Timeless (The Parasol Protectorate #5)- Gail Carriger
Hachette Orbit, 2012
384 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 9781841499871

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Gail Carriger’s previous Parasol Protectorate books are all witty, engaging, and really, just a lot of fun. Timeless is no exception, as Alexia and her erstwhile entourage travel to Egypt to investigate the God-Breaker Plague and to pay a pressing social call on the ancient Queen of the Alexandria vampire Hive. Those who have adored the series over the past three years will be saddened to know that this is the last we see of the Protectorate, but will certainly not be disappointed in the send-off Alexia has been given by Carriger.

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Heartless – Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate #4)
Hachette Orbit, 2011
336 pages
RRP:AU$19.99
ISBN: 9780356500096

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

The whole of the Parasol Protectorate series so far has been a delightful romp, and Heartless is no exception. Carrying on from the previous novel, Alexia must deal with her “inconvenience” whilst solving mysteries, averting dastardly plans and most importantly, drinking enough tea. Thankfully, Alexia is back in England where she can indulge in her favourite beverage to her heart’s content.

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The Spirit Thief – Rachel Aaron (The Legend of Eli Monpress #1)
Hachette Orbit, 2010
352 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 9780356500102

Reviewed by Kate Smith

After having read some novels recently that either disappointed me in their lack of creativity or required me to drag my way through their pages, I picked up The Spirit Thief hoping that the tale would live up to the blurb on the back cover.  If it didn’t, I could at least know that it would be short.  However, after rapidly devouring the book I looked hopefully around for the next and was disappointed to find it not close to hand.  I would recommend readers have Rachel Aaron’s next books close by in order to continue the story – while Aaron does not leave the story on a cliff hanger, she does leave a number of questions unanswered, a curiosity to know more and the knowledge that the story just completed is only the start of something much larger.

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Managing Death – Trent Jamieson (Death Works #2)
Hachette Orbit, 2010
368 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 9780733624841

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Managing Death is the second in Jamieson’s Death Works series (the first, Death Most Definite, came out earlier in the year). Like the first, Managing Death is a fast-paced, thrilling adventure through the trials and tribuations of being responsible for streamlining Australia’s deaths. This story continues to show what happens when Steven de Selby takes over as Australia’s Regional Manager after a schism and the deaths of many of Australia’s Pomps in the first novel. Unfortunately things aren’t always fair in business and war; he barely gets his footing when Mortmax is threatened from another angle.

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Death Most Definite (Death Works #1) – Trent Jamieson
Orbit Hachette Livre, 2010
374 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-073-362483-4

Review by Liz Grzyb

Brisbane has certainly been producing some awesome SF writers, and Trent Jamieson is most definitely one of them. Ticon4.com has published short fiction from Jamieson before, so we were eagerly awaiting his first novel. Death Most Definite does not disappoint. It’s a pacy, gritty chase through our world and the underworld.

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Saturn’s Children – Charles Stross
Orbit Hachette Livre, 2009 (reprint)
372 pages
RRP: AU$19.99
ISBN: 978-1-84149-568-2

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Saturn’s Children is about Freya, a humanoid robot designed as a concubine for the human race. Unfortunately, the human race has been extinct for 200 years and the new aristos don’t have much of a fondness for humanoids.

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Soulless – Gail Carriger
Orbit, 2009
384 pages
RRP: US$7.99
ISBN: 9780316056632

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Soulless is the first in a series of steampunk whodunits, The Parasol Protectorate, set in an alternate Victorian era, where werewolves and vampires have their own niches in Society just like the rest, and where the rules of etiquette apply to them just as much as everyone else. The heroine of Soulless is Alexia Tarabotti, is a spinster of the advanced age of twenty-six, whose prize possession is her trusty brass (but silver-tipped) parasol.

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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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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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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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