The TBR table, discussed here, is still moderately high; nonetheless, I am very excited that Anna Smaill’s The Chimes (Sceptre, 2015) has arrived.

Not least because Anna Smaill is a fellow New Zealand author—but most importantly because the story sounds fascinating.

Here’s what the back cover has to tell us:

“A boy stands on the roadside on his way to London, alone in the rain.

No memories, beyond what he can hold in his hands at any given moment. No directions, as written words have long since been forbidden. No parents—just a melody that tugs at him, a thread to follow. A song that says if he can just get to the capital, he may find some answers about what happened to them.

There’s already been a lot of buzz about this book so I’m looking forward to delving further and finding out what it’s all about.

This week I’ve contribute to a Mind Meld on SF Signal, in this case a tribute to Leonard Nimoy, aka “Mr. Spock” in the Star Trek ‘verse, and Sir Terry Pratchett.

The post has been curated by regular Mind Meld editor, Paul Weimer—and so many folk in the Science Fiction-Fantasy community were keen to contribute that it’s run to not one, but two parts.

My contribution is in the second post:

“Growing up, Star Trek was almost an ubiquity: from an early age, I loved space craft and space travel, monsters and death rays, and the whole idea of the unknowable and unknown in all its forms. Star Trek was always there, playing and replaying in my TV viewing ’verse, always boldly going beyond those unexplored frontiers that morphed into the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, as well as all the movie versions…”

The full Mind Meld is here:

SF Signal MIND MELD: Remembering Terry Pratchett and Leonard Nimoy (Part Two)

To read the first instalment, click on:

SF Signal MIND MELD: Remembering Terry Pratchett and Leonard Nimoy (Part One)

I would love to hear how either Leonard Nimoy or Sir Terry Pratchett has affected you, so if you have a story to tell, please share through the comments. 🙂

Two weeks ago I talked about books or series that complete but where there’s an untold story that you never get to read but always wonder about?

I concluded with the following observation: “Then again, sometimes the untold story as you imagine it can be so much greater and more powerful, and also more vivid living in your imagination, which may be an argument for the story remaining untold…”

I am a tremendous The Lord Of The Rings fan, but one of the truest instances I can think of for the “better left untold” scenario was the back-story tales to The Lord Of The Rings, particularly the stories told through the poems, such as the Lay of Beren and Luthien. Their story, as recounted by Strider in the book (when fleeing from the Black Riders, as I recall) sounded incredibly powerful, and as backstory was shot through with mystery and tragedy and romance of the highest kind. As a young teen, my imagination was also fired by the suggestion that it was Luthien who rescued Beren, then together they cast down the great enemy, Morgoth, and retrieved one of the stolen Silmarils.

You can perhaps also imagine how eager I was to read The Silmarillion and correspondingly disappointed to discover that it was not a story, like The Lord Of The Rings, but rather Tolkien’s “history” of Middle Earth. A great deal of the text read as detailed notes—which the material essentially was—and the language used tended to be very archaic in style. So stories like those of Beren and Luthien fell very flat—and led me to believe that perhaps high, heroic, back-story tales should remain untold, after all.

What do you think? Do you have a similar example of disappointment to share? Or conversely one where a back-story or background tale in one book either met or exceeded expectations when told in its own right?

Sir Julius Vogel Award

Congratulations, Rebecca!

Yes, that’s right — the Sir Julius Vogel Award ceremony for 2015 was held on on Sunday night and Rebecca won the “Best Fan Writing” award, for a body of work that includes reviewing on FantasyLit.com, her own They’re All Fictional blog, and Big Worlds On Small Screens.

I really do feel this award is very well deserved so a big thank to everyone who nominated and voted for Rebecca.

~ HelenL

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Big Worlds On Small Screens: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Films You’ve Probably Never Heard Of — “The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya

~ by Rebecca Fisher

Although this sub-series is meant to highlight films you’ve (probably) never heard of, there’s a reasonably good chance that The Tale of the Princess Kaguya rings a bell. It’s not only a recently released film from Studio Ghibli, but one that was nominated for an Oscar at the most recent Academy Awards.

