner)
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
Slade House, David Mitchell (Random House; Sceptre UK)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
Savages, K.J. Parker (Subterranean)
The Annihilation Score, Charles Stross (Ace)
Pacific Fire, Greg Van Eekhout (Tor)
The Philosopher Kings, Jo Walton (Tor)

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS
Half a War, Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey; Harper Voyager UK)
Half the World, Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey)
Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo (Holt; Indigo UK)
Wonders of the Invisible World, Christopher Barzak (Knopf)
The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black (Little, Brown)
Lair of Dreams, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom UK)
Harrison Squared, Daryl Gregory (Tor)
The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s; Amulet 2016)
Magonia, Maria Dahvana Headley (Harper)
Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
The Shepherd’s Crown, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK)
The Deep Woods, Tim Pratt (PS)
Railhead, Phillip Reeve (Oxford University Press; Switch 2016)
Carry On, Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
The Walls Around Us, Nova Ren Suma (Algonquin Young Readers)
Zeroes, Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti (Simon Pulse)
Hollowgirl, Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin as Fall; Balzer + Bray; Electric Monkey UK)

FIRST NOVELS
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho (Ace; Macmillan UK)
The Devourers, Indra Das (Penguin India; Del Rey 2016)
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (Tor)
Flesh & Wires, Jackie Hatton (Aqueduct)
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
The Weave, Nancy Jane Moore (Aqueduct)
Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Solaris)
Last Song Before Night, Ilana C. Myer (Tor)
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK)
Archangel, Marguerite Reed (Arche)
Vermilion, Molly Tanzer (Word Horde)
Abomination, Gary Whitta (Inkshares)
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com)

- See more at: http://www.locusmag.com/News/2016/02/2015-locus-recommended-reading-list/#sthash.64QhrZAw.dpuf

The Nebulas

• Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard, Lawrence M. Schoen (Tor)
• The Fifth Season, N. K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
• The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu (Saga)
• Raising Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)
• Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
• Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

The Andre Norton

Finalists

• Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace (Big Mouth House)
• Bone Gap, Laura Ruby (Balzer + Bray)
• Court of Fives, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)
• Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan UK May 2014; Amulet)
• Nimona, Noelle Stevenson (HarperTeen)
• Seriously Wicked, Tina Connolly (Tor Teen)
• Shadowshaper, Daniel José Older (Levine)
• Updraft, Fran Wilde (Tor)
• Zeroboxer, Fonda Lee (Flux)

The BSFA

Novel

• Europe at Midnight, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris)
• Glorious Angels, Justina Robson (Gollancz)
• The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz)
• Luna: New Moon, Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
• Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett (Corvus)

2016 Norma K Hemming Award Shortlist

Posted on February 22, 2016

The 2016 Norma K. Hemming Award finalists have been announced. The award is given by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation for thought-provoking approaches to race, gender, sexuality, class and disability in Australian speculative fiction.

• Novel: The Hush by Skye Melki-Wegner, published by Penguin Random House
• Novel: The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig, published by HarperVoyager
• Novel: Theophilus Grey And the Demon Thief by Catherine Jinks, published by Allen & Unwin
• Novel: The Orchid Nursery by Louise Katz, published by Lacuna Publishing
• Novella: “The Pyramids of London” by Andrea K Höst, self published
• Novella: “Formaldehyde” by Jane Rawson, published by Seizure Books
• Novel: Welcome to Orphancorp by Marlee Jane Ward, published by Seizure Books

2015 Aurealis Awards Shortlists

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

In The Skin of a Monster, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)

The Fire Sermon, Francesca Haig (HarperVoyager)

Day Boy,Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing)

Illuminae, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

The Hush, Skye Melki-Wagner (Penguin Random House Australia)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL

In The Skin of a Monster, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman (HarperCollins)

Day Boy,Trent Jamieson (Text Publishing)

The Dagger’s Path, Glenda Larke (Hachette Australia)

Tower Of Thorns, Juliet Marillier (Pan Macmillan Australia)

Skin, Ilka Tampke (Text Publishing)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Crossed, Evelyn Blackwell (self-published)

Clade, James Bradley (Penguin)

Illuminae, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

Their Fractured Light, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Renegade, Joel Shepherd (Kindle Direct)

Twinmaker: Fall, Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin)

See all that yellow.  There would be even more if I included the Locus list

'Like a Boojum' by Simon Petrie takes us to a world where the exotic is familiar and the familiar is not to be trusted.

I suppose this could be true, it was a rather lengthy look into an alien world and what 'if looks could kill' could mean. The idea was a good one, but I fear the amount of background provided was a little too heavy for the idea in my opinion.

The writing is quite intelligent, certainly aimed at the educated reader primarily because of the science involved, and while the writing itself was good, I just felt the story became a bit lost in all the science and background information.

'The Death of Glinda, the Good Witch' by Rebecca-Anne C Do Rozario probes and questions until reality itself is in question.

I found this to be rather boring. Set in an old folks home for the cast of 'The Wizard of Oz' the story itself was a little lost on me, perhaps it was because I was bored... perhaps it's because I have no great love for The Wizard of Oz? I don't know, but it wasn't Aurealis' best.

The artwork and reviews are to Aurealis' normal standards. I quite like the cover.

Overall, my 2 stars is because the writing was pretty good, but the content just fell flat for me.

Aurealis #76 was the last edition from 2014. It showcases the works of two Australian female authors, both of which were enjoyable, but for two completely different reasons.

Meryl Stenhouse's No Home For Us is a great showcase for some strong female characters. Swashbuckling and sailing the seas, these lasses do pirating business with men and foes far greater. An awesome welcome to the edition, Meryl's story was a strong opener. I certainly would enjoy reading more in this world.

Melanie Rees's shorter tale The Long Shadow was very, very Australian. Thrusting the reader into a remote farming community, the reader is taken along on a ride presented to them through the eyes of Jam, a young boy who watches shadows. A story with a far deeper message than what might initially come through, this story was also thoroughly enjoyable.

The art in this edition was quite nice, though I'm not too sure what the thing on the cover is meant to be. I like how each short story has art done for it by an independent artist. It allows the authors to see just what their words create in the minds of another.

Another good example of some local Aussie talent.

Cecilia Quirk's 'Scattered Souls' and 'The Nevermaw' by Miles Hurt feature in this edition of Aurealis magazine.

While I was intrigued by Scattered Souls I didn't find the story to be very creepy or dark, it read like a young adult story with hints of mysticism. I wanted a little more, perhaps a bit more of a twist or a little sting in the tail, alas it was missing.

The Nevermaw offered a rather intellectual approach to the fantastical. This turned me off as I felt removed from it because of the academic style of writing.

I liked the art in this edition, they matched the stories well and added a little oomph for a bit of a drab edition.

If you want to try Aurealis magazine, perhaps start with Aurealis #74.