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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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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Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife – Sam Savage
Orion, 2008
192 pages
RRP: £10.99
ISBN: 9780297854586

Reviewed by Lev Lafayette

If all books were this good reviewers wouldn’t be needed. The setting, character and plot summary on the back cover would suffice. Usually, I am perhaps a somewhat harsh critic, recognising the empirical truth of Sturgeon’s Law with the bell curve of cultural products indicating that the overwhelming majority of novels simply do not reach the standard of greatness – and I love greatness in the arts. But this novel is different; it is a great novel. I have had it my possession for three days and I’ve read it four times; I’m getting obsessive and that is not at all to my normal temperament by any stretch of the imagination.

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Graceling- Kristin Cashore
Hachette Livre Orion Gollancz, 2008
431 pages
RRP: AU$32.99
ISBN: 978-0-575-08462-9

Reviewed by Liz Grzyb

Kristin Cashore’s Katsa is a Graced killer – she has a talent for it that was discovered at the age of eight when she killed her cousin with one hit when he threatened her safety. As a result, she became an official bully for her uncle, King Randa of the Middluns, a role she despises but cannot see any way out of. Then she meets Po, another Graced fighter from Liend whose friendship encourages Katsa to question her power.

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Relics – Pip Vaughan-Hughes
Hachette Livre Orion, 2007
276 pages
RRP: AU$22.95
ISBN: 978-0-7528-8124-9

Reviewed by Cat Sparks

“Every drunk is a magician,” states the opening line of this novel and in the case of Relics by Pip Vaughan-Hughes, the magic is all in the prose. The setting of this story is familiar enough to regular readers of fantasy. We begin with a tavern, drunken friends, the lure of gold coins, and a mysterious stranger. Novice monk Brother Petroc (Patch to his friends) is framed for the murder of a deacon by a sinister Templar Knight. He is forced to flee across rough country with his best friend, Will, at his side and a creepy relic, the hand of Saint Euphemia, stuffed inside his shirt. But Sir Hugh de Kervezey, the murdering Templar, is hot on their trail. When Will is slain, a terrified Petroc stumbles onwards, running first to his old Abbey, and then onwards again as he learns that his safe old life has been destroyed forever. Only one man can help him now, a Frenchman who collects precious curios and sails on a ship called the Cormaran.

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