And yet there’s been surprisingly little buzz about it. Perhaps it’s because it was directed (and co-written) by Isao Takahata instead of the more renowned Hayao Miyazaki, or perhaps it’s because this is an unusual film, even by Studio Ghibli standards (which tend to forego the usual three-act narrative structure in favour of stories that are more meandering).

Based on a Japanese folktale called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, the story tells of a poor woodsman who chances across a glowing stalk of bamboo in the forest. Before his eyes, a new shoot grows and blossoms, revealing a little girl small enough to sit in the palm of his hand. Believing her to be a blessing from heaven, he carries her home to his wife, where she promptly turns into a normal-sized infant.

Thumbelina-sized princess

Though she grows exceptionally fast, so much so that she’s nicknamed “Little Bamboo” by the village boys, the child is happy amongst her friends and family in the countryside. But when her adoptive father discovers gold and fine silks in the bamboo grove, he interprets it as a sign that she’s meant for grander things.

Without warning, the family moves to the capital city, where Little Bamboo is given the name Kaguya, which means “the shining princess of the supple bamboo”.

Rumours of her beauty stretch far and wide, and soon Princess Kaguya has a range of suitors seeking her hand in marriage: though on hearing their florid declarations of love, Kaguya stuns them all by requesting the impossible objects that she’s been compared to.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is animated in a very sparse and simple style, rendered in muted pastel colours that make the whole film look like a children’s book brought to life. It’s very unlike the bright and bold animation of past Studio Ghibli films, but there’s a hypnotic quality about the way shapes and colours move and flow.

Running through the forest…

It also runs at a very gentle pace, and for a considerable length of time (I started watching it a little bit too late, and ended up having to divide it over two nights). The film takes its time in depicting such scenes as a baby learning to walk, or a woman diligently carving out the interior of a bowl – scenes that exist for their own sake and otherwise add nothing to the gist of the story.

Although Princess Kaguya’s search for true happiness is a tad predictable (I hardly think it’s a spoiler if I say happiness was not to be found in the city at all, but in the idyllic countryside of her childhood) the mystery of her existence provides a few unexpected twists. What exactly was she doing in the bamboo shoot? Where does she come from originally? By the time she finds out the story is ready to close on a haunting, bittersweet note.

It’s hard to imagine a hyperactive child sitting down to watching The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and a few parental eyebrows might be raised at the frank depiction of breastfeeding and nudity, but it’s a beautiful, intriguing, curious film, which not only deserves it’s Academy Award nomination, but also the hope that it will reach a wider audience.

Next Time: The Sound of My Voice

2011 was a good year for watching Brit Marling in speculative science-fiction films. Not only was she the star of Another Earth, but she also featured in The Sound of My Voice, a psychological thriller about two documentary filmmakers who attempt to infiltrate and expose a secretive cult – one led by a young woman who claims to be from the future. But is she for real?

About The Reviewer:

Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her They’re All Fictional blog.

To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:

Big Worlds On Small Screens

Why do we cheer those brown-faced boys with pride,
Why do dense crowds press round on every side,
Why do we throw them flowers, our hearts aglow?
Well—turn a minute to three years ago.

A moonlit beach—a cliff of scrub and bush—
The creeping, crowded boats—a breathless hush—,
A cranch of keels —a leap, a shallow splash—
And then Inferno, thunder, blaze and crash.

“Straight as a bayonet”—riddled where they fell;
Hacking the wire, across that strip of Hell;
Those untried heroes—husky and blood-drenched—
Hurled back the Turkish outposts —and entrenched!

The thing that was impossible was done!
From the beginning thus have Britons won.
So, year by year, in words of fire and gold,
The Anzacs’ glorious landing shall be told.

by Jessie Pope, 1868-1941

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With this April marking the centenary of ANZAC participation in the invasion of Gallipoli in World War One I shall be featuring poetry on the theme of war and its consequences throughout the coming month.

Jessie Pope was a well-known English writer of the pre-WW1 and WW1 period who wrote a number of poems during the war period, lauding the ANZAC soldiers. I find it interesting to juxtapose its sentiment with that of Lorna Staveley Anker’s Ellen’s Vigil, featured on September 3, 2013, written as witness to her grandmother’s grief for three sons, all of whom died in France.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.

