What I’m Reading: “A Foreign Country” & “Samiha’s Song”
I’ve just finished reading A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction, ed. Anna Caro and Juliet Buchanan, Random Static 2010, which is a collection of short fiction by NZ/NZ-resident writers around the theme of the LP Hartley quote: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Only in this case, it’s the future, so this truly is speculative fiction.
As those of you who read my Thursday 27 post may already have guessed, I really enjoyed the anthology and see it as a very good indicator of the strength and diversity of contemporary NZ speculative fiction writing. I didn’t love every story, but I liked a great many of them rather a lot and really wanted to keep reading—which to be honest, is unusual for me with collected short fiction. (The last time was in 2008 when I read Charlotte Grimshaw’s Opportunity, which I found very difficult to put down.)
And I’m about halfway through Mary Victoria’s Samiha’s Song, the second in her Chronicles of the Tree series, which began with Tymon’s Flight. And so far, I’m loving it and really looking forward to finishing and then getting organised for our interview—right here—on 15 February.
So how about you? What are you reading?
Glad you’re enjoying ‘Samiha’! 🙂 I’m looking forward to that interview (and to meeting up in Welly!)
I’m reading ‘Baggage’ edited by Gillian Polack and including some marvellous tales from authors like Kaaron Warren, Lucy Sussex and Jennifer Fallon. The Lucy Sussex one is fantastic and merits noms for the SJF’s for sure! (She’s a NZ-er) I’m also about halfway through the anthology, and again not every single story chimes for me personally, but they’re all good and some are by-our-lady excellent – just the way a good anthology should be.
I’m sure Lucy will appreciate your Sir JVA nomination, Mary.:)
I’ve just finished reading The King’s Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells. Great book. I’m going to attempt to write a review of it sometime today and post it on my blog. I’ve never been one to write book reviews but it’s a challenge I’ve set myself this year – to write a review of each book I read. I seem to be struggling a bit to get this review started – and it’s only my second review! Hopefully they will get easier to write.
What I’m reading now is Samiha’s Song by Mary Victoria. I’ve just read the prologue and am eager to get into it.
I’ve heard good things about the Cory Daniells and hope to read it soon.
Not SFF but I’ve just finished Room by Emma Donahuge(sp?).
It won awards and was written from a 5 yr old’s point of view,so I didn’t expect much.
I really liked it. The narrator sees the world differently and has an interesting thought pattern. How he relates to the world and people around him is thought provoking. His mother is a strong female character.
After finishing I reread the book straight away.
Worth a read.
“Room” was one of my top reads for last year, Jan. Like you, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it when I started reading, but I really did.