A friend recently posted on Facebook –‘Been looking for freelance writing/proof-reading work in
London. Amazed at how many jobs are advertised as “unpaid but providing a wealth of experience and a well-known name for your CV”.  Next time I need the plumber, I'll tell him I won't pay for him to fix my tap but he can certainly list my name on his website. Actually, I might just try that at the supermarket.’

I know how my friend feels. I get the odd query from a first-time author with inflated expectations, asking if they can pay me a percentage of the book’s take instead of paying up front. No way José – I know how much most self-published authors make, and that’s 'very little'. If you self-publish, you must be prepared to do it for love. Even authors published by the big houses might not make a living wage – it’s said that the average author in Australia earns less from writing than they would on the dole. And given the tough economic times and the state of flux of the publishing industry, it's going to get worse.

It’s not just writers and editors who suffer, either. In all the arts, there have always been more good people than available jobs. It's more apparent than ever today, and part of the problem, I think, is that the tertiary institutions are turning out too many graduates. These graduates have to create their own employment, and usually their projects can’t be realised without some kind of subsidy. Or they work in community theatre for nothing. Or they self-publish books. As one of my writerly friends puts it ‘Centrelink’ (Australia’s social security department) ‘is the biggest patron of the arts since the de Medicis’.

As long as there is cheap or free labour around the arts will remain a buyers' market, and inevitably, this 'amateurisation' of the arts will continue. Yet if you are an artist of any ilk, you are probably also a rugged individualist. An office job would drive you insane. Routine bores you, and lack of a creative outlet can make you severely depressed. Furthermore, trying to be creative while selling your soul to the system is a sorry task.

It’s a conundrum, and I don’t think it’s a new one. As Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: ‘The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the collective. If you choose to fight, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened ... but no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.’

Nietzche is also reported as saying And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. May there always be those few of us who do hear the music, either as creators or consumers of the arts. We might be thought insane – but I do believe we keep the rest of society out of the madhouse.

Barbara Wolfencamp (Zahraa)

Ozgen

Tamalyn Dallal

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Blade Itself 2006 IBSN 9780575079793
Before They Are Hanged 2007 ISBN 9780575082014
The Last Argument of Kings 2008 ISBN 9780575077898
All published by Gollancz

This review originally appeared on The Specusphere, a now-defunct webzine, in 2008

In The First Law, UK fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie has produced one of the most impressive first trilogies ever to hit the market. It is remarkable not only because of its brilliantly complex plot and characters, but also because of its fearless investigation of the dark labyrinths of the human condition. Here be no dragons, and hardly a mage or a McGuffin is in sight, either. Instead, we have a blood, sweat and tears tale of the first water, incorporating, as the author puts in on his web site 'all the grit, and cruelty, and humour of real life'. Good and evil depend on who’s talking. Good actions are not necessarily rewarded and neither do the bad guys always get their comeuppance. In fact, there are no real 'bad guys': rather, we see the skilful and unskilful behaviours of which we’re all capable held up to us as in a dark mirror of gut-wrenching veracity.

Abercrombie doesn’t write dialogue: he writes characters, and they speak to us. They speak of our own foibles and failures, sins and successes. What’s more, he writes fight scenes where valour and chivalry are in very short supply and love scenes that are heart-aching because we see all too clearly that nothing, not even the flawed emotion we call love, can save us from our own blindness. Technically, Abercrombie achieves this through his deep understanding of the close third point-of-view. Immersion in Abercrombie’s invented world is not optional.

The trilogy is centred on a man the author calls the 'thinking man's barbarian', one Logen Ninefingers. For the most part, Logen does what he has to do and does it well, with as much—and as little—exertion as is needed. Yet in battle he can be a berserker, when his alter ego, The Bloody Nine, takes over and he is as likely to slaughter friend as foe. The story is not only Logen’s: other point-of-view characters include Collum West, a career soldier; his friend, the spoilt aristocrat Jezal Luthar; Glokta, a war hero turned Inquisitor – and Ferro, a runaway slave whose only interest in life is vengeance. Each one has friends and foes and as they interact with each other’s milieus we begin to understand the politics of their world as well as their interpersonal relationships. We meet Bayaz, First of the Magi, and his hapless assistant Quai; Ardee West, Collum’s wayward sister; Brother Longfoot, who will steer a team led by Bayaz on a quest to find the magic stone that will destroy all the enemies of Bayaz, and an assortment of self-seeking politicians and military personnel. But be warned: none of these apparently stock characters turns out to be what they appear.

In book one, The Blade Itself, war is in the air and many look to the return of Bayaz to save them. We see Bayaz gathering his team together and realise the conflicting interests his presence arouses. Book two, Before They Are Hanged, shows the struggle of the poorly-trained and equipped Midderlands army against the Northmen who have invaded their province of Angland. It also deals with the quest of Bayaz, and has the most surprising ending that any quest story could possibly have. Book three, The Last Argument of Kings, deals with the war’s climax: an army of religious fanatics led by flesh-eating priests is attacking Midderlands, but their army is still in Angland and the king, newly elected and disastrously married, must hold out until the fighting force returns.

And 'The First Law'? The expression refers to the injunction against using magic from the Other Side. What are the consequences when that law is broken?