On Friday, I mentioned that April 2 was International Children’s Book Day (celebrated on the birthday of the great children’s writer, Hans Christian Andersen.)

The purpose of International Children’s Book Day is  “to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books” and since it has pretty much fallen on Easter this year, I thought I’d highlight a few children’s books from my personal library that I believe tell stories that are broadly relevant to the Christian festival of Easter.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis: I know, I know, it’s the obvious first-up book! But since a significant part of the story clearly parallels the Easter story, it really is the obvious first novel off the blocks. I know a lot of folk have a problem with that parallel but I never have—and yes, even as a very young reader, I didn’t miss it. But in my humble opinion, it’ s possible to enjoy the story being told without either getting or buying into that parallel, so The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe therefore meets the Helen Lowe First Law of Storytelling.

The Witch Of Blackbird Pond (1958) and The Bronze Bow (1961), both by Elizabeth George Speare, were also both Newbery Medal winners. Both are coming-of-age stories that explore differences of belief and religious tolerance (and intolerance.) The Bronze Bow, in particular, is also a story about war, freedom, and a young man’s personal choice between hatred and love, fear and forgiveness.

The Man Who Was Magic (1966) by Paul Gallico. Ostensibly, this is a story about what happens when a young man who is truly magic comes to a city of sleight-of-hand-and-eye magicians—but I have always thought the experience of Adam in Mageia parallels that of Christ with the religious and political hierarchies described in the New Testament.

Simon (1959) by Rosemary Sutcliff is a novel of the English Civil War (1642-1651.) Although it primarily follows the friendship of Simon and Amias who end fighting on opposite sides, the story explores how the civil war was not only about the political divide between King and Parliament, but the almost inseparable religious divisions between the High and Low (Anglican) churches, with Puritans and Levellers, Roman Catholics and Anabaptists also part of the social and political mix.

The Beacon At Alexandria (1986) by Gillian Bradshaw is a story about a young woman who wishes to be a doctor in an age when a life outside the home was largely forbidden to young women. But it also charts the historical period that marked the demise of the Western Roman Empire. The Alexandrian section in particular deals with the divisions between the Arian and Nicean Christian churches as well as the changing relationships between the Empire’s former religions and the (more newly) state-endorsed Christianity.

So there you are, six books for Junior and YA readers: all excellent stories, well told (imho).

Yesterday I snuck in a wee snippet from Daughter Of Blood(forthcoming January 2016), originally used to illustrate a question about Malian in my recent interview with Canadian YA author, Lorna Suzuki.

As  mentioned, Malian’s been mentioned a few times in despatches over recent years, so I thought I’d reprise a few of those links for your weekend reading pleasure.
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UK/AU/NZ Cover

Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue Talks With Malian Of Night

Here’s how it started:

“Bitterblue: Welcome, Malian, to Monsea. It’s wonderful to meet you. You know, in many ways, I feel our situations are similar: you’ve lost your mother and are estranged from your father, and we both feel a strong sense of duty to our people. Do you see those same similarities?

Malian: I think it’s very true that we share a similar sense of commitment and duty to our people, although as yet I am only the Heir to the House (nation) of Night, while you are already a ruling Queen. We have both also, when young, been forced to flee from our homes to save our lives, although you were able to return quite soon when your father died, whereas I remain in exile. In some ways that gives me more freedom to enjoy the kinds of adventures your friend Katsa has – but whether in exile, or on the Wall of Night where I am returning now, the duty to lead and protect my people, and save our world from its enemies, if I can, remains the same …”

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UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback

Kim Falconer Interviews Malian Of Night On BookSworn Authors

Here’s how it went:

“Kim: Hello Malian. *small bow* Thank you for coming to chat with me at the BookSworn writers. First up, to clarify, you are Heir to House of Night in the Derai Alliance. Can you tell us briefly what that means? Why an alliance and what is the Wall?

Malian: (inclines her head in the Heir of Night’s acknowledgment of an equal) Thank you, Kim. It is an honor to be your guest and that of the BookSworn writers. I have heard much good about both you and the BookSworn through my chronicler, Helen Lowe.

