Chasing the Dragon – Justina Robson
Hachette Livre Gollancz, 2010
400 pages
RRP: AU$32.99
ISBN: 978-057-508562-6

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

This is the fourth instalment in Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series. I enjoyed the first two, but missed #3, Going Under. When reading Chasing the Dragon, I noticed quite a few story arcs and characters that would be confusing to the new entrant to the series or if you missed one or more of the novels. If you enjoy a mix of SF and fantasy, cyberpunk mixed with magic and dragons, you’ll enjoy reading the whole series.

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A Madness of Angels – Kate Griffin
Hachette Livre Orbit, 2009
472 pages
RRP: AU$22.99
ISBN: 978-1-84149-733-4

Reviewed by Kate Smith

A Madness of Angels was a read that I could not put down, enjoyable not only because it was an interesting story but also because it was different to the norm of this genre of novel.  While the plot for the story does not appear to be particularly distinct from the blurb, from the first chapter it is clear that there is something different to Griffin’s work.  Matthew Swift is a sorcerer who has been fundamentally betrayed by his mentor and friend.  He must bring together groups with little in common apart from their enemy to find ways to trust each other and to work together to bring about the demise of the monolithic organisation that is the evil within London.  However, despite what appears to be several familiar story lines, including the seeking of revenge, there is so much more to this novel.

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The Spy Who Haunted Me – Simon Green
Hachette Gollancz, 2009
327 pages
RRP: AU$32.99
ISBN: 978-0-575-07947-2

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

As the title implies, The Spy Who Haunted Me has a definite James Bond flavour, but in a paranormal world. Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond, is the hero of Simon Green’s Secret Histories series. The Spy Who Haunted Me is centred around a “Greatest Race” through the world and the otherworlds, where the final spy standing will win the retiring Independent Agent’s cache of secrets.

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Sex, Lies and Vampires – Katie MacAlister
Hachette Hodder, 2009
342 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-340-95199-6

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Sex, Lies and Vampires isn’t my first experience with Katie MacAlister’s work, and I’m sure it won’t be my last. MacAlister writes very comic, steamy romances (and steampunk, and young adult novels, and, and…) and this one is no different. It’s one in her Dark Ones series of loosely-connected paranormal romances populated with vamps, summoners, poltergeists and mummies, just to name a few.

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Dream Warrior – Sherrilyn Kenyon
Hachette Piatkus, 2009
314 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN:978-0-7499-0905-5

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Dream Warrior is a story set among the ancient pantheon of the Olympian Gods who still exist in the modern day.  With war breaking out, the ancient Greek gods have to look to an individual they exiled thousands of years ago, Cratus, for help.  It comes down to a defender of dreams, Delphine, to try to convince this god not to join the side of dark and to fight for those who have persecuted him for six thousand years.  In this process he learns to trust and she learns to embrace emotions she has never experienced before.

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Succubus in the City – Nina Harper
Hachette Livre Piatkus, 2009
392 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7499-2922-0

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Succubus in the City is an interesting take on the paranormal romance genre. As the title indicates, it’s a play on Sex and the City, but our four gal-pals are demons in the service of Herself, Satan. Lily, the protagonist, is a succubus whose job is to deliver men’s souls to the devil by having sex with them. In return, she has the perfect life: lots of money, great flat, and a fabulous face and figure that she won’t lose, no matter how many servings of dessert she indulges in. In this story though, she’s starting to feel lonely and wants more than the one night she has with the men she picks up before they turn into a pile of dust on the sheets.

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Sound Mind – Tricia Sullivan
Hachette Livre Orbit, 2007
357 pages
RRP: AU$22.95
ISBN: 978-1-84149-405-0

Reviewed by Jacinta Rosielle

As a reader with an adoration of stories which make me question what is real, and as a musician with a hankering for experimentation, this book had swallowed me whole within the first twenty pages. I hadn’t read any books by Tricia Sullivan before and on the few occasions that I’d closed the book I was having to wipe a few spots of drool off the back cover as I eyed the thumbnails of two of her other novels, making plans to order these sometime soon.

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Incandescence – Greg Egan
Hachette Livre Orion Gollancz, 2008
300 pages
RRP: AU$35
ISBN: 978-0-575-08163-5

Reviewed by Mark Cooper

The thing you have to remember when you’re dealing with Greg Egan is that this is hard science fiction. Any review of his work has to start from that point. The science and the ideas that spring from the science are the most important things in his books. If you don’t like that, you don’t like Greg Egan. If you want more than that, you won’t find it here.

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The Blood of Elves – Andrzej Sapkowski
Orion Gollancz, 2008
RRP: AU$32.99
ISBN: 978-057-508318-9

Reviewed by Kate Smith

Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed his previous book The Last Wish in so many ways, I was a little disappointed in The Blood of Elves. The story continues its focus on Geralt of Rivia but begins to show the larger scope of events in the world.

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Dark Space – Marianne de Pierres
Hachette Livre Orbit, 2007
416 pages
RRP: AU$19.95
ISBN: 978-1841494289

Chaos Space – Marianne de Pierres
Hachette Livre Orbit, 2008
395 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-184-149429-6

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

The first two novels in the Sentients of Orion series are the beginning of a fantastic space opera from Australian author Marianne de Pierres. After reading her Parrish Plessis trilogy I was expecting butt-kicking action in the same vein, rather than this twisting tale of plots and counter-manoeuvres centring around the invasion of Araldis, a small desert mining planet of no particular significance, and the discovery of Sole, a godlike entity who has an agenda which doesn’t necessarily correspond to that of the humans.

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