Tag: spec fic

The Ragwitch, by Garth Nix

Julia turned around – and Paul skidded to a stop in shock. He felt like he’d been winded, struck so hard that he couldn’t breathe at all. For the person in front of him wasn’t Julia at all, but a hideous mixture of girl and doll: half flesh, half cloth, and the eyes and face had nothing of Julia left at all, only the evil features of the doll.

When Paul and Julia find a rag doll hidden in a nest at the beach, Paul wants nothing to do with it. Something about the doll frightens him. But Julia insists it is beautiful, and takes it home. Soon the doll has taken over Julia’s body and become the Ragwitch, an evil being from another world. With Julia’s body she can return to her own world and continue her evil campaign. Paul can only help Julia by following her.

Soon, Julia and Paul are each on their own chilling adventure – Paul, across the magical world, seeking a way to rescue his sister, and Julia inside the Ragwitch’s mind, where she has been trapped. Whilst Paul must overcome his fears and find the strength to battle the evil forces, Julia must block out the horror of living through the witch’s sinister campaign.

The Ragwitch is a powerful fantasy by one of Australia’s foremost masters of the genre. It was Nix’s fist novel-length work, first published in 1990, and fans will find it perhaps less polished and less original than his later works, but is still an excellent read. The focus on two individual fights between good and evil, and on family loyalty and wider responsibility for the common good driving that fight, are ones which fit well into fantasy for this age group.

Suitable for readers aged twelve and over.

The Ragwitch, by Garth Nix
First Published 1990, this edition Allen & Unwin, 2006

Encounters, edited by Maxine McArthur and Donna Maree Hanson

A good anthology offers range, depth and surprises. Each new story should offer something different. Encounters is an anthology which offers all these things – and more.

Encounters is the fourth annual anthology of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and, as with previous antholgies, focusses on a single theme – encounters. The twenty stories in the book are the cream of the 95 submissions the Guild received from around Australia in response to its call for submissions.

The use of a theme does not make this a narrowly focussed collection. Rather, it provides an opportunty to see just how diverse responses to a theme can be. As well as the anticipated alien encounter stories which the theme seems to lean towards, there are encounters with vampires, ghostly visitors and more. As well, the settings offer variety – encounters occuring in space, on far-away planets, as well as at home or at school here on Earth. What really gives the anthology variety, however, is the range of styles offered by bringing together stories by twenty different authors – from known names like Richard Harland and Cory Daniells, to those for whom this is a first publication, such as Ben Payne.

Each story is complemented by an illustration by Les Petersen or Shane Parker and provides a brief biographical note about the author.The length of the stories makes them easily read in a single sitting.

A nice blend.

Encounters: An Anthology of Australian Speculative Fiction, edited by Maxine McArthur and Donna Maree Hanson
CSFG Publishing, 2004

Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan

A good short story is not just a shorter version of the novel. Rather, it is something fluid – which exists both before and after the written version, both for the characters and, importantly, the reader. Whether the story is contemporary or historic, science fiction or fantasy, it should have readers eagerly turning the page, caught up in both action and emotion. Then, when it is finished, it should leave the reader thinking.

The ten stories in Black Juice achieve these criteria with aplomb. Each story captivates, even as it has the reader squirming with its ruthlessness, its glimpse into deep and dark human nature. Author Margo Lanagan makes the short story form her own, using it to provide extraordinary perspectives and insights.

Each story is unique, but the commonality which binds is the deliberate use of settings and situations which are unfamiliar, yet contain stories which reveal many familiar truths of humankind.

Lanagan’s stories are sure to be used in literature classrooms, but are also likely to find many fans among adult readers, who will find themselves unable to put the volume down.

Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan
Allen & Unwin, 2004