“Heir” is a formal title, like crown princess or crown prince in your world, except that the rulership inherited is not that of a “kingdom” but an “earldom” or alternately “House”—think “clan” in your language. And “Earl” or “Count” are translations of words in your world that once meant “elite warrior” or “war leader.” So the earldom of Night is one of the nine Houses of the Derai Alliance—an ancient confederation formed to combat the Swarm of Dark (or Darkswarm) an entity intent on destroying the fabric of our universe and all life that depends on it for survival. Night is also the traditional leader of the nine Houses, which means that as Heir I stand to inherit the leadership of both the earldom and the Derai Alliance…”

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UK trade paperback

You may also enjoy this guest post on the Orbit blog, from way back in 2012 (gulp!):

The Evolution Of Character: Malian of Night and the Heroic Tradition

Here’s the opening salvo:

“Recently I was asked, ‘what makes Malian, your main character in The Heir of Night unique in epic fantasy? And what makes a hero, anyway?’ My initial response was ‘aargh, the pressure’—not just of an example, but of encapsulating what is often the slow delicate process of character evolution. And Malian of Night’s character did evolve over many years, from long before I first put pen to paper: sometimes in small increments, occasionally in giant leaps….”

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Two interviews and a post—that should do for starters! 😉

Earlier this month I was interviewed by Canadian YA author Lorna Suzuki and one of her questions asked what I could tell her about Malian of Night.

Malian, of course, is the central character in The Wall of Night series and she’s featured reasonably often in despatches over the past few years. So just to mix things up a bit, I snuck in another wee snippet from Daughter of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three, to be published January 2016—only 10 months away now!)

To read the full answer you will have to check out the interview, but here’s the snippet:

“Since then her …[Malian’s]… character has continued to evolve in response to events within the story, but in a sneak preview from Daughter Of Blood, a character who meets her for the first time concludes:

‘She was full of cleverness and secrets…because she was in his mind, [redacted] could see that. Twisty, he thought. He felt rather than saw her smile, overhearing him, and caught the echo of a reply that was something about the moon showing a dark face to the world, as well as a bright one. I’m like that, too, he thought dreamily, dark and light…’ ”

So there you go—I’m not sure if it’s quite enough to sustain us all until January ’16 but ’twill have to do for now…

Yesterday, April 2, was International Children’s Book Day, which is also the birthday of renowned children’s writer, Hans Christian Anderson.

The purpose of International Children’s Book Day is  “to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.”

What better way, I thought, than to celebrate a little of the gorgeousness that is Margaret Mahy, with a wee excerpt from The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate:

“The little man could only stare. He hadn’t dreamed of the BIGNESS of the sea. He hadn’t dreamed of the blueness of it. He hadn’t thought it would roll like kettledrums, and swish itself onto the beach. He opened his mouth, and the drift and the dream of it, the weave and the wave of it, the fume and the foam of it never left him again. At his feet the sea stroked the sand with soft little paws. Farther out, the great, graceful breakers moved like kings into court, trailing the peacock-patterned sea behind them.”

Now isn’t that quite simply the most amazingly wonderful use of language? And doesn’t if convey an absolutely gorgeous sense of wonder?

For me, these are gorgeous words indeed. I hope you can think of another story that’s equally amazing, gorgeous, and wonderful (for you!) in honour of International Children’s Book Day, which (to be honest) is every day for me, not just yesterday! 😉

I indulged in my own wee bit of April Foolery yesterday, but now that US Eastern Standard Time has rolled over into April 1, I and some pals on the Supernatural Underground are having more April 1 fun.

Focusing on the “fun” aspect rather than the leg-pulling — although an element of tall storytelling does enter the mix — we’re playing a game of “Never Have I Ever.”

In the game, each Supernatural Underground author contributes a statement starting “Never Have I Ever.” We hope that our blog followers will then have a little fun guessing whether the ensuing statement is True — or False.

The True/False scorecards posted  in the comments will also constitute entries for the GIVEAWAY — comprising a book from each Supernatural Underground author.

Here’s one contribution, just by way of an example:

“Never have I ever been held at gunpoint or surrounded by a SWAT team.”

True, I ponder — or False?

Do rock on over, check out the fun & enter that giveaway:

April Foolery: “Never Have I Ever” – Plus Giveaway!

After all, even if you already have all our books, there’s always presents. 😉
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