DJ Daniels

Tag: books

  • Science Fiction Double Feature

    I’ve been very happily reading a stream of wonderful science fiction lately. Hannu Rajaniemi’s Casual Angel, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword, and now William Gibson’s The Peripheral. I’m just at the beginning of The Peripheral and what strikes me most is how Gibson throws you in. You really have no idea, except in the broadest way,…

  • The Humans

    Matt Haig’s The Humans has a ludicrous premise and a close to laughable plot. But it is one of the most uplifting and beautiful books I have read recently. Perhaps it was because I was trapped at my daughter’s dancing competition which ran three hours overtime on a rainy Saturday night. There was nothing else…

  • On being alone

    I’ve just finished Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I wavered before buying, drawn by the praise of writers like Ruth Ozeki and Ursula Le Guin, made hesitant by the memories of the Jane Austen Book Club (which wasn’t for me) and by the subject matter itself. (Fair warning: read no further…

  • Women of Genre

    I’ve just signed up for the Worlds without End Women of Genre Fiction Reading Challenge. I’m using it as a way of discovering speculative fiction written by women. There’s so much there. Huge holes in my reading to fill. I’m still fiddling with the 12 writers I will choose, but having just heard Lauren Beukes…

  • Australia Day Book Giveaway

    January for me means sifting floating ants from the top of my coffee then drinking it in front of a fan. And it means more time than usual to read books (at least, more time that shouldn’t be spent doing something else). Which makes me glad that I am part of the Australia Day Book…

  • The SPF

    I’ve put up a short Christmas story free on Smashwords. It’s really a children’s story, but, you know, time corridors, mechanical mice, and a contemporary, somewhat testy incarnation of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Something fun.

  • Alice Hoffman

    I’ve been drowning in a sea of Alice Hoffman over the past few weeks. Many books, but there are similar strands: love at first sight, ghosts, people who are stuck in tragedy, terminal illness, drug addiction, hope and loss. I like the way in which which she weaves the ethereal into the every day and…

  • A review of The Remnants

    John Hughes’ The Remnants requires much of a reader. It requires thought, perseverance and a certain stamina, but it is not without its rewards. The central story is taken from a father’s papers – diaries, notebooks and a manuscript – found and translated by his son. The book presents snippets from these sources with a…

  • Black Juice

    This is my second review for the Australian Women Writers Challenge: Margo Lanagan’s short story collection, Black Juice. Lanagan’s worlds are not necessarily places you would want to visit. They are strange and often monstrous. Horrifying angels – noisy, smelly, unknowable – inhabit once place. Terrifying creatures erupt from the ground in another. Alien creatures…

  • Women’s Work

    This is the first of my reviews for the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge: Overland’s ebook Women’s Work. I will confess to a Thurber moment when first looking at this publication – the small cover graphic seemed to be a robot. Immersed as I usually am in the world of speculative fiction, I did not wonder…