Abercrombie can only be compared to George R.R. Martin, but he is, thankfully, rather more succinct, having managed to squash his story into the customary three volumes. And you must read all three books, in order, as close together as possible, if you are to get the most out of this epic. Although each book is well-rounded and skilfully crafted, none truly stands alone. It matters not: once you embark on this tale you will not want it to end.

If you like your fantasy harsh and gritty, can stand a great deal of death and destruction, and if you don’t want everything tied up in neat packages with 'happy ever after' stamped on them, you must read this trilogy.

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More Scary Kisses by Liz Grzyb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I love this anthology. It is, I think, the best antho so far from Liz Grzyb and Ticonderoga. The stories are varied, so there will be some to suit any taste, and they are all well-written and well-edited. Despite the title and the cover, the stories are not all romantic and in several, the romance is implied rather than explicit.

The story I loved best was The Last Gig of Jimmy Rucker, by Martin Livings and Talie Helene: in fact, I would go so far as to say this is one of the best short stories I've ever read, and I have it filed away in my memory alongside The Monkey's Paw and The Nine Billion Names of God.

Felicity Dowker's Berries and Incense is another worthy of note, along with Jason Nahrung's Resurrection in Red and Nicole R. Murphy's The Protector's Last Mission. But your mileage may vary - as I've already said, there is something here to suit any taste.

Thoroughly recommended!

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Nalo Hopkinson

Patty Jansen

Satima, Carol and Helen - this was taken at Swancon in 2010

I've written a post about one of my nastiest characters as a guest on Joanna Fay's blog:
http://joannafay.me/2013/04/24/character-column-meet-satima-flavell-and-nustofer/ 

Booze is not Nustofer's greatest weakness, but this 13th century picture from Wikimedia Commons sums up his sneaky character very well!

Thanks to Joanna for inviting me to guest on her blog. You can find info on Joanna and her books  there, too - her second one, Reunion, has recently been published by Musa.

Eagle of the East by LS Lawrence

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This review first appeared on the now defunct site The Specusphere in July 2007.

L.S. Lawrence is a nom de plume for one of Aussie fandom's best regarded medieval historians, whose earlier work in the realm of YA fantasy will be familiar to most Speculative Fiction buffs in this country. Out of respect for the wishes of his agent and publisher, his name has been held back from this review. He is, of course, in good company: several other writers use different names for different genres. One who comes to mind is Stateside romance and specfic author Jayne Ann Krentz, who writes under no fewer than seven discrete names!

Based on an intriguing historical vignette, Eagle of the East speculates on the destiny of 10,000 Roman prisoners, who, according to Pliny, were commandeered by the victors to protect the eastern frontier of the Parthian Empire after Crassus's ill-fated expedition in 53 BC. These prisoners, apparently serving as mercenaries, would probably have met the conquering Han Chinese, thus becoming, perhaps, the first westerners to meet people of Chinese ethnicity. From this sketchy episode, Lawrence has developed a richly imagined tapestry of the meeting of three peoples: the Romans, the Parthians and the nomadic tribes of the Central Asian Steppes.

Eagle of the East is largely a coming-of-age novel in which Ardavan, a boy with no father, nevertheless finds his place in the world. Told from the point-of-view of a half-Roman youth of Parthia, the story weaves together themes of jealousy, suspicion, mistrust and murder, giving plenty of opportunity for sword-fighting scenes as well as episodes from the rough-and-tumble life of an army on the march.

While spec-fic fans will miss the magical element that characterized this author's earlier works, young men from eleven to eleventy-one will enjoy Ardavan's adventures. Right from the first chapter, when the youngster defeats a much bigger opponent by squeezing his testicles, we are right in the thick of a world where sharp eyes and ears, together with well-practised self defence skills, are pre-requisites for survival. Along the way, we experience with Ardavan the essentials of Roman fighting techniques, taste the elegant precision of Parthian archery and become embroiled in political and military manoeuvrings and skulduggery.

So many excellent books have been written for young women in recent years that it is a refreshing change to read such a boldly masculine story. Not that the book entirely lacks feminine interest, for the nomadic warrior chieftain Shara will quickly win the heart of any girl who yearns for heroines who are not the usual run-of-the-mill princesses and slave girls so beloved of spec-fic and hist-fic writers. Shara can shoot arrows from horseback faster than I can eat cashew nuts – and that without reins or stirrups. And she gets her man in the end, too, although it must be admitted that romance is only a peripheral element of this unashamedly blokey book.

My only grizzle is that in places I would have liked more dialogue. The narrative is excellent and always in character, but even in the heat of a fight, surely the antagonists would engage in a little light conversation about each other's ancestry and personal habits?

Lawrence has written a story in the tradition of such luminaries of the genre as Rosemary Sutcliff and Mary Stewart. His work, however, is fresh and exciting, being presented in a way that will appeal to today's more streetwise youngsters. Don't tell, them for heaven's sake, that they will be unable to avoid learning a bit of history at the same time. Who knows? Some young men might even find they like it and look for more. Let's hope Lawrence's fertile imagination will come up with a sequel. I, for one, would love to speculate on what those Romans did when they settled in Han country!


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This is another review that first appeared on the late lamented Specusphere, this one in cahoots with my old crit buddy Ian Banks - not the Scottish one, the Western Australian one who only has one i.